– Players usually have the most positive impressions of the organization at the Triton series. Do you share the same sentiments, or did you notice any shortcomings this time?
– The organization is truly excellent; it's evident that everything is designed for the players' convenience. The only issue is the increased number of participants this time. I can only compare it to Cyprus, where there were 1.5-2 times fewer people. It seemed to me that the playing days were longer now. We played for 12 hours each day, which is a bit excessive. At least, that was my experience, as I always got knocked out at the very end of the day. Another minor drawback is that the girls recording hands at the tables were a bit less efficient here. But these are just minor issues. For example, I have no complaints about the dealers; they are a very professional team.
– They have permanent dealers – were they the same ones in Cyprus?
– There's a core group that travels to all the events. But here, due to the influx of players, we had to bring in additional local dealers from the casino. They also performed at a high level, although the difference from the regular ones was immediately noticeable. There are no complaints about food and accommodation either. If you opt for a $200k package, the casino covers everything, so you could potentially not spend a penny throughout the entire series. There isn't much in the way of entertainment – all the facilities are geared towards playing poker all day.
–What is the island where the casino is located?
– Jeju is a very popular resort in Asia, just an hour's flight from Shanghai and Seoul. People come here to get married, the locals have summer cottages here, and there are hot springs. I even heard that before the pandemic, the Seoul-Jeju flight was the most popular in the world, with planes taking off every 20 minutes. But what everyone does here remains a mystery to me. Even Sochi has more entertainment. It seems to be a standard beach holiday.
We're staying at a Marriott, which has many excellent restaurants that Chinese tourists also really enjoy. There's an amusement park and a water park. It's quite cool now, and everything is closed. Poker series are also held here regularly, and the WPT will start right after Triton. Overall, I really liked it. The only issue was the weather; a very cold wind meant we couldn’t really go for walks.
– Did the results somehow affect your mood? You made it far in almost every tournament but never made it into the money.
– Losing is also part of poker. In 13 years, I've learned a bit about this. Naturally, I'm not thrilled with the outcome, but it's not a disaster either. In some instances, I could have played better, but I also had a lot of good hands. I made a few significant mistakes, but in long series, when you play for 12 hours, that's absolutely normal. I closely watch the play of other regulars; their game also noticeably fluctuates. It's evident that everyone tries hard for the first couple of days, and then they let their emotions take over. This is particularly true for Asian players.
From Jeju, I will fly to Thailand to visit friends, so I hope to make up for the first half of the trip's failures with a good vacation.
– Do the offline features – one table, few hands – affect you, or do you not pay attention?
– There are times when you fold cards for three hours, but I carefully observe everything happening at the table. Therefore, I don’t have time to get bored. The atmosphere at the tables is also very pleasant; it's interesting to play. In cash games, by contrast, the atmosphere is usually tense, and it's clear that everyone is there to beat each other. This wasn't the case in the tournaments here – everyone is chatting, happy for each other, and simultaneously, there's always the final of another tournament being discussed. The positive atmosphere of general wealth and joy also positively affected me. I was completely immersed in the game; you don't get this feeling online. I felt like I was at the World Championships.
– During the game, are you not distracted at all, don’t you listen to music?
– Yes, I don’t use my phone, watch TV shows, or play music at all. There's not even a desire for this. Perhaps because I don’t play offline that often. And I wouldn’t say that time passed slowly. It feels like we just returned from a break, and the next one is already starting.
– The lineups probably surprised even the organizers. Where did so many players come from, and did the rise of crypto have such an impact?
– I have the same question, and I don’t know the answer. It seemed that there would never be a Triton as good as the one in Cyprus. There were many wealthy players from Lebanon, Iran, Turkey. I had no idea who would come here, but in the end, there were many more enthusiasts. The first tournament was a real spectacle; I had a table with five amateurs. A whole delegation from Japan and a lot of Chinese. It’s convenient for them to get there, and Triton is very popular with them; they have their own broadcasts with a huge audience on Chinese platforms.
– At the same time, top cash players, for example, Linus, ignored the series?
– Yes, I don’t know the reason. Probably it was not very convenient to get there, or I wasn’t in the mood. And I can’t say that the anticipation in tournaments here is huge. The cash games were good, but very expensive and exclusive. Viktor Malinovsky arrived even before me and played non-stop for 10 days with Paul Phua and others. The most respected Chinese players didn't play tournaments at all; they only entered the most expensive one for $150k. They played $1k/$2k for 16 hours a day with a $4k straddle and various mini-games. For example, they have a very popular so-called “squid game” (Ed. – This is what they call stand-up poker in Asia; you can read more in one of our reviews of cash games from the Triton series), which is also not the cheapest game.
– Is the game completely closed? Could you get into it if you really wanted to?
– Victor said that he was invited. Maybe I could ask for it too, and they would at least consider the application. When they were putting together an expensive game in Cyprus, they were ready to let in almost all interested regulars. This was not the case here. We also tried to organize a $50/$100 game, but it seems we never played. It was $20/$40 a few times, but after 12 hours in the tournament, I had no desire to play at that limit.
– Do you have experience playing stand-up?
– This is played only offline, so there wasn’t even much of an opportunity. Of the mini-games, I only played with the jackpot on the SB (Ed. – Each hand, the player on the SB puts extra money; the jackpot is won by the first player who manages to win the pot in the small blind) and with a bonus for .
– If you were invited to such a game, would you quickly adapt, or would you not play at all?
– All these mini-games are very expensive and significantly affect the game's mathematics. Therefore, if you don’t know how, you can’t sit down; the expectation will immediately become negative. I don’t understand the mechanics of stand-up at all, but the impact on the win rate can be huge. An additional 5bb/100 or even more can be played. There are completely exotic rules that are not at all clear how they work. I heard about a game where the winner of the hand in the next pot places a mandatory straddle. All the math goes wrong. Any additional games are a “Joker’s trap”; you can easily lose your apartment in them. I don’t exclude the possibility that I will play at a disadvantage even against four amateurs if they understand the logic of “stand-up” and I don’t. This is the most important element of the game, which can account for up to 50% of the anticipation. And I'm not even talking about how much all this shakes up the variance.
– During your streams, you often repeated that you consider the weekly $10k tournament as preparation for offline. In the end, did this experience help you a lot?
– Certainly. To prepare for Triton, Sunday's tournament on GG is ideal. It is played by almost all the regs who come here, and many amateurs. The format is also very similar, the average stacks on the pre-bubble and bubble are the same.
– What exactly was the greatest benefit?
– After every tournament they point out mistakes to me. I managed to work with trainers from different foundations, for example, with Ilya Anatsky and Andrey Novak. As a result, I spent about 100 hours on the theory, which could not pass without a trace. I began to understand steal-resteal situations, ICM, and ranges much better.
I myself did not expect that my streams would be so popular. Still, I'm not a professional tournament player. But in the end, this led to the fact that I receive not general advice, but specific recommendations on my game, they explain to me in a structured way exactly what I am doing wrong. This is the biggest advantage of streaming for me.
But it is important to understand that in tournament poker 95% of decisions are quite simple, and the remaining 5% will be so complex that no one will give the correct answer. It is in these rare distributions that the main money will be played. For example, here I had an interesting hand on the bubble of one of the first tournaments. I put in sixes with a 4bb stack. Due to the fact that the player on the BB also places an ante, the solution is so non-standard that even the strongest players do not know what range to call with and no one could immediately tell how to play correctly. I called and won, but soon I was busted anyway. Tournaments in general work like this, experience greatly influences this, which I lack.
– You said about the benefits of streaming, but can there be negative consequences? Your opponents see how you play.
– I think it doesn’t affect that much. Only the strongest players will be able to find some exploits against me from the streams, and they must watch them all very carefully. Much more important is that there is no mining for me, because I play very few tournaments. And if there is a person who does a colossal job and understands from the streams how I think, then he deserves this additional advantage, I don’t feel sorry for him.
– Why don’t you do re-entry on stacks less than 30bb?
– I don’t even sit on 50bb. Surely many will not agree with my approach. This is my personal choice based on the opinions of the regulars with whom I discuss the game.
In general, the profitability of reentry is easy to calculate in software; now there are special calculators. But with my experience in cash games, it is the initial levels that are most profitable for me; at almost any table I perfectly understand my win rate. At the first levels it is very big, and when I re-enter, I seem to give up on it. It seems like a small thing, but it is also very important. In the first five or six levels I will play about 200 hands. The composition is not very strong, let’s assume that my expectation will be 10bb/100, even 5. That is, in 200 hands on average I will win 10bb, which is not so little. It turns out that I get an additional 10bb bonus to everyone who registers later, I will often have a big stack in the late stage, which also affects the win rate. It's these little things that make up tournament poker. The early stage has the least contribution to the overall expectation, but for me it is the most profitable part, so abandoning it would be counterproductive. Skipping the part where you have some kind of advantage is clearly not the best strategy.
– Were you ready to do re-entry on Triton?
– Only if I had been eliminated at the very beginning. Otherwise, it’s better to play the next tournament. The closer to the end of the tournament you go, the lower the ROI ceiling. It's funny, but for amateurs it's most likely the opposite. If they play from the beginning, their ROI will be lower. Although there is something to argue about.
– The screenshot in your telegram shows that you played 6 tournaments. Did you immediately go to play this schedule and didn’t plan to change it? Would you get on Main if you got there somewhere?
– I had thoughts of playing the main, but it had nothing to do with the results in previous tournaments. But this is one tournament and it’s too big. It would be possible to sell shares, but I decided that it would be better to play six cheaper tournaments on my own and go to some other Triton series. I also wasn’t sure that the main line would have a good lineup. But judging by the $150k tournament, where all the VIPs from the cash were seated, it will be quite good. Because of the deeper structure, my ROI will probably go up a little, but the difference still won't be that significant.
