Our player “gooby plz” changed his road and climbed to the ‎€100 stake in only one month!

Saydana: Hello, hero! I am glad to have you here among us. For those who don’t know too much about your past as a poker player can you please tell us a few things about you and your poker background?

gooby plz: Hey, all! I’m a 23 years old guy from Finland, living in Helsinki. I started playing poker when I turned 18. At that time I was a high-school student. I began my poker career by playing 9-max Sit & Go’s, which was an easy to learn format since I didn’t play much poker in the past. Also, at that time a friend of mine was playing the same format and he was very profitable. I think he convinced me to play them too. I started by playing the lowest stakes ($1,5 and $3), but very soon also $7 and $15 games. I didn’t study too much. Basically, all I did was watching gameplay videos that I found on Youtube. I just enjoyed playing and even though I didn’t study much, I managed to win some money from SNG’s. I also tried to play cash games and even Spin & Go’s, but I was just losing since I didn’t have a clue of what I was doing there.

At some point, I realized that if I want to get good at poker, to reach the highest levels and to make some good profit I had to concentrate on one thing instead of switching between every format.

Saydana: Now that you reached the top I can’t help myself from asking you why did you decide to choose the Spin & Go format?

gooby plz: It was the end of 2016 and I planned to start focusing on one poker format and basically there were just two options for me: either choosing MTT’s or Spin & Go’s. I wanted to get a better understanding of Texas Hold’EM and that’s why I decided not to choose Omaha. Additionally to this, I heard only bad news about Hold’EM cash games so I didn’t feel comfortable about them either. As a result, I ended up choosing Spins over MTT’s because of the freedom that this poker format gives to the players: we are able to choose how many hours to play, to make our own schedule, etc.

Saydana: What do you think is the hardest moment in the career of a poker player? Which one was in your case?

 gooby plz: My poker career hasn’t been too long (yet), but for me, the toughest stretch was probably the first half of this year, as my run wasn’t the one I hoped for and my progress was slower than I’ve planned. I made some bad choices and plenty of mistakes, but probably without them I wouldn’t be here at bitB Spins and I would still be hitting my head against a wall. Joining bitB Spins team was definitely the best thing I could’ve done.

Saydana: Which is your strategy for improving your game? What bitB Spins learning tool helped you the most?

gooby plz: Currently I try to study as much as possible. During my Spin & Go “career” I have always done okay-ish amounts of work off-table, but I haven’t done it effectively enough. I usually go through hands I’ve struggled during my game by analyzing them on the GTO-solver. I’m trying to get a better understanding of the GTO-strategy and especially when and how to deviate from it.

So far the most remarkable thing here at bitB Spins has been the Masterplan series. It helped a lot to make an even bigger difference in my strategy when playing vs. different opponents.

Saydana: What can you tell me about your daily poker routine?

gooby plz: When it comes to poker, I have kind of a similar schedule every day. In the morning I like to go through a few hands that I marked, then I start playing for 2 or 3 hours. In the afternoon I usually do some personal life stuff, though I also attend coaching sessions and I try to do some studying by myself. After that I typically start grinding and play until the night. I usually play like two hours at a time and then take a small break.

Saydana: Which are your current goals? Because somehow now you have reached the top and I know that you did it very fast. How did you manage to achieve this?

gooby plz: Now that I’ve reached $100’s (which was actually my goal to achieve before 2020) I get to play vs better opponents which are really inspiring. I’m more motivated to study the game and there are still stakes above $100’s so definitely my goal is to get to play the highest possible stakes. It obviously requires a great amount of off-table work, but I don’t think that will be a problem for me.

As I mentioned previously, I have always put effort into studying (not too efficiently though) so even before joining bitB Spins I had an okay-ish understanding of the Spin & Go strategy. With the knowledge I’ve got from here, it was an easy task to get on the right track, and as a result, I’m playing the $100 stake right now.

Saydana: What expectations do you have regarding your future here, at bitB Spins?

gooby plz: I expect to get a lot of new knowledge during the upcoming months. Actually, I joined bitB Spins for only 2 months and a half so there’s still dozens of strategy videos to go through and even only by watching them I’ll get so much new information. I hope that also in the future our poker professionals will offer as much live coaching sessions as hey did so far. I hope that with your help I will be able to reach the highest levels.

Saydana: We are so proud to have you on our team. Now that we have reached the end of this interview, I am really curious to find out more about which are your personal beliefs and hobbies?

gooby plz: I’m an active guy, I like to do sports a lot. Usually, I prefer to run or to play tennis. I also go to the gym to get some variation in my exercises. Furthermore, I enjoy watching sports: football, ice hockey or tennis. In order to balance my sport strategy, I love to drink good beers. Haha! Probably that’s the key to success, remember to balance! (unless you’re dealing with unknown players.)

Saydana: Thank you for this interview and good luck in reaching the highest stakes!