SpadeClub.com, the innovative new online poker community, offers a risk-free way to win at poker with no deposits and no buy-ins. Click here to find out more.
Mark “Schoder” Schoder and his son have been bonding over poker for years. It’s no wonder that just over a week after Schoder’s son “scotsstar13” made two daily final tables at SpadeClub, he was able to cheer his father to victory in SpadeClub’s $5,000 weekly event on Sunday, Feb. 24. Schoder plans on celebrating with his son at Disney World (using his winnings, of course). Card Player recently met up with Schoder to discuss his road to victory.
Card Player: How did you hear about SpadeClub?
Mark “Schoder” Schoder: I go to CardPlayer.com every night to check the latest poker news, and I ran across one of the stories about SpadeClub Beta. I downloaded the program and loved it.
CP: How long have you been playing poker?
MS: I started playing a few months after Robert Varkonyi won the main event [in 2002]. For the first two years, I played only for play money, but in the summer of 2004 I made my first $50 deposit on an online site. I built up my bankroll playing small $1 tournaments until I had enough money to play higher stakes.
CP: Do you think SpadeClub is a good learning ground for people who are looking to start playing?
MS: I can’t think of a better site to learn from. Because all of the tournaments are free, you can play as much as you want with no risk. Also, the odds calculator is a great feature for beginners to use to see how “unlucky” [or lucky] they really were in a particular hand.
CP: What’s the most money you’ve ever won in a poker tournament?
MS: This tournament win [$1,500] is the most I’ve ever won, although I’m hoping that will change on Sunday after the $40,000 freeroll.
CP: Was there a particularly key hand that you played in the tournament that helped lead you to victory?
MS: I was a little above average, 50K in chips, with around 35 players left. It was folded to me and I picked up pocket tens [directly to the right of] the cutoff and raised 3.5 times the big blind. I make this play with a wide range of hands, and an opponent picked up on this and decided to push all in for 55K. I had seen this player make this play before with marginal cards. I thought his range was fairly wide, and he was probably making that play with any pocket pair, A-8 and higher, or even as low as J-10. Honestly, I thought he would have 7-7, 8-8, or 9-9. I called him and he flipped up A-J. The flop came with an ace and a jack and I thought my tournament would be over. A 10 on the turn and a blank on the river secured the win and gave me the confidence to win the tournament.
CP: What do you think of the format for the tournaments on SpadeClub? Do you have a favorite tournament?
MS: I love the format of the SpadeClub tournaments. On most sites, freerolls are much faster, usually raising blinds every five to 10 minutes. On SpadeClub, blinds start out low, with 3,000 in starting chips, and blinds go up every 15 minutes. This is just the right amount of time to be able to play deep-stack poker without spending all day on your computer. As for my favorite tournament on SpadeClub, since Sunday, it has been the $5K tournament.
CP: What advice can you give to other SpadeClub members looking to go deep in these tournaments?
MS: Patience. I play every tournament as if it were the World Series of Poker main event, and will not play looser just because it is a freeroll. Early in the tournament, I just like to sit back and wait for aces or kings, and bet them strong. A lot of pros say that when blinds are lower, you should play more hands, but when there are four or five people in every hand, I think it is more profitable to wait for a big hand and raise the pot preflop to isolate one or two opponents.
CP: Have you participated in any of the community features on SpadeClub? What do you think?
MS: I have only participated in the [table “” not found /]
chat but will look into the community features in the future. I love the leader boards that show the interesting stats, though.
CP: Did you meet anyone interesting at the tables to add to your friends list?
MS: On SpadeClub, I love playing with my son, scotsstar13. We have a very close relationship and play poker together a lot. We usually play 1-2 no-limit [hold’em] at the casino, because the tournaments have too high of a rake with very fast blinds. It is great to be able to play with him on SpadeClub. Because you can’t lose money on SpadeClub, people are generally much nicer than on other online sites. I have made many friends that I will add to my friends list, including the other eight people who made the final table with me. WildDuces234 is probably the player I see playing the most when I am playing. He is a strong player that usually does well.
CP: What is your next goal on SpadeClub? How do you plan to accomplish it?
MS: My next goal is to [make the] final table in the $40,000 tournament. I will play for the win, not just to make the final nine, but I would be satisfied with anything from first to ninth. I hope to accomplish this goal by making sure I do not have any other distractions when I’m playing. I will not be playing any other tournaments, and will not be on AIM [AOL Instant Messenger] or watching TV. If it gets close to the bubble, when playing looser becomes more profitable even though it will increase my chance of not making the money, I will start raising more pots.
CP: Do you have any general advice to share with our readers about succeeding at SpadeClub?
MS: You’re not going to have any success unless you download the program. There is $100,000 given out every month. The upcoming $40,000 tournament has a little over 200 people in it. If 400 end up joining, it is [essentially] a free $100 buy-in tournament. Everyone should sign up for the $20-a-month membership, because the most you are going to lose per month, no matter how bad you get outdrawn or how bad you play, is $20, but your profits are endless. On other sites, if you make one bad play, you can lose hundreds even thousands of dollars depending on the stakes.
CP: Anything else you would like to add?
MS: Watch out [Daniel] Negreanu and [Allen] Cunningham, I’m coming for you at the tables. And if Dutch Boyd gets to read this, or if anyone can contact him, you’re my favorite player, and I hope you start updating your blog again. Finally, I promised that if I won I would give a shout out to two of my business associates Mr. B. Fox and Mr. Toby B, as well as my two sons, Chris and Jon.
Sign up for SpadeClub now to take advantage of a 14-day free trial. There are only a few days left to qualify for the first-ever $40,000 tournament, which awards $10,000 to the first-place finisher.
