EPTHello Rekrul, and thankyou for agreeing to do the interview with me. Your presence around TL.net has become so ominous that most would doubt the need for an introduction, but this is an interview, so go ahead and introduce yourself anyway.
Hello Chris. My name is Dan Schreiber, I come from Troy, Ohio, USA which is where my body is currently located, but my home is now in South Korea.
Everyone on TL.net knows me as the ban-master but I haven't been keeping up to par for many reasons, and I have quit Starcraft almost completely.
How was your birthday?
My birthday was relatively simple. I woke up and my parents gave me some presents. I got a pair of sandals which I really needed and a "Tourist of Korea Guidebook." When I opened that guide book I scratched my head and look at my mom... "Mom should I get you a tourist of Ohio guidebook?" Anyways before she got the point that I was calling her stupid I said I was just kidding and thanked my parents for the gifts.
Well I'm glad to hear it hasn't been a complete catastrophe. Let's get right into it, then. I'd like to start this interview off by talking about your experiences in college. After graduating from highschool, you went on to attend the University<A name="cutnews"></A> of Ohio. Firstly, what was your mentality as you first went in to college? Were you optimistic, or were you simply responding to parental pressure? Did you have any specific goals, and if so, what were you planning to use your education for?
I went into college with a very optimistic view and a very open mind. Though there also was plenty of parental pressure as most highschool graduates in America get, it all seemed very natural for me to go to college. During my highschool senior year I thought long and hard about what I "wanted to do with my life" and ultimately came to zero conclusions. But I liked computers and used them often, plus I am pretty good at math, so I went ahead and chose the major of Computer Engineer, though I was really really cloudy with that and not sure at all if I would change my major or not.
I had no goals really, I just wanted to enter college and hopefully it would act as some sort of railroad track for a steam engine who didn't know where the hell he was going. I didn't really think about my far future much in those days, but I imagined myself getting a relatively low starting job after I graduated college and spending my life working my way up I suppose.
From what I understand, you were living in a dormitory. Outside of classes and studies, did you enjoy living there? Did you do any drugs? Did any of the girls respond to your obvious wit and charm? Tell us about that.
Yes I was living in a four-man dormitory at the University of Cincinnati and I did enjoy it. The most enjoyable thing for me was pure freedom and mild independence from my parents compared to what I had the previous 18 years of my life. I didn't do any major drugs. I got drunk for the first time in my life at a college party off Natural Lite, the worst beer known to mankind and I did use adderall a couple times to stay up all night studying for exams and doing projects that I should have been doing in the previous week while I just played poker. Haha I had some girls as friends, specifically ones I played poker a lot with but other than that I kept to myself.
Now after your first year, you dropped out of college. I imagine most parents would be devastated by this news. How did you break it to your parents, and how did they respond? What were your reasons for leaving, and what new goals were you planning to pursue?
Well actually after my second quarter and UC my grades were pretty horrible and my dad was very close to taking me out of college and making me just get a job while I could 'think about stuff.' He said he sensed that I did not give a crap about college and all I really cared about was poker and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. He was very much spot-on correct but I couldn't stand the idea of living with my parents and working in some factory ultimately gaining nothing while all my friends were at college, so I begged for him to let me go back for one last quarter.
So after that quarter I got the invite to go to Korea and decided to go. They actually didn't realize I was dropping out because when I went to Korea I told them I was only going to stay for the summer most likely. It was funny, my first week in Korea my mom was making me do all this stuff online for my next year of college and I told her I was doing it all even though I wasn't just because I was 100% sure that I wasn't coming back to UC in the fall. So yeah, they responded fairly well seeing as how they thought it would only be a short-term thing.
As far as goals go I really wasn't sure. I was just a guy with a passion and a dream of being a Starcraft progamer and really wanted to make it happen. I foresaw myself staying in Korea playing Starcraft professionally on TV for 1 or 2 years and then coming back to the states and finishing up college. I just needed a break from college/parents and needed some spice in my life.
Looking back on all of that, do you have any regrets?
I don't have any regrets. I guess I should be a little remorseful for lying to my parents, but hey, I had to do what I had to do and me telling the truth wasn't going to help the situation. Everything had worked out perfectly as I had hoped, so I can't complain.
Well...it didn't work out as I had hoped...it worked out better
Well, as most of us know, you went on to become quite an established poker player. A game which many still believe to be all about luck, earning a name through old westerns as the sport of mad gunslingers with enlarged medulla oblongata, is poker. While you were playing or observing those innocent home games of 5-card draw as a child, did you ever imagine that one day you would be making a living off of the game?
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this. Back in those days getting a $2 allowance upgrade per week allowing myself to purchase an extra booster pack of Magic: The Gathering cards every two weeks was a huge deal. I did play some poker when I was little and it was 5-card draw. I was totally sure that the game was almost pure luck, but I did feel like I had some ability to call out peoples' bluffs. I'm not quite sure but my feelings tell me I was just as confident in my abilities when I was little as I am now when it comes to feeling out situations and making the right moves.
There are tons of aspiring poker professionals heating up the forums these days, and fortunately, only a select few have what it takes to really establish themselves. The most reasonable advice for those who aren't as lucky would be to simply quit, but other than that, what advice do you have for those who want to take their losing poker game and turn it into a winning one?
Well the first thing is patience. Do not expect to become good at poker until you've given it atleast a year. A year probably isn't enough either. The fact is most people lose at poker. The losers are losing, the winners are winning and the house is winning. That means the losers are losing more than the winners are winning. Poker is extremely complicated and dangerous at the same time.
I honestly think most people are just greedy and that even though they might not have the mental capacity to succeed at poker in the long run, they just want an easy out in life. They don't want to 'work' for their money they just want to win it. But I'll be the first to tell you, playing poker professionally can be a million times more stressful and antagonizing than some overweight grumbling manager telling you to 'flip them hamburgers faster.'
And how do you feel about written guides to poker, such as Doyle Brunson's acclaimed "Super System"? Some will say books on the subject are a complete waste, while others testify that the road to perfecting your game includes equal parts reading and playing. What's your take?
Those books contain huge amounts of valuable information. But the problem is, until you've reached a high level of play, unless you're reading the books that help you start out playing poker as a beginner, you cannot comprehend that information. If you're starting just buy one book like Sklansky's "The Theory of Poker" and learn the ropes. Skim it and maybe skim some other books but mainly what you should be doing is playing playing playing. That is the only way you can learn and experience poker, because honestly those books do not tell you anything about how to play hands. They tell you all this stuff about aggressive players and weak tight players but they have no real concrete methods of how to play your AJ suited or AQ off-suit against them.
So if you want to start poker start playing first and read as you play a table or two on the internet .01/.02 tables, but don't get too deep into the books. Then after a year when you think you're a pretty solid fisherman, get all the books and read em all thoroughly even if you feel it is mundane. No matter how good you are, there is always room for improvement.
You've said in the past that you lost about $450 before you really got the hang of playing winning poker. Is this initial downfall something every beginning player can expect, or do you feel you made initial mistakes that others may not?
It is something you should expect but it definitely is avoidable. There is plenty of information out there on the net about how to play low stakes poker, if you follow it religiously you can theoretically start without losing at all. But you're going to really need a friend who is good to tell you how to play and you're going to need amazing natural patience.
Everyone I know lost for the first month or two atleast of when they started playing except for Nazgul, that guy is patient as hell and was winning from the day he started. I had ilnp who told me how to play hands preflop, what to fold etc, but I had no one telling me to fold a hand after the river when the pot was huge and the guy went all-in. I called a lot 'just because' and that was why I wasn't able to win.
You've had more than your fair share of success with poker since those days. What would you say was the major turning point for you, the large or subtle change to your play that brought you into the thousands?
Well after my first two months or so of losing I basically re-thought the game and became an incredibly tight player. I stopped making bad calls and only bet good cards. With this strategy all through college I was able to win a small amount. But in general I was still a bad player who could be bullied. Even though I was a winning player at low stakes, I could not profit at 1/2 NL or higher. Then I went to Korea and quit playing poker for a while.
When I started playing again after that very long break, something was just different. I needed money and I needed to win. Losing was not an option. I really don't know why or how it's not like I had someone telling me to change my style, but I became a smarter more aggressive player who was capable of making good reads and calls. Then as I kept building my bankroll and moving up limits I just felt my skill getting higher and higher and I started to think there was no limit (haha) to that skill. I want to be the best.
You play mostly online, and most would agree that it's generally more profitable than live play, but that's not to say live play doesn't have its positive points. To begin with, it's insanely fun. From a technical standpoint, the physical presence of your opponents makes the game all the more complex. What would you say are the key differences between online play, and live play?
Well first I'll give you the generic response that everyone says... online is more about patience and playing your cards because you cannot read your opponents' faces and live play is about reading the other guy. Real life play is more fun because you get to socialize but boring because you don't see many hands. Online play is more fun because you can play 5 tables all which go very fast, but boring because you're just clicking a mouse and can't see the other guy's face. All of that is true. But I honestly feel there is not much difference between live poker and online poker.
The need to 'read an opponent eating a cookie' as a strong hand is mostly not there in real life poker either. Of course some idiots or nervous wrecks you can read them but the beauty of poker is in the betting patterns. It is very possible to read your opponent online through his betting patterns after you've seen him play for a while. And in real life poker, betting patterns is also the main way you read people. Don't be fooled by the movie Rounders. This game is just as complicated online as it is in the casino.
Speaking of, how have you done in the casinos? You've played in atleast one live tournament that I know of, why don't you tell us about that experience?
I went to a charity casino in Ohio about 5 times that I could play in because I was 18 and that's the gambling age in Ohio, but that's it. This was when I was still an incredibly tight player and I rocked their world. I played so scared too. I remember one hand a guy went all-in against me on a board of J8453 and I had pocket queens and almost folded. I was so scared to make that call but I did make the $500 call with QQ after thinking for like five minutes and he only had a pair of jacks two kicker haha. After that pot that guy got up and stormed out of the casino because it was basically me, an 18 year old punk, playing $500 no limit with a bunch of 30 year old+ guys.
Then there was a tournament in that casino called The Ohio Championship of Poker which I got 3rd place in and earned $2,000+ and the nickname The Cincinnati Kid.
But other than that, my live experience is limited purely to small stakes games in college with friends just for fun pretty much.
A lot of players in live games try to use sunglasses or visors in an effort to minimize how many physical clues (or "tells") they reveal to their opponents. One player in the World Poker Tour even went as far as pulling the hood of his hoodie over his head and tightening it all the way to completely conceal his face ala Kenny from South Park. What are your thoughts on this? Effective poker strategy, or just being a retard?
Interesting question. I guess some people believe their eyes give away tells and such which is understandable. But I feel that wearing sunglasses at the table makes you a pussy. It's basically admitting inferiority as if you need some sort of special handicap. But it's not against the rules so I guess it's good for players to remove all the weaknesses they can. I personally will never wear sunglasses at a poker table as I like to use my eyes, the way I look at people and things even when I'm not in the hand to create an image of a very scary intense thinker so people will fear me. Elky is an exception to the sunglasses thing by the way, he wears sunglasses 24/7 not just at the poker table so that's ok haha.
The World Series of Poker has begun, and plenty of those players have sunglasses on. You decided not to participate this year. Why?
Well it is kinda hard to participate seeing as how the legal age is 21 and I just turned 20 today. Hopefully next year the main event will be after June 30th in which case I will go to Vegas for a couple weeks starting probably a week before my birthday and just play cash games in casinos (they rarely ID for cash games there and probably would let it slip anyways) until my birthday.
Then when I hit 21 I'll start participating in the WSOP tournies and try to win atleast some valuable experience if not money. But later this year I hope to attend EPT somewhere because the legal age in Europe is 18 years old.
I look forward to seeing how you do. You know a few people attending the World Series of Poker this year, and in all the hands that are being played in the event, I'm sure you must've heard the details of atleast a couple of major hands. Care to indulge us?
Haha, well none of my friends are there yet but I saw one interview on cardplayer.com of a crazy hand involving a Russian guy named Kirril/Kirill or something Gerasimov. I forget his name exactly, anyways... the Russian was dealt T6h in the big blind. The button raised like 2x the big blind with nobody else in the pot. The small blind folds and he calls from the big blind. Flop was like AK2 with two hearts. Russian guy checks hoping for a checkraise to steal the pot and if he gets called he still has a flushdraw with outs.
To his dismay the guy also checked and the turn was another low card like a 3 and not a heart. So his draw just got a lot weaker. He checks and the other guy checks as well. River comes jack giving the Russian high card ten six kicker. He checks and thought the guy on the button also checked, so he turned over his hand and said "ten high!" then the other guy suddenly goes "I DIDN'T CHECK!"
The Russian says man I have ten high, if you have a pair or higher kicker just show it and take down the pot I'm obviously not going to call your bet. The guy asks a floorperson who makes a decision that he did not check and can bet if he wants. The guy then goes all-in and the Russian is like "FUCK YOU" and calls him down, an all-in bet for all his chips with ten high. The guy on the button had seven high and got busted.
Seen from the outside this seems like an easy fold...why would he do that if he didn't have the winning hand? But if you're sitting there with several thousand on the line in the WSOP with ten high vs a bet for all your chips on such a small pot... it's just a truly amazing read/play and hilarious at the same time. Don't fuck with Russians?
Hahahaha. Skills. I assume just about every person at that table was doing some form of intimidating chiptrick. Do you know any chiptricks yourself? Do you think doing them would get you more folders?
Well I used to be able to do the chip shuffle pretty well but that's about it. Though the other day I tried it and failed miserably because I haven't done it in a long time. It's possible it could get more folders by a very very tiny percent but honestly a kid who just sits there quietly and does nothing suddenly betting big is scarier than some cocky jackass doing as many chiptricks as he can firing a bet into you.
The game of Texas Hold'em has swept the poker scene. Not long ago, I believe Seven-Card Stud was the most popular form of poker, and even longer ago, I think 5-Card Draw was the best-known. What would you attribute the recent popularity of Hold'em to, and how would you compare it to a version of the game that's virtually unplayed these days such as 5-Card Draw?
Hold'em is a delicate balance between a game of several complex betting rounds such a Seven Card Stud, and a game of pure luck like 5-Card Draw. I can compare it to Starcraft I guess, an incredibly complicated game on one hand but incredibly simple on the other. Easy to learn the rules but impossible to master. The use of odds is equally balanced by the use of bluffing and reading skills. In games like Omaha, knowledge of the odds matters more than reading ability.
Now you said earlier that you left your life in Ohio to play for Hexatron. Everybody already knows that story, so I'm not going to get into it, but that is what ultimately lead to your taking residence in South Korea. I'd like to talk now about your life there.
After you left Hexatron, you obviously had to go somewhere, and I hear living expenses in South Korea can be quite daunting. Only the richest people have their own homes, so just about everybody lives in an apartment with many other people. Where did you find an apartment, and if you don't live alone, who rooms with you?
Finding an apartment was actually pretty easy for me. I was lucky to meet a 30 year old Korean friend named Gunwoo who wanted to move out of his parents place and live on his own while he started his business. So me and my good friend from the Hexatron headquarters, Joel, all got a place pretty close to the Hexatron place. Yes you're right if you want to buy a place it is incredibly expensive in Seoul, but actually the rent is quite low compared to the states. A lot of the time, though, you'll have to pay 5 - 20,000$ deposit fee on the places before you can start paying your low rent (you get it back after you leave).
That's just how it works in Korea. My place was located in Nonhyun-dong which is basically in the center of Kang Nam, one of the most fun areas in Seoul. But since then I have moved on with Joel and Gunwoo to an even better and bigger place.
I've heard some bad stories about the living conditions in Korea. One bathroom being shared by many many people, for example. How's your quality of life there? What kind of foods do you eat, other than rice?
Well it is a big city. That's the way it is all over the world in big packed cities. Unless you've got the dough you're going to have to live in a pretty small place with lots of people. In Hexatron we had like 10 people living there with two bathrooms and not a lot of space. But since I moved out I have not seen much of that at all. My place is very nice and it's not hard for three guys to share one bathroom.
As far as food goes... I usually eat a nice meal at some outdoor Korean restaurant after working out and for breakfast I eat cereal/rice/fruit. We go shopping to a big supermarket called the E-Mart to stock-up on food a lot. Also I have been ordering this stuff called Jumbo Donkass (pork). They give you a big plate with lots of donkass rice and some grass stuff and potato soup. Overall it's filling and relatively healthy even though donkass isn't the greatest quality meat.
If you have money in Seoul you can live a high quality of life no matter what, and if you don't you can live pretty easily for a low price as long as you don't demand too nice of a place to live and don't party too hard.
Have you gotten into any kind of routine while living in Korea? Do you have certain times that you schedule poker play, or certain days that you spend at certain places? What do you do for fun in Korea?
Well I moved to my newest nice place like 2 - 3 months ago. My routine is basically wake up anywhere from 11AM-1PM, play poker until 5 or 6 while finding some breakfast. Then the poker tables die and that's when Elky, Giyom, Joel, and I go to the gym. After that we eat then go home. Usually after that Joel and I find some girls to go out with and if not we go to a club and search for them and drink some with other Korean friends. If we don't go out I just stay home and play more poker when the tables pick up or watch downloaded TV programs/movies.
I also play Starcraft a little bit against old-school gosu but current chobo Spunky who is also a good friend in Korea.
I'm well-aware that you're quite fond of the Korean night-life, so here's a question that I'm sure will appeal to most people in the forums. How are those tight-bodied Korean girls? Please provide detailed analysis of atleast one sexual encounter with a tight-bodied Korean girl.
Korean girls are interesting. In general they are very shy towards foreigners at first but if you approach them and they can speak a little english, they will open up to you quite a bit and attempt to engage conversation. It also helps to speak a little Korean, that will impress them quite a bit. Most Korean girls are simple in that they want a nice boyfriend who can make them feel secure and stuff.
But if you go into the night club scene, which is a small % of Korean girls, they change quite a bit. They are not so shy anymore and they like to dance and experience new things (cough). If you meet girls in these places you have to be careful. There are plenty of good girls who go there to have fun and plenty of sexy girls who go there to meet a guy. But there are also stuck-up money hungry whores.
I dated one girl for a little bit and one day at like 11 AM I am going home and we are walking and we go into this store. She's looking around while I'm on the phone. She picked out two outfits and put them on the sales counter. I was on the phone and she's like "DAN COME HERE!" I suddenly read her and I just FELT she wanted me to pay for her shit. Sure I'll buy a girl some stuff but it will be my gift to her, not something she's telling me to do. Anyways I ignored her and she just stood there then signaled me over. She was like "HEY DAN O MANWON" ($50 equivalent) and I was like what the hell?
She then fluttered her eyes and was like "HEY!!! O MANWON !!!" And I was like "WTF??? You want me to pay for your shit right now? You pay for it yourself." She then gave me a snotty look and grabbed the clothes and threw them on the ground. Then I called her a money hungry bitch and walked out. That was the end of her.
I guess it's like that all over the world. You can find plenty of nice normal girls, but also some crazy stuck-up ones. But in general, Korean girls are far less egotistical and stuck-up than American girls. Plus in Korea they are all thin and don't think they are the shit because of it. You have no idea how many girls I have seen in the USA since I've been back, strutting around with a shirt that doesn't quite reach their pants and they have a big gut sticking out yet they still strut their shit like they are the shit. It's so irritating haha.
And to answer your final question I'm going to have to phrase it in Starcraft terms so only you gamers can understand haha. Basically the marine went to the barracks and got some stim packs and met a nice medic who also got stimmed and didn't have any restoration. They then left the barracks and boarded a dropship and were cruising along, when our dropship collided with another dropship. The marine was so stimmed that he had no idea where he was going in the dropship in the first place but he was ready to go. Anyways after the crash the marines gets out with the medic both without injuries (the medic would have healed them anyways so it didn't matter), although the dropship was destroyed. To the marine and medic's surprise, who had no idea where they were, there was a bunker on the side of the pathway and the medic goes "are you going back to your terran base?" The marine then goes no way in hell I am, I'm staying in this bunker, it's really cheap, you should stay there too it is safe. The marine had just met his medic but he managed to defensive matrix his gauss rifle and enter the medic's nydus canal safely without fear of getting parasited. Luckily after that day the marine didn't get ensnared by the medic who moved on with its life as a medic and left the marine to explore new hatcheries.
Well, after a long time spent in Korea, you're back in Ohio on vacation visiting with your family. Is it possible that this will be a permanent change, or is your heart still set on South Korea?
No I am set to fly back to Seoul on July 5th. My heart is set on Korea for the time being. Actually one of the main things this trip made me realize is that I will never ever be living in this house with my parents again. Maybe I live in Korea 2 or 3 more years while taking poker vacations all over the world and then finally settle down and go to school in USA or another country, maybe even Korea haha. I'm not sure yet.
And what was it like stepping off that airplane and seeing your family for the first time in so long? Had they changed much in appearance? What was their initial reaction?
Well, when I stepped off the airplane all I saw was my brother who I have such a relationship with where we are both just like "Sup." and back to normal. He had to pick me up at the airport and take me to his place then my mom came to his place and picked me up the next day. It was nice seeing my family for the first time in the year. It was the only time in my life that I had actually missed them.
My mom was a little teary and huggy when she saw me, naturally, but after a few minutes it was back to normal. Living with your family for a long time can make you not appreciate them and take them for granted, but this long break has made me realize the importance and significance of them in my life.
Though man, when I stepped off that airplane I forgot that I was in an english-speaking country. I was standing there at the carousel with my brother and I just said out loud on accident "Damn, there are so many fat girls in this country jesus christ." I'm sure some of them heard it haha.
So tell us more about how it's been, living under your mother's roof again, and having to act like a normal human being. Are you getting stir-crazy? About to lose your mind, dying to get on that plane back to Korea?
All of the above. While I enjoy seeing my family I also hate the circumstances under which it has to happen at the same time. About two days after I got here I was bored as hell. I mean, in Korea I can play poker, win some money then go out later at night to either celebrate if I won or forget if I lost. But not here. Here I've just been playing lots and lots of poker as most of my friends are gone and there's nothing to do with the ones that are here. Well, there are things to do but my ability to experience fun has been de-sensitized by the insane amount of fun I've had in Korea. So it kinda blows haha. I can't wait to get back on the plane.
But the main thing this vacation has made me realize is just how much I value independence and doing everything on my own and supporting myself fully. Having mommy cook me amazing meals is also indeed a priceless attribute of being home, but the idea of being alone in another country doing it all myself is what makes me happy.
Earlier in the interview you mentioned that your parents were upset with you because all you seemed to care about was poker. How have their views changed as you've become increasingly successful with it? Do they accept and support your choices, are they completely indifferent, or are they angry at you for giving up college for it? Are they expecting a piece of the pie?
My dad was upset at that point because he had no means of grasping the true potential money-making power that someone who is good at poker possesses. Now that they see the big numbers rolling in they are extremely supportive and happy. They pretty much trust me 100% with any decision I want to make with my life. They do not care if I go to college because at this point they know I will make the best decisions for myself.
Though they still try to give me suggestions and advice all the time. My mom hates the fact that I'm so far away, she suggested that I come back from Korea and just not go to college and live in Las Vegas instead. One year ago the thought of me living in Las Vegas would have made my mom laugh and talk down to me so much. Haha, they don't expect a piece of the pie, they are just happy they don't have to pay the rest of my college education I think.
Your parents seem like a real catch. Well, that brings me to my final question. A while ago you told us that you had made more money in three months of poker, than both of your parents combined, as college graduates, could make in an entire year. $120,000.00 to be exact. Tell us, what has your total net profit from playing poker risen to between then and now?
I went on a pretty slow streak for about 2 months after that article I wrote, but I had a really hot week so now the total is probably around $175,000 on the year.
Congratulations on that Rek, and thanks for taking the time. It's been a real pleasure.
Thanks for the interview and welcome to the TL.net crew. I hope you enjoy your blue letters and conduct many more great interviews.
hella long :O
