NewJane: First, let me congratulate you on your fine finish at the WPO in Tunica. You will be advancing to the PSO Live Tour Final tourney in January. Tell me a little about the tourney that qualified you.

DTERMINED: It was the $300+30 NLHE event on March 24 at the World Poker Challenge, in Reno.

NewJane: Tell us a little about yourself. Where you live, work, or any interesting facts about your life you would like to share.

DTERMINED: I am 46 years old, originally from Wichita, KS, now living in Lakeland, FL. I have been in Florida for 9 years, and other than the face that we don't have any legal land-based poker rooms to speak of, I can't imagine a better place to live. Some of my interests include golf, antiques, music and history.

NewJane: Share with us some of your poker background, such as how long you have played, games of choice, limits you like when you play live, other tourney successes. And anything else about your poker background that you want to share.

DTERMINED: My Mother was a poker player, and had a regular Thursday night game for many years. The players in this game were a combination of my Mother's friends and some people related to the construction industry, friends of my father who was a remodeling contractor. From the time I was about seven to the time that they let me play regularly when I was about 13, I acted as their little waiter, getting them coffee, beer, sandwiches, etc.

By the time they began to let me play, I realized that I had developed tells on each and every player. For five or six years, I pounded on my Mother and her friends. And now, every time I take a bad beat, I feel it's my karma paying me back for the hands that I check raised my poor Mother with. Since that time up to a year and a half ago, I played low limit stud, HE, Omaha, and especially Stud hi/lo where I played basically middle limits. I have never lived in a state where card rooms were legal, so most of my experience comes from home games and casino play in Vegas. About a year and a half ago, I discovered poker on the internet and started playing live action stud hi/lo. After about 6 months, I started playing low buy in NLHE. In December of last year, I moved to multi-table NLHE tourneys and had immediate success. Since then, I have won a handful of on-line multi's with numerous other final table finishes. This particular event was my first brick and mortar tournament. I was excited about my finish and look forward to playing many more.

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

DTERMINED: I have been a member of PSO for one month. (Note: At the time of this interview, Dale had been a member almost two months.) I actually signed up with PSO to take advantage of the incentives offered for this tournament. Even after I shared that with NewJane and some of the other long-term members in Reno, they still treated me like a member of the family. I enjoyed the camaraderie and look forward to exploring and playing at the PSO site.

NewJane: Where is your favorite place to play poker, both live and tourney action?

DTERMINED: At this time, my favorite place to play poker is in on-line tourneys and a choice home game now and then; but I have always enjoyed the Mirage and more recently, the Bellagio.

NewJane: What were some hands you remember from the tourney, whether won and lost?

DTERMINED: Well, I will start with the loser because it's the one that sticks out in my mind the most. There were 5 of us left at the final table. The blinds were 800-1600 with antes at 150. I was the short stack and was on the button with about 4900 in chips. The small blind (a player who by the way finished 2nd in this event and won the $300 buy in NLHE on Friday, as well as two other deep in the money finishes in limit events) had 12000 in chips. It was folded to me, and I looked down and saw a pair of ladies. Without batting an eye, I shoved all-in. The small blind riffles his chips and things and after what feels like an eternity, he calls. The big blind folds. We flip over our cards and he has K-Q offsuit. Now, needless to say, I am overjoyed. It was short lived, however, as the flop came 10-K-10. When a blank hits the turn and river, I was out of the tournament, in 5th place, and the top PSO finisher. Of course, I was way ahead in the hand pre-flop and would welcome a call anytime in that situation, but I still found it very hard to believe that this very solid player would call off over one third of his stack with K-Q offsuit in this spot. After reflecting a day or so, and talking directly to him about the hand (and other hands, because he called me down with inferior cards and knocked me out on Friday also, just off the bubble), I came to realize that it was about respects. Which leads me to my winner.

It was actually a series of winners- five pre-flop all-in's in a row-to be exact. With the top 18 places paying and about 25 or 26 of us left, I decided to turn it up a notch. I caught Kings and went all in over the top with a small stack against a medium stack. He laid it down. Then, I catch a couple of small suited connectors. From early position, I push them out there again. No one calls. (Oh, did I mention that the player that knocked me out at the final table was sitting here, too?)

Anyway, next hand I have Queens on the big blind, over the top all-in again, this time, my future nemesis was the raiser. He mucks his hand. Next hand, with rags in the hole and a super tight player with a medium stack on the big blind, it's folded to me, so I do it again. He folds…PHEW! Then, on the button I get Kings again. I come over the top all-in against an early position raiser. He's had enough and calls with A-9 suited. No ace comes, and I have him covered and knock him out. Meanwhile, I am watching other players. My future nightmare, in particular, is really giving me the evil eye. He's thinking, like the guy I just busted, that all five of the hands couldn't have been premium. I guess the point here and what enabled him to call off such a large portion of his chips that was with those cards (K-Q offsuit) at the final table is that I should have showed my other pair of Kings and especially my Queens during that run. These players have never seen me before, and had no frame of reference as far as respect is concerned. It looked as if I were capable of some maniac-type raises and re-raises pre-flop and not showing a hand or two helped to reinforce the suspicion. Therefore, he calls me with K-Q and gets lucky and busts me out.

NewJane: What did you feel was your strength / weakness in the tournament?

DTERMINED: I feel my strength during the tournament was definitely my patience. I played short stacked the entire way except when I rammed and jammed my way to an average stack with about 25 left. I never saw aces, only had big slick once, and had to lay it down to a raise and re-raise, and the only four premium hands that I did have were already mentioned. I don't feel like I made any major mistakes in this tournament, unlike a couple of others that I played later in the week. If I had a weakness, it may have been that I played a little too conservatively early. Sure, I got lucky NOT running into a big hand with either of my two weak hands during my rush; but I feel that I picked the right time to make a move.

NewJane: If you could play one hand over, which one would it be and why?

DTERMINED: I probably should have shown the Queens. Even though by not doing so I probably enticed and received an incorrect call later, I learned that there are definitely some long-term benefits to showing a nice hand every now and then.

NewJane: What are your feelings about what is going on with poker now, the incredible growth? Do you see it as a positive thing?

DTERMINED: The recent growth in popularity of poker, especially tournament poker, is an exciting and positive thing. The amount of dead money in on-line tournaments is absolutely astounding. I also found the play in the early rounds to be generally weak in the live tourneys that I played last week in Reno. Although the huge fields do create a higher level of variance, I feel that a solid, tight-aggressive approach will turn a nice profit in the long run.

NewJane: What new poker game are you anxious to learn?

DTERMINED: I don't believe there is a form of the game that I haven't played at one time or another.

NewJane: What poker books might I find in your home library?

DTERMINED: Doyle's Super System, Sklansky's Poker Theory, and Tournament Poker for Advanced Players are probably my favorites, although I have many others.

NewJane: If there is anything I didn't ask you that you want to say, now is the time!

DTERMINED: I do have a hand that I would like to share with other PSO members that occurred in the 300+30 NLHE event on Friday, March 26th in Reno. I knocked out one of the top players in the world on the very first hand. It did cause some controversy. Fortunately, I had another PSO member (JDM) sitting right beside me to witness the whole affair. However, I don't feel that this is the proper format, so I will save it and post it on Poker Pages in the near future. Thank You, NewJane, and all the other members I met that week for your kindness and support.

NewJane: I would like to thank DTERMINED for taking time to talk to me today about his successful tournament at the World Poker Challenge. Thanks, Dale!