Matej "Mtvdeuem" Cepon Poker Player Profile

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Welcome to mtvdeuem's profile, here you can find a full bio of the Slovenian heads up sng poker specialist.

Matej became acquainted with poker approximately seven years ago, when he was introduced to it by a good friend who was at the time finishing his studies in the US. In the beginning, he considered the game itself as just having some fun, since to him as an occasional gambler it represented a certain upgrade of all casino games.

For him, the key element of this game was the competition of live players instead of a casino, which means that in the long term, one could also earn money if one became better than competitors. Already at an early stage he had gotten the sense that the game suited him ideally, as it included many skills that he developed well himself (he was always proficient in maths, statistics, psychology and also had the ability to stay focused in crucial moments). And knowing the game's particular requirements, it was therefore even more painful to suffer a loss of approximately US$ 5,000 during the first year of playing. He covered this loss by working in a casino and by receiving some allowance. Of course, he continued playing, and also read many books on how to perform better in the game he was playing at the time (SNG full ring and 6 max). He identified two main issues that were ruining his game, one of them being excessive closing of bad hands, and even more importantly, when he played his hand correctly, but found himself in a situation where bad players were donating chips to other bad players, whereas his stack of chips was just melting away.

It was then that he decided to focus just on Heads-Up game (1 on 1), where the starting position has both players with equal number of chips and the winner is determined by quality alone. The whole experience was much more satisfying, and his game (he is a self-learned HU player) was also improving from one day to the next. HOWEVER… the profit was still nowhere to be seen and the losses just kept mounting… WHY? Despite all his above mentioned characteristics, he still lacked perhaps even the most important one to succeed in this game, and that was DISCIPLINE… Without discipline there can be no success in poker and everybody that plays it or has ever played it knows that very well. And those of you that are still considering playing it, remember, in spite of all the knowledge you may possess, without discipline all effort is in vain. Certainly, there are many factors that could be considered as discipline, so it is best for each individual to find out by him/herself, which are those characteristics that might help him/her in achieving personal discipline.

Matej was practicing various sports his entire life and was enjoying it tremendously. However, when he started with poker, he started neglecting his sporting activities more and more, which was a big mistake. There was a period of approximately two years, when he worked in a casino and played poker simultaneously. The average day looked something like this: 20:00 – 3:00 working in a casino, 4:00 – 11:00 playing poker, then sleeping until 18:00 and so forth. Of course, this was the road to perdition… In the mean time some problems with his girlfriend emerged as well, since naturally she was not pleased about the situation, as there was hardly any time left for her, let alone for sports or friends. All this was of course out of desire for quick profits, but unfortunately this is not how it works… After a fairly short while, Matej started winning on all levels of HU SNG game and in his third year, he made 10x as much money playing poker as by working in a casino, so he quit and dedicated himself entirely to poker. It was then that everything became much easier as he suddenly had several more hours for all other activities that he enjoyed. At this point he would like to emphasise that his discipline still lets him down from time to time, so ultimately this is his personal fight against himself. But even once a poker player manages to successfully divide his time between his/her partner, friends, hobbies or leisure activities and playing poker, there is another problem, or rather a second part of personal discipline, no less important than the first… And that is managing one's bankroll and controlling the tilt. After approximately US$ 10,000 of investment (loss), Matej somehow managed to get his head around these concepts and after that, everything became much better.

Around his fourth year of playing he also reached almost the highest limits in this game and was establishing a reputation for himself, which meant that the best players slowly stopped joining him for a game. And obtaining respect from the best and becoming one of them is of course one of the most important factors in poker. Next year, Matej as the first Slovene poker player to acquire the status SUPERNOVA ELITE on Pokerstars website, which for him was a huge satisfaction and another personal goal achieved. He also started travelling abroad and visiting EPT (European poker tour) series tournaments, which are the biggest in Europe, but so far hasn't managed to achieve any major success.

Currently, Matej is going through a period when he is really enjoying the game. Together with two other professional poker players he also rented an office with the intention of dedicating himself to the game further. His working day starts in late morning hours and lasts as long as the feeling is right. He will present his office in more detail in another blog. In general, this blog was meant to present his path to becoming a professional poker player and describe all the obstacles on the way. He wishes you all the best if you decide to try this path for yourself, and hopes that this blog helps you in any way and makes your way to the top just a little bit easier.