Interview with Daniel 'Pl@yerABC ' Sklar
Charles Hawk: Tell me about your this years perfomance. How are you doing? Any graphs?
Daniel 'Pl@yerABC ' Sklar: I have a new PC (bought it approximately 2 months ago) so I don't even have graph from the beginning of this year. I haven't won any tournament with big multiplier. So I have nothing to brag about.
Lately I am running above EV so hopefully this good run of cards will continue to create a really nice long upswing :-)
Charles Hawk: What new have you learned this year as a poker pro? What new have you learned off-tables?
Daniel 'Pl@yerABC ' Sklar: I will tell you a story that happend today. We visited our family - my brother-in-law his wife and theirs kids. My nephew (phew! I had to look up the words! Daughter-in-law, godson, co-brother, great grandfather... I have trouble even in my native language to find the correct words for the relationships! Actually it looks like life is easier in english with this "-in-law" ending). OK, back to the story. My nephew is ten years old and he asked me to play a match of table ice-hockey game (if you are not familiar with it - the game looks like this - from the wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_hockey_games#/media/File:Table_hocke...
So we played two games. My nephew won both games with results like 9 to 5 and 9 to 3, if I remember correctly.
I did my best, but I had no chance. You know, sometimes when you play against a kid, you play your C-game, just to let the kid win. This was not the case here. I lost miserably. Why did I lost? I am older. I am adult. I have more life experiences. I majored in physics at great university. I speak fluently forein language, list goes on a on. So how come I lost? The answer is simple. No single point from the previous list matters here! My nephew had simply put in the hours. He had honed his skills, practiced the game and mastered it. Putting the hours, doing the work, spending time, honing the skills, practicing, that is the way that leads to success. I see this truth very clearly in poker games of 2016. There is no shortage of highly educated, intelligent regulars with big dreams and goals. But being intelligent is not enough. There was a saying "work smarter not harder". But with this kind of smart competition, I really believe that in 2016 it's time to actually work harder if you want to make it.
Charles Hawk: Tell me about reg-to-fish ratio you are facing in the tables usually? How often do you play against 2 recs? How often do you play against 2 regs?
Daniel 'Pl@yerABC ' Sklar: The more I study, the more I see how much there is to learn! From the point of view of an neutral observer (some high stakes player) my games might look like 3-fish games (recreation + another recreational + me). :-)
I don't have exact numbers, but I still see enough inexperienced players out there, there is still value in playing these games.
Charles Hawk: How is your family?
Daniel 'Pl@yerABC ' Sklar: In the previous answer I argued that you need to work harder these days to make it. Few lines later and I have to contradict myself! I mean, I am very happy with my family life. For me, family is much more important than poker. I try to work harder to be successful poker player, but I don't want to expand poker time and reduce family time. I feel, that's not the correct way. So if you are tempted to cut family time to play poker, I would strongly advise not to do so.
As I have said, I am very happy how my family life goes - but I have to say, similar to poker - there are no shortcuts - to be the best father I could be - I need to put in hours, day in and day out.
Charles Hawk: You mentioned me that you are writing a poker book. Could you tell more to the readers about it? Maybe you could share with us even some quotes?
Daniel 'Pl@yerABC ' Sklar: I am a big fan of books, reading and self-education. I was thinking, why not write a book? I mean, e-book for Kindle, no hassle with printing and distribution - and it's green :-) no need to cut trees to produce paper. I have some material, but it's not ready yet. Before the book, I will do some poker videos - some ideas are easier to convey in that format. I feel some of my ideas might be valueable for other players. I am working on it! So like they say in TV shows - stay tuned!
