Capture the Flag -- Brian Rast

Brian "tsarrast" Rast is a professional cash-game player who makes most of his money crushing high-stakes no-limit hold'em and pot-limit Omaha games online. A Las Vegas resident, Rast went from being a small-stakes 25¢-50¢ beginner to a feared $500-$1,000 competitor in a matter of just a few years.

Kristy Arnett: What characteristics do great cash-game players share?

Brian Rast: First and foremost, you have to have poker talent. You have to go beyond having rules and guidelines on how to play to understanding the theoretical underpinnings of the game, like bet-sizing, whether a bet is a bluff or for value, hand ranges, and so on. Good cash-game players also understand how to evaluate an opponent's hand range correctly. And perhaps most importantly, all great cash-game players have the ability to adapt to the game they are in and to their opponents; in doing so, they adjust their strategies and play more optimally.

KA: What is your preferred game?

BR: I would say pot-limit Omaha [PLO] right now. I enjoy playing it a lot. I got into playing poker because I thought it was fun and I could make a little bit of money while I was in school. I have more fun now playing PLO. There is a little more gamble involved, which is fun. Right now, a lot of people are learning how to play, so the games are a little softer.

KA: Do you play mixed games?

BR: Yeah, I played the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event at the World Series of Poker. My feeling in general is that limit games are easier, because in a no-limit or pot-limit game, you have a spectrum of bets that you can choose from, which creates complexity, whereas in limit games, you can either bet a certain amount or check. If you look at it from a game-theory perspective, there are just fewer options. So even though some of the games seem complicated, once you learn them, it's simpler to play them because you have fewer betting options, and betting is where the skill in poker comes into play. So, yeah, I learned how to play them, and I think I play them pretty well, but probably not at a world-class level yet.

KA: When did you start playing cash games?

BR: I first started playing as a relatively broke college kid. I played $3-$6 limit hold'em live in Indian casinos. I also played 25¢-50¢ no-limit hold'em online. I managed my money and never went broke.

KA: How did you learn the importance of bankroll management?

BR: I always knew that it was important, but when I started out, I probably didn't have a very good understanding of it. I'd definitely say that I took more risks than would probably be OK now. I don't think I was ever as crazy as some of the young guys who have made a lot of money these days, but I've lost a big percentage of my net worth before by playing too big and not stopping when I was losing.

KA: How did you improve your game, by talking with other pros?

BR: For the first couple of years, I didn't meet anyone who I thought was really good, so all of my growth at first was by myself or through the things I read. I think I reached a limit as to how well I could play, and there were a few major leaks in my game that didn't get fixed for a while. It wasn't until I started talking a lot of poker with another cash-game player living in Vegas, Keith Gipson, that I broke through the mini-plateau that I had reached by learning the game on my own. He pointed out some things that he thought I was doing wrong, and he gave me someone I could talk about hands with who really added a fresh, intelligent perspective on the game. One particular thing I was doing wrong was being too loose when out of position, and he got me thinking, "Oh, maybe I shouldn't call a raise when out of position heads up against a really tough player with 7-5 suited just because I see Daniel Negreanu playing it on TV." Talking with good players definitely made me better, but that didn't happen for a while. So now I tell people to find other players to talk poker with, because you can learn only so much from a book. Some of the people who write the books aren't even that good, and the books just aren't complex. People who are playing poker in cash games are doing more than what the books are telling you. For example, there is way less information in books than you can find online right now - such as three-betting or four-betting, books just don't talk about that. At some point, you have to speak with other pros who are pushing the game all the time to really get better. I didn't do that early in my career, and it probably stunted my growth a little bit.

KA: What do you look for to determine if a game is good or not?

BR: The easiest thing to look for is how loose it is. Typically, if the game is very loose, that's good. That's one of the biggest mistakes that people make, playing too many hands preflop, and by definition, a good game is one in which people are making mistakes.

KA: What is the highest you've ever played?

BR: Tom Dwan and I played the equivalent of $1,600-$3,200 no-limit hold'em in Europe. Someone told me that there was going to be a game in Monte Carlo during the Grand Prix. I didn't want to travel all the way to Monaco by myself, so I asked Tom to go with me. When he heard about the potential size of the game, he was like, "Yeah, ship it. Let's go." So, we showed up, and the game went only one night. We didn't even get to play at the beginning of the game, because it was actually a private game that we weren't invited to. This other guy I know found out about it just because he tipped the people there, and they told him even though they weren't supposed to, but we were able to play for a little while.

KA: How did you do in that game?

BR: I ended up having one of the bigger wins of my life. I had sold a lot of pieces of my action because the game was so big. I didn't feel comfortable playing with only my money, but I did well in that game.

KA: What's the biggest mistake you see beginning cash-game players making?

BR: A lot of guys who are young and pretty good try to move up too fast. Whether it's ego or they just want to win a lot of money, they get into games that they probably shouldn't be in, meaning they have too much of their money on the table. So, they can't play right. I've definitely seen situations where guys who normally play $25-$50 jump up to $100-$200, and they go from being tough, aggressive $25-$50 players to weak players because they are playing too big. They might be taking a shot because the game is good, but even so, they might not have positive EV [expected value] because they are playing so weak. Sometimes, players move up and overcompensate the other way. They say, "I'm not going to play weak," so they play like a maniac. The biggest mistake that cash-game players can make is moving up too fast and not managing their money well. I know a lot of guys who went broke because of that.

KA: Aside from bankroll rules, what other factors should be considered when deciding on whether or not to move up in stakes?

BR: When you can accurately assess yourself as having positive EV in a game, you should move up. That means you are one of the better players, maybe the best player, and figure to win because you'll make better decisions than the other players in the game. Accurately determining that is a different story, though.

A lot of poker players don't do a good job of being 100 percent honest with themselves about how good they are and how good other people are. I think a little differently than almost all other high-stakes players, in that I actually think people are good. All the time, people talk about how bad players are. I tend to think that the mistakes people make are small, and exploiting them is more a sign of how good someone else is than how bad he is. If you don't think you can accurately assess how good you are compared to everyone else in the game, you have to be somewhat results-oriented, I guess. Move up and play the bigger game only if you've been beating the game you're currently playing.

If you decide to take a shot and find yourself in a game where people are making moves on you, and you're in confusing situations where you don't know where you are in a hand, that's probably a sign that people are playing better than you, and you should move back down.

Game selection is one of the most important things in poker. Even if you aren't the best player in the world, if you select games properly and play only when you have positive EV, you will win money and can be a successful professional poker player. All of the other things are important, but game selection can turn guys who are merely above average into some of the biggest winners.