Mike “SirWatts” Watson has enjoyed more success in the last 13 years than most poker players will over the course of their entire lives — and he’s done it wherever there’s a game to be played.

As of this writing Watson sits 61st on the all-time money list with $11.46 million in lifetime tournament earnings, just a few spots back from modern-era success stories like Patrik Antonius and Vanessa Selbst. He has also collected more than $3.3 million in lifetime earnings on PokerStars, including a third-place finish for $176,128 in this week’s SCOOP-High $10,300 PLO Main Event.

I caught up with Watson earlier this month at EPT Monte Carlo to look back at his career and chat about how the game has changed, what it takes to keep up, just how good poker players really have it, and what keeps him coming back for more.

PokerStars Blog: Let’s start at the beginning — given your age and history, your poker origin story must have something to do with Chris Moneymaker.

Mike Watson: To some extent. It was more friends of mine saw Moneymaker on TV and wanted to play poker at lunch for a little dollar game. Then I obviously found online poker, and eventually PokerStars. I really took to it [because of] my math background, my sports background, and my gaming background — it seemed like something I could be really good at. I started playing a lot online and really trying to study and learn about the game.

I wasn’t as much of a natural as I’d hoped. It was more of a slow and steady process with me. But I kept working and improving and moving up the stakes as I went along.

Meeting Steven-Paul Ambrose (left) and Mike “Timex” McDonald (right) kickstarted Mike Watson’s development as a poker player.

What helped you to improve the most in those early years?

Meeting Steve Paul-Ambrose shortly after he won the PCA in 2006. And through him, meeting Mike “Timex” McDonald. That was big, you know?

Before then I’d mostly studied poker on my own or with my one roommate, and just meeting people who were successful and had done the things that I’d like to do, it made me see that maybe it was something that was doable. I had a lot to learn, but it wasn’t something intrinsic that I just couldn’t do. They were learning quicker than I was, but there was nothing stopping me from getting there eventually.

Having a community of people to bounce hands off and support each other was really big for me, as were the online communities.

Speaking of ancient online poker communities, you kept a poker blog.

I enjoyed keeping the blog a lot, back in the day. It was a way to put your thoughts down, see what you’re thinking, and solidify some ideas in your head as you’re writing. I’m sure I’ll look back and read some of it and be a bit embarrassed, but it’s also great that some of my early years are documented a little bit. My family read it a lot, I’m sure.

You made a successful transition from online to live poker, which is still tough for some people.

There’s definitely some adjustment. I’d say I always felt reasonably comfortable live. [But] I definitely tried a lot harder back then when it was so new and exciting, you try and pick up every detail.

Mike Watson plays at EPT Monte Carlo in 2019

Back then, specifically playing online, everything was pretty fast and aggressive — that’s what people did to pave over the fact they didn’t have a high level of poker strategy, they just kept the pressure up and keep the aggression high. Getting used to playing live, especially in the U.S. where the pros were a lot more conservative in general at that time, that took some adjustment.

Online, you have so many tables that often you’re not thinking through every decision and you’re just auto-piloting a lot. [Whereas] live, you have time to think, and sometimes when you have this time you start playing differently than you would online. It’s not always for the better. You start overthinking things and trying to make fancy plays because you think maybe you have a read on someone or a feel to how they’re playing. You can overvalue that information. Eventually, you can make the right adjustments without overdoing it.

Within two years of your first live cash, you had won the WPT Bellagio Cup IV main event. How did you react at the time, and how do you look back at it now?

At the time I’d been waiting so long to have a big live score, and then [I won and] I was like, “Oh great, now I’ve had a big live score, hooray.” I don’t think I really appreciated the magnitude of it.

Even back then, $1.67 million was just an enormous score. That was one of the biggest scores of the year, even back in 2008. It was really crazy how much money I won there compared with — my bankroll was okay, but it was just a massive, massive win. It was a big deal, I don’t think I really knew it at the time. Even now that I’m playing Super High Rollers, I haven’t topped it. That’s pretty crazy.

It was such a lucky tournament. Thinking back I just made so many huge hands, just constantly had it, flopped lots of sets, everything you want in a poker tournament. Back then I was much more of a conservative player. Obviously, the competition wasn’t as strong back then, but I was such a beginner as well. It’s wild how much had to go right. The first day I didn’t build my stack at all, but from then on it was non-stop. It took patience but there was always a big hand or big cooler coming. It was probably the best run I’ve had in my entire career.

Knowing firsthand just how much has to go right to win any one tournament — and how much tougher the game is today than it was back when you had your biggest results — do you ever worry about finding yourself on the other end of the game for an extended period?

“I’m too hard on myself, but maybe that keeps me motivated and keeps me working.”

Yeah, for me that’s something I’m worried about constantly.

There was a point where I became complacent and wasn’t working on my game as much, just sort of trying to find a bit more balance in my life and not make everything about poker. I definitely learned a lot and I’m a better person for having put in the effort in other places. But at the same time, I realized I was not that good at poker. There was still a lot to learn, and everyone else was trying hard to catch up quickly.

I’m pretty hard on myself. I take playing poker for a living pretty seriously, although I don’t always do everything I should be doing in terms of putting in the hours. It’s hard to be as hungry as you were at the start. There’s probably a handful of guys who work as hard as I did ten years ago. It’s crazy impressive but I just don’t seem to have it in me to be one of those people. I’d still say I’m working harder than most, but yeah, I’m always worried I might be losing my edge, even if that’s an irrational crazy thought.

Are you ever too hard on yourself that way?

I’d say overall I’m too hard on myself, but maybe that keeps me motivated and keeps me working. Once you understand that there are people out there who are working hard on poker and you get an idea of how they approach the game, then it’s kind of intimidating when you know you’re not putting in the same effort and they’re going to be pulling away from you. It’s always a constant challenge to try and stay ahead of the curve in poker these days.

There have been multiple points in my career where I’ve had to re-dedicate myself to the game, studying and trying to learn. Fortunately, my friend group has helped me pick some things back up when I’ve fallen behind, and I think I’m very good at learning new concepts quickly when something is presented to me. Most people, when they learn something new about poker, they overdo it and try to apply that concept every hand. I think I’m fairly good at understanding how and when to do something.

“Whenever Ike Haxton has an insight, you want to listen. He’s putting in more hours than anyone, in all forms of poker.” — Mike Watson

Who do you count among your biggest influences in the game these days?

My poker group has obviously grown a lot. I’d say there are a lot of people who influence me a lot, but certainly guys like Dan Smith, who has become a good friend and is someone I talk strategy with a lot. Isaac Haxton, as well. He’s always a guy who, whenever he has an insight or something, you want to listen. He’s just putting in more hours than anyone, in all forms of poker, really.

There have been different people over the years. Guys like Andrew Lichtenberger, all three Greenwoods, and all those guys in Toronto. Peter Jetten. So many of the Super High Roller regulars who I play against regularly have become friends, and although we don’t like to give away every intimate detail, we definitely talk strategy quite a bit.

The high roller tournaments these days must feel almost like a home game.

It’s cool in that way. We have this community that’s tight-knit with all these same guys. It’s very fun and interesting to know everyone so well that you’re playing with every week, and it changes the game compared with when you’re playing with someone you’ve only played a couple of hands with or someone you’ve never seen before in some cases. Poker gets a lot more interesting when you have that history. You have to mix things up and not be too predictable.

You’ve played high-stakes tournaments all over the world for a long time now. What do you think of the modern schedule compared to the way things were, say, 10 or 12 years ago?

I wish there were more in major European cities, London, Paris, Amsterdam, bigger tournaments. There aren’t really EPT-level events that make me want to travel to those places right now. Hopefully, we’ll see more poker stops in Asia. I love to travel to new places.

It’s become really regular, the same places at the same time every year. I just treat it as a business trip because I’ve done all the touristy things. I’m interested to go to Montenegro for the Triton event after this. That will be a new one. I’d love to travel to South America too.

Is there anywhere that sticks out as a particular favorite stop on the tour?

Right now I’d say it’s Melbourne. It’s a beautiful city, a beautiful venue, I absolutely love everything about it. The food, the culture, in summer the tennis is on. It’s just everything that I like. It reminds me a lot of Canada but with good weather and more laid back. It’s the only place I’ve traveled to where I’ve thought, “I would love to live here.” But it’s just too far away.

More than a decade since his first major live tournament win, Watson remains one of Canada’s all-time winningest poker players.

You’re currently ranked seventh all-time among players from Canada, a country that has produced some of the winningest poker players ever. How does it feel to know that you’re still up there among them after so many years in the game?

I definitely take some pride in that. In terms of being up there with long-term success amongst Canadians, it’s something I’d like to keep up. I think I’m going to be in poker for the medium-term at the very least, and I’d like to continue having success. I think the best could still be out there for me.

I normally try to focus on things one day at a time, the next tournament, and not worry about what I’ve done. I think your mentality as a poker professional has got to be to keep looking forward and keep working. I like to play events in Canada even if they maybe aren’t the best use of my time. It’s always cool to meet local players who are so genuinely interested in poker who you share a little bit of background with, that’s a lot of fun.

One of the handful of Canadian players who remains ahead of you on the Canadian money list is your good friend Timex — even though he’s essentially retired at this point.

He’s a great player, and he’s had a lot of success, and I should try and get ahead of him seeing as he’s not playing as much.

Do you ever look at how he’s stepped away from the game and imagine yourself perhaps taking a similar course someday?

I’ve definitely been at points in my career where I’ve thought, “Do I really want to keep doing this every year? Is this still fun and still challenging? Do I still enjoy it?” And the answer has always been yes. I still really enjoy playing the game.

With the new information and tools out there, it’s really different from what I was working on 10 years ago. I find the new challenge really interesting. I’ve always kept an eye out for things to do outside of poker, but nothing has really sucked me in. I had a few years where I played a lot of daily fantasy sports, but I never had the success that I have in poker. Now I feel like I’m really back in the poker scene, and I’m really enjoying it.

We have it pretty good in poker, traveling to all of these events. It’s a lot of fun. I try to remember and appreciate how lucky I am to be able to do this. It’s hard to top the poker lifestyle. I wouldn’t have ever traveled this much and seen as much of the world if it weren’t for poker, so I feel pretty lucky in that regard.

Watson: still knocking on Timex’s door, for now

UFC Fight Night: Gustafsson vs. Smith takes place Saturday, headlined by two men who have stepped into the Octagon as challengers for the light heavyweight championship only to come up short.

In the case of Alexander Gustafsson (18-5), three of his five career losses have come in bids for UFC gold at 205 pounds. His opponent, Anthony Smith (31-14) lost a championship bout in his most recent trip to the cage.

Since March 2011, only two men have held the UFC belt in the light heavyweight division: Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier. And, in all honesty, Cormier’s time with the belt was purely the result of Jones’s own missteps in his personal life leading to suspensions. Make no mistake, light heavyweight is Jones’s division.

Since 2014, Jones (21-1) has only fought once per year — again, largely a consequence of his own actions — but his presence has been smothering. Jones’s trips to the cage afford the opportunity for fans to see an all-time great talent ply his trade on the biggest stage in the sport.

And every time he sets foot in the Octagon serves as a reminder the light heavyweight division — once the UFC’s marquee weight class — has fallen several steps behind its champion.

So, what is someone like Gustafsson, who has lost two championship fights against Jones and one against Cormier, to do?

Letting go of title shots

Gustafsson holds the #2 spot in the UFC’s official light heavyweight rankings. He’s taking on Smith, who holds the #4 spot. A fight between the second and fourth ranked fighters in a division generally puts the winner in position to fight for the belt, but with both men coming off losses to Jones, is that realistic?

Would the UFC even consider giving Gustafsson a third shot at Jones (and fourth shot at a title) after his third-round stoppage loss in December? It seems his answer to this question is to stop worrying about it.

“I’m not even thinking about Jon or the title or any of that anymore,” Gustafsson said in an interview with MMAjunkie. “It’s been too much and too long in my head. I just don’t really care anymore. I just take one fight at a time and just get back to it.

“I want to stack up my wins again. I want to beat the best guys. Of course I want to beat the top guys, too. I tried. I just have to go back to where I started and take one fight at a time, try to be a better fighter, be a better competitor and take one fight at a time, and win every fight, and stack them up, and let’s see what the future brings. My motivation right now is to support my family and have fun doing what I love to do.”

While Gustafsson’s cool, measured steps forward out of a title-focused mindset is a match for his personality, Smith finds himself consumed by poor performance against Jones. The fight with Gustafsson is being taken by Smith as a cure to the disease of a bad fight.

“It’s not even about Gus, or winning and losing,” Smith told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani. “It’s not even about getting back to the title. I’m not sitting here saying I don’t want to win, that’s not what I’m saying. I haven’t even considered the fight a win vs lose situation.

“Honestly I don’t give a shit what happens, I just want to perform. I want to go in there and I need to destroy something to get this feeling out of my stomach. This burning, sick feeling that I can’t shake. The only way I am going to do that is I got to let it out on somebody because I wasn’t able to let it out on Jon.”

Even more complicated

There are two other light heavyweight fights on the main card this Saturday.

In the co-main event, Volkan Oezdemir takes on Ilir Latifi. Also on the card, Jimi Manuwa and Aleksandar Rakic square off.

Latifi vs. Oezdemir is another battle of top 10 light heavyweights, but Oezdemir (15-4) fought Cormier for the title in January 2018, losing by second round TKO and lost to Smith in the following fight. So a win and his #7 ranking aren’t likely to put him in title contention while #9 Latifi (14-6) is coming off his own loss and a win over Oezdemir doesn’t have the shine it once did.

Manuwa (17-5) is ranked #11 but has lost three in a row and also has losses on his record to Oezdemir and Gustafsson. Rakic is riding an 11-fight winning streak, including his first three in the UFC. He is, however, not ranked.

And this is a small picture of what happens in a division full of sharks but with a megalodon on top. The talent battles, dinging each other and damaging resumes before eventually the megalodon has to eat.

Jones’s next meal looks to be Thiago “Marreta” Santos (21-6) at UFC 239 in July.

Santos is ranked #3 in the division and has wins over Manuwa and fellow ranked fighter Jan Błachowicz. He only moved to light heavyweight three fights ago after a somewhat uneven middleweight career, but he is 3-0 with three knockout wins.

All he has to do now is solve a puzzle no one else has been able to solve, including numerous legends of the sport.

“We haven’t really been able to see a weakness in his game,” Santos told MMAjunkie. “But we have never seen him with his back against the ground – better yet, with his back to the ground and a hand landing heavily. Then, we’ll see. That’s something we haven’t seen, how he reacts to a powerful ground-and-pound from the top. But anyway, more than ever I need to be ready for anything. He’s a very well-rounded guy, he adjusts to wherever the fight is, so my strategy is to make him feel bad wherever he is.”

Another fighter looking to find Jones’s weakness in the Octagon a few weeks after several of light heavyweight’s best pick each other off.

This is Jon Jones’ world … and it keeps on turning as it has for years.

It was the biggest tournament series in the history of online poker.

Here’s a breakdown of Spring Championship of Online Poker 2019, in numbers…

9,730

The best return on investment (ROI) of the series belonged to Brazil’s “lucascostaf”, who took down the 01-L: Phase $2.20 tournament for $21,407. That’s a 9,730x spin up.

36

The Brazilian’s owned this SCOOP, winning 36 titles in total. That’s almost double the 19 won by both the UK and Russia.

315,955

The biggest prize awarded in any low event came in the $109 SCOOP Main Event. Brazil’s “Jack Wastes” was the big winner, banking a massive $315,955 for a 2,898% ROI.

219

There were 219 tournaments in SCOOP 2019, spread across low, medium and high tiers.

26,250

The smallest first-place prize won in a high event came in 09-H: $1,050 2-7 Single Draw. Dario “Secret_M0d3” Sammartino was the winner, winning $26,250.

1,024,242

Thanks to everyone who took part in this year’s SCOOP. In total, there were an incredible 1,024,242 entries across all events.

662

Beating last year’s 654, this year’s $10,300 Main Event got 662 total entries.

20.5

The smallest first-place ROI in any high event came in 13-H: $2,100 2-7 Triple Draw. Russia’s “krakukra” was the winner in that one for $43,055, a 20.5% ROI.

3

Speaking of “krakukra”, three is the number of leader boards won by Konstantin “krakukra” Maslak this year. Maslak topped the low leader board, the high leader board, and the overall leader board to win $40,000 in prizes. We spoke to Maslak during the series – check out that interview here.

105,133,091

There were 105 million reasons why this year’s SCOOP crushed. Coincidentally, $105,133,091 is also the total amount of prize money awarded throughout the series.

39

Players from a total of 39 different nations won SCOOP events this year.

15

There were 15 double winners in total this year. They include: Joao “Naza114” Vieira, Mike “goleafsgoeh” Leah, Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser, Russia’s “Bagrovui”, Tomas “luckymo32” Geleziunas, Brazil’s “felipebeltra”, Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, Kahle “ROFLShove” Burns,  Belgium’s “merla888”, Matheus “zilbee” Zilberknop, and Guilherme “guilherme12” Decour.

15,586,276.50

Congratulations to all SCOOP champions made this year. Overall, $15,586,276.50 was awarded in first-place prizes.

1

There was only one SCOOP champion from the following nations: Denmark, Estonia, Gibraltar, Indonesia, Macau, Serbia, Switzerland, Lebanon, Peru, Croatia.

1,028,203

Incredibly, Gianluca “Tankanza” Speranza successfully defended his $10K Main Event title to bank $1,028,203. We spoke to Speranza about his amazing achievement here.

15

There were 15 total days of amazing SCOOP action.

We miss it.

Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.

To say that things have changed a lot since the start of the poker boom is like saying that water is wet. So much has changed, both at the tables and away from them, that it sometimes feels like we’re living in a completely different universe than the one that gave us the phrase “Chris Moneymaker, World Champion.” But there are reminders of days gone by.

This week marked the beginning of the 50th annual World Series of Poker. On one hand, it’s exceedingly easy to treat this as a given. Of course the WSOP is underway — it’s late May, dummy. It’s the biggest poker tournament festival in the world and it’s been there since before we were born, and it’ll probably always be there so why are you making a big deal about it?

On the other hand, there are so many ways we could have ended up anywhere but here. In the face of heavy competition, family infighting, corporate takeovers, and more, the WSOP has not just persisted — it has managed to change its shape without losing its form.

The tournament area at the 50th annual World Series of Poker

Tournament poker’s formerly manageable calendar exploded about 15 years ago. It transformed from a California- and Vegas-centered collection of occasional festivals into a never-ending, highly lucrative global tour. But while the money has grown bigger elsewhere, no tournament title yet created has managed to attain the cachet of a WSOP bracelet.

Poker players from around the world dream of the same moment. In their minds they pose for the camera, surrounded by their closest supporters, a band of gold and jewels wrapped around their wrist or fist, winning cards held in the other. It’s such a universal aspiration that if someone in your family loves poker and you want to give them the gift of a lifetime, your task is already cut out for you: you buy them into the WSOP. (And then maybe a bunch of other cool stuff happens too.)

Jeremy Hilsercop realized his dream yesterday when he played Day 1A of the “Big 50,” this year’s signature event marking the festival’s 50th anniversary. He didn’t advance to the second day of play, but that didn’t matter. He was there. He was in the game.

Jeremy Hilsercop plays at the 50th annual World Series of Poker

Brian Green has been in the game for the last 20 years. He’s no doubt imagined himself posing for his winner’s photo as often as anyone else. Last night, as a reward for outlasting players like Daniel Negreanu and his good friend Ali Imsirovic, Green finally lived the dream.

Brian Green won his first gold bracelet in the 2019 WSOP $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Super Turbo Bounty.

The next seven weeks will see tens of thousands of players from around the world test themselves against each other. It’s the nature of the game that the vast majority of them will fall on the “I was there” side of the spectrum. But the same nature means that somebody has to win.

In any given tournament, it could be you. Surrounded by your friends who journeyed to Vegas with you all those years. Clutching the band of gold and jewels. Holding up your winning cards. Writing your name into the same annals as the greatest ever to take a seat at the table.

It’s why you play. And it’s why the WSOP is still going strong 50 years later.

Headlines from the weekend…

• Another Sunday Million title for Brazil
• Andras “probirs” Nemeth wins HRC title
• Top 5 results from High Roller Club
• Top 5 results from the weekend majors

BRAZIL’S MATHEUS “pimenta7” PIMENTA WINS THE MILLY

Following on from Brazil’s brilliant performance throughout the Spring Championship of Online Poker 2019 (during which the country won 36 SCOOP titles), they’ve now got yet another Sunday Million champ, too.

Former SCOOP champion Matheus “pimenta7” Pimenta is now $108,784 richer, having outlasted a large field to take it down with no deal. That’s his largest online cash to date, but his 2013 Brazil Series of Poker (BSOP) Super High Roller win for $161K remains his biggest career score for now.

Matheus Pimenta won a BSOP SHR title in 2013

Interestingly, there were four other Brazilian players on the Milly final table. Vamos!

HIGH ROLLER CLUB VICTORY FOR ANDRAS “probirs” NEMETH

A lot of poker’s biggest names are grinding live over in Las Vegas, but that doesn’t mean the High Roller Club has taken its foot off the gas.

Current no.2 in the world Andras “probirs’ Nemeth was back on the winner’s sheet this week, taking down the $530 Sunday 500 for $23,843.

Andras ‘probirs’ Nemeth

The biggest winner in the HRC was Austria’s “WATnlos”, who added $47,008 to their bankroll after a victory in the $2,100 Sunday High Roller. That one had a stacked final table, including the likes of Finland’s “elmerixx”, Niklas “Lena900” Astedt, Talal “Raidalot” Shakerchi, and Ivan “Negriin” Luca.

TOP 5 HIGH ROLLER CLUB RESULTS

TOP 5 RESULTS FROM WEEKEND MAJORS

Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.

Not many poker players can credibly claim to have had a better run than Jack Sinclair has enjoyed the last few years. He only recorded his first live tournament cash in April 2017, but since then he has jumped up to 19th place on England’s all-time money list on the strength of $3.6 million in cashes, including a WSOP Main Event final table appearance in 2017 and a WSOP Europe Main Event victory in 2018.

Jack Sinclair plays at EPT Monte Carlo 2019.

Two weeks ago Sinclair added “SCOOP champion” to his list of accomplishments with a win in Event #15-M, $530 8-Max No-Limit Hold’em. Playing as “Swaggersorus,” he defeated a reg-heavy field to earn the $92K top prize — not bad for a guy who doesn’t consider himself to be “a top online player.”

I reached out to Sinclair last week and he was gracious enough to chat for a bit about adding an online title to his live wins, how having good mentors has aided his success, and how he focuses on staying “happy just to be here.”

PokerStars Blog: You’re a bit of a traveller — originally from the U.K., but your account is based in Georgia (the country) and you travel the world for live poker. Is that where you played SCOOP this year?

Jack Sinclair: I’m actually grinding from Montreal at the moment. I am a resident in Georgia though, so I have moved my account there, mainly because I love the flag. Sometimes I play from Georgia but mainly I am there for some business outside of poker. I love the country and want to represent Georgia in the online poker streets as best as I can.

Jack Sinclair on bass

What does your general playing schedule look like these days, both live and online? And what was your plan of attack coming into SCOOP? Do you play a particular mix of buy-ins?

I mostly only play live these days, I travel to all the big stops and some of the smaller ones. I actually don’t have a home at the moment — I just travel full-time.

I still love playing online, so when the big series are on I get involved. But I don’t consider myself to be a top online player, so when I play online my main goal is to improve. This year I tried to stick to only playing 4-6 tables at a time, mostly playing $500+ buy-in tournaments. I feel like I have improved a lot even in just one week playing online, as I am playing against strong opponents and able to think a lot about each decision. I’m also not so exhausted after each session, so I am able to review hands in the morning.

So much has to go right to win any poker tournament, let alone a SCOOP event against top competition. What went right for you in this tournament?

I don’t remember too many standout hands from Day 1. I know I was playing very aggressive and taking a lot of spots, which I think is important in these events. Day 2 was a lot more memorable. I played some huge pots early and had a big stack for most of the day, and I was able to come into the final table as chip leader.

The closest I came to busting was when I was all-in on the river as a bluff, I think with 10 or 11 players left. This was a crucial pot, not only because I would have busted if he called, but it gave me the chip lead right before the final table and set me up to win the tournament.

Jack Sinclair plays at EPT Barcelona in 2018.

There were some pretty solid players at the last few tables in this tournament. Does anyone stick out to you as having presented a particular challenge, or maybe someone who you were glad you didn’t have to tangle with because someone else took care of it first?

There were lots of good players in this tournament, I really had to battle to make it to the final table. Although at the final table itself I ran astonishingly well — it really doesn’t matter how good your opponents are when they are short and you win every all-in.

Some of the notables were Jonathan “Proudflop” Proudfoot, Vicent “gordon0410” Bosca, and Benny “rungodlike” Glaser. I should give a special mention to Nick “FU_15” Maimone, who always takes it to the streets, and makes your life very difficult. Luckily I made a couple of hands against him this time.

You’ve had a couple of close calls on PokerStars before, in the Sunday Million in 2017 and a SCOOP final table last year. After those experiences, how did it feel on an emotional level to nail this one? Is there any additional sense of satisfaction in winning a major online title to go with your big live wins?

I’m very happy with this win. For me it is not so much about the title or the money, but my performance in this event, and the series in general. I feel like I have proven to myself that I am able to beat high stakes online, and I have improved a lot, especially my mindset. Big shout out to Thomas “WushuTM” Muehloecker, who I’ve been sharing an apartment with during SCOOP, for helping with that.

Sinclair says moving in with Phil Gruissem early in his career “really revolutionized my game”

Your first two years on the live poker circuit have been hugely successful. What do you credit most for your extraordinary early success? And how do you stay balanced mentally heading into the heart of Year 3?

I have to credit my success to having great mentors. I moved in with Phil Gruissem early in my career and he really revolutionized my game. Since then I have surrounded myself with great players and I pay attention to what they say. I think I learn best through discussion so this works very well for me.

Having had a few results doesn’t change too much. I am still very motivated to keep playing. My main focus now is to be the best player I can be, and I trust that the results will come. It is very easy to lose sight of that when you are winning a lot or losing a lot, but it is important to remind yourself that learning is the goal — that and trophies.

I find it extremely difficult to not have expectations when starting an online series or a live trip. Any time I go in “expecting” to do well it always ends badly. The mindset I try and keep is “just happy to be here.” I try and get the most out of the experience, win or lose, and that way the result doesn’t matter (as much).

Jack Sinclair on drums

Finally, do you spend much time away from the tables or are you in more of a “strike while the iron’s hot” mode? Do you have any hobbies outside of poker?

I have a fair few hobbies outside of poker, although I very rarely take time off. On some stops I play squash if there are courts. I cook when I have a kitchen, and I always travel with my guitar. I used to be a drummer but it’s hard to travel with a drum kit.

It’s hard to find time to do all the things I’d want, but I mostly only want to play poker anyway, so I’m not complaining.

Thinking of heading to London for Lex Live 2? Then you’re in the right place.

From hotels near the venue to the best shopping sights in the city, our Lex Live 2 hub should have you covered.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be fleshing out this post with all the information you’ll need for an incredible trip to England’s capital, so bookmark this page now!

LEX LIVE 2: SEPTEMBER 27 – OCTOBER 6, 2019

SCHEDULE

The full Lex Live 2: London schedule is yet to be announced. As soon as we get the details, we’ll update this page.

Here’s what we know so far:

Lex Live 2: London runs from 27th September to 6th October 2019 in London, taking place at Aspers Casino in Stratford. The Main Event will have a £230 Main Event.

WHERE TO STAY

You’re spoilt for choice when it comes to hotels in London. If you’d like to be very close to the poker venue, however, here are two hotels we recommend.

Holiday Inn Stratford –  Westfield is just a one minute walk away in the shopping mall complex.

Premier Inn Stratford – Within walking distance, and a bit cheaper too.

There are also countless Airbnbs available in the city.

HOW TO GET THERE

Coming soon.

HOW TO QUALIFY

Coming soon.

TRAVEL TIPS

Coming soon.

GUIDE TO LONDON

Coming soon.

FUN ACTIVITIES

Coming soon.

FOOD AND DRINK

Coming soon.

You’ll soon be able to win your way to Lex Live 2 on PokerStars. Simply click here to open an account.

Among the many big names who won a Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) title this year was Kenny Hallaert, playing under the PokerStars screen name “SpaceyFCB”.

The casual poker fan might know Hallaert best from his sixth-place finish in the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event for $1.47M, but the Belgian (who sits third in his country’s all-time money list) is also a major force online, with $5.54M in online cashes at the time of writing.

Victory in this year’s 29-H: $2,100 No Limit Hold’em Turbo for $94,990 marked Hallaert’s second SCOOP title, his first coming back in 2017 when he took down a $1,050 8-Max event for $147K.

We caught up with Hallaert towards the end of SCOOP to discuss how it all went down, how he upped his study regime to compete with the best, and how he hopes to complete his poker puzzle at the 2019 WSOP.

PokerStars Blog: You were in Canada playing a live event during the SCOOP. Do you like being on that time schedule when playing a big tournament series?

Kenny Hallaert: I prefer to play at home [in London], just to have my own setting. I don’t mind playing at night at all. There was one year, roughly ten years ago, when I went to Hawaii to play WCOOP, but that was before Black Friday, when WCOOP was catered more towards US players. I just prefer my own set-up at home with a comfortable chair, a stable computer etc. I always feel more relaxed playing at night, the world has shut down, it’s dark outside, and there are less distractions. I’m just used to it.

Do you look forward to SCOOP every year?

If I wasn’t in Canada I would have been at home playing every day, with maybe one day off a week maximum. In previous years WCOOP buy-ins were more in the medium tier level, so SCOOP has always been way more interesting to high stakes players for higher buy-in tournaments. If I had to choose I’d take SCOOP over WCOOP, if I could only play one.

SCOOP always falls right before the WSOP. As someone who has had success at both, what do you make of that lead into the Vegas grind?

It’s definitely a good warm-up. The mixed-game specialists especially really like SCOOP as the WSOP is pretty much the only time of the year when they can play a wide variety of mixed game tournaments at high buy-ins ($10K, $3K, $1,500 etc) so during SCOOP they can test their skills and reactivate their skills leading up to the WSOP.

For me, I’m basically a pure No Limit Hold’em player. I play other events more for fun, but I don’t think I have an edge in those fields. If you have a good SCOOP like I had, it gives you a lot of confidence and winning my SCOOP title basically means I can freeroll the entire WSOP. 

The last time I won a SCOOP in 2017 I also had a great WSOP, so if winning one this year could mean the same, I’m definitely up for it!

[In 2017 Hallaert enjoyed nine WSOP cashes, including two final tables and a deep run in the $10K Main Event]

How does this year’s title compare with your first one?

This one was a turbo, so it has less prestige. As the 2017 one was my first title and it had more players and a regular structure, I would say I value that one higher. The fields in both events were tough–the turbo field was probably tougher actually–but still, if you look at some of the names that made the 2017 final table, they are big online names [like Patrick Leonard, “girafganger7”, Anton Wigg]. This year, because of the buy-in level, you expect to have tough competition. There won’t be a lot of recreational players playing. So for me, I still value it quite high.

For a long time your biggest cash came from a 2009 Sunday Warm-up victory for $107K. Where were you in your life at that point?

I was working in Namur, Belgium in a casino. I remember winning that tournament. It was a really insane month for me. I managed to win the weekly leader board, with the second highest score ever at that time (I believe only Shaun Deeb had scored higher). I then also managed to win the monthly leader board, only behind Deeb again for highest score. It was an amazing month. Every time I had a coin flip it felt like an 80/20 for me, and every time I had a 20/80 it was like a coin flip. That’s how good I was running. 

The Warm-up stayed with me as my biggest score for years, until SCOOP 2017. Hopefully I will break it again one day. My online poker career has been on the better side of variance for sure.

[Since this interview Hallaert has secured a new biggest online score, taking down an online event for $193K on May 27.]

What else would you like to achieve in your poker career?

I hope that this year I can achieve my poker dream, and that’s winning a WSOP bracelet. That’s one thing I’m missing on my resume, winning a big live event. A bracelet for me would be the biggest. It’s something I’ve been chasing for a very long time. I’ll be in Vegas for the 12th consecutive year. I’ve been close a couple of times.

Kenny Hallaert at the 2016 WSOP

Why is the WSOP so special to you?

The first time I went was in 2008, and back then it was a dream for me just to be able to play at the WSOP with the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey etc. Back then I only saw them on YouTube and all of a sudden your heroes are sitting next to you. It was a big dream come true. I was really in love with the WSOP from Day 1 so I kept going back every year.

It took me a while to get my first final table, but I finally managed to make one in the biggest event ever held. The Colossus in it’s first year (2015) had 22,374 entries [the 2019 Big 50 has now beaten it with more than 25,000 entries]. Then I made the final table of the Main Event in 2016 [Hallaert finished in sixth place for $1.46M.]

In 2017 I had a third place and a seventh place. But I’ve never managed to win an elusive bracelet. If I ever manage to win one I’d say the puzzle is complete for me. I’m still chasing that dream. I have aspirations and a lot of perseverance, so one day hopefully you’ll see me holding up a trophy or a bracelet.

Many people know you as a high stakes tournament pro, but what they might not know is how you got there, including your job as a tournament director. What’s your story?

I discovered poker in 2004 and was immediately sold to the game. I quickly bought some books, read them, was active on some poker forums, and kept working on my game. I grinded up from the micro stakes to the mid stakes, then in 2008 I quite my job as an electrician to work for a casino as a marketing manager for the poker room. Throughout the years that role transformed into a tournament director, and when I started that job I had more spare time so I could study poker more. 

Poker was still quite easy back then, so I found I was studying less and less throughout 2010. There weren’t a lot of high-skilled players back then, not that I was a high-skilled player, but you didn’t need to be to be a winning player as the average level of play wasn’t high. But slowly all of those players were passing me by, and it took me a while to realise that. I saw the impact in my results, so in 2014 I started studying more. 

That led to the Colossus final table in 2015, and topped off with the final table of the Main Event in 2016. There, I had coaching from some of the best players in the world–Fedor Holz, BenCB, Steffen Sontheimer, Rainer Kempe, Patrick Leonard–I had very good teachers, and that pushed my skill to an even higher level. Their coaching was really eye-opening for me. I think I improved a lot.

What do you think it takes to remain at the top?

You’re never going to hear me say I’m one of the best poker players, I’m simply not talented enough. But I do have other capacities as a poker player that you need to have, like patience, bankroll management, self-control, honesty with yourself. There are a lot better poker players than me that don’t have those skills, and if you’re going to survive in the poker world you need to be a complete player nowadays. I’ve seen players come up who are far better than me, but they’re already gone for various reasons.

In 2017 I took my foot off the gas once again and wasn’t studying as much as I should have been. Poker was just going so well, but I noticed the impact again on my results in 2018, because I was quite disappointed about that year. I asked myself what happened and quickly came to the conclusion that I had been playing more but not studying enough. 

Poker is evolving so quickly, you really need to put the work in. The saying is ‘standing still is going backwards’, and that really applies to poker. If you want to compete at the same level you really need to work.

Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.

It finally happened. James Holzhauer lost on Jeopardy! After 32 straight victories on the popular quiz show, “Jeopardy James” has finally been defeated.

All told, Holzhauer won an eye-popping $2,464,216 during his time on the show, coming oh-so-close to breaking the all-time record of $2,522,700 million won by Ken Jennings back in 2004. Indeed, if Holzhauer had won on Monday while earning something close to his average win, he would have broken the record last night.

Worth noting is the fact that Holzhauer raced to that total in less than half the appearances Jennings did. Jennings appeared on 75 episodes of the show, with his average win around $33K per show. Most of Holzhauer’s wins were runaways in which he earned significantly more than that.

On one show Holzhauer took away a record $131,127 (on the April 17 episode), a night when the player finishing second ended with just $10,700. Before Holzhauer began his streak, the single-game record had been $77,000 won by Roger Craig back in 2010. Holzhauer averaged winning nearly $77K per show, and his name now fills every line of the top 10 “single-game winnings” list on the Jeopardy! website.

Holzhauer’s streak captured worldwide attention, but also in particular drew the interest of poker players thanks to an unorthodox game strategy informed in part by his background as a professional sports bettor.

One of his tactics involved always starting with the high-dollar clues, with Holzhauer often getting those questions correct and to build a “big stack” early (as it were). Then whenever he hit a “Daily Double” — as Holzhauer often did, given that he usually had control of the board — Holzhauer typically bet big or went “all in” in order to maximize his profit.

Holzhauer’s near-miss of breaking Jennings’ record brings to mind other near-misses from poker’s history.

In 2014, Mike McDonald came as close as possible to becoming the first-ever two-time European Poker Tour champion without doing so.

After setting one record by winning the EPT Dortmund Main Event in 2008 at age 18 to become the youngest-ever EPT champ, McDonald almost set another at the PokerStars Carribean Adventure five years ago, though ultimately finished runner-up to Dominik Panka.

A memorable near-miss for Tîmex at the 2014 PCA

Just three months later, Victoria Coren Mitchell would be the first (and so far only) to capture the elusive EPT double, winning EPT Sanremo after having won EPT London back in 2006.

The World Series of Poker has provided a number of memorable near-misses as well. In 1989, Johnny Chan came within one opponent of capturing a third-straight WSOP Main Event title to set what would have almost certainly been an unbreakable standard.

But Phil Hellmuth denied Chan by defeating him heads-up, and thus Chan joined Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson, and Stu Ungar as the only players ever to win two straight Main Event titles.

During the early 1970s when the WSOP Main Event was still a single-table affair, Walter “Puggy” Pearson finished second twice before winning one in 1973. Crandall Addington also notched two runner-ups in the Main during that first decade when the fields were still small.

More notably, T.J. Cloutier would finish second of 140 players in the Main in 1985, then took second again in 2000 when the field was 512. Dewey Tomko also finished second in the Main Event twice, first in 1982 (among 104 players) and again in 2001 (among 613).

More recently, in 2012 it appeared as though the chances were good a woman would make the WSOP Main Event final table for the first time since Barbara Enright finished fifth in 1995. With just 11 players left, Gaelle Baumann and Elisabeth Hille were still among the remaining players. But Hille went out in 11th and Baumann followed in 10th,

Those knockouts occurred during the “November Nine”-era of final table delays that added extra drama to players making the last table. So, too, did another final table near-miss in 2015, memorably captured by photographer Joe Giron below:

Negreanu falls (figuratively and literally) at the 2015 WSOP

After winning WSOP Player of the Year two times (in 2004 and 2013) and earlier finishing 11th in the Main Event in 2001, Daniel Negreanu once again went out in 11th, knocked out by that year’s eventual winner Joe McKeehen.

They say “second place is the first loser,” but for all of these near-misses coming close was nevertheless plenty rewarding.

Jeopardy! game board (adapted) and logo via Wikimedia Commons; Mike McDonald photo by Neil Stoddart; Daniel Negreanu photo by Joe Giron/pokerphotoarchive.com.

Last year James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton needed an expert to come on Poker In The Ears to talk about SCOOP. They turned to PokerStars ambassador and Twitch streamer extraordinaire Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg and things went swimmingly.

This year the show needed an expert on to talk about SCOOP so they invited on — you guessed it, Spraggy once again.

“As far as I’m concerned, this isn’t laziness,” Hartigan says in the latest episode of the podcast. “It’s a theme!” Then he declares that as long as there’s a SCOOP and a Spraggy, the show has itself an official SCOOP Correspondent.

Spraggy joins the boys at 13:25 of this week’s episode and proves his mettle immediately when he calls his new correspondency a “privilege.” (This guy didn’t get where he is today for nothing!) Then he runs down the highlights of the series, including a few big folds, and how he handled the pressures of streaming after busting on the final table bubble in the $1,050 Event #69-H. And just to make sure he doesn’t escape with his dignity intact, he plays a game of “Porn Uploader or SCOOP Leaderboard Player?”

Check out Episode 155 of Poker In The Ears — including the announcement of Lex Live 2 at 7:30, a few stories from the WSOP Gavin Smith Memorial Tournament at 37:50, and a Count Of Monte Cristo-themed installment of “Superfan vs. Stapes” (that’s the Jim Caviezel/Guy Pearce film version) at 43:20 — on Soundcloud, iTunes, or Spotify. And if you want to help the boys out, make sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast.

The 50th annual World Series of Poker is on in Las Vegas. In honor of that, why not catch up with the man who inspired hundreds of thousands of poker players around the world to seek their own fortunes in the Western desert? Then pick up some tools so you’ll be better prepared than he was when he began his own quest for glory back in 2003. All that and more this week from PokerStars School…

• Reliving the 2003 WSOP with Chris Moneymaker
• Recognizing the importance of small pots
• Learn when and why to semi-bluff

Reliving the 2003 WSOP with Chris Moneymaker

Chris Moneymaker celebrates his 2003 WSOP Main Event victory.

The fun of revisiting stories you already know well comes from catching details that you might have missed before and looking at familiar events from a new perspective. In an extended interview with PokerStars School, Moneymaker touches a lot of familiar bases but does so from a point of view that’s often overlooked: how he approached the WSOP as a total amateur playing his first major live poker tournament.

If you want to prepare for a big tournament these days, there are live events all over the globe where you can get your feet wet before you learn to go deep-sea diving. But back in 2003, things were a lot different. No-limit hold’em cash games were difficult to find, and tournaments were even more rare.

Such was the situation when Chris Moneymaker won a seat in the WSOP Main Event playing on PokerStars. “My buddy went and bought me sunglasses,” he says. “I showed up four days early just to get some practice. I’d never played live before. I wanted to see if players could read me or I could read them.”

His strategy was simple. “[E]ach day all the way to day 5, [my plan] was just to make it through the day, just to survive, play as least hands as possible. I kept telling the PokerStars representative, ‘I can just fold my way to the money.’ And that was my plan.”

Moneymaker gets into the nuts and bolts of how things actually ended up worked out — including how taking on and even knocking out a world champion like Johnny Chan gave him the confidence that he could compete — in the full interview.

Recognizing the importance of small pots

Small pots like this are far more important than you think, according to PokerStars School’s Pete Clarke.

In order to free up capacity to deal with unfamiliar situations, the human brain is wired to discard memories of common and mundane events. None of this changes when we sit down at the poker table, so we tend to ignore small pots — and that’s a problem if you’re looking to become a profitable poker player, writes Pete Clarke.

“Your mind does not think that these are worthy of your attention because it assumes you have mastered them to the same degree of competence as you have mastered mundane life events such as brushing your teeth or putting your shoes on, but you have not!” says Clarke. “What would you do if you had a massive health setback and had to learn to do everything all over again? If you could no longer walk properly, talk properly, or get dressed on your own, would you spend all of your time worrying about how to survive bear attacks or escape from sinking ships?”

Of course not! And so it should be at the poker table. Read Clarke’s latest article now to learn how to focus more on small pots, get away from the habit of going on auto-pilot, and scavenge extra EV over time to improve your bottom line.

An Introduction to Semi-Bluffing

Giving yourself multiple ways to win the pot — by pushing your opponent out or making the best hand later — is the essence of the semi-bluff.

One tool for winning some of those small pots that Pete Clarke writes about is the semi-bluff — the very topic that Nick Walsh from OP Poker covers in his latest video for PokerStars School.

As Walsh defines it, a semi-bluff is almost always a situation where you bet or raise with a draw with an objective to win the pot by either forcing your opponent to fold or making the best hand on a later street. By giving yourself multiple ways to win the pot, you gain equity that would otherwise be left untapped and you make life harder for your opponents.

Learn all about this powerful tactic in An Introduction to Semi-Bluffing and begin working it into your game the next time you sit down to play. And for a little extra punch, combine it with last week’s lesson on the check-raise.

Other new PokerStars School content you might enjoy

• Question of the Week: How would you prepare to play in the biggest tournament of your life?
• Video: Heads-up Versus a Good Passive Player
• Winners Wall: Cashing in the Sunday Million

Open a PokerStars account today and start learning from PokerStars School. Click here to get started, and then click here to register for PokerStars School.

WSOP photography by Katerina Lukina of pokerphotoarchive.com

The UFC’s flyweight division was dominated by a single name for years: Demerious Johnson.

Johnson became the UFC’s first 125-pound champion when he took a split decision victory over Joseph Benavidez. That was at UFC 152, in September 2012. He would hold the belt for 2,142 days. And he successfully defended his title 11 times.

Then came UFC 227 and Johnson’s rematch with Henry Cejudo.

It had taken Johnson less than three minutes to score a TKO over Cejudo in their first meeting, and he entered the Octagon as a heavy favorite. But Cejudo had improved over the two-year gap between fights. The two battled for five rounds before he managed to score a split decision upset victory to become only the second champion in the division’s history.

Cejudo is a fine division representative in his own right. The 32-year-old is a former Olympic freestyle wrestling gold medalist. And he has developed a dangerous striking game to round out his wrestling bona fides.

He’s also charismatic and can sell a fight. He’s also already defended the belt once, defeating then bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw. That came after Dillashaw attempted to move down in weight and become a Conor McGregor-esque “champ champ.”

Cejudo (14-2) is now set for his own “champ champ” bid this Saturday. That’s when he faces Marlon Moraes (22-5-1) for the vacant bantamweight championship at UFC 238 in Chicago.

And this is the point where I tell you the UFC is considering closing the flyweight division entirely. It’s a story MMA fans have been hearing since arguably the greatest fighter in the world dominated the division for six years.

About that flyweight extinction

For much of the UFC’s history, flyweights have been consigned to the undercard. Even as Demetrious Johnson was establishing himself as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world, his fights weren’t always main events.

Johnson picked up an early reputation as a “boring” fighter. Something that dogged him during his entire run in the UFC. For years, it seemed every Johnson fight week involved discussions about his “marketability” or his ability to sell a fight.

“It’s only the fans and uneducated fools out there that say, ‘Oh, you’re boring,’” Johnson said in 2015. “You can say so, but you just don’t understand what I’m doing. There’s a process going on with the technique I bring to the table.”

Once a fighter gains a label like “boring” in MMA it’s hard to shake. Fans and other fighters tend to latch on to it at the expense of reality.

Following a 2015 knockout win over Joby Sanchez, flyweight Geane Herrera said, “The man has earned his spot numerous times. All respect to him, but he’s very boring. He doesn’t generate that interest in people. Like I always say, it doesn’t matter how great of a fighter you are if nobody knows who you are or wants to watch you fight.”

That win was Herrera’s only win in the Octagon and he has not fought in the UFC since 2016, leaving with a 1-3 record.

Which goes to show a focus on “interest” isn’t always a focus on success.

Johnson, though?

Somehow it was getting overlooked that he scored two knockouts and five submissions across twelve title fights, before his loss to Cejudo.

A division dominated by a man carrying the “boring” label, is a division executives will struggle to love. And Johnson would eventually end up in a power struggle with UFC President Dana White.

This feud eventually led to a 2017 demand that Johnson fight Ray Borg. That was despite the champ feeling he had better options, and claiming that “UFC has failed to market and promote me appropriately.”

Johnson would also drop the bombshell the UFC president had threatened to simply do away with the entire flyweight division.

Borg, in response to the situation, played a familiar tune.

“The UFC is claiming they want to close the division because it doesn’t sell?” Borg said. “We haven’t had a chance to sell. D.J. has been the only face, and that’s why it hasn’t sold. He’s kind of held it back a little — and that’s not his fault. He’s a great fighter, but unfortunately he’s not what the fans are about right now. They’re bored.”

Johnson would face Borg in his next fight, scoring one of the most iconic and impressive submissions in UFC history at UFC 216 in October 2017.

Score one for the boring guy.

And now…

Johnson would drop the strap to Cejudo in his next fight and promptly be “traded” to Asian MMA promotion ONE Championship.

With the flyweight GOAT gone and Cejudo aiming for a fight with then bantamweight king  Dillashaw (which would happen, just at flyweight), reports surfaced the UFC would be eliminating the flyweight division by the end of 2018.

Cejudo is now battling for bantamweight gold against Moraes. It certainly feels as though a win there gives the champ new gold, and a potential reason to let the 125-pound title go. The division could go with it.

Several flyweights have already been jettisoned from the UFC roster. Others have been informed they should now consider themselves bantamweights.

With one significant exception.

Longtime UFC veteran Joseph Benavidez has been told his fight against Jussier Formiga later this month is a number one contender fight for the flyweight division. If the UFC is prepping the next challenger for Cejudo’s 125-pound gold, maybe there’s some hope left for the little guys.

Some hope, but not a lot.

“I know some other guys that were just called and were like ‘hey, you’re a ’35-pounder now,’” Benavidez admitted in an interview with MMAjunkie. “And they were just so happy to not get cut that they were just like ‘OK, I’ll do it,’ so that’s what it looks like. It’s clear as day, like, everything is getting dissolved, but it’s not over until it’s over. I’m sure everything is almost dead until it’s not. We’re doing everything we can to revive it but it definitely doesn’t look good.”

“Danger” may as well be Donald Cerrone’s middle name. In fact, the UFC lightweight went ahead and named his first-born son Dacson Danger Cerrone.

Cerrone is a fighter’s fighter. The embodiment of some Hollywood idea of a prizefighting cowboy, he views dangerous extreme sport as recreational activities. When he’s not busy trading blows to the face in the Octagon that is.

Googling the phrase “Donald Cerrone accident” returns headlines such as:

• Donald Cerrone ‘pretty fucked up’ after extreme downhill mountain biking accident
• Donald Cerrone almost dies in ‘catastrophic’ cave dive
• Ugh! ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone was once disemboweled by his ATV
• Donald Cerrone explains a crazy horse caused his gory eye injury
• Courts find UFC lightweight Donald Cerrone not guilty of third-degree assault in Colorado ‘boat rage’ incident

Cerrone (36-11) is also the #4 ranked lightweight in the UFC. It’s a position that could substantially improve should he manage to defeat former interim lightweight champion and current #2 lightweight Tony Ferguson (24-3). That chances comes this Saturday at UFC 238 at United Center in Chicago.

Records and records

Cerrone ranking is a product of grind you’ll rarely see at the highest levels of MMA. Despite holding the record for the most victories in UFC history, having his hand raised 23 times in the Octagon, Cerrone has only fought for a UFC championship once.

He has also scored the most stoppages (TKO, KO or submission) in the history of the promotion. He’s won Fight of the Night five times, Knockout of the Night three times, Submission of the Night twice and Performance of the Night seven times. All signs say he comes not just to win, but to fight.

Cerrone’s “anyone, anytime, anywhere” mentality has made him a fan favorite. But it also lands him against stiff challenges more often than almost any other fighter with a top ten ranking. More challenges, taken more frequently has led to a record not quite as sparkling as other top fighters.

His occasional stumbles in the cage have kept him from a UFC title challenge since a December 2015 disaster against then-lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos. Back then Cerrone was stopped just 66 seconds into the fight.

Following his loss to dos Anjos, Cerrone jumped up a weight class where he went 6-4, losing to some of the elite in the division before returning to lightweight and picking up a pair of wins.

In his most recent performance, Cerrone took a decision win over Al Iaquinta in a Fight of the Night performance on May 4.

Yes, May 4 … as in one month ago. And now Cerrone is stepping back into the cage to face off with the man ranked #12 in the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings.

Because of course he is.

“More or less the UFC called me and asked me if I wanted to fight and I said yes, then it took two or three days for Tony to agree to the fight, which really pissed me off because the UFC called me and offered to me and left me in his limbo,” Cerrone told MMAjunkie of making the short-notice fight happen.

“I keep calling like, ‘(UFC President) Dana (White), I’m on fucking vacation. Can I drink beer and eat guacamole, or do you want me to go fucking run on the beach? Because this in-between, I don’t know what’s going on, is fucking bullshit.’ So, Tony took long figuring it out.”

“I’ve got to beat them all anyway”

Ferguson won the interim lightweight title in 2017. Then he suffered a knee injury while promoting a fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov. Eventually he was stripped of the interim belt due to injury related inactivity.

The injury was the fourth time the promotion attempted to book a fight between Nurmagomedov and Ferguson, only to see it fall apart.

That background makes Ferguson’s hesitancy to fight Cerrone understandable. Ferguson returned from injury this past October and defeated Anthony Pettis in a great fight. Meanwhile Nurmagomedov is now the reigning lightweight champion after easily defeating Conor McGregor.

A title fight is right there for Ferguson, so why take on a killer like Cerrone?

“I think he believes he deserves a shot, so for him fighting someone like me is super dangerous,” Cerrone said in his MMAjunkie interview. “Why would he want to put himself at risk of (losing) a title shot? Especially fighting a fucking killer. But I don’t give a shit. That’s the difference between me. I’ll fight anybody. So, I’ve got to beat them all anyway.”

“Beating them all” would certainly put Cerrone in line to face the winner of a unification bout between Nurmagomedov and interim champ Dustin Poirier.

But the real gold at the end of the rainbow is a long-desired fight between Cerrone and retired (but maybe not that retired) Conor McGregor.

“The Cerrone fight makes sense,” UFC President Dana White said of options for McGregor’s potential return to the Octagon. “There’s a couple different options out there for him. He was talking about the Cerrone fight at one point.

“I don’t really know but that fight makes sense.”

The Sunday Storm turns 8 this month. To celebrate, PokerStars is guaranteeing a $1 million prize pool, and $100,000 to the winner. Not bad for an $11 tournament. Just not very storm-like.

Technically this should start with an apology.

It’s about that word “Storm”.

The Sunday Storm takes place on Sunday 16 June at 14:00 ET, with a $1 million guarantee and $100,000 set aside for the winner. That’s all true.

It just doesn’t bear any resemblance to a storm.

For one thing, it costs just $11 to play.

Estimated storm damage: about $11

Has there ever been a storm that caused net damage of $11? What would an $11 storm even look like?

It’s not likely there has ever been a storm you could endure at a discounted rate either.

And yet satellites on PokerStars mean you can sit through this Sunday Storm for as little as $2.20.

You can even play for free. PokerStars Schools are giving away 300 Sunday Storm tickets which you can learn more about here.

If it was a proper storm players would be running away from it, not towards it.

But rushing towards it is exactly what something like 100,000 players will be doing when it starts a week on Sunday.

The forecast for this weekend on PokerStars

And rather than cause $11 of damage it does $1 million of net gain.

So to recap, the Sunday Storm does the opposite of any other storm. Which makes it a great storm. The kind you would look forward to.

Based on that technicality alone, we apologize.

All that aside, it’s a poker tournament no player should miss out on.

The $11 buy in leaves the door open for anyone to play. And if you’re a low or micro stakes player, you can win your seat in any of those satellites we mentioned, or in special Spin & Go’s starting at just $0.75.

Best guess at what a $0.75 storm looks like…

And if you do happen to hit turbulence, remember it’s a re-entry event. You can buy in again up to three times during the registration period.

Or you can stick to one entry. Maybe won in a satellite. Then you could legitimately claim to be riding out this anniversary storm in style.

To learn more about this landmark event, simply visit the Sunday Storm homepage.

That’s where you’ll find details like where to find the event in the tournament lobby, as well as satellite information. You can even register right away.

It’s just not a storm.

Joris “BillLewinsky” Ruijs took down one of the larger first-place prizes during the Spring Championship of Online Poker. It came in the Sunday Million Special Edition and was worth $217K.

The Dutchman now has $6.2M in online earnings, two SCOOP wins, and a WCOOP title to boot. But Ruijs is looking for a change of pace after almost a decade of battling at the highest stakes online.

As he told us during SCOOP, Ruijs is now setting his sights on the world of live Super High Rollers. With $1.79M in live winnings to date he’s no stranger to the live felt, but as we found out, his goal is to get to the $100Ks.

We caught up with him at his temporary grind station in the Dominican Republic to talk about his huge win, how he came up in the game, and his plans for the future.

PokerStars Blog: Congratulations on your SCOOP win. How is life in the Dominican Republic treating you?

Joris “BillLewinsky” Ruijs: It’s pretty excellent. We have a big swimming pool for an office, a lot of sun, and nice grinding hours. Last WCOOP, I went to Mexico to play as I was sick of getting stuck in a time zone where you’re playing until 6am or 7am every day. My friend said it was a good idea to come the Dominican Republic. We start at 11am and play until around 10pm, so you can still go out to dinner.

If this is your office…does one ever take a day off? 😁 pic.twitter.com/msBrOR6QtB

— Joris Ruijs (@Ruysvogel) May 22, 2019

You’ve now added a SCOOP title to go along with your WCOOP title. How does this one compare?

It’s pretty good. This one feels great. It’s such a huge amount of money. SCOOP is always nice because the structures are always so good, it’s more prestigious. This win feels amazing, it’s my biggest online score by quite a bit.

You’ve final tabled the Sunday Million before (finishing fourth in 2018 for $52K). It must be nice to have gone all the way to take down this Special Edition version?

This one doesn’t really feel like a Sunday Million. That’s usually a $215 or a $109 now, whereas this one was really deep and there was a lot of play at the final table, which lasted quite a bit. I know it was a Special Edition, but it felt different to the regular Million.

You were also on a High Roller Club final table at the very same time as the SCOOP final table (Ruijs finished fifth in the $1,050 Sunday Warm-Up for $18K). That must have been exciting, right?

The whole SCOOP has been exciting actually, I’ve been making a lot of deep runs. You get to play pretty high stakes everyday. The SCOOP was already so big, so compared with that the High Roller Club final was pretty small. It didn’t add extra pressure, but it was nice. A really great day.

And you came back the very next day and made yet another final table, finishing second in the High Roller Club $1,050 Daily Warm-Up for $23K.

Yeah, y’know, we’re just out here playing everyday. No days off. We went partying yesterday for the first time, but we’ve been playing everyday.

Do you look forward to the SCOOP every year?

Yes, and this SCOOP we came over-prepared. For a month and a half in advance we had things we were working on, ranging from mental game things to technical analysis. We did heaps of study and work on specific spots and analysing opponents we were going to see a lot. We arranged for a personal chef here in the Dominican Republic to make us healthy food, to take care of us whilst we’re grinding. We were very prepared and absolutely looking forward to SCOOP.

I don’t think I’ve ever been on a healthier schedule than here. We wake up at a normal time, go for a run in the sun, play some golf, go for a swim, eat breakfast and start the grind. It’s ideal circumstances.

How do you think that lifestyle has impacted your poker?

If you’re playing 10 or 12 days in a row and you go deep in one of the later events, and it’s like 5am or 6am, your concentration just drops, there’s no two ways about it. We’ve noticed it a lot in the late tournaments. We see a lot of good players starting to make mistakes, which we think is due to fatigue from just having played so much. Some players seem to either want to quickly run up a stack, or bust and go to sleep. We have none of that. We can play. Our mental fitness is at its strongest point when everyone else is at their weakest point. It feel likes a huge difference.

How did you first discover poker?

I started playing when I was 18 or 19, and I’m 27 now so I sort of feel like a dinosaur in the online poker world. Like everyone else, I started playing really small stakes and freerolls after a friend introduced me to the game. I was always into strategy games.

The low stakes went well, and I slowly moved up from the $1 and $2 games. After a year I noticed I was making quite a bit more money than I was in my job as a chef. I moved and left that job, and never got another job again.

I then had a huge score and that was a big kickstarter for me to move up stakes and play higher. Ever since then I’ve always been super competitive online. I started my own company so there was a three-year stretch where I wasn’t playing as much online, but other than that I’ve always been competitive at the high stakes. 

Joris Ruijs at the 2018 EPT Barcelona High Roller final table

What are you ambitions at this point in your career? No.1 in the world, perhaps?

I’m working with a couple of guys at a coaching company, and the idea is just to improve to the level where I’m going to be able to compete in the Super High Rollers, so the $25K, $50K and $100Ks. That’s really the ambition at this point. To get to a level of play where I feel comfortable in those events.

Online, the stakes are so high at this point–even without SCOOP, with the High Roller Club you can play $20K in buy-ins a day–so I’m just making sure my performance is good. It’s really important to me. I don’t think I can beat Lena900 or C.Darwin in the online rankings, so I think I’ll just have to leave that to them! Getting to world no.1 would be really fun, but I don’t think it’s realistic. A couple of those guys play so much–two months without missing a day–and I just can’t do that. I need some days off, and I like playing live.

With the plan being to move more into the live Super High Rollers, how do you think the level of play compares from the higher stakes live to online?

The stakes in live poker are much higher and the level of play is far lower. One of the things that people do live is lose patience or they start making mistakes and trying to force the issue, which you don’t really see online because everything goes so fast. I think the level in online high stakes is higher than it’s ever been. There’s a group of guys that are consistently playing them and they’re all excellent at poker, so you really have to battle it out for the small edges. Whereas with a live $10K, you could have a table where three of four people are sitting there because they enjoy playing the game or they won a satellite or something. It’s quite a bit softer than online.

For me, I have a list of things I want before jumping into these stakes, and one is being comfortable and having an edge. It feels silly to play a $100K and not be sure you have an edge. I might join in, I might not make it, you never know, but that is my ambition.

Will you be in the high roller mix at the World Series of Poker?

I’m only heading out to Las Vegas for the Main Event. After this I’m going back to the Netherlands for a while, and I’ll try not to see a computer screen for a few weeks!

Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.

We call it the Spring Championship of Online Poker, but in Brazil, SCOOP actually takes place during the autumn. It’s usually cold this time of the year in the south of the country where William “Tiu Patinh@s” de Oliveira lives, but he’s not complaining.

“It’s perfect for the online grind,” he told the PokerStars Blog by email this week. And it’s hard to argue when you look at his results.

Back in 2015, de Oliveira won a $1 rebuy tournament in early May. He followed that up by winning Event #15-M during SCOOP for more than $57,000.

Then this April he made the final table of the Sunday Million for the second-largest cash of his career. A few weeks later — exactly four years to the day after his first SCOOP win, as it turns out — he finished in fourth place in Event #12-L for another $26,000. And when that tournament was done he turned his attention back to Event #14-L, a $22 6-max no-limit hold’em tournament, where he outlasted more than 7,800 players to win his second career SCOOP title and more than $22,000.

The similarities are obvious on paper, but de Oliveira says it’s “just coincidence.” Less coincidental is that the 30-year-old found his way to another victory after dedicating himself to the game full-time. “Poker is my main activity,” he said. “Either playing, studying or coaching — I’m always involved with poker.”

William “Tiu Patinh@s” de Oliveira at home in Brazil, where the fall weather is “perfect for the online grind.”

About eight years ago a friend who used to play poker introduced de Oliveira to the game. A strategy gamer and competitor at heart, he immediately found himself interested. A home game began, and soon enough he found online poker. “I haven’t stopped since then.”

When he won his first SCOOP event he wasn’t yet ready to call himself a professional poker player, since he was splitting his time between his electrical engineering studies and poker. “I’m not sure if it impacted that much my aspirations to become a poker player because I wasn’t sure if that’s what I wanted,” he said. “But I believe that this recent victory was more special because it consolidates the work I’ve been doing. In the long run, hard work and studies are paid off.”

As hard as all the work was to get there, the actual path to victory this year was as breezy as they come.

“I had a big stack most of the time and at some point I ended focusing more on the $109 SCOOP #12-L,” he said. “Since I wasn’t paying too much attention I got really short, but after busting the $109 I got my attention back and I was rewarded immediately. I got A-A and decided to trap preflop, which resulted in a three-way all-in situation and tripled my stack.

“I started to pressure the whole table and basically I didn’t gave them a chance at the final table. When it ended I hit my desk and yelled ‘Vamooo!’ but I didn’t start jumping or anything like that. I went to my girlfriend to give her a kiss and that was it, pretty calm.”

Even with a second SCOOP win permanently on his résumé, de Oliveira isn’t getting ahead of himself. Adding a SCOOP-High title to the Low and Medium ones he already has would be nice, but he knows he has a lot of work ahead to get to where he’s ready to compete at that level.

“As with any player, I have ambitions to play higher stakes,” he said. “But my main goal is to keep working with poker. It is the thing that makes me happy, whether it’s low, medium, or high stakes.”

Given his ability to keep big wins in perspective and focus on working hard, it won’t be a surprise if we end up interviewing de Oliveira again during another SCOOP — even if he’ll probably call it a coincidence.

The World Series of Poker is well underway in Las Vegas, and once again poker players from all over the world are looking ahead to the Main Event in July.

Three years ago Qui Nguyen of Vietnam captured poker’s most prestigious title when he topped a field of 6,737 to win the 2016 WSOP Main Event. His victory culminated with an exciting final table, and following his win Nguyen collaborated with Steve Blay of Advanced Poker Training to explain the strategies he employed on his way to winning the bracelet and more than $8 million first prize.

In the resulting book From Vietnam to Vegas!, Nguyen reviews 176 key hands, with commentary from Blay analyzing the mathematical basis behind Nguyen’s decisions. The book additionally includes a Q&A with Nguyen covering other topics that arose during the three-day final table as well as a short autobiography in which Nguyen relates the story of his life and his journey from Vietnam to Las Vegas. Esfandiari also contributes an entertaining foreword introducing the book.

Besides chronicling the final table in an in-depth and interesting way, the book provides insight into how both intuition and logic matter at the poker table, and shares with readers practical ways to apply such insight in their own play.

What follows is an excerpt sharing a hand from Day 1 of the final table that took place when there were still eight players left. By the time this hand takes place, Nguyen had already taken over the chip lead, and here demonstrates some of his big-stack aggression Blay characterizes as “Judgment Jamming.”

2016 WSOP Main Event Final Table, Day One: Hand 57

Level: 37
Blinds/ante: 400,000/800,000-100,000
Players: 8

From Vietnam to Vegas! is available in paperback and as an e-book at D&B Poker.

D&B Publishing (using the imprint D&B Poker) was created by Dan Addelman and Byron Jacobs 15 years ago. Since then it has become one of the leading publishers of poker books with titles by Phil Hellmuth, Jonathan Little, Mike Sexton, Chris Moorman, Dr. Patricia Cardner, Lance Bradley, Martin Harris and more, all of which are available at D&B Poker.

Here’s a round-up from the week on PokerStars Blog…

• $11 buy-in, $1M Gtd Sunday Storm anniversary edition announced
• Jeopardy James and other poker near-misses
• SCOOP winner interviews with Kenny Hallaert, Joris Ruijs, “Tiu Patinh@s”
• Book excerpt: ‘From Vietnam to Vegas!’ by Qui Nguyen
• WSOP bracelet winners this week

Sunday Storm 8th anniversary next week (June 16)

The Sunday Storm turns eight this month. To celebrate, PokerStars is guaranteeing a $1 million prize pool, and $100,000 to the winner. Not bad for an $11 tournament.

Click here to find out how you could turn $11 into $100K.

Jeopardy James and other poker near-misses

It finally happened. James Holzhauer lost on Jeopardy! After 32 straight victories on the popular quiz show, “Jeopardy James” has finally been defeated.

All told, Holzhauer won an eye-popping $2,464,216 during his time on the show, coming oh-so-close to breaking the all-time record of $2,522,700 million won by Ken Jennings back in 2004. Indeed, if Holzhauer had won on Monday while earning something close to his average win, he would have broken the record last night.

That twist got our own Martin Harris thinking about some of the big near-misses we’ve seen in the poker world over the years, from Mike McDonald’s EPT run to Johnny Chan’s near three-peat in the World Series of Poker Main Event.

Have a read of those poker near-misses here.

SCOOP winner interviews

This week our team have been sitting down to talk with some more champions from the 2019 Spring Championship of Online Poker.

First we had Kenny “SpaceyFCB” Hallaert, who won his second title in a $2K turbo for $94K. Hallaert told us about his rise in the game, and how he hopes to win a WSOP bracelet this summer.

Then we spoke with Joris “BillLewinsky” Ruijs, who also won his second SCOOP title this summer in the $215 Sunday Million Special Edition, a win worth $217K. Ruijs told us how his ambition moving forward is to reach the $100K Super High Rollers.

We also had a chat with Brazil’s William “Tiu Patinh@s” de Oliveira who made two SCOOP final tables in one day.

Book excerpt: “From Vietnam to Vegas!” by Qui Nguyen

Three years ago Qui Nguyen of Vietnam captured poker’s most prestigious title when he topped a field of 6,737 to win the 2016 WSOP Main Event. His victory culminated with an exciting final table, and following his win Nguyen collaborated with Steve Blay of Advanced Poker Training to explain the strategies he employed on his way to winning the bracelet and more than $8 million first prize.

In the resulting book From Vietnam to Vegas!, Nguyen reviews 176 key hands, with commentary from Blay analyzing the mathematical basis behind Nguyen’s decisions

Check out an excerpt from that book right here.

WSOP Bracelet winners

Here’s a look at some of the World Series of Poker 2019 winners this week:

WSOP Photography by pokerphotoarchive.com

Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.

Watching prizefighting is always a good way to spend a portion of your weekend. And with UFC 238 coming up we find ourselves been blessed with another round of combat sports goodness.

It all takes place Saturday at United Center in Chicago, anchored with a five-fight main card.

Let’s break down four reasons why UFC 238 is worth your time.

1.   A strong championship main event

The UFC’s bantamweight division is without a champion following T.J. Dillashaw’s drug test failure in January. Dillashaw popped positive after losing a bid to drop down a weight class and fight flyweight champ Henry Cejudo. That left him subsequently stripped of his 135-pound title.

So, of course Cejudo (14-2) is now jumping up to bantamweight to attempt to capture gold in a second weight class. In his way is “Magic” Marlon Moraes (22-5-1), a wrecking ball who has only lost one fight in his last 18 outings. It’s worth noting that one loss was a split decision against Raphael Assuncao. And of 17 media outlets whose scores were tracked for the bout, only one did not see Moraes as the winner.

There aren’t many more compelling “on paper” matchups than a division champion moving up in weight. Especially, to face the division’s #1 ranked fighter in a title fight with odds checking in at near pick ‘em levels.

There’s also this:

Henry Cejudo continues to raise the bar. #UFC238 pic.twitter.com/xf9IZuAcW5

— Mike Bohn (@MikeBohnMMA) June 6, 2019

“I pulled out Mickey Mouse, which is (former flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson),” Cejudo explained of his antics. “I pulled out the snake, which is T.J. (Dillashaw) And then I pulled out the rabbit, which was Marlon Moraes, and then I kicked it. That’s my magic trick.

“I don’t believe in magic. It’s all a bunch of illusions. Show me Saturday night.”

Cejudo’s act can drift into the cringe and that’s why the Chicago crowd at the open workouts was strongly in Moraes’ favor at the open workouts for the event.

“It’s easy to get the support from the crowd when you’re fighting Henry Cejudo,” Moraes said after open workouts.

Antics aside, the fight is a clash of the top men available in two divisions and it has the potential to be a barnburner.

2. How about a second title fight?

The second championship fight at UFC 238 doesn’t have the betting public as torn as Cejudo vs. Moraes.

Instead, women’s flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko (16-3) is a massive favorite against Jessica Eye (14-6).

As in, upwards of a -1600 favorite.

Shevchenko is 5-2 in the UFC Octagon. A pair of losses being a unanimous decision and a split decision against two-division champ Amanda Nunes — AKA maybe the best female mixed martial artist to ever do the thing.

She also has wins over former bantamweight champ Holly Holm and former strawweight champ Joanna Jędrzejczyk.

Eye’s time in the Octagon has not been so easy. Her first UFC was a split decision win later turned into a no contest after a failed drug test for marijuana metabolites. She then would lose five of her next six fights including a four-fight losing skid that saw her receive her release from the UFC.

A talk with UFC President Dana White led to a second chance. After a year-plus period without a fight, Eye took advantage of the newly opened flyweight division to rattle off three consecutive wins (two by split decision) and ended up in a title fight.

Sure, Shevchenko should pick up the win and continue to try to climb the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings (she’s currently #14). But Eye’s biggest strength has proven to be her ability to fight against the odds.

3. The fight

We’ve already detailed all the reasons to love Donald Cerrone. From his crazy outside the cage personality to his ideal prizefighter mentality to his thrilling fighting style. And there’s nothing better than when that kind of fighter ends up standing across the cage from someone equally willing to throw down.

That’s who Cerrone (36-11) faces in fellow lightweight Tony Ferguson (24-3).

It would be fair to think there’s a bit of an unofficial four-man lightweight tournament happening in the UFC right now. Cerrone and Ferguson will clash in what will almost certainly be the best fight of UFC 238. The winner is almost guaranteed a shot at the 155-pound title.

Meanwhile, interim lightweight champ Dustin Poirier will face off with lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov to unify the belts at UFC 242 in September.

Logic would suggest the winners of those two bouts would meet at the end of 2018, or beginning of 2019. But Ferguson vs. Nurmagomedov has been scheduled four times only to fall apart each time due to injuries. And there’s the shadow of Conor McGregor hanging over the entire UFC. The “retired” Irishman could all but book himself into a title fight if he works out an agreeable financial deal with the promotion and decides to return to action.

Speculation about the future aside, Cerrone vs. Ferguson is the here and now and it’s going to be spectacular.

Ferguson is a slight betting favorite but Cerrone will make him fight for every inch through every second of the fight.

This fight alone is worth your time on Saturday.

4. Big boys doing big boy things

Andy Ruiz Jr. is the fight sport heavyweight of the moment after his shocking win over Anthony Joshua in the boxing ring last weekend. But two big men will enter the Octagon this weekend looking to make their mark on the MMA world.

#11 ranked heavyweight Tai Tuivasa (8-1) will face #13 Blagoy Ivanov (17-2) to kick off the night’s main card.

Tuivasa won his first seven career fights by knockout before a decision win over former champ Andrei Arlovski landed him in the Octagon. That was against another former champ in Junior Dos Santos. Dos Santos handed Tuivasa his first career loss and he looks to right the ship when he faces off with Ivanov.

Ivanov is one fight removed from his own loss to Dos Santos, which came in the Bulgarian’s UFC debut. He rebounded from that loss with a win over Ben Rothwell.

If a resume that includes more than a decade as a professional fighter wasn’t enough to prove his toughness, Ivanov was also stabbed in a bar fight in 2012. He ended up in a medically induced coma for 68 days, the stabbing having pieced his heart and lung.

If that story doesn’t hook you on this clash of heavies, what will?

It’s not like you need any further motivation to win a seat to the EPT Open Madrid this month. It’s already looking like becoming one of the biggest events of its kind.

It’s in Madrid for one thing, one of Europe’s most glorious capitals. And last time we checked, the weather forecast hovered somewhere around “let-it-stay-like-this-forever”.

Then there’s the poker. They’ll be 20-plus tournaments on the schedule. And that €1,100 Main Event with unlimited re-entries.

• Player party
• VIP experiences
• Still time to win a seat

But if you wanted to torture yourself with a few more details, scoring a bullseye on the main FOMO nerve, then the activities below are what you’re looking for.

Before we get to those, a quick reminder.

MADRID FESTIVAL BEGINS SATURDAY 22 JUNE

The EPT Open Madrid festival starts on Saturday June 22 and runs through to Sunday June 30.

It takes place at the Casino Gran Madrid Torrelodones. That’s just a short trip out of the City, along the highway and into the Cuenca Alta Manzanares Regional Park.

It’s a stark contrast to the busy streets of Madrid. Cuenca Alta Manzanares is the type of wilderness you can hike up, ski down, or just breathe in.

It’s a place that will supercharge your poker experience. Which might be why they built a casino on the edge of it.

And we want to make the experience away from the table as memorable as possible. Preferably before you get your hands on the winner’s trophy.

Starting with the player party.

A PLAYER PARTY YOU’LL NEVER WANT TO LEAVE

It’s on Thursday June 27 from 8pm at Terraza Surrender de Casino Gran Madrid.

The theme is Spanish Fiesta, laid on by the hosts, which means plenty of local favourites.

This is not the plastic-wrapped paella, tortilla, or jamon, of the supermarket back home. Neither is it the gazpacho poured from a tin, or the Bocadillos made with the wrong bread.

It’s the real stuff, made how it is supposed to be made, and enjoyed with views that keep your other senses happily occupied. And before too many outdraw or bad beats ruin things with immovable indigestion.

They’ll be other things at the party too.

Like a chance to try out PokerStars VR, the virtual reality poker game threatening to make real-life obsolete.

Spolier alert: Ramon Colillas will be at the EPT Open Madrid

While you wait, you can play foosball. Not the ordinary two-player version, but the giant one, played by 16 people at a time.

And while you do that you can enjoy live music and DJ through to midnight.

And if you’re worried about the following morning, players enjoy free water and soft drinks while they play.

That’s the party. But it’ll form a kind of hub for the rest of the festival.

HAPPY HOUR. MAKE THAT HOURS

The terrace is a great place to relax after playing (or before if you prefer). They’ll even be a daily happy hour (maybe two hours) planned each from between Friday June 28 to Sunday June 30.

Each night you can try a different local drink on the Terrace bar outside between 8pm and 10pm.

On the 28^th the drink will be Cerveza (this is a useful word to learn… it means beer). Then they’ll be Sangria on the 29^th, and Mimosa (it’s full of champagne) on the 30^th. That will help wrap things up in the appropriate fashion.

And if Sangria and champagne are not your thing, there’s always beer pong, the best game in the world to lose (especially as we provide the beer). They’ll also be prizes for the clear-headed winners.

QUALIFY FOR VIP EXPERIENCES

And if you don’t enjoy parties, or beer pong, and just need a break, you can enjoy a VIP shopping experience at Las Rozas Village.

The service, which is free to PokerStars qualifiers, includes transfer from the hotel to Las Rozas village. On arrival, you’ll enjoy a personalised entrance, welcome drinks, and VIP card. Plus, time to enjoy more than 100 luxury fashion and homeware boutiques with up to 60% off retail prices.

Think of it like winning a satellite into a more luxury lifestyle.

And if you prefer to spend all your time at the tables, all main event players will receive free PokerStars merchandise. You won’t need a trophy, a suntan, or postcards to prove that you were there.

STILL TIME TO WIN YOUR WAY TO MADRID

Like we said, the poker likely already enough of a draw for most players, with more than 20 events over nine days.

But if you’re on the fence, or this has nudged you away from watching this from home and instead you want to take part, there’s still time.

Obviously, you can buy in directly. But satellites awarding seat and expenses packages start for as little as €1 on PokerStars, and run all this week.

They conclude with the big one this Sunday. A Mega Satellite for players on dot com giving away 20 Main Event seat and expenses packages.

That starts at 14:35 ET this Sunday June 16.

There are also Spin & Go’s to fast track your way to Spain. They run until next Monday June 17, and cost only €2.50 to play on dot com.

Win a package, and we’ll take care of your €1,100 Main Event buy-in, the six nights at the 5-star hotel Meliá Princesa in central Madrid, and €379 of expenses.

DON’T I RECOGNISE YOU?

Who knows, you may even find yourself sitting opposite PokerStars Ambassador Ramon Colillas. The PSPC winner himself will be playing. You’ll have a chance to meet him, and maybe get some of that talent and enviable charm to rub off. No promises on that last bit.

If you’re interested in any of this, you can learn more on the EPT Open Madrid homepage.