Head Games: Know Your Leaks as Well as Your Opponents’ to Improve Your Game and Your Results With Matt Matros, Lily Kiletto, James Calderaro, and David Randall

Craig Tapscott: What are a few of the leaks you had in your tournament game early on and how did you go about correcting them?

Matt Matros: I read the textbooks that championed a “tight is right” philosophy early in my career, and I took their advice to an absurd extreme. I think I might’ve folded pocket jacks from first position with five or six blinds in my stack, because I’d read that jacks were a “trouble” hand. I definitely folded pocket tens from the big blind after the small blind shoved in on me with a short stack.

When most people think of leaks, they think of spots where they get too loose or too aggressive. I was the opposite when I started out—I was playing so tight that I never had a chance. Luckily, I was able to figure out that I had this flaw in my approach, so I gradually started loosening my opening standards until eventually I was playing the right number of hands. And then I started adding even more. Once you begin to play looser and looser, you really have no way of knowing when to stop—especially if your decisions are being reinforced by good results. At my most ridiculous point, deuce-three offsuit looked like a pretty good hand to “mix it up” with at every opportunity; that’s when, finally, my results caught up to my play and I started losing.

There’s nothing like losing to make you figure out what you’re doing wrong. I reassessed my game and quickly came to the conclusion that I needed to tighten up. Not all the way back to the standards of my early days, of course, but I needed to start throwing trash hands away a lot more often, and sticking only to speculative hands with real potential (better “equity profiles,” in the modern parlance). 

Even today, it’s easy for me to slip back into “too tight” or “too loose” mode if I’m not paying careful attention at the table. Some lineups call for a very loose strategy, and other lineups will punish you mercilessly if you get even slightly out of line with your starting standards. It’s not enough just to have every weapon in your poker arsenal—you also have to know the exact right moments to use them.

Lily Kiletto: I found the biggest leaks in my tournament poker game has been my excessive bluffing, too much involvement in hands, again too much bluffing, no patience, a little more bluffing, can’t fold, brain cramps, and so on.

I don’t proclaim to be a much better player now than I was early on in my career, but I’m definitely trying to improve with every tournament I play. I believe the theory that you have to put in the work to get better results in your game. With that being said, I’m getting all the experience by playing more and more tournaments and trying to be aware of and eliminate past mistakes.

James Calderaro: Early on in my game, I felt my biggest leak in tournament poker was not managing a short stack properly, which entailed me putting all my chips in bad unnecessarily. There’s that famous quote “chip and a chair” and, believe me, as long as you have a chip and the right patience, anything is possible. I have learned to be more patient and put a much bigger value on the chips I have in front of me at the moment, no matter how small the denominations.

David Randall: When I started out, I raised around 80 percent of hands. I suppose it is just my natural tendency to try to steamroll the table. As I got further into my career and began to treat poker more like a profession, I realized that it would be very difficult to have longevity playing this style. I immediately overcompensated and began playing too tight for a while, and, as a result, not only was the game way less fun for me, but I also was less effective. 

What happened was that I did not create the meta-game needed to cash in on other people’s mistakes and rarely got paid off when I had big hands. It is impossible to be completely balanced when it comes to what level of aggression you should have at any point in time, but this constant struggle to find it is what makes poker so interesting. 

Craig Tapscott: What are a few of the most egregious leaks you find in some of your opponents? And why do you think they are so oblivious to working on them?

Matt Matros: Most tournament players are too loose in the early stages, and too tight in the later stages. This is a result of the “lose all your chips and you’re out” nature of the game. Average players place too much value on survival, but they also have far too little respect for their chips when their survival isn’t threatened. The test question to ask yourself is, “Am I increasing my chances of winning the tournament by making this play?” and not, “What’s the best way to survive longer?” and not, “Is my stack big enough to gamble with here?” and not even, “What play gives me the best chance of cashing?” Because 95 times out of 100, the play that yields the most chips in the long run is the play you want to make. Other considerations are secondary.

Start thinking this way, and you’ll find yourself playing more disciplined with 300 blinds, but also more eager to make an aggressive all-in move when your stack is in danger of getting low. Tournament players should be keeping their eyes on the prize—and when they do, a lot of their leaks will disappear.

Lily Kiletto: One of the mistakes I see often is that many players have a tendency to defend their big blinds very lightly, which can cause them to be stuck with a mediocre hand and be faced with some very tough decisions. This is mainly because they can’t define where they stand in the hand. I think it is better to take the lead in the hand and three-bet or choose to fold in many of those situations from the big blind. I also find players tend to get involved in too many hands, and I find that can be detrimental to your tournament life overall. One solid piece of advice I can give is that you just can’t win every hand. A tournament, in my opinion, is an absolute marathon, so treat it like one.

James Calderaro: From what I have observed, a lot of players have leaks when it comes to the ability to change gears and adapt to different types of tables. Every table has a personality and there will always be different variables and circumstances for each situation you’re in. I find it easier to just be attentive to your game and make decisions that assist you to evaluate your opponents with clarity.

David Randall: In the last few years I have played a lot of cash games, despite my original background being in tournaments. I have found that tournament players call way too often in spots where they are never good. And I have noticed that players often get complacent after landing a big score.

For some strange reason, tournaments have a way of distorting someone’s view of themselves. When they are running poorly they think they are way worse than they are and, when they are running hot, they think they are the best. If you want to have a more realistic view of yourself, I would certainly recommend getting a coach. Players that get a coach can definitely accelerate their progression, because they don’t have to navigate the fog of personal bias. ♠

Matt Matros is a Card Player columnist and three-time WSOP bracelet winner. He lives in Brooklyn, NY. Matros has more than $2.4 million in career tournament earnings.

Lily Kiletto was a former black jack dealer and fashion designer, turned semi-pro poker player. She grew up in Washington state and now resides in Sarasota, Florida. Lily travels the poker circuit trying to capture a major title and make history for every female poker player. She has more than $480,000 in career tournament cashes.

James Calderaro is a retired night club owner, and investor from New York. He is now a Floridian that travels the poker circuit and plays professionally. In 2014 Calderaro won the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open. He has more than $2 million in tournament cashes.

David Randall is cash game specialist and a sought after poker coach who has more than $3.5 million in combined online and live tournament cashes. He can be reached on Twitter @DBTRandall.