RaisyDaisy Blogger Interviews: Yoghi

PokerStrategy: : Hello Yoghi, how nice of you to do this interview! Let's start off to see if you're willing to tell us who the person behind the nickname “Yoghi” is?

yoghi: Hey, thank you and of course I'm willing to let you interview me. My name is Justin, I'm 20 years old and I'm a student of medicine in Gent.

PokerStrategy: : We have met a few times already and I've noticed that you sound half Dutch, half Flemish. How did this happen?

yoghi: Hehe, I'm from a beautiful country called Zeeuws-Vlaanderen (Dutch-Flanders). As the name gives away, it's a bit Dutch and a bit Flemish, and the language that comes with that is a bit of both. But I'm still one of the Dutch.

PokerStrategy: : A good mix, just like our community! How is it going with your studies? You told us you're studying medicine. Are you doing well in combining your studies with poker?

yoghi: It's not going too good, I'm a bit lazy and combining that with studying medicine doesn't go so well. The problem isn't in the poker, it's entirely me. Normally speaking, I think poker wouldn't be a problem next to studying.

PokerStrategy: Yes, I can imagine. Studying medicine isn't something you can do in your sleep. Because you're so active as a moderator and a hand judge on the forum, most members that visit our forum will already know you. What most people probably don't know is how you got to pokerstrategy. Could you tell us more about that?

yoghi: To be honest I can't recall it exactly. I do remember that pokerstrategy was a sponsor of Clanbase, at that time I was pretty active in the gaming world. For some time it hadn't occurred to me to watch pokerstrategy, until I was bored and thought: “Hey, $50 for free is pretty good and I'm good at poker, now I can prove it”.

PokerStrategy: You have been climbing the limits and have become a very successful player. I've noticed that this is the case for many fanatic gamers. Why do you think this is?

yoghi: I think it is an advantage for gamers to be used to being focused behind the computer for long periods of time. “Normal” people are often behind the computer, too, but not as focused and not with as much concentration.

Also a lot of fairly successful gamers have been puzzling with the question “how can I be better than my opponents in this game”, and this is one of the main important aspects to be a successful player.

What also shouldn't be underestimated is the fact that gamers are used to communicate on the internet and aren't afraid to type something, go on a forum or ask questions to people. It's that kind of behaviour and sites like pokerstrategy that can improve your game.

PokerStrategy: So your advice is actually to post as many questions as possible if you want to become a successful poker player?

yoghi: Not only to post questions, but also to think things over for yourself. It's very important for a poker player to think about the game and how to improve. I think that almost every successful player asked a lot of questions to him or herself and to other people.

It's clear when you see the number of winning players that we have here on pokerstrategy. The average player is nevertheless a losing player, but the players that ask questions and put more time in the game are clearly better I think up to 90% of those players are winning players.

PokerStrategy: A clear story! Just as you told us, just like many others, you started with $50 from pokerstrategy. How did you do in the beginning?

yoghi: It didn't go perfectly, but I can say with pride I never went broke. I started with the SSS plays after I passed the quiz the first time. It didn't go smoothly, and I didn't play that good.

After a while, I only had $8 left and I actually have had it, so I played blackjack happily, I doubled a few times and was up to $25 more or less. Then I went back to SSS, I played a $100 bonus open and after that I started with BSS with a BR around the $200.

I was overjoyed with the $200 and I was the best NL10 player at that moment. Sad to say that wasn't the case and soon I had just $100 left, I made the smart decision to play FL and the rest is history...

PokerStrategy: That does seem to be the case. makomar is, just like you, for some time now a FL hand judge, coach and video producer. How did he benefit you as your “teacher”?

yoghi: A lot, of course. Just after I started playing FL, makomar started on the forum as a hand judge. From the beginning, he showed that he was a competent player and he wanted to help other players very much.

Every time I posted a hand or a question, he took the time to come up with a good answer, that was understandable as well. And of course, there were his coachings that where always very good, because it was never very busy you got the feeling you were really being coached and that you weren't listening to a robot. He made it so that I came to enjoy FL and that I wanted to become better. Without him, I wouldn't be here giving this interview.

PokerStrategy: Good to hear he was very helpful right from the beginning. During your time being a member of pokerstrategy, you were playing higher and higher limits. On top of that, you're daily producing an enormous amount of posts on the forum. At some point, you have become a coach, a hand judge, a video producer and even a moderator. How did all of this take place?

yoghi: Actually I started out as a moderator in the time that the Dutch community just started and articles needed translation. I was very fanatic so they could sign me in. As a reward for being able to read all the articles, I became a moderator.

After a while, my game improved. I was asked to be a hand judge, what after some doubt I accepted. I wasn't really sure at the time if I was good enough and of course I didn't want to give out bad advice. The coaching and video making came along with the rest. makomar was ill at the time so I replaced him and it stayed like that for a while.

From day one, I was active on the Dutch forum. From that moment on, I have read almost all threads and discussions. The posts I make at those moments come naturally to me. I just can't resist to respond to something, because i have read almost everything i naturally have to respond.

PokerStrategy: So it's a very busy activity. In one moment you played on the short-handed tables 3/6 and I can remember you got very big swings. How did you perceive this?
 
yoghi: Actually there weren't that many swings, it's more like a steady line going down. I arrived at the 3/6 tables fairly soon and I didn't had much experience at the lower limits. When I played at there for the first time, I was probably overconfident of myself.

I had beaten everything under 3/6 with at least 3BB/100, I thought I was able to do so here, too. But the players on 3/6 were better and looking back, I wasn't ready, but I was stubborn and convinced that I was better than my opponents so I kept playing for some time. After a fair amount of time of losing, I was done with short-handed plays so I started playing heads-up, immediately this went a lot better.

From the moment I started playing heads-up I went playing short-handed now and then, but I'm still not very good at it. I don't think I could just win at any game. Now I can look back on it as neutral as possible, I can conclude I was overestimating myself and I wasn't good enough to play 3/6 and win higher.

PokerStrategy: It's impressive how you look back on yourself. A lot of poker players have a hard time to look back on themselves in a neutral way and be critical. These days you are playing $50/$100 heads-up and soon you will be making videos of this. How is this going so far?

yoghi: So far it's going really good, From the time I started playing serious heads-up I have actually only been winning. I've noticed that the higher you get, the less chips there are, which makes sense.

On the $50/100 I haven't been having a lot of success, the first time I played it I lost $5000, it was the greatest loss for me at that moment ever. Of course that doesn't do much good for your confidence. Fortunately, I took a break because I knew I wasn't going to play my A-game. With those limits, it's a lot of money and when you are playing with scared money, especially in the FLHU, you're marked for defeat.

The last ten days I played some $50/100 and it went better again. I'm surely not going to play with scared money any more and only against opponents I can handle with ease. Even though my opponents aren't good, most of the time they do understand something about the game, so the swings are still big, as an example you can lose $2000 in ten hands without making a mistake.

In total, I'm still a bit down on $50/$100, but I am confident that this will not be for long and soon I will also be able to defeat this limit. I hope you'll be able to see a few video's of this soon, but it's rather difficult for me to make video's on that limit because there aren't many opponents left.

PokerStrategy: Because you're playing these limits, you're earning a lot of strategy points. This month you're standing firm in our top10 promo (and timothyvdp1 is sweating to keep up) and you were invited to the diamond event and the black member party in Dusseldorf. How did you experience it all?

yoghi: I have enjoyed myself very much. Especially the Black Member party in Dusseldorf it really was something else. I didn't knew anyone there and just like that I went to some party with these people.

But it was much more fun then I expected. You get to know people really well at nights like these. Two weeks ago there was the diamond event, were most of the Dutch diamond members went to. That was also very much to my liking and it was very well organized by pokerstrategy.

Everybody knew one another a bit and it was noticeable by the strange things that happened (some weird guy that let himself be shot with paintball guns for 100 euros...). I'm very glad I have become a diamond this year, these experiences were a blast and a lot better then the normal rakeback.

PokerStrategy: Yes, it was a lot of fun indeed! Of course we also went to Utrecht to ride the beer-bike with the diamonds which we raced trough the streets with. You were one of the people who put a lot of effort in the riding, at the same time you kept drinking beer which the nice barman provided. How did you experience this?

yoghi: It was very tiresome. I was one of the few who kept working on the riding of the bike and I think it was rather annoying that some people (especially eliasveritas) didn't work to keep the beer-bike moving. Besides from that, it was fun although I was too afraid to bet 100 euros with robbiev if it was going to rain or not.

Looking back, it seems I was right. The beer-bike went really slow, but it wasn't a problem because we could enjoy the wonderful nature in Utrecht. At that moment the beer went down fairly fast and I did my best to empty the keg. Of course that was not done, but when I realized that it was already to late. The rest of the day I walked around pretty wasted.

PokerStrategy: To me that seems to be a good result! We are planning to organize these diamond parties more regularly and we will also try to attend the Black Member parties more regularly with all the diamonds. The next one will take place in Hamburg in June, the plan is to start with a bus in Belgium and make our way to Hamburg and pick everyone up on the way. What is your opinion about these initiatives in our community?

yoghi: These events stimulate people to make an effort to become diamond. As an example at the beginning of this year, I did not know yet if I wanted to play tracked, but when I read about the Black Member party in Dusseldorf, I chose to play tracked.

Because of these parties, the community becomes a lot closer, when you are in the bus for a couple of hours you get to know each other a lot better and in another way besides only talking on the forum or skype. This way it is also more fun to stay in the community. You get the feeling it is a real community and not just some forum owned by a company that wants to make money. This is also a fun way of rakeback, especially because it goes on top of all other promos from pokerstrategy.

PokerStrategy: Good to hear. For us, it is also especially fun to do these kinds of things, to meet everyone and have a good time. That's why we hope we can do this again sometime soon. It sounds like we can count on you to join us again next time.

yoghi: You can count on that!

Pokerstrategy: Some short questions about you being a poker player. What are your plans for the future with poker?

yoghi: I'm going to try to improve my play. I went very fast from $5/$10 to $50/100 and my play isn't as good compared to the regular players. On the other hand, I have a very strict table selection so I don't have to face players that are too good, so my play also doesn't have to be perfect to win.

On the long term, I do want to go up as far as possible. I use very aggressive BRM at the moment, because I want as much possibility as possible to play against bad opponents and make as much money possible. To be honest, I don't think there is much future in FLHU on the nosebleed stakes, because the win rates are very small against good opponents. I'm even planning to learn NL so I can play them next to FLHU.

I think you have a better edge over your opponent there than in FL and there is more action on the higher limits. I'm going to pick up some coaching for that, at the moment I'm very bad in NL and I think coaching is the fastest way to learn, but all of that is still some time away.

PokerStrategy: Luckily you still have all the time you need, so that won't be a problem. Finally, I would like to ask you what makes you better than your opponents and what makes you better than 99,8% of the players that didn't reach your limit?

yoghi: First of all, one part of it is luck. I've been lucky I haven't gone broke at the beginning and that I found FLHU and immediately made a good start. I also think I have an advantage because I'm fairly smart and I'm especially good at mathematics. That's why I'm good at remembering equity percentages and such things.

From the start, I have had a really good coach named makomar. He improved my game a lot and taught me to think more about it. I also have the advantage I barely ever tilt and I have a good control over myself. I know when to quit and when to pull trough, whenever it's going good or bad. Especially not tilting is important, lately it also shows on the forum that people regularly tilt, and how much it costs.

PokerStrategy: Justin, thank you very much for the interview, it was nice talking to you. Good luck at the tables!

yoghi: Thanks a lot, and maybe until next time.