Hi,
More great news for the BPC community. You have very likely never heard of this guy, but some of you already know that some of the biggest winners at poker are not well known to the public.
Woolf is one of those many players that few have heard of, but that silently made hundreds of thousands and even millions at online poker. I have quite a few friends like some Dad of 3 children in Finland who regularly makes 30k+/month while nobody in the “forums” has even any idea who he is. There are btw a lot of people like that out there. Unfortunately, they usually don’t care too much to give coaching. Well, Woolf is/was one of them.
Woolf is also a very good friend of mine in personal life over many years and could have been one of my greatest coaches in poker – but he wasn’t. Here is why:
We have met the first time around 2007/2008 and I was a donk back then with a year of poker under my belt and he was making 20k/month playing boring solid 6max poker. I made like 2-5k at that time. We have met on a trip and of course discussed poker.
We met on a trip and of course discussed poker.
I still think up to this day that it was one of the biggest mistakes in my career that I simply did not shut up and listen what he had to say. Very often it is so simple to improve: Just look what guys do who are 1-2 levels higher than you in skill and do EXACTLY what they do. So simple…
Still so many micro and low stakes players are just too stupid and instead try to “do it their way”. I was no different. I understand this as a coach better than anybody else now (because of being sooooo stupid myself!).
The problem was, at that time I did not think he was a great player. Yes, he made like 5-10x more than me, but I was just not capable of accepting the obvious truth. I mean, how fucked up do you have to be to see somebody making 5-10x more than you and still believe you are better ???
For sure, I never lacked self-confidence, but this was again simply STUPID of me. Often the biggest improvements in life/poker are right in front of you and everybody can see it clearly – everybody besides yourself.
Well, it took me over 100k break-even hands at NL50 to learn my lesson. And I can call myself lucky since some people will never learn this lesson. And when I was at my lowest point mentally, and only then was I ready to look and see what others did.
And well, then I thought, ok, “Woolf” does not play “smart and advanced poker” (read, BULLSHIT!) like myself and he still makes a lot of money. Hmmm… let me try to do something like that.
Well, I finally found my way with HU, where I could still use my game that was heavily based on reads, and add a huge portion of “Woolf – solid simple machine play”. That was the winning combination. I realized that basic, solid and no-bullshit was the “secret” to success at poker that was too obvious and still is way too obvious for most players to realize. And only once you have a super solid foundation and make around 10k+/month, only then you can start some extra layers of “creativity” and all that stuff we so deeply yearn for.
Why do I explain this in such a detail? Well, “Woolf” represents the mistake that I have done in my career that I do NOT want you to make. I could have been a lot better in a shorter time if I had done nothing else but to be more open to people who I knew made more $$$ than me at that time.
Ok, long story short. Woolf has quit professional poker in 2011 and has started businesses on his own. Luckily he will have some free time for the next 6months and I took the chance and asked him if the impossible was possible. He agreed to start coaching on our CFP team. He might not take on a lot of students because of the limited time he has, but call yourself lucky if he will be your coach.
This is a longer introduction, but there is a huge lesson to be learned – hence the length.
So please BPC, welcome “Woolf”!
– Gordon
