The Well: El Diablo

[sdunsmb]

Have you ever had to answer so many questions before?

[Klompy]

El D,
Most of the questions I wanted to ask are already in the thread, but i still have a couple.

Why wont you show a pic of yourself?

How much do I suck at OOT?

[Check_The_Nuts]

I'm moving out in September, and I don't know how to cook. What are some easy and good dishes to cook, that don't take too long? Any good resources? I have dishes/pans/pots and a stove. I'm thinking about learning how to make bean burritoes, cause they are [censored] good.

[El Diablo]

AJ:

"1. How did you get your start playing online?"

After playing live poker for about a year, I put $500 in PartyPoker in late 2003. I lost it playing SNGs. I then put $500 more in and started playing $1/2 LHE (I was playing $15/30 LHE and $5/5 NLH live then) and jumped up a level about every week until I was playing Party $15/30.

"2. Biggest tourney cash?"

About $10k in some online tourney. I barely ever play tourneys. (My overall record / ROI in trounaments is sick good, though, I just generally find them to be dumb.)

"3. Best pizza evah! is topped with what?"

Well, my standard pizza is sausage, pepperoni and onions - sometimes extra cheese. But my favorite pizza ever is probably the Gino's East Sausage pizza (chicago). I also like the Trentino from Amici's (SF) a lot.

Clayton:

"Please list your attributes and accomplishments in regards to advanced no limit hold'em play such that you are allowed to post this."

After playing LHE for a year or so, I started playing live $1/2/2 NLHE (started playing w/ $300-500 buyin, after I became a regular in that game we played with stacks up to about $5,000) and $5/5 in late 2003. I did well in those games and for about a year or two played a decent amount of live poker in the biggest regular games at the time - $10/20 at Commerce, $10/10/20 in SF, and $10/20 in Bellagio. I won in all those games. I started playing online NL in 2004, in Party $200 and UB/Stars $1000 games. I played a good amount of $10/25 on UB (crushed the game) and a good amount of $25/50 (beat the game, but didn't make a ton), and a little $50/100 (good record, but played very little). I then hit a sick downswing (thread called Dammit in BBV has my sickest night) in the $25/50 at the start of this year and got super busy with work and didn't play for a few months. I started playing a little again in June/July,, putting a few K into Party. I do this just for fun right now. I don't think my edge is big enough in the bigger games to play the way I am able to right now - I can only play for fixed periods of times at specific times with no game selection.

I'm pretty confident about my edge in those games based on the time I've put in those games playing myself and real-time sweating/coaching guys like bruiser/strassa/etc (see General thread "2+2 Coaching" for my roster of "students") so when I have more time and more flexibility, I'll probably play them again.

There are a couple of threads in HSNL that have links to some of my more detailed posts there.


ChipStorm:

"What primary thing(s) does a small-stakes player need to keep in mind to make it over the long haul? If we want to still be playing and winning in 10, 20 years?"

Play tight. Don't tilt. Be patient. Try to play every hand the best you can.

nyc:

"1. Do you play live? If so, at what types of limits?"

See above for my live play history. I haven't played live for a while (about a year), but I love it. I hope to be less busy w/ work in a few months, at which point I will definitely play more live. $10/20 to $50/100 is what I'll play with stacks up to about $25k.

"2. What was the biggest hurdle for you when moving from small --> mid --> high stakes?"

Being comfortable with the size of wagers and dealing with far more aggressive players.

"3. Best seafood in NYC? SF?"

Aquagrill, Aqua.

"4. Favorite wine under $25?"

Wow, so much great wine under $25. I'll toss out a few from my local store (klwines.com), but could go on forever. Frog's Leap Napa Zinfandel - $20. D Cubed Napa Zinfandel - $20. Ridge Paso Robles Zinfandel - $25. Handley Anderson Valley Pinot Noir - $20. David Bruce Sonoma Pinot Noir - $25. Miner Family Napa Syrah - $20.

ana:

"Do you have the most posts? If not, who does? "

I think I have the most on a single id. I think jakethebake has more, as might others w/ multiple ids.

stealthy:

"El D if you can name one poker concept or revelation that once you grasped it it allowed you to take your game from average to good or from good to great."

Focus more.

Isura:

"1. What is the toughest NLHE game you have ever played in? Can you name and/or describe some of the players? "

UB 25/50 w/ Mahatma (Prahlad), GiftofGab, DaWiz (Bobby Hoff), GoinBroke (Gabe Thaler), purplesomething (Patri Friedman), MagicPitch when not tilting (David Benyamine) - some of those games I used to play in regularly sucked super hard.

"2. What poker players have you learned the most (about poker) from? "

GiftofGab. He and I started moving up NL ranks around the same time and in a lot of ways learned together and from each other.

"3. What do you think is better for building a thick and strong lower body: soccer or weight training? "

I'm sure weight training is, but I don't enjoy lower body weight workouts so I always do as little as I can get away with. So I've seen far better results from soccer.

ana:

"Are you that kid pictured in the link in your profile? "

[El Diablo]

Vinny:

"Could you give your point of view on continuation bet."

Most people do it too much.

"How does being in position or oop influence your decision."

I probably do it more OOP because I am more likely to want to take it down there. But my decision is mainly based on my opponent(s).

"What villain do you cb more/less."

All of my frequencies are very fluid and largely based on what has happened recently. This I think is one of the most important things in NLHE, being very fluid based on how you have been playing and what you think opponent is going to do at that moment.

"Do you cb as much in multiway pot?"

A lot of times, more, because your actions are a lot more believable.

db:

"1) What sports do you play/watch?"

I play soccer, tennis, and snowboard [barely ever, these days, unfortunately]. I don't watch a ton of sports regularly, but will watch most anything except golf if it happens to be on.

"2) Who is the toughest HSNL poster to play against (that you've played)?"

Of guys who post nowadays, KKF probably. durrr and BBuddy are also a pain in the ass to play against when they are playing well.

"3) what do you think are the most important assets in beating SSNL games online?"

Being tight and staying in control.

"4) can you give us a brief summery of your poker career?"

See above.

"5) are you planning to play the 25/50 game at PP any time soon?"

I am screwing around right now and if I get on a hot run I'll probably play it, so if I get lucky soon. I won't deposit more money to play that game until I have more free time and a more flexible schedule. .....unless I lose a lot in low limits and get pissed off.

"6) could you maybe give us some brief thoughts on cbetting in high stakes poker? And also about how to and the importance of varying your lines?"

See abore re: cbetting. I think varying lines and being fluid with your frequencies are the most critical things in big games.

jk:

"Why El Diablo?"

I was at Commerce playing w/ Sucker, Clarkmeister, and a few other folks. We decided I needed a good name for when I make final tables on TV tournaments. I came up w/ a couple of ideas, and people, especially Clarky, liked El Diablo.

quark:

"What do you do for a living?"

Entrepeneur. What that means now is start/run software startups. I also work in advisor/investor/consultant roles to other software companies.

"Education, experience?"

BSEE, Rice. 1.5 years systems consulting. 13 years as entrepreneur.

"How have you invested your wealth?"

In new startups.

"I'm considering active money management in the future, any firms you recommend, or have experience with?"

Get experience with the usual suspect big names, then find the smartest people around and start a specialized hedge fund.

"1000bb HU freezeout, 25/50NL KKF vs. Strassa2, who is the favorite?"

KKF.

"And of course, boxers or briefs?"

Calvin Klein boxer briefs.


Tick:

"Total profit form online poker to date?"

I dunno, 250k maybe. Like a day or two of aba play.

"How do you normally play AK in the BB from a CO raise?"

The smarter and tougher, the more often I call.

Niels:

"Do you raise A6s utg 5-handed?"

Usually.

"Picture and description of setup?"

Do you mean this:



or this:

[Big Poppa Smurf]

El Diablo,

I just wanted to say thanks for doing this. I'm sure you know that many posters look up to you on this site, and I think it's awesome of you to take time to help us lower limit players out.

I used to play nl and pl games but not very well, and decided I should switch to limit. I feel like I've learned the game fairly well, but I've decided to switch back to no limit. Having made the switch from mid-high stakes limit to high stakes no-limit successfully, can you describe what the most important changes in thought process and decision making you had to make were?

Also, while I feel like you are not amongst the top ballers in the 2+2 community, you seem to be a baller nontheless. Can you describe a typical baller day for you?

Regards, and <3 for going in the well!
BPS

[El Diablo]

c:

"how did you learn to write such incisive forum posts and polls?"

1: Smart.
2: Practice.

Chicago:

Playing
Posting on forums
Other(session review, stats review, etc [talking/sweating w/ friend])
Coaching
Reading

c:

"Why don't you play poker full time?"

I think it's pretty boring and can make more money and have more fun doing things I find more interesting.

"Do you play LAG because you think you maximize profit, or just for the fun?"

At low limits, a combo. At high-limits I only play LAG if I'm playing in a really good game, otherwise I'm generally more on the TAG side.

j:

"what kind of cool stuff have you bought from poker?"

I don't buy much cool stuff. Most of my "fun spending" is on food/drink/entertainment(shows, travel, etc.).

1:

"What would you suggest I do to improve and move up the levels in the best way possible? Bank roll is currently $4000 for reference."

Post hands. Find a smart friend at the same level and discuss strategy and sessions. Sweat each other.

Grifter:

"Could you expand on how you read hands."

One thing I do is try to put players on exact hands. I try to do this in every single hand I play. After a while, you pick up things that help you realize that he has to have exactly J8c or whatever. It's a combination of pattern matching, deductive reasoning, and feel/instinct. It also helps that I can remember details of just about every significant hand I've ever played.

"top five novels..."

This would take me hours to do. I'm gonna walk around my room and just list five good novels I see.

American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
The Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

"and three favorite porn stars."

I'm not much of a porn guy and don't know who current porn stars are. In general, I prefer pretty faces and real rack or non-ridiculous boob job. Racquel Darian was a favorite of mine. Janine. Tera Patrick.

j:

"How can I become the next El Diablo in terms of playing skill?"

Depends on how smart you are.

toy:

"1) Everyone always tells us to improve our hand reading by trying to 'think visually' each hand regardless of if we are in it or not. Do you have any other advice to improve hand reading in general?"

As I said above, work on putting players on EXACT hands. Sweating hands together with a friend and talking through how you read the hand definitely helps refine the process.

"2) What are some plays that you think can be profitably used at SSNL that generally aren't?"

River checkraise bluff. Third barrel.

"3) Could you maybe write us a quick one or two paragraph bit that tells the story of your poker career?"

Done, see above.

"4) How did you get to be so cool?"

At some point I stopped worrying much about what other people thought of me. Somehow I became way cooler then.

ilya:

"do you think it's a good investment for a relative beginner (little cash experience, but a solid track record beating low-buyin SnGs over a large sample) to play perhaps too agressively preflop, say open-raising hands like 76o and Q8o in the CO, in order to see more flops and gain postflop experience?"

I like the 76o play there just fine, don't like the Q8o. I think a good way to get more postflop experience for cheap is to flat call a reasonably wide range of hands both in position and in the blinds.

"how do you handle getting 3bet by the PFR when you raise the flop with a draw? e.g. you cold-call a PFR with 89h. flop comes AhTd6h. He leads for 2/3 pot you raise and he makes a small 3bet, giving you direct odds to draw. Do you take the odds or shove it in to ensure you get more action those times you have a set or 2pair?"

Well, a monster draw like this I'm gonna almost always push. If my draw is not quite as strong, I'll call/push I dunno 50/50ish.

"what are you cold-calling standards in the SB and BB when you have good relative position on the raiser? Say an EP/MP player raises and one or two players call behind him. I presume you would call with any small pair in the SB, but would you also play hands like 76s or A8s? Are you more likely to call against an EP than an MP raiser?"

I definitely call both raisers there w/ both of those hands and a lot more. I cold-call more pre-flop than most because I like playing lots of hands post-flop and feel like the more post-flop play the bigger my edge.

"say you've been raising a lot preflop and betting a lot of flops but between missing most of the flops hard and getting floated/raised, you haven't been taking down many pots. how do you adjust to having developed this kind of weak image?"

I'll tighten up a little and turn more passive, doing more check-calling w/ made hands. I'll also get a little more aggressive post-flop with my draws, since my fold equity w/ strong moves is increased. I make lots of changes based on how I think opponents perceive me based on the cards I've been dealt. That's why some people in 3/6 lately consider me a LAGtard while others consider me a set-mining nit. The correct answer is probably somewhere in the middle.

"how do you handle missing the flop with AK on rag/paired rag flops? say you raise UTG and get a CO caller and the BB also calls. the flop is 852 and the BB checks. or the flop is 883 and the BB checks. what if you're HU OOP? It seems strange to cbet when few/no better hands will fold and observant players may use worse hands to put a move on us, cos really no matter how wide our open-raising range is we're likely to have missed the flop. And even if they don't the worse hands that fold often have few/dominated outs."

I try to mix this one up between c-bet, check-call, check-fold, and check-raise, probably about 25% each.

"finally...i think it's better not to use PAHUD when starting out. do you agree? "

I don't use one and think it makes you a better handreader and player, but I think it's likely more profitable to use one if you're playing smaller games and/or multitabling a lot.

[ajmargarine]

More:

1. Online poker--will it ever be made explicitly illegal in USA?

2. HU deepstack 10k freezeout winner: AZK vs fsuplayer

3. State of The Lounge? and the state of the Mod forum?

4. Will you ever play a WSOP event?

5. Pick your favorite in each of these groups:

(a) Coke, Gatorade, Starbucks bottled coffee.
(b) KISS, Guns and Roses, Van Halen
(c) Canada, England, Portugal, Israel.
(d) Razz, 7 Stud Hi/Lo, limit Omaha hi/lo.
(e) MN Twins, MN Vikings, MN Timberwolves, MN Wild.

[Cormia]

Thanks for taking the time.

1.) How do you deal with stretches where you are just playing really really poorly or playing your C game? Your reads are off, you are splashing around in too many pots without the goods, whatever. I mean both on and off the table, like running through whole session histories or going for a run or something.

2.) On a related note, how do you deal with a table that has just seen you pull some donktastic move and come out shiny clean? Tighten up? Less aggro with draws? More willing to felt TPTK?

3.) What other games do you play competively (chess, backgammon, etc.)?

4.) Finally, favorite suit?

[Check_The_Nuts]

El Diablo:
This hand confuses me a lot, comments appreciated. Also would like to know how the different turn lines may effect my shania.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...e=0#Post6951576