Today we have an interview with Matt aka “olmaters”. He is in our 6-max Micro program and doing pretty well. Meet Matt.
When and why did you start playing poker?
For my entire life, I’ve loved poker, and even when I was a kid many of my favorite old movies were the old westerns about the traveling gambler. I always loved the idea of that type of life.
I first started playing Limit Holdem back from the early 2000’s to 2011. Didn’t play too much, I’m guessing that in all those years of playing I played around 60k hands.
I started back at poker in the middle of 2014. It wasn’t anything serious but I had heard that there were some poker sites that Americans could use. At that time powerlifting was what I was dedicating most of my effort towards. After several back injuries that pretty much ended that pursuit, I decided to finally get serious about poker. In October of 2015, I finally decided to learn NL and get going.
Why did you decide to join BPC?
I decided to join BPC after a couple months of playing on my own. Had looked around on twoplustwo and BPC seemed like the only coaching program that had a real vested interest in whether their students make money or not. Also liked the way Gordon was always talking about “working hard and not being lazy”. I felt confident that if that’s all it took, I could do that.
Where do you live and how is it to live there?
I live in San Diego California. I guess I like it. I’ve lived here my entire life. The weather and scenery are great, and most of my and my wife’s family live here. I’ve always wanted my kids to get the chance to have close relationships with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Plus I have a good job here.
How do you spend your free time besides poker?
I do work a full-time job and I don’t have a ton of free time. Usually, I like to hang out with my wife or kids and do whatever they’re doing. I like old movies. I can’t do a lot of regular weight training anymore, but I do go the gym a couple days a week… Mostly to train my grip as silly as that probably sounds to most people. Poker is what I do with most of my free time.
What motivates you or do you have tips for others to get motivated?
What motivates me is to always be improving until I am the very best or the best I can be. Obviously one can always improve so in a way it’s an unattainable goal. However. I can live with whatever results I get in poker or life as long as I know that I gave my very best effort and did everything I could to do to achieve. I am obsessed with spending my time in the way that gets the most value out of it.
Don’t know how to help motivate others. Can’t relate with people where are unmotivated. There is so much to do and so much opportunity, I can’t believe the way some people don’t want to work for the things they want. Last week (almost two) I’ve spent some of my vacation time from work and have had the opportunity to play full time. I can’t understand people that have the time but don’t put 40+ hours into poker every week. Poker is such an awesome challenge!
Thank you for your answers Matt, GL in the program!
