Turning $100 into $69,200.55 for charity with André Coimbra [Interview]
We interview André "acoimbra" Coimbra, the Portuguese PokerStars Pro who took an entire year off from his normal games to take on a charitable challenge.
"It certainly doesn't feel like a failure"
PokerStrategy.com: Your challenge was to turn $100 into $100,000 in 2013. You managed to win $69,200.55, and you gave it all to charity. Even though you didn't quite get to your target, I have to say congratulations, that is by no means a failure.
André Coimbra: I feel like it was a great year, I accomplished a lot. The $100,000 was more of a catchy number, not something I thought I could do on a regular basis. I still think $70,000 is very good and I am very happy with the result. It certainly doesn't feel like a failure.
PokerStrategy.com: What made you take on such a big year-long challenge?
André Coimbra: I used to play hyper turbo satellites, like George Lind, I went through a big downswing and I was really burnt out, so I was looking for something different. Then in 2012 I made a challenge which involved playing in the Micro Millions. It was an enduring challenge, I really enjoyed the interactions with the fans and creating content for it.
So I was eager to do a bigger challenge in 2013. I thought starting with $100 would be cool because starting with nothing required you to run good in a few freerolls right away, whereas $100 allowed me to take a few steps back if things didn't go very well at first.
I also wanted to learn MTTs, I played two or three years not even playing flops in the hyper turbo satellites. I made the challenge MTTs only so there was a big learning component.
I've been giving 10% of my profits to charity since 2011 anyway, so I decided what the hell, I'll just give them everything. I also wanted people to learn something. In Boku's challenge all we saw him do was grind, people didn't really learn anything from that.
"The micro stakes are very beatable"
PokerStrategy.com: What did you learn about the micro stakes over the year?
André Coimbra: Micro stakes are very beatable. Micro stakes feel how the low stakes used to feel. You just have to play tight and learn how to adjust to players going all-in early.
PokerStrategy.com: Were you worried that a year of playing micro stakes would harm your game when you went back to hyper turbos?
André Coimbra: January has been a bit of a challenge, I started out playing $74 hyper turbo satellites and they have not been easy. It will probably take me a bit of time to get in the shape I was in 2012. In the meanwhile I already made $9,000 in MTTs, so it was not a completely useless last year.
PokerStrategy.com: What was it like switching from the fastest form of the game to playing in large fields which took a long time to get through? Was patience the biggest issue?
André Coimbra: It is not so much about the patience, it is actually about the endurance. Being able to focus for many hours. I have a problem focussing for more than eight hours at anything. Big MTTs like the WCOOP where you need to be focussed for 12 hours are still very challenging for me.
That being said, the biggest difference for me was having to play flops. It was very hard for me to play anything but super ABC poker because I didn't have the experience.
I got some coaching which really helped me, because my coach insisted that I defend my blind a lot more and not just give up all the time. The post flop part also effects how you will play pre flop, if you don't know you are going to play a hand post flop, you shouldn't even play it pre flop.
"It's important to have goals which are tough, but you can do it"
PokerStrategy.com: Some players struggle to stay within their own bankroll at the best of times, what was it like mentally having to play incredibly overrolled?
André Coimbra: I don't have that problem, I really respect bankroll management. I lost 30% of my roll on the first day, so I went from playing with 100 buy-ins to playing with 300, because I wanted to have that margin so I would actually learn.
PokerStrategy.com: Poker at its core is a selfish pursuit, what was it like using it as a vehicle to do good in the world by donating the winnings to charity?
André Coimbra: I went to give the cheque to Associação Portuguesa de Pais e Amigos do cidadão Deficiente Mental last weekend and they really liked it. What this money is going to do for people's lives is huge, much bigger than anything I could do with it.
To be honest the best part of the challenge was the feedback I got from my followers of my strategy blog posts. Really helping people play poker was awesome.
PokerStrategy.com: Once again, you have set some big goals this year. You want to make Supernova Elite, run a marathon and write a tournament strategy book - how do you find the time for all this?
André Coimbra: (Sighs) It's going to be very difficult.
I think it is important to have goals which are tough, but you can do it. I'm not 100% sure how I will manage it. I feel I have to write that book to complete the challenge for me, I feel I still have stuff to share with my followers on that. Then I can move onto something new, maybe cash games.
PokerStrategy.com: Thanks André, we wouldn't bet against you doing it.
Have you set a huge goal for 2014? Should we all donate part of our winnings to charity? Tell us your views in the comments box.
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