Generation Next -- Nick Mitchell

Three years ago, Nick Mitchell came home daily from high school, cranked up PokerStars, and watched his favorite online players do battle. As the typical railbird wannabe, he'd cheer on the superstars - JohnnyBax, BodogAri, and apestyles - and eventually learned the subtle nuances of no-limit tournaments from the very best in the game.

"On Sundays, I would open up the PokerStars Million," said Mitchell. "I'd rail all the tables of the top 10-ranked online players in the world. This was all on a 17-inch monitor at my parents' house. I was trying to watch every hand, which was pretty crazy. But I learned a lot."

Mitchell then dove into online tournaments with a hope, a dream, and a $25 deposit. By playing $1 sit-and-gos, he'd win enough to take occasional shots at $5 multitable tournaments. By the summer of 2007, he had built up a $160 bankroll and decided to take a bigger shot, in a $10 rebuy event. He took it down for more than $10,000, and since that fateful day, he has an astounding total of more than $1,500,000 in online cashes.

This past November, Mitchell captured his first major online title, the Full Tilt Online Poker Series $1,060 event, for $322,500. Leading up to his first six-figure cash, he won two PokerStars $100 rebuy events, totaling more than $92,000; all of this in a tournament he used to only imagine competing in. These days, many beginning players are railing "agriffrod," as he's known online, since he's graduated to the big time. Yet, Mitchell still remains indebted to those players who took time to speak to a novice with a dream.

Craig Tapscott: Who was the biggest influence on your game early on?

Nick Mitchell: Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet. I still have all the e-mails from him. He taught me how to use pokerstove. I was so bad. I remember a hand from a $5 event that I raised with nine big blinds and then folded to a reraise. He was very patient with me. Some poker friends would call me an idiot after watching my play, but Jon told me why my play sucked, and he was nice while doing it (laughing).

CT: What kind of things helped you initially?

NM: Learning a lot of the math versus other chip stacks, and learning how to steal and not raise-fold with 13 big blinds (laughing). Once I started playing more, I began to recognize the situations that come up over and over again.

CT: What else?

NM: Learning hand-range calculations helped me become a better player, especially knowing my shove ranges and my opponents' shove ranges, and learning what they think my range is in a particular spot. Then, I eventually learned how to manipulate that knowledge.

CT: How so?

NM: You must think a step ahead of everyone else, and then not be obvious with what you're trying to do. You don't just straight steal or straight three-bet steal anymore, because the good players in the $100 rebuy events will demolish you. They will read that and pick it off every time. You have to be tricky.

CT: Can you share an example?

NM: Let's say a player raises from the button and I ship it from one of the blinds; that's sort of an obvious resteal. If the button is a thinking player, he knows I'm going to be jamming with a pretty wide range of hands. I'd rather shove lighter to an early-position raiser instead. He will ideally think I won't be shoving light, because he's supposed to have a hand there. Usually, he will give me credit in that spot, and fold A-J, A-10, or something similar.

CT: How do you take advantage of aggressive opponents at your table?

NM: They make mistakes when they are blindly aggressive, so set them up. It's OK to lose a few small pots, because they will dump their chips to you, eventually. Too often, those types of players try to win every single pot. They have big egos. Many of the high-stakes players today don't really want to talk to some $1 multitable-tournament player on the rail, like I was. By being a well-known railbird, I became friends and bounced ideas and hands off some great players. Egos just get in the way in poker.

CT: Nice guys obviously can finish first. Congrats, Nick. Thanks for sharing your story with Card Player.