ALL IN with Evan Jarvis: Interview with Poker Coach Alex Fitzgerald
Alex Fitzgerald��s mouth matches his stacks �� voluminous. Prepare to have your assumptions challenged in this wide-ranging tour-de-force conversation with the OG poker coach whose tutorials shaped Evan��s own play, along with countless others.
Alex shuffles topics like poker chips and it��s one incredible ride.
Stick around for the whole deal and you��ll hear everything from the nitty-gritty of MTT play broken down by a master theorist, to why you should embrace your inner adrenaline junkie. Plus, how going broke was the best thing to happen to Alex.
Other topics include: re-jamming, The Myth of Poker Talent, and why Matt Janda is a criminally underrated poker mind.
Run it once, run it good, get stacking. Simple as that.
| 00:00:26 | Evan introduces Alex Fitzgerald | |
| 00:05:37 | Alex shares his poker origin story | |
| 00:06:31 | Early tournament play at age 15: "I was always really attracted to tournament poker." | |
| 00:07:20 | Alex starts his online bankroll with a $50 loan | |
| 00:08:24 | Learning six-max cash online: "I learned a lot about six-max cash from there. I played that pretty exclusively for about a year. And I found when I did come back into tournaments, it was a lot easier." | |
| 00:08:52 | Tournaments as an endurance game | |
| 00:09:35 | How to prepare for the stress and boredom of live tournament play: "I used to pull all-nighters just to simulate jet lag." | |
| 00:11:36 | How Alex discovered the importance of diet and exercise for poker performance | |
| 00:13:05 | Alex at WPT Montreal in 2017: "Even though I felt really tired, it occurred to me six hours through the day that I'm tracking every hand." | |
| 00:14:03 | Reads and tracking facial expressions | |
| 00:15:45 | How teaching makes you a better player | |
| 00:17:01 | Why going broke turned Alex to teaching: "I went broke, and I deserved to, and I was actually pretty grateful that it happened." | |
| 00:19:50 | How teaching taught Alex he has a lot to learn | |
| 00:21:22 | Re-jam strategies | |
| 00:23:39 | How to accept your tournament death: "I love to play cards, I love big pressure tournament situations...it sounds strange, but I don't get angry with deep finishes anymore." | |
| 00:24:31 | Alex's experience of gratitude at WSOP Montreal: "The real paycheck to me was taking the train upstate to play in Montreal, looking at the fall colors, knowing I get to go compete." | |
| 00:25:42 | Advantages of growing up poor | |
| 00:28:39 | Sponsor: Gripsed Poker Training | |
| 00:30:06 | How socio-economic background affects poker results and success: "Having money in growing up does help you quite a bit and people don't realize to what degree it helps you. And possibly the greatest representation of that is 95% of professional poker players came from affluent, white families." | |
| 00:34:22 | The danger of making too much money too fast | |
| 00:36:47 | Alex's tournament ritual and faith: "I go to the same diner every morning, I go over my table draw, I do the same workout every morning, I cook myself the same breakfast." | |
| 00:39:57 | Alex on why you should play different kinds of games when you hit a poker wall | |
| 00:40:18 | Alex's story about playing the party game 'Mafia' | |
| 00:41:45 | How playing for free can sharpen your focus: "If you can beat that (free) game, you can win a WPT. If you can't beat that game, how the hell do you think you can win a WPT?" | |
| 00:42:48 | Why hanging out with non-poker players will help you get good at poker | |
| 00:44:07 | The importance of non-poker skills | |
| 00:48:32 | The folly of chasing a younger version of yourself: "I'm recognizing now that you're not gonna be 24 again, I'm never going to be as excited as I was in Europe in 2007." | |
| 00:49:53 | Embracing your inner-adrenaline junkie: "It's about the feeling. To me, I'm doing better than I used to do." | |
| 00:53:34 | Some of Evan's favorite webinars from Alex | |
| 00:54:21 | "The Myth of Poker Talent" (Alex's new book): "The reason I named it the Myth of Poker Talent is because it would sell...you need to do something to get noticed."" | |
| 00:55:22 | Bro-culture and cliques in online poker | |
| 00:57:57 | Why half the players with 40% ROI don't make money in the Sunday Million: | |
| 00:59:03 | Why Alex teaches to average player not to the 1 in a 1000: "I live in a world where all we focus on is that one guy out of a thousand...if we all focus on that guy, we're going to have a skewed culture very soon." | |
| 01:01:42 | Alex blind tests Hero Callers | |
| 01:02:40 | Matt Janda, underrated poker mind: "People always said I wanted to take my game to the next level, well, real Matt Janda." | |
| 01:04:05 | John Juanda story | |
| 01:05:28 | How to replicate a move by understanding theory | |
| 01:06:03 | Discussing Alex's chapter in "Excelling at No-Limit Hold'em" | |
| 01:06:58 | The importance of stack preservation and small-ball strategies: "What is our goal as a tournament poker player? This sounds really simple, but your goal is to cash a lot and to win a lot...the people who do not make money at tournament poker are the people who win but can never seem to find a way to cash or the people that cash but can never seem to find a way to win." | |
| 01:08:28 | Alex breaks down the stages of a tournament | |
| 01:11:59 | Alex talks flatting 3-bets | |
| 01:13:03 | Why pros 'pick their spots': "If you don't understand that, you don't understand professional gambling." | |
| 01:14:39 | Difference between check raise in 7 card stud and NL Hold��em | |
| 01:16:42 | Why math can't fully solve the interdynamics of a poker tournament: "We do not have a form of mathematics that can express the interconnected nature of a poker tournament." | |
| 01:18:15 | Sponsor: 888poker[/URL] (Use the promo code "ALLIN" when you make your first deposit) | |
| 01:20:55 | How reading broadly can improve tournament poker skills: "People go 'I want to be better at tournament poker'...read!" | |
| 01:21:05 | Poker and War strategy: "This is a war game. We're moving our pieces on a board." | |
| 01:22:41 | Alex on Phil Hellmuth: "Phil Hellmuth, I'm convinced, I don't know if it's intentional or not, but he's a genius." | |
| 01:25:47 | Phil Hellmuth's 40% open rate | |
| 01:27:07 | Evan on meeting Phil Hellmuth at TwitchCon | |
| 01:28:43 | Why great competitors are sometimes not friendly during competition: "Even if it's not an act, I don't judge anyone." | |
| 01:31:38 | Sacrifices required for greatness | |
| 01:32:53 | How to deal with unsolicited feedback: "I used to take that way more seriously...you (Evan) were definitely a calmer personality." | |
| 01:34:05 | Why you need to intimately understand other people to be a good poker player | |
| 01:35:26 | What Alex learned from visiting an art museum: "Communication is so important, is so intelligent. Negativity can have a really nice, positive effect on you if you think about it." | |
| 01:44:38 | Releasing electric charge in the system | |
| 01:46:03 | Evan on the charged North American experience | |
| 01:48:48 | Alex on the importance of mental breaks: "If you are starving, or you think you're starving, the natural thought, the profitable thought is 'I need to find more information about where the food is'" | |
| 01:49:05 | Meditation and working out: "Before I go in to work out, I don't think about my problems." | |
| 01:51:08 | Evan on nutrition | |
| 01:52:19 | Alex tells a story about a French consultant learning poker | |
| 01:53:40 | ALL IN is part of the PokerNews Podcast Network! | |
| 01:54:02 | Alex's process of reflection: "I fight with this feeling that if I'm not working I'm worthless. I have a really dark place that comes from." | |
| 01:55:11 | Why Alex goes to hockey games to take a real night off: "I'm going there to completely turn off everything. Because once I'm in an arena, I'm surrounded by this thing I have to focus on." | |
| 01:55:41 | Alex on prayer and faith | |
| 01:59:25 | Alex on going broke and finding out what made him happy: "One of the best things that ever happened to me was going broke. Because when I had a ton of money, I wasn't happy." | |
| 02:03:05 | How positivity empowers | |
| 02:04:41 | Exercise: listing your 10 best achievements | |
| 02:06:05 | The importance of maintaining your state in tournament poker: "Tournament poker, a lot of times hinges on, can you keep it together right now?" | |
| 02:07:36 | Evan reflects on his Fallsview run | |
| 02:09:57 | What we can learn from how children play games | |
| 02:11:36 | Why you shouldn't look for redemption in a game of poker: "You can not look for your redemption in a gambling game." | |
| 02:12:58 | Combating perfectionism | |
| 02:14:17 | Watching athletes deal with failure: "Robinson Cano is just a zen-master." | |
| 02:17:09 | Why Alex decided to focus on coaches | |
| 02:20:52 | On how coaching demands focus: "You have to be there at that moment, or that person is going to wonder 'why am I going to pay that guy $150 per hour?'...It's all performance-based." | |
| 02:24:02 | What happens when an amateur player hires a coach | |
| 02:28:29 | The importance of study for self-esteem: "You can sit at a table and look at every single person at that table, and know you're the best player. And that is hard to beat. You can earn that within yourself." | |
| 02:31:59 | Alex talks legacy | |
| 02:33:47 | The value of service | |
| 02:36:28 | The power of teaching concepts: "I love that I get to do that. I can teach people that if you need money, there's this Hold'em game pretty much anywhere on earth...just helping people makes me happy." | |
| 02:38:44 | What will NL Hold��em look like in 100 years? | |
| 02:41:23 | Alex's blog | |
| 02:42:47 | Evan tells a story about Alex's tutorial helping him in Lima | |
| 02:46:42 | Alex's background and why he keeps his coaching affordable: "I ran away from home in high school and I was living in a garage with no heating or plumbing when I started playing cards. | I always put out a ton of free stuff because I always try to remember that kid." |
| 02:48:29 | Evan recounts his 2015 heater | |
| 02:50:13 | Enjoying your student's success | |
| 02:51:18 | Why Alex's poker-playing journey isn't done yet: "You can play poker when you're 82 years old, I'm not done yet...that's the great thing about this game, it's a life-long thing. Any young guys listening to this, finish school, it'll teach you about how to be a card player." | |
| 02:51:58 | Benefits of part-time approach to poker | |
| 02:52:29 | The one big thing Alex would like to add to his resume: "I want hardware. I want that moment when they deal the final card...I want to do the Tiger Woods fist pump. I want to sit there. I want the socially acceptable time to scream like a banshee." | |
| 02:54:49 | Why Alex still wants to win hardware |
Learn more about podcast host, Evan Jarvis, on his coaching site, Gripsed Poker Training. Follow Evan on Twitter.
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