News: "Live tournaments are like lower league football"

We chat with high stakes player Alex 'Kanu7' Millar to talk Black Friday, high stakes community, keeping a low profile and learning the game.

"I had to drop down in stakes after Black Friday"

PokerStrategy.com: Last month you won over $1 million. Normally when I interview someone who has won seven figures it is after a tournament and they are celebrating. Given this was in cash games, do you try and play down big wins like this?

Alex Millar: I don't tend to get overexcited at all actually. I've had a really good few months after I had an awful start to the year; I was down quite a lot halfway through the year.

To be honest I go about daily life as normal: I haven't bought anything with it, I haven't cashed any of it out. I just keep going, it means I can take a higher percentage of myself at $400/$800 and increase the bankroll.

PokerStrategy.com: Did Black Friday change your perception of money in this regard?

Alex Millar: It changed the size of my bankroll a lot. I had half my net worth on Full Tilt at the time. I had to drop down in stakes; I was playing $100/$200 heads-up against good regs and then all of a sudden I had to sell action for $25/$50. It was a big deal in that sense.

I don't think it changed my perception of money. It was certainly the most frustrating thing that has happened poker wise. Normally when you lose money you have either been unlucky or been in a game that was tough; Black Friday felt like someone essentially stole half my money.

I wasn't overly depressed as things were still good from a long-term perspective; I wasn't poor and still had plenty of money. I wanted to make all of the money I had tied up on Full Tilt back by the end of 2011, in general I don't like setting goals to win a certain amount because you don't have much control, but luckily I managed it.

When PokerStars bought Full Tilt that was certainly a good day. I got the money back and then lost most of it in about two weeks playing heads-up. Not so easy come, but easy go.

"The high stakes games are pretty good right now"

PokerStrategy.com: Given the high stakes community is very small, are you worried your new sponsorship deal with PokerStars might put you in the limelight too much?

Alex Millar: It's definitely a concern in interviews. I recently made a video coaching a guy for PokerStars and I am concerned about saying too much. I want to answer questions honestly but there are things I don't want to talk about. Sometimes I hear interviews with high stakes players which have made me apply what they say to different situations.

Edges are so small that just a small thing like a throwaway comment could end up costing you a decent amount of money. I've always tried to stay out of the limelight and not do too many interviews but PokerStars are paying me to represent them, so I have to make sure I don't give away too much.

PokerStrategy.com: What do you hope to get out of this sponsorship deal if you are also trying to stay somewhat under the radar?

Alex Millar: I don't have a specific plan as such. When PokerStars bought Full Tilt it saved me half my bankroll. When I set up the SuperStar Showdown for PokerStars and also when speaking to them about the state of the games, everyone I seems really passionate about their job.

I was just very happy to represent PokerStars, because I don't have to change my habits too much other than using Twitter, writing blog posts, and going to a few events. For the amount of money they offered and my really liking the company as a whole, it made sense.

PokerStrategy.com: You started the SuperStar Showdown to get more action at the nosebleeds, what are your views on the state of the games right now?

Alex Millar: They are pretty good. Players like WCGRider and Sauce1234 will play anyone. The action is good compared to the norm. PokerStars have a plan for the heads-up cash games where you can't just sit there and wait for recreational players. At low stakes, where there is higher rake, you will be up against less regs; at high stakes with more regs they are going to make players sit with each other.

"Live tournament poker is like lower league football"

PokerStrategy.com: Do you wish cash game players had more glory like tournament players do? For example, do things like the high stakes leaderboards mean anything to you?

Alex Millar: Not particularly but I do keep an eye on the High Stakes leaderboard on HighStakesDB, if I am near the top that's cool. Poker is a game at the end of the day, and in any sort of game everyone wants to be the best and compare themselves to each other. Cash games are definitely lower profile than tournaments though.

Moving from cash games to tournaments I don't think I would feel the same, the variance is so high in live tournaments that it doesn't really mean so much. You get that with online high stakes to an extent because people don't play millions of hands, there is a lot of luck involved in leaderboards there too. Live tournaments are a different scale of luck though. The best players in the world generally don't spend all their time travelling because you can play more hands online, so they make the most money online.

It's weird because live tournament poker is like lower division football or the third tier of the ATP tennis tour in terms of standard of play, yet it gets all the publicity and the top online cash players don't get much publicity at all. It's fine but just a bit unusual. I do keep an eye on the online leaderboards, but you have to be careful not to get sucked into it, if there is someone who is better than you, constantly playing them to get ahead of them will cost you.

PokerStrategy.com: Is HighStakesDB accurate?

Alex Millar: Sometimes it is down for the day and if you have a big session that day it is noticeable, other times they get every single hand you play in a day. I think their totals for me this year are fairly accurate.

"You have to change your attitude to move up in stakes"

PokerStrategy.com: It's well documented that you went from $0.50/$1 to $25/$50 in less than a year. Relatively speaking, what stake do you think is the hardest for players to break into?

Alex Millar: It's different for different people. For me $3/$6 felt like a hard level to break into, the hardest one was $10/$20. That was really the level, at $5/10 I could always find good tables to play, at $10/$20 I would always find reg tables and have to start games. I know a lot of people struggle between $1/$2 and $2/$4, and at heads-up $0.25/$0.50 moving up to $0.50/$1.

PokerStrategy.com: There are obviously very few training videos for nosebleed stakes, how did you work on your game to get where you are?

Alex Millar: It's a good question and one of those ones I don't want to answer fully, I don't want my opponents to know exactly what I work on. Essentially the goal at high stakes poker is to 1) play close to optimal poker and 2) get better at exploiting your opponents. I think you can break it down into those two categories. For example you might work on finding leaks on your opponents in Hold'em Manager and looking at ways to exploit those leaks.

A long time ago I created a spreadsheet looking at 4-bet and 5-bet stuff, like what percentage people had to be 3-betting in order to 4-bet bluff profitably etc. I've gone through various projects like that where I really focus on one thing. They key is to break down the game into sections and ask yourself what can be improved.

PokerStrategy.com: Is the key to making it at the higher stakes having a system where you can learn independently?

Alex Millar: I watched training videos as I moved up, but as you get better you move from learning from other people to learning from yourself. The best way to learn poker in the beginning is to read forums and watch videos, but as you move up you get ideas on how you can improve in certain spots. If you are someone who wants information spoon fed then you will have to change that attitude if you want to break out beyond a certain level.

PokerStrategy.com: Thanks Alex, good luck at the nosebleeds.

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By Barry Carter l Barry Carter on Twitter