Interview of Eric “sheets” Haber
Jon Eaton
November 11th, 2005
Full Name: Eric Haber
Nickname: sheets
Date Of Birth: January 11, 2026
Birthplace: New Jersey
Now Resides: Long Island
Family: Wife Stacey, Children Ashley and Matthew
Favorite Poker Game: No Limit Hold ‘Em
Started Playing Poker: April 2003
Q: How did you first get started playing online poker? A: Well, I moved from Backgammon along with a bunch of other people, with me being one of the last. My friend Ylon Schwartz was on my case to play in this NL tourney being held at one of the local clubs. He swore to me that I would do well despite me not even knowing the rules. He knows me pretty well, because I made the final table after learning the rules in the taxi on the way over, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Online itself is pretty much the only way I can play as much as I do, as I have a family which severely limits my ability to travel to the big events and to many live forums, but recent successes in that arena will probably make room for more live play.
Q: Your relationship with Gank and the Crew has been documented in some forum posts here and in a few other places. Give me a quick summary of how that started.
A: Ugh, I have to refer you to my blog about that.
Sheets blog entry courtesy PocketFives.com
..."so it's a cold a snowy day in linkoping, and i am playing a small tournament online, and doing pretty well. Out of nowhere comes an emergency call from my daughter's school, saying that school is cancelled, mrs sheets is unreachable, and I have to come pick her up. Well I had been only playing on this site for a week, so i knew almost no one who played there who could take over for me. I called the one person who i thought could find me someone, the now famous Phil Laak. (as an aside, I refuse to use his stage name of "unambomber". I have known for over 10 years, and for at LEAST 4 nicknames). Now it must be understood that most gambling stories begin with Phil Laak. They dont "begin and end " with him though, as the oft used phrase suggests, because the thing with Phil is, he is like a small tornado...he comes whirling in, does his thing, and then disappears before anyone realizes what happened, I remember Phil and I spending 3 hours concocting complex backing and swapping arrangements for a 50$ backgammon tournament which neither us could probably afford to play.
In any case, I got a hold of him in the middle of some cash game he was playing in some weird place with some bizarre rich people, and asked him if he knew anyone who could take over for me. He said.."dude , no problem, i'll get gank to do it"..."GANK??? WHAT THE HELL IS A GANK????"...at this point i didnt care..i gave phil my password to pass along to the GANK or whatveer it was and i asked him how much this "gank" would want of the winnings. Phil told me..."dude he'd probably play for nothing...". This is the essence of Gank, as I will describe many many times throughout this story." I said ok fine whatever and left.
When i returned form my errand, gank was just about to go out with AK VS ACES on the bubble when i got a hold of phil and asked who this gank was?...He told me that he was roommates with dutch boyd and some other poker players and phil had been staying with them for a while, and that gank was the number one player on the site based upon their points system. Now, gank had long since busted out when I was still googling him to figure out who the hell was playing for me. It was at this point that I first learned of the crew, which was known about by maybe 6 people. Young kids trying to take over poker???I LOVED THE PASSION.
Read the rest here
Q: What is the hardest part about adjusting from playing online to playing live for yourself?
I like live better. More time to focus and concentrate without a billion things going on.
Q: You recently had a good run and cashed in the WPT Borgata Open. When you got down to the last few tables, what was going through your mind? What was your strategy around the bubble?
A: Well, going into that day I had a big stack, so I felt great, and my strategy around the bubble was going to be to torture all the short stacks, and be relentless. However, I quickly became one of the short stacks myself, so I had to go into short stack ninja mode and find good spots to steal.
Q: What one issue with online poker do you feel needs to be addressed?
A: I wish Poker Stars would allow cut and pasting in the chat box again…I love being a nuisance.
Q: From the hands you can remember vividly, what is the hardest call you’ve made playing online? Maybe not for the most money, but the one situation where the pressure was on and you had to make a really difficult decision.
A: I have never made a big call that has worked out for me. I cannot recall one big spot where I pondered a call for a long time, made it, and turned out to be correct.
Q: After your experience playing at the 2005 WSOP, what would you like to see changed or addressed for the 2006 series?
A: Start the tourneys earlier so they finish earlier.
Q: How difficult for you is it to juggle your online poker career along with your day job, and your personal life?
A: What is day job…and what is personal life? These are obviously terms dreamed up by non poker players. Seriously, it's very hard to make everyone happy…I just do the best I can.
