Joe Serock: 'I'm Not Sure What My [Playing] Style Is'Poker Pro Admits That He Might Be Like A 'Lazy Phil Galfond' |
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It’s still a little surprising that Joe Serock, considering his more than $2.5 million in career winnings, started out playing online poker freerolls. After just a year of grinding these free tournaments, Serock’s poker career started to take shape.
Years later he is still have tons of success on the poker scene.
His 2012 has been especially solid. The New Mexico native has accumulated more than $700,000 in winnings so far, including a pair of impressive final table cashes in the World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star and the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.
Currently in at 41 in Card Player’s Player of the Year race, the laid-back and humble Serock answered a few questions about how he approaches the game, his recent success and some of the things he has learned over the course of his poker career.
Logan Hronis: Many professional poker players, especially young ones, can cite one large score that jump-started their career. Your career seemed to have started with a more gradual and steady approach. Does that add to your confidence — knowing that your success is not the result of one event, but the culmination of playing solid poker?
Joe Serock: Well I started off playing freerolls for a year, and then jumped into $10-$20 no-limit hold’em online, borrowing money that my brother just won. Luckily, that worked out somehow. I started playing sit-and-gos also. I was always overconfident back then, so maybe the gradual success was a factor.
LH: By any standards, you have certainly had a successful 2012. Would you say you’re playing your best poker right now? If so, is there anything specific you have tweaked in your game to yield these results?
JS: I wouldn’t say I’m playing my best poker right now. I stopped trying to get better and just started showing up and playing. It’s just that short-term luck factor.
LH: Tell us about your deep runs in back-to-back months, finishing third in both the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star and the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown earlier this year. Do those types of finishes boost your confidence and did you learn anything specific from them?
JS: It boosted my confidence in the sense that it ended a losing streak and that I don’t have to worry about money as much. For a bit, I would just play and wonder how I would lose this time. It’s definitely a little better now.
LH: How much of the tournament circuit becomes routine to you? After all the tournaments you have entered, are there still certain ones that give you the “big game” sort of nerves? Explain.
JS: It’s actually pretty routine. There aren’t any tournaments specifically that give me the “big game” nerves. I mostly just get the nerves any time I’m close to a big score.
LH: How would you describe your style of play on the felt? Can you identify any specific player or players you modeled your game after?
JS: I’m not sure what my style is, as I’m sure people’s opinions of it are all over the place. I decide how I play based on how the others at the table are playing. I model my game after high-stakes online cash game players, but play less hands because I’m not as good. So, I guess I’m like a lazy Phil Galfond.
LH: You started playing online poker in 2007. What is the most important thing the game of poker has taught you in the past five years?
JS: The most important thing poker has taught me is to not be result-oriented in life. Just like in poker, you can do everything right in life and still feel like you messed up if something doesn’t work out. It doesn’t seem fair sometimes. Bad players can win long-term, just like bad people can have good lives. I’m thankful for that though, because there’s no way I deserve to have this great of a life.
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