The Full Tilt Online Poker Series VII recently concluded in late February, and former FTOPS winner Adam Geyer made online poker history by winning his second FTOPS tournament in event No. 17, a $2,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em event, which netted him $488,175. Geyer, who plays as csimmsux online, beat out 848 other players in a rare two-day online event for his second title.
Geyer’s first FTOPS win came during the fifth installment of the series in event No. 13, a pot-limit Omaha rebuy tournament, a score good for $72,662. In addition to his achievements online, Geyer has earned nearly $300,000 on the live-tournament tour, including a second-place finish in last year’s S.H.O.E. event at the World Series of Poker. Card Player caught up with the online professional at the L.A. Poker Classic to talk about live play, tells, and his plans for the future.
Julio Rodriguez: Adam, you’ve done well in the live arena, despite a relatively short amount of time on tour, but most of your winnings have been online. What has been the main difference between your play in both settings?
Adam Geyer: (Laughing) I can’t count the chips very well live. I always make one or two mistakes a day at these things. I mean, I’m comfortable at the tables, but a lot of times I get the colors mixed up or I just get tired and make an error. I don’t know, there’s just something about it, I guess.
JR: What about tells? Are you giving anything up?
AG: I’m sure I give off a few things to the really great, observing player, but in general, I think I’m pretty good at keeping the tells to a minimum. I’m comfortable enough, I think, in the live setting to where I’m not completely embarrassing myself or anything like that.
JR: How good are you at picking up tells from your opponents?
AG: I have been noticing weakness more often in the complete amateurs, but beyond that, it’s nothing too drastic. I’m not going to try to confuse myself while reading things like that. Those crazy reads can end up hurting your play, sometimes.
JR: So, how do you tackle a big buy-in deep-stack tournament like the LAPC? How does that strategy differ from your typical online tournament?
AG: There is a lot more play here than in a typical online tournament, of course. It plays a lot more like a cash game, for many, many hours. Your goal here is to pretty much not lose your stack, whereas in an online game, the structure dictates that you have to go for it right away.
JR: All the winners of an FTOPS event get a special gold avatar. What happens when you win two?
AG: (Laughing) I don’t know what they are going to do about the avatars. I don’t think they’ll let me put them side by side or anything, but maybe they’ll give me a platinum one or something.
JR: So, how high does this win rank for you in your poker career?
AG: It was a big win for me. I almost overslept the tournament, ironically. I was playing a cash game here at the Commerce the night before, but, luckily, my roommate Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin (click here for his online results) woke me up in time and got me going.
JR: Who gave you the most trouble as the tournament played out?
AG: Mig.com [James Mackey] gave me a lot of trouble in the tournament, but everyone was pretty good at that point. There wasn’t anybody in particular that just gave me a headache. It was tough the entire time from two tables down, and I was just fortunate to come out on top. I made a few plays that were perhaps a bit too aggressive with the chip lead that brought me down to the average stack, but I always found a way to chip back up and stay in it. There were some worrisome moments, but it all worked out.
JR: Was there any talk of a deal threehanded?
AG: Normally, I would like to deal in this spot. The money jumps were pretty huge, and it would be a good time for one, but I knew that Full Tilt doesn’t offer deals. The other two players were practically begging for one, and that gave me a lot of confidence knowing that they were much more worried about the money than I was at the time. There are differing opinions on this. Some people like to knock out a player at a time and worry about it from there, but the difference between first and third is so huge that I really just focused on taking it down.
JR: So, your major online wins came at Full Tilt. How have you done on the other sites?
AG: It may look like I only do well at Full Tilt, but I have had success on other sites. I mainly play cash games at PokerStars at the $5-$10 no-limit hold'em level, but I did win a Sunday Million once.
JR: Besides playing poker in hotel rooms, where do you spend your time when you’re not on tour?
AG: That’s a good question. I’m technically in Texas still, but the summers are in Vegas. We usually rent a house out to play the WSOP and other events. I’m pretty much homeless, just a traveling hermit. I don’t really stick to the tour very much. I play about half of the events on tour, but I’m not one of these guys who can hit three casinos a month and follow the tour around the world. I’m happy just playing wherever I’m at, and I’ll make the effort to go to the big tournaments in L.A. or at the Borgata.
I’m going to get a house and play most of the tournaments with pretty much the same group of guys. We’ll head out there for the Bellagio in April and do whatever in May to get ready for the series.
