Interview with Will Tipton

First off, congrats on your new book Expert Heads Up No Limit Hold’em, Vol. 2. What can users expect to find in volume 2?

Thanks, I just got my copies last night, and they look great.  Vol 2 picks up where Vol 1 left off.  I cover streets in reverse order, and we only made it through river play in Vol 1, so in the second book, we have turn, flop, and preflop play.  So the new book begins with the turn, and we spend a couple chapters getting familiar with things that happen in multistreet games.  Once we learn all the theory in the context of two-street (ie turn and river) play, it's easy to apply it to flop and preflop situations.

Towards the end, I give the results of some large calculations, including some pseudo equilibrium preflop strats up to 20bb which are presented in detailed charts in the book.  The earlier/more theory heavy chapters were a lot more work for me, but I imagine these strategies and the surrounding discussion of unexploitable vs standard/exploitative preflop and flop play will be the most exciting portions of Vol2 for many HUSNG players

Were you surprised at the success of volume 1? I've seen people talking about how it is one of the best no limit hold em books on the market. It seems to have found an audience outside of just heads up sit and gos, or even heads up poker.

Yea the feedback in general has been really great, and I've really enjoyed talking to readers.

As far as the non-HUNL audience, I don't think it's too surprising that they've found it useful as well.  The book is pretty theory-heavy, so a lot of the concepts are broadly applicable.  I mean, The Theory of Poker only talks about old games that few people play these days, but people find it useful.  The Mathematics of Poker covers almost exclusively 2-player situations as well, and makes little effort at practical applications to any real game! Perhaps I should have titled my book differently.

Do you have any plans for a volume 3? Anything else in the works?

No plans for any more writing.  Starting out, I just meant to write one book!

I do have a video series in the works, however, that I'm very excited about.  It has sort of a teach-a-man-to-fish theme.  I've presented pseudoequilibrium strategies for a variety of spots in the books, but there's nothing like giving people the tools to find those themselves.  So, the new video pack will walk students through the design and implementation of a fully functional max exploit and equilibrium strategy solver.  This will give players the necessary knowledge and tools to do some cutting edge strategizing on their own.

What is the best compliment you've received about the book?

Well again the response has been very gratifying -- lots of people have had nice things to say, and I appreciate all of them.  Maybe this is a favorite:

https://twitter.com/ikepoker/status/334335492453699584

How has it been working with your publisher, D&B Publishing?

They've been great.  They've put a lot of work into making our products as good as possible, and I've been very happy with the quality of our books.

Lets talk about your poker career span. You had a ton of success on Full Tilt pre Black Friday, and seemed to take more time off after Black Friday. Was Black Friday the actual reason for this, or did you have other motivations for slowing down your volume at the tables?

Well, I'm an online player, and I was a full time student in the US when BF hit, so of course BF had a huge effect on my poker career. Eventually I felt comfortable keeping money on the smaller sites, but the HUSNG action has never been all that great, and getting money on and off the sites can sometimes be challenging.  I've studied the game a lot over the past few years, and if better American sites open up under new legislation, I think I'm well prepared to start putting in volume again.  However, I just started a new career last month, and I'm mentally prepared to move on to this next phase of my life.

How has school gone?

I actually just officially completed all my degree requirements last week!  My thesis was on predicting the atomic structure of materials with an evolutionary algorithm.  The applications to batteries, clean energy etc. were fun, but in practice it was mostly software development, and that's the direction I've decided to go career-wise.

Are you still coaching? You've received a lot of praise from former students, particularly well rounded thinkers such as Yoni "ph33rox". Do you plan to get back into poker more frequently at the tables, or just work on study/teaching?

Yea I've had a few great students that I've learned a lot from working with, but I haven't taken any new ones for quite a while, and I doubt I will.  To be honest, I've tried hard to put most of what I know theory-wise into the books, and at this point, other people are more in touch with modern games.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

That's tough -- 10 years is a long time, and I'm sort of in a transition period right now.  I guess I'll have a much better idea about things in a year or two -- professionally, whether I'll make a go of it at my current company or whether I'll find a better opportunity, and personally, whether I want kids...

What are your thoughts on the longevity of poker? Poker as a whole has declined in the last 5 years, mainly due to the US market all but closing, and many countries regulating and heavily taxing and/or sectioning off their players (France, Italy, Spain). HUSNGs have grown in popularity, particularly hypers, so have 6 max hypers, and fast-fold zoom type games, as well as PLO. What do you see happening in future years with any of this, and do you have confidence in any predictions?

Well, the trend towards low edge games is bad for winning players. The trend towards divided player pools is probably bad for players at the top of the pyramid but not as much for low stakes regs. Declining interest by recreational players is bad for almost everyone making money from the poker ecosystem.

In the US, the best case still looks like federal legalization and regulation, and if the big casinos open sites and throw enough advertising dollars at it, it would do a lot for the games. I still think things are looking pretty promising for this happening eventually, but it could be a while.

Do you ever sportsbet or prop bet with friends?

I don't sportsbet, and I've had pretty bad luck prop betting with friends.  I think lots of non poker players (and especially poor graduate students) are sufficiently risk averse that if they're willing to bet much money, it usually means I'm going to lose. :(

What kind of hobbies do you have?

Outside of poker my main hobby is BJJ.  It's a sport close to olympic wrestling, except the goal is to submit your opponent with a choke or joint lock (as opposed to pinning him on his shoulders as in wrestling).  There's actually a ton to learn technique-wise, so it's something of an intellectual exercise as well as a good workout.

How did the game change starting from 2012? Do you recognize any specific tendencies?

Well I've been a bit out of touch with the international player pool over the past couple years, but the games have changed a lot in my time.  I remember when the shove/fold charts were for 12 BB play and any deeper, opening 3x was standard.  The push towards shorter stacked formats (driven by recreational players who want to gamble) has made people learn those situations a lot better.  And that process is continuing.  In the SB, people are learning how to incorporate limping and build more balanced cbetting ranges.  BBs are learning how to attack/punish people who fail to do those things.

Do you think husng hypers could become too dry in the future (winrate would decrease drastically)?

I think the edge between regs will continue to decrease as we learn more about the game. Even so, I think hypers have a lot of things going for them that, say, HU cash doesn't.  Fish like the high variance feel of the game (we should fight against higher-variance, lower-edge formats that are probably unbeatable like short stack allin-or-fold games), and the fact that you can't decline action if you sit first lets organizations like the cartels restrict the number of regs.

Which programs do you use when analyzing hands?

I use my own software for range analysis, EV calcs, and the like. I'll be showing how some core components in my toolbox (the equity and EV calculators and the max exploit and equilibrium strategy solvers) work in my new video series.

Could you post some valuable quotes from your newest book?

Here's a picture quote (10 BB effective):

http://i.imgur.com/tv5hMjL.png

Otherwise, check out the free excerpt here:

http://www.dandbpoker.com/perch/resources/expert-hunl-volume-2-extract.pdf

Whats your opinion about not using HUD in HUSNG hypers?

It sounds like a terrible idea to me :).  I'm not saying that a HUD can give you all the info you need to know about an opponent, but there are some pieces of information a computer is good at gathering (anything involving incrementing counters) and some that a human is good at (patterns based on gameflow, texture, etc).  I let the computer do what it's good at, so I can focus on the other stuff.