Puggy82 needs no introduction, as you've read about plenty of his exploits here on the blog. He's been crushing all the top bwin poker tournaments for years, qualified for the grand finale of the Poker race Trophy competition, and represented the bwin Team at live events around the globe.
Puggy82 with his poker face firmly on at the tables.
We caught up with Puggy82 for a quick chat about topics such as his thoughts on live poker versus online poker, life after poker, and other topics:
1) It seems like you manage to keep outdoing yourself each year, as far as online scores. The last year for you has been a huge one, winning $117K+ in the ChampionChip back in October 2008 and another big payday in March 2009 for $125,000 for 5th in a $2.5 million guaranteed tourney. Has that success made it easier or harder for you the last year, as far as sticking to the grind and getting in the necessary volume that you'd normally shoot for, as an online MTT pro?
I'd say in the immediate week after a big score like the two you mentioned it can be difficult to motivate myself to play, especially on a weekday where the prizepools are nowhere near as big. However, in the longer term it spurs me on as i can play more without any negative thoughts of bankroll problems popping into my head even during prolonged downswings.
2) Related to #1, in the past you've talked about feeling the need to extract as much money as you can from the online games, while the conditions are still ripe for extracting that money. Let's pretend that poker somehow suddenly ceases to exist tomorrow. What do you think you'd find yourself doing or pursuing, either as a career or for fun? Any specific plans for your future if the games do dry up, or if you simply just get tired of the poker pro lifestyle?
I'd look to do something fun, I certainly wouldn't be working in a office anywhere. When I was at university i coached football in America for two summers and thoroughly enjoyed it, that would be something that i'd look into doing should poker cease to exist tomorrow. What i'll do when i get tired with poker will depend largely on how much money i've made by then. I'd like to get into property, and split my time between playing golf (badly) and managing my assets.
3) Poker has allowed you to live a pretty amazing life, traveling the globe, escaping the grind of a 9-5 day job, etc. Poker is also an odd beast, though, in that it being successful largely means routinely preying on players who aren't as good as you, with your success at the end of the year being largely determined by whether you have more money in your bank account than what you started with, with very little else in the way of tangible things to show for how you spent all that time. Does that ever bother you, or nudge you towards wishing that your career involved something with more meaningful results?
Perhaps when I'm tired of poker i will find a career that contributes more to society! I wouldn't say that i have no tangible things to show for my time, i'm not sure whether you can refer to a friendship as tangible, but through traveling i've met many great friends who i otherwise wouldn't have had the chance to meet.
4) The poker-allies.com site that you and NeilMc founded mentions backing/staking services, which a lot of top pros take part in to diversify their income, so that they can still potentially make money even when they're running terribly themselves. Are there other ways that you've diversified your portfolio, so to speak, as far as putting your poker winnings to use, whether it's buying real estate, investing in equities, or other avenues?
I have money locked away in high interest savings accounts and I'm in the process of looking to buy a property. Where in the world this property will be i don't know. I've looked at a few locations in the UK, and have also been looking at the Las Vegas market of late. I'm back in the UK for a month after the world series, I'll be sorting out a lot of admin stuff then.
5) Granted, it's not a large sample size, but so far the success you've had in online MTTs hasn't translated to the same sort of results in live tournaments. It's obviously comparing apples to oranges (and unfair to you to compare a handful of live events to the thousands and thousands of online MTTs you've played), but have you found it difficult switching gears when playing live tournaments? Are there spots when you find yourself stuck in online MTT mode and shipping in your 15 BB stack with something like QQ or AKs when the second-tightest player at the table opens UTG for a third of his stack, and the tightest player at the table then shoves his 20 BB stack in and the action is on you? It's easy to auto ship it in there and remark later to friends that "Yeah, I ran queens into aces, oh well" if you're in an online mindset, as that's standard and by the time you've busted you've fired up three or four other tournaments, but it's a bit different live, especially in big buy-in events.
Good question. A bit of column a and a bit of column b. There have been a few spots when playing live where i have adapted properly. Player's ranges can be very different live, and the optimal line live can be a lot different to the optimal line online. I'm still making "live" mistakes, but even with these mistakes i should still be hitting bigger scores than i have, it's just as you mention a very small sample size so far.
6) You've been out in Vegas for awhile now playing WSOP prelim events. Do you think that's helped prepare you for the Main Event, or are you getting a bit sick of Vegas and poker and ready to get on a plane and head back home?
I am getting a bit sick of Vegas, but the prelim events have helped me to sharpen my live game massively. If it wasn't for the Main Event, i would definitely be ready to go home, but the Main Event is the highlight of my poker year so by the time my day 1 gets here i will be fully focused and ready to deep.
