When I Was A Donk: Matt Salsberg

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.

By day, Matt Salsberg is a Hollywood writer and producer. By night, he’s a successful part-time poker player. The man, who picked up poker in Los Angeles card rooms back in 2003, has since won more than $1.7 million on the tournament circuit.

In 2012, Salsberg won the World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris for $478,415. This summer, he finished third in a $2,500 no-limit hold’em event at the World Series of Poker for another $207,842. He also has two additional World Poker Tour final tables on his resume.
Here, the 42-year-old talks about one of the biggest problems he had to correct in his game.

“One of the biggest leaks in my game that I’ve managed to plug over the last few years is three-betting for information. I used to three-bet in a lot of spots without having a plan. Sometimes you have a certain type of hand and three-bet in order to get a better sense of what your opponent is holding, but instead, you put yourself into difficult situations.”

“After talking out hands with some really good players, I realized how big of a mistake I was making. Yes, raising for information was something that was considered a standard play back in 2005 or 2006, but now you should be raising for value or as a bluff.”

“There are a couple tricky spots in no-limit hold’em. Hands like pocket nines or A-Q come to mind. You look at the hand and put in a three-bet, only to get four-bet and be forced to fold or go with it. Three-betting and then folding is basically like lighting chips on fire, so now I have no problem seeing flops with these types of hands.”

“Once I stopped three-betting and started to flat more often, I think I put myself in better spots that weren’t so awkward. The last thing you want to do is turn the best hand into a bluff or open yourself up to be exploited by a guy who is making a move on you.” ♠