Doug Smith

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Name: Doug Smith
Home Town: Prince Edward Island
Favorite Game: Texas Hold’em

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CGN: Where did learn to play poker?

Doug: I started Playing cards with my family but it was always 45s or auction and poker just kinda came and I always played a lot of 5 card stud. Then when the sonic boom boom of poker started with Chris Moneymaker I was still in high school so we just started from that and ran a home game from my house playing hold’em.

CGN: How did you first start playing poker as more than just for fun?

Doug: When I moved up to University I just kept playing online and at the local Casino and that’s how I paid for my University tuition was playing poker.

CGN: When did you decide to play poker for a living?

Doug: About this time last year when I was just about done of my accounting degree at UPEI and I really did not want to go back, there was so much out in the world that I wanted to see and do, I even thought about working in the trades as a carpenter or even just traveling for a year. So I didn’t go back to school in September and worked at building a park in my home town of Hunter River until February. When my cousin from Vancouver was home for Christmas he said that if I ever wanted to move there was lots of work in Vancouver. So how it really started was I thought that if I was ever going to make a shot at playing cards it was now and if it didn’t work out I was going to go to work with my cousin. So I got a one way ticket to Vancouver and with two hundred dollars in my pocket I went to Vancouver and started playing the one two tables and built my roll up to two thousand dollars and started playing the two five game, and just continued to build my roll and played the five ten games and then the tournament came around and I ended up doing well in the tournament.

Editor note: The Tournament Doug is referring to is the “Coast to Coast Championship No Limit Hold’em Bounty Event #3”. The buy in was $920.00 dollars and Doug won this event taking home $92,120.00 Dollars.

CGN: Do you prefer to play in tournaments or cash games?

Doug: Tournaments

CGN: What is your most memorable poker experience?

Doug: Definitely going down to the World Series of Poker. Just being 21 years old and being at the WSOP with Brad Booth. Brad and I went down together and I got to see what it would be like living down there and being one of the big names in poker both inside the poker community and outside the poker community. If I had gone down by myself at 21 and not knowing anyone I would be just lost I would be in my hotel room or playing cards and that’s it, so having Brad show me the whole lifestyle so to me that was priceless.

CGN: What is your biggest poker tournament win?

Doug: The “Coast to Coast Championship No Limit Hold’em Bounty Event #3 for $92,120.00

CGN: Do you have any favorite professional poker players?

Doug: Doyle Brunson, because without Doyle we probably wouldn’t be here. He is the Poker Legend and at 77 he is still at the top of his game.

CGN: What is your #1 strategy while playing poker?

Doug: It seems like making big calls when you don’t have anything is how people judge a great poker player but I think the other end of that is knowing when to fold big hands, so I kinda take the opposite approach and make folds when other people would not make the folds. So I guess being patient and sitting waiting for big hands and not get to frustrated and stick to the game plan.

CGN: What advice would you give a prospective professional poker player?

Doug: I would first say to take it all in stride and don’t get involved in a big game where the stakes are above your bankroll and build up gradually so you don’t risk it all in one game.

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?

Doug: With my style I prefer to play against someone who knows what they are doing, knows when to fold or not and what’s a big hand and what’s not. Sometimes a rookie player is in a hand when they shouldn’t be and then luck is a major factor. So I would rather play against a player that knows what they are doing.

CGN: Do you gamble much on non-skill games or games that have a house edge?

Doug: No not at all I play a little blackjack or roulette but pretty well it’s just poker.

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?

Doug:

1. Stu Unger
2. Doyle Brunson
3. Phil Ivey
4. Johnny Moss
5. Johnny Cash “Just cause I always wanted to meet him”

CGN: How did you go about developing your poker face so that others couldn’t read your unintentional body language?

Doug: What I do is after I make the bet I don’t think about the bet and I will think about the day or the round of golf I just played or something other than the hand that will take my mind off of the hand. If I am trying to make a decision on whether to call or not I will try and remember past hands and the way they played them, do they play big hands slow or fast are they willing to make a bet with nothing etc….

CGN:

1. What skill is more important in Holdem: discipline in the range of hands you play, or the ability to read the other player?
2. B. 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?

Doug: For a beginner it would be discipline but once you learn the game well and move more into pro status it would be the ability to read your opponents and situations.

I am sure that it can be taught to others but some people really pick it up better than others. The nice thing about poker is there are so many variables and you might not be the best at reading people but you can develop your game in other areas such as poker math or you can just completely rely on your ability to read other players..

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?

Doug: You have to definitely play more aggressive if the blinds are moving up quickly but if the blinds are moving up say only every hour you can pick your spots more selectively but if the blinds are moving up fast you have to take those coin flip opportunities and take your chances.

CGN: Who do you think the top five N.L.H. cash game players are in the world right now (including online pros)?

Doug:

1. Brad Booth
2. Phil Ivey
3. Brian Townsend
4. Tom Dwan
5. Doyle Brunson

CGN: When you decided to turn pro, what type of bankroll did you start out with? What stakes did you play?

Doug: I only started with $200 dollars but I went to Vancouver with the hope of becoming a poker professional and the way everything turned out was perfect but if it didn’t work I did have a job waiting. I started playing at the $1 dollar $2 dollar tables and gradually built my way up the larger limits.

CGN: How often do you play online poker?

Doug: I don’t play online to much, I would rather play live but I do play about three times per week

CGN: What impact do you feel online poker has had in regards to big live tournaments?

Doug: I guess it benefited in the way that more people are willing to come out to the live tournaments because of what they have learned online and are willing to put up the money to play. It’s easy to say that the best players in the world are online because it’s so convenient to just sit at home and play whenever you want, you just have to turn on the computer. If the tournament is big enough people that always play online will come out and play for the experience or the recognition that comes with the live tournament play.

CGN: What’s your favorite hand?

Doug: 10 - 8 of clubs

CGN: What is your favorite type of poker game?

Doug: No Limit Hold’em

CGN: Final Comments to new players to the game.

Doug: Every time that you play poker learn something, take something away from the table that you didn’t know when you sat down.

CGN: Whats next?

Doug: Well I am going to head to Niagara Falls for the WPT event, it is the biggest event we have in Canada and the only stop this year for the WPT in Canada, so I will be going to that and then of to Vancouver till November when I will head down to Las Vegas with Brad Booth, Brad is shooting another Poker After Dark so I will go down with him for that and play some. Then it’s back to Vancouver for the British Columbia Poker Championship. Then I am back to PEI for Christmas to finish my year.