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A few short questions
Morning Mr Channing
Few random questions to get some discussion going
If you could win any WSOP event what event would it be and why?
Favourite Olympic event to watch, which event would you have loved to have been good enough to compete in?
If you could pick any poker player (apart from yourself!) to win WSOP main who would it be?
Is there a player that always gets the better of you but you are not sure why?
Toughest live table you have played on?
Favourite Bromley, Adam or Natalie?
How much money for you to never play poker again?
Would you accept a free bar at a casino but everyone had to tell you their exit hand and you had to act interested at all times?
Matt
Comments
Loving the questions Matt. I made you wait a bit for the answers as I plan to just answer a couple a day so the thread doesn't go too dead ever (hopefully).
I guess winning the main would be pretty insane...it would really change your life...maybe not 100% in a good way. Clearly the winner gets the most money and the chance of a big contract with Stars but those aren't automatic anymore and they really don't value the main event winner as much as they used to. You'd also get maximum impact of people wanting selfies, becoming famous in the US and having people sometimes stop you in the street but literally having people mention it EVERY time you set foot in a poker room, not just for the year but to an extent for the rest of your life. I think Joe Cada was staked by Bax and actually got a pretty small amount and after taxes he wasn't hugely rich but h still has all the people in poker that want staking or a loan from the people he knows and worse still from all the total strangers online. I think Peter Eastgate, (a lovely fella), Jerry Yang, (don't really know him at all) and Jamie Gold, (least said), would be examples of people who won the main event and experienced some of the negative aspects to it. In a lot of ways that would be an event you'd like to come 2nd in.
It wouldn't be one of the things like the $111,111 or the $50,000 championship as some of the people that play in those things are among the most dreadful himan beings on the planet. Generally the high-rollers and a lot of the EPTs attract some of the worst people I have met in poker. I guess it would have been great fun to win the EPT London in the Vic, especially when I was kind of Mr Vic, but those days are gone now and the event isn't there.
I did make a final table of a WSOP Europe event in London and I ran deep in another couple and thought I might finally win a bracelet. All three times though I felt like it didn't really count and I wouldn't have totally ticked off the winning a bracelet box in my mind.
The Aussie Millions used to be a huge deal and I'd have loved to win that. I went deep and got horrible beats just before the money twice. One of those I would have had about triple average if my hand had held up. I remember feeling very down about that one which shows how important it was to me.
I definitely timed winning the Irish Open right. It was the year with the biggest buy-in and the biggest prize pool with the Celtic Tiger going strong and poker being at it's height and on telly. The event has definitely lost some of it's gloss and the high profile win was a big help in boosting "Brand Channing".
I guess the answer might be the $5k or $3k shootout at the WSOP. If you look at who cashes those ones it's always good players. The starting tables always have a few spots that make them soft enough but the challenge of playing 10-handed, 9 handed, 6 max, three handed and heads up (plus all points in-between) in a shortish period of time and having to play deep stacked and then shallow all in a few hours really tests players. The final tables in those ones are tough and I'd be proud to win one. It's four years since I had a try at it though.
I'll have a go at the other answers another time.
I
...scrap that...it's all about the Championship and the Festival now obviously.
Favourite Olympic event to watch...when it was in London I did go to Beech Volleyball and it was great fun. Went with Jeff Kimber and had a few beers and a bet...looking over at the Palace was pretty weird. I went to the stadium one time and liked that a lot even though it was Monday morning and no medals were given out. I took the mrs to "normal" volleyball and she wasn't massively impressed but I loved it. That became my sport of the games and I bet on every single match. I basically struggle to watch sports that I don't bet on so even a tiny bet must be placed to make it fun and I always want to feel I have some kind of edge in that bet.
As a kid I used to do canoeing, at one stage I was a member of three canoe clubs, but I was never really training or becoming a competitor at it, I just liked paddling around on the Thames. I also did some caving and climbing but I haven't done that for years and they don't have that in the Olympics. For some years I used to run a lot...I did a couple of half marathons as a kid and 1 hour 38 mins was my best time. It would be pretty fun to be in the Olympic marathon but I haven't trained for years...bad for your knees. I did love the story of the 40-something Greek lawyer who ran a decent 2 hours 34 mins in the Athens marathon and that made him come 10th as it was such a hot day and lots of the elites quit before the end. The qualifying rules meant that if you were in the top 10 in one of the big road races and your team didn't already have three athletes qualified then you were in the Olympics. He got in and ran about the same time. Must have been a thrill.
Archery is pretty good fun but I think to get that good you'd need to totally obsess. Sports like tennis and table tennis I'm useless at. I'm not a bad swimmer so maybe I could enjoy the triathlon...those brothers have got it stitched up though.
To win the main event...there are so many...Sam Razavi would be fun...Praz Bansi is a top player with a cheeky sense of humour...I'd love to watch him have to deal with the media and the attention...he'd hate it. I think it's good when a good player wins and I'd love to see a big name like Erik Seidel, Daniel or Phil Ivey win and a woman winning would have to be good for the game. Maybe Vicky can go over there and win it in a couple of years time. I always enjoy the stories of people who have not had it easy, who maybe bounced back from a bad run so anyone like that. I wouldn't mind doing it myself.
Poker is the long game (if you ever want to get good) so whilst blitzing it in a free week may benefit you if that is a style you like, I would suggest getting used to studying regularly (daily with break days when you need to pull back would be ideal).
Of course, I'm sure Mr Channing can probably add to that but just thought i'd give my piece as I saw your question.
Apart from just playing I think going through your hands with another good player will help. If you don't personally know anyone then you could post tricky spots you have got into here and see if anyone is happy to help...they usually do.
In terms of mindset I think getting over the idea of worrying about bad beats and accepting them as part of the game is the thing that all winning players have done and many losing players haven't. It's easy to say but hard to do.
Just picking up on Bandy's question I think the first thing is not to treat a final table as different from any other. When you play an MTT you should just try and play each hand in a vacuum to the best of your ability...obv there are sometimes what are called ICM implications where you might pass a strong but not nuts hand like AQ which you'd usually go all-in with when a big stack raised but you pass because a guy has a couple of blinds.
Putting aside the ICM thing I would say you are looking to play to get a top 3 or 1st place so when you get to less than 15bbs then you have to worry that you lose what is called "3-bet fold equity". If someone raises from a 28bb stack to 2bb and you have 15bbs then if you shove it's very hard for them to call...they will be left with a smallish stack and they'll often pass and find a better spot...particularly if they have raised from the button or blind on blind maybe with a K( or a weak ace. If you only have 9bbs and you make that same shove they may well call with that sort of hand which means you now can't make the shove with nice hands that could win a showdown like 67 suited or Q10 or J10. You will need to have a hand.
It's time to get a bit more aggro and a little less worried about having a "proper" hand when you have 14-20bbs...that is the time to try and shove over any loose raises that you detect...do it with an 810 suited or a Q10 and you might still get lucky even if you are called.
Better to go out like a lion in this way than blind off like a lamb.