ASK A PRO?

I did say I was looking for questions to ask Irish Pro's Dara O'Kearney and Jason Tompkins. The response was unbelievable (not), thanks to the 1 (One) Player that decided to ask a few questions to see how the pro sees it. Must be great to know everything about poker!!!

Anyway...... here are some of the questions Jason has answered. Im waiting for Dara to come back to me, so have a look at what he has to say!


Question: do you use huds, if so, which is the best and how much do you rely on them?

Jason: I do, although I do not rely on them as heavily as others do. I still like to think to feel a player. Only when multi tabling would I use huds, I find it gets in the way when your focusing on one or two games that your left in and can overall lead you to make bad decisions based on your hud. So always be mindful of that.


Question: Whats the most reliable tell you've found (online and live?)

Jason: Online, well that would have to be bet sizing for the most part but also there are some timing tells. On a final table I mucked AJo 6 handed to an aggressive player on the button all because he instant opened the button. I had been 3betting him previous to this so his instant raise sent a message he was ready to rock, previously he had waited few seconds before opening.

Live, I guess it has so many. You can still look a top pro in the eye and know he doesn't have it. Body language is everything live, everything comes alive from your opponents minor expressions to your own sense and gut feeling leading you to the correct decision.


Question: whats the worst TD ruling you've seen?

Jason: It has to be in the Wsop 1k event last year. Deep in the tourney, a random TD made a whole host of mistakes in one hand and all the players knew he had not got a clue but he still persisted he was right. He was removed from the floor after making a player give chips back out of the pot which he calculated wrong, lol.

Also just a funny note, that same year I had incident with an older dealer. I helped move the button, he reached over to move it again even though I told him it was correct. He seemed a bit off but said ok and put the button in a weird spot to my left, I moved it so it was clearly in front of me. Now I mean, he went mental. He began shouting at me to leave the button where it was etc, I made my case and laughed. He then threatened to call the floor on me and have me removed from the tourney thinking I'd back off. Needless to say I didn't and I began to call the floor. He was replaced next hand but not after he gave me a couple of dirty looks you get from your girlfriend or wife when you tell them I'm going to play poker instead of hanging out with you tonight. It was a priceless interaction, the table was very amused. Even more so when the table next to us where the dealer had been moved too began another arguement, lol what a man!


Question: Do u have a set %age of the buy-in you're prepared to spend on satellite qualifying?

Jason: Yes, normally 30-40% but for the pp sole survivor you would have to double that because of the incentives.


Question: How Important is Position?

Jason: It's Everything! These days it's pointless playing oop, you will just lose too many pots, unless you are prepared to lead out on flops and turns instead if the old check to the raiser b/s. It's a tough art to perfect.


Question: When or how low do you wait before you go all in? (How short)

Jason: Hmmm, tourney dependent and situational, but I'd stop opening pots once I got to 13bb range, so I'd be looking to reshove on ppl with stacks in the form of 13-20bbs.


Question: If you raise, should you all always c-bet whether you hit the flop or not?

Jason: Again, flop dependent this but I will say you should cbet almost 85% of the time so 8 or 9 times out of 10 is a fine line to go off of.


Question: is poker in ireland, still alive and kicking or is it slowly dyin a death? If so is this because of higher buy ins or higher reg fees?

Jason: Poker in Ireland is dead imo, it's why I'm in Australia now. It's swamped with all these €500 and €300 buy ins with high reg fees that it's just not ever going to make you hugely profitable like it once was. Money is tight so now so are the players in general. The only thing going for Ireland is no tax and it's right next to Europe where there is a brilliant scene. And cash games are non existent for anything above 1-2 unless it's a 3 straddle game of PLO where whoever hits wins on the night. That's not skill it's degenerate. Not that PLO isn't a skillful game it is beyond doubt but just the live set up for it is degen.


Question: Whats the one thing you will tell a poker player if you were to give them some advice?

Jason: Do not look up to the ballers in Irish poker, all of them have there day but inevitably they all come n go. Look at the history and mindset of most of Irish poker history and you will see this endless line of ballers, who are now broke. Be smart, don't be a retard.

Thanks to Jason for this it was much appreciated and good to see the mindset & get opinions of a pro!