Forumite Focus – reactive

As you are currently the pride of the forum with your Forumite crown, we wanted to ask you a few questions and find out a bit more about reactive.

So let’s start with the tournament…

How did it feel to win the tournament? And what was your winning hand (if you can remember – heard you had had a few)?

My winning hand was J 9 off suit versus 4 6 hearts, not the most auspicious cards but costing me about 200k in chips to call with 340 k in pot I was happy to call with any two live cards.

So, apart form winning what was the high point of the tournament from your perspective?

Drinking champagne in dubai and dpommo’s suite at 7am on the Saturday morning - great preparation :) and meeting some of the players that I play everyday and really respect. The whole camaraderie of the event was unbelievable. Normally at any live game you get loads of attitude but everybody at the Forumite competition was there to purely enjoy themselves.

Do you often play offline? If so where?

I play at the Merrion, Fitzwilliam and Mayfair in Dublin. I only started playing live four months ago but have managed to finish in the money at all of the above.

That’s a pretty impressive record. As a professional poker player, how much poker do you play a week and what sort of winnings do you aim for?

I can play up to 60 hours a week with a weekly target of min €600 earnings. I play to make money and grind out a weekly profit, therefore I don’t like to play at a level where it financially hurts. I have picked up a second in the 15k, 3rd in the 10k, I’ve won the 4k twice recently and won it when it was the 2k a few times last year. I normally try to win at least two smaller multi’s once a week.

Very impressive, so we can only assume that you consider MTTs as your preferred game. What stakes are you most likely to be found at?

I consider myself an MTT player and use STT to back it up normally playing four games at a time. I like the dollar limit tables to grind out a profit but hate playing them. I have also worked up from playing freerolls on betfair poker when they introduced them to considering £20 STT my present level, having spent 3 or 4 months at each level.

Which players do you respect most at the poker tables? And which pro player do you rate the highest?

I respect everybody and fear nobody. I love the way Mavis, dpommo and Dubai play poker. lukiladli is the best aggressive player I know and I would consider Mandylou as one of the best short stack players on the site. KP is probably one of the best natural players on Betfair Poker from a professional point of view. Donnacha o’dea is one player I would love to play and beat.

Nice work, the forums will be happy. So then, apart from the big pairs, are there any hands that seem to be lucky for you?

Not really but I love the power of the button and being first to act after the flop.

Will you be trying to qualify for any tournaments with Betfair Poker?

My objective from last year is to play the WSOP next year and I will regardless of Qualifying or having to buy in.

Well, good luck to you on that. What is it that you like about Betfair Poker?

I only started playing poker when Betfair introduced it, so always seem to end up back here despite the teething problems which seem to be a lot better now. There are some very good players on here and I respect the integrity of the ones I play regularly. I also like how people play to win and not for favours to their mates. I chat regularly to probably over a 100 players on the Betfair forums and not once has it ever been suggested anything untoward should happen.

And finally, how do you see poker evolving over the next 5 years?

It will get harder! The people that play and lose regularly cant keep playing, the people that keep playing will keep improving and I will still be grinding away.

Thank you very much and good luck in the defence of your Forumite crown.