WantAReceipt is a Professionnal Poker Player who play cash game 6 max on Ipoker Network.
He Crush 5/10$ stakes and play sometimes 10/20$ and over.
Could you introduce yourself to our readers?
I’m a 24-year-old man. I live in Montreal, Canada, and I’m a pro poker player. Besides gambling, I invest in some business with my poker profits, but it’s others who mostly help me to take care of it.
Could you talk about your experience? How and when did you discover poker? How did you evolve from then until now?
Four or five years ago, a friend of mine invited me to play a heads-up game with him. I had no idea about poker, but I registered myself on Sportsinteraction which was based on the iPoker network. Eventually, my friend won, but I didn’t even know the hands values.
As I’m a competitor, I decided to cash-in $50. And soon I started to read some books and to play Sit-N-Go tournaments. At this moment, the others player’s skills were incredibly poor. I never had to cash in again after then. I played SnG’s et MTT’s for six months and won about $10.000. I have to say that I didn’t know anything about bankroll management, so I spent most of the money and left only $500 on my poker account.
It’s about this period that I discovered cash games. I first went to play on a $200 no limit cash game table, but I sat down with only $100. I earned $5.000 in a month. Once again, I spent most of it but $500.
I learned everything all by myself. There were no websites to give suggestions at this point. I was such a tight player; my statistics were about 11 – 0 or 11 – 9 (vpip – pre-flop raise). This way of playing was really successful. However, I had to deal with the variance as my bankroll certainly dropped to $100. It’s at this point that I learned how to manage a bankroll, about mid-2005, 8 months since I played my first hand. I was 20-year-old tennis teacher.
After that, I paid more attention to my bankroll and left $2.000 on my account. It was only 10 buy-ins, but I still had a big edge on other players, and variance wasn’t that important. I was lucky too.
On October 2005, I started to play on the $400 tables. On October, November and December 2005, I respectively won $15k, $10k and $9k. The problem is that I still spend a lot of money, and just left $5.000 on my account to play on those $400 tables. I was playing about 40hrs a week. I was a student, but poker was my priority. In February 2006, I earned about $20k, then $17k on March, $21k on May and $15k on June. I was a consistent player.
On August 2006 I discovered the poker coaching website Cardrunners which made me understand so many things. To see “Green plastic” (aka Taylor Caby) playing the 3-6 NL tables on Ultimate Bet was incredible.
At this period, nobody would like to 3-bet with other hands than pocket aces, kings or queens. It was so crazy; none of his opponents was able to fit themselves. In case you 3-bet, the villain calls, you just need to bet half the pot to make him fold. It was easy money. And in case they had a monster hand, they would be all-in on the pre-flop. They were scared, and may fold mid-pair, or even top-pair. But since I got used to spending so much money, I had to stay on $400 tables.
On August 26, I played a $24 satellite tournament to get into the first FTOP Main Event. I won the satellite and played the 3000 entrants main event. I finished 3rd, winning $77k. Everything changed since then.
I started to play on the $1.000 tables, along with a $40k bankroll. I earned $35k on September. I learned a lot, and dominated the $1k tables as I earned about $50k a month. On November, I went to play the $2.000 no limit tables. On December 2006, I earned more than $100k – exactly $123k – within a month for the first time. Then $105k and $111k on January and February.
On March 2007 I had to deal with the first downswing since I play poker. I lost $16k, which wasn’t easy to accept. Since I never had to deal with any losses for two years, I really felt like invulnerable.
I had another problem to deal with. It’s that I got use to spending too much of my money. I had three cars, some bad business, and often spent $10k in a night club. Everything was about parties and spending money. I wasn’t paying enough attention to the game. During the next months, I wasn’t winning a lot. I was tilting, unable to understand what’s happening. I felt like I was going crazy. So I decided to take some vacations in July 2006.
Back from vacation, I decided to play a lot more seriously. I started to analyze the way I play, to eat healthy food, and to keep fresh and fit to be fully concentrated on poker.
How did you adjust your game?
What is incredible, it’s that the game is always changing. Cardrunners teaches how to 3bet with suited connectors and small pairs. The good part is that you’ll often get draws and sets, and that people makes too many continuation bets. So you can easily check-raise which becomes an easy way to make profit.
But everything’s different today. I think suited connectors lost a lot of their value, because the way to play is quiet different nowadays. Players are better. They check behind with mid-pairs. So when you call with your suited-connectors, you’ll always get some draws on the flop, but they’ll mostly check behind with middle pairs. You can’t check raise on big draws anymore. So those hands don’t worth as much as they did.
I think that hands like KQ worth so much. Because people became really aggressive, though a top pair on a 3bet pot is a monster hand. So I adjusted myself. I stopped to 3-bet with suited-connectors. I just call while I’m in position or in a multi-way pot. I also vary the way I play. For example, to call a raise with big pairs. I try my best to vary the way I play. After adjusting and working on my own game, I started to dominate the tables.
Let’s talk about the iPoker network if it’s ok… Do you only play on iPoker?
Yes. I tried Full Tilt, but to play along with guys like Cole South or Raptor doesn’t get me in.
What’s your opinion about those players?
Raptor is absolutely blowing. He’s playing on another level. How to say… innovating. He’s bringing some brand new concepts and theories to the game. For example, everybody say it’s fishy to limp at the button, but he still does it, even though he’s playing on a 6-max table. He may also bet 1/8 pot to get some value with K high, or to do a small C-bet. But he doesn’t balance it very well. He won’t bluff by betting $10 in a $80 pot.
The game level on Full Tilt is more difficult. A lot of regulars from iPoker can’t adjust themselves on it. But during those last three months, iPoker’s game level increased a lot.
What are the usual stakes you play?
I play on $1.000 and $5.000 NL tables.
How much ptbb do you earn on NL $1.000?
About 5, which is pretty good since it’s more difficult today. I’m a big grinder; I play about 100k hands a month.
How many tables do you play simultaneously?
I play three 6-max tables, and two heads-up. Because it’s way more difficult today, you have to find weak spots of your opponents to beat them.
I’m looking for tables where I can get an edge. I won’t sit on a table where there are already six regulars.
What’s your best game, 6-max or HU ??
HU.
Who are the five best regulars on iPoker? The five worst ones?
- According to me, number 1 is “acesplz“;
- Number 2: “genetic“;
- “humph” isn’t easy to play against. But he’s running so damn good, though he may be spewy;
- “spamfilter“;
- Another player I don’t want to mention – he would prefer to stay anonymous. He won about $3.5 million last year. Nobody knows who he is. He only plays one table. He also plays on Betfair and Betmost.
The worst…
- “Igor” – he’s bad at adjusting his game, but he’s running incredibly good;
- “Khorino”
- “Ilove4a”
Which is the largest gap between the different stakes?
Obviously between the $600 and the $1.000 tables.
What are your objectives on the middle terms?
To earn $1 million within a year, and to play where I can get an edge.
Do you think you’ll still be playing on the long term, like Doyle Brunson?
I don’t know, maybe not. I invest a lot. Maybe there’s a day I’ll feel tired about poker, though I certainly would like to do something else.
Do you play live games or not?
Not really but when I’m in Vegas. Live games are really boring.
Omaha began more and more important in high stakes. Do play it too?
I’m learning. The problem is that it’s expensive to learn Omaha, because I can’t go straight to the 25/50, so I probably need to play on the $400PL first. Though, I’ll lose money since I don’t play $2.000 NL Hold’em. People say Omaha is much more paying. But maybe it’s just about variance since variance is so huge in Omaha.
What’s your best earning within a day? The biggest pot won? The worst downswing?
- Best earning within a day: $60k;
- Biggest pot: $30k. We both had $17k on a 25/50 table. The guy was really aggressive. I raised from the button with AJ, the small blind called, then the BB 3-bets. I knew I was behind his hand range on a 3-bet squeeze, so my standard action would be to call here. But it won’t be easy to get committed in case of I get top pair on the flop. Plus I didn’t want to be stacked with top pair because I had a deep stack, about 150bb. So I decided to 4-bet…
He called, and the flop came on KQT. I bet then he shoved. I checked if I really had nuts, then I called. The guy had KK, ha ha!
- The worst downswing: $130k.
Finally, what do you do with all of this money?
I got a convertible Porsche C4s and a BMW M5. I spend too much money anyway.
Thanks for answering.
You can find “wantareceipt” playing on iPoker’s highest stakes everyday.
