Alan Goehring

Player Information:

Biography:

Alan Goehring plays a hyper-aggressive style of Poker, and it has paid off for him nicely. Last year, the 41-year-old Wisconsin native won the World Poker Tour which landed him a nice $1,011,886 pot. He got there by leaving the financial world of New York to slum on the beaches of California, where he learned the art of Texas Hold'em.

When he was 25, he was working in New York City as a bond trader. He thought, "These are the best years of my life," so he moved to Southern California to become a beach bum, although he still worked for his old company, Paine Webber. That's where he learned to play Texas Hold'em.

He learned to play by trial and error and by reading a few poker books. But most of his training came when he moved back to New York after three years in California. There are a lot of gambling junkies on Wall Street, and he introduced them to the game of Texas Hold'em. They started playing poker every day after work, even a few times on the trading floor, though that quickly came to an end after a partners' meeting. Wall Street guys are very aggressive and very loose. They played six-handed, and they played three times faster than at a casino because of player speed and quick shuffling. That helped develop his style.

In 1999 he did very well in a No-Limit Hold'em poker tournament, where he won approximately $770,000. Later, he tried to emulate the top players, who were basically more conservative, and he kept losing tournaments. Finally, he said, "How did I win the $770,000?". So he wrote down what he did originally, went back to my natural style, and started doing better. Now his philosophy is to ignore what everyone else does. Play your own game.

He don't take poker as seriously as a lot of other players. He thinks to be a great player, you have to play loose; that is, play more hands than the average player would based on the two starting cards. He wants to have as much fun as his can, but he doesn't want to lose.

Poker is not like science or physics, where there's a definitive answer. You can have two expert players look at the same hand and disagree on what the correct play is. To get to the poker championship, he won hands that 80% of experts would never play. There's no oracle from God that says, "This is the only way to play Texas Hold'em."

Alan had laser eye surgery before one tournament, so he wore these huge, intimidating sunglasses to protect my eyes. At that point, nobody knew who he was; they might have thought he looked like a professional player. Now he calls them his lucky glasses, because he wore them when he won the $770,000 and at last year's finals. When you're excited, your pupils dilate, so sunglasses are like chicken soup, they can't hurt.

At one tournament, Alan was in a big pot with a Rookie player. The rookie was looking really nervous, so he kept betting aggressively with pocket eights. Turns out the Rookie had a pair of pocket kings, and Alan lost. After that, he decided tells are overrated. Every poker player becomes an actor. Smart players with weak hands may try to look strong, but smarter players know this. So when they have a weak hand, they try and look like they have a really, really weak hand. It's like reverse, reverse, pyschology.

Alan used to complain about his starting hands, but now he knows it's about how well you play. In last year's championship round, he had pocket aces just once, and won only a small pot. The two times I had pocket kings, the second-best starting hand, he lost. It's how you play the cards you're dealt. A lot of players don't want to lose all their chips, so they play conservatively and lose. It's the single biggest mistake they make.

Alan plays poker a little bit like he drives, Alan says, "I can go from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and not one car will pass me."

Can't bluff against Queens Full!

A key hand from Alan's WPT victory: Alan raised 50K with pocket queens and Kirill called with the 8,6. Alan made a set when the flop came Q-5-3, but set a trap by checking. On a turn card 5, he bet 100K. Kirill, with nothing but an 8 high, moved in, hoping Alan would read him for having a 5 in the hole. Alan, calling with queens full, couldn’t have cared less if his opponent had fives full. Suddenly the chip count was reversed: about $3.5 million for Alan, $2 million for Kirill.

Notable Poker Accomplishments:

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1	16 Jun 2005 - 11:21	Joan (hidden)
	When the guy makes over $1,000,000 he is a winner to me.
2	16 Jun 2005 - 11:02	C.C. (c@c.c )
	This guy didn't come off as too good of a player in the WPT episode I watched, but I guess if he won the whole thing he's at least got some skills. I think he came off as kind of cocky, which I didn't really like. Seems like an okay guy though.