Interview with Richard "chadders0" Chadwick

Charles Hawk: ​Lets start with your 2015 performance. What were your goals for 2015 pokerwise and how did it change over the year? Which achievements you are happy with and which are you not?

Richard "chadders0" Chadwick: Going into 2015 I didn't have any goals as such, I had already tried and given up at the 1ks and the environment of husngs since then have made it less appealing to shot take. Given this my main goal was to make as much money as possible, whilst avoiding a target figure as there is no tangible value to setting that goal on myself. With this my main goal I would have to say the year hasn't been great all things considered, the main reason being the fish to reg ratio has gotten a lot worse. In 2014 I hit 1.5 mil vpps and that was after giving up 1k shots in April. In 2015 I would guess I have played more regs but only achieved 1 mil vpps, given that more of the warring was at 500s  it probably implies my reg to fish ratio in 2015 was pretty bad, and it has been for most players 500 plus (also a lot lower volume in terms of raw hours). A lot of effort went into warring the bali guys, and that undoubtedly went on for much longer than it had to, my guess is 2 months. When b3tterways retired in July (I think), his departing words were "I think if you share with bali you will all make more money". Fortunately we are there now, and there have been pockets of the year where there have been no regs to war where I have been able to clean up a little. As far as money is concerned I am happy, but with poker you always want more, and I think I made less than I would have estimated I would at the beginning of the year.

Richard "chadders0" Chadwick:  There have been a few reasons for me committing less hours this year than the year before. With a heavy reg to fish ratio you are forced to be more focused when you grind, which means giving up those late night sessions when you are not alert. I have also started a small spin stable with rocmar87, this came from a few factors, obviously there was some money to be made, but also I wanted to coach and create some kind of sustainable social element for me in poker. Cartels are good but I consider it mostly work colleagues, my stable are my friends. To take some guys from 1$ games to $30s is a very rewarding experience, it was just a shame to have it hampered by the ban of spinwiz; this with the RB changes with inevitably cap a lot of players earning potential and stake they can reach. I am confident you can still make a living in spins, but perhaps just a modest one.

Charles Hawk: How about politics in HS games last year?  What are the moods, climate in HS divisions between each other? Do you sense any signs of unhappiness or maybe even panic because of an unclear future?

Richard "chadders0" Chadwick: The environment is a lot more competitive than it was a year ago, which is a natural response when so much reg wars happen and players get better in the process. The politics or selection process of the higher cartels has been kind of a no entry system, and when people feel too under pressure or that a candidate is good enough they discuss and have a vote and then let the person in. Absent from this is any clear selection process, be it votes or some ev requirements. This is advantageous when faced with one or two shot takers, they have no metric for how close they are so it can stifle their motivation. The flip side to this is that when 2-3 people are shot taking a cartel it becomes increasingly appealing for others to shot take, knowing that the cartel will be forced to take at least one of the shot takers (and there is no clear way to say X reg has a better chance than Y reg other than reputation amongst yourselves). This also has the element of being a very slow process, and negotiations can often take over a week because there isn't opportunity to go back on decisions. This inevitably leaves some regs playing for the sake of it despite wanting and having every reason to share with another player. The 500 cartel have now implemented a system to overcome these difficulties, the 1ks still have no metric on entry requirements as far as I know.

Richard "chadders0" Chadwick: I couldn't speak for changes of moods. People can see for themselves how some people who were 300 regs are now 1k regs whilst others like myself have remained 500 regs. For sure there will be some hurt feeling in situations like that, particularly with the long war and numerous deals that were made to fend of the bali group. I think everyone has got over it though, and I generally believe that the cartel system is mostly representative of the skill levels players have (1ks being best etc...), there is just no room to be second rate anymore, you lose money to fast.

Richard "chadders0" Chadwick: As for the future, everyone is very pessimistic about pokerstars with respect to amayas running of it. We will all earn less money, poker as an industry is being compromised, the best days are behind us. To claim poker is dying is to have a very warped idea of the word dying. If a midstakes reg can make 50k+ a year playing a card game is the game dead? I personally don't think so. I think people just need to reassess their ideas of success in poker. Let's not forget what the reality of looking for and acquiring a job that pays anything close to the same is like, particularly if you have qualifications that restrict you to particular industries. But to put it bluntly, husngs are nowhere close to dead; in fact action this week has been fabulous.

Richard "chadders0" Chadwick: As far as panic goes there is none of it.  The people I know in poker are smarter than to respond too emotionally to something beyond their control. There has been a lot of frustration though, mostly with the way in which Amaya have communicated the changes and with the reneging of 2016 SNE.

Charles Hawk: How about the chances moving up the stakes after the rake decrease in 2016? Some regs said that with these changes Amaya is killing a dream (to move up the limits and become HS pro) also many regs said that reg wars will be not possible any more, that lobbies will look unclean - almost with only bumhunters. Could you expand on this topic from practical perspective? How much sense do you see in it? Will there be much less reg wars or close to none? Did Amaya really kille the dream to move up?

Richard "chadders0" Chadwick:  The other formats of poker have been hurt a lot more than we have by the changes. Be it the cash game stakes where fpps stop, or the effect of ditching SNE has on grinders of spins with 5% rake. For these formats the dream is dead for most (the dream for arguments sake being 200k+ a year). For husngs the dream is still alive, we have programmes like simple postflop and gtorb available but almost no players are even close to replicating these gto styles, there is a lot of room for a guy to slave over this stuff for months, come in and blow everyone away but these instances will be rare if at all. Simmply put it will be very hard to move up stakes now, but it is still possible. The biggest barrier is not the difference in rakeback, but the decreased flow of fish. I think a truly skilled player can beat another player in hypers before rakeback over a decent sample. Aquiring the money with which to gamble with is another problem entirely, if you want to build a roll to shot take with it takes twice as long because action is slower. People are less willing to gamble with a shot if the roll they are doing it with took 6 months to earn (whereas back in the day it may have been just 2-3 months). This will naturally lead to less reg wars, but it's also worth noting that a lot of regs have been playin for 2+ years now and had chosen to settle at their stake a long time before any rake changes were announced. I have no opinion on the view of the lobbies, I think less reg wars will have between no and a marginal effect on fishes desire to play. In any event the will always be wars at 1ks for people to be captivated by.

Charles Hawk: What are your plans about becoming 1k reg? Will you get there/will you do everything you can for it? Also how 307th is doing with same goal?

Richard "chadders0" Chadwick: As for 1ks I'm done trying to get in. I think 2014 could have easily been a 500k year if I didn't bother with shots. Money doesn't fall of trees like it used to, and even when you are done with shooting you have to go back and defend your own cartel from shooters so it's not like you can say "ok i'll burn 125k on this and make it back in 2-3 months if it goes wrong". I think too that being a 1k cartel is much more of a job than it was before, they have 4+ shot takers for their stake consistently. Sometimes I see rams play regs literally all day, it's not the most appealing. I have no idea about 307th, like I said the strucuture for 1ks is you are out until you are in, so to try and gauge the sum of the 1k regs perception of 307th is almost impossible. At this point I couldn't even pick a favourite for the next add, and there are 5-6 people playin the 1k regs.

Richard "chadders0" Chadwick: Oh what am I sayin actually, maveriiik is the favourite imo, he is relentless. I believe he puts in more volume than any shot taker, and that was with almost no break from getting into the 5s.

Charles Hawk: Tell me about your free time: how much do you have of it weekly and what are doing with it/how do you spend it? Also - it should be related with your life balance (work+living the life) - are you happy overall? By that I mean do you lack anything major in life which makes you worry or sad? Like health, love/girlfriend/family, knowledge, friends, not enough money or power or just anything else?

Richard "chadders0" Chadwick: It's been a varied year emotionally. I think like most poker players when you have little to fufill yourself outside of poker you become too tied to your results emotionally. After many years this results in apathy, complacency and laziness, but I wouldn't go as far to say it makes me sad. The biggest difficulty I find in achieving life balance is finding stuff that I am genuinely passionate about that stimulates me intellectually. I used to me quite interested in maths and physics but my interest has fallen because knowledge in these subjects make little difference to how I live my life or perceive the world. This problem can lead me to finding poker less fulfilling, as in many ways I see it as a means to an end, but with no end in mind.  To overcome these problems I should dedicate time to trying out new things for prolonged periods, but to be honest I have often been too lazy and coasted on what friends or my girlfriend have introduced me to. But these problem are not unique to poker, anyone who is not on their ultimate career path of wholly fulfilled can experience the same sentiments. I have been lucky in recent months though as I have become particularly interested in UK politics and have started reading many books on the subject. It is something I can see myself engaging with a lot more in the coming years. I am particularly interested in the linguistics of politics, and have found it fascinating how well I was previously coerced into certain points of view by the display of language and facts by the media only to later discover after more research that these were preposterous views to hold (I actually thought Israel were the good guys and Palestinians were the bad guys FFS!). Having this faint idea of a future beyond poker has given me and end to my means. Beyond this I have always been quite interested in cooking and hope to open a food establishment one day, I;m currently trying to perfect macarons.

Richard "chadders0" Chadwick: There are peanut butter and banana cream.