Chris Moorman: in the well

[Moorman1]

Chris,

On forums such as P5s I've read that a lot of the top tournament players who would be classed as an 'internet' player think that most of the established live circuit players are 'horrible'. But after interviewing a couple of them who have had success in both fields, it's quite probable that there's a lack of respect on both sides (prob best exemplified by Hellmuth calling Zeejustin an internet donk at the 07' WSOP). So, in your small sample size of live play, when playing live what are:

A) the fundemental things that you believe most internet players do better playing live, than live players

B) the fundementals that live players do better than internet players who start playing live

C) Please list some of the emotions you go through on a standard sunday!

A) Internet players are really good at playing certain stack sizes and playing against certain stack sizes. Most also have a much more optimal short stack game than live players.

B) Greater patience and Better reads on live tells etc

C) Normallly it starts off with great hope, then I bust a few and go  back to a reality check...... Then I get a stack somewhere and get donked out and moan about it to a lot of people. Then it starts all over again for the later tourneys. Throw in inbetween all this multiple 100r's and a 200r which I'll prob run bad in the rebuy period in and be in for a bunch and you have a very fun day. Basically it normally ends in tears but its soooo addictive and just makes you come back for more even though you don't know why. There is always that hope that one day it might just be your turn........

[Moorman1]

CONGRATS ON ANOTHER 50r WIN, TWICE IN 1 WEEK.... NOT BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MATT W

Maybe this well is making me run good so that I don't look like a donkey that you wouldn't want to know the answers to the questions posed lol

[Moorman1]

Out of the Pocket Fives top 100 who do you honestly rate as being the best players?

Menlo is obviously the best, the results he picks up with the volume he plays is unreal. There are a lot of good solid TAG's who have been playing for years and don't have many leaks if any at all but I still feel they are exploitable. IMO the greatest players are the players who are capable of anything, can have any 2 cards etc. If you are ever railing then watch djk123 he is absolutely insane and one of the toughest players to play against. Charder30 is also very good and made back to back ept final tables earlier this year. But my favourite is probably RDCRSN (whom I talk to a fair bit on aim). His understanding of the game is great and he rarely makes a bad decision and balances his ranges so well.

[Moorman1]

Hi Moorman,

I am after some strat advice. I could post it in Learning centre or somewhere, but youre better than most of those donks..................

Ok, online, i have abs no idea OOP.

Scenario is Im quite deep in a tournament, buy in ranging from $75 to $256 on Full Tilt (i can handle this spot ok vs $26 donks) and I have a decent stack at a decent blind level with antes and theres arond 15% of the field remaining (150 out of 1000 for ex.).

Im in the cut off or hijack, or spot just before the hijack and make it like 2.7 - 3.2 BBs. The Cut Off or Button flats it or any1 else who has position on me Flats It!!! They know im weak and read my soul basically.

I hate this, coz i cant seem to win the pot now. I find this spot so impossible.
I have no notes on the players as there are like 1000 entrants, I have no info on the table coz im like 6 tabling at least.

I have AK, AQ, AJ, KQ or anything and the flop always comes Ten or Nine or Eight etc etc. high.

1) If i bet out on the flop he flats it, then takes it down when i check the turn by betting.
2) If i check, he just bets me off it.
3) If i try to check raise, he just calls the check raise, then i have nower to go on the turn.
4) If i get it in by 3 betting or 4 betting the flop or pushing the turn or check pushing the turn he just calls with Top/second/sometimes even third pair.

I cant just check/fold this spot because it happens so so often.

What the fuck do i do pls C-Dog.

I can play this spot easily live, thru live donk reads and doing shit, but i find it v v hard online v decent players.

I feel harsh for writing such a short reply to this long question. But seriously is there any other plays you can make in poker other than the ones you listed? maybe you just have a virus on your pc and everyone can see your wholecards? I don't know sorry

[Moorman1]

What do you think about my MTT game? Biggest leak/strength?

Have you ever employed a poker coach? If so, who, and how did it help/hurt your game?

Are you up lifetime in PLO?

If you have the time, go into your thoughts for leading into the pre-flop raiser.

How much do you balance ranges and play 'unexploitable' in MTTs or do you feel that is over-rated for tournies?

<3

Bikocruz

Hey mate I don't actually remember playing that many mtt's with you. I would say you are a solid player with good hand reading ability but maybe you could be a little more aggressive? (this might be well off the mark because I really don't know your game that well)

I think I am just about up still,  even though I've lost a few $3k pots lately. My game is ok.... nothing special but I think theres enough fish to be able to make decent money at it without being exceptional. My understanding of poker gets me through it and also the cardrunners videos I have watched. The variance in the game is sick though..... So I could really be a big loser in it I guess.

Leading into the pre flop raiser is a weird one because you have to know how your opponent reacts to it. A lot of people lead strong draws so if they get raised they can 3bet all in. They also balance this with leading sets. These types of hands are obv easy to play so leading seems like a decent idea if your opponent likes to check the flop back a lot to pot control. The problem with leading is that I feel you should also lead some marginal hands, difficulties arise though when you get raised or called when you do because different people react so differently to leads so unless you know your opponent really well its hard for you to know where your at with a marginal hand. I dunno if that makes sense but leading is very complex and not something that I do that often tbh.

You need to balance your ranges in tourneys where you play the same people daily such as the 100r. Also you need to play your stack size differently as well because if someone knows for example that you never raise fold with 15bbs and you end up getting AA you aren't going to get any action (not that im advocating raise folding with 15bbs!). In a regular $50 freezeout balancing ranges means fuck all. A lot of the times the best way to beat the donks is to play like a donk yourself. Flat calling a guy who raises with 15 bbs when you have AA he wont think that is suspicous and will probably just end up open shoving the flop and gifting you all his chips, whereas if you re raised him pre flop he might of found a fold button with his queen ten. In bigger tourneys you really need to try and take less obvious lines and make your value bets look bluffy etc.

[Moorman1]

HI. do you use card runners or pockerxfactor to improve ur game ? do u spend time reviewing your game looking to improve ?

congrats on all the success. enjoy the blog 2

thx I enjoy writing the blog (got a big update to do soon...) I'm a member of cardrunners pxfactor and pokersavvy aka cardplayerpro. They are all very useful and I still learn something in each video I watch. I think cardrunners is probably the highest standard of play. Just watching a cash game player such as Green Plastic or CTS play really teaches you a lot about the game of poker. I don't really review my game too much, I normally know when I'm playing well or not but I do ask people what they think of certain hands etc

[Moorman1]

will post more reply's after this session (which at the moment is going disastrously lol)

Yeah it went real bad huh - only one win and one second, sigh!

Trust me it was going horribly.... turned around nicely though wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

[mattwoodside369]

hey chris

congrats on the sik deep run in the stars million, only 19 away from over 200k!!!!!

jus got a few moooor questions!

wat do u think of tom dwan?

wats the sickest beat u have ever put on somebody/ wats the worst u have had on u?

hav u just been signed to a sponsorship deal??? who is it? ladbrokes, betfair, blonde? ( u said uve got 2 announce something on ur blog)

anyways i will keep railing u on stars and might actually get sum play done when i get round 2 depositin! (parents are being BITCHEZ coz of my A2s)

oh yea if u want to play the biggest fish EVER try poker heaven, the play is sik weak even at 3/6, 5/10 and they have 33% rakeback!!! $$$$$$$$$$$ lol

keep grinding!

MATT W

[Snook_UK]

Hey Chris,

Before you climb out of the well i'd be grateful if you could answer a few of my questions:

1. Do you stereotype certain nationalities as being generally better players / play in a certain way? I find that i have a lot more success on sites where burger munching yanks aren't allowed to play.

2. In order of most profitable to least how would you rank SNG's, MTT's and cash games?

3. I appreciate that you stated earlier that you learned how to play from trial and error / advise from other players. As a bit of a bookworm (me that is not you) are there any poker books that you would recommend reading?

4. Danni Behr or Donna Air? 

Cheers 

Snook

[mattwoodside369]

Moor, by the tyme u read this u will have shipped the super tuesday!!!!

lets hope so lol

if u make the final table u r officially my lifetyme HERO!

gl mate

matt w

[dino1980]

To your knowledge how many of the hi-stake mtt regs are staked by bax/sheets, timex etc

Are you staked/if not would you ever condsider it, what in your opinions are pros/cons.

[TheChipPrince]

Chris, how does your family react to you being a full time internet player?  Did they accept it and support you when you first started, or did they tell you 'to get a proper job'?

Do you share all your wins with them, and do you think they'll always have doubts that you'll blow the lot, 'gambling' as none poker players call it?

[Moorman1]

hey chris

congrats on the sik deep run in the stars million, only 19 away from over 200k!!!!!

jus got a few moooor questions!

wat do u think of tom dwan?

wats the sickest beat u have ever put on somebody/ wats the worst u have had on u?

hav u just been signed to a sponsorship deal??? who is it? ladbrokes, betfair, blonde? ( u said uve got 2 announce something on ur blog)

anyways i will keep railing u on stars and might actually get sum play done when i get round 2 depositin! (parents are being BITCHEZ coz of my A2s)

oh yea if u want to play the biggest fish EVER try poker heaven, the play is sik weak even at 3/6, 5/10 and they have 33% rakeback!!! $$$$$$$$$$$ lol

keep grinding!

MATT W

Tom Dwan aka Durr is a huge sicko.... unreal player from what I have seen.

Had top set versus lower set all in with one to come a couple of times in MTT's only to lose to quads (1 was yesterday actually). The worst in terms of importance was definetly AA v AKs for a HUGE chiplead in the original $2.5k ftops buying with 25 left and $430k for the winner

No sponsorship deal yet.... maybe something Is around the corner I don't know hopefully I can do something at the WSOP to help my causes.

[Moorman1]

Hey Chris,

Before you climb out of the well i'd be grateful if you could answer a few of my questions:

1. Do you stereotype certain nationalities as being generally better players / play in a certain way? I find that i have a lot more success on sites where burger munching yanks aren't allowed to play.

2. In order of most profitable to least how would you rank SNG's, MTT's and cash games?

3. I appreciate that you stated earlier that you learned how to play from trial and error / advise from other players. As a bit of a bookworm (me that is not you) are there any poker books that you would recommend reading?

4. Danni Behr or Donna Air? 

Cheers 

Snook

1. If a Scandi 3 bets me or raises my BB I find it hard to find the fold button lol. There should be a 'ship any Scandi' button! Brazilians, Germans and French tend to be crazily spewy and pretty bad in general. A lot of yanks I play with are good but there are still tons of bad ones.

2. In general its Cash, Mtt's, Sng's. For me Cash could be more profitable if I played it regularly however, I prefer tournaments. If I were to play sng's I'd probably lose my whole roll knowing how bad I am at them lol

3. I read Supersystem and the Harrington books. They were good at the time and got me thinking. I wouldn't take anything you read in there as gospel though. You just want to read stuff about the game to get you thinking more in depth about it.

4. Danni Behr I think.... But your really not going to say NO to either of them.

[Moorman1]

To your knowledge how many of the hi-stake mtt regs are staked by bax/sheets, timex etc

Are you staked/if not would you ever condsider it, what in your opinions are pros/cons.

I think around 25% of the top 100 players in the p5s rankings are staked by Bax and Sheets. Its pretty sick the empire they have got with that and pxfactor.

I see a lot more con's of staking tbh. Giving back 50% of your profits is a huge thing and although they cover your makeup... if your really THAT GOOD you shouldn't really be having losing months. If you have bankroll management leaks such as blackjack etc staking can be very helpfull.