What can I say, WOW, Howard Lederer actually wrote me back! I asked him a question on how I should approach the WSOP MEvent, tell me what you guys think.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: suhleafs@hotmail.com [mailto:suhleafs@hotmail.com]
> Sent: Monday, May 30, 2005 5:32 PM
> To: theprofessor@fulltiltpoker.com
> Subject: Ask Question
>
> From: suhleafs@hotmail.com
> Question:
> Hi Howard,
>
> I\'m not just saying this to \"brown-nose\" or to \"suck-up\" to you, but
> you are definitely my favourite poker player on TV to learn from. You have
> great analyzing skills and your overall knowledge of the game is
> admirable.
>
> What I would like to ask you is this. I qualified online for a seat in the
> WSOP Main Event this year. First, maybe I should tell you a little bit
> about my background. My name is James Suh, from Vancouver, Canada, I am a
> 24 year-old financial planner and I\'ve been playing poker for close to 5
> years now. I have read about a dozen books on poker, watched close to
> every single poker show that\'s been televised in Canada, I own both WPT
> Season\'s 1 and 2 DVD sets and among my friends (not my opinion) they all
> think I am the best because of my knowledge and also, my ability to
> analyze players and hands at the poker table.
>
> Now that you know a little bit about me, I would like to try and get your
> general ideas on how to play a 7-day long tournament as the WSOP will be.
> I read differing views on how to play such big tournaments. You have the
> older schools of thought, like the TJ Cloutiers and Johnny Chans, who
> would probably prefer to play tight at the beginning of the tournament
> then open up their game as the field gets smaller. Then, you have the
> opposite spectrum of thinking with players like Phil Ivey and Daniel
> Negreanu that see it as \"Well, there is so much dead money at the start
> of a tournament, I may as well try and get it!\"
>
> What kind of strategy do you adapt when thinking towards such a big
> tournament? My general style of play is more of the old school thought, in
> that since in my mind, I am better than the \"Internet Generation\" of
> poker players, that I want to wait for an opportunity to make a big stand
> when I have near the best of it, a 3-1 favourite rather than pushing those
> marginal edges and living dangerously. Now I realize that these 3-1
> opportunities won\'t always come up as often as the 55-45 situations, so
> what do you look to capitalize on the most?
>
> I really do value your opinion and I hope to see you this year in person
> and of course, on more TV tables. Thanks again and best of luck.
>
> James Suh

I try to keep an open mind. I am always adapting to my table. But, in
general if a table will let me do it, I will play very tight early and wait
for a really good situation. With the blinds small, you can afford to wait
for an easy double up. Once the antes kick in, I like to take advantage of
my tight image and pick up my play. Given that this year should feature a
weak field the likes of which has never been seen, I anticipate that I will
use the wait for a big mistake strategy. Best of luck,

Howard Lederer

Aren't you gonna feel bad now when you smoke him to win the WSOP ...?

That is really cool that he wrote you back. Plus you definatly need to knock out one of the well known players so you can get on TV.

Will you be wearing a livepokerforum T-shirt under your online promo gear to flash at the final table

Best of luck, that is going to be one awesome experience whatever happens.

Hey, Leaf. If you've posted it elsewhere and I missed it, sorry about that. But can you give a Cliff's Notes version of how you qualified? What site? What satellite? How many unsuccessful attempts, etc.?

Rhound: I figure on each Day 1, they will have 220 tables, and only one feature table, maybe 3-4 in the entire day, due to broken tables, etc. So for that my chances seem slim.

Flafishy: I qualified via Prima. It was a $100 + one $100 rebuy and one $100 add-on. There were 380 players and amazingly, 7 guaranteed prize packages.
I rebought the second I lost a big blind because everyone at my table was doing it, and I wanted to be on a level playing field. Here is the link to some specific hands that kept me alive......

forum/viewtopic.php?t=2518&highlight=
and
forum/viewtopic.php?t=2516&highlight=

Fla... He's probably busy studying Dan Harrington and Chris Moneymaker's tells... So here ya go...

http://livepokerforum.com/forum/viewtop ... light=wsop

Oh... nevermind...

Suhleafs, there is a chance I may be in vegas for the series. Not sure right now, if I am maybe we can meet up. If not I'll watch it on webcast, I'll be rooting for you either way.

I emailed lederer too, about a year ago. Pretty cool he takes the time to email people back.

You need to pull a McManus and outplay the shit out of Howard.