Smart Poker Study

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Alex Fitzgerald Interview | Smart Poker Study Podcast #43

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Alex Fitzgerald Interview | Smart Poker Study Podcast #43

Today’s bonus episode is an Alex Fitzgerald interview.  “Assassinato” is a poker pro with over $3M in online poker tournament winnings; A prolific Poker Coach who has taught over 1,000 students; He writes poker strategy articles and books; Has his own blog; He creates poker strategy webinars where he teaches how to think about the game and to crush your opp’s (with a very timely new webinar coming out this Saturday, March 12, 2016); He’s a podcaster as well and he plays on Twitch all the time where he gives away his strategy insights to faithful viewers.

In episode #42, I taught you how to begin incorporating daily study into your routine and showed you some simple and effective study activities.

Alex Fitzgerald Interview

Interview Content

As far as podcasts go, Alex is a big fan of the Adam Carolla Show, Reasonable Doubt and the Tim Ferris Show.

Alex started off playing poker in HS, earned his first $30 online after a $50 loan from a friend, and has built that up into traveling the world, living on four different continents and turning poker into an awesome career.  He’s one of those stories that we’re all a bit jealous of, never depositing his own money but becoming an online star.

He found his way to Costa Rico with some friends he backed, and while there he met his wife and decided to stay.  He’s able to play on every online poker site he wants to, and spends a lot of time on Poker Stars, Full Tilt and Americas Cardroom.

“Make yourself useful, and the pros will help you out.”  Alex recommends just helping out people who have more success than you and they’ll eventually just reciprocate out of thanks for all you’ve done.  Alex gave me “Why Passagno was Right” for free because of the things I’ve done for him in the past.  Thanks, Alex!

Alex just finished the first draft of his next book, ‘The Myth of Poker Talent.’  This book will show the average person how they can be a success at poker.  Alex had a difficult time the first few years in poker, but he busted through and now he’s teaching us what he knows.  The book is a deeper exploration of the learning skills he teaches in his webinar ‘The Professional’s Mindset.’  He deep dives into a lot of plays and the math behind them, proving everything he talks about and teaching you how to calculate these things for yourself.  Can’t wait, and I’ll definitely have him back once it’s published.

An MTT Leak

I asked him about Dom’s MTT Leak question from episode 42.  What a coincidence that ‘Why Passagno Was Right’ basically covers this concept for the entire 3.5 hours.  He answered with:

  • Only steal from the CO, BTN and SB.  HJ steals mathematically are very hard to make profitable.
  • Improving his SB play in the past led to a huge increase in his overall MTT profits.  His win rate last year was between 7-9BB/100 hands depending on the site and he owes this to his BTN and SB work.
  • Be aware of your opp’s fold to steal stats (Fold BB to Steal and Fold BB to SB Steal).  You want to know how your opp’s react to steals from different positions.
  • Make your steal opens 2.5bb’s instead of 2bb’s.  People are defending pre-flop too much, but not enough post-flop.  This is great for those willing to steal a lot.
  • Know your math regarding BTN steals: if the BB folds 80% and the SB folds 70%, combined they fold 56% of the time (.80 x .70 = .56).
  • Know the math of how often your bet needs to work (your bet / total pot after your bet).
  • Gauge their flop stats (donk, c/r, c/f, fold to cbet, etc.)
  • Alex recommends Cardrunners EV.  There’s plenty of free videos for learning CREV online.
  • Stealing becomes even harder from the CO: you need to consider the fold to steals of the blinds, and the cold call and 3bets ranges of the BTN.

Head over to PokerHeadRush.com and sign-up for Alex’s weekly newsletter.  I read every one of these newsletters and he gives tons of free strategy content with every one.

Email him about coaching or any of his products at assassinatocoaching@gmail.com.

Alex is into battle rap.  He’s got one coming up in Texas on March 26th. Here’s a past one w/ The Saurus:

Alex was a great guest, and I really enjoyed having him on the podcast.  He also said some very nice things about me and I really appreciate that.

Thanks, Alex!

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