Chris 'Fox' Wallace (Poker Pro, Coach and Author) - Ask Me Anything!

[Balou1982]

Hi Chris Wallace,

if you make a plan for the perfect day @ playing poker, self analysis, learning poker stuff - lets say round about 5-6 hours, how would you split it?

 

[zorro222_zorro222]

Hi Chris, do you still spend time studying poker and if so, how much time on average per week do you allocate to just studying poker?

Thanks

 

[Luan]

welcome to the cardschat team Cris I know you came to add and help a lot of people like me! an example is me in a live tournament, how do I know when a player who is playing almost all hands pre flop and post flop he gets aggressive, how do I know when he is bluffing or not?

 

[Nandabio81]

I really liked your speech about Doug Polk! I would like to ask what is the true strategy of Poker, in relation to the predatory game where the good players lose?

 

[Recreationalplayer]

Hey CardsChat! I've just joined the team to write news and strategy articles and take photos at big events. I thought I would celebrate by doing an AMA here on the forums.

I have been playing poker professionally for almost twenty years, have written two books on the subject, worked for numerous training sites, and coached hundreds of students. I also won the WSOP $10k HORSE in 2014 for over half a million dollars and have made two deep runs in the WSOP main event.

If you have questions about poker strategy, life as a pro, bankroll management, mixed games, tournaments, photography, writing, guitars, or the best places to eat in Vegas, I'm here to help.

My new book, Short Stack Ninja, was an Amazon Best Seller in it's first month and continues to get great reviews.

Hey Chris,

Do you think it's a good idea to register late in tournaments and deploy good short stack strategy for minimum cash in ?

 

[nasty bent gorilla]

Do you ever employ big over bets in No Limit holdem? If so, in what types of situations is this a profitable play?

Thanks, nbg

 

[georgi krastev]

Hi Chris, I would like to ask you the following; what is the best strategy for winning freerolls in your opinion.

 

[antonis32123]

i play NLH most of the times , but H.O.R.S.E.. , Razz and 8-game are fun for me to play sometimes , when buy ins are affordable or if there are cheap sats for these games

When you play H.O.R.S.E. (or also 8-game ) have you witnessed players tanking/delaying in a specific poker variance ??

lets say he is not as good at NLH , so every time we switch to NLH , he takes his time to see the cards , to fold , , talks to other players to delay their action , try some other tricks maybe etc ... have you witness this in live poker games ??

personally i have witnessed this in online poker games ...

 

[F14]

Hey CardsChat! I've just joined the team to write news and strategy articles and take photos at big events. I thought I would celebrate by doing an AMA here on the forums.

I have been playing poker professionally for almost twenty years, have written two books on the subject, worked for numerous training sites, and coached hundreds of students. I also won the WSOP $10k HORSE in 2014 for over half a million dollars and have made two deep runs in the WSOP main event.

If you have questions about poker strategy, life as a pro, bankroll management, mixed games, tournaments, photography, writing, guitars, or the best places to eat in Vegas, I'm here to help.

My new book, Short Stack Ninja, was an Amazon Best Seller in it's first month and continues to get great reviews.

Skill vs Luck in HORSE poker.
Which of the two factors is more relevant?

 

[ChrisFoxWallace]

Hi Chris! The late stages of a HORSE tournament can be challenging. What are some tips for navigating the bubble and making a deep run towards the final table?

I think my experience playing sit and go tournaments helped me a lot with this. Punishing the bubble without going broke too often is definitely a skill that takes some experience and practice. Near the bubble and at the final table, believe people more and ask questions with your bets more because you will get believable answers.

An example would be when you have 8J J in stud and you raise. An opponent calls with a Qd showing and the diamonds are all live. They catch an ace and you catch a 5. They check raise you. Early in a tournament, this might be a bluff, and you might pay one more bet to see fifth street. But near the bubble or at the final table, this is almost always three diamonds that included an ace and made a pair of aces, and every bet is valuable later in the tournament that you must fold right now and not give away an extra bet.

You must pay careful attention to which players are looking to survive and who is trying to win this thing and know that their ranges are very different. Don't ever be in cruise control. Think before you put in a single bet. And know that sometimes you can bully the table and sometimes you have to keep your head down and pick your spots carefully.

 

[ChrisFoxWallace]

Skill vs Luck in HORSE poker.
Which of the two factors is more relevant?

It just depends on how many hands you play. If you play one hand, it's almost all luck. If you play a million hands, it's almost all skill. The more important thing to know is that you can't affect luck, while you can affect skill, so ignore luck completely, it's a waste of energy, and work on your skills.

 

[ChrisFoxWallace]

i play NLH most of the times , but H.O.R.S.E.. , Razz and 8-game are fun for me to play sometimes , when buy ins are affordable or if there are cheap sats for these games

When you play H.O.R.S.E. (or also 8-game ) have you witnessed players tanking/delaying in a specific poker variance ??

lets say he is not as good at NLH , so every time we switch to NLH , he takes his time to see the cards , to fold , , talks to other players to delay their action , try some other tricks maybe etc ... have you witness this in live poker games ??

personally i have witnessed this in online poker games ...

I don't see this in the live games I play, because stalling wouldn't help. If we are playing eight hands of each game, then it doesn't matter how long you stall, we still play the same number of hands of the game you don't like. I do see people, me included, choose to take breaks in cash games when a game comes up that they don't like. I tend to do this during badugi because I find it boring. If I have to go to the bathroom, it will be during badugi or limit holdem.

 

[ChrisFoxWallace]

If you are going to play a World Series tournament that would be the most important thing for you money or go for the bracelet?

Money is the most important thing for me now. There was a time in my life when the bracelet was really important, but I have a good life and I just want to make the money as I need in as little time as possible so I can spend more time doing things I love and helping people and not have to work so much.

 

[ChrisFoxWallace]

If you were starting out today to play online and make say $100 a day average what stakes would you play and what would be the size of your bankroll?

For me, online options are limited because I live in America. But I would probably play tournaments on wsop.com. To make $100 a day I think I would need to spend maybe $400 a day on buy-ins. And that would mean playing $30 and $50 rebuy tournaments, which would require a bankroll of about $6,000 for me to be comfortable. In larger field sizes that bankroll would need to be bigger. On a different site, or with a different skill level, or playing just freezeouts, that bankroll would obviously need to be different, so this advice doesn't really help anyone else, but it's what I would do.

 

[ChrisFoxWallace]

Hello Chris. How do you feel about spin and go tournaments?

Super high variance and very tough to beat in the long run, but I've played a few and they sure are fun!

 

[ChrisFoxWallace]

-Question to Chris 'Fox' Wallace:​

What's the difference in 3bet pots/defending vs 3 bets when playing with 100bb stack and when playing with 200bb+ stack? I'm talking about online cash games.

I don't adjust that much above 100BB, but I do play a few more home run hitter hands like suited aces in those spots. The biggest adjustment with deeper stacks is targeting the bad players with weaker hands because you can win such big pots from them.

 

[ChrisFoxWallace]

Hi Chris

Who are your Favorite poker and none poker related author's if you could elaborate.

Thanks in advance

I don't know if I have a favorite poker related author, though Tim Powers and Steve Brust have both written some great fiction that includes poker. For non-poker related, I love Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Harris, William Gibson, Adam Stemple, Michael Crichton, and anything with a great adventure or good cyber punk stuff. Brust and Stemple have both taught me a lot about writing because they are friends of mine. McCarthy and Harris have taught me a lot about writing because I have dissected their books and constantly use them as references to see how they handled a particular spot.

 

[ChrisFoxWallace]

Hi Chris,

Lately I have started applying Nash's push or fold chart when I have 10bb and under and noticed my results have dropped.

Is it recommended to apply this table in small stakes ?

If this is over a large sample size, then you must have been doing a better job with exploitive play and making more money than the charts. If it's a sample of less than 200 tournaments, then it's probably not related to the charts. I actually write a lot in my book Short Stack Ninja about how there are better ways to play than using push/fold charts when you are below five big blinds, and that section is one that people comment about the most.

 

[ChrisFoxWallace]

hello, can you please tell me how much poker is luck and how much depends on brains

It's all brains and hard work. Keep studying, luck doesn't matter.

 

[ChrisFoxWallace]

Hello how did u approach mixed games ? Are easy to understand and u get better results in mixed games that holdem?

I really liked mixed games as soon as I started playing them. I read everything I could and studied hard because I was fascinated by them, and my results were good pretty quickly. I used to have much better results in mixed games, but I play less now and I don't know which is more profitable these days.

 

[ChrisFoxWallace]

Hi chris

Do u play live mtt's like wsop main event on ur own or do u sell shares?

Thx!

I play events up to $1,000 on my own, and I sell action in anything larger than that. It depends on your bankroll, but it's better to sell action than to risk too much in a big buy-in.

 

[ChrisFoxWallace]

Hi i have a simple question was easy for you to control your bankroll u were always disciplined? and there is a limit in terms of years to play better because i dont know if is to late for me

It's never too late. If you start studying hard now, you can still be a successful player no matter your age. And I was always pretty good with bankroll because I was playing for a living almost right away and I never want to go broke or have to borrow money. I paid my mortgage with poker for 25 years without going broke, but I also never made millions in one year because I was careful.

 

[ChrisFoxWallace]

hello chris

I'm an amateur player and I don't intend to become a pro, my focus is to play only freeroll tournaments, my question for you:

Do you think I can improve my game by playing only freerolls, you know that in these tournaments the players are very loose and without much skill and strategy.

Grateful Cesar.

You can absolutely improve your skill in freerolls, though you will improve faster playing tournaments with a real buy-in, and even faster by studying. If they always call you, then just show them the nuts when you bet.

 

[ChrisFoxWallace]

Hi Chris

Quick question today

What is your average VPIP

Thanks

That's a tough one because it's different in different games. In no-limit holdem cash games that are full ring, it's around 23%.

 

[ChrisFoxWallace]

HI Chris. Recently, I watched the Squid Game series on Netflix and there was one interesting statement similar to the one that a poor and a rich man are no different because a poor man cannot take advantage of life. The rich man, on the other hand, is bored with it because he can have everything. Both are unable to enjoy life. Do you think a rich man can be bored with life? Often such scenarios are created for films that rich people bored with life are looking for other experiences, which, as it turns out later, are not human, which often makes them lose their humanity and soul. What do you think, does it depend on the upbringing of a person and who he is, or can excess money really get boring, turn a person into a bad person and ultimately destroy his humanity?

What an interesting question. I've actually thought about this a lot. Studies have shown that an income above about $80,000 a year does not contribute significantly to happiness, but income below that starts to take away happiness. I think happiness, whether rich or poor, depends more on mental health and attitude. In America, anyone with good mental and physical health can earn enough money to be just fine, and then the happiness is up to you.

For me, money certainly does not make me bored with life. When I have more money, then it means I get to take more time off and have more fun adventures and travel and spend time helping people. If a rich man is bored, it's is not the fault of his money, but of his attitude. If you know a rich man who is bored, tell him to give me his money. I'll buy a food truck and drive around feeding the homeless whenever I'm not off having adventures and his money will be well spent!