Chris Moorman answers PokerStrategy.com members’ questions on his WPT win, playing long online sessions and how he became the best online MTT player of all time.
FFRRAANNKKIIEE: How did the beginning of your career looked like? Did you know straight away that MTTs are your game and sticked to them the whole time, or you had some experimenting phases with SNGs or cash games?
Chris Moorman: At the beginning of my career, I was predominantly a cash game player and played one or two MTT tournaments on the side.
It wasn’t until the UIGEA act of 2006 that I made the switch and it happened by way of chance. The UIGEA act of 2006 forced the closure of the Tribecca network which I had solely played on up until then.
I naturally discovered Full Tilt and Pokerstars after this, but I was unable to get my PokerTracker working. I didn’t want to play in new cash games with players that I was unfamiliar with without a HUD so I experimented with some tournaments instead until I was able to sort PokerTracker out.
In this short period of time I had a lot of success in the tournaments which in turn brought a lot of enjoyment to me. After this I have experimented with going back to cash games over the years, but I find MTTs to be both easier and more exciting.
FFRRAANNKKIIEE: What was the first significant MTT win for you, if you remember?
Chris Moorman: I won one of the flagship MTTs on the Tribecca network for close to $10k which was awesome considering it was only a $27 rebuy. I’d had quite a few MTT wins at this point, although none of them were bigger than $2k.
This win showed me that you could have big wins in MTTs without risking a lot of money and was one of the reasons I ultimately made the switch from cash games to tournaments.
ThatGuyMatt: What do you most often do during the 5 min break?
Chris Moorman: Five minute breaks online are often much shorter than that. When you are 16-tabling, for example, you are often left playing one or two hands well into the break.
Also the new tournaments that start up actually start a minute early therefore the breaks can actually be as short as 2-3 minutes. There really isn’t enough time to get anything major done in the breaks other than the necessities of eating, drinking and going to the toilet.
It’s crazy to think that in my first few years of grinding that synchronised breaks didn’t exist. I can’t imagine grinding online without them now.
Saren113: What do you think about to do a smooth transition from online to live poker?
Chris Moorman: Patience is the most important thing when transitioning to live poker in my opinion. The pace is a lot slower live which means you play far fewer hands per hour. In order to make the final table of a live tournament it takes days compared to hours in an online tournament.
Also, it takes such a long time live to get a good sample size. In a normal day online I would play around 50 tournaments whereas it would take me close to 2 years to play 50 live tournaments. Therefore, you must remember this when tackling live poker if you aren’t fortunate to hit a big score immediately when you start playing live.
GrindingNajra: I find it hard to play MTTs because I’m getting bored when I play longer than 1.5 hours. If you also have problems with that how do you keep your brain awake or stay fresh?
Chris Moorman: Online poker is still something that I find really enjoyable and fascinating, so fortunately I’ve never had problems with boredom whilst playing. Obviously I don’t always feel like playing though and in those cases I try to avoid playing altogether rather than regging up and not having my heart in it.
gadget51: Was winning your major like getting the monkey off your back, or is it really all about the dollars?
Chris Moorman: A bit of both really. Obviously any live poker title is great, but to win such a prestigious tournament with over $1 million for first was really a dream come true.
After having so many near misses on the outright win in big live tournaments it made it all the sweeter when I finally did it. I always felt confident that I would do it so in that respect I didn’t really feel that I had a monkey on my back, but it is nice to have that marquee live win now.
xmiammiamx: Back in the past, before the big successes, did you ever think about giving up poker? If yes, what happened, and what made you stick to it?
Chris Moorman: I’ve never seriously contemplated giving up poker. I’ve been through my fair share of downswings just like everybody else but I try to use these as inspiration to get better at the game rather than becoming frustrated and wanting to quit.
martinemem: The biggest AHA moment (not talking about when you started having +roi) but when you started crushing?
Chris Moorman: I got talking to David Gent (one of the biggest winners on iPoker currently) when I first started out and he became a poker mentor for me. For a six-month period I would rail him every day when he played his cash game sessions and he would tell me what he had after the hand and why he did what he did during the hand.
He was playing 5/10 and 10/20 cash games at the time and I was stuck at the 1/2 level. With his help I managed to make the step up to 3/6 and 5/10 cash games and become one of the best at that level at the time. This is the point in my career when I felt like I first started to crush the game.
martinemem: What is your study/grind ratio now?
Chris Moorman: I don’t really have set time I set aside for studying but I like to go over hands after sessions with friends and also watch various training videos to see what other good players are thinking and doing currently.
I also try to rail all of the big final tables and watch back the Super Tuesday replay on Stars with the hole cards for every player exposed. I feel like this is a good mix of learning tools and helps me keep my game fresh and up to date.
Rihard4a: Any sick tilt stories?
Chris Moorman: I remember back in the day being completely over a WCOOP Sunday after I bust the big WCOOP of the day.
With six tables left I tilt jammed all-in in all of them with any two cards. 10 minutes later I was out of five but had quadrupled my stack in the WCOOP 2nd chance tourney.
I then proceeded to start playing properly again and ran super hot to finish in 2nd place for around $45k!
rmotoki: What is your daily schedule in the days that you decide to play? Do you do any specific thing like meditate, review hands, exercise or something like that? Do you only start playing when you feel like it?
Chris Moorman: It really depends where I am playing from. Lately I have been playing a lot in Vancouver. The drawback to this is that my session starts very early around 8am on weekdays and 6am at weekends. This means I have no time to work out before a session and am often too tired to after a long day grinding.
If I am playing in Europe I will try to work out before playing although it can be hard to play a number of days in a row in Europe due to having to play through the night which really messes up your sleeping pattern and daily routine. My fiancée normally cooks for me when I grind so I don’t have to rely on ordering food in and can still eat healthily.
rmotoki: Having lost a lot of weight, how do you feel that nutrition and exercises has helped you in your game?
Chris Moorman: I feel much better equipped to play longer sessions particularly live. In the LAPC win I felt 100% going into every day even though it was a long six-day tournament. At the end of the days I felt more alert than some of my opponents and used this to chip up when I felt they were relaxing and just trying to make it through the rest of the day.