NewJane: Congratulations on your excellent finish at the Live Tour event! Tell us about the event that qualified you for the Live Tour Final tourney next year.

Huffster: It was the Winter PSO Live Tour Stop, consisting of players from the final table of The Big One V Winter Final.

NewJane: Tell us some interesting facts about your life, such as place of employment, family matters, hobbies, or educational background.

Huffster: My workaday life is quite dull, so I won't go there. I hold a degree in Accounting with an emphasis in information systems. I have a very patient wife (important for any poker player), Melissa, and two children-Keely, aged 5, and Benjamin (The Destructor), in at age 2.

NewJane: Give us a little glimpse into your poker background. How long have you played? Do you prefer online play or live? Where is your favorite place to play live? Do you like tournaments or ring games? What is your game of choice?

Huffster: I've played Hold-em around 3 years, seriously for the last 2, and I took up Omaha in mid-2005. Before that it was the standard 5/7 card party games and 3 card guts. I'm basically an online player. I've dabbled in home games, sat in a couple of sessions with the KC poker club, and traveled around town a bit on the freebie pub circuit, but the play in those is so bad it began to affect my game, so now I play live only. I prefer tournaments, but in order to turn a consistent profit, I'm beginning to work cash games into the mix. NLHE will always be my favorite.

NewJane: How long have you been a member of PSO?

Huffster: I've been a member since February 2003.

NewJane: What do you think was your greatest strength in the tourney? Your biggest weakness?

Huffster: My strength was patience. I folded 82% of my hands pre-flop and was fortunate to get some workable hands when they were needed. Insomuch as my strategy worked and my goal for the event was met, I think I managed my weaknesses well. I could have been a bit more aggressive, though.

NewJane: Do you remember any key hands you want to tell us about? Positive or Negative outcomes…

Huffster: Nothing too remarkable happened, really, just a lot of solid, GAP-based positional play and a little good luck.

NewJane: What are some of the differences you notice in online play as opposed to live play?

Huffster: While there are quite a few, I'll touch only on a couple. Number one, for me at least, is the amount of data available at a glance. A lot of the things that require attention live is summarized online. For instance, online one can focus on calculating outs, odds, etc., rather than spending time trying to figure out how many chips are in the pot and guessing his opponents' stack sizes. While it gets easier with practice, nothing is easier than having that information instantly available.

Another would be body language. As you know, the number of online tells is a small subset of those available live. And, while that means a lot of information is not available online that may help you if observed live, my opponents are robbed of that same information-something else I don't have to worry about.

Finally is the vast volume of hands you can play online in a given unit of time. Going from being an inexperienced hack asking, "what's this game," to being a consistent, winning player in a short amount of time is nearly impossible to do if you're only playing live.

NewJane: If you could have dinner with any current poker tourney pro, who would it be and what would be the question you would ask first?

Huffster: It would be Doyle Brunson. My question would be, "Do you prefer rare, or medium rare?" Seriously, I'd probably ask him to tell me about Stu Unger, starting with the final table of the 1980 WSOP Main Event.

NewJane: What poker books have helped your game?

Huffster: Not really a book, but the collection of Aaron Hendrix' mentoring exercises, complete with explanations, examples, and relevant appendices are clearly the greatest influence on my game. Second and third, in that order, would be Harrington's recent "Volumes I and II" (counts as 1), and Sklansky's "Tournament Poker for Advanced Players."

NewJane: What new poker games are you interested in learning?

Huffster: I think I'll stick with Hold-em and Omaha for now. There are so many varieties of each, and I've really only worked with NL and PL tournaments, so there's probably still enough there to keep me busy for another couple of years. I may try to tackle 7 card stud, eventually.

NewJane: Here is your chance to address anything I neglected to ask that you are dying to share.

Huffster: I'll take this opportunity to thank Tina and the gang at PSO for assembling the information, cast and crew necessary to create and foster a positive environment in which we can build a winning game the right way-inexpensively. Also, thanks to the Pros, Mentors, Shades, O-crew, PalTalkers, and others for running training events and helping me get the most out of my game. See ya in Vegas!