August 17 2012, Chad Holloway

Earning Super Nova Elite status on PokerStars is no easy feat. In 2007, the first year of the program, only 39 players captured the coveted title. Becoming a SNE just once is impressive, but earning it for four consecutive years is truly a remarkable feat as Canadian online pro Jason “Prairie Hawk” Grad recently learned.

Unfortunately for Grad, changes to the PokerStars VPP program have drastically changed his life and put an end to any hope of making it five years in a row. Grad, who once played $1/$2 no-limit hold’em for 88 hours straight at the Stampede Casino and won $3,300, is the latest player to be featured in our Online Chat series, which takes an in-depth look at the lives of some of online poker’s most prominent players.

How did you begin playing poker?

I came to start playing poker very much like a lot of other people did, by watching Rounders. I went out the next day to Chapters and bought the only poker book they had on the shelf at the time. I don’t even remember the name of it. It became an obsession after that and I read every book I could find. I was already a fairly experienced sports bettor, so this just seemed a natural progression.

You’ve reach Super Nova Elite status on PokerStars four years in a row. This is a feat in and of itself. What inspires you to put in those long hours to achieve this status?

The money! Easy answer. Unlike many of the players, I play frequently, I have a wife, three kids and a mortgage. I need to be able to make a somewhat steady income. The SNE benefits paid me $10K a month, every month. If I manage to win anything else that was a bonus. The main thing that most poker players do not understand is how big an influence variance can make over the course of a year or even a career. I have played close to 20 million hands in my career. I am telling you that swings in results either up or down do often last more than a million hands at a time. For live or tournament players, this can be an entire career. This is why I placed such a heavy emphasis on achieving SNE.

You told us that the changed VPP program on PokerStars hurt you. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Yes, the VPP changes on PokerStars have hurt me quit badly. I have had to give up my quest for a fifth straight SNE year. My point-per-hand ratio dropped about 25 percent from the previous year. I simply could not make up an additional 25 percent more hands in a year. I was already stretched as far as I was prepared to go. I figure the changes will cost me about $70K this year alone.

There is one benefit to me no longer being an SNE, and that is time. For many years now, I have logged so many hours playing that I have not spent enough time improving my game. I would certainly say I am a better player than I was five years ago, but the truth is that the rest of the pack has caught up to me and recently started passing me. I could no longer be assured of a winning month as I once took for granted.

Now that I have more time I plan on spending more time studying to keep my game sharp. I also play fewer hands per hour now, which should increase my win rate, as well. There is no worse feeling in poker than seeing your pocket aces folded preflop because you were unable to act in time or because you mis-clicked. Hopefully mistakes like this won’t happen to me anymore.

I made several attempts to increase my point-per-hand ratio back to its previous levels. I was mildly successful at this by playing more hands UTG, as well as stealing more, but this also resulted in a decrease in my hands per hour rate. This net result was no change in my points per hour and put me back to where I started and still unable to reach my goal of achieving SNE again. I also tried short-stacking for a while but with similar results. In this case, the opposite happened with my hands per hour going up, but the points per hand went down even further. I could have tried moving up in stakes, but I had tried that already in the past and never really had much success. Also, that would result in an even higher variance, which was exactly what I was trying to avoid.

PokerStars also has begun issuing warnings for players who 24-table and are deemed to be acting too slowly. I received one of these emails myself. They threatened to reduce my maximum number of tables to 20, but to this point have not done so. The truth is, I rarely play 24 at a time anymore anyway, so the threat is hollow. In fact, during off-peak times (North American prime time), it is rare that you can even find 24 tables of full ring $1/$2 on PokerStars anymore.

What games and stakes do you normally play?

I have played almost entirely $1/$2 NL full ring games for about seven years now. I plan on changing that in the near future. Full ring NL poker seems to be a game that is starting to fizzle out. Several years ago, it was the only game people wanted to play. Now all the money really seems to be sucked out of this game. The competition is all just too competent. Also the percentage of short-stackers has become an epidemic. I would say a full 35 percent of all players now are short-stacking. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this number get to 50 percent. How can anyone reasonably expect to make a high win-rate with that many “empty seats” at each table? Nowadays you are glad if there is just one full-stacked new player at any given table. Many of the longtime quality grinders in this game have already left. What they are doing now, I cannot say.

All the big games now are six max in either NLHE or PLO. The epidemic of short-stackers in the six-max games is less prevalent. The natural advantage the shorties enjoy is less in these games due to the more frequent posting of the blinds. PLO in particular seems to be the game that is picking up the most steam. I plan on using some of my newly acquired time to study up on my PLO. I think it is a time for a change.

Learning something new might be good for me and reignite that fire that I once had. Playing the $1/$2 PLO game should also give me enough points to retain my SNE status. The biggest question is, can I play that game for an entire year without losing my bankroll in the process? Hopefully, I will thrive. Perhaps I will crash and burn and be forced to get a real job. I wouldn’t be the first.

Obviously you’re a PokerStars guy, but did you ever play on Full Tilt or UB? If so, do you have any money stuck on there as a result of Black Friday?

I did play on Full Tilt a couple of years in the beginning. I switched to PokerStars when they introduced their VIP programs, which just seemed vastly superior to the rewards at Full Tilt. I did have some money stuck on Full Tilt, and I look forward to getting that money back [now that PokerStars has acquired FTP] and hopefully playing U.S. competition again soon after that.

Can you describe your progression, as in how you moved up and your bankroll strategies?

I was pretty lucky to get into the games when they were still pretty soft, unlike today. I was able to win almost immediately from the day I started playing full time. I started playing $1/$2 NL at Full Tilt Poker with just a couple of thousand and managed to make over six figures in my first year. Looking back now, it seems likely that I must have run well that first year.

Speaking of, what have the games been like since U.S. players were taken out of the online poker equation?

The players at PokerStars have gotten tougher each and every year that I’ve played there. The closure of the U.S. market certainly made it more difficult for everyone. Many of the good U.S. players simply moved to other countries and continued to play while all of the easy money continued to be locked out.

I noticed that you placed 54th in the EPT Grand Final in May 2011 for $37,106. How did you come to play that event?

I played the European Poker Tour Madrid event on my SNE freeroll. I had played the World Series of Poker Main Event four previous times and the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure twice. This, however, was my first time playing in Europe.

Do you have any notable memories from that run?

Obviously cashing was a great thrill. Being on a freeroll and still mainly a low- to medium-stakes player was a pretty big score for me. It was every bit as exciting as I thought it would be. I managed to make my first TV table even though it lasted only five hands. I also got to sit beside Vanessa Rousso all of Day 1, which was fun.

How were you eliminated in that event?

It wasn’t anything very exciting. I shoved on the button and was beaten by in the big blind. The most memorable thing was the totally obnoxious Frenchman who knocked me out. He made an ass of himself, and I refused to shake his hand as I left.

Do you enjoy playing live poker? What are some of the big differences between live and online play? What do you like and dislike about each?

Honestly, I find live poker to be incredibly boring. I play the big tournaments when I get freerolled, and that’s pretty much it. Maybe once or twice a year, I will head down to the local casino and play. I simply do not have the patience for the game. Also, the poor play frequently displayed by the low-stakes cash-game players just annoys me. Poker can be a beautiful game and to see it butchered by so many bad players at the low stakes drives me crazy. Perhaps as I get older I will gain more patience and play more often.

What’s your most notable online result?

I have two cashes in the WCOOP Main Event. They weren’t big cashes but again anytime you win money on a freeroll, it is super exciting. I also just recently received the Career Achievement award on PokerStars for reaching the 5 million career VPP mark. To my knowledge I am the 23rd player to do this. Hopefully I will still be able to make it to 10 million.

You mentioned that you have kids. Can you tell us a little bit about them and what it’s like being a family man and trying to make it as an online pro?

I actually have three kids now because I added a stepchild to my family when I got remarried this summer. Being a family man means that I can no longer work those long 20- to 30-hour marathon sessions I used to do. I pretty much try to stick to a 9 to 5 schedule nowadays. I think this makes it a bit tougher since there are many more regular players at the tables during these hours. I also cannot take the shots at the big games that many single players often like to do. It increases the pressure to win, as well. Luckily, my wife has a good job and that helps level out the swings a bit.

We understand you are into mixed martial arts and betting on the NFL. Are you into MMA as in you like to fight?

Betting on NFL and MMA, as well, is one of my favorite things to do. It is tremendously exciting. I have been betting NFL for about 20 years now. Sometimes successfully and sometimes not. I am a long-term winner, though. One market that has started getting my attention more lately is the online fantasy sports games. The market is starting to mature enough to the point where it could be possible to play the games professionally full time. I think the industry is primed to take off just like poker did many years ago.

As for MMA, I trained the discipline for several years but never actually had any real fights. I loved the workouts and the strategy in the sport, especially the jiujitsu. I quit a couple years ago because it is quite hard on the body, and I’m not that young anymore. I stick to mostly coaching kids soccer now.

One of may favorite memories was sitting at the same table as Forrest Griffin at the WSOP the night after watching him beat Rampage Jackson for the UFC light heavyweight belt. It was a pretty lucky table draw because Forrest is possibly the worst poker player I’ve ever seen. Great guy, though. It was actually Johnny Chan who knocked him out that day, sitting at the other end of the table.

What is your favorite NFL team? Which has made you the most money? Which has lost you the most money?

Professional sports bettors do not have favorite teams, just the team they bet on that week. I like betting teams that can run the ball and play aggressive defense. I am mostly a dog player and try to avoid highly public teams such as the Patriots and Cowboys.

In MMA you want to try to bet on fighters that have multiple ways to win. Avoiding fighters that can only win with a big knockout punch is usually a good idea.

What inspired you screen name, “Prairie Hawk?”

When I first created my account, I was reading Phil Hellmuth’s book. In it, he describes his different player types as animals. There is the elephant, mouse, lion, eagle and a few others. I always liked hawks and thought I could try and play like that. I was born on the prairies, so I just added the two together. I don’t have that book any more. I saw it at garage sale a few years ago for a dollar and thought it was grossly overpriced.

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May 12 2012, Chad Holloway

It’s long been said that some of the best poker players are the ones fans have never heard of, the men and women who opt to grind cash games out of the public spotlight. One such player is Andy Moseley, a 23-year-old high-stakes pro from London who recently made an appearance at the PartyPoker Big Game VI.

If you watched the live stream of that 48-hour cash game here on PokerNews, you no doubt remember Moseley. Not only was he the game’s second-biggest winner, but the wunderkind was the beneficiary of a mistimed fold by Phil Laak, a hand that will likely be remembered for years to come.

PokerNews caught up with Moseley to learn a little bit more about the well-respected high-stakes pro from the U.K.

When did you first learn to play poker?

I traveled around a lot whilst growing up before my family settled Southwest of London in Surrey. I went to an all-boys school and started playing poker in sixth form with friends. I set up an underground poker society with some friends after poker got banned at school – my enthusiasm for the game was obvious even then! I then went to the university in Manchester where I studied International Business – it was during these years where I really developed as a player and managed to move up stakes quite quickly.

We understand that you’re primarily a cash game player. What sort of games and stakes do you usually play? Do you tend to play live or online?

I started off playing online and built my roll on the Cryptologic Network from sit-n-go’s. When I had about $1,500 USD in my bankroll, I started playing $50 no-limit cash and have stuck with cash games ever since. For the first couple of years I predominantly played online but since leaving university and moving to London I gradually started playing more live games. I now split my time about 70 percent live and 30 percent online. I will regularly play $10/$20 to $100/$200 online. I prefer to take my shots live as in general a big live game will be much softer than a big online game and I think my game is more suited to deeper stacked play.

We’ve also heard rumors that you’ve played in the big game in Macau. Can you tell us a little about that game? What is its appeal?

I have played in the big game in Macau. I have probably played about 25 to 30 sessions. I initially got in the game about 14 months ago when it was a lot smaller than it is now. It was $5K/$10K with a $1 million buy-in. It has now possibly tripled in size on average. The biggest I played was $10K/$20K with a $2 million buy-in and a button ante. The major appeal about the game was not the softness but the size of it.

Even if you have a small edge when the stakes are that high it leads to an amazing hourly rate. The swings are obviously massive though and the game is so big now I don’t know if I could take it! The regulars in the game have also improved a lot, so it is not soft anymore. The game is also less deep now, so altogether it is much less appealing. Playing the game was definitely the most challenging and stressful part of my career.

You were the second biggest winner in the PartyPoker Big Game VI last month. How did you come to play in that event?

I am friends with Sam Trickett and the Poker Farm guys and they mentioned the game would be held in Vienna if I was keen. I enjoy playing hold’em and thought it would be fun to play on a live stream, so decided to ask if I could get a seat. I had played for half an hour or so the year before, so had a taste of the format already. I am not very well known and I was unsure if I would get to play for long but I managed to get a seat for about 12 hours. I ran extremely well and yes, I did become the second biggest winner.

What is your most memorable moment from that cash game?

There was an extremely interesting pot with Phil Laak, which I should have given more thought to on the river. It is a pot where I rivered two pair when the flush arrived and bet out “3,000 and he raised to “35,000. I didn’t really think much at the time as I have played with Phil a lot before and did not think he was capable of a bluff in that spot but he was playing extremely different in the game this year.

He only really makes a raise that large with the nut flush or a bluff and I should have given some thought as to whether he would have played the nuts in that manner. I thought Phil played really well throughout the session and a lot of the younger players were discussing how good his decision-making seemed to be afterwards.

What are your thoughts on the hand where Laak mucked the winner to you in a “60,000 pot?

Luke Schwartz phrased it well when he said on Twitter: “LOL never seen any poker player run as good as Mosely the 1st time he’s been outdrawn in a pot since 2009 and donkabomber mucks the winner.”

I am thinking Phil must have been so determined to not show his hand as Tony G and some others were sort of forcing him into it that he forgot to check his hand after he went all in. I couldn’t believe it when I found out but Phil is a friend of mine and he was winning “150,000 in the game, so he was no way near as tilted as many pros would be in that spot! I have seen Phil since and we had a laugh about how ridiculous the situation was.

We noticed you have a few live results, notably a third-place finish in the 2011 European Poker Tour Berlin 2K side event for $99,624, and a 13th place finish in last year’s World Series of Poker Europe Main Event. How do you go about choosing what live events to play?

I just choose the events that are in fun cities to visit and treat the trips as mini holidays. I generally don’t play them for profit purposes. I am no way near as experienced in tournaments as cash games and I do not enjoy them as much either. However, I really enjoyed those two deep runs last year and loved the structure in the WSOPE Main until the last day where it really became a lottery. I felt a little lost when it was 20 big blind average stacks but had felt really comfortable the first few days when the structure was deep.

Do you have any desire to play more live events?

Yes, I will play EPTs in good European locations and will definitely play the WSOPE again. I don’t think I will be grinding the tourney circuit rather than playing cash games though.

Have you even played the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas before? If so, what events do you play or do you go for the cash games?

I have been in Vegas for the last two summers: six weeks in 2010 and three weeks in 2011. I have played two tournaments over that time period. I really don’t enjoy the grueling tourney schedules and the forced break times etc. I generally just grind the cash games in the Bellagio the whole summer and enjoy myself.

I see it as more of a holiday when I go, it is a tough place to go to with the dual motivation of fun and profit. Most players will tell you that even if you have a winning trip you seem to leave a loser. The lifestyle is unbelievably expensive out there. I played the PLO in Bobby’s Room a lot last year and did OK. Hopefully I’ll run well there again.

As far as cash game players in the U.K., who are some of the players you consider to be among the best?

There are a lot of online players that I do not know and haven’t played with but are obviously very good. People like Alex “Kanu7” Millar who I haven’t met but his record speaks for itself. In regards to people I have played and chatted poker with, out of the high profile players, Sam Trickett is the cash player I rate the highest. Out of the unknown players, Jon Godfrey is a close friend of mine and I have spoken a lot of poker with him and he plays exceptionally well especially versus tough opponents. In regards to the younger guns, Tom Macdonald thinks about poker in a very similar way to me and we seem to agree on a lot of spots, whether or not that is a good thing I do not know!

Do you have any aspirations outside of poker or do you plan on playing as a career for years to come?

I really enjoy poker and the freedom it brings, but yes, I do have aspirations outside poker. I am really interested in property renovation and I have recently invested in a new place in London. It has great potential and is an exciting project outside poker. I have some good contacts and they are teaching me the fundamentals of the business, which I can hopefully develop and expand over time. It is a good skill and one that I am enjoying learning.

I have also invested in some friend’s businesses but do not have a very hands on role in any of them yet. One of them is a company called Peelzone and specializes in customizable smart phone covers. I’m confident it’ll do well!

What else do you enjoy doing aside from poker?

I enjoy traveling, driving, tennis, golf, skiing, theater and socializing.

What is your poker plan for the next few months?

I am playing cash in London at the moment whilst grinding online before heading to Vegas for three weeks on the 20th of June. I tend to take the rest of the summer off after Vegas and enjoy the weather and seeing friends. I will then be traveling down to France for the WSOPE where hopefully I can have a decent run like last year.

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