Interview with Geoff ‘Zobags’ Herzog

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Geoff is known to a good chunk of the online poker community as a well-respected middle to high stakes limit pro, and to the poker community at large as the co-author of the excellent 2+2 book ‘Winning in Tough Holdem Games. Along with Nick ‘Stoxtrader’ Grudzien, Geoff is responsible for a book that will probably be recalled as a text that changed the nature of limit, especially shorthanded. Read our review of the book here.

Geoff was nice enough to take a little time and share some of his views about the book, online poker, and the future of limit holdem.

PTP: Tell us a little bit about the background regarding how you come to co-author the 2+2 book.

GH: It all started in college when I was fraternity brothers with Nick “Stoxtrader” Grudzien. He started doing well playing online and suggested I try it because it had studied math in college. This was late 2004. Over the next year or so, Stox taught me how to play limit hold ‘em, and I quickly moved up in limits to a point where I could make a living from playing. After my tutelage was over, I suggested to Stox that we write a book, since I had a lot of experience writing in my previous profession as a lawyer. We developed and outline and wrote about one-third of the book, then presented it to 2+2. They were excited about the project, and about a year later we finished the book and 2+2 published it.

PTP: There are a lot of charts and statistics in the book drawn from PokerTracker – what’s your opinion on database products like that and data mining in online poker overall?

GH: I think database products are essential for wining online at anything but the lowest stakes games. Not only is it crucial to know your opponents’ tendencies, you must be able to look at your own stats and review your play to find potential leaks.

PTP: Doyle Brunson famously remarked that writing Super System was one of the least profitable things he ever did because it made his opponents so much better – do you have any similar regrets about giving up the goods to a mass audience?

GH: Not so much because I think most of the people who will buy our book are already winners in their games. Any impact from the book will have a minor effect on my win rate, simply because most of the profit in most games comes from players who do not spend time studying to improve their game, or who do not have the discipline to implement a successful strategy even if they know it.

PTP: Have you noticed a major change in the quality of general texture of limit games online post-UIGEA?

GH: The games have definitely gotten tougher and win rates have gone down. I think this was happening before the UIGEA (even though it certainly did not help), which is why so many players transitioned to no limit hold ‘em.

PTP: Are you still predominantly a limit cash game player, or are you focused on some other game now?

GH: Limit hold ‘em cash games are still what pay my bills. I have had a goal to become an “expert” at no limit for the past year, but never seem to have enough time to put into it. Also, my recent cash in the WSOP Main Event has piqued my interest in MTTs.

PTP: What’s your favorite room to play at online? How about live?

GH: Online is Absolute Poker, they have good mid-high stakes games. Live is by far the Bellagio. I only play no limit when playing live, and I love the fact that the lowest no limit game the Bellagio spreads is $2-$5 (which is about the stakes I am comfortable with in NL anyway) because the game plays like a $1-$2 game at other casinos.

PTP: Talk a little bit about the experience of working with 2+2 from an author’s point of view.

GH: 2+2 was absolutely great to work with. They were very efficient and supportive, and well beyond fair in how they dealt with us as authors. Also, I learned a great deal getting feedback from David and Mason on the manuscript.

PTP: Any other projects currently in the works?

GH: We have talked about writing a no limit hold ‘em book, but don’t know how that will shake out since the market seems to be getting flooded with them right now. I also would like to do a book that explores the probability theory behind poker from a more rigorous mathematical perspective.

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