Capture the Flag With Mikhail Shalamov

Russian online poker pro Mikhail “innerpsy” Shalamov is just 26, but he has logged around 10 million hands lifetime on the Internet. His normal games are $1-$2 to $10-$20 shorthanded no-limit hold’em, but he has played as high as $50-$100. He said he is up around $1 million lifetime.

Shalamov, who has a wife and son, also ran the New York City marathon in 2013. In other words, there is a lot more to him than just grinding online. His work ethic and consistent success on the felt has landed him a spot in PokerStars’ “Team Online.”

Prior to poker, he ran a small business selling swimwear and other apparel, but once he realized poker was so profitable for him, he began to play cash games full time. Card Player had the chance to speak with him about poker strategy and what his career has been like so far.

Brian Pempus: How did you find poker?

Mikhail Shalamov: I first discovered poker with friends. We used to get together and play monopoly for insignificant money, and then a guy who was an exchange student came back from the United States and taught us Texas hold’em poker. I then discovered that it was a whole industry, and managed to find a strategy site to guide me through it.

I started with freerolls, having no idea what bankroll management was, and all the money I won on those I was martingaling (doubling limits after each loss) in heads-up sit-and-gos. I had a feeling I was able to be profitable in those, but I needed some source of knowledge to handle variance, theory and stuff. My “professional” career began with short-stack strategy on 5-10 cent blinds.

BP: Why did you decide to go with a short-stack strategy in those cash games?

MS: That was the option that a strategy site provided info about. It was an easier strategy to cope with intellectually, when you are only getting started. I then transitioned to big-stack poker and shorthanded tables, and it was a big step in my career.

BP: What are the pros and cons of using short-stack strategy if you are a beginner?

MS: Your decision tree is a lot smaller. It usually is only preflop and flop decisions, and you can figure out some things when you are new to poker, for a cheaper price. And then, when you feel you are ready, you can switch to real no-limit big-stack poker.

BP: What were some of the main adjustments you had to make to go to playing deep stack?

MS: You have to be able to find the fold button. There is that saying that the button that earned me the most money is “fold.” It’s actually a cash-out button, but still. Playing deep is a challenge; you have to know the relative value of your own hand, your opponent’s range, and profitable lines for all streets till the river. There is a lot you need to learn when switching from 20 big-blind (BB) games. A game that is deeper than 200 BBs is a whole new game. Ranges are different, adjustments are different. It might be the future of no-limit hold’em, when 100 BB games would be close to solved.

BP: Can you talk about what it means for it to be “solved?”

MS: Well, there are certain strategies that allow you to not lose (and not win though, if your opponents are playing the same strategy) against anyone in the long run. Now, nobody possesses such a strategy, and no computer is able to calculate one, but that was also once the story with chess. To simplify, it’s like a rock-paper-scissors strategy, where you always show a totally random thing. In that case, you’d be unbeatable in the long run, and the only one who would not lose against you is the guy who plays the same strategy. Only difference is that for no-limit hold’em that strategy is a million times harder and hasn’t been implemented yet.

BP: Can you talk about how you moved up in stakes? A timeline of dates?

MS: Wow. That was so long ago I don’t think I could remember. The most important moment in that timeline is when I won a freeroll for VIP players that awarded a trip to Oktoberfest in Munich. There were not only the freeroll winners, but also the high rollers making tons of rakeback. I got to know them and their profits, and I was only playing no-limit $25 back then and cashing out almost all of my profits. After that trip, I started to build up my bankroll as fast as I could and never looked back. I think it took me about a year (2007) to become a regular in the mid-stakes games.

BP: Can you talk about the challenges to move up to the bigger stakes?

MS: The main challenge is always bigger variance and swings. If you feel you are ready to go up in stakes, then your skill is probably good enough, but your mind might not be ready to lose and win twice the amount of money that you were used to. It takes some time, but eventually you will either manage to keep up with a new stake level’s skill and variance, or you would be thrown back to your old stakes.

It takes some courage when you move up, and even more when you are forced to move down because of the bankroll management rules. I don’t even think I’ve mastered that moment of my game well enough, even though I’ve switched stakes tons of times.

BP: Can you give some strategy tips for those who are trying to make it in poker?

MS: First off, patience is the key. You can’t get away with playing bad hands, even if you are Isaac Haxton or Alex Millar. Being able to fold a bad hand preflop would give you a huge advantage over those who cannot. Second thing is that you always have to think. If you face a bet and don’t have a really strong hand — think! Make your brain work! It’s all about your ability to think. That is why poker is so popular. Try to get through your head what hands could your opponent play that way? How many of those hands do you beat? What pot odds do you get with the bet that you need to call? Those are all basic things, and you might want to spend some time polishing your ability to implement them.

BP: For those who don’t really understand ranges, can you talk about what that means?

MS: Well, at any given point you can’t just say “I put you on A-K” and build your play based on that assumption. Your opponent also has a range of hands, and you need to play against that range, not against a certain hand. For instance, you raise 4-4 from the button, and get a three-bet from a guy in the big blind. He doesn’t always have aces, and he doesn’t always have A-K. What he has is a range of hands that he would act like that with. Let’s say it’s pairs tens plus and A-Q plus. Against that kind of range, your 4-4 is not doing well, and the most you can do is call for set value if you are deep enough.

BP: What about thinking about the ranges of hands you are representing?

MS: That is also an important concept. For example, when you are trying to pull off a bluff, you need to think: What does your opponent think of the range that you have in that spot? If you, by his opinion, can’t have enough value hands that he can’t beat, and also have a lot of bluffs on some sort of board structure, he would be more likely to call you, and vice versa. Keep that in mind — if you can’t represent enough value hands in particular spot, that might not be a good spot for a bluff.

BP: What is poker like in Russia? How is the game viewed?

MS: It has some difficulties with the government classifying it as a gambling game, but in general, most of the people here in Russia, as well as popular media, such as Russian MAXIM magazine, acknowledge that it is a game of skill and shouldn’t be treated the same as gambling games such as roulette. ♠