When I Was A Donk With Matt Stout

In this series, Card Player asks top pros to rewind back to their humble beginnings and provide insights regarding the mistakes, leaks, and deficiencies that they had to overcome in order to improve their games.

Matt Stout is the true definition of a grinder. With 214 career cashes between live and online, the poker pro has managed 13 wins and $2.8 million in earnings. He has achieved that multi-million-dollar figure even though his largest score is $265,710 from a third-place finish at the 2009 World Poker Finals.

The Lock Poker pro recently moved to Costa Rica to resume online play after a strong showing at this summer’s World Series of Poker, where he cashed five times, including a final table in a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event. Stout also had a shot in the main event, finishing in 186th for $47,000.

Card Player caught up with Stout to talk about the growing pains he experienced on the way to becoming one of the game’s most consistent players.

“In my earliest days in college, before I had any clue what was going on with bankroll management, I luck-sacked some $26 online tournament for $3,000. With a grand total of about $5,000 in the online roll — and to my name, as a 19-year-old, formerly broke college student — I decided that I was going to start playing $5-$10 no-limit hold’em. I managed to lose $3,000 of my $5,000 in about an hour of two-tabling it.

“I went from feeling like I was on top of the world from that tournament win to feeling like I’d been kicked in the stomach. It was only about 10 p.m., but I just went straight to bed, hoping I’d feel better when I woke up. Instead, I was just embarrassed and ashamed of myself after watching 60 percent of my roll disappear when I’d never had that much money before in my life.

“That was all it took for me to start managing my bankroll properly. The numbers aren’t quite as high for cash games, but you really should have 200 of your average buy-in to sustain the potentially huge downswings in tournament poker.

“Tilt control is a crucial aspect of a player’s development that most players recognize, but it’s definitely a case of ‘easier said than done.’ I grew up with a pretty bad temper, but constantly reminding myself that bad players are where my money comes from, and that all I can do is get the money in good, helped. Now the only thing that usually tilts me at the table is if I think I misplayed a hand. Getting mad at the way the boards run out when you have no control is just logically ridiculous, anyway.

“Another important concept that it took much longer for me to grasp was that it’s really important to always try to honestly evaluate your game and never be afraid to try new things and switch up your style. I started out ridiculously loose and had no brakes, but after I realized it, I ended up over-correcting the mistake and became a complete nit. I was winning money with both styles, but only because players were just awful back then.

“I feared changing my style because I was afraid I wouldn’t win anymore if I did. Now I realize that’s pretty ironic, since never changing your style is an almost sure-fire way to eventually stop winning at poker. This is especially true when you play with the same players often, like I do with the high-stakes tournament regulars both online and live.

“That’s exactly why I love the fact that if you ask a few of those regulars what my style is, you’ll almost certainly get different answers. One will say I’m a super nit, and another will say I’m spewy. That’s perfect, because it means I’m not predictable and have been able to show that I have ‘all of the gears.’” ♠