From doubt to dominance | Matt Berkey

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In episode 17 of the MOPP we will chat with long-time high-stakes poker player Matt Berkey. Matt will share his 20-year journey in poker, which found him reflecting on if this is something worth pursuing ten years after having gone broke several times. At some point, he was down $5,000,000 playing 300/600/1200 in Ivey's room while simultaneously dealing with a personal loss. In the pod, he will share with us the mindset and technical abilities he had to develop to turn things around. Enjoy!
Follow Matt and his work over at solve 4 why
► / @solveforwhy
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► Join Berkey's coaching site academy.solveforwhy.io/
0:00 - Intro
03:19- Shout out to our sponsor GTO wizard
04:19 - Matt’s background in competitive baseball
08:06 - Getting into baseball strategy and developing his work ethic
13:22 - Why Matt stopped playing computer games
16:49 - Discussing Bencb’s tweet on what it takes to make it in poker and the role of talent
21:55 - Do we over glorify working hard?
27:30 - Why Matt refused to quit at baseball even after getting dropped from the team
30:56 - Taking on a bet that he can dunk a basketball in 6 months and refusing to accept limitations
33:10 - Switching to poker and chasing imposter syndrome
38:22 - Picking your lane and becoming a specialist to succeed in poker
44:00 - Why Matt treats every poker decision uniquely
46:58 - Reading players and separating signal from the noise
48:50 - Getting talked into poker and being riddled with self-doubt
51:35 - Riding the wave of variance and going broke
55:08 - Building his bankroll to $300k and then losing it all
1:00:49 - Going through a dark period and not knowing where to turn
1:02:50 - Gaining positive momentum with exercise and eating well
1:06:04- Being given $5k from a friend to coach him and going on a heater
1:10:03 - Doing deep inner reflection and what Matt learnt about himself
1:14:35 - A key skill Matt learnt through the adversity
1:20:20 - Having an unhealthy obsessions and trying to be in the top 0.1%
1:27:24 - Why it’s tough to be a high volume player
1:30:14 - Check out the Mechanics of Poker program
1:32:20 - Renes approach to poker and never caring about his hourly
1:36:56 - Pursuing alternative strategies and generating extra EV
1:41:26 - How Rene seeks control which often costs him volume
1:43:33 - How Matt deals with uncertainty, being half as rich and twice as happy
1:45:48 - Why Matt doesn’t like to rewatch his hands
1:49:50 - Playing some of the biggest games in the world in Iveys room
1:54:44 - Getting invited to some big $200/400 games and making $1.4million
1:59:50 - Offering EV back to the losing players to keep the games flowing
2:02:45 - Where all the EV is made vs weak opponents
2:04:30 - Going $5million into make up and how Matt dealt with it
2:08:55 - Finding out his mum had over dosed whilst in a poker tournament
2:14:08 - Winning it all back and going from 5 million down to 1 million up
2:17:04 - How Matt works on his game and why he cares about “why”
2:22:26 - What studied online players get massively wrong playing live
2:27:00 - A tip for online players who are playing live
2:30:20 - The main “aha’ moment Matt had when studying with solvers
2:34:50 - Meeting Nick Howard and discovering mass data analysis
2:41:40 - Our strange relationship with measuring risk
2:53:12 - How Rene uses data to improve his game
2:56:24 - The most important lessons poker has taught Matt
3:00:10 - A belief that Matt had to let go of to keep progressing
3:03:06 - How do you make big leaps in your poker career?
3:11:22 - When Matt first discovered Rene was using him as a meme
3:15:06 - Rene and Adams main takeaways

[@SolveForWhy]

Thanks for taking the time w/me fellas. Really enjoy both of your conversational styles. Looking forward to more from you all!!

[@Procastinatestoomuch]

So much great information, stories, concepts, and insights. So much to internalize and think about. Thank you so much Matt!

[@switters8679]

You are a joke. You know who I am talking about when I say, we know what you are lying about. We are discussing whether it is necessary to deal with it. In either event you are a fraud, and at least that much should be public knowledge.

[@Procastinatestoomuch]

Matt's stories are so captivating, please create a part 2.

[@ncannavino11]

Awesome interview, Berkey is always so insightful

[@luizfelipegomes4456]

Best poker podcast content by far! Congratulations and thanks for all the info! PS: Bring in Charlie Carrel

[@AlexXanderMarketing]

Amazing insight Matt! This was incredibly great

[@QuickPoker]

Great episode fellas. I watched the whole thing. It went by quick ⚡

[@shivammendhare9400]

Inspiring! & feels like I can relate more to his story than any other players (maybe because of background he came from or the setbacks he had.. )

[@DoughBoyFreshest]

Yes! These podcasts are my downswing therapy. 😅

[@tasoslefth8375]

This is going to blow up

[@BC-wg5pq]

Great pod thanks

[@-crypt0]

Mad respect to berkey..

[@rik8993]

Excellent

[@mrfahrenheit2006]

Man Berkey sure can talk

[@pangaea6united]

Talk is cheap

[@jamesgrant9858]

@@pangaea6united 300/600/1200 💵

[@znoxYO]

Linus or riot

[@someluke005]

Moar zoom donking please 🌀

[@ivica6634]

Bencb is the one with survivorship bias and he's the dude playing tourneys with 10buyins and cash with a similar amount or significantly less even when accounting for straddles? Yikes , I mean I realize it was a different time and edges were much bigger but that still doesn't make up for the fact that he spent the majority of his career with an insanely high risk of ruin even accounting for those edges and just ran insanely well when it mattered far more often than not, meanwhile bencb grinded millions of hands online? A lil self awareness berks

[@jaeshbalachandran5766]

Playing live cash with that amount of buyins isn't that bad, especially back in the day. It was also really a different time with regards to MTTs to some extent, but you're still right that he absolutely took insane risk with these mtts and ran super good lol. luck certainly played a significant part.

[@ivica6634]

@@jaeshbalachandran5766 he had significantly less at points tho, he's talking about sitting down somewhere with 20k and getting it in on the 1st hand meanwhile his br is 30k ? Big yikes

[@jaeshbalachandran5766]

@@ivica6634 yeah he definitely did take ridiculous risk and get on the good end of it.

[@anthonyassante1928]

Mindset and performance coach? Cant even teach himself to blink normal.....

[@matthewpoh5155]

Matt talks a good game, but when it comes to the game, he always suck

[@Seadevil910]

Berkey has that victim mentality. I guess all your podcast guests can't be winners