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10/13 CONTENTS
THis month… www.pokerplayer.co.uk
Great Britain
THE PLAYERS editor Ross Jarvis pokerplayer@plyp.co.uk
Poker is a truly international game. In countries across the world poker is thriving – especially live. I travelled to Barcelona this month to play in the €1,000 Estrellas Poker Tour – I knew it’d be big but I was blown away when 1,798 players showed up, some queuing for ten hours before being unleashed with 20 big blinds. This passion for poker bodes well for the future of the game. We’re proud to say the UK is at the forefront of poker’s growth. We can boast world-class poker rooms and some of the biggest poker festivals in the world. But the main thing to be proud of is the vast array of young superstars that have emerged from these shores. Our cover stars – Chris Moorman, Craig McCorkell and Sam Grafton – symbolise this group of talented pros. They’ve had great success and are perfect role models for the next generation of British players. You can read their story on p20. While British poker players are running riot in 2013 many may never have picked up a playing card if it wasn’t for pioneers like Ross and Barny Boatman. I travelled to meet the brothers to hear their tale – read it on p30. It’s a thrilling, emotional look into a poker world that has changed beyond anyone’s imagination. UK poker players, this issue is for you. We salute you. Thanks for putting the UK firmly on the poker map.
Ross Jarvis editor
alun bowden contributing editor I met someone the other day who had never heard of poker! He asked me to explain the game. Try it. It’s harder than you think. I think I left him with the idea it was somewhere between chess and particle physics in terms of complexity. Then I dealt a couple of hands and he got it straight away. There is a lesson there. Poker is at its best when we stop talking and just play.
paul cheung features writer
marc southey art director
This month I got sucked into reading a brilliantly entertaining thread on TwoPlusTwo, involving American author Ben Mezrich. Mezrich recently released a book called Straight Flush which details the rise and fall of Absolute Poker and the events of Black Friday but with much ‘creative license.’ As you can imagine, TwoPlusTwo laid the smack down on him! LMAOs aplenty.
It’s great to see some new faces on the cover of the mag this month. Grafton, Moorman and McCorkell really threw themselves into our photoshoot and the pics speak for themselves. It’s nice to work with players who enjoy the media aspect of the game, unlike some top stars who just stand still like a statue. Cough – Poker Brat – cough.
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editorial director Dave Woods dave.woods@plyp.co.uk art director Richard Davis contributing editor Alun Bowden features writer Paul Cheung Production editor Scott Skinner Online writer Conor Mills THE hustlers Roberto Romanello, Jen Mason, Karl Mahrenholz, Sam Grafton, CardRunners.com, Simon Hemsworth, Jamie Burland, Nick Pryce, Julian Rogers, Patrick Leonard, Steve Hill Advertising
Tim Farthing 020 7092 6955 07939 106213 tim.farthing@plyp.co.uk Subscriptions Contact: 0870 444 8634 subscribe.pokerplayermagazine.co.uk people like you Publishing Publisher Tim Farthing executive publisher Bill Rusling editorial director Dave Woods Printed by headley Distribution by Seymour Distribution 020 7396 8000 POKERPLAYER is published monthly by People Like You Publishing (Gibraltar) Ltd, 3.3 Waterport Place, 2 Europort Avenue, Gibraltar. Entire contents © People Like You Publishing (Gibraltar) Ltd.
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contents 8 Poker news All the action from a record-breaking Goliath
20 Strategy 42 Fantastic four-bets
East 17 were never the same after Brian left
All you need to know about playing four-bet pots postflop
11 Matt Ashton A quick-fire chat with the 8-game master
46 pokerplayer quiz: Turbos This month we test drive your skills in the fast-paced environment of turbos
13 Galway Fest Gus Hansen on being the toast of the Irish at UKIPT Galway
48 pro concepts: Check-raising Faarcyde on why you should check-raise more
16 best of the web The top videos, blogs and forum posts this month 18 poker in the uk Karl Mahrenholz on the history and future of staking in UK poker
52 Sexy Poker Patrick Leonard explains the importance of adding some sexy plays to your poker game
20 team GB Messrs Moorman, Grafton and McCorkell on the story behind the British boom 26 PPUKT LEEDS The UK’s best low-stakes tour comes to Yorkshire and produces a very familiar winner
54 in the tank Roberto Romanello is here to fix your problems 56 Daily Grind Sam Grafton on why the younger generation deserve more respect The Boatmans: UK poker legends
A masterclass in four-betting
30 Brothers in arms The remarkable tale of the Boatman brothers
56 Your Call Karl Mahrenholz presents another tricky situation 58 Any Given Sunday Gus Hansen sends Jamie Burland’s heart all aflutter
36 How I won: Julian Thew The nicest guy in poker on his 2007 EPT Baden win and why he no longer plays the European circuit
30
42
FOLLOW
65 gPI rankings The best players in the world this month
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September 2013 POKERPLAYER 63
DEAL julian thew
HOW I WON... The 2007 EPT Baden by Julian Thew
Sky Poker pro Julian Thew reflects on hitting the big time – and why he no longer plays the biggest tournaments
I
Neil stoddart
Victory at EPT Baden was y the perfect 40th birthda present for Julian Thew
Winning the GUKPT Plymouth just before Baden was massive. It was huge financially and for confidence, motivation and momentum
36 POKERPLAYER www.gambleaware.co.uk
n 2007 Julian Thew was well known on the UK stage as one of the best live tournament players around. Since 2001 the soft-spoken pro from Nottingham had been consistently cashing on the local circuit but was lacking that one major score to really put him on the map. Then, in September of that year, Thew won the Plymouth leg of the GUKPT for £59,500. Thew says that televised win was, ‘huge financially and for confidence, motivation and momentum’. Just a few weeks later he entered the Baden leg of the European Poker Tour and took down the biggest prize yet, an EPT title for €670,800. Julian Thew was suddenly on everyone’s mind as one of the players of the year and most feared tournament players in the world. A second GUKPT title followed in January 2008 to cap off a stunning twelve month period that saw Thew net $1.6 million in winnings. The good times didn’t continue for Thew though, and he left the European scene after ‘falling out of love with the game’, preferring to spend time with his family and play in local tournaments around the country. With a £62k win at Dusk Till Dawn, a Genting Poker Series victory for £40k and a record-breaking third GUKPT win since then, it was a good decision by ‘Yo-Yo’ who now has nearly $3m in total winnings. Find out how Julian Thew took down his first EPT, the pressure of playing high-stakes
tournaments and why he is worried for the young poker pros of today…
In the beginning Julian Thew: I started playing poker as a serious hobby in around 2001. It was really hard convincing my girlfriend and friends that I was going to casinos at night, coming back stinking of smoke. None of us knew anyone that had done that before. It was definitely perceived as gambling and everyone thought I was just spunking my money away! I had been on the European tour for two or three years before Baden. I had been on a few final tables and I was one of the more aggressive players. I would quite happily get a big stack on Day 1 but then I would keep on pushing it too far. That was how my nickname of ‘Yo-Yo’ came about. In 2007, I took a step back and made a few adjustments. I added a bit of common sense to my game. If I got a stack I nurtured it a bit more and the results really came in that year. Winning the GUKPT Plymouth just before Baden was massive. It was the first year that the GUKPT was running and it was televised. It was huge financially and for confidence, motivation and momentum for me.
The young EPT From the very start the EPT was considered the event to be at. It was televised and there were prizes of £200k for the winner – at the time you just didn’t see those amounts
SPECIAL
I felt I was the best player at the table and had the gears needed to win. I knew that I had a very good chance
being handed out in Europe on a regular basis. I went to Baden full of confidence from the GUKPT win but then I lost half my chips to Barry Greenstein in the first hour of Day 1. He had a flush, I had Jacks on a low board and paid him off like a donkey! But I put my head down to rebuild and then cracked Kings with Queens to finish in the middle of the pack at the end of the day. On Day 2 I ran up a stack and then Day 3 went really well. I won a huge pot against Pascal Perrault that set me up to go into the final second in chips. I definitely felt like I was the best player at the table and I had the gears that were needed to win. I wasn’t assuming I would win but I knew that I had a very good chance.
Money jumps for joy I’ve never understood people who say they never look at the pay jumps. I am always aware of what they are. It was around €100k for fourth and that was definitely a nice point to get to. The final table took place about two days before I was 40-years-old and I’d always had this goal that I would pay off my mortgage before I was 40. If I got fourth that was the mortgage paid off! I chopped it heads-up with Denes Kalo as none of us wanted to play for €300k! We left €100k on the table for the winner so I ended up winning €600k. It was amazing when I won. I welled October 2013 POKERPLAYER 37
he’ll explain the Rafa ponders how pany his insurance com water damage to
STRATEGY ANALYSIS
I
Sam ‘TheSquid’ Grafton says it’s time the younger generation of poker pros were given some respect
don’t envy those entrusted with marketing this absurd game to the public. The fact is poker is brutal. No game causes so much frustration and anger for its enthusiasts. Few other hobbies can cost you such a great deal of money. Poker advertisements depict Rafa Nadal having a relaxing game of poker on his tablet while taking a bath. They show Liv Boeree taking a spin round a local park playing on her phone. Now, I’m a big poker fan but I’ve never enjoyed poker in any of these settings. If photographs of my recent experiment with grinding Zoom cash games were to emerge it would depict something quite different. It would show a highly irate, slightly overweight Englishman snarling at his desktop. I suspect this is closer to how the majority of us experience the game, but unfortunately it doesn’t provide great material for those seeking to advertise a new poker product.
Star chasing One key way poker is marketed to new customers is through the promotion of poker success stories. This has traditionally been done through the sponsoring of top pros. Their achievements demonstrate the way in
which hard work, or in some cases plain dumb luck, can lead to huge rewards. Jake Cody and Liv Boeree do this fantastically well for PokerStars in the UK. Until recently PokerStars have been the only site promoting British success through the endorsement of players. The closing of their major competitors in the wake of Black Friday and the contraction in the poker economy has meant there has been little in the way of sponsorship opportunities for emerging pros. This is a pity because it has meant the shutting out of a once lucrative revenue stream. It is also a shame because the promotion of players who’ve succeeded in the game does so much to inspire the public.
Generation gap In general the poker media and the marketing departments of the major online sites only seem to get excited by the big names that emerged with the ‘Moneymaker boom’. It’s often suggested both explicitly and implicitly, that the younger generation of pros who’ve
The Situation
YOUR CALL Can you think like a pro? Take a look at this new situation and email pokerplayer@plyp.co.uk with your thoughts on what Karl did and why
Neil Stoddart
In association with
56 POKERPLAYER www.gambleaware.co.uk
Karl Mahrenholz runs a huge bluff by the seaside your HAND
BOARD
EVENT: Brighton £500 GUKPT main event STACK: 100,000 BLINDS: 400/800/a100 SITUATION: This Brighton tournament attracted around 200 runners spread over two starting days. The field was made up of mainly local players and some circuit regulars. This hand was the very last hand of Day 1A. I had been at the table for around four levels and only a couple of players had busted. My image has been reasonably solid. I had a big stack for most of the day so I was opening a fair amount but not too much. I hadn’t shown down any bad hands and hadn’t gotten out of line at all. In this hand a mid-position player opened to 1,600 from a 40k stack. The button was playing around 60,000. He had been the most active player at the table, opening most hands
folded to him and three-betting in position, particularly against weaker players. He three-bet to 3,800. I decided to cold four-bet from the small blind and made it 8,100. The BB, who was chip leader at the table with 120,000, cold called. The original raiser folded and the button called. The flop came Q-9-6 rainbow. I bet 9,750 and only the BB called. He had been playing fairly straightforward all day, getting his chips from a couple of big cooler situations. The turn was 7♣, bringing a flush draw and giving me a gutshot. I bet 17,450 and he called after a lengthy think where he seemed to agonise about the decision. There was 81,200 in the pot and the river came the 2♦. I had around 65,000 remaining and he had me covered. What is my best play and why?
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Lessons learned emerged don’t match up to the game’s older generation in terms of charisma. Mike Sexton, for instance, recently criticised the younger generation for failing to take their media and television duties seriously and appearing slovenly dressed at the tables. This is symptomatic of the patronising way many address the younger generation of pros, who are trying to grind out a living in far tougher economic times than the pros that came to prominence at the height of the boom. The stereotype still lingers of the aloof, ill-mannered internet pro who wins millions online and yet lives an unsociable life, surfacing only rarely from his parent’s basement. This is a fallacy. There are many fantastic personalities among the emerging generation of poker players. What’s required is for the marketing departments to take what’s unique among this younger generation of poker players and convey that to a wider public. Players such as Chris Moorman, Melanie Weisner and Matt Perrins have hugely varied personal histories and playing styles and if it hasn’t been conveyed to a poker fan that’s the failure of the poker media and its marketing departments. The pros themselves can’t be held responsible. Going back to Sexton, it certainly seems possible that a 25-year-old playing for a million dollars in a t-shirt can seem as captivating to the public as a 45-year-old in a shirt and tie.
What has sam ‘thesquid’ grafton learned about poker this month? The PokerStars regional tours are going from strength to strength. I played the Estrellas main event in Barcelona and the Full Tilt Festival main event in Galway. Both had over 1,000 entries and provided a great setting to unwind when you exited the tournament. The linking of regional tours to EPT main events seems a savvy move from PokerStars.
It serves to swell the numbers of both events. The top pros arrive early to play while locals who spin-up in the regional event have the opportunity to parlay that and take a shot at a bigger buy-in. Live poker in France and Spain seems to be in rude health, while such a well run event in Galway will hopefully prove a boon for a slightly ailing Irish poker economy. While I had a
The stereotype still lingers of the aloof internet pro. This is a fallacy Rather than urging the emerging generation to fit into a preconceived paradigm of what the public want, the poker industry should be concentrating on what is unique and exciting about poker in the present moment.
Last Month
Karl Mahrenholz recalls a difficult hand from 2012 against a crazy player KARL’S HAND
BOARD
EVENT: Caesar’s Palace $1,000 Freezeout STACK: 41,000 BLINDS: 400/800/a100 SITUATION: This event had a field of around 400 and this hand was from midway through Day 1. The villain in this hand had already shoved over the top of my three-bet once for around 60BB. I’d opened about four hands in total so far. Action folds to me in the cutoff and I raised to 1,700 with A♣-Q♣. The SB called and the villain called in the BB. The flop was Q-4-2 with two diamonds. Both players checked to me and I bet 2,800 into 6,000. The small blind folded and the villain called without much thought. The turn was an 8, bringing the flush. The villain bet 5,000 into 11,600. I called after a short think. The river is a 6 and he bet 6,200 into 21,600. What’s my best play here – call, raise or fold?
great time, I’m disappointed I haven’t made a run in any of the events I’ve played since the WSOP. I’ve suffered some severe lapses in concentration and, given the value offered in these tournaments, it’s something I’m determined to put right.
Thankfully there are signs that this neglect of the UK’s rising poker talent may be coming to an end. It was fantastic to see Full Tilt announce a new roster of ‘poker ambassadors’ to promote the UKIPT Tour. Dermot Blain, Sin Melin, Ben Jenkins and Martins Adeniya seem like tremendous choices and it’s great to see a big poker brand utilising the wide pool of poker talent we have in the UK to promote the game. I feel confident it won’t be long until wider society sees us for the diverse, ebullient PP and talented group we actually are.
A few readers suggested that Karl should call this river, however it was Johann Barbeau who had the best thought process. He correctly surmised that the villain’s small bet sizing meant he rarely had a flush, and would often have worse than A-Q. Send your answers for the new situation to pokerplayer@plyp.co.uk – give the best answer and you’ll win a pack of PokerPlayer branded playing cards!
Win! pokerplayer playing cards
SOLUTION: It is clear from this player’s previous play that he is not a good thinking player and so it’s important not to overthink this one and to make sure you are thinking on the same level as him. His quick flop call suggests he has either a marginal made hand or possibly a non-nut flush draw. His turn lead didn’t necessarily mean to me he’d made a flush, especially when coupled with his defensive river bet sizing. On the river I felt like top pair top kicker was an extremely strong hand given the action and his sizing. I strongly considered making a very small raise but decided that the chance of him being able to call any type of raise was less than the chance of him somehow having a better hand. I opted to call. He showed 6-6 for a rivered set.
October 2013 POKERPLAYER 57
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