EPT Interview: Lee Jones and Andy Black
Lee Jones, author and EPT host as well as the Irish poker professional Andy Black answered a couple of our questions during the EPT Dublin.
Brief interview with Andy Black:
Andrew Black is from Belfast, Northern Ireland, is 42 years old and now lives in Dublin. At the $10,000 Main Event of the WSOP 1997 he made his first international appearance. He was taken out of the tournament by the poker legend Stu Ungar, who has departed in the meantime, and took 14th place.
PokerStrategy: What was it like to play against Stu Ungar, maybe the best poker player in the world?
Andy: To play against Stu Ungar was great. There are rumors that I had AK while Stu had AQ - but that is not the truth. Stu simply outplayed me.
Stu had a very special and fast way of playing, while the other players mostly thought for a long time.
In the following year Black returned to the WSOP, but his dream of winning didn’t come true. Black retreated for five years and became a Buddhist monk.
PokerStrategy: What effect did those five years have on your poker game?
Andy: The Buddhist religion made me more sensual and paradoxically perceptive.
2005 he successfully returned to the poker profession: After he had made the money in two tournaments he started his attack on the Main Event. In the meantime he was the dominant chip leader at the final table finishing in fifth place winning $1,750,000. Since then he has won another 1.5 million dollars through several tournaments all over the world like the WSOP, EPT and the Aussie Millions.
PokerStrategy: You travel a lot. What is it like to play in your home town?
Andy: I love playing in my home town and I only live about one mile away from here. It is great that I can go into my own bed after the game. I love Dublin because it is quiet and relaxed.
After he had already qualified for the second day of the Event, he came to visit with his son Zack. Today Andy Black has to play again: At the beginning he was in 18th place with 45,675 chips.
Interview wit Lee Jones:
Lee Jones is the author of the book „Winning Low Limit Hold'em", which was probably read by every poker player interested in strategy and fixed limit.
PokerStrategy: Lee, your book „Winning Low Limit Hold'em" was the foundation for many players in their process of learning poker. Did you know how good your book was?
Lee Jones: I feel honored that my book has such a good reputation and I can't really believe that it was the foundation for many players. Back then I wanted to write a book which beginners could understand more easily than the books that were already out there.
PokerStrategy: Which books did you read at that time to realize your WLLH?
Lee: Probably the most important book for me was „ Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players" from David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth. These strategies and theories were very good and taught me a lot. However, I found the books from Sklansky to be very difficult to read. As regards to content they were very good, but couldn't be understood by everyone who was interested in this topic.
Adding to this was the fact that the book was aimed at advanced players and therefore written in a very detailed fashion. Furthermore the theories were not applicable for lower limits as the dynamics are completely different.
PokerStrategy: This means you were beating the lower limits easily and just put down all your knowledge?
Lee: No, I played well and continuously got better, but I think that my skill wasn't the crucial factor. I think it was the fact that I am more able to explain the game to other players than most teachers in general do.
My passion was music and so I tried to learn to play a specific guitar in the states. I went to many top players wanting to get taught. Many of these guitarists were great players but they weren't so good at explaining how to play correctly. I guess that was my great advantage to always find the right words even though I am not the greatest player.
PokerStrategy: Have you noticed a change in the poker scene since you have published your book?
Lee: Yes, definitely! The players have become a lot younger on average. When I started playing poker roughly 20 years ago, there were no players at the age of 18 or 19 that would earn thousands of dollars per month. Today there are many players who still go to school or study at university and earn more than a few business directors.
Furthermore the players have become much more aggressive. Back in the old days the players were very relaxed and mostly played passively. Today I see players that 3-bet the turn with ace high. Things like this didn't happen in the old days. Even though, I like the development as young players come up with new ways of playing and improve our sport even more.
PokerStrategy: Which limits do you currently play?
Lee: Unfortunately I have too little time to play as much poker as I want to. Due to this I can't really speak of playing a lot of poker or any specific limits. The desire to play creeps over me occasionally though when I find a casino. I often sit down at a table and enjoy playing.
PokerStrategy: So it is more of an additional income to you? 😉
Lee: (laughs) No, not really, well definitely not guaranteed. When I sit down at a table then I follow the wisdom of finding the fish in the first 30 minutes and if you haven't found it by then it is probably yourself. So in the beginning I play conservatively, holding back while I try to figure out if I have an edge. There are three fundamental ways of doing this: either they are all fishes and I can start making space in my purse or there are a couple of good players at the table which is when I have to play with full concentration. There is also the possibility of having to get up from the table to watch a movie. Every player should be able to judge which limit he can beat, and respectively which limit he could take a shot at. No matter how much money you have on your bank account, nobody should give away money. You should be man enough to leave the limit to look for fishes.
PokerStrategy: When you don't play poker, what do you do after work?
Lee: Like I mentioned earlier, music is my passion. I play the guitar, piano, bass and every now and then I try a new instrument. My current dream is founding a band to play in front of an audience. Last time I had a band was in High School and I long for playing and having fun again.
PokerStrategy: (jokingly) Have you thought about „America got Talent"? 😉
Lee: (laughs) That would not be the kind of entertainment that I would want to do. I just want to make music and play in front of an audience. I only want to do it for fun, not even for the money. The Rolling Stones for example have made so much money that they probably couldn't even spend it anymore, yet they are still going on stage playing for a lot of people. The kick you get when people like your music and enjoy fun dancing to it is unbelievable.
PokerStrategy: Are there any samples about?
Lee: (reacts with a look on his face as if he was a young child that was caught doing something wrong) ehm.... Well.... It was last year at the EPT. I walked through the city with a couple of friends when we saw two buskers who were playing really good music. After they had finished I asked them if they could play American folk music. Both weren't sure if they knew any songs. The musician with the mandolin started playing something that was actually an American folk song. Only the guitarist didn't know the song at all. So I went up to him and offered him 5€ to borrow his guitar for one song. Suddenly I was sitting in the city center of Dublin with a busker playing away happily. The only problem was that my friend got out his camera immediately to film the whole thing.... Thanks to Web 2.0 you can find the music on the internet on youtube.com
[Editorial office: Of course we investigated into this and found the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul3v14UCB5o ]
PokerStrategy: But instead of spending time on your musical career you left PokerStars in April 2007. What was the reason for this and what were your goals?
Lee: I was looking for a new challenge and am now working for the EPT. Many believe that the EPT is a property of PokerStars; however, the EPT is an independent event series that works with the long-time sponsor PokerStars.
My goals are actually always the same: I want people to have fun at what they are doing. When PokerStars called me back then, I set my goal to do everything so that players can enjoy the game. Now at the EPT my goal is to let live-players enjoy the game and have fun at the event.
PokerStrategy: Will there be another book after your success with WLLH?
Lee: I would have great difficulty. It is a very tough and stressful process to write a book. WLLH took me eight month of extremely intense work. This point keeps me from writing another book. Every time I have the craving to write something I think about how tough WLLH was and my motivation shrinks to a minimum immediately.
PokerStrategy: Lee, thanks a lot for taking the time and we hope that you could give a little concert as a social program.
