Interview with F Paulsson

#2 28th July 2006, 8:00 PM

That's great, and at least your head doesn't appear to have exploded! Okay, I'd like to move on now to talk for a little while about that little online poker forum called Cardschat, if I may?

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Alright.

Several people have asked how you stumbled across the site?

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Well, I happened upon it when I decided to pick up poker again, about a year ago. I was looking for information about deposit bonuses and building a bankroll; for example 'where do I get the most bang for my $50'? Ironically, I finally picked a site that didn't have a signup bonus, but searching for the information was what made me find Cardschat, so something good came of it anyway. I think that http://www.cardschat.com/build-your-...r-bankroll.php was the first page of CC I ever read. It actually took me a few days to even notice that there was a forum on the site, heh.

So what drew you into Cardschat and kept you there? There are plenty of other poker forums out there after all...

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To be completely honest, I don't remember. I must've found some post that I decided to respond to, but right now I can't remember exactly what that post would be or how it started. It's worth pointing out, though, that I didn't actually know that there were many poker forums out there. Like I said earlier, I was gone during the big poker boom; the fact that there existed a plethora of information was a big surprising to me.

...but presumably you are now aware there are other places out there, yet you're still hanging around at Cardschat!

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Ah, yes. Well, I'm a creature of habit and I like CC. I've gotten to know some people over the past year, and the "feel" of the forum is very calm and friendly. There aren't many poker forums that can claim that with a straight face. I mean, relatively speaking, Cardschat is virtually flame-free. That's pretty rare on an internet forum today. I guess what I'm saying is that it's the community that makes me stick around.

Did any forum members names immediately 'jump out' at you? Was there anybody whose posts you especially looked forward to?

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Diabloblanco, for one. I know he rubbed some people the wrong way, but his advice was solid.

Funnily enough i was about to say I was always on the lookout for his posts as an example! Anyone else?

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XD... Yourself... JesusLederer. It took a while before I started getting Bill Hollorian's posts, but he knows what he's talking about, too. Hard to forget XD's "River me right there! I love it!" signature.

Hard to forget his most recent avatar, too!

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Haha, indeed! I dunno, I'm sure there were others, but these are the ones I can remember straight off the bat.

For those of you who aren't aware, Freddie co-writes for the cardschat blog, and a fine job he does of it too. How did the blog idea first come about? Did you talk to Nick, did he come to you, or did you meet somewhere in the middle?

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Well, it must've been December or so when Nick decided he wanted to fire up a blog. To be completely honest, I'm not sure how I got involved, but it was Nick who approached me. I wouldn't have thought to volounteer for it, but was honoured to be asked. I really had no idea what I was supposed to write about in the beginning though, but I think I found a niche after awhile that suits me pretty well.

If you could direct someone who's totally new to the blog to one single blog post of yours in the hope of both educating them and getting them hooked on the blog, which would it be and why?

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I'm going to have to say it's this one: http://www.cardschat.com/blog/04/13/profit-vs-skill/. It doesn't give very specific strategy advice, but to someone who hasn't thought along these lines before could perhaps turn up his win-rate by quite a bit from reading that, or I'd like to think so at least. As I said above, in regards to limit vs. no-limit, exploiting others' mistakes is the key in poker. In that post, I sort of try to explain why.

Indeed, table selection is far more important than many new and even some experienced players give credit for...

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Yeah. If you get that you make money off of others' mistakes, it makes a boatload of sense to pick opponents who make many mistakes.

Do you ever struggle to think up topics to write about on the blog?

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All the time. Really, all the time. See, I still consider myself a beginning poker player, and sometimes I feel like I'm not really up for the task of lecturing others on how to play. I try to make sure that I know what I'm talking about before I post about it, because I'm - in a way - still new to the game myself, and don't want to give people bad advice, especially not when I know that there are people who trust what I write.

How much has the blogging, and indeed the posting on the Cardschat forums, helped your game progress over the last year or so?

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Tremendously. No doubt, tremendously. Actively thinking about the game away from the table is invaluable, and posting on the boards and blogging has helped me more than I can really put into words. Some of the strategy tips in my posts and on the blog were "discovered" as I wrote the post itself. I've analyzed something and been surprised at the outcome, only to realize that I've learned something myself.

It's nice to hear that the learning process from your posts is sometimes mutual!

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It's pretty safe to say that my game wouldn't be anywhere near what it is today if I hadn't been active posting and blogging. And the learning process is very much mutual. Responding to other people's posts can be done for purely selfish reasons; you're often helping yourself at least as much as the other guy.

Precisely. Okay, the end is almost nigh, but first I have a few other user-submitted questions to throw at you, if you don't mind (don't panic, there's no more from Beriac!)

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Good! I have a live poker game with buddies here tonight, so I need to go buy some snacks before that. Go right ahead.

ChuckTS actually only submitted this question a few hours ago - and I'm glad he made it just in time, because it's a crucially important question.

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Uh oh.

Chuck asks, "What is it in your beer that makes the women so hot and your hockey players so good?"

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Hahahaha, well, we're a country with 6 months of mostly darkness. The women simply do their best to look pretty the few hours of day that anyone can actually see them. And men try really hard to be good at hockey so they can get laid by the beautiful women. I'm not sure how the beer factors into it.

Aha, all the pieces are at least starting to fall into place now!

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I'm glad I could be of service.

As is customary one of the final few questions has to be about the future. Where do you see yourself in a year's time? in life, and in poker?

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In poker, I'm hopefully crushing the $10/$20 limit shorthanded tables, and mixing that up with some $200 buy-in NL tables. Still blogging, still learning, still having fun.

You're not afraid you'll have completely run out of things to write about in the blog by then?

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I'm constantly afraid of running out of things to write about. If the worst comes to worst, I'll just start making stuff up! In life, well... I'm turning 30 in about a year and I'm also getting married in almost precisely a year, so that'll be pretty big. I'm also at a bit of a crossroads in my career right now, and I'm pretty excited about what the future has to bring when it comes to new challenges at work. I'm hoping that I won't have to spend every three weeks in a hotel somewhere in Asia or latin America, but at the same time I love what I do. It'll be interesting, whatever I have coming, for sure.

Sounds like an exciting year to come! Okay, we're really almost at the end now, I have to ask these questions from rottyowner65 though, because I laughed like a madman when I saw the PM. You expect to get deep, insightful questions submitted for an interview like this, but instead you get these! One word answers only please!

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Heh, OK!

rottyowner asks "pepsi or coke?"

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Coke.

Coffee or tea?

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COFFEE!

White or brown bread?

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Brown.

Mayo or mustard?

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Mustard

Vodka or rum?

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Hmm... Vodka. (Ed: FP had answered all of the other 'x or y' questions within 5 seconds. This one took a minute or so, so it must have been a tricky decision!)

Beer or wine?

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Beer.

PC or mac?

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PC.

XBox or PlayStation?

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Engh... XBox. (Ed: Another long pause here)

Movie theatre or movie rental?

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Theatre.

Dine in or dine out?

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Dine in.

And finally, one more I've just thought of myself - the questions that needed big, long, thought out responses, or the one-word reply questions?

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Former.

Okay, to close, do you have anything you'd like to say to the general Cardschat public?

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And ruin something I could have used to write in a blog post? No way, I'm too short on inspiration already!

Haha! Well, thank you very much for your time sir. I hope the members appreciate it and enjoy reading this interview as much as i've enjoyed conducting it!

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My pleasure, and thanks Chris.

#3 28th July 2006, 8:03 PM

#4 28th July 2006, 8:12 PM

Couple of notes...

- FP was awesome to interview and seemed to have a remarkable psychic ability also known as "answering many of the questions before I got a chance to ask them". Many people will learn not only about FP, but about poker in general by reading this.

- The interview took about three times as long as I expected (at least now I know!), and even then I left a few questions out. I know I only namechecked a few members when asking 'tagged on' questions, but I'd like to think a lot of other member's questions got asked in the general flow of the interview. If your questions weren't addressed I apologise, and it's simply because time and keeping the interview to a readable length were more pressing issues than the quality of the questions.

- I've posted this in the general forum - although only 'loyal' members were invited to submit questions, I feel that reading this is of benefit and interest to many outside the 'loyal' circle.

#5 28th July 2006, 8:40 PM

Nice interview

Good to learn more about our very own Swedish poker genius.

#6 28th July 2006, 9:32 PM

A very well done interview. I can't wait to see who's next.

#7 28th July 2006, 9:57 PM

Great interview, thanks to all involved for setting it up

#8 28th July 2006, 10:01 PM

Incidentally, to avoid overkill I plan on running these only every month or so.

Rob will be next as long as he's still okay with it, as he tied with FP in the last poll.

Please don't send any questions yet, I'll post in a couple of weeks to request them, I'm just informing you all in case you wonder why things have grinded to a halt, so to speak.

#9 28th July 2006, 10:35 PM

Well done, Dorkus and FP! Thanks for taking the time to put this together. It was an interesting read.

#10 28th July 2006, 10:42 PM

Great job Chris and great answers FP. The second post that had more about cardschat was pretty interesting too, even I learnt some things I didn't know

Congratulations, you just won the medal for the longest cardschat post ever

Edit: oh P.S maybe next time instead of quotes use bold or something for the questions - just to make it easier to read.

#11 29th July 2006, 1:32 AM

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Congratulations, you just won the medal for the longest cardschat post ever [IMG]images/smilies/biggrin.gif[/IMG]

sorry; I hold that record for my HH post for an entire 2-table SnG. 2 forties + posting = bad idea.
http://www.cardschat.com/showthread.php?t=66433

#12 29th July 2006, 11:47 AM

Excellent post Chris. Fredrick, I'm always as impressed by your writing ability as I am by the advice you give.

#13 30th July 2006, 5:21 AM

Kudos to the both of you. Well done sirs.

#14 31st July 2006, 6:58 PM

Very good interview Chris, Freddy very good answers, Nicely done,
buck

#15 1st August 2006, 2:05 AM

To supplement the interview, I've uploaded three images to the gallery. Unfortunately no video at this point, jQ, but hopefully I can rectify that at some point in the future.

Enjoy!

http://www.cardschat.com/gallery/sho....php?i=264&c=2
http://www.cardschat.com/gallery/sho...atid=newimages
http://www.cardschat.com/gallery/sho....php?i=265&c=2

(Now tell me, did anyone actually visualize me that way?)

#16 1st August 2006, 2:34 AM

Sound bites man! Sound bites!

#17 1st August 2006, 2:39 AM

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Originally Posted by F Paulsson

(Now tell me, did anyone actually visualize me that way?)

Of course! Banjo in-hand and all ....

#18 1st August 2006, 5:08 AM

i think ill be cc's first 2time loyaler ever

#19 9th November 2006, 6:08 PM

What happened to the next interview?

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