John "JimmyLegs" Wray Breaks Down Heads-Up Poker Software

John Wray, who goes by the online name "JimmyLegs," is a decorated poker instructor at CardRunners and one of the top mid-stakes heads-up No Limit Hold'em players on the internet.  His "Brain Fail" series on the training site is one of its most popular pieces of content and teaches us how our own brains actually work.

Wray is also a top-notch player, having crushed the small-stakes games years ago; he currently makes his home in the mid-stakes heads-up cash games at 400nl ($2/$4 blinds) posting an amazing double-digit win-rate.  On top of all that, he is a private instructor with a long list of testimonials posted by his students at CardRunners.  He joins PokerSoftware.com during a break in his busy schedule.

PSW. Tell us how you became a pro poker player and a coach at CardRunners.

John Wray: I had been working as a TV writer, but chose to stay home with my son when he was born.  Online poker was a perfect part-time job for me as a stay-at-home dad.  Then, as I got better, it made sense to put in as many hours as possible.  I submitted my poker resume when CardRunners was looking for coaches and approached Taylor Caby about an idea I had for a video series that combined psychology and strategy.  I produced the pilot episode on spec and he green lit the series that became “Brain Fail.”

PSW:  Your "Brain Fail" series doesn't get into the nuts and bolts of how to win at heads-up cash games, but rather how a person's mindset can fail them.  Why did you take on this concept for the series?

John Wray: “Brain Fail” is the kind of series that I wanted to see on the training sites, but nobody was making anything like it.  So, I decided to do it myself.  I think the psychological component of the game is woefully under-explored and when it is brought up, it's only as a discussion of what your opponent might be thinking.  So, in many ways, we're completely ignorant about how our own brains work.

The assumption in all poker training is that we're capable of thinking and acting like computers - that we can take all available information and then make perfectly rational +EV decisions.  But we're not computers.  Computers don't open-shove any two after losing a big pot, they don't play 6-9 because it's their favorite hand, and they don't congratulate themselves when they win, but blame luck when they lose.  But we do.

We're human beings and we can be stubbornly, beautifully irrational.  It's imperative that we understand how the brain is wired (or in some cases mis-wired) so we can avoid the common pitfalls that prevent us from being long-term winners.

PSW:  We all know and laugh at the infamous TwoPlusTwo post "No money HU everyone's solid," but what's your pulse of the small- and mid-stakes heads-up games these days?

John Wray: Ha!  Well except in the original post, the "No Money" line is used ironically.  Typically, it's attached to a hand history where the villain does something inexplicable like calling all-in with the second nut low.  Truth is, there's plenty of money heads-up at the lower stakes, you just have to play good poker, stay off tilt, and be willing to put up with some nonsense to get at it.

There are fish at all limits, but as you move up, you just have to spend a little more time with your lure in the water.  You can't just target the weak regs either because if you've proven to be a winning player at their stakes, then most of them will avoid playing you.  So, I just find other things to do while I'm waiting for a villain to sit - do research for the next “Brain Fail” episode, watch a CardRunners video, analyze hands, etc.

PSW: For people transitioning to heads-up from full ring or six-max, what adjustments in their games, preparation, and mindsets should they make?

John Wray: Well, obviously the hand values change drastically.  Statistically speaking, at a heads-up table, you have the best starting hand half of the time.  That may sound obvious, but it's a huge difference from six-max where you have the best starting hand at the table only 17% of the time.  I'm not suggesting that you get it all-in half of the time, but it does require a different perspective on hand strength.

Beyond that, I think a player new to heads-up would be best served by focusing on the psychological component to the game.  Heads-up really is a battle of wits and wills.  You have to learn how to get inside your opponent's head and keep him the hell out of yours.  You're actively involved in every single hand, so it's all too easy to allow a momentary lapse in emotional control to explode into a full-blown tilt session.  The good news is that your opponent is just as capable of blowing up and spazzing off a ton of money.

PSW: Your background is in film and production.  How has that helped you create videos for CardRunners?

John Wray: I work hard to make sure my videos don't look or sound like typical training videos.  You know, the ones with two to four identical poker tables playing out in real-time while a disembodied narrator "Ums" and "Uhs" his way through a session.  Subscribers don't have time to wade through an hour of dry footage for five or 10 minutes of useful information anymore.

Each and every video I make is researched, scripted, and (hopefully) entertaining.  I also include plenty of photos, videos, and sound clips to reinforce the classroom concepts I'm trying to communicate.  Every episode of “Brain Fail” has gotten overwhelmingly positive feedback and I think that's largely due to the clarity and style in which the information is presented.  I'm a rarity in the poker training industry in that I'm a filmmaker first and poker player second.

Now that virtually everyone knows a 3bet from an iso-raise, there's a real hunger out there for fresh content that fuses education with entertainment.  Mark my words: training videos three years from now will look nothing like the ones being released currently.

PSW: Some training videos have great content, but the coach has a very monotonous voice, putting students to sleep.  How can coaches liven up their videos and be more effective?

John Wray: Producing an effective educational video requires a completely different set of skills than the one your average professional poker player has.  A really great instructor needs to be a writer, an editor, a producer, a graphic designer, an on-air personality, and a skilled public speaker.  Oh, and he has to know how to play poker really well.  That's a tall order for anyone and it should be no surprise that most of the guys who've made a name for themselves tearing up the felt aren't experts in those areas.

My advice to anyone trying to make a great video would be to get some help.  For some reason, we have it in our heads that poker producers have to do everything themselves, but there's nothing that says we can't team up to produce quality content.  If you know poker, but aren't a good communicator, find a writer to help you focus your thoughts into a coherent lesson plan.  If you don't know squat about Camtasia or Premiere, get a video engineer to make it look professional.  Poker players are individualists by nature, but making quality videos doesn't have to be a one-man job.

PSW:  What poker software tools do you use and which ones do you recommend for your students?

John Wray: I use Holdem Manager and, well, that's about it really.  I've dabbled with Table Ninja, AHK scripts, and even binding keys to an Xbox controller, but frankly the software got in the way whenever I tried to focus on my heads-up matches.  I think software is a lot more important when you have multiple opponents and tables to keep track of.  But I do use Holdem Manager, particularly for analyzing sessions after the fact.

PSW:  What do you recommend in terms of HUD stats?

John Wray: With only two players in a heads-up game, there's a lot of blank real estate on the tables, so you can have as many stats available as you want.  For years, I kept adding more and more stats so that my screen looked like an Excel spreadsheet had exploded all over it.  But lately, I find myself actually looking for stats to eliminate from my HUD.

Humans have a tendency to want to accumulate as much information as possible when under pressure to make important decisions.  In psychology, that tendency is called Information Binge or Information Bias, a topic I explored at length recently in an episode of “Brain Fail.”  But much of the information we collect and horde is useless and it can distract us and actually interfere with the decision-making process.  So, I'm really trying to go with a more minimalist approach to HUDs now.

Certainly having two separate VPIP stats (one from the button and one from the big blind) is absolutely essential.  Aggression factor by street, 3bet, Cbet, and Donkbet percentages are also very useful.

PSW:  At CardRunners, you work for one of the top all-time heads-up players in the history of internet poker in Taylor Caby.  What have you learned from him and the other CardRunners pros?

John Wray: What did I learn from the CardRunners pros?  I learned how to play poker!  Recently, I had my hard drive crash and when I it got up and running again, I requested the histories of every cash hand I'd ever played on Full Tilt and PokerStars.  Once I had my entire career history in front of me, I decided to cross-reference it with the day I joined CardRunners, just for kicks.  I was expecting a gradual slope up in my graph, but to my shock, it was a very clear spike in my results.  Everything before that date was erratic - I was a high-variance breakeven player.  But ever since, I've been going steadily up and have Taylor and his stable of pros to thank for that. 

PSW:  Finally, if you were to offer advice for people seeking long-term success at the game, what would you say?

John Wray: It's not a particularly uplifting message, but I'd say this: poker can be a great way to make money, but it's a terrible way to find happiness.  Poker is brutal; it's stressful, it's lonely, and it can wreck your health and mental well-being.  If you're thinking about devoting your professional life to the game, I implore you to make sure you really love it.  It's no coincidence that so many professional players move on to do something else after a number of years on the circuit.  Everyone should be lucky enough to spend their adult lives doing something they truly love.  So, if you don't really love poker, do something else.

Learn from Wray by visiting CardRunners today!