Calen McNeil

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Name: Calen McNeil
Home Town:Victoria BCFavorite Game:Omaha

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CGN: Where did learn to play poker?
Calen: I first started playing poker in College in the early 90’s mostly mixed games with friends and for nothing more than Drinking money.  
CGN: How did you first start playing poker as more than just for fun?
Calen: Prior to taking poker seriously, I was a pretty competitive Chess player and was playing a lot of chess on line. When the poker boom happened online it was a natural transition from Chess to poker. I started playing online in low stakes tourney’s in 2004 and had my first live tournament experience in Vegas in 2005. I was on an annual trip with buddies and stumbled on a $40 re-buy event at the Sahara. I was feeling really down as I got taken for $2500 the night before in a cash game at the Stardust. I got really drunk and before I knew it I was broke. I was planning to stay in the room for the rest of the weekend until my buddy dragged me and my last $80 to the Black Jack table where I preceded to go on a sick run and ended up cashing out for nearly $1000.00. 
I was feeling great and the 7:00 pm tourney was about to start so I bought in. Out of a field of 140 I ended up chopping the whole thing with a guy and cashed for $1500 or there about. I was hooked… The next 3 days of my trip I played all three of their daily tournaments and ended up making 5 more final tables and chopped 3 more top two places. I made it back home and played my first live tournament in Canada at the River Rock $40 re-buy event and ended up taking that down out of a field of 150 players came 1st for $4,000.00 and change. It occurred to me that this might be something I was good at. 
CGN: Why did you decide to play poker for a living?
Calen: It wasn’t a conscience decision it just sort of happened. I own a few business interests and none of them require my full time attention and before I knew it I was playing full time.  
CGN: What is your most memorable poker experience?
Calen: Most memorable poker experience was this past summer at the WSOP $1500 Pot Limit Omaha event… I had already cashed in the first 2 events I had played and 2 days before had lost heads up in the first level of the Shoot-Out event which would have been my 3rd cash in a row. Anyway…. I was really deep in the tournament, perhaps 22 people left or so and I found myself in a limped pot from the BB with a crap hand which ended up getting checked through to the turn…. The turn actually gave me a set of sevens which I ended up calling a pot size bet thinking I had the best hand. The river came an ace and the original bettor open shoved all in after I checked to him. He had me covered but I really thought I had the best hand. I thought for about 3 minutes and basically couldn’t live with myself if I folded…. I held my head and jumped out of my chair yelling “I Call I Call” right between two tables where Daniel Negreneau and Phil Hellmuth were playing…. I just heard the player say nice call and I new I had won the hand and a pot that put me into 3rd in chips for the whole tournament…. Tough Call on a Tough Stage…. I ended up having a complete meltdown after a tilt call with 12 people left, still 3rd in chips and ended up coming 11th to bubble a WSOP final table…… Good times! 
CGN: What is your funniest poker experience?
Calen: In Reno having just won a few thousand playing hold’em losing it all too Ali Nejad ( poker after dark announcer) and Alan Kessler playing 3 handed Chinese Poker for $50 a point. I of course had never played Chinese poker and they were very eager to have me learn…..  
CGN: What is your biggest poker tournament win?
Calen: My biggest single tournament cash was the Coast to Coast WPT $1,000.00 bounty tourney where I came 3rd for $36,800.00 … I have been fortunate to cash a lot in tournaments but this is my biggest to date.. 
CGN: Do you have any favorite professional poker players?
Calen: I really enjoy David Mathews as he goes for it on each and every hand! Antonio Esfandiari as he doubled me up at least 5 times to propel me to my 2nd TV final table and Kenna James cause no matter where or when he sees me he always breaks into song singing “BigWheel keep on turning, Proud Mary Keep on Burning”… I actually busted him in one of the WSOP prelim events and he was singing the song from the time the hand started and I could still hear him singing as he left the Amazon room….. 
CGN: What is your #1 strategy while playing poker?
Calen: Starting Hand Selection and Position….. It doesn’t matter what position you have if you have a good starting hand and it doesn’t matter what hand you have if you have position…… 
CGN: What advice would you give a prospective professional poker player?
Calen: Think long and hard before you quite your day job. Professional Poker is a grind and very lonely. Make sure you have a decent bankroll and make sure you keep your expense roll and poker roll separate. Never play above your bankroll…. 
CGN: What percent of your success would you say is attributable to randomness?
Calen: Zero…. Randomness always evens out. My specific style of play is geared towards lowering variance and ensuring a lower degree of coin flips and a higher percentage of big (80-20) edges. 
CGN: At a final table, would you rather play against a pro that you understand or a lucky rookie who doesn’t understand the game?
Calen: With a pro you will always have a general idea of what his likely thought pattern is. With a lucky rookie you need to remember he has no clue as to what you have and in most cases doesn’t have a clue what he has. Either one is ok if you make the right adjustments but it is definitely less stressful playing a pro. If you lose to a pro then in most situations he was probably the favorite. It hurts losing to a luck sack amateur.  
CGN: Do you gamble much on non-skill games or games that have a house edge?
Calen: I stopped playing house games about 2 years ago… I overheard a name pro complaining how much money he lost in the pit (Craps, Roulette etc)  at one of my tables and proceeded to check raise him until I had all his chips. This player was a big factor in me making my first TV table in Vegas. Losing money on any other game other than a game you have a decided edge in is stupid! It also effects in a major way how you approach poker! STAY IN SCHOOL AND STAY OUT OF THE PITS! If you find me in the pits it’s only for social wagering with friends over cocktails. 
CGN: If you could sit down and play a game of poker with any five people in the world (living or deceased), who would you pick?
Calen: Winston Churchill, George W. Bush (Rich and Dumb), Bill Clinton, Dorothy Stratton, Heather Thomas. (25 years ago) 
CGN: How did you go about developing your poker face so that others couldn’t read your unintentional body language?
Calen: My face is too expressive to try and control. I think it actually confuses people as I often get paid off with the nuts. For the most part just play your good hands and your bad hands the same way and you’ll be ok. If you are aware of your possible tells and who’s paying attention at your table is often a good way to throw some reverse tells out there. 
CGN: What skill is more important in Holdem: discipline in the range of hands you play, or the ability to read the other player? How can you teach someone to trust their read and to let a hand go, or to trust the read and make a difficult call? 
Calen: I think long term hand reading will make you more money… Understanding where you are in a hand is so important. As you get better with your hand reading skills your starting hand requirements aren’t as important. At the end of the day you have to show a winning hand or have your opponent fold there hand to win. I think it is the money you earn when you don’t have a hand and understanding when is the right time to apply pressure to your opponent that begins to separate the good players from the great players. Most good players know how to extract maximum value from their good hands. 
It is very hard to teach someone the discipline to trust their read. I turned a corner a couple of years ago when an opponent showed me a bluff on the river and he turned over the exact hand I put him on. I thanked him as I new despite losing the pot that I would always trust my read. That fold lost me money that day but the read has paid dividends ever since. Just takes experience and understanding the feeling in your gut. 
CGN: Is it better to play aggressive early in a tourney where the blinds go up quickly — or should your style of play stay consistent no matter how quickly the blinds go up?
Calen: My style of play is to play aggressive right from the start… I am fairly aggressive player to begin with but in my view it is important to test the people at your table early when the money is smaller than discover much later that they are capable of a 4 bet bluff. The flip side is there is more money to be won by aggressive play when the antes kick in so often I will play tight early so that I can be given more credit for when there is actual money to be won. Best strategy is to play the opposite of your table… Table tight play loose and vice versus…. 
CGN: Who do you think the top five N.L.H. cash game players are in the world right now (including online pros)?
Calen: Brian Hastings, Patrick Antonious, Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, David Benyamine. 
CGN: When you decided to turn pro, what type of bankroll did you start out with? How much time/what stakes would you have to play in order to make a quality living?
Calen: My bankroll was smaller than I needed because I had a decent passive income that replenished the roll every month. This is an easier way to play but most players I would say would need to start out with about 100 times their average buy in. If your going to play $1,000.00  tourney’s I would go to war with a min of $100,000.00. I think it is possible to be successful with a roll around $50,000.00 if you play smaller cash games and smaller preliminary tournaments. Always depends what stakes you play. What ever the buy amount is for your game have between 50 and 100 buy ins and you will be very happy with the money you’re making.  
CGN: How often do you play online poker?
Calen: I just recently became a profitable online player so I am playing close to 25 hours a week online the last couple of months. I find the online game and the live game to take different skill sets. As I am able to get to live games without much trouble I tend to prefer playing live tournaments. 
CGN: What impact do you feel online poker has had in regards to big live tournaments?
Calen: Being able to satellite into these tournaments is a huge bonus. Players that wouldn’t normally be able to buy into these events or don’t feel they are skilled enough to risk the money are now able to enter. This makes big field tournaments very soft. It also allows players to play games other than Holdem like Omaha, Stud and even Horse. Overall this is better for the long term sustainability of the poker economy 
CGN: What’s your favorite hand?
Calen: AA of course… This should be every player’s favorite… I do like hands that can make double belly busters on the turn as they are very deceiving Q9, J9 and the like. They have to be suited however. 
CGN: What is your favorite type of poker game?
Calen: PLO and Omaha 8 o/b, prefer Pot limit Holdem to No limit as I believe there is more skill involved in Pot limit than No limit.