Online Poker Spotlight: Joe "Hoodini10" Udine
Pokernews: Hey, Joe! Congrats on your nice score two Sundays ago in the “Sunday Warm-Up”. What’s been going on in Mr. Hoodini's life these days?
Udine:
Thank you. I appreciate it, Ryan. Well, I just recently got engaged at PCA in Bahamas which was amazing. I love going to the Atlantis and this was with my fiancés first time so it was an awesome trip. I also just moved into a new loft in Philly in Old City which I’m enjoying a lot. Other than that, I’ve been putting decent hours into tournaments which I plan to continue to play throughout the summer. I just got done with an 8 week winter basketball league with a few buddies from Philly. We ended up taking down the championship- so that was fun!PN: Congrats on getting engaged! Sounds like life is going well for you - engaged, new crib, winning basketball championships, and rollin in poker... Tell us, how did you propose?
Udine: Haha! I will, but I’m wont get into too much detail. We arrived a few nights early, went to dinner at Nobu and then I walked her to underneath the Arch near the fountains by the pool. I said my spiel and we celebrated for a few nights before the tourney. Ironically, I busted on the very 1st hand so we had an entire week and a half to spend together. It was sick.
PN: I bet, well congrats again!
Udine: Thanks, bro.
PN: The WSOP is right around the corner, what are your plans for it? Give us living details, tourneys playing, prop bets, the whole ordeal.
Udine: I just looked over the schedules yesterday and made a tentative plan. This summer I’m doing a somewhat lighter schedule in my opinion but Alexis (fiancé) seems to disagree with me. I plan on playing WSOP prelims from May 30-June 10th, because it seems like that is when all the good prelims are. I’ll probably end up staying with Sloppyklod, mman_status, WPTHero, BadgerPro, Wildman75, and DirtyRiver at their summer house in Vegas. Then I am coming home for awhile. I got a beach house in Margate, NJ with a bunch of friends from high school and college for the summer. So I will be playing the Borgata Summer Open back home in mid-late June then flying back out to Vegas in mid-July hopefully for Bellagio-Cup ME or Venetian Deep Stack ME. I know this is going to sound crazy but I am actually missing the WSOP ME this year.
PN: You are fn crazy, lol!
Udine: Ha! I have a relative’s wedding to go to which is very important to me so I have to make the sacrifice poker-wise.
PN: Fair enough, any crazy prop bets lined up or no?
Udine:
I’ve never been huge on props but I’ll probably end up doing something with Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki. He always is trying to find interesting ways to win money off of me.PN: What do you feel is the big difference between live and online tournament play, and how do you adjust?
Udine: I have not had any big success yet live so I might not have the best answer. The big difference is having easier calculations to make online as opposed to live - where there are more factors to use. You have the numbers and a player’s perceived image to work with versus your own numbers as in exact chip count, blinds, pot size etc. Live, you need to constantly calculate and keep a rough estimation of these numbers while adjusting to actual opponents and what information they are giving away. Live, you can use much more information to make well-timed decisions, however, I still prefer online at the moment. That’s where I have my most success and like the convenience of it. I enjoy traveling to live events and I look forward to this summer. I feel like I am ready to breakthrough and look forward to the challenge.
PN: Very insightful! Now, on to the "H2H" questions. You just had a 500k score; do you drive to Best Buy or Charles Schwab? What is your first stop?
Udine:
Best Buy first for sure. My father and brother are both successful financial advisors so I trust them with the investing for the time being. The market is not a great place to be if you are not experienced. Right now I would probably buy a bunch of TV series and movies on DVD - Also some Playstation and Wii games.PN: What is your favorite TV series?
Udine: Eastbound and Down is the nuts recently!
PN: Alright, when you’re at a final table of an event, what is the one "Clutch" song that you have playing on your Ipod?
Udine: Hmmmm…. I like a lot of hip-hop - probably Gang Starr - Step into the Arena.
PN: What do you think about your 76ers?
Udine: The 76ers are the nuts always! Iguadala kills it. They are fighters.
PN: Who is the best MTT player right now, and what MTT do you feel has the most skill?
Udine: OK. Recently, I have to go with Steve “gboro780” Gross, he just kills it day in and day out. The most skilled player I would say is dw2006. I’ve played with him a bunch and recently seen him have great results. He constantly puts his opponents into awkward spots, and puts lots of pressure on them.
PN: Thanks for doing the interview Joe, and best of luck at the WSOP!
Udine: Thanks again Ryan, I appreciate it a lot!
