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Charles Hawk's picture
Interview with Spins $100-$60 reg Knut "smatt" Turk

Introduction

I'm 27 – from Estonia – officially the laziest person to have ever walked the earth. I enjoy fairly simple things in life, like eating well and lots of it while having a pint of liquid gold in my hand, spending time with friends, which moslty relates to me and and my best buddy being the biggest drunkard degens we have yet to encounter. 

When I have the time I love being out in the countryside visiting my grandparents, even if it's just for a few days, getting away from literally everything -  not having your laptop with you, checking mails, being on skype or having to watch that one ridiculously hilarious youtube video someone just sent you is really the most enjoyable way for me to relax.

Charles Hawk: How does your ordinary day look like? What is your grinding routine?

I get up around 2pm, spend an hour “waking up” and try to make a shedule for the day.
Being part of HUSNG staking group means there is a coaching session pretty much every day, mostly some time in the afternoon for me – so I try to accommodate for that as well as I can. 

I spend an hour or so either before or after being out and having “lunch” , reading newspapers and of course a nice glass of beer is must with any good meal ;) In the evening I tend to rest up a bit, relax for about an hour and then get ready to grind. Most of my games I play between 8pm and 4am, but often I extend that time up to 6am or even longer depending on how fit I feel. After that I try to get my mind off poker, either playing some video games, watching videos/shows or just clicking around on the internet.  Then it's “breakfast” and right after that bedtime (usually around 8am)

Charles Hawk: What are your hobbies? What is your favorite leisure activities?

I picked up disc-golf from a friend last year, which is really fun and helps me stay in shape too (unfortunately I absolutely suck at it so it comes with a guaranteed tilt factor). Most popular activity would definitely be Monday night at the local casino. Luckily for me I tend to not remember much about it on Tuesday so I won't be able to embarrass myself with some brutal degen stories...

Charles Hawk: What is your ratio between playing Spins and studying it? How long do you spend reading forums or chatting about Spins?

On average I'd say it's around 3:1, most days I don't spend much time studying on my own, as with the coachings from HUSNG and being part of a large group there is some sort of discussion/interesting topic or Hand analysis going on pretty much always. On off days which is usually Monday/Tuesday I spend more time studying, watching videos, or reviewing my own games and hardly any grinding. 
I'm not really active on any forums, I do lurk a bit on 2+2 and am somewhat active on tiltbook.com but overall most discussions related to spins happen over skype with members of the group.

Charles Hawk: Tell me about Estonia and most known Estonian poker players? Also about laws in Estonia related with poker or gambling? Are you confident for your future with the possible restriction to online poker from your government?

Well I guess the most famous Estonian to the HU and hypers community is obviously Andres “ChuckNorrisQ” Allsalu. To others  Madis Müür may ring a bell. Hearing about Andres is really inspirational, the story of how someone with limited experience in that area can climb to the highest stakes of HTHU in such a short time, simply through determination and hard work is quite impressive. 

The only relevant law regarding online-poker in Estonia is that foreign companies cannot offer their services in Estonia without getting a certain licence to do so. This law that got passed a few years back limtied our access to online-poker quite heavily, and there is really only a handfull of service providers that Estonians have now access to. Apart from that there is no real regulation as of yet, but for the sake of having the certainty of continuability I guess everyone should aggree that it wouldn't be a bad thing if there was some sort of regulation like in some other EU countries, even if that means a few % less rakeback.  Should there be further restrictions regarding playing online, especially concerning pokerstars – I'm guessing a lot of people would instantly be looking to leave to Canada or Mexico...

Apart from those restrictions Estonia is the best country in the world though, and I wouldn't trade it in as my home for anything less than a date with Taylor Swift :)

Charles Hawk: What is the biggest differences playing 3 handed vs 2 handed?

I think the biggest difference when comparing 3 handed play in a spin and go to 2 handed play that we know e.g from a HUSNG is that in spins you have to account for facing 2 different ranges, which can be varying not only depending on the effective stackdepth, the players position and the actions taken before him but of course also on the diffferent player types as well. Overall these differences generate a variety of uniqe “spots” that are fairly new to players with a Heads-Up background who are used to facing one villain.

Charles Hawk: What are the differences between a heads up game in Spins, when you have 25 big blinds or less, and a husng match?

In theory the only difference should be the amount of buyins that can be won. In practice I would say that regulars in the format have a bigger edge over the average recreational villain as they can already pick up information about their opponent before they start playing Heads-Up.

Charles Hawk: What was your biggest downswing? Upswing?

A few thousand $ either way ;) 

shortchange's picture
Probably need to change the

Probably need to change the biggest swing answer . Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

kmishev's picture
True legend.

True legend.

Gomzi's picture
Knut is one of most hard

Knut is one of most hard working poker player I have come across and more importantly he always has 'on a bender-got ass fucked' kindda stories up his sleeve :D

Way to go!

RyPac13's picture
Haha, I can't wait to meet

Haha, I can't wait to meet this lunatic at the poker camp ;)

smattle's picture
More like....

I'm gonna be the guy with a bible in one hand and flowers in the other because everyone else is a sicko and I don't even know how to update windows :(