ALL IN with Evan Jarvis: Interview with Poker Coach Alex Fitzgerald
Alex Fitzgerald’s mouth matches his stacks — voluminous. Prepare to have your assumptions challenged in this wide-ranging tour-de-force conversation with the OG poker coach whose tutorials shaped Evan’s own play, along with countless others.
Alex shuffles topics like poker chips and it’s one incredible ride.
Stick around for the whole deal and you’ll hear everything from the nitty-gritty of MTT play broken down by a master theorist, to why you should embrace your inner adrenaline junkie. Plus, how going broke was the best thing to happen to Alex.
Other topics include: re-jamming, The Myth of Poker Talent, and why Matt Janda is a criminally underrated poker mind.
Run it once, run it good, get stacking. Simple as that.
| 00:00:26 | Evan introduces Alex Fitzgerald | |
| 00:05:37 | Alex shares his poker origin story | |
| 00:06:31 | Early tournament play at age 15: "I was always really attracted to tournament poker." | |
| 00:07:20 | Alex starts his online bankroll with a $50 loan | |
| 00:08:24 | Learning six-max cash online: "I learned a lot about six-max cash from there. I played that pretty exclusively for about a year. And I found when I did come back into tournaments, it was a lot easier." | |
| 00:08:52 | Tournaments as an endurance game | |
| 00:09:35 | How to prepare for the stress and boredom of live tournament play: "I used to pull all-nighters just to simulate jet lag." | |
| 00:11:36 | How Alex discovered the importance of diet and exercise for poker performance | |
| 00:13:05 | Alex at WPT Montreal in 2017: "Even though I felt really tired, it occurred to me six hours through the day that I'm tracking every hand." | |
| 00:14:03 | Reads and tracking facial expressions | |
| 00:15:45 | How teaching makes you a better player | |
| 00:17:01 | Why going broke turned Alex to teaching: "I went broke, and I deserved to, and I was actually pretty grateful that it happened." | |
| 00:19:50 | How teaching taught Alex he has a lot to learn | |
| 00:21:22 | Re-jam strategies | |
| 00:23:39 | How to accept your tournament death: "I love to play cards, I love big pressure tournament situations...it sounds strange, but I don't get angry with deep finishes anymore." | |
| 00:24:31 | Alex's experience of gratitude at WSOP Montreal: "The real paycheck to me was taking the train upstate to play in Montreal, looking at the fall colors, knowing I get to go compete." | |
| 00:25:42 | Advantages of growing up poor | |
| 00:28:39 | Sponsor: Gripsed Poker Training | |
| 00:30:06 | How socio-economic background affects poker results and success: "Having money in growing up does help you quite a bit and people don't realize to what degree it helps you. And possibly the greatest representation of that is 95% of professional poker players came from affluent, white families." | |
| 00:34:22 | The danger of making too much money too fast | |
| 00:36:47 | Alex's tournament ritual and faith: "I go to the same diner every morning, I go over my table draw, I do the same workout every morning, I cook myself the same breakfast." | |
| 00:39:57 | Alex on why you should play different kinds of games when you hit a poker wall | |
| 00:40:18 | Alex's story about playing the party game 'Mafia' | |
| 00:41:45 | How playing for free can sharpen your focus: "If you can beat that (free) game, you can win a WPT. If you can't beat that game, how the hell do you think you can win a WPT?" | |
| 00:42:48 | Why hanging out with non-poker players will help you get good at poker | |
| 00:44:07 | The importance of non-poker skills | |
| 00:48:32 | The folly of chasing a younger version of yourself: "I'm recognizing now that you're not gonna be 24 again, I'm never going to be as excited as I was in Europe in 2007." | |
| 00:49:53 | Embracing your inner-adrenaline junkie: "It's about the feeling. To me, I'm doing better than I used to do." | |
| 00:53:34 | Some of Evan's favorite webinars from Alex | |
| 00:54:21 | "The Myth of Poker Talent" (Alex's new book): "The reason I named it the Myth of Poker Talent is because it would sell...you need to do something to get noticed."" | |
| 00:55:22 | Bro-culture and cliques in online poker | |
| 00:57:57 | Why half the players with 40% ROI don't make money in the Sunday Million: | |
| 00:59:03 | Why Alex teaches to average player not to the 1 in a 1000: "I live in a world where all we focus on is that one guy out of a thousand...if we all focus on that guy, we're going to have a skewed culture very soon." | |
| 01:01:42 | Alex blind tests Hero Callers | |
| 01:02:40 | Matt Janda, underrated poker mind: "People always said I wanted to take my game to the next level, well, real Matt Janda." | |
| 01:04:05 | John Juanda story | |
| 01:05:28 | How to replicate a move by understanding theory | |
| 01:06:03 | Discussing Alex's chapter in "Excelling at No-Limit Hold'em" | |
| 01:06:58 | The importance of stack preservation and small-ball strategies: "What is our goal as a tournament poker player? This sounds really simple, but your goal is to cash a lot and to win a lot...the people who do not make money at tournament poker are the people who win but can never seem to find a way to cash or the people that cash but can never seem to find a way to win." | |
| 01:08:28 | Alex breaks down the stages of a tournament | |
| 01:11:59 | Alex talks flatting 3-bets | |
| 01:13:03 | Why pros 'pick their spots': "If you don't understand that, you don't understand professional gambling." | |
| 01:14:39 | Difference between check raise in 7 card stud and NL Hold’em | |
| 01:16:42 | Why math can't fully solve the interdynamics of a poker tournament: "We do not have a form of mathematics that can express the interconnected nature of a poker tournament." | |
| 01:18:15 | Sponsor: 888poker[/URL] (Use the promo code "ALLIN" when you make your first deposit) | |
| 01:20:55 | How reading broadly can improve tournament poker skills: "People go 'I want to be better at tournament poker'...read!" | |
| 01:21:05 | Poker and War strategy: "This is a war game. We're moving our pieces on a board." | |
| 01:22:41 | Alex on Phil Hellmuth: "Phil Hellmuth, I'm convinced, I don't know if it's intentional or not, but he's a genius." | |
| 01:25:47 | Phil Hellmuth's 40% open rate | |
| 01:27:07 | Evan on meeting Phil Hellmuth at TwitchCon | |
| 01:28:43 | Why great competitors are sometimes not friendly during competition: "Even if it's not an act, I don't judge anyone." | |
| 01:31:38 | Sacrifices required for greatness | |
| 01:32:53 | How to deal with unsolicited feedback: "I used to take that way more seriously...you (Evan) were definitely a calmer personality." | |
| 01:34:05 | Why you need to intimately understand other people to be a good poker player | |
| 01:35:26 | What Alex learned from visiting an art museum: "Communication is so important, is so intelligent. Negativity can have a really nice, positive effect on you if you think about it." | |
| 01:44:38 | Releasing electric charge in the system | |
| 01:46:03 | Evan on the charged North American experience | |
| 01:48:48 | Alex on the importance of mental breaks: "If you are starving, or you think you're starving, the natural thought, the profitable thought is 'I need to find more information about where the food is'" | |
| 01:49:05 | Meditation and working out: "Before I go in to work out, I don't think about my problems." | |
| 01:51:08 | Evan on nutrition | |
| 01:52:19 | Alex tells a story about a French consultant learning poker | |
| 01:53:40 | ALL IN is part of the PokerNews Podcast Network! | |
| 01:54:02 | Alex's process of reflection: "I fight with this feeling that if I'm not working I'm worthless. I have a really dark place that comes from." | |
| 01:55:11 | Why Alex goes to hockey games to take a real night off: "I'm going there to completely turn off everything. Because once I'm in an arena, I'm surrounded by this thing I have to focus on." | |
| 01:55:41 | Alex on prayer and faith | |
| 01:59:25 | Alex on going broke and finding out what made him happy: "One of the best things that ever happened to me was going broke. Because when I had a ton of money, I wasn't happy." | |
| 02:03:05 | How positivity empowers | |
| 02:04:41 | Exercise: listing your 10 best achievements | |
| 02:06:05 | The importance of maintaining your state in tournament poker: "Tournament poker, a lot of times hinges on, can you keep it together right now?" | |
| 02:07:36 | Evan reflects on his Fallsview run | |
| 02:09:57 | What we can learn from how children play games | |
| 02:11:36 | Why you shouldn't look for redemption in a game of poker: "You can not look for your redemption in a gambling game." | |
| 02:12:58 | Combating perfectionism | |
| 02:14:17 | Watching athletes deal with failure: "Robinson Cano is just a zen-master." | |
| 02:17:09 | Why Alex decided to focus on coaches | |
| 02:20:52 | On how coaching demands focus: "You have to be there at that moment, or that person is going to wonder 'why am I going to pay that guy $150 per hour?'...It's all performance-based." | |
| 02:24:02 | What happens when an amateur player hires a coach | |
| 02:28:29 | The importance of study for self-esteem: "You can sit at a table and look at every single person at that table, and know you're the best player. And that is hard to beat. You can earn that within yourself." | |
| 02:31:59 | Alex talks legacy | |
| 02:33:47 | The value of service | |
| 02:36:28 | The power of teaching concepts: "I love that I get to do that. I can teach people that if you need money, there's this Hold'em game pretty much anywhere on earth...just helping people makes me happy." | |
| 02:38:44 | What will NL Hold’em look like in 100 years? | |
| 02:41:23 | Alex's blog | |
| 02:42:47 | Evan tells a story about Alex's tutorial helping him in Lima | |
| 02:46:42 | Alex's background and why he keeps his coaching affordable: "I ran away from home in high school and I was living in a garage with no heating or plumbing when I started playing cards. | I always put out a ton of free stuff because I always try to remember that kid." |
| 02:48:29 | Evan recounts his 2015 heater | |
| 02:50:13 | Enjoying your student's success | |
| 02:51:18 | Why Alex's poker-playing journey isn't done yet: "You can play poker when you're 82 years old, I'm not done yet...that's the great thing about this game, it's a life-long thing. Any young guys listening to this, finish school, it'll teach you about how to be a card player." | |
| 02:51:58 | Benefits of part-time approach to poker | |
| 02:52:29 | The one big thing Alex would like to add to his resume: "I want hardware. I want that moment when they deal the final card...I want to do the Tiger Woods fist pump. I want to sit there. I want the socially acceptable time to scream like a banshee." | |
| 02:54:49 | Why Alex still wants to win hardware |
Learn more about podcast host, Evan Jarvis, on his coaching site, Gripsed Poker Training. Follow Evan on Twitter.
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