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Interview with Mark Vos, Winner of the $2,000 No-Limit Hold ‘em Tournament

Posted by jgreenspan | Filed under Uncategorized

Mark Vos, a 23-year-old online poker pro from Australia, took the bracelet in the $2,000 No-Limit Hold ‘em tournament earlier this week, netting $803,274. I chatted with Mark about his history, his strategy, and his future.

JG: Tell me a little about your poker background.

MV: I started playing poker about two years ago. I started online pretty much straight away. A couple of my friends were playing and one of them was doing well, so I was interested by that. Within a couple of months I started making money at it, so I very quickly dropped out of university and started doing it for a living.

JG: That’s a very short period of time to go from absolute beginner to full-time pro. You must have put in a lot of hours.

MV: I basically put in 35 hours a week.

JG: Did you do a lot of reading, or do you think you have a natural inclination for the game?

MV: I read a couple of books. But I guess I have a natural inclination for the game. I have a natural inclination for most games, and this is one that has money in it, so I put more time into it.

JG: Are you a math guy?

MV: Yeah, math has always come to me quite naturally [to me], but it wasn’t something I thrived upon or enjoyed doing.

JG: Tell me about the games you started with.

MV: I started with two or three hundred bucks online and I pretty much lost everything. I was down to a few cents. So I went down to one-cent, two-cent fixed-limit and came up form there. When I lost a couple of hundred bucks I didn’t feel like depositing more, so I stared at the bottom and worked up slowly through the limits.

JG: Still, that’s a pretty quick ascension. You now play the biggest games on Full Tilt Poker.

MV: Yeah, I play $25-$50 and $50-$100 no-limit. But my normal everyday games are 5-$10 and $10-$20 no-limit. When there are some nice $25-$50 games I’ll play those.

JG: Was it a shock to your family that you left the university.

MV: Yeah, I actually didn’t tell them until the end of the semester that I’d dropped out. I didn’t want them to get worried. They were fairly comfortable, because at the time I told them I’m taking a year off and then I’d go back. That was my plan. I was just seeing where I wanted to go with my life because university was quite boring to me at the time. I explained it [to my family] and they became more comfortable when they believed I could make a long-term profit in poker.

JG: Do you believe this is your career for life?

MV: I plan and expect it to be my income source for the rest of my life – but not necessarily my career. I want, in the next five years, to set myself up financially for the rest of my life. That’s the plan, and after that I can settle down and do what I want with my time.

JG: Is this your first year at the WSOP?

MV: Yeah.

JG: It’s an amazing accomplishment. Is it a little overwhelming?

MV: I don’t’ know. Through playing a lot of poker I’ve become pretty down to earth about these things. It’s overwhelming in a way, but I take it in stride. I’m really happy about it, but it’s not going to change my life dramatically. It’s really nice and it obviously helps my bankroll. It gets me exposure, which can help me, but I’m pretty comfortable. I’m just taking it in stride.

JG: Do you play a lot of live tournaments in Australia?

MV: I’ve played about twenty live tournaments in Australia and five overseas.

JG: With that experience, did you feel you were fully ready when you played events here?

MV: I definitely felt prepared. I played a couple of $10,000 events in Australia, and a WPT event it France. I had some good results in a few big tournaments this year, so I felt comfortable and ready.

JG: Let’s talk about the tournament. Describe the early stages.

MV: In the early stages I was always one of the short stacks. Annie Duke was in control of my table. She had a monster stack. She was bullying everyone. She eventually ran into a big hand and [lost a lot of chips]. I built up a few chips then hit a set against a guy and won a fairly nice pot. About six hours in I got a fairly nice stack going. But it flattened out and I was pretty much short-stacked until there were 13 people left.

I manage a short stack really well. I managed to steal enough pots to stay in the tournament. Then with about 13 players left, I caught a couple of big hands, doubled up, and managed to get to the final table with a healthy stack.

JG: So you were just sticking around and got some good luck later on?

MV: Yeah. I mean, I’ve got good timing with my steals. I pay attention to who’s likely to call. You have to use your chips very sparingly and correctly because if you make one mistake, you’re out. I picked my spots really well. I re-raised all-in with rags when I expected a guy to fold. I know if I got called I’ve got no chance – or a very small chance. Sometimes someone would make a late-position raise and I’d come in over the top, where they couldn’t call without a very strong hand – even though I know that if they call I’ve got like a 25 percent chance. I did that because that was the only way I could pick up pots. I wasn’t getting cards for a long period of time.

JG: How did you feel at the final table, under the lights and camera?

MV: It was actually my third TV table. I was on TV tables twice during the Aussie Millions. So I was fairly comfortable with it.

JG: How were you feeling about your opponents?

MV: I got to play with everyone before [the final table]. I got to know Nam Le with about four tables to go and became friends with him. Kevin Petersen I play with online quite a bit. We became friends. The lady on my right [Vanessa Selbst] was very loose-aggressive. I had a great seat. I was on the left of her and Kevin and Nam Le. They were the big stacks and the aggressive players.

JG: How did you take advantage of that position?

MV: Well, I was hoping to wait for a big hand and trap Vanessa because she was being so aggressive. But as it turned out, for the first six to eight hours I had no cards. I had no opportunities to trap. I stole a few pots and managed to keep my stack alive for those six hours although I did drift down a bit. I couldn’t really take advantage of the position.

JG: So you were raising a lot from the cutoff and button to take the blinds?

MV: I was making under-the-gun steal raises with absolute rags because I was playing so tight I thought I could get away with it. I re-raised Kevin in one spot, where he made it sixty thousand, and I made it another one hundred and sixty thousand with 5-2 off-suit. My average raising hand was worse than 8-high. I was just stealing pots.

JG: When the table lost players did you cards pick up a little bit?

MV: I was getting short and I wasn’t finding spots. Everyone was raising before me. I got into a fairly bad situation. In the small blind, I had Q-8 off-suit. I had no option but to push and try and steal the blinds. I ended up getting called by the big blind with King-Ten. I was quite fortunate to win a 40-60 there.

I got all my money in as a 40-60 twice and I was fortunate enough to win both of those.

JG: Takes a little bit of luck to win one of these.

MV: Absolutely. Every tournament there’s a bunch of luck. Luck would also be getting dealt pocket Aces when the guy called with King-Ten.

I played the cards as best I could; I found the best spots I could. I got calls when I was a 40-60 dog and I was fortunate enough to win the hands.

JG: How about heads up?

MV: The cards actually got a lot better for me. Also, Nam played the heads-up fairly passively. He allowed me to see a lot of flops for very cheap and take control in the hands. I was raising on my button and playing big pots in position, and he was limping all his buttons and playing small pots in position. Because of that, I was winning the big pots and he was winning the small pots.

JG: So you took control. Talk about the final hand.

MV: Well, the final hand pretty much played out the way every hand played out. I was raising my button 90 percent of the time. So I made a standard raise on the button, flopped top pair. I had Queen-Ten, and the flop came Q-8-2. I bet, like a bet every single flop [before that]. He thought for a while and called. The turn was another low card. At this point I figured he had an 8. If he had a Queen I thought he would have check-raised me.

There was a flush draw on the flop, and I thought I could represent the flush draw so I bet again [on the turn] and he called fairly quickly. The river was the best possible card, a Queen, because it made him feel like it was less likely that I had a Queen. He checked and I pushed all-in. I was hoping to get a call from an 8. He thought for a while and called with a pair of 6s, which is pretty much the same hand as 8s. So it worked out very well for me.

JG: Congratulations. Did you have a nice party afterward?

MV: Yeah, I went out with friends and had a good time.

JG: Are you going to be traveling the circuit?

MV: I’m going to go to South Africa and will get an apartment there. I don’t see myself traveling the circuit, jumping form WPT event to WPT event. My plan is to play a couple of events that I choose, but mostly play online. This win isn’t going to change the direction in my life.

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