In The Well with............Melty!

Tikay10

Yes, chicknmelt has kindly agreed to do a "Well" for us, so first up, many thanks to him.

Any questions, fire away please.
 
In case you missed it, Melty made the Final of the 500 runner Sky Poker UKPC 6-Max, but the Final did not go as planned.

A whole number of seasoned Pros asked me about him during the previous few days, as he had impressed them immensely.

This is our chance to pick his brains.   

Tikay10

Tell us about your Bubble Play during the UKPC - you seemed to be absolutely brutal, 3 betting for fun, & really chipping up.

Do you always do this @ bubble time?

Tikay10

You seem to do rather well (the kids feel obliged to call it crushing, lol) at Satellites, any idea why you excel so at these?

Tikay10

Hobbies away fom poker?

Long-term life plans, stay in poker, or do you have other fish to fry?

How long have you been playing?

Just MTT's, or do you play any other formats?

Tikay10

Late in an MTT, what do you do if you notice Matt Bates is short?

bbMike

Congrats on another great MTT success.

Q: Do you watch the live Sky shows, and if so have you picked up any tips there?  For example, did Orford tell you to wear that jumper?!


Q: How relevant or otherwise do you consider 'live tells' to be? How long on average do you tend to make your decisions and do you ever dwell to try to get a read?

ShaunyT

First of all congrats on the ukpc final table.

My questions are.

Brief history of your poker career? How you started/moving up levels/going pro.

Best poker memory?

Top MTT tips?

Cheers.

TeddyBloat

Congrats on the UKPC, was hoping you'd take it down.

remember you said you were thinking of offering coaching, is that something that worked out / something you'd still want to do?

have you ever played WSOP events?

any poker ambitions / dream events you'd like to play?

DOHHHHHHH

If you make the final table of the roller this Sunday, which 5 regular sky MTT players would you least like to be on it with you? 

shuv

If you make the final table of the roller this Sunday, which 5 regular sky MTT players would you MOST like to be on it with you?

chicknMelt

In Response to In The Well with............Melty!:

Yes, chicknmelt has kindly agreed to do a "Well" for us, so first up, many thanks to him. Any questions, fire away please.   In case you missed it, Melty made the Final of the 500 runner Sky Poker UKPC 6-Max, but the Final did not go as planned. A whole number of seasoned Pros asked me about him during the previous few days, as he had impressed them immensely. This is our chance to pick his brains.   
Posted by Tikay10

thanks TK. Im sure your exagerating about the people asking tho. Matt Bates asking where i was does not count

chicknMelt

In Response to Re: In The Well with............Melty!:

Tell us about your Bubble Play during the UKPC - you seemed to be absolutely brutal, 3 betting for fun, & really chipping up. Do you always do this @ bubble time?
Posted by Tikay10

I had been on the same table for the entire day by the time the bubble came around, and luckily I had managed to accumilate the most chips at our table. This is a dream spot on the bubble because it allows you to "abuse" pretty much every one else at the table and there isnt much the can do about it without risking their tournament life, whilst yours is never at risk. Good bubble play is basically taking advantage of this as much as possible.

Like TK said, alot of 3betting either puts people in a spot where they have to jam or fold. On the bubble, you can imagine its almost always fold, and people didnt seem to adjust, so i kept doing it.

chicknMelt

In Response to Re: In The Well with............Melty!:

You seem to do rather well (the kids feel obliged to call it crushing , lol) at Satellites, any idea why you excel so at these?
Posted by Tikay10

I dont think I am particularly brilliant at sattelites, I just think everyone else is worse at them than normal MTTs!

you see alot of mistakes. ALOT.

The most common mistakes you see are ICM based - people dont seem to understand they CAN fold a rag ace in the BB with 4BB left, when there are 2 people with 2bb left on the bubble.

for those of you that dont know what ICM is, or how you should adjust - basically it can show that although a move may be profitable in terms on chips, it can still be a losing play in terms of £. an over simplied example:

bubble of a sat, 3 people left, 2 seats. Players A & B have 1000 chips and player C has 5 chips.

Player A moves all in, player C folds and the SB and action is on Player B who has AA.

clearly calling with AA would be profitable in chips, but it shold still be a fold because even though you have AA, you will bust around 20% of the time and are more likely to get a seat by folding.

If you are planning to play sattelites, i would highly recommend doing some research on ICM. actually...dont bother...its not all its cracked up to be

LARSON7

Hey!

Well done on the UKPC was delighted for you!

What was the big thing that pushed you forward as an MTT player, to get you to your current level?

chicknMelt

In Response to Re: In The Well with............Melty!:

Hobbies away fom poker? Long-term life plans, stay in poker, or do you have other fish to fry? How long have you been playing? Just MTT's, or do you play any other formats?
Posted by Tikay10

away from poker I enjoy sports like tennis, football and skiing. I'm also a decent guitarist.

I plan to stay in poker for as long as it is enjoyable, afterwards I would probably do something entrepreneurial rather than get another job. Hopefully though that is some way in the distant future - I am very much enjoying poker at the moment.

I have been playing for around 10 years I guess. the first 3-5 though were purely social. I'd say I got properly interested in poker around 5 years ago.

MTTs are obviously my favourite format. I do play others, but with less success. I dont have the patience for cash games, I find them a bit boring. Live is a little different though because the games play a bit bigger and there is more of a social aspect. So yeah, I dabble with other games and formats. Other than NLH MTTs i really enjoy NLO8. NLO8 MTTs are fun, and people arent very good at them yet.

chicknMelt

In Response to Re: In The Well with............Melty!:

Late in an MTT, what do you do if you notice Matt Bates is short?
Posted by Tikay10

so many things I could say here!

firstly I would ask him why he is no longer sitting on his high chair the whole idea of it is to stop him looking so short.

anyway, matt doesnt make it to the late stages live MTTs? is this a trick question??

chicknMelt

In Response to Re: In The Well with............Melty!:

Congrats on another great MTT success. Q: Do you watch the live Sky shows, and if so have you picked up any tips there?  For example, did Orford tell you to wear that jumper?! Q: How relevant or otherwise do you consider 'live tells' to be? How long on average do you tend to make your decisions and do you ever dwell to try to get a read?
Posted by bbMike

Thanks Mike!

I will choose to ignore the comments about my jumper. Surely it would have been a bad jacket if orf had anything to do with it tho?!

live tells can be very relevant, but only if you understand them properly. It is easy to misinterpret them, or assume they have a common meaning. People are also pretty aware alot of the time and either give off false tells or try and hide them. It probably takes alot of practice to get good at it, as well as some research.

I do use live tells to some extent, I look at the player when the cards come out. there are some specific things that I look for but I wont go into details. Once I have decided if the player is happy with the flop or not I will look at it, and hopefully it makes some kind of sense. It gets a little wierd when the villain is doing the same thing and you both end up awkwardly staring at each other and not looking at the cards lol. timing tells are a big help, and you can often get a feeling for how happy someone is. Im definately not one to talk to players alot to try and get information, no good at that.

chicknMelt

In Response to Re: In The Well with............Melty!:

First of all congrats on the ukpc final table. My questions are. Brief history of your poker career? How you started/moving up levels/going pro. Best poker memory? Top MTT tips? Cheers.
Posted by ShaunyT

thanks Shaun.

I started playing poker around 10 yrs ago at the odd home game, but it wasnt until around 5/6 yrs ago I started to take it a bit more seriously - I had started to go to weekly games at the pub, and now had other friends who were interested in and talked about poker other than at home games. So naturally i wanted to beat them and started to read up. It was also around that sort of time I got into online poker. I wasnt a winner straight away though. I probably deposited around £100 a month and saw it as more of a learning excersise and a bit of fun. 

My first taste of success online was around 2/3 years ago. I went on a pretty decent hot streak on another site. I have written about this in the diary I used to keep up to date on here " can a chicken go pro". The first post described how I came from that point to playing primarily on sky.

Around 1 yr ago I decided I wanted to go pro. I had a winning record for a year - on avin the last erage I won more than my salary (after tax) and I was spending too much of my life working and playing poker with not enough time for other things - family, social life, other hobbies etc. so he obvious choice was to go pro - I enjoyed it more, already earnt the same/more, the potential for increasing earning was much higher and by now I had enough in savings too to cover any downsings.

since then I have started to play across multiple sites - I dont play massive, but there are still not enough higher stakes comps on sky to fill my schedule.

----

My best poker memory is probably my first major win - the SPT in Luton in 2012. I hadnt played much live, other than in the pub, so I was on a high after taking that down.

-----

top MTT tip... tough one...target weaker players. try and play more pots with them instead of against the other good player/s at the table. the winner of an MTT is not the winner of the ego match on your table.

chicknMelt

In Response to Re: In The Well with............Melty!:

Congrats on the UKPC, was hoping you'd take it down. remember you said you were thinking of offering coaching, is that something that worked out / something you'd still want to do? have you ever played WSOP events? any poker ambitions / dream events you'd like to play?
Posted by TeddyBloat

Yeh, I was hoping I would take it down too!

The final table was horrible - hardly any spots then I make a horrendous call drawing dead to bust.

coaching is something I am still interested in but havent really followed up. I have been involved (still am) in staking players and have done some coaching there, which went well I think. PM me if anyone is interested btw, I can pass on details of the people I coached as a reference.

I have NEVER played in the WSOP, or even been to Vegas! I intended on going this year, but it clashed with moving house too much + the house move used up all my spare money for vegas. I plan to change that this year! I will almost certainly be going and will play a few of the smaller NLH events and probably quite a few sats to bigger ones. Live sats are even softer than online!

My ambition is to play the WSOP main event in the next 2 yrs. I'd also love to play the PCA main. My wife has family out in the Bahamas and I have never been there + where better could you think of going to play poker! (or relaxing in between playing poker) has to beat nottingham, as much as i love DTD.

chicknMelt

In Response to Re: In The Well with............Melty!:

If you make the final table of the roller this Sunday, which 5 regular sky MTT players would you least like to be on it with you? 
Posted by DOHHHHHHH

good question, im sure i will miss some people out though...

lets go with, in no particular order

mattbates

divsdreams

TommyD

cjy

ozzieowen

chicknMelt

In Response to Re: In The Well with............Melty!:

If you make the final table of the roller this Sunday, which 5 regular sky MTT players would you MOST like to be on it with you?
Posted by shuv

haha

i'll go with 

mattbates

divsdreams

TommyD

cjy

ozzieowen

would be good to win that final table!

MAXALLY

Glad you have brought up your exit hand from the UKPC. I hope my questions don't come across as rubs now as I think you know I do respect your game and after my horse fell by the wayside....I thought you may go on and TID. Anyway,

Can you tell me your thought process on this before the call?

 I am genuinely interested what you put him on if not a 9 in his hand.

 Did the fact that the other players had left the table for a break have any bearing on your decision...ie. did you think added pressure was there to make the call?

After sharing a table with you until you sent me to the Bar (AK v AJ), could you give me any tips from my play?. I can and will accept criticism with grace

Lastly, I will still give you a reminder over the w'end for Monday.You have not got away with it! TommyD didnt set the bar that high though

chicknMelt

In Response to Re: In The Well with............Melty!:

Hey! Well done on the UKPC was delighted for you! What was the big thing that pushed you forward as an MTT player, to get you to your current level?
Posted by LARSON7

when ever you see a "well", they always get asked this question...

I think the majority of the answers say the same thing - hard work.

for me that means watching videos, running numbers/reviewing hands, reading books etc.

If I had to pick one skill though that I think is most important, I would say the ability to hand read. Being able to define your opponents range well allows you to make good decisions. for example,  say you know that your opponents range is capped at 2nd pair, so it allowed you to make a thin value bet on the river with your 2nd pair good kicker in a spot where most people might check back.

chicknMelt

In Response to Re: In The Well with............Melty!:

Glad you have brought up your exit hand from the UKPC. I hope my questions don't come across as rubs now as I think you know I do respect your game and after my horse fell by the wayside....I thought you may go on and TID. Anyway, Can you tell me your thought process on this before the call?  I am genuinely interested what you put him on if not a 9 in his hand.   Did the fact that the other players had left the table for a break have any bearing on your decision...ie. did you think added pressure was there to make the call? After sharing a table with you until you sent me to the Bar (AK v AJ), could you give me any tips from my play? . I can and will accept criticism with grace Lastly, I will still give you a reminder over the w'end for Monday.You have not got away with it! TommyD didnt set the bar that high though
Posted by MAXALLY

Thanks Maxally

ok so my thought process in that hand, flawed as it was...

i raised preflop  with 88, and got a call from the SB and BB. the flop came 499. 

the BB donk bet 300k into 650k ish. I know the BB is a capable player and still has a pretty wide range. I decided to raise, because it looks a bit FOS. I intended on calling a shove from the BB hoping to induce a bluff or a shove with worse, or just take the pot down without seeing any more cards.

the raise from the SB was a suprise. the BB quickly folded and the action was back on me. At this point going through my head was a hand earlier in the FT, pretty much the exact same spot and the raise had gotten through. there was some debate at the table and off the table about whether is was a bluff or not. Dispite the SB being a tight player, who didnt make big bluff often I thought this could be a spot where he might.

As well as this, I thought the hands with a 9 in that he would call from the SB are 89s, 9Ts, 9Js. thats it. dont forget I have 88, so there are very few combos of hands he can have with a 9 IMO. If you look at the action at this point too, my raise looks either FOS, or strong. I thought if he did have a 9, is wasnt with a great kicker and would be better off calling to keep my range wider rather than narrow it to PPs, 44 and a 9 - where you potentially have kicker problems. I had also seen him playing monsters slow before on the FT. My read was that he wouldnt raise a 9. so I called the raise then the shove on the blank turn.

Obviously my read was wrong, I basically levelled myself into calling. It is quite difficult to think clearly with everything that is going on - lights, cameras, the fact you know its going to be on TV, the money, the long hours playing etc.

I was pretty angry with myself afterwards, I should have just folded and waited for a better spot, despite not having many up to that point.

----

yeah UL with the bust hand, i was running pretty good that day. tbh, it was a while ago now so its hard to remember if I thought you were making any mistakes. I'm sure there were tonnes tho :P 

yeah, i can play on Monday

Donttelmum

Hi Andy,

Big conrats on the recent success.  I always like to see the good guys do well.

We met briefly at the UKPC.  I was busto at the bar while you were crushing.  Your probably aware that I play alot of online poker and wanted to ask how having a family influences many hours you can play.  I'm guessing you never start an mtt if you know your going to be on baby sitting duties later in the day.

I also wondered if the big win would change your schedule in anyway.  Bigger buy ins etc etc?

Look forward to hearing your thoughts and congrats one again,

DTM

ShaunyT

Great answers mate. Thanks very much.

MattBates

Who can bench more? You or your brother?

chicknMelt

In Response to Re: In The Well with............Melty!:

Hi Andy, Big conrats on the recent success.  I always like to see the good guys do well. We met briefly at the UKPC.  I was busto at the bar while you were crushing.  Your probably aware that I play alot of online poker and wanted to ask how having a family influences many hours you can play.  I'm guessing you never start an mtt if you know your going to be on baby sitting duties later in the day. I also wondered if the big win would change your schedule in anyway.  Bigger buy ins etc etc? Look forward to hearing your thoughts and congrats one again, DTM
Posted by Donttelmum

understatement!

yeah i remember. 

tbh, I have a pretty good routine now. I start playing sometime between 3pm and 6:30pm most days and reg my last tournament at 9:30pm for regular speed and 11pm for turbos. that normally means I'm done around 1-2pm, sometimes later. take an hour or so to wind down then get some sleep and wake up around 10:30.

I have a 6 month old baby, so my wife puts him to bed and gets up with him most days - I get it pretty good in that respect - i do like my sleep - although it is nice seeing his face light up when you come to get him in the morning, so it is kind of a shame I dont get to do it more often. I spend most of my time in between sessions with my family, but I try to fit in an hour or so for HH reviews or watching videos etc when i can.

it works for us at the moment. I can take a day off if I need to, and normally before 7pm, when Noah is still awake I dont have too many tables going so I can look after him for a few minutes if i need to whilst playing. pretty happy with the balance at the moment

The win hasn't really changed my schedule, but it has allowed me to go on my own for all sites - previously I was backed on some. 

gazzaluf05

Well done on UKPC! 

Didn't realise it was you at the time but you bust me on day 2. Glad you made good use of my donation! 

liamboi11

hey mate was a pleasure meeting you in notts and like dtm said it`s good when you see the good guys do well vwp.

gl in the future

IDONKCALLU

congrats melty   1 day i hope to have that 1 big score to set me up for life i know it will come just when