Q&A with Grazza
October 12, 2006 -
Grazza is the winner of the Main Event at the 2nd annual LEOCOP, aka the Ladbrokes European Online Championships of Poker. He has graciously offered to spend some time chatting with us about his experiences. We thank him for taking the time out of his hectic schedule to do so!
Chicksnchips (CNC): So, here is what we know about you. Your real name is Graeme Newman. You are 30 years old and recently married. You live in London where you own and operate a specialist insurance broker business. Did we get that right?
Grazza: I think that just about sums me up. Maybe you should just add "certified poker addict" to that list as well.
CNC: You have people that work under you correct? Does that mean mandatory Hold’em Time during lunch breaks?
Grazza: It's strictly a "do as I say not do as I do policy" in the office, which sadly means no poker at lunch times. After all, what would I do if someone won big and decided to leave in order to follow a career as a professional poker player?
CNC: Does being your own boss have its perks such as scheduling time for playing poker online?
Grazza: Of course! Running my own company is great! It provides me with such flexibility. It gives me the chance to jet off at the last minute if I happen to qualify for a big live event. Obviously it also allows me to roll in a little late in the morning when I win $230k in the early hours of Monday morning.
CNC: How much poker had you played before your LEOCOP experience both in person and online?
Grazza: I play a lot of online poker, probably about 40 - 50 hours a week and have been playing for about 4 years now! That's a lot of poker! I used to be strictly a tournament player with my main focus on single table tournaments. Recently I have been playing a lot more cash games online and a wide variety of multi-table tournaments.
My live experience has been limited to the big events that I have won qualifiers to such as the World Series main event, the British Poker Open, the Caribbean Poker Classic, Ladbrokes Poker Cruise, and London EPT. I also play for fun at the Gutshot a few times a month just to build my experience of the live game.
CNC: Is it true that you won your seat into the main event an hour before it began? How did that happen?
Grazza: Yes, it really was a last minute decision. I was playing in another big tournament that evening and thought I'd have a go at one of the turbo qualifiers for the Ladbrokes event. I decided that if I won it then I'd play. If not, then I would just concentrate on the other event. It was one of the wildest crapshoots you'll ever find. You get 100 chips and the blinds go up every minute. Basically you pick your hand and go all-in. Then hope for the best. It may not sound like there isn't any strategy to this type of event, but actually there is and I think that helped me to get through!
CNC: When the tournament began, did you have any idea you were in for 12 hours of poker? How do you prepare for such a long haul, or adapt to it? Lots of caffeine?
Grazza: Obviously I always hoped I'd be there for the duration but thought it was pretty unlikely. I knew it would be a long game as the structure of the tournament was fantastic. You had a starting stack of 5,000 and blinds went up every 30 minutes. There was no particular preparation as I'm used to playing long sessions of poker online. It was just a case of settling down and not rushing things.
CNC: Was your wife right there through the whole thing, or was she more like, “I don’t care what the pot odds are. It’s 3am! Either go all in or get to bed!”
Grazza: I have to say she is incredibly understanding. She never complains about my poker playing (well rarely) or the fact that she often gets woken up in the early hours when I finish a long session. I think my victory yell woke her up at about 6am. When she heard how much I'd, won she really wasn't going to start having a go at me!
CNC: Did you have a specific goal, such as “I just want to cash” or “I’m going for the win”?
Grazza: I always play to win. As with all tournaments, the majority of the prize pool is paid to the top three spots so there is no point in just aiming to creep into the money. The added bonus is that, with that kind of money at stake, many people tighten up far too much and that provides a great opportunity to build a big enough stack to win the event.
CNC: Did you have a specific strategy for the game? Did you change it at any point?
Grazza: I try not to set out with any pre-conceived strategies. It really is a case of adapting to the players at your table. In general, I look to play hands with potential to flop very big at the early stages in order to try and crack a big pocket pair and then switch later in the game to playing big hands only. However, the most important part of the game is to keep mixing it up and reacting to how things are playing out at the table.
For example, at the final table when we were down to about 7 players and one of the Scandinavians became hyper-aggressive. He was raising and re-raising every pot. I just sat back and waited for a big hand. Then when he was out I noticed the other guys were playing very passively - one of them checked down a flop on which he had hit top pair. So I decided that was the time to go for it and I really opened up.
CNC: It wasn’t until sometime during the fourth hour of the event that you were in the top ten in chips. What were the first few hours of the game like?
Grazza: My chip stack was constantly up and down. I built a good few chips very early on and then blew them just as quickly. At one point early on I was down to about 1,500 chips but managed to find a few big hands to get back on my feet.
Poker is a lot about momentum and it was good to only hit the front in the later stages. If you peak too early, then it can lead to tilt as you find your chip stack going backwards. If you drop from 100,000 to 50,000 chips, you can seriously go on tilt even though you may still be in the top 3 at that stage. Conversely if you go from 10,000 to 50,000 you feel like you are on top of the world.
CNC: You had to outlast and out play a field that included pro players, such as Paul "Actionjack" Jackson, John Shipley, Jani "Hellraiser" Sointula, Bengt "Pkrbt" Sonnert and even Ladbrokes’ own - Roy "The Boy" Brindley. To what degree where you aware of them in the game, and how did it affect your play?
Grazza: I try not to think too much about players' reputations and just concentrate on playing my A-game against everybody. I was only ever at a table with Roy and John and by that stage it was really the end game. I think the pressure must have been on Roy because everyone knew who he was. As a result, I managed to stay well under the radar.
Ironically it was John Shipley who took me out of the 2005 WSOP Main Event with JJ versusmy AA. Ultimately I outdrew him in the only really lucky hand I had in the entire tournament, with KJ v his 88. I have wanted revenge for a long time - and I finally got it!
CNC: How did you feel taking out the last player before it went to the final ten?
Grazza: Very pleased. More than making the final table it was just nice to get the extra chips in my stack and finally be able to return to a ten-handed table.
CNC: During the last two hours of play how distracted were you by your trip up the payout ladder?
Grazza: I tried to totally ignore the prize money. I was trying to play the game just like I would any other. The most important thing for me was seeing how the other players were being affected by the prize money. A couple of the players were noticably affected by the money. I decided they would be my targets.
CNC: Now that you've won this major event, what’s next?
Grazza: It's off to the EPT in Dublin next in order to try and improve on my diabolical live results! After that I'll be playing in the Asian Poker Tour. Then, it's probably time for a well earned break and a chance to spend some of the money that I won!
CNC: Thank you so much, Grazza, for taking the time to answer our questions and continued luck at the tables!
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