Focus on Brian Townsend

“There isn’t a six handed game I wouldn’t sit in.” You don’t have to talk to Brian Townsend long before you experience the confidence and competitive drive that has catapulted him to the top of poker. On first meeting he can appear unassuming even a little shy but there’s no doubting his all consuming desire to be the best at what he does.

Like most ‘overnight’ successes his apparent rise to the top masks continual and unending hard work. His well documented rise through the ranks from .25/.50 player just 2 years ago to a fixture in the highest games in the world is remarkable. He puts his success down to “a combination of innate ability and hard work”. The hard work consists of bouts of intensive play sometimes up to 12 or 14 hours a day and over 50,000 hands a month, but equally importantly periods of study and learning. Not only does he have a habit of carefully analysing his sessions but also of absorbing everything he can about the game, anything that can improve his play. He claims luck has little to do with poker and he doesn’t have any superstitions until I remind him about his dog avatar on one of the sites which always has to be smiling. “Well yeah my dog Maybe is always happy so the avatar has to be smiling too!” Though clearly important it’s doubtful whether this has been the key element in his ascent to the top. Just as Tiger Woods practises harder than anyone else and then is described as a great natural talent you suspect Townsend simply out worked the competition.

It wasn’t Brian’s plan to be a professional poker player. He comes from a good family, is well educated and enjoys the outdoors and being physically active; not the normal combination that leads to a career in poker. He was at college studying to become an engineer when he was first bitten by the bug. The game quickly became a fixation as he built his bankroll playing limit. On completing his degree trying to make it as a poker player for a living wasn’t so much a difficult decision as the only logical thing to do, so immersed had he become in the game.

His passion for the game has been there since day one and it’s refreshing to meet a top player who still has so much enthusiasm for it, “when I was playing 2/4 no limit it wasn’t because I wanted to play 200/400 with Phil Ivey it was because it was a great time.”

Obviously he has a natural aptitude for the game to go along with the focus and hard work. In fact it may be in the blood, “my grandfather actually played with Doyle Brunson. He was someone who played in big games – in the second tier games just below the biggest around.”

Furthermore his father is a successful financier – and there’s a lot of cross over in terms of risk management and making good decisions between the money markets and poker. Perhaps poker was always his destiny – whatever the level of his natural ability it’s his commitment to applying it that really impresses. This application has brought him millions of dollars and a lifestyle in Santa Barbara most of us would envy.

Despite this he insists moving through the limits wasn’t a cake walk. He encountered losing runs like every other player and on several occasions had to drop down limits and work out his game. He has salutatory advice for others, “losing is a part of poker and so is dropping down limits when you have to.” Clearly this understanding and absence of ego in his bankroll management have been part of his success. However he’s not without weakness and used to tilt a little too often for comfort – one occasion sticks in the memory, “playing 2/4 no limit I was tilting and somehow got it all in playing the board on the river; I thought he was to and I could bluff him off it.” It’s nice to hear he’s human and not a poker robot from the future that’s come to crush us all without weakness or compromise. Though of course he’s worked on the tilting problem too and puts it down to playing tired and unfocussed. Now tilting is a very rare thing eliminated by playing rested, shorter sessions and living right.

Once he’d reached the top Brian encountered a new set of problems with complacency setting in. Having beaten the biggest games he admits to thinking he could beat them almost on auto pilot and suffered a big downswing. Now in his world big isn’t quite the same as in ours – here big means almost 4 million dollars. Not enough to approach threatening his participation in the biggest games but enough to make him think about his approach. His response has been typically focussed and he’s dropped down to work on his heads up game committing to playing 100 thousand hands at lower limits. Not only that in a symbolic act of this fresh start he got a new laptop and began a new database of results. He’s also made sure his internal game is right committing to “playing my best every time I play”. Certainly his hunger is undiminished “I want to beat them out of every dollar they have.” Despite the downswing in the middle of the year he’s still one of the biggest winners online in 2007 – there seems little doubt he’s here to stay. His confidence in his ability to sit with anyone is undiminished and – unlike some – he’ll put his money on the line to back it up as Tony G found out in a recent TV cash game when he tried to get under Brian’s skin and was met with an invitation to a million dollar heads up freeze out; for once poker’s biggest mouth was remarkably quiet.

Having a downswing is one thing – having it play out in public is quite another. Thanks to his participation in the online community and willingness to be frank about his results in his blog his losses are as documented as his wins. During his latest downswing there were no shortage of posters willing to write him off as a flash in a pan. This was something he struggled with at first, “I remember when I was coming up I saw a comment in a thread that said sarcastically ‘yeah wait til you start running good’ which upset me. I’ve come to realise people can be small and petty about things.” Certainly the critics haven’t deterred him from maintaining pretty warts and all blog though posting results involving other players can be a land mine. This summer he was asked by another high stakes pro to remove some from his blog and he acknowledges that anonymity is part of the high stakes world. The player pool available to play at the highest stakes is very small so making losing players feel good is essential; “there are players that are rich enough to play in the games, and probably know they don’t have an edge but don’t want to see their losses discussed in public…. datamining kills me!”

This small player pool means he needs to be flexible about the games he plays. Pot limit Omaha has become his favourite game and he’s learning Omaha high low. Recently he was seen playing in a 1k/2k limit game “because the game was really good”. It also involves making some sacrifices such as playing live in Vegas every World Series – not a place he cares for. However when games come together like the ½ Holdem ½ Omaha game with 1k/2k blinds and a 4k straddle that was played this year he can’t be anywhere else. In this game winning or losing a million was incredibly easy. He experienced both sides of that equation – on his best winning day he made $1.8 million (though he denies rolling around in it on his hotel bed I’ve encouraged him to do so next time).

Playing at these limits was always going to make him a public figure in the poker world. Brian probably isn’t a natural for the media spotlight and he seems to detest some of the artificiality that goes with playing the media game. However his position in poker means he’s doing more and more of it; “to be honest most of it – especially the TV stuff – is for Cardrunners.”

Which brings us on to his latest passion the educational website Cardrunners.com for whom he the main ‘face’. So with enough money to set him up for life and having beaten the biggest games in the world why is he spending his time working on an educational site? “Cardrunners and the community really helped me grow as a player and I wanted to give something back.” He owns a part of the site now and seems as focussed and passionate about building the site as he was about moving through the levels; “honestly I’d like to help everyone who wants to become a good player.” He puts part of his success down to his discovery of the site when playing the lower limits and says watching the videos it was “like a light bulb turning on in my head.”

He has strong opinions on the other educational material available to players, “to be honest almost every poker book on the market is bad”. His main criticism is that the people writing the books aren’t necessarily playing in and beating the games they’re writing about (for those that are interested he cites “Winning in tough Holdem games” as an exception). He also sees this phenomenon online with some players posting advice about games they either don’t play in or don’t beat. He seems genuinely passionate about people getting good advice and it being from players that really know what they’re talking about. To that end Cardrunners is busy putting together a team of the best online players in the world and with his commitment and focus on it look for big things from them in the future.

The more Townsend talks the more you realise how much he loves poker and how invested he is in its future. He describes himself as ‘shocked’ when the game was legislated against in the US. But he’s as shocked at the poker industry as he is at the law makers; “I just can’t believe the industry didn’t protect itself.” However he is positive that the future is bright, “some say the sky is falling but people will always want to gamble.” He also believes high stakes cash games will always be around despite the threat of increasing numbers of high buy in tournaments. His optimism with the industry is particularly evident when talking about poker in the UK. When I spent time with him he was in town for the WSOPE and to promote Cardrunners in the UK where he sees huge potential for the future, ‘it looks like the UK is where the US was 6 or 7 years ago which means there’s huge potential.”

So he sees a bright future here and for the industry at large but what of his own future? Right now it seems like he’s having a great time growing the business and still playing the game; “everyday I still get up and think – now I get to go play poker. Some players I meet seem to see playing as a grind but if I wake up tomorrow and didn’t want to play I wouldn’t.”

His message for those of you that would like to be where he is straight forward and uplifting, “If you work hard and aim high you’ll have more success than you’d ever imagined. I would never have believed 2 years ago I’d be here in London playing in a £10,000 buy in event. Set your sights high and apply yourself. You may not end up the best but I promise you you’ll end up better than you ever imagined.”

There are still some who think top online players are inferior to the best live players and still some who think he’s run hot for two years. You can make your own mind up how much evidence you need but nothing Townsend has achieved in his poker career is by accident and talking to him its clear the only thing that can remove him from the top of the game is if his desire lessens.  Frankly the game is lucky to have him.

Brian shares his Poker Wisdom

Lower limits key skill: Using position

“It’s vital to exploit the weaker players you find at these limits. You do this by isolating them and punishing their weak play.

Let’s look at an example. Playing a 6-max cash game we hold 98s on the button.

A player limps in middle position which is a weak play you should never limp in as the first player in the pot in a 6 max game.

We use our position and raise the pot to take the lead in the hand, drive out the blinds and pressure the limper.

He calls and the flop comes Ah 4s 2c.

He checks to us and we make a continuation bet. He folds – probably a better hand – and we take down the pot.”

Middle limits key skill: The power of aggression

“Again we hold 98s on the button. This time a tight aggressive player raises from the cut off. We know he’ll do this with a reasonably wide range so we elect to 3 bet him.

This gives us a lot of good possibilities; most of the time we’ll win the pot immediately but if called we will have the lead after the flop and can represent a good hand or we could out flop our opponent.

He calls and the flop comes K103

He checks to us – this is a flop which would help a lot of our legitimate strong pre flop hands so we bet, he thinks and folds.”

Higher limits key skills

“At the higher limits most of the players are experienced and have a lot of knowledge of the game and are capable of playing any two cards any way. These are a few of the vital skills you need to succeed at these limits:-

Reading the player. You need to know your opponents, their tendencies and how to exploit them. You also need to know how they’re playing that session and how they’re reacting to their wins and losses.

Hand reading. It’s vital to be bale to read hands and hand ranges extremely well. Not only do you have to piece together your opponents hands but also understand how they’re viewing your hand in order to make money.

Calling down. Your opponents will be playing very aggressively and making all kinds of moves. Therefore you have to be prepared to call down with some marginal hands when the situation and the opponent are right.

Value bets. As players know you will be playing aggressively they will call you down more. In order to exploit this you need to be able to judge when you can make a thin value bet with a marginal hand.

Self discipline. As the level of play is so good you can’t afford to be at anything less than your best. This means being in good physical condition, playing short focussed sessions and keeping emotional control”

Originally published in Poker Player magazine.

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