» Alex 'assassinato' Fitzgerald Interview

Alex 'assassinato' Fitzgerald, 21, has walked his friends and followers through every step of his online poker experience. From the age of 17, he knew he wanted to become a poker professional. He has detailed his poker journey in his popular blog 'Random Thoughts From A Seattle Poker Pro'. He is a well respected poker writer and instructor at PokerPwnage with over one million in earnings between live and online, with cashes on four different continents. These days he can be found traveling throughout Europe and Asia, using Malta as his base as he travels to various EPT and APT events.

On your blog you state "I wander around the world getting into trouble, and when I run out of whatever currency I'm using that week I go play internet poker." Beyond the fact that you are living the dream that a lot of poker players aspire to, you have a a real writer's touch with your blog. Where did you get your love of writing?

I was writing even when I was young. I was a pretty damned weird kid, lost in my own little world. I also had a painfully high voice because of an operation I had to get done on my throat when I was an infant, and I was a bit chubby. Weird, high pitched voice, chubby...shockingly, I was not that cool in school, and I spent a lot of time on my own growing up. I'd go to the library and read in elementary school instead of going out to recess. I had a 4th grade teacher who was a very sweet lady that encouraged me to just write what I wanted to. She let me borrow this tiny little thing that gave you what looked like a Tyco handheld video game screen, one of the ones you would've picked up at a Rite Aid 10 years ago, but instead you could write lines of text into it, then later upload it into the computer. I'd work on school projects, then my own ideas with that thing. When I got to sixth grade I was trying to write entire novels. At 14, I got my first paid writing gig, becoming a video game reviewer for a website. I was usually just paid in free video games but as you can imagine that was pretty cool to a teenager. I reviewed a few hundred titles and worked up to one of the best video game journalism websites there was, but then by 16 I was bored by it. I was tired of just selling video games to pad my paltry checks, and furthermore I had to beat every video game I reviewed, and I was still in high school, so it was just becoming too time consuming. I briefly went into music journalism, but then decided I didn't want to be writing in that world, I wanted to be living in it. That's when I started playing poker in my high school. When I moved to downtown Seattle, my goals were to become a professional poker player and write a book. I only accomplished the poker goal. I'm actually taking time off here soon to try and write the same book. Now that I am financially secure and so is my family, I feel far more comfortable just writing all day.

You are very honest with yourself and share your thoughts and many adventures. How have you found it having a popular blog that everyone can read?

It's kind of weird when people know my girlfriend's names and stuff like that, but for the most part people seem pretty appreciative that there's an actual honest writer out there capturing the poker world. I get a lot of "thank yous" or "I've been reading for years" or "you made me want to go pro" or "I understood what it was like to be an actual professional because of your blog". When you read most blogs, its random bragging and hands only put on there for the sake of bragging. I wrote whatever I felt, even when it embarrassed me, because I guess it was cathartic. Now I don't feel like I can be as honest, because people seem to feel the need to criticize my lifestyle choices, as if they know a single thing about what it's like to be me. I've had people copy and paste selections on pretty much every forum, sometimes to blast me, sometimes to praise me. It's just weird. I'd write that thing if nobody read, and nobody did for the longest time. I just always kept a journal anyway, and I was sick of telling 20 people at the end of every day my tournament results so I started a blog where they could all check it. I didn't think it would go 1,500+ entries or anything.

My friend got a Full Tilt account that his father opened for him when we were 17. I asked to borrow $50.00 on there and I made it that night playing $5.00 SNGs, just raising and re-raising like a total spaz and being lucky. I sent him back the $50.00, and I've been playing off of that money for four years, I've never deposited. I read a bankroll management article and stuck to it religiously and just grinded $5.00 and $10.00 SNGs, eventually getting some scores in MTTs. I look back now and realize I was just a super aggressive kid when everybody else was way too tight. I didn't have much in the way of finesse.

I started getting killed after the UIGEA passed. Then my mentor Michael Baca, a professional gambler for years, retired Coast Guard, great family man, all around bad ass, started getting on my shit about studying all the time. I was struggling quite a bit, and being nineteen years old I blamed it on everyone else of course, but once he set me in the right direction I started crushing the lower stakes SNGs. I was massively multi-tabling way before everyone else, except for Spacegravy and Hevad Khan. From there I started playing 180 mans, and then every low stakes tournament on every website. I loved my life then. I had this cute Korean girlfriend who wanted to see a new part of Seattle every day, I was going to school on my own dime, just taking fun classes I enjoyed, I was living in downtown Seattle with all the indie rock kids, and then I'd play poker for 10 hours a day and love every minute of it.

Then I won a seat to APPT Manila and finished 13th. Being so close to my first major televised final table made me hungry to play every live tournament. I got into a backing deal I wasn't ready for, and what usually happens happened. I got into deep makeup and I didn't know how to deal with it. I couldn't pay my bills from tournaments anymore so I started learning how to play cash games, and soon I never wanted to play tournaments again. I was just taking so much money out of the Cake network back when the games were incredible there, and it was so much steadier than tournaments. Eventually, in 100k of makeup though, I decided I needed to work it off, I'd made that promise to my backers. So I moved to Malta, where (initially) I was free of distractions. I grinded on my balcony every night, and finally I final tabled the Sunday Million and the 100r in the same night, and then final tabled the 1k Monday a week or so later to get out.

I got offered the world from a new backer after that, and I went back on the EPT trail. I played pretty much every one of them. Faraz Jaka and I roomed in Prague and just his attitude and approach to life astounded me. So many poker players, myself included, are just cynical sarcastic assholes, and he's just the happiest guy I've ever met. He was hard on me, like a good big brother. He wouldn't let me just have a bad attitude for no reason. He got me excited to play every day, and then we both started doing really well. He went out to Vegas and made $1.1 million between a WSOP and a WPT final table, and I final tabled the largest field EPT in history and won a Sunday major. I'm on my own now, and doing whatever the hell I want. I really feel like I am one of the toughest No Limit Hold'em players out there now, and I have the best group of friends a guy could ask for. I'm really excited to see what the future is going to bring.

The greatest thing I've learned from my travels is that all people, deep down, have a good heart. That was something I did not believe at all, growing up a poor kid in this yuppie ass neighborhood that constantly told me I was worthless, and going to a high school that seemed bent on making me feel like a loser because I couldn't afford to go to college. My high school sweetheart left me because her parents told her to, because I was "a white trash piece of shit." Then I had problems with my family I don't even want to talk about. I hated everyone, and I don't think anyone in my spot could have had a much better attitude.

Then I just started traveling and listening to people. It was my way of healing. I smoked shisha and played parlour games in Egypt, which was about the most anti-American culture I'd ever met, but even those people just wanted the same things I wanted. They wanted their friends, they wanted their families taken care of, a job they could at least somewhat enjoy every day, and to have a little time to relax. Just because our skin color, religion, or countries are different does not mean much.

It goes beyond just cultural divides as well. There was this time I was in a pub in Malta, just having a Guinness at the end of my day. A guy comes in, and he looks terrible, just distraught like you wouldn't imagine. He orders a couple shots and downs them really quickly. The regulars look worried, but aren't saying anything. I finally ask, "hey man, you okay?" He tells me not really. I ask, what happened?

He goes, "I'm a traffic cop, I saw a child today in an accident, just two years old, ripped apart by the metal. I can't sleep, I keep seeing her." He looked like he wanted to cry as he said it. I'd always been the biggest asshole you could imagine when it came to cops. I always got into arguments over petty things, because I enjoyed making their life a living hell. Seeing this guy about to sob, imaging having to see something so horrific, having to work the god damn accident for two hours and keep seeing that, I finally understood what these guys go through. How thankless their jobs must be, when asshole kids like me just go at them for no reason. I would've never understood that just going to college and sheltering myself from the world. I needed to go to that random pub, that day, to get that.

I have a number of favorite places. I fell in love with a girl in Seoul and that was one of the happiest times of my life, so Seoul will always have a place in my heart. I did a lot of growing up and really came to understand European culture living in Malta. Hanging out in Manila taught me a lot about life and attitude. They're one of the poorest countries in the world yet the second happiest. They just let things go, or get their anger out with the person they're mad at, and then move on with life. Americans seem to glamorize every bullshit little struggle they've ever "endured."

The owner Jerry Watterson is just the kind of guy I like to do business with. We're personal friends, and if there is a problem I can just say what's up and we work it out. A lot of training websites really work to exploit the pros. Jerry and I have had our misunderstandings, like in any business relationship, but he's a straight shooter and has really worked to make me an integral part of his community. This is great for our subscribers too, because I feel like I am being compensated fairly, I put everything in my videos. I show people from start to finish how I approach a tournament. We also have other great pros, who are also very varied in their playing styles, so you can kind of pick who works best for you. I think Ghettofabolous is a more solid player, and I have a little too much gamble in me, but we both do a ton of videos so you can watch us in different situations and make your own decisions as to which style appeals to you. We also have videos from Jerry "Herschelw" Watterson, Rdcrsn, USCPhildo, MattG1983, Sketchy1, Titantom32, Nsinger, Chardrian, NeverScaredB, BBallwiz, Cardsfan04, Zedveron and + to the EV. We have pros that will talk you through the toughest $100 rebuy final tables and pros that will show you how to play low stakes SNGs. Wherever you're at in your tournament game, Pokerpwnage can help you become a larger winner, and that's why we're ranked the #1 MTT training site by PokerTraining Guide.

In your 'well' in p5's you stated "I just love big money pressure poker." What do you love about it? Why do you feel you excel at those moments?

I love it because it makes me feel alive. Every synapse is firing, and I notice everything down to how dilated your pupils are. It's one of the most natural feelings of intensity I've ever found. For poker players, winning a live major final table is our Mount Everest. I feel I excel in these moments because I've been doing this for years in different parts of the world, and the pressure doesn't rattle me anymore. It just gets me going. I have my friends behind me and good money already, the rest if just gravy.

Being backed I didn't particularly enjoy because I hate giving up my own action. You often get an asshole backer who just decides he can't recoup his losses but he won't cut you, so you just flounder in deep makeup while he dodges you on putting you in the right tournaments. Then you have backers who are just wonderful, and you feel like you're letting them down when you don't perform. I hated all of that.

When I back its mostly guys I know personally. I have a hard time convincing them that I don't care if they lose. I just care if they're playing their best. I honestly can't even remember where the money goes half the time, my business partners do that. I don't find the business incredibly profitable, except for the way I do it. I make guys play for me for a year, and I take them often up from small stakes SNGs to the bigger cash games and tournaments. I make them work up, you earn your way up on my stake. I don't just randomly trust you. I have all their action. I'm not interested in being your fucking shortcut to the big money, you're down with me for a while or you're not. I pick my horses with my business partner personally, I know almost all of my guys in person, and I don't answer random PMs or emails. The last time a business partner of mine picked a guy we didn't know too well we got a jackass claiming I owed him money even when he played cash games he wasn't supposed to play. That kind of shit, the things gamblers try to pull on me, makes my blood boil and in the old days would lead me to show up at their house. Now I just don't even bother with anyone who may remotely have 1% of loser in them. If I pick you then you've impressed the hell out of me or my colleagues, nothing less.

Do you prefer playing online or live, and why?

It's like saying 'do you like pizza or ice cream?' They're both yummy. The best time I have playing poker is the big live final tables. It's just so exciting, and it's for the most money. After that I love grinding 16 tournaments at a time, or 12 6-max tables. I love playing online final tables but a lot of the allure has gone out of it over the last couple years. I still love it, but its not as intense as it used to be. I guess I'm an adrenaline junkie. Live cash I can only play if it's 10-20 or higher, and it's a super action-oriented game. I would rather pull out my pubes one by one then play a hand of $2/$4 live and listen to people say the same fucking dumb things I've been listening to for five years. Drunk $1/$2 with my friends though can be a blast.

I think that's horseshit, there's still a ton of bad players. They're just not playing the $100 rebuy anymore is all. I still think there's a ton of money for kids to make in mid limit tournaments. You got guys from Russia, Brazil, Korea, everywhere now playing poker, and they sure as hell aren't all great. Even a ton of regulars I just find to be garbage, guys I've been playing with for years who don't seem to understand you need to have a plan for every hand you play, which was like the first thing I learned about tournament poker two years ago. It's the first thing anyone learns if they ever watch a training video or analyze a hand. Put in the hours, analyze hands with your friends, watch training videos, put in some more hours, review your sessions, and then you might want to put in some hours. Play thinking man's poker don't wait for a keno ticket to cash. If you're not studying or talking hands with your friends you're not a professional to me. You've gotten a couple tricks down and that's all you're ever going to be.

The bigger problem to me is Stars' flat structures, and how that kills the best tournament players. I won the Nightly a few months back and that was $10,000 less than if I'd won it a couple months ago. I never finish like 6th or 7th because I tried to move up or mincash, I go for the win or I'm out. These structures destroy me, and they're just there so Stars can rake the hell out of us over years.

If you have a set style that's terrible. Take what people give you. I've not played a hand for six hours before and I played almost every hand in EPT: Kiev. It depends on the situation. Be the one adjusting before them, to best exploit their weaknesses. Catch them off guard. Play for the win, and don't care about looking stupid. I can't tell you how many times I've been laughed at exiting a tournament or cash game, but I'm still here, after five years. Those guys the CIA couldn't find now, how far off their loser asses drop. Be your own man, surround yourself with good men and women who love you for who you and are honest with you, and avoid the chicken shit gambling losers who want to blame bad beats or others play for all their problems. Expect the best of yourself, and surround yourself with people who expect only the best from you.

Deep stacked, one hole card by a mile. I could deconstruct where they're at so effectively with one hole card and three streets of information, and just take so many pots away. Short stacked, I'd probably like to know if I'm going to smash the flop before I psycho four bet someone.

I think you need to be good at both. I take pots away all the time preflop in tournaments, the best tournament players have taught me how to do that. When you're playing them though you need to know how to extract value on later streets, because you won't get an edge preflop. Make them play the game they're uncomfortable with, is what it comes down to. I would like to think I'm exceptional at both, but to be honest I have a lot of work to do when countering great players on the turn and river, but I feel with 95% of people I handle things pretty well.

In general people call too much, and fold too much. Get in there and gamble and make some mistakes, and learn from them. Don't just play an ABC style or call down seeing what's going to happen. Try to work through the hands and try new things based on your perception of your opponent's range, or how he's viewing your range.

I want to eventually win a major tournament and quit bricking flips in the final 18. More than that I am going to start playing a ton of Pot Limit Omaha cash. I really believe Pot Limit Omaha is the future. I'm beating 5/10 but not for the clip that was possible years ago. I want to take the few guys I've chosen to back to the top and give them a way to make six figures a year, and I want to make a shit ton of money off of them in the process. I also want to make Pokerpwnage one of the most recognizable training sites in the industry. We have some exciting changes in store, and with me coming off the tournament trail for now I'll have a lot more time to work on the website, where as I've been AWOL a lot over the last year chasing my tournament dreams.

Nit roll. It means when a tighter player slowrolls you on accident not realizing how powerful his hand is. I used to get super pissed when people slowrolled me, but for some reason I smile and say "niiiit rooooolllled" now and it just makes me laugh. These guys make me so much money I should be more pleasant and professional around them, and that term just helps me be silly and have fun and not take things too seriously.

On the serious side, Chip Reese said before he died, "if you want to know how good a poker player is you can't observe him when he's doing well, you have to watch him when things are going bad." That spoke volumes to me. Not really a phrase but I think your readers could learn from the man.

I would be a writer. I'm still trying to be a writer. I'm not letting myself go back on the road after I get a new place till I finally finish this book I've wanted to write since I was 17. It's driving me insane, not having it done. Other than that, I'd like to direct music videos. I'd like to learn how to produce and get involved in the underground hip hop scene. I'd like to learn how to surf. I still want to do all those things but they seem a little further off.

The biggest Korean BBQ meal you've ever seen, with 30 different dishes, four types of meet, 40s of Cass, and Soju. Then some Hennessy and Coke. After that I'll be ready for an exorcism, sending me off to hell will seem like an easy ride.

That I loved everyone and the whole industry, deep down, past all my cynicism and random problems. That I tried to be honest the whole time about who I was and where I was coming from. I hope I have as beautiful a family as my idol Michael Baca has right now, that he has provided for with professional gambling, and I hope people can see that professional gamblers can be great people who love life, who help their communities and provide for their loved ones.