A look into the mind of … Michiel Maes!

For this second interview for the serie ‘A look into the mind of …’ we take a look what is going on in the sometimes bit crazy mind of Michiel Maes. First of all I want to thank Michiel Maes for the time he has put into this interview. Thanks a lot Michiel!

How did you get into poker? And what do you find so thrilling about the game?
The first time I played poker, I didn’t even know the game. It was a boring evening in Togenblik (our local youth centre) and Ewout and me noticed some guys playing poker. Ewout played with them the week before and I knew the hand rankings so we joined in. Even though I didn’t really get the hang of it, I had fun. That’s when it all started. I was intrigued by the game, but wasn’t very good at it. By playing a lot, I learned about the mathematical aspects of the game and after reading a few books on poker, I was hooked.
To me one of the most appealing aspects of poker is the way you can take different lines every hand you play. It’s really fun to mix it up and try to see a suprised look on your opponents face at the showdown. And then of cours, there is the money aspect. Three times now I built an online bankroll starting from 0. It’s the thought that one day you’ll be able to make a little bonus income from poker that thrives me the most.

Yet another edition of TPC is coming up. You are doing pretty well in these tournaments. How do you expect this edition is going to go?
As with any tournament, it can be over before you know it. Also, the field is getting stronger every edition. But apart from that, I am really confident in that I can do. This August, I have played more than 150 online tournaments already, so my game is on par. If I get some good table draws and catch some cards, I think it will be hard to keep me away from the final table.

You are finding your way pretty well in our cash games as well. Which type of poker do you love the most and how do you prepare for a cash game?
I just can’t say no to a PLO8 cash game. Even more than PLO, I love how you need to be agressive in this game. It takes guts to put your stack in with nothing but a low draw and I enjoy how one bad card can completely crush your made hand. Apart from that, I think playing any Omaha game is a delight. I know my way around NLHE too.
I don’t really prepare for cash games like I do with tournaments. I like to play tight and straightforward during the beginning, so I can get a hang of the flow of the games. Once I have that, I’ll be trying to get into some good spots as the game develops.

You are one of the players who go out and explore poker throughout Europe. How was your trip to Dublin and more recently the visits to the casinos?
The poker scene in Dublin is just so alive! It’s no coincidence they got voted as the best European poker city this year. There are a lot of good motivated players and it’s just fantastic to play 50 player fields any day of the week. They even have a few Omaha cash game tables running every night. Even though I was running pretty cold and only broke even at the end, I had a lot of fun and look forward to one day going back.

Thank you for this interview Michiel, and I wish you the best of luck in your future poker endeavors.

In this edition of ‘A look into the mind of …’ we experienced a bit how it is to be Michiel Maes. Hope you enjoyed it!

Mickey C

A look into the mind of … Thomas Vanbrabant!

This week I came up with the idea of interviewing some of my friends to have a look into their views on poker. And who better to start with than my good friend and co-writer Thomas Vanbrabant?

Hello Thomas and welcome to this first edition of ‘A look into the mind of …’. First of all I would like to thank you for giving your view on a lot of different subjects for Mickey C Poker. be.

First question: How did you get into poker? And what do you find so thrilling about the game?
I learned to play poker early in 2007 from a good friend of both of us: Stijn Heyens. I learned to play hold’em and fell in love right away. I wanted to know more about it and found a lot of clips online. That’s where I fell in love with tournament poker and everything surrounding it. I think poker is a game you never master completely. I still learn a lot of things every time I play and I think even Phil Ivey does. At the moment I love the challenge of playing other people and trying to get in their head. My game of choice for doing this stays Pot Limit Omaha.

You are for a big part the motor behind a lot of things that we as a group organize. Not the least of all the TPC-tournaments. What are your expectations for the upcoming edition?
First of all, I want to say that it’s not only me that organizes TPC. We do this with a small team of good friends and I couldn’t do it without all of them, even you Mickey! Thanks for helping us grow every time. For the next edition. It’s already TPC VII and after a deep run in the second and the third edition of the tournament, I’ve failed in reaching the final table again. This is my primary target, but as you know me, I won’t be happy with anything less than a win after finishing runner up twice already. Looking at it as an organizer of the event, I hope we will reach our maximum capacity again of 56 players and that there won’t be any real incidents.

Besides TPC-tournaments we also organize our own mini-WSOP called the Home Series of Poker (HSOP). You won the recent Omaha 8 tournament. How are you going to approach the rest of the series and how are you doing in the race for Player of the Year?
That’s a good question. I don’t know exactly for POTY actually. (We’ll look it up together.) Michiel Maes is leading in front of you, that I know. I’m at 13 points, Stijn Heyens at 16, you at 17 and Michiel at 22. It’s pretty close for second, Michiel is really running away. It’s hard this year to win a lot of points back I think due tot the small fields and the little differences in points between the places. I hope to make a nice comeback, but my primary goal was to win at least one event. My events of choice were the HORSE and the PLO. The HORSE I failed, so I really want to win the PLO. Next one up is the Razz-event. This is a fun tournament, but I think there is a big luck factor in this one. Bricks can cost you all your chips and in a stud-type game, this can happen very fast.

You were considered to be one of the more tournament players in our own group. How do you see yourself now?
I really enjoy tournaments. The challenge is big and the reward is this too. But due to the fact that we pretty much only play cash games these days, I adapted a little to this. I think I can stand my man between all of the usual players at our home game. Of course, there are games that I control better than others. I’m not that good yet in eight-or-better-type of games. I’m trying to work on this and actually learned a lot three handed in the latest HSOP Omaha 8 tournament that we played. But I really enjoy playing mixed cash games these days. But if I really needed to choose, I would prefer a deep stack tournament above a cash game every day!

Last year you played the firs ‘Mickey C Poker. be battles it out’-edition against me and won that one pretty easily. This year’s edition you are behind 1-0. How do you see your chances in this match-up?
The game is still open I think. The first one was real fun and already almost a year ago. We weren’t that familiar with most of the games back then. In the year that’s passed since then, we both played a lot of different variants and learned a lot I think. So I thinkg this edition is tougher. The first match I lost, I was pretty tired. I only slept an hour and a half then. But I don’t want to look for excuses, I lost and now it’s my duty to win the next two. Wish me luck!

Last question: What are your expectations for the upcoming World Series of Poker?
My post next week will handle about this. I think the structures are even better than last year and there are more events, so I expect the pro’s to do even better. I’m really disappointed that they removed the rebuy tournaments. I really loved those, and they were real pro tournaments. This year, I hope my hero Cunningham will win his sixth bracelet, I hope Hellmuth will go for number twelve an I hope upcoming star Tom durrrr Dwan will win his first. And a last hope I have is for a pro to go deep in the main event or even win it!

Thank you for the interview!
The pleasure was mine.

That was it for the first edition of ‘A look into the mind of …’ where we got a glimps of the toughts about some of the upcoming things in the life of pokerplayer Thomas Vanbrabant!

Mickey C