EPT and WPT champ Roberto Romanello is one of the UK’s leading players and is here to solve your poker dilemmas
Czech mate
You’ve played in a lot of countries and won tournaments all over the world so you must have seen a lot of poker in your time. In your opinion what is your favourite country to play poker in and why? Also which country typically has the strongest and weakest players? It might help me in my holiday plans.
Ric Menne
My absolute favourite place has to be Prague in the Czech Republic. I’ve been there four times and have had two big scores and two smaller scores. I just seem to make money every time I go there. I feel comfortable there, love the place and always have such a good time. Without a doubt every time I go to Vegas in the US you always seem to get a massive mix of strong and weak players. In the WSOP you play in big fields every day and some players are really bad, worse than those on the American circuit, while at other times you’re up against some of the best poker players in the world. It’s just a mass of both bad and good players.
Waiting game
In online sit-and-gos how do you approach the bubble? Do you think it’s more important just to cash or to take a gamble and attempt to give yourself the best possible chance of winning?
Charlie Burns
I used to play a lot of online sit-and-gos and they really suited me as they’re quite simple and strategic. I always felt the right thing to do was get into the money first. Once you’re in it’s so easy to win because the blinds are always big. You’d be surprised how easy it is to come from short stack to go on and win. Playing sit-and-gos is very straightforward and robotic. Don’t do anything special – just get into the money where it becomes a shove fest and hopefully you’ll get a bit of luck and win it.
Play the player
Do you think it’s always right to just flat call with small pairs in order to try and hit a set? Or is it sometimes better to squeeze or even five-bet jam with these hands in certain spots?
Brian Malone
Controlled aggression
When you get really deep in a cash game should you be three-betting more or less? It seems that players are much more keen to call three-bets once we get over 200 big blinds so I’m unsure of the positive benefits of three-betting as much as usual.
Gordon Levine
Again, everything in poker is to do with your opponent. People forget that poker is not just about your hand. Poker is all about your opponents. How can you play a hand to get maximum value? There are so many scenarios out there. In general if I get deep I get much more aggressive as my stack grows. I will three-bet a lot more and my range becomes wide open. Obviously I prefer to three-bet with suited connectors and stuff like that but as I get over 200 big blinds I will be three-betting virtually anything. I love to take control of pots by being the aggressor.
Going live
Do you think it’s possible to be a live tournament pro these days without the help of being staked? How would you recommend someone who is a winning player gets started in playing live tournaments for a living?
Rob Gleeson
This is very important and reality has kicked in for me the last few months. When I was backed I always appreciated having a sponsor for a few years. I haven’t been backed for the last four months and it’s tough. I have done pretty well – I’ve had some nice scores and cashed for £250,000 but I’m still feeling the pressure. When you play big tourneys all the time it can add up. That includes two deep runs in EPTs but even with that turnover I’ve spent around £200,000 in tournament buy-ins, travelling and hotels. It’s not as great as everybody thinks. And this is when I’ve had results! It’s very important to get sponsored if you can. But if you can’t get sponsored then try to satellite your way into these tournaments, either online or at the venue. Winning a satellite will usually mean your hotel and travelling costs are taken care for you. Otherwise it’s a very tough way to make an easy living.
Romanello’s tip of the month: Defend, defend!
I will probably defend hands like A-T, K-T and Q-J from the big blind and only fold if I have a very specific reason to. I’ll three-bet or call depending on the situation. If a player that is not capable of many moves raises then I might three-bet him with A-T because this guy probably will not four-bet me with any hand worse than that. I know exactly where I am at all times. If he just calls I can hopefully outplay him on the flop with what is likely the best hand. If there was a lunatic on the table that raises my big blind I am just going to call here almost 100% of the time. With A-T it’s possible that I could get him to spew off with worse though so I may click it back and intend to call a shove or move all-in over a four-bet. If we are super deep I will probably just call 100% of the time too. The reason is because if I three-bet then I know he is very capable of four-betting light but do I really need to spew off versus this player when I probably have a massive edge on the table and don’t need to play this high variance spot. It’s not always about being a hero, you’re there to find good spots and get chips off the other players.
