Loading...
By Sorel Mizzi -- Passing the million-dollar mark in live tournament earnings, winning my first major live event and being just one river card away from winning a WSOP bracelet all meant 2008 was a pretty special year for me at the poker tables.
The improvement in my live game can be put down partly to cutting down on mistakes, which I talked about in November.
* * * * * * * * * * *
When I was in my online poker prime and was learning key fundamentals of NLHE I'd always look to find what I was doing wrong and correct it. I would get well respected pro players on AIM and every time I felt that I played a hand in a sloppy way I would message 8-10 people on my AIM and ask them how they would play it.
After about two months of playing nothing but tournaments I felt that I made an average of two or three mistakes per tournament.
These weren't mistakes that everyone would recognize as mistakes either, these were any way that I played the hand that WASN'T perfect. If I didn't play the hand as best as I knew how then as far as I was concerned I had made a mistake.
Mistakes had nothing to do with results either, one thing that was pushed on me really early in my poker career was not to be results oriented.
Just as an extreme example if I have 2-3o and decided that after being reraised preflop a shove is the most profitable play, it's not a mistake to me even if he wakes up with kings, as long as I was doing it for the right reasons.
After about 2 months of playing tournaments for up to 20 hours a day, I finally came to a point where instead of averaging three mistakes per tournament I would only average one or two mistakes per three tournaments and eventually I would be playing almost exactly perfect, in my mind.
Imper1um
I'm still in the stage of my live tournament career where I am on average making three mistakes per tournament. You may be wondering, wait a minute Sorel, online tournaments are obviously tougher than live tournaments, how can you possibly be making more mistakes in live tournaments than you do online?
Well, the answer is that there are so many more options in live play that should affect every one of your decisions.
* * * * * * * * * * *
With dynamics of live player being so different to online, I know that as well as cutting down on mistakes, I also have to learn to extract tells from players by engaging them in some sort of way.
* * * * * * * * * * *
My ultimate goal in live poker is not only to play every hand correctly but to also engage my opponents in a manner that gives me as much information as possible. Since I'm inexperienced in knowing which of my actions render which reactions, it's something that I will get better with, with experience.
* * * * * * * * * * *
I wrote that post about the WPT in Niagra where I was pleased with a cash after an up-and-down tournament. Perhaps that post ultimately proved cathartic as not long after I landed my first live event at Bellagio in December.
Mizzi in London.
As said above I'm not that results oriented but it was still a good feeling to take down a major live tournament and made up slightly for the disappointment of not winning my first WSOP bracelet at Betfair's own World Series of Poker Europe tournament in the PLO event. It would have been great to repay Betfair for the faith they had shown in me and the atmosphere that night at the Empire was electric.
Random Thoughts Throughout the Year
In June I won my weight-loss prop bet with Roland De Wolfe but more importantly I realized the importance of a healthy lifestyle to my poker game.
* * * * * * * * * * *
I feel incredible. My mind is as clear and focused as I can ever remember it being and I can only credit this to regular exercise and a healthy diet. As a poker player, having a healthy lifestyle will do wonders for your game. Decisions will become a lot more clear and it will help bring your game to the next level.
It's just so much easier to play when you're not constantly in a state of fatigue. I never even realized I was in a constant state of fatigue until I started exercising again.
After exercising I'd have an abundance of energy and my focus and concentration would improve drastically. I think this and several other obvious reasons are much more of a reason to stay in shape then any direct monetary gain.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Hopefully 2009 can prove as interesting and as successful as 2008 and best of luck to all my readers and special wishes to the other Betfair pros John and Annette.
-- Sorel Mizzi
Sign up to Sorel's home site, Betfair Poker, via PokerListings link and take advantage of our exclusive up to $1,500 bonus at 100% match.
More blogs from Betfair Poker pro Sorel Mizzi:
Comments (2)
Irish
Feb 20, 2009
I just want you to know that knowing what a family of losers you come from I am going to be making my way up the poker ranks in the next couple years and then I want to play you for every penny you have. I'm going to bust your sorry ass if you have the guts to play me. The fact that you can make money at poker is laughable. I should be a millionaire at this game in no time if a Mizzi can fluke his way into tournament wins. Your horseshoes are going to run out you donkey. Ill put you in your place real soon. Looking forward to putting you in the poor house.
Zyg0tic
Feb 20, 2009
Just throwing this out there, but I'm pretty sure you don't know what you're talking about.
"Mizzi can fluke his way into tournament wins"
Sorel Mizzi spent years winning more online tournaments than almost any other. Win one tournament, maybe a fluke (Jamie Gold?) whin two, you're on a heater, win three you're impressive win more than three big tourneys and you have to be doing something right.
Sorel is just breaking into the live tournament world really, and he has over $1m in winnings. Major win, WSOP final table and other cashes all in one year. That's more than many of the "worlds best " players did this year.
Everyone gets lucky from time to time, but as Gary Player once said “the more I play the luckier I get.”