Online Poker -- Interview with OPOY Leader Alex Kamberis

Online poker superstar Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis looks to be an unstoppable force on the Online Player of the Year (OPOY) leader board this year. His next-closest competitor is more than 2,000 points behind him. Considering a win in the Sunday Million goes for 1,440 points, and considering that he’s not planning on letting up on his online-poker-playing schedule anytime soon, it’s starting to look like Kamberis may be a lock for the title as the race is about to enter its final three months. He already has more than $1.6 million in Online Player of the Year-qualified winnings this year alone, much of that from his high-profile third-place finish in the biggest online poker tournament of the year, the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) main event, for which he officially earned $942,000 (actually $783,000 after a deal at the final table).

Despite all of his success, the 22-year-old poker prodigy is still taking the time to earn a finance degree from Indiana University, and he only has three semesters left.

“It’s one of the best [finance schools] in the country, so I’m pretty proud of that,” Kamberis said. “I definitely want to learn exactly what I should be doing with my money. I wanted a degree with which, even if I don’t necessarily use the degree, I can at least use the stuff that I’ve learned.”

We caught up with Kamberis to talk to him about his lead, as well as poker’s ever-changing metagame.


Shawn Patrick Green: So, there’s about two months left in the OPOY race, and you’re way ahead. Is there any way that you can be beaten, at this point?

Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis: I think definitely. Dipthrong [Mark Herm] is in second right now, and he’s about 2,400 behind me. For a big score you get like 500 points [and the Sunday Million winner gets 1,440], and I think he’s definitely capable of getting three or four of those before the end of the year. It would take a lot, obviously, and it would also mean that I would have to stop getting any kinds of scores like that — which his hopefully not going to happen, since I’m still playing a good amount — but it’s definitely possible.

I’ve got menlo’s [Isaac Baron’s] score from last year beat already, so hopefully that’s a good standard to follow. But anything is possible; people go on some pretty ridiculous heaters sometimes, so I guess we’ll see.

SPG: So, what now, then? It sounds like you obviously aren’t planning on sitting on your laurels …

AK: I’m still playing basically the same schedule that I was playing before the WCOOP and all of that. Basically, I’m playing Sundays, Monday and Wednesday nights, and Saturday afternoons; I’m still playing in all of the tournaments that would be eligible for Online Player of the Year. So, hopefully I’ll keep racking up points for that. I think I'm due for a bad stretch, and the past few weeks have been living up to that [laughs], but I’m still trying, obviously. I’m not content just having first place in Online Player of the Year locked up. I’m still competitive, and I’m still trying to win every tournament that I play in, obviously. I’m not just going to slow down just because I think I have this stuff locked up.

SPG: And, possibly another accomplishment that you could achieve is to get your OPOY score so high that it becomes the pinnacle, and what people strive to achieve for years to come.

AK: Yeah, I was really proud to beat menlo from last year, already. He had an absolutely ridiculous year last year. I know he didn’t play nearly as much last year as I played this year, but he just had an absolutely insane year last year, and I was pretty proud to see that I’ve already got him beat; I’ve had him beat since October. I’m not really sure what kind of score I’d need to ensure that I wouldn’t be caught for a few years, but hopefully if I can pick up another few big scores and have more than 9,000 points, my score would be something people try to catch up to for a while.

SPG: You’ve had a ridiculous amount of success this year online; it’s pretty hard for anyone to make more than $1 million in online poker tournaments in less than a year. What do you rate as your greatest accomplishment this year?

AK: I think that, like you said, having more than $1 million in profit on Stars and more than $2 million in total winnings now, the overall accomplishments, are what I’m most proud of. Anyone can get really lucky in any one tournament and go deep and make a ton of money, but that isn’t necessarily a great accomplishment, because it’s just one big score. Being No. 1 in the Online Player of the Year race is a great accomplishment; basically the overall stuff that shows consistency, that takes a little bit off of the luck factor — not that I haven’t been insanely lucky for the past few months — which shows that I’m for real.

SPG: A lot of online poker pros have started focusing heavily on live tournaments and playing less online. How does your live and online play compare right now?

AK: When I go back to school next spring semester, I’m not really going to be playing live tournaments until the WSOP. Until then I’ll play the Bellagio Five-Diamond [World Poker Classic] WPT main event tournament in December and the PCA [PokerStars Caribbean Adventure] at the beginning of January. Those are going to be my only live tournaments for the next half a year or so until the WSOP.

I’m not really going to have the chance to put in the kind of live volume that other players do, traveling everywhere. I’ve really only played two live tournaments since the World Series this summer. The travel wears me out really quickly, and it’s kind of tough to keep flying around from place to place, and especially once I’m back in class, it’s going to be pretty much impossible.

So, I haven’t really been able to put in as much live volume as I’d like, but as soon as I’ve graduated, and when I find the time to actually make it out to all of these tournaments I’ll be playing in as many as I can. Obviously, next summer I’ll be living in Vegas again during the World Series. I feel like I’ve accomplished pretty much everything that I’ve wanted to accomplish in online poker, and I really am craving the big live score, the bracelet, and all of that.

SPG: The metagame in the poker world is in a constant state of change. What do you think are some important tactics nowadays, and what has fallen by the wayside?

AK: Lately, I’ve been noticing that when I four-bet light — if someone reraises me preflop and I shove over the top — from the button against a good player, I feel like nowadays they always have it. In other words, they don’t make their three-bets without a hand, anymore. In those obvious re-steal spots preflop, I feel like the good players are just not three-betting light, nowadays. That’s actually why I’ve started to three-bet in those obvious spots more, because people don’t see it coming anymore, because it’s so obvious that they just assume that you have a hand now. So, that’s definitely one thing that’s changed.

I think that known players are starting to tighten up again against other known players. They’re starting to play really, really tight and not re-stealing as much, so I’m starting to four-bet less and three-bet more. For the past three months I had been three-betting less and playing kind of tight; now I’m starting to loosen back up because everyone else is getting pretty tight.

As far as random players, I basically play the same every time, but as far as people who I know, the game has actually gotten a lot tighter than people think, and I’ve just now started to adjust to that.

SPG: And what is the way to adjust to that? By becoming more loose-aggressive yourself?

AK: Yeah. These guys are playing less aggressively out of the blinds lately, because they think it’s too obvious to reraise from the big blind if the small blind or button raises. So, I started to do things like that. If the small blind or button raises, I’m making the three-bet in that obvious spot, where they’d just assume that you wouldn’t do it without a hand because it’s so obvious to them.

Also, I’m just kind of three-betting more, in general, and four-betting less. There was a big hand in the $100 rebuy a few nights ago where I four-bet from the button after raising the button every orbit for 10 straight orbits. The small blind made a little three-bet at me, so I shoved Q-10, and he had A-K. I feel like they always have it in those spots, nowadays, so I don’t four-bet in those obvious spots anymore. I should stop four-betting in those obvious spots, at least.

SPG: It sounds like, from what you’re saying, that pretty much everything in poker is very cyclical in nature, and being a good player is very much about figuring out what part of the cycle you’re in, and how to adjust accordingly.

AK: Yeah, I actually wrote an article online called “The Evolution of Poker,” or some thing like that, and I went into how cyclical it is. All of the top online players play just about as good as each other. There isn’t really a big difference between the top 10 players, but the biggest difference between any two players online is how capable they are to adjusting to that cycle, as you put it, and knowing what stage poker is at in the cycle. I think that people are starting to play more like they were six months ago, a little less loose-aggressive than it has been, recently. It kind of goes back and forth; there are only so many different way to play and so many times you can reraise preflop, so it definitely goes around like that. Cyclical is a good way to put it.

SPG: In the last interview I did with you, we talked about two hands where you basically had the nuts. A lot of people give flack for that kind of analysis, saying it’s not hard to play the nuts, but is there more to it than that?

AK: It definitely depends upon the situation. Obviously, if you have the nuts and they have the second nuts, then it doesn’t take much skill. But since you don’t hit those huge hands very often, it’s really important that when you do hit a monster hand, or the nuts, or whatever, that you do get paid off with it. So, with the huge hands, the hands that look easy to play, it’s just as important, if not more important, to play those hands well as it is to play well in the tricky spots. Those spots don’t come up very often, so if you can stack someone in those hands, it’s really important not to blow that opportunity, because it’s not going to come around again in another few hands or so, it’s only going to happen every so often.

It’s not like I’m bragging that I stacked a guy with a boat, but it’s important to analyze how to get maximum value out of those hands. Those spots are definitely more than worthy of analysis. I don’t know why people would criticize that.

SPG: Thanks, Alex, and congrats again on the WCOOP win!

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