Generation Next --- Kevin Eyster

Kevin Eyster was sick of coming close to making final table after final table as he climbed up the medium-stakes tournament ladder. Low-stakes tournaments had been a breeze, as he had made final tables every other day. Could it be just variance, running bad, or a leak in his game? After close examination, he determined that he cared way too much about the money. So, he stopped looking at the payouts and the leader board while playing. Money was no longer the issue; the focus was solely on winning.

“One of the main keys that improved my game was learning to devalue money completely,” said Eyster. “Once I stopped thinking about the numbers at stake and just tried to win every tournament that I entered, things changed. I even stopped looking at the payouts until the event was over. That approach worked for me.”

For the most part, Eyster (aka “1$ickDisease” online) has flown under the radar in regard to live events, as he just turned 21 in August. But he did make a few splashes along the way that garnered some attention. At the 2010 Monte Carlo Grand Final, he was the chip leader with 24 players left, before busting out in 16th place, for $80,000. At the 2010 PokerStars EPT Caribbean Adventure, he finished second in a $1,000 event, for $65,765. But it’s online where Eyster has received the most accolades and won the most cash. He recently was ranked one of the top 10 online players in the world, and he has more than $2 million in lifetime tournament earnings.

Card Player spoke with Eyster before he took off to play in his first World Series of Poker Europe events in London.

Craig Tapscott: Does devaluing money work at all stakes? I figure that the top players pretty much go for broke, also.

Kevin Eyster: You’re right. That approach works in the $50 freezeouts or the $10 rebuy events, and lower stakes. As you move up in stakes, people catch on quickly that you are just trying to bully them. By devaluing money, I won those medium-stakes events on a regular basis and dominated the lower-level stakes.

CT: As you were moving up in stakes, what leaks did you have to patch in your game to compete at those levels?

KE: I had to master stack-sizing. I was always opening for three times the big blind preflop. Many good players explained why it should be 2.2-2.7 preflop, because you’re getting the same idea across but saving chips if you get reraised. That made sense to me.

CT: What else?

KE: I learned how to play stacks of more than 20 big blinds a lot better than I had been.

CT: How so?

KE: Back in the day, when someone would open, I would ship in 35 big blinds, but now that’s considered atrocious play. You should be doing that only with around 23 big blinds. Otherwise, it’s spewing. I mean, it was working when it worked, but as soon as I got called, I was out. I kept getting a lot of 20th- to 30th-place finishes, and I realized that was the leak that was causing it. I was trying to bully people a little too much. So, I started to three-bet, as it looks stronger. And it worked great, but poker evolves. Now, a three-bet doesn’t work as well. By learning stack-size strategy and devaluing money, I started to finish deeper and hit the big payouts.

CT: I guess by devaluing money, it helps with tilt. Did you go on tilt a lot back then?

KE: I went on tilt all the time, and lost so much money. I don’t think I ever had a winning tilt session. That says enough right there. If you can avoid going on tilt, you can become the best player in the world. The key is that you can’t get mad about the bad beats. All you can do is know that you were supposed to win but it didn’t happen, so move on; next hand, please. If you take that approach long term, it will improve your game beyond belief.

CT: What advice do you have for the low-stakes players who are struggling with shots at the medium stakes?

KE: Every player is a little different. I would say that the ones who aren’t opening as much should open a little more. The players who are opening too much and losing should open less frequently. I think that too many players don’t know what hands to open, and they’re too afraid to raise their marginal hands, like 9-8, and so on. They should be raising from late position, but they just don’t. I think that if low-stakes players would just try new things, it would pay off. But, they tend not to do so because of the money at stake.