Generation Next: Paul Volpe Handles the Good With the Bad (Beats) During an Exceptional Year

If playing online tournaments is your chosen profession or even a weekend hobby, bad luck or bad beats will happen often. It’s unavoidable. Online star Paul “paulgees81” Volpe knows that fact all too well. In the recent PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) $10,000 high-roller no-limit hold’em event, he bubbled the final table after being the chip leader for much of the tournament. Yet, he has no regrets. He made the right decision on the flop, and got his chips in good. Still, the beat stung — not just for five minutes, but for a few hours. But Volpe’s A-game never left him, mainly because he’s learned from experience to settle down, take a deep breath, and let the cards tumble where they may.
“Over time, the bad beats have affected me less,” said Volpe. “I’ve won a good amount of money in the past. If I’d never won anything, I’d probably flip out every time I busted out. I’m kidding, but it’s different for all people. Some players punch monitors and others throw keyboards, while others are numb to beats, it seems. I fall somewhere in the middle. I’ve learned to move on from them. You just have to.”
Since making the transition from heads-up sit-and-gos to multitable tournaments in 2008, Volpe has cashed for more than $2 million. Last July, he had a stellar month, cashing for more than $200,000. That included taking down the PokerStars Wednesday 250K event for $51,000 and then hitting another home run in the Absolute Poker 75K tournament for $21,000, plus a number of other big final-table scores. It was a great month and a major highlight of what turned out to be a banner 2010 for the talented Philadelphia native.
Since the beginning of 2010, Volpe has rocketed up the online player rankings. He currently is one of the top 10 players in the world. His secret: Each day that he sits down to play, he tries to learn as much about the game as he can. That simple approach has been a key to much of his success.
Craig Tapscott: What advice do you have for players who are sucked out on time and again in one evening of online tournaments?
Paul Volpe: Well, when you’re down to four tournaments and you get sucked out on in three of them, and there’s one mediocre event left, you can’t just throw that last event away. But that is what a lot of players do, especially if it’s a lower buy-in tournament. You need to realize that you still have a chance to win a good chunk of money. So, you have to try to remain grounded and focused, and not just shove all in and go to bed.
CT: What do you pay the most attention to when you sit down at a new table?
PV: I always pay attention to my table draw and the types of players there. I play really tight before the antes kick in, and once they kick in, I play pretty crazy [laughing].
CT: What’s the biggest mistake that most players make in those huge-field tournaments, like the PokerStars Sunday Million?
PV: Mainly, they don’t pay attention to the basics, such as playing very tight before the antes kick in. A lot of people make the mistake of busting out before the antes start. Even I do it.
CT: Anything else?
PV: Don’t put your whole stack in the middle early on unless you have the nuts or are sure that you have the best hand.
CT: That sounds so simple, but I’m sure that many players don’t stop to think, and do just that. What’s the toughest part of playing tournaments as a profession?
PV: They can be very frustrating. You can go for a month and not win an event — not win anything. When you are playing heads-up matches or sit-and-gos, that doesn’t happen. Also, the downswings in tournaments are just not fun. The truth is that most of the days you’re playing, you are losing. That can be hard.
CT: So, how do you motivate yourself to play?
PV: Well, I’m always striving to win, and I’m very competitive. I want to be one of the best in the game. Overall, I love the game, and that’s important. If I start hating it, I will have to move on to something else. I’m not going to keep playing poker and begin to hate my life if I don’t enjoy it.
CT: Well, I can tell that you love the game. And as we’re talking on the phone, you are getting ready to head to an NFL football game to watch your Philadelphia Eagles play.
PV: Yes. I do love the game, and the luxury of playing poker is being able to do whatever you want, which I do a lot [laughing]. ♠