Sam Greenwood, the longtime Canadian skilled poker participant who practically has $40 million in match winnings stopped by Reddit’s /poker membership to reply questions submitted by customers. A web-based professional since 2006 and excessive curler match mainstay, he has a number of titles, together with one within the 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Journey $100,000 Tremendous Excessive Curler and a World Collection of Poker bracelet.
Q: Do you ever play poker drunk like eight beers and play at lowest stakes $1/3? Do you ever brief purchase like $60 then go all in preflop no look then snigger maniacly? These are my two greatest leaks — how can I repair them?
Greenwood: I’ve made it a problem to reply each query requested so I’ll begin with this one. No. No. Tips on how to repair this leak? You may begin by not ingesting 8 beers, however that’s no enjoyable. So I’ll say, at the very least take a look at your playing cards earlier than you go all-in darkish.
Q: Did you lose feelings in life attributable to poker?
Greenwood: By no means took an ADHD drug in my life. I wouldn’t say I “misplaced feelings,” however you do practice your self to have much less unstable feelings. Nonetheless, I had a really fast fuse as a youngster, so perhaps poker taught me maturity and emotional management. It’s powerful to say if poker made me even-keeled or I’d have naturally change into extra even-keeled as I aged.
Q: In case your Hendon says you will have made $39 million in tournaments, how a lot do you suppose you’re down total? / How a lot had been the buy-ins to win that $39 million/ How a lot was yours personal motion?
Greenwood: Wrote about that right here: I min-cash round 15% of tournaments. In case you imply earn cash on a person match after accounting for every little thing. That’s a more durable query to reply. Generally I three bullet and a swap wins and e-book a small revenue, typically I money fireplace one bullet, mincash and lose cash on the match as a result of swaps did poorly. It’s not likely a method I monitor outcomes. I’m up cash total. $38,999,999.
Q: In case you might swap poker abilities for sooner or later with any participant previous or current, who wouldn’t it be?
Greenwood: I feel I’d swap abilities with somebody like Likelihood Kornuth to see if he truly has dwell learn magic. It will even be enjoyable to get within the head of somebody who can hyperfocus in a method that I typically can not.
Q: In spots the place you’re out of place with a medium-strength hand, how do you steadiness check-calling vs. check-raising to guard your vary to forestall villain from working you over (200bb money recreation)? How has the rise of solvers modified your money recreation technique, and the place do you continue to depend on instinct over GTO?
Greenwood: With 200 bbs deep, you not often check-raise medium energy fingers. You make the pot too giant and threat shedding a monster pot to a greater hand or getting bluffed by a worse one. There are some exceptions which might be talked about beneath, however these are typically designed to get higher fingers to fold and worse fingers to name.
I have a tendency to make use of recreation idea rules to construction my play on early streets and use my instinct extra on later streets. It’s simpler to made changes like “I feel my opponent is bluffing an excessive amount of, so I’m going to name the river with any cheap bluff catcher” versus, “I feel my opponent three betting an excessive amount of so I’m going to create a completely new you 4 betting technique after I don’t actually know their response to my 4 betting technique”
Q: In case you had been enjoying tremendous excessive rollers, what p.c of your thought course of is attempting to play close to equilibrium vs making participant/pool-specific changes? How does this differ at $5–$10k occasions and vs extra rec-heavy fields?
Greenwood: My thought course of in a poker hand is normally to consider what the equilibrium is after which ask myself if I need to deviate for a selected motive in a given hand. When I’m enjoying vs recs, I do the identical factor, however it could possibly occur very quick. One thing like “I feel I’m supposed to combine flop check-raises with a set, however I’m by no means trapping versus this man who I already sized up as calling station”
Q: Whenever you’re enjoying tremendous excessive rollers, what p.c of regs are successful? Who’re the perfect 3 dwell MTT gamers within the final 10 years? What is an effective ROI for SHR regs? Can somebody nonetheless climb from the underside and be a successful SHR reg as we speak?
Greenwood: I’ll attempt to bucket one and three collectively.
I feel the perfect regs are in all probability successful someplace between 10-15% on their highest EV bullets (so no max late reg bullets). I feel there’s a enormous swath of regs enjoying the match who after rake are making someplace between like -5% and +5% and it’s very powerful to determine that are which.
- Chidwick, Ike and I used to be going to say Mikita besides he didn’t actually begin enjoying SHRs till 2016. So I’ll say somebody who’s criminally neglected on this dialog Mike Watson. All three of men I listed play a number of video games at a really excessive degree, play very excessive stakes, have nice work ethic and have had longevity.
- Relying on the precise rake constructions of the match how a lot they late reg, and many others. In all probability someplace within the 10-20 p.c vary. Folks have climbed from the underside to be successful SHR regs not too long ago. Have a look at somebody like Leon Sturm, it is vitally exhausting to do, nevertheless it’s doable.
Q: How a lot did you miss the outdated days of two+2 and the photoshop threads neighborhood?
Greenwood: For higher or worse plenty of the story of the web is giant communities changing into siloed and insular. Many 2p2ers are doing nice issues inside poker and out of doors of it, however the feeling of the OG 2p2 is gone, nevertheless it’s additionally partially nostalgia for being 18 once more.
