Jason Senti is an extremely successful poker player and one of the top coaches at Bluefire Poker. Jason can be seen playing mid-high stakes NLHE and PLO cash games on the biggest poker sites online.

Not known for his tournament playing abilities, Jason has achieved the massive feat of making the November nine at the WSOP. We caught up with Jason to ask him about his poker antics and his experience at the WSOP 2010.

1. Hi Jason and thanks for doing this for us. Can you tell us how you got started playing poker?

I got started after watching the ’04 WSOP ME broadcast when Greg Raymer won. I had just moved to Minneapolis to take an engineering job and had extra free time in the evenings. I deposited $40 online and started playing NL tournaments.

2. Can you share with us your poker journey to date?

I ran great in the beginning. Despite not having any clue what I was doing, I managed to make a few deep runs in $5 tournaments. As result, I went from having $40 online to having $500+ really quickly. After that, I was hooked. I played recreationally for nearly 2 years just making a little bit of money here and there. The play was bad enough in those days that I was able to win without much knowledge of the game.

In early 2006 I started playing Limit Holdem cash games after reading a 2p2 book. I made several thousand in a few months then took the summer off. When I came back to online poker in the fall of 2006, I decided to give NL cash games a shot. I only had frequent player points left online (withdrew it all before the summer). I won an fpp satellite into the Stars Sunday Million. I sold the seat for ~$200 in Stars
dollars. I used that as my initial NL bankroll and started playing $0.5/$0.10NL.

Within 6 months, I had successfully moved up to $5/$10NL and was making more in 2 hours a night than all day at my job. Within a year I had paid off all my credit card debt ($10k), put away 6-months backup living expenses and had a good online roll. I finally “went pro” in the fall of 2007 and haven’t looked back. I have played anywhere from $5/$10 to $50/$100NL and PLO, heads-up and 6-max ever since.

3. Can you tell us about any ‘ah-ha’ moments you had on your progression through the ranks?

I never really had a single “aha” moment, but I did have one thing that I think helped me a lot early on in my development. When I was first coming up through the SSNL ranks, I took at notebook and wrote down the “standard SSNL lines” and what people’s hand ranges were when taking them (E.G. Bet/3-betting the flop with sets and big draws). I then wrote down how I could exploit their play in each
situation. Actually thinking through each of these scenarios and identifying how take advantage of players really got me thinking in the right mindset. This was before I really even understood how to exploit specific players, balance my ranges, etc. This exercise helped me tremendously. I have made several videos basically using this technique at www.bluefirepoker.com.

4. What games are you playing at the moment? How are you running?

I am currently playing mostly 5/10PLO (both hu and 6m). Since a lot of my play has switched over to PLO, I have experienced gigantic swings. As result, I have become a little bit of a bankroll nit. I still play up to 25/50, but I am being more strict with my bankroll requirements right now. Hopefully, I will be playing primarily 25/50 again soon.

Besides running amazing at the WSOP, I have been running pretty bad lately. I hope that changes soon, but I really can’t be complaining right now.

5. What are the biggest leaks you see in SSNL and MSNL players that prevent them from moving up levels?

I don’t play much below 5/10 (except to make vids), but I have noticed that at midstakes a lot of players are playing very unbalanced in a lot of relatively common situations.

6. Who is the toughest player at your stakes? Do you try to avoid playing them or what is your approach if they are in a game you are playing?

I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head right now. In a 6max game, though, its pretty unlikely that one player being at a table will make me leave it if I consider other players weak. There are some exceptions to this, though, like when I am very deep with a very good player on my left. With heads-up, it depends on how I am feeling. I go through periods where I will play with anyone who will play with me. I think that process has allowed me to improve at a much faster rate than someone who table selects very strictly. When I am running bad, though, I will often take a break from playing very good players.

7. Who has been the biggest influence on your poker career? How so?

Phil Galfond. I have talked a lot of poker with him, and he is just so much better than the vast majority of players out there. He is also a big reason why I play a lot of PLO now. He recommended that I work hard on my PLO game, and I listened.

8. Have you ever received coaching from any poker player?

Outside of one or two sessions with a few guys, I have really only received coaching from 2 players. The first was Garrett Adelstein (GMan06) several years ago when I was trying to get better at HU NL. He helped my HU game a lot. More recently, Phil coached me primarily in PLO. Needless to say, he is a great teacher.

9. Do you do much poker study away from the tables?

Sadly, I do very little right now, but I plan to change that. I used to study nearly as many hours as I played. I really haven’t done much proper study in nearly a year. I think its about time to get back to it.

10. How important is poker training to a player’s development?

I think it is absolutely huge. Unless you already have a stable of great players to discuss strategy with, it is easily the quickest way to improve as a player. Online training sites even allow you to get training at a VERY low cost.

11. Did you have offers from other training sites before you joined Bluefire?

I did, but I don’t think I should discuss any specifics. Basically, getting an offer from Phil Galfond trumped all other offers in my eyes.

12. What differentiates Bluefire Poker from the other training sites? Why should a player choose them ahead of the others?

The absolute number 1 thing is that Phil teaches there. Really no one else who plays at the level Phil does makes training videos. Even when others did, they weren’t nearly as good teachers as Phil is. Also, with Phil hand-picking every instructor on our site, the quality of each video is much higher than the average video at any other site. Not only are all of our instructors very successful players but also great teachers.

13. Can you describe a typical day in your life?

I generally get up between 10am and noon. Lately I have been working out the first hour I am awake, although that is a very new thing for me. I hope I stick with it! Generally, I will play a few hours early in the day and then a few hours in the evening.

Depending on how many students I have at a given time, I may coach for a couple hours in between. I usually have activities outside of poker at night.

14. What do you do outside playing poker?

I play in a local rock band called “Suburban Hero.” I practice with them at least once a week and we play a gig a month or so. I also golf, play softball, go boating, travel, and generally just like hanging out with friends. I also find time to play xbox 360 most days too.

15. Congratulations on making the final table of the WSOP. How does it feel to be part of the November 9?

It really is surreal. In many ways, I still haven’t really accepted what has really happened. I still haven’t seen myself on TV. I am sure when that happens, the last of it will really hit me. I feel very fortunate to have been able to make it to the final table of the biggest event in poker. It has been an amazing experience.

16. How did you find the WSOP experience so far? What do you think of the standard of the field in general?

I absolutely love the Main Event of the World Series. It is the greatest tournament of the year for many reasons. Besides the great history and attention it gets, it also has a great structure. We get to play relatively deep-stacked poker for the majority of the event. It allows for a decent amount of play throughout the whole tournament. Unless you get really short (which happened to me twice in the event, including going into the FT), you have the ability to play some post-flop poker in nearly every hand you play. As a cash game player, this is the poker I really enjoy.

The field is very soft for the buy-in level ($10,000). If there is one tournament that recreational players with money buy-in to each year, its this one. There is also such an extensive satellite system live across the country and everywhere online. This leads to a field that really is very soft compared to any other $10k event. Even beyond the fact that its soft, it is very friendly. I love to talk at the table, when I am in a good mood anyway, and so many people in the event are just happy to be there. For many, this is their big vacation of the year. It just creates a great atmosphere at the table.

17. How much did running good count in your path to the final table? Were you ever all in and behind at any point?

It is very difficult to quantify “run-good” or “luck” in poker. There are an infinite number of ways that you can experience good variance in tournament poker. It certainly is more than just sucking out in big hands. It is lucky to get a good table draw. It is lucky to get a good seat draw at your table. It is lucky to get the best hand versus a large second best hand (Aces vs Kings, as a preflop example). Of course, you can also just suckout. I had one all-in on Day 7 where I was very short and got it all-in with A5 vs 77 and I won the hand. I also had a situation where I was all-in with AQs vs AK and a shortstacks 66, and I managed to win.

The truth is, anyone who makes the final table of an event this large had a lot of good fortune throughout the event. Anyone who thinks they ran average during the event and made the final table just doesn’t understand how much there is to variance. So yeah, I ran very good during this tournament. That said, I also think I played great poker under great stress while operating on very little sleep. By Days 7 and 8, I was VERY tired. I am happy with my play and the luck I was handed during the event.

18. You have 15BBs going into the final table. What is your plan for November?

I’d rather not discuss my strategic plans for the final table. I can say, though, that I will need to get lucky early-on in order to win the tournament.

19. Who do you think is the toughest opponent out of the November 9?

I think there are a lot of very good players at this year’s final table. In fact, I think it is one of the toughest final tables we have seen in the WSOP ME in many years. I would prefer not talk about players specifically, but I have a lot of respect for most of the players at the table.

20. What’s the first thing you plan to buy if you get a big score on the final table?

My wife and I have been planning to buy a bigger house for the last year or so. Even 9th place money should allow us to do this pretty shortly after November. It would be a lot easier if I managed to come in the top 3. The most important thing for me, though, is to protect the freedom I already have. I love my job as a professional poker player. I get to play a game I love for a living and I work for myself. My greatest concern is to keep enough money around and invest intelligently so that I can remain self-employed in some fashion for the rest of my life.

21. Has the publicity of your final table changed much in your life?

It has changed my day-to-day life a lot. I don’t expect it to last more than a few months, but right now I am spending the majority of my time doing interviews, traveling, planning for November, etc. I expect to be able to get back to actually playing poker for a living after November, but for now, my job has changed. Luckily for me, though, my family and friends treat me exactly the same, so I have the people in my life keeping me grounded. I am very fortunate to have the family and friends that I do.

22. What are your plans for after the WSOP?

Right now, all I can think about doing after the WSOP is getting back to normal life. I actually really like my life, and I will be happy to get back to it. I miss the fact that I am not playing cash-game poker everyday, studying the game, and teaching students. I am very happy to be in the situation I am in, but I will be happy to get back to “normal life.”

Thanks very much for doing this Jason and we wish you all the best in November and your future poker endeavours.

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