BlackMember benjo

He isn't even 21 years old - in the USA benjo aka Ben would not even be allowed to enter a casino. Nonetheless benjo already collected more than 500,000 StrategyPoints in his poker career and thus secured his invitation to the next BlackMember Party. In the interview you will learn more about the man who failed in FL at
$5/$10 and now plays No Limit with blinds of $5/$10 and
higher.
Interview conducted by garten309:

PokerStrategy: First of all congratulations for reaching the BlackMember status! Please tell us a bit more about yourself.

benjo: Yes, thank you very much. The BlackMember status took long enough after all, at least the final 50,000 points.
My name is Ben, I am 20 years old and I'm from the lovely town of Grevenbroich. 😉 (Translator's note: Town made famous by a persona of German comedian Hape Kerkeling)

PokerStrategy: How did you hear about PokerStrategy?

benjo: An old classmate (no_st0ry) hooked me up with the page and poker in general.

I got curious when I heard that more and more Broodwar Pros had begun to play poker and even made money with it. I couldn't really imagine the whole thing. In fact, back then I only knew about the 5Card Draw variant, so I gave it a shot myself.

That was back in the summer of 2005 when you only received $5 for free and I started on 2c/4c. Without a quiz. Thank goodness. 😀

BlackMember

In mid-2007 we introduced a new status: BlackMember. Only PokerStrategists who gathered more than 500,000 StrategyPoints overall are able to enjoy this status. It's not only a lifetime achievement, we also offer the players regular events and more.

PokerStrategy: How did your career begin? Did you have problems at first or was it a quick rise?

benjo: At first things didn't go so well, but at least I managed to break even and didn't go broke early on. The rise up the limits was rather slow until I had an adequate bankroll to switch to the PartyPoker platform. There I caught a nice upswing and was relatively quickly on 2$/4$.

PokerStrategy: Then you switched to No Limit or did you stick with FL for a bit longer?

benjo: Yes, I remained faithful to the minbetting for quite a while. After several failed attempts on 2/4, I decided to simply skip this limit.

On 1/2 I worked hard for a 3/6 bankroll and then played 3/6 rather successfully.

Later on, the crux of the matter was then 5/10. It went back and forth for some time. On 3/6 I built up my bankroll only to lose it again on 5/10. Eventually I lost my motivation and tried out NL upon the advice of nikon.

PokerStrategy: How did you internalize the NL theory back then? Articles, books, discussions with other players, hand evaluations?

benjo: Yes,
a good question. Mainly I improved myself through many discussions with my friends, in addition to lots of independent hand analyses. But most of all I simply played a lot, despite the general opinion that "learning by doing" doesn't really further your poker game. I have to say though that it helped me, especially when it came to getting rid of the typical Fixed Limit mindset.

PokerStrategy: Apparently this method does have its exceptions.
On what limit do you currently play and how well is it going there?

benjo: I've been playing NL1000 for quite some time now and also some NL2000. I somehow lack the motivation for a further step up the limits as you're already able to rack up quite a nice sum on this one after all. Lately, specifically since March, things aren't going so well though, but I'm rather confident that it will turn around again soon.

Besides, I still have my other "mainstay", the MTTs. 🙂

PokerStrategy: And it's going quite well with the MTTs apparently. We often read about your successes. Is it more fun for you than the cash games or is the money the crucial factor?

benjo: No, it's definitely the fun due to the variety. In the cash game, you grind and grind and grind and on the next day, you buy yourself in again with 100BB and grind some more...

MTTs on the other hand offer the perfect diversion. There's no better feeling anyway than to rake in some serious cash. 🙂

Furthermore I'm far from calling myself a complete MTT player. There are quite a few points where I could still improve. Except for the hitbox part, which is often doing well. 🙂

PokerStrategy: But enough with poker now. What do you prefer to do in your leisure time?

benjo: Actually I really like to play sports even though I hardly have time for it lately. I play tennis in a club and football for fun. Apart from that I enjoy partying with my friends, which is why I'm really looking forward to my first BlackMember event on which I may participate. Oh yeah, I also still play PC games, or rather lately again, respectively. 😉

PokerStrategy: So sports and party as diversions from the tough poker everyday life?

benjo: Definitely.
However my everyday life is less influenced by poker rather than my civil service. 🙁 I think I forgot to mention that I'm still in civil service until mid-July.

PokerStrategy: And afterwards you will enjoy your student life, like so many good players of PokerStrategy?

benjo: That's the plan. Studies and poker can be combined very easily, or at least I hope so.

PokerStrategy: Do you have some tips for our beginners and advanced players - or mistakes from which you had to learn first to progress your poker career?

benjo: Basically only things that most people know already anyway. To discuss about the game or hands respectively is essentially the most important part. Apart from that avoid going on tilt by simply taking a break if you no longer play your A-game. Honestly, this is exactly what I am struggling with for quite some time lately. Rather surprising as I never had a problem with tilt previously.

I also discourage people from playing too much, as more often than not it also leads to losing your focus and no longer playing your A-game.

PokerStrategy: Many thanks for the extensive interview and furthermore good luck with your poker career. Do you want to add some last words?

benjo: No problem and thank you very much. I salute everybody from #no-limit, the readers of our blog (www.6thstreet.de) and the listeners of my coachings!