Totally baffled by this "boku87" player

Hello guys.

I’ve seen a couple of challenges from this “boku87” guy on pokerstars. He did a 100k challenge and a 10k challenge. Both are impressive, obviously the $5 to $10k is the better one but it has made me wonder a bit since hearing how many SnG’s he does at a time to achieve such a feat.

I saw a video on youtube of him multitabling 50 at once. Not only is this just sick and I imagine very very exhausting but doesn’t this just contradict everything I’ve learn over the past couple of months and all the reading and studying i have done?
The reasons i ask this are as follows:

Now don’t get me wrong, i can see he is a very talented poker player but everything I have learnt about pot odds/ hand odds/ trying to read people/ watching how others are playing and if they’re bluffing or not etc etc the list goes on.

I’ve come to a conclusion that this seems totally irrelevant in his situation. No doubt I’m guessing he knows what he’s doing but from seeing the video i don’t care how good a player you are, even if you’re Tom Dwan or Phil Ivey but this just doesn’t seem like playing “poker” to me.

For one, I’ve tried I think around 6 tables at once at the most and granted I’m still quite new to the scene but i think it’s pretty much hard work trying to work out odds/positions etc when there is constantly a screen up to ask you to make your move. So you literally have a few seconds to make a decision so everything i learnt seems to go out the window as in reality it doesn’t seem possible to take everything into the equation to make good proper decisions on if you should fold/call/raise/re-re-raise your opponents because you just can’t keep track of whats been going on.

Now his video is even worse and like i say even if you’re the best poker player in the world, he literally has a box popping up to ask to make a move every second of even less. Now this doesn’t seem good poker to me and i can’t work out how he strings out a profit in this? Maybe because he has so many at a time, he’s going to get lucky in a few and get to final tables etc because the volume is so so high. I don’t care what anyone says and I can’t/won’t believe that he can possibly implant all the required elements in poker (potodds/outs/position/bluffs/peoples betting patterns) to actually show good poker and stuff.

I’m totally confused yet he has made a profit over the long-term, anyone any ideas on this? It has totally mind boggled me big time.

Ps: Over the past couple of months I’ve noticed he barely made a profit of a “top” player. Like 1k in total? Yet this 2week challenge he managed 10k profit. Maybe he should just grind out the low limits like did then as he seems to make the money there much more??

Anyone with views on this to enlighten me would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, I’m not in any way shape or form slagging him off, he’s clearly remarkable and it works for him but like I said everything I’ve learnt and what people tell me seems totally irrelevant?

Thanks

He's maybe an autistic person and his brain works different ?

Maybe. However he isn't I don't think and even if he was, it still wouldn't be possible to read opponents, pots odds, poker odds, bluffs, position in a fraction of a second. He wouldn't be able to "read" without actually seeing what's going on in that table.

ie: He quickly checks/folds/raises then it flashes to the next screen, so in turn he doesn't see what action from other players is happening whilst hes not watching the table. So even if he did have a sick mind like that, without actually watching that table at the time, it wouldn't be possible to read anything.

Possibly if he had them all tiled and could actually watch watch each table and the goings on whilst he isn't playing at that particular table and was actually playing at a different table I'd be inclined to believe that he did have some sick sense like that. However without actually watching a particular table it wouldn't actually be possible to read it.

Maybe he goes by "quantity, not quality"?

I'll have to check out the vid to se more....

Lol




It goes like this, If you are capable of mass mltitabling and can show a profit. Why not? With bonuses etc its very easy decision to do so if you can break even/show slight profit. Which he obviously exceeds.

Maybe he does go by quantity and not quality which is what i was guessing more than actually playing "poker" and playing the odds etc. That's what i was trying to fathom out.

marginal:

I agree, if it does show profit and you can do it then by all means do it. I'd do it for i could obviously. My point was being about all i have learnt kinda of goes out the window when people say you must learn this and that to be successful when actually none of that is clearly used if you're playing 50+ tables at once.

Actually it is all used when multi tabling its just you have to be quicker in your decisions and have a better grasp of concepts. Same rules apply

On Pokerstars the point system is such that if you can play reasonable limits and multitable, and just break even, you can get tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses in a year.

At 50 tables I have to agree, it takes the Play out of poker and it becomes work.

I have no doubt that the trained mind can perform poker at a very high level, but this guy, and all who stretch their brains capacity to the max via massive multi-tabling just can not get a handle on table dynamics. Those dynamics deal a lot with steals, and who you can and should not steal from. This is a disadvantage.

Modern trackers do allow for a great variety in just what info any user will want to have showing. Once said user figures out which data he wants handy, and where it will be when he thinks he has to dig deeper, he might overcome much of that disadvantage about table dynamics.

I think he is doing fine with table dynamics etc.

Thomas "Boku87" Boekhoff is a multitabling machine from my country and i´m very proud of him. He understands very well pushbotting and ICM, and all this goes by autopilot. 40-70 tables are unbelievable, my maximum is maybe 12-20. He shows us, that you really can "print money" in SNG´s on stars. There is still so many fish at the tables, just make tons of automatic good decisions and in the long run you cannot lose...

as far as i know about boku87 he is a slight winner, making most of his money out of bonuses and rakeback.

wow I never even considered that. A hell of a way to make a living but I imagine it actually is consistent. food for thought from you guys. Rakeback and bonuses would let him break even i suppose and then if actually was a decent enough player to come out ahead everything else is gravy. I wonder what his per hour take is like?

anybody have any idea what his rakeback would look like? haha

He plays on pokerstars, and plays MTT's, no rakeback.
Also, watching him play sometimes, I think he's just playing ABC-poker, since he sometimes plays like what, 40 tables? I dont know how it is at his stakes, but since you only have to win like one in 50 times, I think its really doable. I've played 1$ SNG's 10 tables at the time and made a profit almost all of the time. So I guess it's doable but it's way harder with that many tables at those stakes of course...

He plays donkaments, so he only needs to be good at pushbotting.

this is wrong. sharkscope him. when he did the 10k challenge there werent any bonuses included. he made the 10k from scratch.

THe thing is he is playing turbos, so he just plays his cards, not the players. he only raises, folds or shoves, so it isnt hard to track the action. And his knowledge of push/fold and ICM is so great that he truly crushes people even slightly blind. I cant get my sharkscope to work at the moment, but his ROI is pretty impressive from the games alone. And note that even a 5-10% ROI at higher stakes like $26+ is considered huge as those guys are all very very good playing SNG's. So when there is only that small an edge you make up for it in volume. It's how all the top players on teh Sharkscope leaderboard do it.

If he 2 tables he'd absolutely crush the souls of everyone at his tables given reads and notes to look at too.

I think you definitely have to give him some credit. It's not easy doing what he does and to turn such a huge profit at the same time.

If I could get even half of his multi-tabling skills, I would love it.

gimme 10% and i would be grateful, let alone 50%. lol

I wish I could mutitable that many. I tried 16 before and I think I'm doing ok, then I realise 5 of them have been on sitout for half the game.

I think any multitabling past 5 is great. Fives my limit and i'm not much good at that. rather play one or two tables at a higher level if i had the bankroll.

I cant barley handle 4 tables, but then again I can only fit 4 tables tiled on my monitor, I have a 19 inch flat screen, even with 4 tables im staying busy, 50 tables is just mind boggling, more power to him.