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Adam "Snoopy" Goulding
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08 Jun 2010
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"I’d play live from 12 to 10 o’clock and then go straight into playing online. I was sleeping five minutes every hour and running myself down both physically and emotionally."
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If ever there were a player that typifies the cliché “money doesn’t buy you happiness”, it’s Shaun Deeb. Last November, Shaun announced to the world that he was giving up tournaments and taking a break from poker, if not retiring all together. The tone of his post reflected one of a down-and-outer, someone who couldn’t win a dime, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth as Shaun remained a prominent fixture at the top of the PocketFives online rankings and was not only winning tournaments, but making a lot of money in the process. Shaun is, after all, one of, if not the most successful online MTT players in the history of the game.
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The announcement was so out of the blue that many assumed Deeb’s account had been hacked, but it was Shaun all right, and he’d hit rock bottom. But the reason for his sudden hatred for the game had little to do with success or failure. True, he’d just been eliminated from a live EPT tournament, but the root of the problem lay more in Shaun’s choice of lifestyle and the decisions he’d made within his profession, rather than a simple case of self pity from ‘running bad’. As Shaun declared himself in his own unique way: “Yah, poker was good for a while but **** I hate what I’ve become.”
Several months on and Shaun Deeb is bouncing around the Amazon Room, high on life and wearing a smile that would require a crowbar and jar of Vaseline to remove. Along with newly acquired locks, I had to do a double take to ensure this was indeed the same person who’d spoke those bleak and depressing words. Somehow, Shaun had recovered his passion for not only the game, but the profession as a whole, and he displayed an unadulterated enthusiasm that one would expect from someone truly enjoying life. Shaun was a changed man, and I wanted to know why.
Snoopy: So, what’s changed since your return?
Shaun Deeb: I have a superior mindset now. I’m more relaxed and I don’t take it nearly as seriously as I used to. I’m trying my best to make poker fun, which is what it should be. I grinded for like four years, playing pretty much every day, and poker just wasn’t as enjoyable as it should have been. But that’s changed now, and having taken a break, I’ve come back to have a good time and play a couple of fun events.
Snoopy: You said you’d hated what you’d become, can you expand on that at all?
SD: I’d just busted Vilamoura [EPT Main Event], but I’d been playing Europe constantly for those previous two months, and become really frustrated. I’d play live from 12 to 10 o’clock and then go straight into playing online. I was sleeping five minutes every hour and running myself down both physically and emotionally. I was totally stressed out and gave myself no time to relax or enjoy the cities I went to. I quit because poker wasn’t fun anymore, and I wasn’t enjoying being a full-time grinder. It was obvious that I needed a break.
Snoopy: Have you stayed away from the grind since your return?
SD: Yeah, I’m not grinding at all. I played some SCOOP events, but that’s about it. I’m playing a lot of World Series events, but that’s just because everyone’s out here for the summer and I don’t want to be left out. I’m here to socialise as well as play poker.
Snoopy: In hindsight, are you pleased you turned professional at such a young age.
SD: Yeah, sure, poker’s given me so many opportunities. I’ve learned about travelling, life, and I’ve met some great people. I also became comfortable financially. Poker’s given me so many opportunities, and I think it’ll give me a lot more, so I’m just really happy I got into poker when I did. I wish I could have done it sooner. Poker’s a great job, a great profession, and a great circle.
Snoopy: What advice would you give younger players thinking of playing poker full-time?
SD: If you’re thinking about quitting college, you probably shouldn’t. If you’re going to do that, then you should know for sure that you’re really good at poker and you’re going to win a lot of money. You’ve got to realise that, in this job, you have to get better each year, you can’t stay the same, you have to be willing to keep learning, keep adjusting, and keep an open mind, and it takes a very unique set of psychological attributes that most of these young kids don’t have. They think they do, but then they run bad, do something crazy, and then they’re broke. Bankroll management’s huge and you have to be aware of what your expenses are, what your costs are, and know what you’re doing.
Snoopy: Have you seen many players crash and burn?
SD: Of course, I mean, like in any gambling institute it’s like that. Especially within the online generation, a lot of names you used to see, you don’t see anymore, and people who played some of the big cash games are now gone. One of the reasons that they built those bankrolls in the first place is because they took shots, but if you’re going to do that, when you get stuck, you can’t just go back to those tendencies because you’ll make the same mistakes and end up broke.
Snoopy: If poker didn’t exist, what would you do instead?
SD: I’d either be a stockbroker or an entrepreneur, probably owning a bunch of restaurants or something.
Snoopy: What’s your attitude towards money?
SD: Money doesn’t affect me too much in poker because I have backers for the tournaments I play. I can blow through the money I have set aside and be fine, but I’ve never really worried about money, and I know that it comes and goes. I’d rather spend it and enjoy it, rather than sit on it and be miserable for five years. I’d rather be happy for two.
Snoopy: So you’re a lavish spender...
SD: There are a couple of things which I’d spend any kind of money on, but I quite enjoy it, so that’s what I do. I’m actually a nit in a lot of other ways. I don’t really purchase anything huge, but will buy a lot of small things very often.
Snoopy: Can you picture yourself playing poker in 50 years time?
SD: I always see myself playing a couple of times a month, traveling here and there. If there’s a tournament I like, I’ll do a vacation around it and, if I go out of the tournament, try to enjoy the city. I’ll always enjoy playing poker, just not at the volume I was before.
Snoopy: Do you see yourself as an obsessive character?
SD: Yeah, I’m completely obsessive compulsive. My friends saw how hard I grinded for four years. I was playing tournaments because I saw value in them, and thought I had to play them. Now I’m playing for more social reasons.
Snoopy: Do you consider yourself a natural player or a student of the game?
SD: A little bit of both. I have a lot of natural instincts and tendencies, like noticing rhythm and stuff like that, but I’ve surrounded myself with some great poker players, well before I played tournaments, who are all still around. I owe them everything from my early days because they gave me advice and listened to my dumb-ass ideas, and now they come to me, so it’s great to return the favour five years down the road.
Snoopy: Are you the type of player who does his homework and studies databases and hands?
SD: I don’t do much behind the scenes to be honest, I don’t break down Poker Tracker or anything. I’ll just use my memory of what happened to think about a hand, and analyse what I thought was important. I don’t play by stats and I don’t use a HUD, I just consider ranges, tendencies, and what my table image was at the time.
Snoopy: Are you playing much cash these days?
SD: I play a little bit of the cash, mixed games, eight-game, Badugi - I’ll play whatever I feel like playing that day. It’s fun to have the freedom of starting and stopping a session when you feel like it. The whole reason I got into poker was for the freedom of life, but for four years I actually gave myself zero freedom. I’d wake up at 10 o’clock, play online tournaments, go to bed at midnight, and then wake up the next day and do the same thing all over again. Even when I wasn’t, I would be traveling to play a live tournament. My life was based around tournaments and nothing else. In the last sixth months, I’ve lived a much more balanced life and I’m much happier for it.
Snoopy: What do you consider to be your weaknesses as a player?
SD: I’m actually not looking to develop too much at the moment. My weakness is probably not taking stuff seriously enough. It’s tough when you play small in events to take it seriously if you don’t care enough about the money. I know that if I get deep into an event that I’ll play a lot better, I just have to get through the first few levels with a stack and then start focusing, when the equity gets higher. Before then, however, I just end up passing the time.
Snoopy: Did you ever care about the online rankings?
SD: I was never a big rankings guy. I cared about the PokerStars tournament leader board and I did really well in that. It was the one thing I took seriously. Random leagues aren’t necessarily an accurate display of skill, though, as they tend to benefit a certain type of player. I’m actually looking at working with some guys in finding a better system that weighs everything correctly because I think all of them are unbalanced towards one specific crowd. If you wanted to get to the top of those leagues, I could give you an appropriate strategy.
Snoopy: Live, you’re still waiting for that first big score…
SD: Hey, I did have a big live score. How dare you insult me. The Kiev high roller event. [Shaun did indeed win the EPT High Roller in Kiev, but only three players entered the event.]
Snoopy: Oh, OK, but, up until your triumph in Kiev, was it just a matter of variance?
SD: I definitely made a lot of mistakes. I was not the best live player at the time, and I’m still learning a lot. Technically, I’m more sound than most guys, but I realise that their edge against weaker opponents is stronger. Against really tough opponents who aren’t going to give up anything and it’s strictly sizing and game flow, I’m going to crush them, but when it comes to the live tell aspect, I’m going to lose, so I try to reduce their chances of gaining an edge on me because of that.
Of course, I also struggled with patience at first. The way I’ve become patient now is to be much more friendly at the table. I used to be the silent kid, but now I’m talking to people and making it enjoyable because live tournaments are a fun little thing, it’s not super serious. If I’m deep, then OK, I’ll be serious, but in the early stages, I’m going to enjoy myself and make everyone like me.
Snoopy: Are you interested in raising your profile and becoming a celebrity?
SD: I have a few projects in the works which will hopefully amount to something in the next six months. I know I’m well known, so I use that to my advantage. I’ve had a few offers through the year that have fallen through but I think some unique opportunities will present themselves. There’s a lot of people in this industry with a lot of money looking to do something and I could easily be a good fit for a lot of different things because of who I know and what I know.
Snoopy: So you’re not content to be ‘behind the scenes’?
SD: I love being at the forefront. I’m a very sociable guy who likes talking and I don’t mind being the centre of attention.
Snoopy: What are you plans for Vegas?
SD: I’m going to play most of the tournaments and I’ll be here most days. If I feel like I’m miserable, I’ll just take a week off. I’m in a different mind set where on previous World Series, no matter what I was feeling, I was going to play the next day. Now, I’m like, ‘I really don’t have to, I’m at the Rio, I know a lot of people, I can just hang out.’
Seeing as I’m not grinding anymore, I have a whole heap of free time where I’m trying to think of things to do, so it can get boring at times. I’ll definitely have a good time here, though, there are so many people in Vegas, so many good restaurants, so many good clubs - this is a time when I’m going to look back when I’m 40 and be like, ‘That was when I spent every summer in Vegas, that was the life.’ I want to take advantage of the freedom while I have it.
Snoopy: What would you like to see change in the World Series?
SD: There’s a lot of problems with the buy-ins. They’re too polarised. They have really small buy-ins and huge fields for the public, then the really high buy-ins for the high roller pros. There’s got to be a middle ground, because there are so many financial stages of poker player. Who cares if you only get 600 people for a $5,000? Do a lot more of them. Yes, $1,000 events are successful, but don’t have six of them every weekend. A $5,000 would do really good on a Saturday, but now it has to be on a Wednesday. They’re just focused on getting these really big fields, but it kind of hurts a lot of the professionals. Who are they really going after? I think they need more of a balance.
Personally, I’ll be playing various buy-ins, including the $10,000 events. I think I fit into the category of any tournament and have an edge in almost all fields in all games, so I’ll take a shot whenever I can. I will play a lot of the mixed games this year for sure.
Snoopy: What are your goals for 2010?
SD: I’m going to go to EPT Estonia, that’s my favourite stop I’ve been to. Going to go to Europe for probably a month. My current roommate, Ali, is going to be there with Liv, so I’m sure we’ll do a little trip. I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing.
Snoopy: You and Neil had a bit of a tiff one year after Monte Carlo. Are you best of buds now?
[After Shaun was eliminated from the event, Neil told an inquiring reporter, “If you try to make a list of how he lost all of his chips, you'll never remember it,” and Shaun responded vehemently via the 2+2 forums]
SD: You know what, that all got blown out of portion. I didn’t really know him at the time, so I was like, ‘Who is this random guy making comments about me?’ What he said to the reporter was true, but I didn’t think it was cool to say it publicly. But it’s in the past, and since then we’ve become very close and I’m friends with a lot of the British guys. Me and Neil get along very well now.
Snoopy: Finally, and possibly the most important question… Are you Freddy Deeb’s son?
SD: I'm not any relation to him. How do we look similar? I'm a foot and a half taller than him, I'm pale, he's got really dark hair. Having said that, there is a funny Photoshop on the Internet of him holding me in his arms as a baby. I laugh every time I see it.
SOURCE: Blackbeltpoker.com
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