Lee Davy sits down with the multiple World Series of Poker bracelet winner and World Poker Tour champion, Dominik Nitsche, to talk about his progress in the online cash games and how it transfers well into his live tournament game.
It’s good to see Dominik Nitsche at breakfast. For one, he’s so skinny I never thought he ate anything but more importantly he’s a great poker player who gets involved and gives me plenty to write about.
He also gives a great interview.
He’s travelled to Cyprus with his good friend Mickey Petersen and the lo and behold the pair are also seated at the same table as the World Poker Tour kicks off its Cyprus Main Event.
I ask him what it’s like to be seated on the same table as a friend?
“Mickey and I came here together, we are staying here together and now I get to see his face all day…so that’s not ideal. I like Mickey but I don’t like playing poker against him because he is a very good poker player. So I think we will probably stay out of each other’s way. Especially, when you consider I have a 60-year-old Lebanese player on my left who likes to play a lot of pots.”
The last time I spoke to Dominik he had just started to get involved in online cash games. I wondered how he had been fairing?
“I’ve been playing a lot of cash games and also some tournaments. I ended up chopping the Super Tuesday for a little bit under $60K, making it my second biggest online score ever.
“I didn’t quite get there in terms of volume but I have been destroying the 5/10 games on Party and also playing HU on some other sites.”
So why did Dominik make the switch?
“I like traveling and playing all of these majors, but I don’t like playing all these side events. I like the big first prize, the prestige and a field with a lot of weak players in it.
“I enjoy six-max cash games because the dynamic can be very similar to tournaments. There is always at least one big fish on each table, and the practice I get playing online cash games transfers well. Online there will be one fish per table and five good players. Here there are three decent players, one really good player and three weaker players. The dynamic of adjusting to weak players is very unique, and playing online cash games as helped me with this.
“Also playing HU is good practice for me. I take on a lot of good players at decent stakes where if I lose it won’t hurt me. I don’t bum hunt. I will play the good players and see how I do against them. I am not sitting around waiting for fish. That experience transfers well into the live tournament games. If I end up HU with someone like Mickey, for example, I would be very confident because of the work I have done.”
So is Dominik a future star of the high stakes online cash games?
“We will see what happens. If I do really well and feel confident then who knows? That may be a goal for the next few years. I play 5/10 & 10/20 pretty confidently, but when I watch the likes of Jungleman and WCGRider I realize that I they are so much better than me at poker. I still have a lot to learn.”
