Generation Next -- Scott Augustine

High-stakes regular Scott Augustine doesn’t believe everything he reads. He absorbs all of the strategy posts that he gathers on the forums, and puts theory to practice where it counts, on the felt. He tests what works and doesn’t work, and never assumes that any situation is standard. To stretch his overactive imagination as he moved up in stakes, he disregarded the well-worn sacred creed of table selection.

He instead chose to tackle the very best players in the game. What happened next surprised even Augustine, as his cash-game skills grew exponentially, and, more importantly, his mind opened up to new ways of thinking about a very complex game.

“My lack of table selection when I sat down to play was very important for the expansion of my game,” said Augustine. “Sitting down at a limit at which you know you’re going to win every day is not going to improve anything. You improve by clashing with opponents, by seeing how each other reacts to different situations, and hopefully adjusting accordingly. That’s how you learn.”

After graduating from Notre Dame in 2007 with a finance degree, Augustine scoured the Internet looking for employment. What he found, instead, were massive layoffs, not a future with solid footing. So, he turned back to poker.

Augustine’s game impressed his opponents, so much so that Brian Townsend invited him to join CardRunners.com as a high-stakes instructor. So, for now, poker is a means to an end to make a good living, to travel the world, and to look for other income streams and investment opportunities. The future is wide open for Augustine, and he’s in no hurry to get there.

Craig Tapscott: So, you sat down with the very best as you were coming up in stakes?

Scott Augustine: Yes. I learned from the people I was playing, who are recognized as the very best in the game: Phil Galfond, Brian Townsend, Taylor Caby, and Prahlad Friedman. I learned a ton in those situations by playing very great players heads up. Maybe I’d win, and maybe I’d lose, but I was learning so much while trying to figure out how to beat those guys.

CT: Did your bankroll suffer?

SA: I moved up from $2-$4 to $5-$10. It was a yo-yo type of thing. I would play a little, break even, and then drop back down to $2-$4. I was using the $5-$10 games to get better and the $2-$4 games to pad my bankroll. It also helped that my outside expenses in my day-to-day life were so cheap at college, and all of the money I made, I could put right back into my bankroll. That enabled me to move up in stakes quicker.

CT: So, you’ve never practiced table selection, ever?

SA: I never practiced table selection until I hit a pretty big downswing at $50-$100. It was big in terms of money, as I was 21 and lost $300,000 in two weeks. But it was only 30 buy-ins. It was really expected variance, but I had no idea that’s what I should expect in those situations, playing in the high-stakes UltimateBet online games and dealing with Prahlad Friedman betting pot, pot, and overshoving.

CT: How do you deal mentally with such huge swings of six figures?

SA: You have to be aware that there is the possibility that you are going to lose a lot, that you can do everything correctly — in terms of looking back at things with all of the information you had — and still lose a lot of money if you’re playing at the higher stakes. You have to be aware of that fact, but you can’t focus on it. You can’t sit down defeated. You have to clear your mind and make good decisions.

CT: Do you recommend dropping down in stakes after a bad downswing?

SA: Well, it can be really tough when you go on a downswing and try to right the ship by dropping down in stakes. But, some people do it all wrong.

CT: How so?

SA: Maybe a $10-$20 player hits a rough patch and drops down to $3-$6. And instead of playing what he’s used to — let’s say, six tables — he plays 15 tables at $3-$6. He is doing it with the egotistical thinking that everyone is so bad at that level. After a while, his game begins to regress, mainly because he’s not playing the $10-$20 regulars every day. Then, when he makes a little bit of money back and returns to the higher stakes, the $10-$20 players he was used to playing have gotten much better because they’ve been playing against each other. So, now there is a bigger skill gap and a bigger chance of going on another downswing. Thus, it’s a very dangerous thing when you drop down in stakes if you don’t do it smartly. My advice is to drop down, but to focus on plugging the leaks in your game, rather than focusing on just winning the money back that you lost.