Apestyles Poker Coaching

Done by Gaelle Jaudon in partnership with https://www.clubpoker.net/

Jon Van Fleet or otherwise known as 'apestyles' has been around the online poker scene for more than a decade and has grown to be an iconic character in the poker industry. While his lifetime record of over $15 million in online tournament cashes is certainly an impressive feat, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for the American pro. Hailed to be one of the greatest MTT players online, Van Fleet reestablished his life in Vancouver, Canada after Black Friday hit to continue pursuing his online poker career. It was right before this time when Van Fleet battled the likes of addiction and depression affecting much of his overall state and almost completely derailing his path to success.

Play Online Poker. Play in Australia; Play in Canada; Play in India; Play in Malaysia; Play in New Zealand; Play in Singapore; Play in Thailand; Play in the U.K; Play in the U.S; Online Poker Reviews. Asian Poker Sites; International Poker Sites; Bitcoin Poker Sites; Poker Deals. Freerolls; Get $88 for Free at 888 Poker; Rakeback Deals. The authors are Eric 'Rizen' Lynch, Jon 'Pearljammer' Turner, and Jon 'Apestyles' Van Fleet, three consistent winners who are also good teachers. Think of this book series as a master class in tournament poker. You'll be able to step inside the minds of the pros in a large variety of situations. With over $10,000,000 in career cashes and over $3,000,000 in tracked career profits, Jon 'apestyles' Van Fleet is considered by many to be both the best player AND best coach in online poker history. Full Episode Description: I'm your host the founder of EnhanceYourEdge.com Brad Wilson and today's guest is an absolute legend of the online game, Jon 'apestyles' Van Fleet.Jon is currently #4 in lifetime online poker MTT tournament winnings with a cool $15.8 million with a $5 million+ of that coming from a ridiculous 2 month venture playing $25k MTT's on GGPoker last November. I ran it in HRC, and HRC seems to agree it is a punt, but Apestyles is world-class and I consider him to be one of the best MTT players in the world, which makes me think I am just misunderstanding something in this spot: Here, Ben makes what I would consider to be a pretty standard jam given his stack. Ape quickly calls off here.

In his interview with Somuchpoker's Gaelle Jaudon in partnership with ClubPoker.net, Van Fleet takes us back to a few notable moments throughout his journey as well as his current status in line with the game. Now active in the coaching business and social media, Van Fleet shares with his fans a few thoughts on the modern changes of online poker and how he himself adapts to these.

Somuchpoker: Thank you for being with us! You have been crushing online poker for quite a long time now, you even referred to yourself as the grandpa of the poker world in an interview with Elliot Roe. Since the early 2000's -which seems forever for online poker history, you have already been playing the biggest online MTTs. A longevity like that, especially in the highest stakes, is very much rare. What do you think kept you at the top level all those years?

JVF: Yes, since 2005 to be exact. I think initially I got lucky I met the right people who helped me elevate my game to the next level. I was merely at the right place, at the right time. I honestly, also made some really stupid decisions financially outside of poker which left me remaining hungry inspite of my early successes. I actually had to fight to come back from being buried in debt, which in my opinion might have been part of it. Those two things, as well as the ability and drive to study and work hard to continuously improve my game I believe kept me at the top.

SMP: What would you consider the worst spew you ever made?

JVF: Currently, I don't drink anymore but there was this one night when I used to drink a lot. I got blackout drunk and went on to play ‘sauce123' at stakes $100/$200. That night, I busted my whole $80k roll on my poker account which was really a lot to me at that moment. The next morning, I woke up and I didn't remember anything. I thought I was hacked and started contacting the site but after looking at my poker tracker, I saw that I called off like $40k with bottom pair. I couldn't believe it, I just went right back to bed. That was pretty hard to come back from.

I actually researched breath analyzer for computers, something that requires you to blow into it first for the computer to work but they don't really have that yet in the market! Could be a good idea though.

SMP: You recently said on your Twitter, '2008 and 2016 were the losing years. Since 2005, all of my years have been six-figure years, even the losing ones', which is pretty impressive.

JVF: Well yes, it was just the truth to be honest. Most of my years playing online poker I made more than $100k in tournaments but the few years that I lost, I lost really big too! It's just the way it goes with poker.

SMP: How do you handle today as a 'poker grandpa', the different emotional states of poker life versus 10-15 years ago?

JVF: From my streams in my Twitch channel, apestylespoker, one thing viewers would often comment is that I don't really react. I somehow managed to separate money and gameplay in my mind. All I really care about is making the right decisions. I do tilt when I make bad decisions and end up getting upset with myself. Obviously when it comes to the money, I am happier and get a bit excited when I win but overall, I have cut the highs and the lows out because if I don't otherwise, I get crazy. You can't get too excited or too down about results all the time especially when playing poker.

SMP: You worked on your mindset with Elliot Roe, is that right? Can you share a few thoughts on that?

JVF: Yes, Elliot has been a great supporter and has helped me a lot along the years. Back in the day, I used to be known as a battler on the tables a lot. I probably still am a little bit like that but for example, if someone reraised me I would get mad. I would think they were trying to bully me in which I would retaliate and fight back.

Occasionally, that could be good in some ways but when I did a session of hypnotism with Elliot, he brought me back to the time when I was picked on as a kid and fought back against those bullies. I realized that the pattern of reacting to aggression with the same aggression has been embedded in my personality since I was 8 years old. At the end of the session, Elliot told me 'Do you really want an 8 year old you playing poker?' and it really hit me. That reminder helped me detach from the emotional side of poker and become more of a zen robot, which is what I want to be when I play.

SMP: Pokerlisting made a documentary about you entitled How a World-Class Poker Pro Beat Addiction to Win Millions relating how Black Friday made an impact on you and how you ended up struggling with addiction and depression, playing six-figure HU SNGs with no sleep and eventually, sent to rehab. It seems you don't have difficulties talking about these issues. Was it important to you as well to talk about the dark side of poker life?

JVF: It wasn't so much about representing the dark side of poker although inherently, there is really one. It was more about me being okay with myself and my whole personal story and how that timeline of events may be of help to someone else. I've learned that in recovery. I have done a lot of work through meditation and service work that allowed me to be open and vulnerable to things like that. It was scary in a sense, but I mostly received positive reactions to it from my viewers so that was cool.

SMP: Probably, many pros that had a lot of success early on can relate to your story and the problem of isolation poker life can cause. Do you think there can be a real issue with depression at the top level of the game or maybe it was simply in the past and the new generation has learned from other's mistakes?

JVF: I have to admit that at the super top level, I really feel there are a lot of robotic personalities. I consider myself more emotional than the average poker player especially in this tier of the poker industry. I don't mean this in any way to be rude, but most of the players on the top level are somewhere on the autism spectrum which I think is because they are really separate from emotions and think in terms of logic but at the middle and lower levels, I'm sure a lot of people are struggling – either being stuck in a lot of makeup or living in their parents' basement and so on. It is really easy to go broke and to have bad habits but on the other hand, it is also possible to structure your life in order to create positive habits. Well, I'm not really sure if poker can actually be really healthy but it can be a pretty great job for sure if you put some structure into it.

SMP: For you today, is what we call 'Happiness EV' more important than making money?

JVF: Oh that's close… Yes, but I do enjoy playing poker too, making money and being able to provide. So my answer is yes, happiness is more important than money but I am also quite happy to have this job, especially during trying times. I am grateful to still be able to gain income despite staying at home. At the moment, we are in a semi-lockdown in Vancouver and although almost everything is open, we are advised to remain at home which I am mainly doing for now.

SMP: How was it possible for you to get back on your feet after what you have been through and return back to the highest games? Just two years ago, you won the partypoker $5k for over $1 million and up until now, crushing the $25k buy-ins on GGPoker too.

JVF: It is definitely not what I expected. Actually, my friends urged me to seek treatment at the Orchard on Bowen Island. My mom likewise helped me out and I stayed there for roughly three months. I really focused on looking at my approach to life, my recovery, etc… and that has been truly a catalyst for change. When I left treatment, I just wanted to make sure that I never blew up again like that. I was badly in debt that time and I didn't know if I would ever be able to make it back but somehow, I knew that the only I could was to attempt and make sure that this would never happen again.

I only really focused on recovery for a while when money and opportunities just started coming in. I eventually ventured into coaching wherein demand continued to increase and since then, everything has gotten better and better. Now that I recently started my Twitch channel, I am doing way better than I initially expected to. I had around 500 viewers my first session after just three videos, the number went up to 5,000. It's crazy!

SMP: When you look back on your career, what do you think are the accomplishments you are most proud of?

JVF: Two things, it's a tie. First is co-writing the three books – Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time with Jon ‘Pearljammer' Turner and Eric ‘Rizen' Lynch and second, helping other people become winning players. Helping other people make poker for a living makes me especially happy.

SMP: You're getting more involved with the poker community since a few years, you do a lot of coaching aside from your Twitch channel and you're quite active on Twitter as well. What do you enjoy in that and what's your main approach to the coaching work?

JVF: Yes, for the first time I did 5 days in a row of Twitch and it was exhausting! It was however, really cool because I ran deep in the EPT Online Main Event. I busted at the final table and had more than 5,000 viewers at some point, which was amazing. Initially, hosting in Twitch was not my idea. I was convinced to do it by BBZ's Jordan Drummond. I didn't really want to do it in the beginning but now, I enjoy it and it's way more fun than I thought.

About the coaching, I think what makes my style kind of unique is firstly, I have access to knowledge I don't think everyone has and also that I am good at meeting people where they're at. I feel that when somebody is out, I try to meet them at their level so they can take that step up. When I first started coaching, I realized that sometimes I would unavoidably talk over people's head and be more advanced which clearly does not help anybody. Those are the two things that make me believe I am fairly good at coaching.

SMP: Do you have specific goals for your Twitch channel or do you just go with the flow?

JVF: I actually do have specific goals. I am currently promoting a bundle that I made which is sort of a classroom-style video. It comprises 11 hours of video content for $100 and it basically summarizes most of what I know postflop. There is some very advanced stuff in there as well and is readily available on bbzpoker.com. What I didn't expect is that I really enjoy having everyone rooting for me and being part of this poker community, which undeniably makes it more enjoyable for sure!

The post Interview: Jon ‘apestyles' Van Fleet takes us through his online poker journey appeared first on Somuchpoker.

SMP: You recently said on your Twitter, '2008 and 2016 were the losing years. Since 2005, all of my years have been six-figure years, even the losing ones', which is pretty impressive.

JVF: Well yes, it was just the truth to be honest. Most of my years playing online poker I made more than $100k in tournaments but the few years that I lost, I lost really big too! It's just the way it goes with poker.

SMP: How do you handle today as a 'poker grandpa', the different emotional states of poker life versus 10-15 years ago?

JVF: From my streams in my Twitch channel, apestylespoker, one thing viewers would often comment is that I don't really react. I somehow managed to separate money and gameplay in my mind. All I really care about is making the right decisions. I do tilt when I make bad decisions and end up getting upset with myself. Obviously when it comes to the money, I am happier and get a bit excited when I win but overall, I have cut the highs and the lows out because if I don't otherwise, I get crazy. You can't get too excited or too down about results all the time especially when playing poker.

SMP: You worked on your mindset with Elliot Roe, is that right? Can you share a few thoughts on that?

JVF: Yes, Elliot has been a great supporter and has helped me a lot along the years. Back in the day, I used to be known as a battler on the tables a lot. I probably still am a little bit like that but for example, if someone reraised me I would get mad. I would think they were trying to bully me in which I would retaliate and fight back.

Occasionally, that could be good in some ways but when I did a session of hypnotism with Elliot, he brought me back to the time when I was picked on as a kid and fought back against those bullies. I realized that the pattern of reacting to aggression with the same aggression has been embedded in my personality since I was 8 years old. At the end of the session, Elliot told me 'Do you really want an 8 year old you playing poker?' and it really hit me. That reminder helped me detach from the emotional side of poker and become more of a zen robot, which is what I want to be when I play.

SMP: Pokerlisting made a documentary about you entitled How a World-Class Poker Pro Beat Addiction to Win Millions relating how Black Friday made an impact on you and how you ended up struggling with addiction and depression, playing six-figure HU SNGs with no sleep and eventually, sent to rehab. It seems you don't have difficulties talking about these issues. Was it important to you as well to talk about the dark side of poker life?

JVF: It wasn't so much about representing the dark side of poker although inherently, there is really one. It was more about me being okay with myself and my whole personal story and how that timeline of events may be of help to someone else. I've learned that in recovery. I have done a lot of work through meditation and service work that allowed me to be open and vulnerable to things like that. It was scary in a sense, but I mostly received positive reactions to it from my viewers so that was cool.

SMP: Probably, many pros that had a lot of success early on can relate to your story and the problem of isolation poker life can cause. Do you think there can be a real issue with depression at the top level of the game or maybe it was simply in the past and the new generation has learned from other's mistakes?

JVF: I have to admit that at the super top level, I really feel there are a lot of robotic personalities. I consider myself more emotional than the average poker player especially in this tier of the poker industry. I don't mean this in any way to be rude, but most of the players on the top level are somewhere on the autism spectrum which I think is because they are really separate from emotions and think in terms of logic but at the middle and lower levels, I'm sure a lot of people are struggling – either being stuck in a lot of makeup or living in their parents' basement and so on. It is really easy to go broke and to have bad habits but on the other hand, it is also possible to structure your life in order to create positive habits. Well, I'm not really sure if poker can actually be really healthy but it can be a pretty great job for sure if you put some structure into it.

SMP: For you today, is what we call 'Happiness EV' more important than making money?

JVF: Oh that's close… Yes, but I do enjoy playing poker too, making money and being able to provide. So my answer is yes, happiness is more important than money but I am also quite happy to have this job, especially during trying times. I am grateful to still be able to gain income despite staying at home. At the moment, we are in a semi-lockdown in Vancouver and although almost everything is open, we are advised to remain at home which I am mainly doing for now.

SMP: How was it possible for you to get back on your feet after what you have been through and return back to the highest games? Just two years ago, you won the partypoker $5k for over $1 million and up until now, crushing the $25k buy-ins on GGPoker too.

JVF: It is definitely not what I expected. Actually, my friends urged me to seek treatment at the Orchard on Bowen Island. My mom likewise helped me out and I stayed there for roughly three months. I really focused on looking at my approach to life, my recovery, etc… and that has been truly a catalyst for change. When I left treatment, I just wanted to make sure that I never blew up again like that. I was badly in debt that time and I didn't know if I would ever be able to make it back but somehow, I knew that the only I could was to attempt and make sure that this would never happen again.

I only really focused on recovery for a while when money and opportunities just started coming in. I eventually ventured into coaching wherein demand continued to increase and since then, everything has gotten better and better. Now that I recently started my Twitch channel, I am doing way better than I initially expected to. I had around 500 viewers my first session after just three videos, the number went up to 5,000. It's crazy!

SMP: When you look back on your career, what do you think are the accomplishments you are most proud of?

JVF: Two things, it's a tie. First is co-writing the three books – Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time with Jon ‘Pearljammer' Turner and Eric ‘Rizen' Lynch and second, helping other people become winning players. Helping other people make poker for a living makes me especially happy.

SMP: You're getting more involved with the poker community since a few years, you do a lot of coaching aside from your Twitch channel and you're quite active on Twitter as well. What do you enjoy in that and what's your main approach to the coaching work?

JVF: Yes, for the first time I did 5 days in a row of Twitch and it was exhausting! It was however, really cool because I ran deep in the EPT Online Main Event. I busted at the final table and had more than 5,000 viewers at some point, which was amazing. Initially, hosting in Twitch was not my idea. I was convinced to do it by BBZ's Jordan Drummond. I didn't really want to do it in the beginning but now, I enjoy it and it's way more fun than I thought.

About the coaching, I think what makes my style kind of unique is firstly, I have access to knowledge I don't think everyone has and also that I am good at meeting people where they're at. I feel that when somebody is out, I try to meet them at their level so they can take that step up. When I first started coaching, I realized that sometimes I would unavoidably talk over people's head and be more advanced which clearly does not help anybody. Those are the two things that make me believe I am fairly good at coaching.

SMP: Do you have specific goals for your Twitch channel or do you just go with the flow?

JVF: I actually do have specific goals. I am currently promoting a bundle that I made which is sort of a classroom-style video. It comprises 11 hours of video content for $100 and it basically summarizes most of what I know postflop. There is some very advanced stuff in there as well and is readily available on bbzpoker.com. What I didn't expect is that I really enjoy having everyone rooting for me and being part of this poker community, which undeniably makes it more enjoyable for sure!

The post Interview: Jon ‘apestyles' Van Fleet takes us through his online poker journey appeared first on Somuchpoker.

The Card PlayerOnline Player of the Year (OPOY) award honors the best tournament player across the major online sites in a given calendar year. Previous winners have included greats such as Isaac 'westmenloAA' Baron, Alexander 'AJKHoosier1' Kamberis and Steve 'gboro780' Gross. Here, we take a look at one of the current top contenders.

Jon 'apestyles' Van Fleet has been one of the game's most respected online professionals for the past five years. The New York born and Texas raised pro fondly known as 'ape' took a $50 deposit in college and ran it up into a substantial bankroll. To date, the 29-year-old has amassed nearly $2.2 million in tournament earnings.

Apestyles Poker Coaching Positions

Despite his success, Van Fleet nearly lost it all thanks to too much partying, bad bankroll management and a big ego. Now living in the city of Austin, Van Fleet has separated himself from the distractions, gotten his life in order and now sits in the top five of the OPOY rankings with just a few days remaining in the race.

In this interview, Van Fleet discusses his start in poker, his downfall and how he picked himself back up and even offers up some advice for beginning players.

Julio Rodriguez: At 29-years-old, you are a bit older than the typical online pro. How did it all begin?

Jon Van Fleet: The first time I played for money was in college in a simple $5 game with some friends. I was pretty terrible and had no idea what was going on and I think I ended up losing around $20 to $25 in that game, which, to a college student, was a decent chunk of change.

At the time, I pretty big into chess and very competitive, so it bothered me that my friends could beat me so easily at something. I started reading some poker books in my spare time and before long, I was beating that game. I put $50 online a couple times and that was pretty much it.

JR: You mentioned chess, how did you get involved with that game?

JVF: That was a similar situation. This guy who I considered to be 'not the sharpest knife in the drawer,' beat me in chess. I ended up betting him $50 that I could beat him if he gave me three months to study. Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with the game and got pretty good. I only played for a few years because I realized that I started learning the game a little too late in life and that it would be almost impossible for me to become a grand master. I still get steamed whenever I lose at anything, but at least now I've learned that I don't need to go out and study something for months just to be able to beat my friends.

JR: You got your degree in Psychology from Texas Tech University. How has it helped you in your poker game?

JVF: I think that an interest in the motivations of people, trying to understand what makes people tick; it can definitely help you when you are at the poker table. My goal when I sit down to play is to discover how each individual approaches the game and even make a few inferences about what the game means to them. Once you can step into somebody else's shoes, it becomes much easier to make the right decisions against them. Kahnawake poker clubs golf.

This is something that you don't need a psychology degree to do. One of the biggest mistakes that I made when I first started playing, was that I generally assumed that everyone played like me. I'd make these huge hero calls just because I'd be able to convince myself that if it were me making the bet, I could conceivably have any two cards. Well, it took awhile, but after being shown the nuts over and over again, I got the message.

Each hand that I observe contributes to an overall profile I have for each player. Don't get me wrong, people are complex. I don't claim to be able to size up an individual just from a session of poker. But lately I've found that I've been able to visualize the game from all kinds of different perspectives and that has ultimately brought me some success.

JR: By assuming that everyone else played your game, what kinds of mistakes were you making during your sessions?

JVF: I did my own study on how often the average player folds to reraises preflop. Plain slot top voile panel white. You would think that looser players would fold more often to reraises, simply because they generally have worse hands. But I found out that the two aren't correlated. It turns out that even though the tighter players are opening with stronger hands, they are also folding more often to three-bets.

Like me when I first started, other players are simply assuming that their opponents play like they do. The tight players raise and assume that when they are reraised, they are beaten by a better hand. The loose players raise and assume that when they are reraised, their opponent is just as full of it as they are. Now, this isn't concrete for each and every player, but it's something to think about.

JR: You've always been one of the more consistent players in the online community. In 2007 you had a solid year, finishing in 35th place in the OPOY rankings. In 2009, you came back to finish 12th and you are looking at a top 10 finish in 2010. What happened in 2008?

JVF: I wasn't running very well. Now, I'm not going to blame it all on bad luck. I'm a firm believer that when you run bad, you also start to play bad and sometimes you don't even realize it. The fact is that I was arrogant. I had a great year in 2007 and thought that I had the game solved. I told myself that I didn't have anything else to learn and spent my time drinking and partying at every opportunity. I had no work ethic whatsoever.

Apestyles Poker Coaching Game

After the WSOP in 2009, it had gotten to the point where I was nearly broke. Even worse, my health had taken a nosedive and I was pushing 300 pounds. At that point, I told myself that I could be fat or broke, but not both. Since poker wasn't going very well, I decided to focus on what I could change, which was my lifestyle. I started eating right and going to the gym and coincidentally, poker started to go well too. It's amazing how the two go hand in hand. Within six months, I had lost 80 pounds and gone on a $300,000 upswing. Since August of 2009, it feels like I've done nothing but win. Poker is fun again and now I have that drive to compete.

Apestyles Poker Coaching Games

Jon Van Fleet is the co-author of Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time, available at amazon.com.

Apestyles Poker Coaching Training