Online poker has had its ups and downs over the past decade: increasing in popularity, being outlawed in the United States, making fortunes for some and not being so kind to others. It allows players to play at their convenience in the most literal sense. Tournaments can be organized within seconds, cards are shuffled instantly, chips are calculated as quickly as one can wager them and most importantly multiple tables can be played at once.
The famous poker player Doyle Brunson once commented that the younger players that are entering the professional live games are a different breed. He was referring to the amount of hands they can play in a year online compared to a live player and the other skills they build playing through the internet. Any veteran poker player knows that the more experience you have, the better player you are.
We interviewed a poker player that has settled in Buenos Aires since 2006 who is known online as “Palin4Prez.”
Essentially, you can play online poker anywhere in the world and you chose Buenos Aires. Why?
Mainly just luck, everyone always told me you can live anywhere and well, two of my friends decided to come here. They told me that Buenos Aires was a cool place to live. The original plan was to come here for a couple of months and here we are 3 years later.
How does this online poker thing work?
You have an account on the site, you can transfer money to and from the site a thousand different ways. Americans are actually having trouble because the transferring of money is a big issue there. When I started playing you could use Paypal, Visa, but the first thing that the Republicans did was axe that. It’s a mess for the Americans, which in turn affects us all in the poker community. There’s no legislation, no regulation, it’s just made everything worse.
What type of poker do you play and for what stakes?
Currently I play No limit Holdem cash games, multi-table No limit Holdem Tournaments, Heads Up Limit Holdem from time-to-time and Pot limit Omaha. We’ll leave the stakes out of it.
What sites do you play on?
Ongame network, which used to be Pokerroom.com, 888.com on occasion, but mainly Ongame.
They say wherever there is poker there is potential for cheating. Do you trust the sites and the people that you play with?
Since the beginning of online poker there were claims of cheating. It wasn’t that the site was cheating, they always make money off the “rake” (a small percentage of each pot is taken by the house), they have nothing to gain by cheating, but the site can lose its reputation. There have been cheating scandals that blew open; there were ‘super users’, people that could see everything, the other cards, what’s coming, etc. Bottom line is that if you don’t trust the site your playing on then you might as well not play. Cheating amongst players happens, ‘collusion’ where players chat on MSN or something and share information against another player or players. It happens. Since gambling existed there has been cheating.
How did you get started up and how long have you been playing?
I have been playing since 2001. They had a late night show in England called “Late Night Poker” before all the TV tournaments on ESPN and such. It was a single table tournament that had commentary and the like, and it really was interesting. I started to read about it more and more, started playing, reading forums, buying books, just getting all the information I could get.
I actually started with play money on Pokerroom.com and when you played a certain number of hands there they rewarded you with real money. I got $10 and played low limits, but after I lost that it lead to a small deposit from my bank. I started playing low limits, lost some won some. Eventually, I read more about no limit poker and decided to switch from limit poker to no limit.
First, I bought some more books and went traveling. (No limit was not even available yet on Pokerroom at the time!) While in Thailand I read all the books I bought and I was really prepared when I finally decided to start playing again. I ended up in Australia, almost broke and for some reason I bought in with $100 US. I busted in 30 minutes and bought in again and then everything I made to date was off that second $100 US. No one knew what they were doing back then! I started winning every time I played and that $100 US was now $1,000 and so on and I returned home to London. I got a job, but continued to play at night and things kept getting better poker-wise until I went full time to the poker tables.
What’s some of the crazier things you’ve seen while playing?
If you play enough you’ll see it all; quads losing to straight flushes, straight flushes losing to straight flushes. Nothing will really surprise you anymore.
How much difference do you see between online poker and live poker play?
I actually have not played much live poker. It seems slow and boring: having to count the chips, shuffling cards, too much table talk, you got these people that watch the world series of poker and wear hats and sun glasses that take themselves way too seriously. They are good for the game though, they typically don’t know what they are doing.
Any advantages/disadvantages that you have online as opposed to live play?
Playing online you have multi-tabling as a possibility; I play 6 tables at once which isn’t that crazy – others play way more. You also have “rake back” (the site rewards regular players with a small percentage from each pot they help generate while playing), faster games, poker tracker (track your results and track information about betting habits from your opponents), which can really help while analyzing your game. There’s tons of software that you can use to help your game today.
How can you tell if someone is bluffing? You’ve now lost all the physical ‘tells’ they talk about so much in the poker movies.
Live tells, people read too much into live tells. Any good player will not reveal much at all! It comes down to probabilities, odds really. But how do you tell if someone’s bluffing…it depends. You’re trying to quickly assess what type of player it is. If someone always bluffs, they are easy to play against, if someone hardly ever bluffs, they are easy to play against, but somewhere in the middle is where the skilled player is. You have to pay attention to timing, bet sizing, those might mean something. Both are easy to manipulate though. Multi-tabling can slow you or your opponent down though. If it’s heads up (one on one)…that’s a different game.
Heads up is much more of a possibility now. Casinos want larger pots for the rake so they typically don’t have them, but now online sites can offer this heads up play and still make money as having a heads up table does not cost them anything extra. It’s beginning to gain momentum.
Do you find your work/playing stressful?
Yes, it can be. Completely depends upon how you are doing. The point of poker is you can make all the right decisions and still lose.
How many hours do you put in a week and do you plan on continuing to play for a while?
About 8 hours a day on 6 tables and well, it depends on some other things I have going on. I’m ready to start doing something else. I’d like to use the money I’ve won to do a business.
Any advice for the beginners?
Do a bit of reading, no reason to go crazy, but one book will save you some time and money. Start in the low stakes unless you are loaded. Play for fun, that’s what it is meant to be about.
What books would you recommend to someone that is starting up?
Your best bet would be to check some forums. Try twoplustwo.com, they will have plenty of suggestions for the most current books and such along with great general advice.
How do people react when you tell them you play poker for a living?
A lot of the time I don’t tell them because I’m so bored of hearing the same questions. A lot of people here in Argentina don’t believe me. Most of the guys consider it a dream job and give me a lot of respect, but girls don’t seem to understand it here. Either you can make yourself very popular or unpopular, depending upon who you are talking to.
What do your family and friends back home say?
My parents don’t approve, my friends think it’s a bit weird. I’ve been doing it for a while so I don’t really talk about it anymore.
Last question: what do you wear to work?
Ha, something comfortable.
Rex Racer
LPBA Staff
