Online Poker: Interview With Jake 'TheFitGuy' WalshTheFitGuy Gives Strategy For Pot-Limit Omaha and No-Limit Hold'em and Talks About His Aggressive Style |
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When Jake “TheFitGuy” Walsh began flexing his muscles in online poker, people noticed. The 24-year-old virtually came out of nowhere to start making deep cashes in the Internet’s biggest poker tournaments. He is a player with a healthy amount of gamble in him, and that has given him a wild table-image that he has used to his advantage.
Walsh’s love for poker started when he was just 13, playing with some friends. Once he was old enough (18 in New York), he naturally progressed to live cash games and tournaments in his local casino, Turning Stone. He also began playing online at about the same time, and his passion for the game grew while he attended college at the University at Albany. He followed through with college and finished not one but two business majors, one in finance management and one in marketing, the former of which has proven to be a potent foundational basis for many of today’s best poker stars.
Walsh had plenty of jobs after college, but something just wasn’t clicking. “I couldn’t really do the nine-to-five thing,” he said. “It wasn’t really for me.” So, he took up poker professionally, and the rest is history (in the making).
Since Walsh’s decision to go pro, he has done quite well for himself. He’s won about a half million dollars online in less than a year, including taking down an event in the FTOPS VI (Full Tilt Online Poker Series) and a $200 rebuy event on PokerStars, both tremendous accomplishments. He has also finished as runner-up in a PokerStars Sunday Warmup event, a huge tournament with an equally huge field.
Card Player got Walsh on the phone recently to talk about his aggressive style, how he improves his game, and about strategy for pot-limit Omaha, one of his favorite forms of poker:
Shawn Patrick Green: How did you get to where you are now? Was there a turning point?
Jake “TheFitGuy” Walsh: Yeah, actually, there was. I left Albany in ’07 and went back to Ithica, in New York. That was where I grew up; it was a three-hour distance. When I left, I honestly did not have much money saved up, at all. I probably had like 300 bucks to my name, because I was paying college bills and loans and so many bills, being a recent graduate. And I heard the HPT, the Heartland Poker Tour, was having a tournament [series] up at Turning Stone. So, I played a satellite for like $175, and one out of every five players who entered got a $780 seat into another satellite. So, I won that, and then I went into the other satellite, and it was the same deal, it was one out of every five got a package into both the $1K main event and the $2,500 main event for the HPT. [Note: this series had two televised main events]
So, I ended up doing pretty well. I took seventh in the $1K. I bubbled the TV table, which was actually a really good table — it was funny, it was a bunch of online guys. Anyway, so I won almost six grand for that, and then I put a couple thousand online. I took third the next day in the $100 rebuy [on PokerStars] and then I took second in the [Sunday] Warmup [on PokerStars].
So, I think the turning point, basically, was when I left Albany and pretty much left my job and my ties and just decided to give poker a shot. I was just going to find a way to put all of my money and time toward that.
SPG: How has your game changed over the years?
JW: Honestly, it has changed a ton, and it’s still changing. I’ve played a lot of cash, and I realized the swings are really high, and then I realized that I was always the kind of guy who took shots. I was never really into the whole bankroll-management idea; I like the shots idea, just taking more of a risk and having less of a chance but a really big reward. Over time, I realized that MTTs [multitable tournaments], higher buy-in MTTs online, fit my style better ... fit my aggression. As far as cash games, I think I might be a little too aggressive to be crushing the cash games right now.
SPG: You said that you think your game is kind of still changing. In what ways?
JW: I actually learn from a lot of my friends, and I assimilate different styles and different ideas. When I go back and look at hands, I’m not at the point where I can finish a tournament and say that I wouldn’t have played any hands differently. That’s where I’d like to be, but I guess I’m just changing as I learn.
SPG: What have you done to improve your game?
JW: Basically, after I make a play that I’m unsure of, I ask all of my friends who are solid players and who I know pretty well. They tell me their thoughts and what would have gone differently, if anything, and that kind of thing. Fortunately, I’m in a good spot, because I have a lot of people, a lot of resources, who I can access. I don’t really read books or use the training sites, so it’s kind of just experience — live and learn. As I make mistakes, and as I get into situations, eventually I know exactly what to do.
SPG: I know you play pot-limit Omaha [PLO], so let’s talk about that for a bit as a change of pace from hold’em. How did you get into PLO?
JW: Again, that ties back to when I was in college and I didn’t really have a steady source of income, so money would just sort of come here and there. When I was working a part-time job in college, I would just deposit money and start playing on PokerStars, playing pot-limit Omaha, and I saw that there was a lot more variance there than in no-limit hold’em. You can go on huge swings; you can win a ton really quickly and lose a ton really quickly. I noticed there was just a little bit of a different strategy to it, and I just started taking a liking to it. So, I started playing [PLO] cash and, occasionally, tournaments.
SPG: What stumbling stones did you encounter as you learned the game?
JW: Basically the swings, like I said. In that game, it’s not like in no-limit when you can get your money in 80/20 preflop. That’s not even possible, I don’t think, to get your money in 80/20 [in PLO]. So, basically, you just find the swings. You pick up hands and you get your money in good a lot, and you find that you can lose 20 buy-ins in a row. And it’s nothing like no-limit in that sense; there’s a lot more variance. So, a lot of people say that players who like PLO have a lot more gamble in their systems, and that may be true.
SPG: When I ask poker pros who play Omaha what mistakes players are often making, they usually say either “playing too loosely preflop” or “playing postflop without the nuts or draws to the nuts.” Those are pretty much common-knowledge mistakes, at this point. Can you give us some idea of other mistakes people make in the game?
JW: Yeah, actually. I just find that people misread the value of their draws a lot. An example would be if someone has A-2-X-X, so like A-2 of clubs in their hand, and the board is 8-5-4 with two clubs, you’re drawing to the nut flush and you’re also drawing to a gutshot straight. Four out of five times, if you end up getting the money in there, you’re drawing against somebody who already has the straight. And a lot of players just don’t realize little things like that, so they think they have a lot more outs. So, once they start getting good at calculating the math and saying, “OK, this is how many outs I have,” they still may have leaks and not really understand where they’re at, because it comes with reading your opponent and knowing exactly what kind of hand they have.
SPG: How does the fact that PLO is pot-limit, as opposed to no-limit, change optimal strategy? Why not just play no-limit Omaha?
JW: Well, I think they do offer that, and that is a game that’s played, it’s just that people didn’t really take to that game because the variance in Omaha needs to be controlled. Like I said, you can’t get your money in 80/20; there’s a lot of gamble in it, so if it was no-limit, you’d really see a lot of all-ins preflop with people just gambling. A lot of people would be doing that and it would just be crazy gambling. So, pot-limit provides a cap to it; it provides some control over pot size.
SPG: Do you play PLO tourneys, much?
JW: Yeah, I do, and I’ve actually had some pretty good success with them. I haven’t played any live … well, actually, I played one small one live at The Venetian, and I cashed in that. I’ve played a bunch online, but there aren’t too many, mainly just during the WCOOP [PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker] or the FTOPS and those kinds of things, or the weekly one on Stars. But yeah, I definitely play them.
SPG: What are the players like in those kinds of tournaments?
JW: There are a lot of gamblers. You don’t find a lot of the regulars from the no-limit hold’em tournaments playing the pot-limit Omaha tournaments, yet. But I’ve noticed that there are a lot of no-limit hold’em cash-game players that are moving over to PLO cash on Stars.
SPG: How much does strategy differ between PLO tourneys and no-limit hold’em tourneys?
JW: For the most part, I think it’s the same. I think I have the same strategy. I just use the same idea to tweak my decisions accordingly to the game, because PLO is more of a drawing game. In tournaments, I play pretty aggressively, and I guess a lot of people agree with that. Some people think I’m really aggressive, but that’s just because, once in a while, you’ll see me make a play that’s not a standard play. Like, I’ll make an overbet for a certain reason, or I’ll do something that’s just not generally a play “the book” would tell you to make.
But yeah, I play pretty aggressively in tournaments. Sometimes you’ll see me out pretty early, or you’ll see me at the top 20 leading the tournament; I guess that’s what I’m known for. And I guess that’s what’s given me a pretty good finish-rate. I’m either out pretty early or I’m usually final-tabling it, for the most part.
SPG: Speaking of no-limit hold’em tourneys, you had a pretty damn good year in 2007. You’ve booked wins in big-field events like at the FTOPS and in small-field events with tough players like the $200 rebuy tournament on PokerStars. How does your strategy differ in the beginning and late stages of those two types of events?
JW: Honestly, it probably doesn’t differ too much. In the first hour in rebuys, I like to take a lot of chances. I’ll get my money in as much as I can, which is actually pretty expensive, but I think that’s the only way to really be profitable if you play those tournaments. So many players are doing this now, taking these shots, so the average stack when you come out [of the rebuy period] now is 9K as opposed to when it used to be 5K, or whatever. So, I’ll be taking a lot of chances. I don’t even mind taking 40/60s, with just two live cards, because that’s what everyone is doing, now.
As far as when the fields are three times that size, like the field in the FTOPS … you’ve just got to play the same. You’ve got to keep your strategy and just be aware of where you are in the tournament; I think that’s something that’s really overlooked. Not necessarily folding to cash, but if players are aware of how many players are left and the average stack and just where they are … just be aware and focus on your game. I think the strategy, overall, and the play is not going to be any different.
SPG: You mentioned how the average stack has been going up after the rebuy phase of these rebuy tournaments. How important is the average stack, really? How important is maintaining an average stack?
JW: Well, I think that depends on the tournament structure. A lot of the time, that’s not necessary; you don’t need to worry about it. But a lot of the time, it is important; it’s not important that you know the exact average, but it is important that you know where you are relative to the average. As long as you know where you are and when you need to take a shot or when you can push on people if you have over the average and whatnot, I think you’re fine. My game, generally, does change when I play short-stacked poker as opposed to being deep-stacked. I’ll just take a lot of shots and I find myself shoving any two.
SPG: What’s your favorite tournament to play in and why?
JW: I definitely am a big fan of the rebuys because I’ve had a lot of success in them, and it’s up to you how much you want to put into it in the beginning, so you can take a lot of chances and come out with a large stack if you just gamble a bunch. So, if you do that, you’re set toward the top if you get good cards or take a lot of shots. But I like big buy-in tournaments, generally. I’m starting to play more live tournaments, which are a lot of fun, but I’m not having too much success; I keep bubbling everything. I bubbled the PCA [PokerStars Caribbean Adventure] and I bubbled the NAPC [North American Poker Championship]. Anyway … it’s just frustrating. I bubbled the PCA by like 10 spots after three days.
SPG: Yep, that’s the danger of live tournaments is that you’re committing so much time, oftentimes, just to bubble. Well, what do you think sets you apart from most poker pros?
JW: I think one thing that is really good about me is that I can definitely change gears, but you’re finding that pretty common, now. A lot of players are changing their styles of play. One thing is that I have no problem getting the money in (laughs). I think a lot of my friends give me a hard time about that, because I’ll take a lot of chances that they won’t and I’ll make a lot of calls that they won’t. Recently, I think that’s sort of given me an image of that, so I’ve actually sort of changed my game a little bit and had to tighten up and sit back. I get called light a lot, now; I can’t ever get away with a bluff, because everybody knows my image. They know my chips can go in light, so I guess that’s a strength I have.
SPG: How do you cope with slumps?
JW: I really haven’t had one, too much, yet. I’ve just had success. I’ve has slumps from cash games when I’ve taken shots at $200-$400 PLO online, and stuff. But, for the most part, if I get into a slump, I just take a small break and just focus and get away from poker for a few days. And then I come back for some solid MTT hours and just go from there. And if my game is really off, I’ll just step back and think, “Is it something I’m doing or am I in a cold streak?”
SPG: One last thing: Where did TheFitGuy come from?
JW: I went to college for business and whatnot, and when I graduated, I was going to start an online business marketing personal trainers. The screen name was basically just going to be free advertising of the website I was going to be doing. Since then, I found out that I was making more money playing poker.
I used to be pretty big into working out and stuff, and that was kind of why I wanted to get into that business, but since then I’ve stuck with poker and I didn’t do the website. So, people just think of me as TheFitGuy. I guess I had better start hitting the gym.
SPG: (Laughs) Yeah. It’s been great talking to you, Jake, I appreciate you doing this interview.
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