Diamond Interview Series: TwiceT

From now on we will try to bring our Diamond members into the spotlight
even more. And what better way to do this than to have a talk with them
in a series of special interviews? We continue this series with a big interview from twicet.

This interview was conducted by vhallee

PokerStrategy:
Hello there, TwiceT, and thank you for accepting to do this interview. Let's start with the basics: who exactly is TwiceT?

twicet: TwiceT is the biggest soul reader out there 😀
But to be a little bit serious ... I'm a 24 year old student, living in Vienna, joining a good amount of parties and donking around every month on the tables to finance my study-life. I'm studying European Economy and Business Managament and finishing it in about 1 month.

PokerStrategy: Study life? Any specific plans with this so far?

twicet: I already owned my master thesis with 98 of 100 possible points [yeah i have to brag here guys :D). I also studied Business Informatics the last years and will hopefully finish it by 2011.
Until 2011 I will play a ton of poker i guess but I'm not sure what I'm gonna do once I finished my education. My life-plan is to basically become entrepreneur aiming at the world domination or something like that (pinky & brain ftw :D).
I just don't wanna do something ordinary. Hopefully I'll find a way to stop war, poverty, child maltreatment or just invent something really sexual. If i don't achieve anything like that, I just prefer to be a small funky entrepreneur than being an ordinarily boring accountant (no offence vs. accountants ;)).

PokerStrategy: TwiceT is an interesting nickname. Is there a story behind it? How did you come up with such an username?

twicet: Actually there is no unconventional story behind my nickname. My name is Thomas Tiroch. That's the main reason for this nickname, just two Ts. TwiceT just sounded better than DoubleT. However, my favourite poker hand with 2 hole cards are pocket tens. Hence, TT is my logo (not 1010 obv :D).

PokerStrategy: I would agree that TwiceT sounds better than DoubleT (however, it doesn't sound better than Mr. T, we can all agree on that). What about your roots? How did you get into poker and how did you come across PokerStrategy.com?

twicet: In Summer 2007 I made an internship for two months in Dublin, Ireland. (you could guess in which area :D). On the second day of my stay in the evening a friend of mine (marky84) talked to me about a funny game called poker that he now plays online.
He talked something about "strategy" and "50$ for free" and I just thought: "haha, yeah, right.,have fun. I don't wanna gamble, I much prefer to party all night long with my friends here in Dublin and then go to work the next day (bit drunk obv :D).
The next day in the evening we didn't party (because we drank A LOT the first 2 days), so I had some time to actually have a look at pokerstrategy.com. I can't really tell why, but I read and read and read and read ... the whole night.
Next day in my office I talked to a good friend of mine who already played online on a quite solid level ( ash05, FL 5/10 these days) via IM and asked him where to get as much information as possible on the game. He told me everything I need to know about where and how to get information, I then signed up at PokerStrategy.com and the poker journey started ...
During my time in Dublin I worked 8h a day, studied a lot poker theory (really A LOT, also during working hours :D), played a lot (started SSS on super micros stakes and then also played micro SNGs) and had crazy parties going on almost any 2nd night. These 2 months were really crazy :D.
Back in Vienna I then improved my game steadily till the end of 2007 and since January 2008 I earned enough to make a living playing poker. I improved my game a lot, but there is still a lot to enhance and it will definitely take me a lifetime to master the game(s).

PokerStrategy: Dublin you say? You have to introduce me to your friends over there 😀 Looking back on your evolution, what has changed? What poker formats and limits do you play nowadays?

twicet: Sure. Dublin rocks! My approach to the game changed a lot. I now try to play in a very self-critical way and I also don't take the game too seriously. In the end, its just a game of cards. Before moving up limits I worked on poker mindset issues and poker psychology.
I felt I have to master these concepts first. It's hardly possible to play your A-game 100% when you have tilt issues or when your mood changes due to good or bad sessions. Now I am at the points where I don't ever tilt and where nobody can infer from my good/bad mood that my last session has been successful or bad.
As for formats and limits, I played low-small buy-in SNGs and MTTs in the beginning, then started to switch to cash games more where I moved up the limits up to 1K. I also started to play PLO recently up to PLO 600. I do play NLHE and PLO HU/SH/FR. I really like all formats and don't prefer one.
I like this diversification a lot since every format gets boring once you play a ton of hands in a row. SNGs and MTTs I play up to 100$ buy-in. Starting this summer I plan to start playing the online majors and maybe attacking nl1k+. We'll see ;). I'm also going to improve my live game this summer, mainly at the Casino Velden in Austria, but also at some other Casinos around Europe on my road trip.

PokerStrategy: Ah yes, you do have an interesting thread in our forums: TwiceT's Europe Roadtrip. Can you tell us a bit more about it?

twicet: Well, since I'll finish my master degree
in business management in June and I don't want/need to make another
internship during the summer months, I have about 3 months of spare
time.
During the summer I just want to get to know as many people as
possible (also from our community), party a lot (really A LOT :D), play
some nice golf courses around Europe  and work on all aspects of my
poker game  - live and online. 
I will finish the roadtrip with a one
week Golf Camp with many German/Austrian Diamonds in Velden (Austria)
and the BM Party in Berlin (which should take place on Sept. 13 I
guess). This whole summer should really be fun 😀

PokerStrategy: Sounds good, it definitely should be fun and I hope you
include Gibraltar in your destination :D. But returning to poker
itself, how do you play it these days? How many tables, how long, how
many breaks, etc?

twicet: These days I
actually don't play too much because I study really hard every day for
my final examination in June. However, normally I play NLHE 4 days a
week, MTTs 1 day a week and PLO 1 day a week, on average.
I really like
to mix things up. For one, it keeps the game interesting and it
improves your general poker skills a lot. When Playing NL, I play 4-12
tables mixing hu,sh and FR NL 200 - NL 1k. If I just play SH and FR I play
12 tables, when mixing in Heads-up tables I just play up to 6. For PLO,
I mix SH and HU, also playing up to 9 tables on lower limits, less
tables on higher limits.
I am a big winning player up to PLO 200, but I
still have some problems on NL 400/600. I will definitely try to
improve my game in the summer. With MTTs I basically play any game up
to 100$ buy-ins. However, I really want to start playing the majors
after this summer.
How long do I play? I'm the type of guy who does
things intensively when he does anything. So mostly when I play, I play
long sessions 3h+++. It's also more +EV for me because you can create
image way better in long sessions.

PokerStrategy: Since you mentioned casinos this summer, which one would you prefer in general? The online or the real poker table and why?

twicet: I don't have too much live experience up to now. However, although I have a small sample size in MTTs and cash games, the live skill at nl200 seems to be lower than on nl10 online.
What I also like a lot about live games, is to get opponents on tilt. Just 3betting any bu vs their mp and co opens and showing some funky bluffs post and they have no idea how to adjust and just pay you off all the time. I'm looking forward to nl1k live this summer. Should be quite profitable I guess with some rich Russian guys on the tables :D.
In general though, I really like playing online just because you can play at any time you want, short and long sessions, just as you like. Especially as a student its nice to mix studying and grinding at your home office. As with table formats and games, mixing it up is the best for me I guess.

PokerStrategy: Let's do an exercise in imagination: if you were to reach the most important 10-handed final table ever and you were playing for fame, who would you like to have as opponents?

twicet: Let's see:
- seat 1: Annette Obrestad: because I want to study her late MTT game
- seat 2: Scotty Nguyen: wanna learn from his table chatting
- seat 3: Phil Hellmuth: wanna use Nguyens table chattaments vs him and 3bet him 100% when he opens. Just wanna see him getting on tilt 😀
- seat 4: {comunitylink=TwiceT+level}: need that seat to 3bet Phil any hand he opens 😀
- seat 5: seat 5: Sandra Naujoks cause she is hot 😀
- seat 6: Florian "Morgoth" Langmann: Best MTT/SNG coach from ps, great attitude and approach to the game
- seat 7: Phil Ivey: Cuz he is sooo damn sick. He has to be at the table.
- seat 8: Doyle Brunson: Because he is a legend.
- seat 9: Tony G: Table chatting with him should be nice 😀
- seat 10: Durrrrrrrrr: Should be fun with his playing style

PokerStrategy: Do you have any advices for the players starting out just now? How can they improve their game faster?

twicet: I could write a novel answering such questions, but since I don't think people want to read that much, I just write some bullet points:
1) be self critical in every moment when playing and analysing your game
2) analyse your game, think about the game. its better to think about the/your game for 1 day than do mindlessly grind for 1 week.
3) talk with friends and community members as much as you can about the game and be open-minded to new ideas. post hands in the forums (if you post in the NL100+ forum, I might judge it ;))
4) don't develop an ABC game. ABC can make you some money; but def game makes you a big winner on the low stakes and let you also beat mid stakes. Thinking outside the box is - not only considering poker - a big issue for me. I think doing something else than the mass is a very good thing.
5) take the game serious. don't play drunk, don't play when you are in a really bad mood. Move down limits when you have hard working days or hard study days (like I have now, I just play NL200 now)
6) don't take the game to serious. In the end, its just a card game. There is really no need to transfer a bad sessions into a bad mood in real life. Do not tilt. Think about the tilt issue yourself, I think everybody can come to a conclusion why tilt is not necessary at all.
7) If I had to adivse one poker book: The Poker Mindset by Ian Taylor and Matthew Hilger. Before moving up to midstakes your really have to get the basic poker mindset. Otherwise you might tilt off a lot of money.

PokerStrategy: We will continue to interview more of our Diamond members just like you. If you were to choose the next Diamond to be interviewed, who would it be?

twicet: Since Yoghi already has been interviewed (he has to tell me how to make 10k a day with minbetting) and Opal is already on the list, my favourites would be timukasr from Estonia and chenny8888 from New Zealand. timukasr is very active on the sample hands forums and already on the edge from small mid- to high- midstakes I guess.  I like chenny8888's videos (although mostly low stakes and SNG) and his general thoughts when talking about hands.

PokerStrategy: Alright, we will try to respect your decision and have one of them interviewed for next time. Is there anything else you would like to add before we end this?

twicet: Check out my roadtrip thread guys 😉 I also wanna send many greetings to all my Skype contacts that engaged in many poker discussions with me (especially tribuncaesar and the crazy Slovak thelastnail) and the soul-reading crew in Vienna (Ash05, radiohead84, Marky84, r4zor)
twicet: ... and don't forget: it's all one big session. Peace guys, hope to see ya at some major finals in the future 😀

PokerStrategy: Thank you for your time and enjoy your interesting summer! 🙂

twicet: Thanks a lot!