Thanks for doing this Jaime!

How much does your brother look up to you? I know he has started streaming himself and playing, what advice do you give to him?

Hello jaime i follow you until lomg time. You started to play poker after me but learn faster. I want to be perfessıonal poker player in cash games. Can you tell me how can i improve my poker. Please dont say me classic post hands history forum things. Whats your rouitine, work ethic. TY very much.

Thanks jaime for your time!

Did you started at pokerstars or first another poker room to play online poker?

Do you use the range and the pot odds together to make your decision at the table? If so...how to calculate so fast? (and how to do that with big numbers when running deep, like the sunday million, blindlevel over 375k)

What's the point of changing the MTT schedule's ?

Why is there next year no more supernova elite, what will we have then? only goldstar? (I couldnt find the answer of this question on google)

Hey guys!

I'm looking forward to doing this AMA. Feel free to keep firing question at me! I am not playing the next few days so I will be monitoring the thread.

@killjoy1987

I think there is a bit of Matt looking up to me but we are brothers so no way he would show it haha!

Matt started helping me with the time management part of the stream and was a personal assistant for me so I could focus on the stream. He knew nothing about poker at this point but would listen/watch the stream all day. After about 9 months of that he quit and then went full time streamer (6 months ago). He took a shot which is awesome! He is getting really really good so fast! I think I look up to him more then the other way around. What he has accomplished in his poker game so quickly is really impressive.

Hey Barkn!

Thanks for watching my stuff man. I may have progressed more in terms of overall time but I had lots of hours in the day to dedicate to poker! I think you can do the same if you had the time.

I get better at poker seeing what better players then myself are doing and using that. The "using that" part is different depending what stage of poker you are in. For example if you are brand new, you probably just want to watch and copy. Someone like you who has played a bit more I would strive to learn how they go about finding the answers to their poker problems. Ask them how they got to an answer or what sorts of tools they use to make figuring out the math a little easier. As for me I use Programs like ICMIZER, Flopzilla, and recently now CREV to model situations, and figure out not just the what but the why we are doing things. Understand the engine of the car if you will

Good luck out there man and thanks for watching again.

Hey Jaime
Love the stream..
How do you make the jump from making final tables to winning one. When I played regularly I made 2 final tables but could never take home the win.. I made a bit of profit. You can check it out on shark scope efal1. Hope you get a big score for some more art!!

@JaimeStaples Thanks for doing this buddy!

How much does money drive you?

Do you ever get worried about making a big mistake on stream?

Hi Jaime and thanks again for a nice chat last time we talked over skype. Good to see you doing this AMA!
Do you know where your viewers mostly comes from? I think Somerville said his top five countries were USA, Canada, Germany, UK and Sweden. Do you also know which country is the fastest growing when it comes to consuming Twitch streams like yours?
Rikard

Hey Danilo,

- Thanks for the questions. I started with Zynga poker actually. I played Facebook play-money before I made my way to real money. Facebook had the ability to engage school friends which was cool but getting on PokerStars is a major step up. It's when poker really became my passion as I had some much variety and opportunity to play what I want.



- I do use range and Pot Odds on the fly. It may seem daunting at first but it gets a bit easier. Take for example an imaginary hand I will make up: We are in the Sunday Million and we have 97,000 chips. The blinds are 2,500/5,000 with an ante. We are on the button and it folds around to us.

The first thing I am thinking here is how many blinds do we have. The way I calculate quickly is just adding a zero to the big blind. That gives us 10BB. So if I was to look at this on the fly immediately I would know 'just under twenty blinds, 50K equals 10 BB and we have double that.' That mental math comes with practice but will get easier.

We decide to raise it up to 10,000 and our opponent calls in the big blind. The flop comes down KQ7 two hearts. We don't have any hearts. They check, we bet just under half the pot (15,000 into 32,000) and they shove all in.

First step I put them on a range of hands that they can have here. (A range is figuring out all the hands they can play in this way not just picking one hand.) Well lets assume they call the big blind a lot and they can have most of the Kx hands preflop. Also they can have open enders like JT and all the ace high, king high, and somewhat connected flushdraws. They can't have any of the sets because they would have shoved preflop or Ace King. Approximately we think they have KQ-K7, Q7, All Ace high flush draws (except AK), J7+ flush draws, T7+ flush draws, and all the suited connector flush draws, and also JT open ender.

That seems like a lot but with practice it gets a lot easier to figure out what sorts of hands our opponent can have. In this scenario the equity we have against this range is pretty easy to figure out. We are doing poorly against very few hands (two pairs) and when we are doing poorly we still have between 3 and 5 outs. That's worst case scenario. Against the drawing/worse pair hands we are crushing them % wise and these hands are way more common.

If you add in the fact that we have to call 72,000 to win the pot (47,000) and their shove (87,000.) This works out to 72,000 to win 134,000. So how do we do the pot odds on this? What % do we have to win? Well lets round to make this very simple. 72 becomes 70,000 and 134 becomes 140,000. So we have to put in 70,000 and if we win, we nab 140,000 profit! If we lose we lose 70,000. An easy way to think of this is how often do I need to win to get my money back? Well it only equals one third of the pot so if I win 1 in three times here, I will break even in the long run. Trial one lose 70K, Trial two lose 70K, Trial 3 Win 140K. We are even. So our pot odds are 2:1 (2 parts in the middle, one part in our hand.) The percentage we need to win is 33% to break even.

Factoring in our stack sizes, our opponents range, and the price we are getting, we make the easy call.

This is a daunting process when you are just starting poker but it gets easier and easier very quickly. Don't get overwhelmed by it just try and get better at understanding each part over time.


- The MTT schedule was overhauled to become a bit more modern with where poker is today. I personally am loving the new PokerStars schedule. It's a ton smoother then it was before with always things to play at all hours of the day (for my buy-in level at least.) It added a bunch of bigger exciting games.

- PokerStars dropped the supernova elite program for this year. The highest status is SuperNova now which is currently my status.

Thanks for the questions man,

Jaime

Hey Jaime! Cheers for the AMA!

What did you think of Dublin? I'm sure it holds fond memories after a great result at the EPT! Was that your first time in Ireland?

Hey efal thanks man!

I think the thing that really works at final tables is knowing when to put the pressure on. Understanding how stack sizes change what you can, and can not do. Typically we have to call a lot tighter and things like3-bet bluffs are going to work a lot more especially as a big stack. As long as you are aware of that it comes down to just putting yourself in the position to win: getting to the FT in the first place! On average we are going to win 1 in 9 times so just keep plugging away and the ships will eventually start pilling in. Keep gaining the experience man!

Money used to drive me a lot but I discovered fairly quickly you can make money doing lots of things! Ton's of people have money but there are (to me) more interesting things like trying to be as good as I can. Trying to produce the best content I can and engage with my community as meaningfully as I can. That's more what drives me ever day now. I have a level of financial comfort where I could live for two years if it all disappeared tomorrow. That's enough of a cushion for me to focus on the more important things.

When I had no other revenue sources then poker, it was constantly keeping up on adjusting my Bankroll management based on my life. Almost everyone goes too aggressive on this front so I was always certain that what I was doing carried very little risk.

Mistakes I don't worry about it from a poker perspective. The way I look at decisions is that I try my best at the time and if that isn't good enough that's okay! I didn't try to lose on purpose haha! Keep studying/improving and maybe it will be enough next time. That said, the chat box on my twitch stream can make it a little different because people will get sad/upset if something doesn't go well or they disagree with a play. That is not a feeling I love so I worry about that sometimes.

Hello again Rikard,

Awesome doing the interview with you last week. If you all want to check it out here is the link: https://www.pokertube.com/videos/rikard-interviews--jaime-staples

My top five are the same. US, UK, Germany, Canada, Sweden in that order. I wish I had more insight into why or which country is going but I'm not sure. US is still the biggest market though even without much online poker.

It's a place I could see myself living in for a while at some point. A very kind and outgoing culture with tons of fun to be had everywhere. And you are right after my EPT score it's not a place I will soon forget. I have not been to very many places in the world yet. Dublin, Prague, Bahamas, all over Canada and the west coast of the US but that's about it for my travel experience. I am really looking forward to experiencing more.

Hey Jaime.

Before I read all your answers I would like to ask a question. So sorry if it was already asked.

1. Do you have any goal/limit money wise, when you say to yourself. "OK, this is enough. I quit full-time poker".
2. Is there anything/anyone what/who can force you to stop playing poker.
3. Are you happy? Would you continue to play if you start to hate poker, just because of money?
4. Have you ever been in Slovakia?

Thanks a lot and GOOD LUCK in the future.

Hi, you are DEEP in a WPT tourney you just double up by calling with qq. The very next hand you wake up with AK dd. villian shoves 1.3 bb known ROCKSTAR 3 bets. Do you feel a shove is a bad play?

Hey Mattusko,

1. Money wise no it's not what I play for. I just like the competition and the ability to improve over time. There are thresholds where I would take more vacation and work less but we are a ways away from that. I like working
2. There is but it would have to be a health or a family reason not a monetary one. It's cliche but this is my dream every day.
3. I'm very happy yes. If I dislike poker at any point I'll stop playing (at least I think I will. Cross that bridge if it comes.)
4. I'm such a travelling noob! I have not been to Slovakia no. Closest place would be Czech Republic this past year for the EPT stop. I would love to go one day.

Probably not. It depends how many big blinds we have but I assume it's not 300 or something so I'm all in