[Interview] An interview with p3achy_keen from Pokerstars

[RobV]

Introduction

Eric Liu, also known as p3achy_keen, is a talented and young poker player who is playing daily at the highest limits PokerStars has to offer. This alone is of course enough reason for us to ask him for an interview and find out how he got to the top and what he is planning to do next, in poker and general.


Lets do the basic stuff first.
What’s your name, age, location and screen name?

Eric Liu, 21, location Duke University p3achy_keen on PokerStars.

Poker

Do you only play at PokerStars?

I mainly play on stars, but I also play occasionally on Full Tilt Poker.

Why is it that you mostly play on stars though, don't you consider rake back to be very important? Or is this irrelevant at your limit?

I used to play on PartyPoker, but since that got shut on to US players, I decided to switch to PokerStars, because a lot of people on liquidpoker.net play on PokerStars.

Doesn't it annoy you to play versus people that you know and talk with about poker? I sometimes spot you playing at the same tables as for example Daut44, while you discuss and post hands at liquid poker together. Doesn't this give the other a big advantage, especially since you are the one that seems very active in posting your own Hand History.

I actually think it's kind of interesting to play at the same tables with those people, because it gives me a challenge and allows me to learn more about the game. If I discuss hands with someone, it becomes even more of a mental game and they now have to consider what we discussed next time a similar situation comes along.

It becomes like Roshambo on a higher level?

Haha, yes it's a similar idea.

So you play the game mainly to improve yourself? Is the money you are making not more important to you? I often heard people say players at 5000nl PokerStars are crazy, because the games there are very hard and money is easier to pick up at other sites. How do you feel about this?

The 5kNL game on stars has become significantly easier since the "Hallingol regime" in my opinion. I play the game mainly for improvement and also to increase my bankroll, but improvement is my biggest and foremost goal. Also I don't feel that the games are that hard to beat.

How lucky for you to feel that way.
What do you mean by the "Hallingol regime"? Where did that guy go anyway?

Hallingol is actually back in action after taking a long break. I refer to the period of time where he was dominating the games on stars as the "Hallingol regime", because he would be on every day dominating everyone.
The people who played at that time were all very good, which is why the stars 25/50 games during that era were said to be so tough, but a lot of those people have moved on to other sites or are taking a break. So the games are not so tough anymore. However I feel there is an influx of many upstarts, me included, that are getting very good and will present a challenge to the nosebleed stakes soon.

Who do you know consider to be the top 5 best players on PokerStars at this moment?

That's actually a very tough question to answer. It really depends on whether it's shorthanded or full ring. At the moment in full ring I feel that Daut and Pooruser are both very good even though they have very different styles. It's very interesting to see how such different styles can both succeed at these high limits.

Daut being fairly tight and Pooruser making the loosest calls?

Similar, Daut is just a very solid player whereas Pooruser is a very loose and read dependent player.

Yeah Poouruser's calls are nice to watch. How would you describe yourself as a player?

I try to mold my play based on the styles of my opponents. I also like to steal the moves away from my opponents, when I find a line they have is extremely strong or tricky. I think in general I am neither too loose nor too tight and that I can switch gears fairly easy.

Do you happen to have a hand which you are particularly proud of?

Yeah I could link you to this one: http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/175138

Could you tell us why you called here?

Basically, this was one of the first times i played with Draco and I noticed right away that he liked to bluff big a lot, especially deep stacked. On the flop Ii was almost certain that I had the best hand, because he would nearly always 4bet a strong ace or a better pair and I knew he would float a lot. The turn gets very tricky because in truth, he can have a flush, he can have a 4 and he can have 55 or Ax. On river the board looks so bad, but just by the timing of his river bet I decided to call and I was right ;p

Background

Lets move on to your background for a bit. How did you get started and how did you manage to achieve to play at the high limits your playing now? Do you have any other gaming background that contributed to your success?

I used to play Starcraft and Counterstrike for fun, but I wouldn't say those games contributed much to my success in poker. I started playing in high school and in order to get better I just put in hours and hours of grinding, reading and analyzing hands.
In truth the main thing I can attribute to my success is experience. Experience can never be substituted.

So how did you get to play poker in the first place? Were it your friends from high school that introduced you to the game? And did you decide to deposit online one day?

At first I was interested in poker just like many people, because I saw the World Series Of Poker on TV. In my senior year of high school, like most American students, I had very little to do in terms of schoolwork. As a result we just played a lot of poker every day. I thought I was pretty good, but in truth I was horrible and one day I decided to deposit money online during my freshman year of college because I thought that I could beat the games online. Needless to say I lost a lot of my first deposits, because I would deposit $50, play NL50 with it and then just lose it and cry haha.

Haha that actually reminds me of a friend of mine whom I have told many times not to do that but he keeps on redepositing.

Yes eventually I learned about bankroll management and stopped losing my 1 buy in deposits.

Road to the high stakes and onwards

Anyway eventually you obviously have gotten better and one day you won the bad beat jackpot? Can you tell us what happened there?

So yeah, sophomore year of college I grinded my way with a $200 roll to about 35k, but I cashed that out for spending money. During that time I was grinding 2/4 ring on PartyPoker and running very well. At the start of my junior year I was grinding it back up on .5/1 and was able to win the bad beat jackpot for a nice 110k.(losing with 8888 versus QQQQ, winning him a 110,000bb pot) Afterwards I decided to take a shot on Party's 5/10 to see if I could beat it. After playing for about a week I realized that I could beat it for a pretty good rate too. And the rest was just history.

So you never looked back from that point and moved all the way up to constantly beating the 5kNL games. Do you play any other games besides 5kNL Texas hold'em?

I’m starting to experiment with Omaha high and starting to get into Stud and H.O.R.S.E.
I think I am starting to get decent at Omaha high although I still have many leaks in the game, since I decided to jump directly into 25/50 Omaha. Many would also suggest expanding into limit hold'em, but the momentum in that game is way too different from NLHE for me to learn well.

Do you play any tournaments at all? I see you want to try to attend the WSOP. Do you hope on winning there or is it mainly because you want to meet other players?

Up until this point I haven't played any tournaments with the exception of a few free rolls. However I am going to attend the main event, simply because it is the main event. As a result I am trying to play a tournament every day to prepare for it, as well as playing in a satellite to successfully seed into it.

Alright, so when you win it may I have another interview of you?

No man, I'll be famous so I won't care about you guys anymore!

No, just kidding. I will always try to stick to my roots. I believe it's important not to get too caught up in yourself and the money. I really try to keep a low profile and I think it's very important to realize that just because you play poker well, you are not a great person. You are not actually doing great things to better the world.

You could try to become a Barry Greenstein, I believe he is donating 10% of his profits?

That's why I really admire people like Barry Greenstein who use their poker skills for charitable causes. Also I admire people like Bono, because even though they are entertainers, they really try to help with truly important things.

Same thought! Haha you read my mind (we both typed the answer & question simultaneously)

Style of Play

How would you characterize your style of play? Do you think you're perceived as a tight aggressive or rather a loose aggressive player? How does this image contribute to your success?

In full ring I would consider myself a tight and aggressive player who occasionally plays hands tricky and makes moves in appropriate situations. In shorthanded games however, I like to adjust my play based on my opponents. For example versus a loose pass I like to 3 barrel and over bet a lot, but vs an aggressive player I will attempt to trap a lot. I am also a very read dependent player and will make moves that are what I feel +EV for a specific situation.

What do you think you that makes you different from the other players playing in the big games that allows you to win there? You talked about experience, but since you are so young many will have more experience than you. So what is it that separates you from the others?

I believe age is a separate function of experience, because of the whole online poker phenomenon. Sure, people like Mike Matusow have been playing poker far longer than I have, but I play many more hands in a certain period of time and this allows me to grasp many concepts of the game much more clearly.

Poor Mike, someone picking on him, again. ; )

I just feel the hours I put in and the hands I see vs all the different types of opponents I play allow me to feel comfortable in almost every situation that comes up.

Favorite Poker Players

Speaking of 'famous' poker players. I'm sure you have watched High Stakes poker, who is your favorite poker player online and offline?

My two favorite live players are Phil Ivey and Antonio Esfandiari, simply because of their hand reading ability and their fearlessness based on their judgments. My two favorite online players are Patrick Antonius and Aba(Brian Townsend), because their psychological edge is simply that much greater than that of any other opponent they face.

It seems like everybody names the same people.

Really? I'm surprised to hear that people name Esfandiari.

But many do actually after the first season HSP. I actually didn't even know him before this show was on air, but I like how he plays as well. He makes some nice moves, but it is hard to judge from a couple of shows for me.

That’s good he is a total sicko. Yes it is hard to judge based solely on HSP, but believe me he is sick.

I personally think Jennifer Tilly is one of the best players out there.

Yes I also feel Jennifer has one of the best hand reading skills out of all famous people.

Quads baby. (Referring to the show poker after dark where she checked a full house behind Antonius, because she was under the impression he had four of a kind kings. Click Here if you want to see the show.)


Personal stuff

Anyway we are reaching the end of the interview, let's talk about some personal stuff.

Do you have any other hobbies besides playing poker all day long?

I really like to do volunteer work. Before I got into poker I was studying to attend medical school and did a lot of stuff with the red cross.
I also love hanging out with friends, they definitely take the edge off a bad day.

Are you still attending university now?

Currently I am taking a semester off school but plan to return this fall.

Do you think that having sports as hobbies improves your mental stamina that'll help you concentrate in the game better?

I try to get in at least one hour at the gym everyday of lifting and cardio. It's something that I think is especially important for poker players who are sitting for the majority of their day and something that I should be doing better.

Do you have any goals at poker you want to reach? And what place will poker have in your life? What are your plans for the future in general?

I feel poker is a game that has no bounds in terms of skill. With that said I am also not as obsessed with the game as someone like aba, but I find it to be extremely interesting and would like to improve in it as much as possible. As far as its position in my life in the long run, I would like to pursue it professionally for a while, but only to make money and certainly not for the long-term.
Two things I really would like to do are join the peace corps. and open a non-profit organization with my friend that I met in Red Cross from school. This doesn't mean that I won't spend frivolously at all or that I have no desire for a baller lifestyle. I just don't value money as much as a poker player should, I guess.
Also I am a pretty carefree person. I'm not too sure where my life will end up ten or twenty years from now, but I just want to do things that I won't end up regretting, that’s all.

I think we can wrap it up now just one last question though. What's with the sheep at PS? No offense, but it's ugly as hell.

Hahaha that's funny.
My original icon was one of a cocktail glass, because peachy keen is a drink. However no one recognized what it was so I just googled peachy keen and lo and behold that picture came up. When people make fun of it I just say its my girlfriend and they hush up real quick. She's not too good in bed though, quite the kicker.

You should be careful not to flip her over in the middle of the heat though, might get you some trouble with the local authorities.

Any last shout outs you want to make?

Yeah!

I'd like to give shout outs to Straate and vvvq for discussing hands with me while we were all moving up at about the same limits. They are both great players in their own right and I'm sure they will see success in the future. I'd also like to give a shout out to Daut and Pooruser, because of pretty much the same reasons, but also because they are badass.
And to all of lp.net, because it is the best online community of poker players.

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To prove Eric Liu really is a nice guy and into charity, he agreed to review a lucky person's session at our history reviewer. The person who can post the worst beat at our site’s hand poster within the next five days (the hand must date from today or later) will get to upload a session of his choice(max 125 hands) and have Erik Liu look at it. He will try to look for leaks, analyze your game and lift your game to a higher level.
Note that the sessions MUST be played on either, Full Tilt Poker, PartyPoker or PokerStars as our hand history reviewer is only compatible with these formats for now.
You may post your bad beats here.

Also Eric told us he finished doing a video for PokerZion, we will update the link in this interview as soon as it’s being released.

Finally I would like to thank Eric Liu for doing this interview and his willingness to share his poker knowledge with everyone.

And the link to his video can be found here
p3achy_keen's video

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El Toro

[StarS]

HOLY CRAP!!! GOSU INTERVIEW NICE JOB :]!!! Really enjoyed it
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;]lovers

[dronebabo]

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n0rthface sounds like a really nice guy!
great interview, and yes that icon is ugly!!!

[Entsrik]

nice interview (got it right this time ^^
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RobV is nobo.

[noz]

I think it's great that high stakes players such as Eric want to take some of their time to teach the new players.

Also a nice interview ofcourse .

[Muhweli]

That's awesome! Omgomg! Now I wanna win BBJ too!
_________________
-* Every time you minraise, God kills a fish *-

[Twisted]

But you'd get demolished at 1000NL anyway you ape

8D

Nice interview~~!
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[sTrAtO]

very nice interview, i liked it
gj rob ;D
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[rEvoLuTioN]

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[kennyz]

Cool interview, thanks for sharing it with us. I think it's the dream of many young amateur players to play a WSOP tournament or even the main event. It is the most important poker tournament in the world, so I can fully understand that everybody wants to play there. I would love to be there, too, playing with all the greats like Ivey, Hellmuth and Moneymaker, am experience you won't forget your whole life.