Introduction

Welcome to the debut of the series, delving into the lightbulb moments that shone so brightly they changed the way players thought about the game en route to the higher echelons of high stakes poker.

In episode #1 of the series, Michael Soyza shares his lightbulb moments.

Soyza’s Poker Accolades

Michael Soyza rose to prominence as a No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) tournament star by defeating a field of 605-entrants, including Rainer Kempe, heads-up, to claim the $111,520 first prize in the NLHE Accumulator side event at the Aussie Millions.

That run spurred Soyza on to tremendous tournament success, most notably picking up seven titles on the Asian Poker Tour (APT), leading the Global Poker Index (GPI) to crown him as the Asian Player of the Year for 2018.

Soyza’s focus soon shifted towards the West, where he won a side event at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Barcelona and banked more than half a million dollars after taking down a Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) event in Vegas, both in 2018.

In 2019, Soyza began plying his trade on the Triton Poker Tour and had so far cashed in four events, winning more than $3m in prize money, including a personal best $1.4m for taking down a side event at the 2019 Jeju stop.

At the time of writing, Soyza has earned more than $8.3m playing live tournaments at the highest level in the business, including competing in the $1m buy-in Triton Million: A Helping Hand for Charity in 2019.

Here are Soyza’s lightbulb moments.

Discovering Pre-Flop Starting Ranges

“Discovering pre-flop starting ranges was a big moment for me,” said Soyza. “Tom Dwan was the inspiration for me back in the day. Initially, when I started playing poker, my go-to was to go by feel. I didn’t have any solid pre-flop strategies or consistent ranges. I was pretty much flailing around in the dark. Despite that, you could offset this lack of skill with pure aggression back in the day. After my lightbulb moment, I learnt how ranges interacted with each other and where a decent amount of edge came from, leading to a deeper understanding of poker and an increase in my win rate.”

Discovering PioSOLVER

“I learnt about PioSOLVER during a poker seminar conducted by Fedor Holz in China in 2017,” shared Soyza. “The first time I saw a sample of PioSOLVER output, it blew my mind. It completely changed my poker perspective, and I learnt that I was a complete fish. PioSOLVER taught me the fundamentals of GTO in poker and a probabilistic mindset which is imperative to getting better at the game.”

Discovering How to Compile Data Into Concepts

“Memorising huge amounts of PioSOLVER output is difficult,” shares Soyza. “As such, learning how to identify patterns and develop general concepts around the data available was key for me to prepare for as many unknown spots as possible beforehand. You then have to learn to validate these concepts after the outcome of a hand to refine them.”

Discovering ICM and ICM Software

“ICM is a major part of tournament play and can make or break your win rate,” says Soyza. “Understanding what ICM is and how it affects the game is paramount in tournaments. Learning how to use ICM tools like HoldemResources Calculator and ICMIZER greatly improved my skill level and even helped with my overall understanding of the game.”

Now it’s your turn.
What are your lightbulb moments?