Five Questions With Augie (xQ024)

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A solid winner in the fat middle of the online tournament buy in spectrum, Augie (xQ024) recently signed on as the latest instructor for MTTs at CardRunners. We chatted a bit with Augie via email in a conversation that covered his experience with CardRunners, his advice to aspiring tournament pros and thoughts on life in Vegas.

We also went a couple of question over five, That’ll happen.

You can watch Augie talk MTTs at CardRunners, the leading online poker training site. Free CardRunners memberships are available to anyone who plays on Full Tilt Poker – get details here.

PTP: For people who aren’t familiar, tell us how you got started in poker.
A: I got started playing online around the time of Moneymaker’s WSOP win like mostly everyone else, but I’ve been interested in gambling my whole life (not that it’s a good thing, but at least it turned out well). I’d blame my grandma for that since she taught me how to play 5 card draw when I was a kid!

PTP: Why MTTs and not cash or SNGs?
A: I think that one can probably make more money in MTTs than cash games or SNGs. Most new recreational players seem to prefer MTTs and the fields are still growing or maintaining their size in the biggest online tournaments. The games at mid-stakes cash games have been drying up for a while and they will probably continue to do so.

PTP: You recently made your first video for CardRunners. How was the process? Was there anything about it that really surprised you?
A: The process was definitely not what I expected. It’s much more work! I thought I would be able to finish the thing in one try, but I underestimated how difficult it would be to talk for an entire hour and sound fluent. The first time I tried recording commentary I tripped over myself constantly with an immeasurable number of “umms” and “uhhs.” Luckily it’s been getting easier with more practice; maybe for my next video I will be comfortable enough to crack a couple of jokes!

PTP: For someone trying to break into MTTs, what are a couple of the key pieces of advice you’d give?
A: Volume is key.

Even very good players eventually go on enormous losing streaks, and the only way to get through it is to grit your teeth and play more tournaments without going on tilt. It’s very important to not focus on the results. If you go on tilt after final table bubbling something you will just end up throwing away tons of money via your other tournaments.

And it works the other way too. If you win a big MTT, or even back to back MTTs, no matter how good you are, you simply ran very good that time. Get over it. Winning something is not an occasion to take a week or two off of poker; the presence or absence of money should not dictate your work ethic. In fact right after a big win is the best time to put in a lot of volume, because it’s likely you will be playing your best.

PTP: You live in Vegas – does the constant exposure to gambling culture ever sour you on poker?
A: Not really. I don’t play much live poker or hang out in the casinos for any kind of gambling. If I were exposed to all of that constantly I would probably feel differently, but Vegas is not so bad when you play online most of the time!

PTP: As an instructor, you’re giving a lot of your potential opponents a real insight into your game – does that concern you at all?
A: Yeah I do worry about that somewhat. Luckily most of the tournaments I play have many opponents so only a small number of them will be able to exploit the crap out of me. However it’s not like I can’t re-adjust my game as well, so tread lightly cardrunners members!!

PTP: What resources were most important to you as you were developing as a player?
A: Training videos are personal coaching. Discussing hands in the internet forums can be helpful, but not nearly as helpful as a good player taking a personal look at what you are doing. It’s hard to give good advice on a hand without knowing what happened in the other hands or knowing the players very well.

Augie is an instructor at leading training site CardRunners. PTP has teamed up with CardRunners to offer our readers free CardRunners memberships – learn how to get your free CR membership here.

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