Interview with TPE Site Member “1derer” – Winner of the Stars $250k

Save for Later

This past Wednesday (June 2nd) TPE member 1derer chopped the Stars $250k heads up for $40k+. Site contributor Killingbird sits down with 1derer to find out more about his game and how TPE has helped him improve his game.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and about your poker background?

My name is William and I’m 24 years old and live in the Jackson area of Mississippi. I first discovered poker when I was in high school. I decided that I loved the game and I was going to try and make money from it. That’s when I joined a staking site and finally got a bankroll going. After making some money, I decided this is what I wanted to do as my job and ever since I’ve been grinding full time.

You mentioned being on a brutal downswing (which we can all relate to). What kind of things have you done to deal with that both mentally and at the poker tables?

To be honest, I didn’t handle it well at all in the beginning. I’ve gone through numerous keyboards, mouses, and any other objects I could get my hands on. I finally took the time to stop and think about how I was reacting to it. I read a lot of articles on different forums relating to downswings and how to handle them. Since then, I’ve been working hard on not tilting, staying focused and just doing my best. I think the best article I read on the subject was RonFezBuddy’s “Stop whining, Start winning”. I realized that if I want to be a professional at this game, I need to start acting like one and handle bad beats and downswings in a better manner.

Briefly walk us through your huge score. Any big hands of note?
I decided to one table it so I could really concentrate on everything that was going on. It was a rollercoaster for me throughout the whole tournament. At one point, I was dealt AK offsuit in the Big Blind with 80k in chips at 800/1600 blinds. It folded around to the Small Blind who had about 65k in chip. He opened 3x into me, I decided to 3bet, he decided to 4bet, so I jammed all my chips in and he snapped me off with KK and he held leaving me with around 14k in chips. I go on to double up twice within the next few hands, then lost QQ to AKs to put me right back in the same spot with 15k.

The biggest hand for me I believe was at the final table with 5 left, I had my favorite hand AQ suited under the gun. I had already been raising a fair amount and folding to almost every 3bet. I put in a raise with my AQ suited and the button 3bet me for the third time in a row and it folded to the Big Blind who had be extremely active on the final table and he 4bet shoves his whole stack. I tanked for a while and decided that he could be doing this pretty light as active as he had been and finally reshoved him and the 3bettor folded. The Big Blind rolls over AK offsuit and my heart sank. The flop came Axx and I typed in “NH”, luckily for me a Queen decided to fall on the turn and the river was a brick giving me a nice chiplead.

After that I really just picked my spots and let the others remaining battle it out until I eventually got heads-up with Mossified84 and we decided to even chop.

You credited TournamentPokerEdge.com for your victory. What aspects of your game have changed since joining the site?

I feel like TPE has taken my game to the next level. Since joining the site and watching most of the videos, I’ve taken an all around more aggressive approach. I’ve learned alot of new tricks and strategies that I never picked up from other training sites such as bet sizing, hand equities, and many other things.

How will this score impact the tournaments you are currently playing? Will you be changing your schedule/stakes?

It won’t affect too much as far as the stakes I will be playing, but I will be taking more shots in bigger buy-ins on a regular basis. I’ll still be grinding a lot of the small-medium stakes as I feel these have too much value in them not to.

(Killingbird) Any advice/words of encouragement for your fellow TPE members? Particularly those dealing with a downswing of their own?

Even when it seems like you’re never going to get on that winning streak again, you should never give up. Take the time to study your own game and other players games that you look up to. The results you’re wanting might not come over night but they’ll eventually come around.