"Embracing Variance and Taking Calculated Shots" Interview with Mickey Petersen
We catch up with Team PokerStars Online Pro Mickey Petersen to talk about live poker success, EPT Copenhagen, and how Black Friday changed online tournaments at PokerStars.
Mickey Petersen, better known as "mement_mori" online, is one of the most prolific tournament grinders in the world. He already had millions of dollars in winnings when he was recruited to join Team PokerStars Online and he quickly followed this up by winning EPT Copenhagen, in his home town no less, for $444,595 this past February.
We caught up with him this week to talk about life as an online grinder making his mark on the live circuit.
"High stakes have got tougher, midstakes have got softer"
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| "mement_mori" |
PokerStrategy.com: How much easier has being a European tournament grinder been since Black Friday essentially made the big online tournaments move to more European-friendly times?
Mickey Petersen: So much easier! I remember back then you usually started your Sunday session around 18:00 or 19:00 and then, if you wanted to play all the majors, you could easily be up until ten or eleven in the morning!
I was often so exhausted on Monday that I didn't do anything but sleep and spent the rest of the week trying to get back on a normal schedule.
Now you can start at noon and play until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning and play every single major. As bad as Black Friday was, that was one good thing to come out of it for me - the new starting hours improved my life quality a lot!
PokerStrategy.com: Have the games been tougher or easier since Black Friday?
Mickey Petersen: I don't really think there is a clear cut answer to this one, and depending on who you ask people seem to have very different opinions on the subject.
Personally I always thought Americans in general were one of the nations with most good tight-aggressive midstakes grinders, but a slightly lower concentration of fish and really elite players. And given that a lot of those elite players moved to Mexico, Canada and Malta I would say that highstakes tournaments have gotten a bit tougher and midstakes have gotten a bit softer.
"Live tournaments are about taking calculated shots"
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| Mickey with PokerStrategy.com coaches Rupert Elder and Melanie Weisner |
PokerStrategy.com: Last week I wrote about how live tournament results are not statistically reliable. As someone who has played thousands of them online, would you agree?
Mickey Petersen: I don't really believe in evaluating players too much based on results, but if you wanted to get a significant statistical sample of someone playing live tournaments, it would probably take generations.
With that being said, live tournaments are more about embracing the variance and taking calculated shots anyway - that's a big part of the charm and draw to them.
PokerStrategy.com: Based on this, and as someone with more experience than most because of online poker, how do you rate Phil Hellmuth's game?
Mickey Petersen: I have played with him a few times online and live and can't say I have been too impressed. I think he is one of the best in the world at just getting bad players to donate stacks to him just because of his image and legacy, but as far as raw tournament skills or fundamentals go, I don't really think he is anything special.
"EPT Copenhagen was mainly amateurs or sickos"
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| Online grinder to EPT Champion |
PokerStrategy.com: What is the main appeal of live tournaments? The money, the fun, or the prestige?
Mickey Petersen: I think it's a combination of all of it. The way I look at it, its just a good opportunity to travel around, take some shots at really big prize pools... and if you run good, obviously the prestige and recognition that comes with it is nice.
With that being said, my approach has always been that my bread and butter should be online tournaments, and I don't think I will ever change that approach unless I get a lot richer than I am now.
If you play online for a living (and put in good volume and table select) its really hard to have a losing year, and almost impossible to have several losing years in a row.
People who only play live tournaments are either delusional about their profitability or just dream chasers.
To sum it up, I think if you put in hard work and grind a lot online you are going to succeed 99% of the time, if all you do is travel around and play live tournaments then you are going to fail 90% of the time (but get filthy rich the last 10%).
PokerStrategy.com: EPT Copenhagen is considered one of the toughest events on the circuit; is it one of the toughest you have played?
Mickey Petersen: I have definitely played in tougher tournaments; a lot of the weekly online tournaments are a lot tougher and live tournaments like the WSOP $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em or the $10,000 6-max are significantly tougher as well.
It's true that the tournament has a reputation of being really tough and I do think there is some truth to that in terms of how polarised the field is. There are very few marginally winning or mediocre regs in it, its mainly amateurs or Scandinavians (who are sickos at either cash or tournaments).
"I was down about $200,000 in live games before Copenhagen"
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| Winning the English Poker Open after Copenhagen |
PokerStrategy.com: You've won hundreds of online tournaments. Just how different a feeling was it to win a major live one? Was it a feeling of relief more than anything?
Mickey Petersen: Yeah there was a certain amount of relief that came with winning it for sure. I was down about $200,000 in live tournaments before that and had already made peace with the fact that I could travel around to these for the rest of my life and never win one without doing anything wrong.
Still, winning it felt amazing, and the fact that it was on home turf made it feel all the more special.
PokerStrategy.com: How important are rankings and leader boards to you?
Mickey Petersen: I used to be obsessed with rankings and leader boards and had a lot of fun chasing them. I was second on Pocketfives for a while and was trying my hardest to beat Chris Oliver off the top spot, I actually had the lead for a single day before the leaderboard updated, but then he got third in the Sunday Million the very next day!
I still think the leaderboards are a lot of fun but it's just not something I am really competitive about anymore, I guess partly because I don't really feel like I have to prove myself as much anymore.
If you want to win them you just have to focus 100% of your time on playing online poker and I was doing that a couple of years ago, where now I still spend a lot of time grinding online but I'm also going to live tournaments (often in countries where you can't play online, or the hotel connection is bad), I have a girlfriend that I spend a lot of time with in the USA, I go two full months for WSOP etc. so chasing those things just isn't a priority to me anymore.
