Pud's Poker Progress / Matthew Pitt / 01 September 2009 / Leave a Comment

To prevent you all from being bored to death with my micro-stakes quests and endless bad beats, I thought I would start adding a few interviews I've done with online grinders to give you something to read over your morning cuppa!

My first victim is an online MTT grinder, now residing in Australia, who goes by the name kennl when he is hoovering up chips at the virtual felt.

Kenn, first of all thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer a few questions for our readers. Could you tell us a bit about your poker career? How did you get into the game, what did you play and where are you now? Your typical schedule?

No probs, I watched an episode of Late Night Poker with some guy called Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliot playing and got hooked straight away. I used to play draw in school, so it wasn't to hard to get into No Limit Hold'em. I started off with play money then made a $50 deposit, I think way back in about 03-04 sometime, played some cash some SNG and went from there. I used to have a home game with the boys but once you all start getting married / kids gets harder for everyone to get together, so I sent a poker site and email asking to set up a private table because a lot of the guys had moved to weird and wonderful places around the world and this meant we could still meet up for bragging rights whenever we wanted to.

Do you play a set schedule every day or does it change for any reason. What is a typical day for you?

A typical schedule is pretty hard to define it depends how I'm doing in the month. If I start off with a bang then I pretty much play the full schedule of MTTs across a number of sites, but If I'm having a bad run I switch to 45 man SNG and basically play like all of then as they come up. It's a bit of a grind but I know I can make money of those.

Am I correct in thinking you play MTT and MTTSNG exclusively now? Why is this the case?

Yeah I don't play online cash at all, I love live cash but for some reason I suck really bad online. Also MTTs and SNGs give me a bit more of a thrill than cash I find. When playing MTTs I know my liability each day so I know an exact figure that I'm working towards in order to break-even and make money. Whereas when I used to play cash some days you end up chasing your losses which I'm not fond of.

What's your biggest winning day and month?

Day was early December 07 I chopped the Party $300k for $44k when I was the chip leader. This was also my first ever final table of a major which was pretty cool.

Biggest month was last month, August 2009. I ran well pretty much whole month and ended up winning a lot of tournaments

What's your biggest losing day and month?

So far (touch wood) since going full time I haven't had a losing month, but as far as days go those fun Sundays always seem to do you in. Probably got stuck like $6k once which for me is pretty sickening as I don't hit up all the big ones every Sunday.

Not long ago we used to play $4.40 180 man games together yet now you're one of the most feared players at the mid to high stakes whilst I am still donking it out in the micros. I seem to remember there were times when I was setting off for work and you were just finishing a ten-hour session. Do you think your determination to succeed and ability to grind out games is a major factor in our different poker lives now?

Oh yeah without a doubt, being primarily a mid stakes grinder you have to put the hours in and be very disciplined. People often asking me for advice on the so called 'rock and roll' aspects of playing poker, they have no idea that unless you're name online is something like lilholdem, Moorman, Shaun Deeb, etc you're putting in heaps of hours and mentally you have to be prepared to take the bad along with the good. I treat poker like a job so I work 5 days a week 12-14 hours a day which was like my job in the 'real' world.

How many tables do you play and how many tournaments do you play during an average week?

I have just finished my session early and in August I played a total of 2,177 MTT/SNG. I can play anything up to 20 tables at a time but prefer a maximum of six tables per screen so 18 is my optimal number I would say, as I use three monitors!

You're well known to play a loose style (at least in Raise The River games) that makes it extremely difficult to put you on a hand, if not impossible. Is this a style natural or have you adopted the style from other tournament pros?

Am I really known for being loose? I think as you become more and more aware of people's opening ranges depending on buy-in size you realise that your own calling, 3-betting, opening ranges can vary greatly and you generally adapt your game to the table dynamics. I play a simple game early stages of a tournament, but in order to get deep in any big field nowadays you have to be prepared to 3-bet pretty light at the right times. Yeah I fail lots of times as well but I sometimes get it right and there's nothing better than getting deep and you have a stack!

How did you manage to play so much with a family and job? How do you fit everything in now you are a pro and have an even bigger family?

Whilst I was still working for myself contracting, I really had a pretty cushy job which also happened to pay really well, so I would go in make sure my work was done, and then believe it or not sneak out to my car and go to sleep! I'd get home, spend time with the family and then as soon as the little guy went to bed hit the table. I sometimes had nights where I'd still be playing at 07.00 in the morning, switch off the computer, shower and head to work. We decided we wanted my wife to being up the little guy (3-years old now) so that was the sacrifice I had to make. We also were only doing it for a certain time period which was pretty hard at the time but it all worked out for the best in the end.

Now its much easier when my session finishes I normally take the eldest to the beach we go mess around in the surf / sand whatever and get home in time for dinner and then help feed the other two little rugrats.

You recently moved to sunny Australia. How has the time difference affected your tournament playing? Do you still get to play the Sunday majors and the bigger, more well-known online tournaments?

I love it to be honest, it's a day job over here so I still have a social life, which I found hard to have in the UK playing night to morning. Here I get up 04.15 and there's still time for family and friends at night

Any plans for tearing up the live scene any time soon?

I play once a week at the Star Casino, and I'll be playing in the Sydney Championships Main Event in a couple of weeks time. Next year I'll be playing in the Aussie Millions in January and of course Las Vegas for the 2010 World Series of Poker.

Finally, what tips would you give to any aspiring tournament pro?

To the youngsters out there, finish your studies first get a backup plan as poker is not for everyone. There's plenty of time to play once you have something behind your name to fall back on. Have some money put aside for the bad months as they will come.

Be honest with yourself at the end of every session go through your exit hands or hands where you could of extracted more value, hands you should of got away from, etc

Be brutally honest with yourself. Some people shouldn't be playing high stakes, they should stick to grinding micro or medium stakes but ego gets the better of them.

Mostly just play heaps and heaps of hands. There's no substitute for experience.

And have fun obv!

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