Last week, bighusla made news and turned many heads when he won his Spin & Go challenge of +5K games and +8.5% EV ROI in one month. (Read more about his challenge in this 2p2 thread.) Of course, after such a performance, we couldn't resist the urge to interview him.

Charles Hawk: How did you come up with the idea to start this challenge?

bighusla: When I first heard that Spins were going to be launched on PokerStars I was pretty worried since I'm a HU Hyper reg and the introduction of Spins would hurt my action a bit. I was also worried that if one day PS released the buy in for Spins high enough, it could even possibly kill almost all of my recreactional HUSNG action completely. So at first I completely boycotted the game, swearing not to play a single spin because I did not want PS to rake 1 dime from me. At the time, I believed they introduced a game that was 100% gambling with no skill and basically a complete rake trap. Then, during the HU Hyper reg strike back in November, action got really slow since queues were so long and you weren't allowed to play regs, so out of complete boredom I played a few spins. Right off the bat I noticed how soft they were the 1st game. 1st hand some player open jammed Q5o for no apparent reason, and not only that, he got snap called by a hand not too much better then that lol.

So I decided to play a few more, and not only did I notice how soft these games were, but how fun they were to play as well. So even after the strike I would play a few spins here and there just to unwind, and then the idea for the challenge stemmed from a disagreement with a friend of whether Spins are beatable or not. I told him that I highly doubt that they are not beatable since they are incredibly soft, and not only do I think that they are beatable, I believe that I could crush this game with 0 variance. He then asked me what my sample size was, then suggested that it was just variance. So I bet him that I could beat this game for an even higher EV ROI over a much larger sample size in just 1 month. I believed that I could do this because at the time I hadn't even invested 1 minute of studying any 3 max theory and I was still doing very well (my EV ROI at the time of the convo was ~6%).

That's when I bet him and a few others that I could beat the game for a +8% EV ROI over +10k games in a month. But, at the time, I really overestimated how many games per hour I could possibly play and how many tables I could play at once while maintaining a high EV ROI because of all of the postflop play involved in this game. I still wanted to prove that I could crush this game, but I didn't think that my volume goal would be possible for me, so I worked out a deal to play less games, in return for me having to maintain an even higher EV ROI at worse odds. Even with worse odds, I still wanted to do the bet because I also wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, and worst case scenario, even if I lost the bet and managed to maintain like a 6% EV ROI or something, I would at least most likely make enough to break even after paying the bettors and give myself a head start on gaining some experience playing a game that could possibly be the future.

CH: What was the hardest in keeping up with the volume?

bh: The hardest part for me in terms of keeping up with the volume is the fact that I am sort of a perfectionist when it comes to a few things. I hate making mistakes, so I hate playing a lot of tables. So, believe it or not, for the challenge I only 2-3 tabled most of the time 10-16hrs per day every day. It was such a brutal grind, but failure wasn't an option. Every hand mattered. I could not afford to make many mistakes and win. I knew if I played more tables there might be a chance that I failed, so I just did what I needed to do.

CH: How are the swings compared with HUSNGs hypers?

bh: I only played $30s Spins since that was the highest level that PS offered when I began the challenge. So I will just say that the money swings I had during this challenge do not even begin to compare to the swings I have experienced in my life grinding high stakes hu hypers. I think my biggest downswing so far in Spins has only been ~$2k or something lol.

CH: How many tables did you play at once?

bh: 2-3 mostly, but I did have times during the challenge when I 4-tabled.

CH: What was your daily schedule?

bh: Pretty much everyday, not counting the days I would invest to study, I would wake up at 9am right after my wife left for school, since I do not like her talking to me while I grind. :D I would then do my morning routine, drink some coffee and get started. Every hour I would stop and take a 10 minute break, then continue. Then when my wife would come home from school at 6pm, I would try and take a 20 minute break to chill with her before getting back to it. I would then keep going until I was basically falling asleep at the computer and making mistakes or I hit +200 games. I think that I only hit +200 games less then 20% of the time lol.

CH: What have you learned about yourself as a poker pro after this challenge?

bh: I learned to maybe start keeping my ego in check and to stop making crazy bets that will destoy my life for a month.

CH: Will you transition to Spins after this?

bh: Spins still haven't been released high enough that they would allow me to make more money then playing my normal stakes in hu hypers so I don't plan on playing Spins full time atm. But I plan to still play Spins occasionally when action is bad and for fun.

CH: Is it possible to make more in Spins than playing the same limit in HUSNGs hypers?

bh: Yes definitely and it's not even close. You could possibly make SNE playing at least 5k $60 Spins per month when combined with all the profit that you would make, assuming that you will be able to maintain least a 3% EV ROI with that type of volume plus the money you could possibly win from hitting a huge jackpot or a few over that sample. I honestly do not think that you could come close to making that amount of money playing $60 hypers.