Bird Feed # 283 PayDragon

Railbird name: PayDragon
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Years Playing Poker: 3 + 1
Fav hand: Left

Ranking	Start	End	# of Tournaments	Earned money (USD)	Points
July 2008 - Real	2008-07-01	2008-08-01	6	$0	0.00
July 2008 - Free	2008-07-01	2008-08-01	15	$1	771.29
June 2008 - Free	2008-06-01	2008-07-01	13	$1.52	1 092.11
June 2008 - Real	2008-06-01	2008-07-01	7	$15.3	196.14
May 2008 - Free	2008-05-01	2008-06-01	14	$21.22	1 328.24
May 2008 - Real	2008-05-01	2008-06-01	7	$218.8	170.44
April 2008 - Free	2008-04-01	2008-05-01	10	$0	3.30
April 2008 - Real	2008-04-01	2008-05-01	5	$1.45	139.29
March 2008 - Free	2008-03-01	2008-04-01	7	$0.75	323.52
March 2008 - Real	2008-03-01	2008-04-01	5	$70.9	286.74
February 2008 - Real	2008-02-01	2008-03-01	8	$148.96	318.28
February 2008 - Free	2008-02-01	2008-03-01	7	$0.63	297.17
Real Money Ranking 2008	2008-01-01	2009-01-01	44	$496.57	1 433.62
Freeroll Ranking 2008	2008-01-01	2009-01-01	74	$25.79	4 208.42
January 2008 - Free	2008-01-01	2008-02-01	8	$0.67	392.79
January 2008 - Real	2008-01-01	2008-02-01	6	$41.16	322.73

#1 Why did you chose your Railbird.com screen name/ what does it mean? Back in the 70’s, I was trying to come up with a name for a mercenary thief that was not an obvious rip off of Grey Mouser. Then in the 90’s, when I started playing MMORPGs, I was working at a payroll software company and the old PayDragon name seemed appropriate. That has been my on-line name since then.


#2 How many hours each day/week spent playing poker on? It varies depending on other things going on but generally 25-30/week.


#3 How would you define your style of play? TAG early on and LAG after antes get important.


#4 Poker Achievements? I achieved my 1st goal of $1,000 profit in my 1st year on-line.


#5 How did you get involved with poker? Where did you pick it up? In high school and college, I played 7 card stud with my friends. We really didn’t have a clue what we were doing, but I was better at the math and picked it up faster than they did. Then I got a serious girlfriend and switched to sheep’s head and bridge. 20 years and one divorce later, I started to play Texas Hold’em at ESPN so that I could do better than a friend at work. After a year of that, I switched to real money at Full Tilt.


#6 Which pro would you like to face in a HU match and why? If it is to make money, then Jamie Gold because I do well against unrepentant bluffers. If it is just to meet the pro, then Andy Bloch because he is a math geek and a great HORSE player.

#7 how have you improved your game ? I always need to work on my patience. And I have developed a good body of notes on the people I play with a lot.

#8 Do you have any nick names on the felt? Really just PayDragon or Dragon for short.

#9 What goals do you have as a poker player in the next 6 month's ? My goal for the July-December period is to make another $1,000 in profits, make the top 100 real money Railbird rankings 3 out of 6 times and money in at least on freeroll every month.

#10 What would you consider a weakness in your game/ something you need to improve? Less beer, more patience.

#11 What would you say is the best online or live game you are skilled at ? Limit Omaha H/L is what I make most of my money at. Split pot reduces the variance and limit causes the donkeys to burst into frustrated flames. I also like HORSE a lot, but I don’t like to multi-table stud format games so I don’t play it as much as I used to.

#12 What are some typical "TELLS" that a online player is bluffing ? I really don’t care if someone is bluffing. I watch their cards to see what hands they play in which positions. I watch their betting patterns. I take notes. After 100 hands or so, my decisions get easy.


#13 How Has Railbirds.com helped your game play? Railbirds doesn’t help my play as much as it improves my poker experience. I have a bad tendency to tune out people and think about the numbers. When I don’t have my kids with me and I spend an entire Saturday grinding through 40 SNGs, I get a sense of isolation that gets a little weird. But then I start throwing some Railbird tourneys into the mix and I am not there alone. I am here with a bunch of the people that are always here. When I am at a table with a bunch of birds, I may not talk a lot, but I am listening. And I am here.

#14 Best Moment in a trny? Early in one of the first RMR tourney I moneyed in, I was dealt pocket queens on the button. 6 out of 7 people limped to me. I did not want to play queens in a family pot so bet the pot to thin the field. The BB and one limper called. The flop hit and the BB insta-pushed. I looked at the flop and there were a pair of queens there. I had just flopped quads and somebody was betting into me. I called and he was on a total donkey hand. That put me into the chip lead and I eventually finished 2nd.

#15 Most recent trny win? I sorted my July results by finishing place and this month I have won 21 Omaha SNGs, and 1 MTT each of HA, hold’em, HORSE and Omaha. The hold’em was a Saturday morning Flopadelic. I came from behind to beat Vriesa getting kings and 2’s in back to back hands. I felt good about that because she is tough to beat, until I heard she was hit by a drunk later in the day