Ask Me Anything (Dusty Schmidt aka Leatherass in the well)

[Leatherass]

FYP! And with that fix, you would be correct!

1. Are there any plans in the works yet for a second book?

2. There is a Private Message option on this forum. If you do decide to jump into one of our private games can you PM me and let me know? I'm really forgetful.

3. I've been playing for over 7 years now. I'm studying as much as I can, and applying what I learn. But I still can't get myself into the "winning player" category. What is the single most item of information that you could give me to study on that might push me in the right direction? (Besides "read my book". I am planning on grabbing it the first chance I get)

1. The response to my first book has been so incredible that I can say with some confidence that this likely won't be my last poker instructional book.

2. You got it.

3. That it can rarely be a bad thing to simply just bet. There are not too many situations where if you make a 2/3 pot bet that it wouldn't be profitable. When in doubt, BET!

 

[Leatherass]

I aint kept track of American politics much the past year but I recall from your stox blogs your a big Obama mama

• What have been the best things Obama has done so far?
• What has he done (or not done) that has disappointed you?
• Other than Holdem Manager what software do you use?

I wish you the best of luck on your book.

1. I think the best thing he has done so far is restored some trust in the USA again across the world. I don't get the sense that he is a bad dude. Quite the opposite actually.

2. I don't think he has been tough enough nor has he done anything to change the long held belief that Democrats can't get anything done. That is only proving to be more correct since he came into office.

I was never a fan of Bush, but one thing about him is that if he wanted something done you'd bet your last nickel he'd get it done. I wouldn't bet one nickel that Obama could get something done. I hope he makes me eat my words.

3. Just HEM and a thing called Poker shortcuts that basically I use to click the timer button for me.

 

[Leatherass]

Are you satisfied with the questions so far?

Would you prefer to have more poker related questions?

Are there any topics you'd like to to focus on more that people can form questions around in addition to the general stuff?

I am happy to answer anything you guys ask. So far so good.

 

[Leatherass]

This brings up an interesting topic. In the recent busting of isildur1 by stinger for 4.1 million stinger says in interviews that him and Cole South and Brian Townsend(I think) shared their HH so collectively they could find isildur1's weak points and exploit him.
I think it sort of brings up a situation where the other high stakes guys who were friends didnt want to bust one another etc so the essentially 'ganged up' on isildur1 whos is a complete unknown.

What is your opinion on sharing HH like this in high stakes poker?

Do you spread your play equally across stars and Full tilt or do you prefer one to the other?

Thank you very much for spending some time on here answering our questions!

1. Sharing HH is something that I don't have much of a problem with. In live play people share info about other guys all the time. I don't see this as being much different.

2. I have been playing more at FTP lately because Stars is just over run at the high stakes with those little "bitch stackers."

3. No prob.

 

[slycbnew]

I think in 2010 if the short stackers are forced out

I haven't been keeping up w this, I read your blog on stox on ss's (Julyish?) and your frustration that the sites weren't doing more to limit/eliminate this, is this really a possibility?

Sites would be making many of us here super super super happy if that's the case...

 

[WVHillbilly]

I notice that MBolt1 is playing a lot of the high stakes CAP tables on FTP. What's your opinion on CAP tables and what would you say the main adjustment one should make to 30bb max poker?

 

[cAPSLOCK]

I have enjoyed reading your responses to pretty much all of the questions here. You seem like a pretty cool guy, and if you are even in Dallas I'd be honored to buy you a beer.

I don't have a question yet, but I wanted to thank you for contributing to our community here, and to the poker community at large.

There is a particular blog post you wrote during a downswing/even period and any time I have a rough patch at the game at my teensy stakes I remind myself that someone of your stature even does. It really really has helped me untilt a little faster than I might otherwise.

Thanks for getting in the well!

 

[skoldpadda]

Great to see you in this forum as well, Dusty!

What's your charity of choice and how did you come to favor that one?

What's the one baller indulgence you'd like to treat yourself to (or already have) with your poker winnings?

Favorite table side snack and beverage while playing?

 

[Jurn8]

Hey Dusty, been out skiing for a week so sorry I missed your opening of this thread.

1) Do you like Skiing?
2) You say you use HEM, what is the best way to fix your own leaks using the filters etc any ones which you can use to identify leaks immediately?
3) In your opinion to a 25nl/50nl 6max player like myself, which is the best way to improve reading books/articles etc, videos, coaching from others such as mates/members of forums, professional coaching or any other which you can think of.

sorry if the Q's are abit rambled but jet lag ftw

 

[beardyian]

Hi there :wavey: and many thanks for coming to CC and doing this :top:

1. Cake or Pie?

2. When playing and a player is constantly timing out or disconnecting how annoyed do you get?

3. Do you prefer Winter or Summer?

Thanks again & Merry Christmas :icon_sant

 

[Debi]

How many hours did it take for you to make the 21k for your Paying it Forward project? Did the people at your tables know what you were doing at the time? How could you possibly bear that weather??

(For anyone that doesn't know - Dusty recently drug his laptop onto the freezing streets of Portland and donated all of the money he made playing poker during that time to help 3 homeless families get back on their feet)

 

[Jagsti]

What's your views on the highly priced poker e-books, have you read any of them, if so how did you rate them?

Have you ever gone busto?

What's the best strategy thread you have read on 2+2?

 

[rotty]

Thanks for Coming to CardsChat

1. What's your favorite golf course in the Portland area?
(my fav. is Pumkin Ridge' Witch Hollow)
2. ---Go Ducks!!! ---

 

[buckster436]

Sorry im late on this, Welcome to CC,, dont know if it was asked already, do you think online poker will ever be allowed to be legal in the USA and why,, Thanks,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, buck

 

[Leatherass]

Thanks for Coming to CardsChat

1. What's your favorite golf course in the Portland area?
(my fav. is Pumkin Ridge' Witch Hollow)
2. ---Go Ducks!!! ---

Mine is With as well. Although I am somewhat biased since I am a member there.

Go Ducks! I smell Roses.

 

[Leatherass]

Sorry im late on this, Welcome to CC,, dont know if it was asked already, do you think online poker will ever be allowed to be legal in the USA and why,, Thanks,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, buck

There is no doubt it will be legal some day. Let's just hope that is not 100 years from now haha.

 

[Leatherass]

What's your views on the highly priced poker e-books, have you read any of them, if so how did you rate them?

Have you ever gone busto?

What's the best strategy thread you have read on 2+2?

I have never bought a high priced book so I couldn't really tell ya. All I know is that personally I would never pay that much money for a book.

No. I have never had a losing month in my career. In fact the worst month I've had since some time back in mid 06' is +$25,000.

I have never read a strategy thread on 2+2. I don't really read through strat threads very often.

 

[Debi]

Hey - you were methodically answering every post in order and now you have my head spinning lol.

Go back to page 2 before I get dizzy.

(Although buckster deserved to jump in front of everyone else since he has been here for a gazillion years and is older than everyone else hehe)

 

[bazerk]

Welcome Dusty Schmidt! Congrats on your new family addition!

I've ordered the book & look forward to reading it -- the concept is a fabulous idea.

Overall you've addressed the majority of ???s I had, athough I do have the following:

• Where did you develop your business acumen? Just curious, I went the college route & worked for a Fortune Global 100 Company...I think it would have been a lot less stressful for me to have applied my business skill set to poker rather than worry about someone else's Revenue & Expenses .

Happy Holidays to you & your family!

 

[Leatherass]

Thanks so much for spending time with us!!! Really enjoying reading through this well, looking forward to reading your book.

For someone who spends so much time in front of a computer grinding, and who's into the work hard/play hard lifestyle, any advice for how to handle tilt for those of us in the work hard/collapse lifestyle?

I read an article maybe a year ago suggesting you were on a sustained downswing or b/e stretch, forget which. Am I remembering correctly, and if so has it turned around?

I think you are best to take a look at my book for how to combat tilt. In all honesty it is too hard to explain in a post and won't do you any good.

I had 100,000 hand streak where I broke about even. I also had a 50 something buy in downswing. That was no fun. All in all I played part time this year and made about $600,000.

 

[Leatherass]

welcome to the site, LA.
Thanks for taking the time to do this 'well', and for answering honestly and entertainingly!

Some questions:
1. What one tip would you say is the most important to someone new to full ring(micro-stakes) cash tables after playing exclusively mtts/sngs?
2. What stakes did you start your poker career at?
3. At what point did you realise you could make a living from poker?
4. Does your wife play poker? If so, is she good?
5. How the Hell do you play jacks?
6. If you had to choose between living in the USA for the rest of your life, or leaving the USA and never going back again, what would you choose(and you can't leave for holidays/vacations etc)?
7. If you had a choice of being the best in the world at poker or golf, which would you choose?


book question, any idea how long it will take to get to the uk? and will it be of benefit for micro-micro stake players, ie me!?

1. Play very aggressive.
2. I started at $5 sit and gos and $.5/1 limit holdem.
3. When I realized you could get sign up bonuses and make $6k or so a month just breaking even at the tables.
4. Yes she does. She is good. I taught her well
5. Haha. Play em like the nuts until someone tells you they have the better nuts
6. I'd probably just stay in the USA mostly for family/ friends reasons. I have no doubt there are plenty of countries I would really enjoy living in.
7. I would rather be the 200th best golfer than the #1 poker player.

 

[Leatherass]

Hi LA,

You seem really passionate about this book, and I understand the theme, but could you give us some more specifics on subject matter? Maybe some chapter titles?

Really, I'm just a 25nl grinder so I am not sure this is the book for me anyway right now. Unless you can give me a good pitch

http://www.dustyschmidt.net/read_about_dusty_schmidt/table-of-contents/ That is the table of contents.

Basically the goal of the book is to teach people how to monetize their skill set. There are a lot of people with a lot of talent for poker, but very few who actually make it. The ones that make it are not necessarily the most talented, but rather they understand the online game and what needs to be done to turn a profit. If you are not privy to the information you need to run your poker business then it typically won't work out for that person.

Additionally there is a 15 chapter strategy section that focuses on the most common situations that arise. Too often people focus on the all in pots where the money was pretty much going in the middle anyway. I feel it is best to focus on the pots that come up every few minutes such as playing a pocket pair out of position.

 

[Leatherass]

Welcome to CardsChat!

What made you decide to sign up at CardsChat?

I was invited by Dakota the admin here. She told me you guys were great. So far I agree with her!

 

[Leatherass]

Hey Dusty thanks for joining CC and sharing with us.

I'm thinking of going for Supernova Elite in 2010, playing a mix of 100 and 200nl. Can you give me some tips (and please don't say, 'don't do it'.... well you can if you like, but I'd be really grateful for some advice ).

I would say to try and be patient and maintain a long term perspective. You have to basically set goals for how many hands you need to play each day and don't quit for the day unless that goal is met. It is hard to do sometimes, but necessary.

Good luck!

 

[Leatherass]

As someone who has an infant in the house, how - if at all - have you adjusted your multitabling? If your wife needs help right this minute, you will still need a little while to sit out (if you're waiting for the big blind) or you have to lose a little bit of EV by sitting out right away. The more tables you play, the more significant the loss of immediate sit-out is how I'm thinking. (I'm obviously not talking about emergencies - I have no problem just getting up and timing out if something serious just happened - more of the "I forgot the diapers downstairs and I can't leave him here, help!" variety.)

The chapters on multitabling (I hadn't actually gotten to them before wanting to ask this question, but I skimmed them to make sure I'm not asking something answered in the book - apologies if it's mentioned elsewhere but chapters 15-20) stress something important: Only add more tables if your $/hour goes up, which I obviously agree with. My view, though, is that it doesn't take much of a loss in edge to wipe out any profit added by a new table, and since most poker is played at tables where our edge is very small to begin with, adding another table can quickly become a losing proposition. My question, basically comes down to this: Do you think you have skillsets and natural talents (whatever that is) that enable you to play as many tables as you do, and that people should be very careful in emulating this aspect in your poker playing, or is maximized profit playing 15 tables something anyone can do with (a reasonable amount of) practise?

When I am on tables I only exist purely for life threatening family emergencies. I don't help out my wife with the baby at all while I am playing. It is best for all 3 of us that I don't be bothered with that because I can not win at my games without focusing 100%.

I am really not sure tbh. It is possible I have some skills that exceed what is normal, but part of me thinks that anyone could do it with enough repetition. Hard to say really.