Head Games: Elio Fox, Carter King and Frank Calo

Craig Tapscott: In the early part of your career, what were a few of the key things you focused on away from the table to improve your game?

Elio Fox: When I first started playing poker, I was determined to read everything I was able to get my hands on. I read all three Harrington on Hold’em books, The Theory of Poker, Super System, and seven or eight other poker books. While I think for the most part most poker books are very outdated, it was an important stepping stone in my learning process. I think Theory of Poker, due to its math-based nature, probably is the only book that has segments that will always stay relevant. I then began to obsessively read the high stakes tournament forum on the website 2 + 2. I read the forum for one to two hours everyday and eventually had read every single high stakes MTT hand advice thread. I also subscribed to a number of poker training sites and began to watch videos as I fell asleep every night. While at first I watched videos on how to play poker tournaments, as this was the game I focused my energies on, I quickly realized that videos on poker tournaments are extremely limiting in nature. Short stack play in poker tournaments is solvable and there are a number of tools online to help you play short-stacked extremely effectively. I realized that doing calculations away from the table was the quickest way to improve. And noticing that a number of the instructors whose videos I watched made fairly fundamental mistakes when playing short-stacked, I decided that my time was better spent watching cash game videos. Despite the fact that I rarely play cash games, strong cash game players have a deeper understanding of tough post-flop decisions. Given that this is the most complicated part of poker, most of my focus in the last few years has been on improving post-flop play and becoming a stronger deep-stacked poker player. Practicing heads up and short-handed cash game play as well as watching cash videos, is a very good way to improve.

Carter King: Early in my poker career the most valuable tool I had to improve my game was through discussion with other poker players. I would go out of my way to talk to players I thought were good in the tournaments that I played or who I thought made insightful posts on sites like 2+2. Meeting other players even if they aren’t superstars is good. Many of the people I used to talk poker with when we all first started are now very successful players, Darryll Fish, Chris Dombrowski, Aditya Agerwall to name a few, are now successful players and I have no doubt that we all helped make each other better players. Another tool I would spend hours playing with to help my game with was Pokerstove. As a tournament player this program is extremely useful for evaluating your equity vs. peoples’ hand ranges. This is of the utmost importance when playing tournament poker with its many all-in preflop situations. With proper use you can better understand the mathematical side of poker. Finally, the skill that I believe is the most important of all: Be honest with yourself. Don’t coddle yourself with how great you play and don’t blame the donkeys for sucking out. There are always lessons to learn and improvements to make. Never stop analyzing your game and don’t be afraid to be tough on yourself.

Frank Calo: Starting off I was basically a fiend for information. I’d pick the brains of my smartest poker friends asking them anything and everything regarding their play, my play, and how others play. I watched training videos from everyone, even if they weren’t great players just to gain perspective on what different types of people were thinking. After sessions, I’d go over hand histories I struggled with or had doubts about. Also, reading posts on poker forums and responding to them to gain insight and opinions from others was helpful. I stayed fully immersed in the game away from the tables in order to build my skills whenever possible. Aside from that, focusing on healthy habits such as getting the right amount of sleep as often as possible is equally important to learning and playing. I worked harder on things like that as I matured more. All of this is absolutely necessary to truly excel at poker.

Craig Tapscott: Looking back on the growth of your game, can you share an awakening moment where something clicked and the game made more sense to you and your game improved dramatically?

Elio Fox: I cannot say that there was any one moment where everything clicked. Poker is a complicated game that takes tons of practice to become adept at. I have learned an awesome amount in the last few years and have been humbled many times by how much I still have to learn. One of the biggest “ah ha” moments that I remember was realizing how wide you could shove when short-stacked due to how infrequently and incorrectly people were calling all-ins. This has since changed a lot, as people have become better and better at shoving and calling ranges with short stacks. Even now, after playing for close to five years, I frequently have realizations about things that I consistently do incorrectly. Most good poker players still have strengths and weaknesses and discussing strategy with someone who may excel in different areas than you will help keep you vigilant about improving any shortcomings you may have at the poker table.

Carter King: Something I’ve discovered as a poker player is that it’s not uncommon to have an “ah-ha!” moment where everything seems to click and the game slows down and the decisions become easier. Often times in my experience these follow a small realization that can explode into a full-blown breakthrough in my game. Combined with the newfound confidence in my understanding of the game, I have turned these moments into big paydays at the table. When I signed my first staking deal with “Team Wafflecrush” (why all staking groups have horrible names I’ll never know) I started learning from Shaun Deeb for the first time. This was the first time I really learned the importance of Pokerstove combined with Shaun’s amazing talent for explaining things so clearly. So I don’t find it surprising that 2008 was such a huge year for me. Often times I found the ideas that would start as some small comment on a hand that would grow into a great realization about hand reading or strength tells that would open up a whole new avenue to the game for me. These epiphanies are, in my opinion, an important part of a poker player’s career and only happen through hard work, which is why study and discussion off the table is so important.

Frank Calo: I had two important turning points in my career that I feel were equal in my so-called awakening of being a good player. The first was when I realized exactly what was necessary in order to beat small and mid stakes: playing straightforward and understanding all the ranges and fundamentals in the majority of spots. Once I had felt I mastered that, I worked hard on improving from there, which brought me to my second turning point. I began to open up my game massively to play more aggressively and increase my profitability in higher stakes games. I became a fearless player willing to do anything necessary that I felt was correct to win. I studied so much more information and began to understand how to exploit specific player’s tendencies. All of this gave me the ability to learn and think on a much higher level and ultimately position myself to be a strong player. ♠