Generation Next - Bradley Craig Turns a Bad Economy Into Good Fortune

Bradley Craig took a position as a financial advisor shortly after graduating from Cleveland’s John Carroll University. Life was good. On weekends, he unwound from the corporate grind by grabbing a beer with friends or playing a few poker tournaments online. Then two years ago, the economy went belly up, and Craig lost his job. When job hunting produced no fruitful prospects, he turned to his weekend hobby to pay the bills. Success came quickly. Over the last two years, he has amassed more than $2 million in tournament cashes. Almost overnight, Craig has turned misfortune into a profitable blessing.

“Losing my job changed everything,” said Craig. “Now I play poker four days a week for a living. But I’m also in graduate school and will finish my MBA this spring. I eventually want to own my own business. I think it would be very difficult to work for “the man” now. I really enjoy the freedom that being a professional poker player gives me. I’m very fortunate.”

As a financial advisor, Craig had to profile clients’ risk-reward tolerances, and earn their trust. At the poker table, he’s transformed those skills into a contributing factor for much of his success. “The main key for me was learning to jump into opponents’ minds and figure out how they perceived me,” said Craig. “Their perceptions of your game are usually the most important things you deal with when you’re playing. You have to take that knowledge and adapt to it, and use it to your advantage.”

During the first six months of this year, Craig fought through the biggest downswing of his short career. He eventually turned things around toward the end of the World Series of Poker with a fifth-place finish in the $3,000 no-limit hold’em triple-chance event, for $121,000. Within the next few weeks, he also won two no-limit hold’em $1,000 buy-in tournaments online — a Full Tilt Poker Monday event, for $94,000, and an UltimateBet event, for $59,000.

Card Player recently sat down with Craig to try to understand how he so quickly became one of the top online players in the world.

Craig Tapscott: Share with us how you adapt and conquer when getting into an opponent’s head at the table.

Bradley Craig: Let’s say that I’ve played certain hands in a particular manner against the same player over and over again. He knows that my favorite default play is to flat-call with aces against an active raiser, because I want to keep his hand range in. Once I’ve done that several times, I can’t really do it anymore, because his perception of my flat-calling range is going to be very strong. So, in order for that to be a successful play, I need to be balanced in that spot. So, I also need to be flat-calling with hands like K-Q suited and other hands that aren’t as strong, so that he doesn’t automatically give me credit for having a big hand. You always have to be aware of how an opponent perceives you, and always be dynamic and change the lines that you take with various hands.

CT: How can players learn to be aggressive without spewing chips right and left?

BC: You may watch some extremely aggressive player win, and his style will work really well for him. But everyone has to create his own style, and be comfortable with it. What matters is that you play well and play profitably. Take Chris Moorman, for example; he plays a wide range of hands. He’s very aggressive and very profitable. He’s one of the best. If I were trying to teach a buddy to play, I sure wouldn’t teach him that style right away. You have to develop a good grasp of the game before your style can go there. Moorman is very good at understanding his table image, and the dynamics that he’s creating by being so aggressive. He will four-bet you five times in a row, and just when he thinks you’re at your breaking point, he will do it again and show up with a hand. That’s what makes him so difficult to play against. You can fold again and again, but then you get sick of it and shove your stack in. And then, he shows up with kings.

CT: What’s the first thing that you would teach a new player?

BC: First, you need to understand the range of hands with which an opponent may be opening. You can use PokerStove online to calculate that. At first, you’re not even really worried about how he views you. You’re on the first level, and you’re comparing how your hand matches up to his range of hands. That’s the first step. Then, go from there and learn to understand how he perceives you. ♠