Ben Sulsky, or better known as “sauce123” on the virtual felt, is one of the best heads-up poker players in the world with over $5.2 million in online cash game profits, according to HighStakesDB.com. By 2012, he was considered one of the toughest players at high stakes NLHE and PLO games and had trouble finding action as other players refused to play him. Today, Sauce can still be found at the high stakes online games as well as the live tournament circuit, where he’s totaled an additional $1.7 million in winnings.
It wasn’t always high stakes games and millions of dollars, however. In an exclusive interview with FlopTurnRiver.com back in 2007, Sulsky explained how he started his poker career:
I played poker recreationally in high school with friends and got interested in it as I was pushing shopping carts at a fascist supermarket and stealing gourmet foods to upset my bourgeois bosses and wanted a way to make money with my mind.”
Sulsky started playing online freeroll tournaments and never deposited any money. He eventually built his bankroll up to $3k but then lost over a third of it in a single night. He cashed out the rest and did not play poker for a couple years. He returned with a $1k deposit that he quickly lost. Sulsky then deposited another $1k with a plan to never go broke again. He started at NL25 and never looked back.
I went to Mexico and spent two weeks of idleness on the beach scheming about poker and reading posts on 2+2 and FTR. I culled a preflop strategy which was relatively accurate and learned the value of PokerTracker, which I immediately realized would be a huge edge. I also learned just how much skill there was in the game and that it could be learned academically and practically and was not primarily born of instinct which gave me desire and hope.”
Sulsky followed through on his plan and continuously spends countless hours away from the table studying and over time has become known as an innovator of theoretically-correct poker strategies. Here’s a post from 2+2 where he gives some advice to recreational players on how to improve at poker:
Try to think about not just how to play your hand, but how to play your range. So, for example, in hand 1 when you 3bet to $320 with QQ- exactly which hands would you 3b to $320 in this situation? Now, imagine writing that range down, and handing it to the two villains in the hand- how could they best play against that range? Now try to imagine whether you could tweak that range to beat the range which beat your first range. Now hand that range to the villains. How might they exploit that new range? Repeat.
You want to be doing some process similar to this for every decision point you have in a hand. Ask yourself: if the villain knew my strategy (but not my exact cards) how much could he do about it? And try to make it hard for him.
As for the hands, in hand 1, call down without a second thought. The villain can be value betting hands as weak as 98s. In hand 2, definitely, fold to the raise. Think of how many stronger hands you could possibly have: AK w/backdoor flush draw, any pair, any overpair, any gutter, let alone 2PR or better. The pros can’t read your soul, just play your cards as best as you can.”
Today, Sauce can be found playing the biggest games on PokerStars and Full Tilt from his home in Toronto, Canada. To find out what he’s been up to over the last few months, check out the video below, courtesy of Poker Life Podcast.
