High Stakes Poker Interview with iRockHoes

I did an interview with iRockHoes, a $50/$100 and $100/$200 No-Limit player. He has basically made his name on Full Tilt. He is currently student at the University of Notre Dame, a senior and majoring in Finance. Scott used to be a waiter, but now poker is his sole income. Well, enough of introductions, here we go:

Name: Scott Augustine

Age: 21

Nationality: USA

Plays on Full Tilt as ‘iRockHoes’ and on UltimateBet as ’saugustine’.

How did you start your poker career? Any teachers? What was your age?

I started playing cards at an early age just for fun. My freshman year of high school, my friends started playing a regular game. We would play a lot of random games to keep things interesting like Acey Duecey, Guts, and Pass the Trash. The blinds/antes were small, and losing 20 dollars was a big loss. I was at best a break even player in these games. Then I came to college, and my dorm started a lot of frequent games. We would play .50/1.00 blinds no-limit hold ‘em, usually about 6-handed. By the second semester I was one of the biggest winners in the game. Then summer passed, not playing much at all. I really started learning the game in a serious fashion the first semester of my sophomore year. At the end of that semester, some of my friends started putting money on PartyPoker. I had them transfer me money a few times to try it out with no success. The last transfer of 50 dollars at 3 am from my roommate was the charm. Todd, my roommate, said, “We could study for our test that’s tomorrow…or I could 50 you (the minimum transfer allowed) on Party and we could play all night.” I chose the latter and the decision garnered my first success in online poker. I finished 3rd in a 30 dollar buy-in tournament for a 2700 dollar score. I haven’t looked back from that win. As far as who taught me to actually play hold ‘em happened when I was 15 when my friend Chris taught me the rules that he learned from Rounders. In reality, all my friends taught me how to play. Some players were too aggressive, while others were too passive. I picked up on things that worked for them and tried to piece together the best parts of everyone’s game.

How did you know it’s time for playing poker professionally?

Technically I am still a student, so I do not consider myself a professional when I am in school. I am a senior right now, however, and being that everyone in the games I play are playing for a living, I am probably going to pursue this as a career after school ends this May. I think turning pro is a decision not many can make without a lot of consideration to the aspects of going pro. There are a lot of downsides to playing pro, but I can’t imagine doing anything successfully if I had never given poker a chance. I think I would always wonder if I could have made it, and I need to at least give it a shot given my present success.

What do you consider being the most important thing for a new player (other than “knowing how to play”)?

The most important thing is to stay inside your bankroll. Even the best no-limit players need at least 20 max buy ins for the level they are playing. The more aggressive ones need even more. Once you are properly bankrolled, play as much as you can. Experience is the best teacher, as there are so many situations that occur that no one could write a book out about all of them. Success comes once you have logged thousands of hours at the tables. Multitabling 6 max tables helps you expediate this process, but you still need to practice as much as possible.

How much do you play in a week on average? How many hours per session?

I average about 4-5 hours a day, 7 days a week in the summer. I had to take a little time off in the summer for my brother’s wedding, but other than that I played pretty much every day. During school, I have a lot of obligations with class. Plus I still hit the bars with my friends and hang out with my girlfriend, so poker sometimes takes a backseat. I usually try to play almost every day, but the sessions are shorter and more sporadic.

How have you done recently in poker?

I hit my best streak ever at the end of April this year. I ran well and was playing amazing. Then at the end of July I hit a very cold streak. So cold that the streak made me take a break for a couple weeks. After that I have rebounded to almost my full bankroll before the cold streak, and I feel that I am playing some of the best poker of my career. As long as I stay away from the high pot-limit Omaha tables at Tilt, I should continue doing well.

You’re one of the most famous players on Full Tilt, have you always played in there? If you haven’t, where did you start and why did you decide to move to Full Tilt?

I started my career on Party. At the middle of January ’06, I had worked my bankroll up to about 22k. I had taken shots at Pokerroom and a few other sites, but I really liked the interface at Full Tilt. Also the draw of playing with named pros was intriguing to increase my game. I decided to take about 5k of my bankroll and transfer it over to Tilt. I was playing 3/6 and 5/10 at the time, and played well enough to work my bankroll up there. Today I play mostly on Full Tilt and Ultimate Bet, as they have the best combination of interface and frequency of games for high no-limit games.

Where did the name “iRockHoes” come from?

There is a song by Nas called “Ether.” In it Nas disses Jay-Z’s record label (Roc-a-fella) saying, “I rock hoes, ya’ll rock fellas.” I thought it was a sweet line so I used it as my screenname. Once I made the change I started winning, so I just rolled with it.

What do you think as the best/worst things being a poker pro?

Best thing is the freedom to set your own schedule, especially with internet poker now being so huge. You can log on and play anytime, anywhere. Another great thing about being a pro is the travel. I just completed my first trip to Vegas for the World Series and loved every aspect of it. The worst thing about being a pro is the lack of steady income. While I am still in college, I am not too dependant on an income. After school though, if I hit a downswing, bills still have to be paid. I think becoming a poker pro takes a unique combination of gamble and control. The more successful pros have mastered this balance, while the less successful ones still struggle with it.

What do you think you’d do if you weren’t a poker player?

I’d probably become a stock trader, or do some work with the market. I am a finance student and very interested in debt and equities. Once you get used to swings of hundreds of thousands, a job making 50k a year coming out of college is hard to take serious. If I can’t take it serious, I can’t be passionate and success will be very hard to come by. I have to at least try the pro thing, or else I’ll always wonder, “What if?”

What do you plan to do in the future? Anything special planned?

All future plans are on hold until I graduate in May. After that I will review my financial standing, and probably start to play some of the larger 10k events, as I really liked the live tournament atmosphere of the series. Hopefully I will continue my success from poker and more opportunities will arise from that success.

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Thank you Scott for this great interview, hopefully everyone enjoyed reading it! You can check out iRockHoes’ website.
Published by Poker Insider at High Stakes Poker Report

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