I get to sit down tomorrow with Phil and ask him any poker questions I want for ~1 hour. Unfortunately I just found out tonight that I get to do this, and it's going to take place tomorrow morning. I'm sort of panicking and stressing out pretty bad (and having a hard time coming up with good questions).

What's some things the full ring community would be interested in asking? The higher the level of question, the better.

(I'm looking for strategy based questions, not the stupid run of the mill "what's the biggest pot you ever won?" type questions)

Thanks so much in advance guys, I really appreciate it. And I don't want to say why I get to talk to him, or what for, because I feel that could be looked upon as spamming and that's not the intention of this post.

Did you really sleep under a bridge/boardwalk in Atlantic City when you were coming up?

Describe one of your "ah-ha" moments when you were working your way up the limits... what was an epiphany/light bulb moment that really changed your game?

How does your game compare in 2016 to say pre bf when he was the undisputed king of the mountain?
Do you use software to build your strategy?
Rank top 5 players in your eyes in 2016?
How has your game changed in the last few years?
What games are you playing in? Plo? Mix?

Why do you play against the house in other games like baccarat when you do so well in poker already?

If he answers that it's because there is more money to be made, follow it up with, but is it worth the risk of being labeled a cheater?

How are you personally getting involved to try and bring back online poker in the US after BF?

Do you think American poker players are being out played by other countries players in live competition because of online poker websites being shut down in America?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

How big a % of your winrate comes from livetells / reads vs just having a fundamentally sound game ?

This and something along the lines of his thoughts on dream machines would be most worthwhile, imo.

Also ask how Tom is doing.

FWIW strat and interviews don't really go together. That's what runitonce is for

He doesn't seem like the type of guy who would open up much about strategy or gossip

I think the first step is to figure out what kind of questions he would be most responsive and give the most quality answers to. Maybe study some of his other interviews and see what kind of questions make him open up as opposed to giving non-answers.

My guess would be any conversation topics that portray poker in a positive / fun light would be good. Him and other high profile players are all very interested in reviving poker.

Definitely ask him about Six Plus Hold'Em, he should be eager to talk about that.

Appreciate you not spamming but if it's cool with the mods I would love to know where we can watch this interview when it's ready.

What is a dream machine?

Hope I'm not to late for one more...how does he feel about the Panama paper dump on May 9th?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

a theoretical bot that would approximate a GTO solution for poker, strong enough to defeat all human players

Dream machine is a phrase popularized on Joey Ingram's podcast often with his online high stakes guests.

The idea is that there is very sophisticated software in existence that some of those who are at the top developed (or had developed) for themselves. I think sort of like pokersnowie but more like PokerTracker on massive steroids. I'm not that familiar with either of these programs so I won't bs much further on them.

What was once a tin foil hat conspiracy theory 5-7 years ago is now becoming more logical as a potential reality. It is still most often joked about though, when brought up with those who would be "in the know" it is laughed/shrugged off. (Hence the "Dream machine")

I personally think that it's obvious that even at the onset of online poker, there were those who realized that millions of people were exchanging hundreds of millions of dollars online via a mathematics based game. It's crazy to assume that individuals/teams with a computer programming background weren't working around the clock to develop the "pokersnowies" of the day but probably not based off GTO but rather based on external data (hand histories) and taking an exploitative approach.

When Patrik Antonius hinted at such software a year back, it made headlines in every poker media available. That's why I suggested it to OP

Man, why do I type so many words

Odds this interview ever happened?

OP has been around a long time and doesn't seem like the type to come in here and randomly make something up for attention seeking. Not sure if that's what you meant or Phil just isn't likely to actually do it.

Well just never saw anything after op so

I think he is prohibited (at least in this forum?) from advertising the actual interview. If so OP at least tell us where to see it in the low content thread pls.

I thought of one I've actually always wanted to ask...what would it take for him to mentor someone? A single person. Mentor, not stake. If he says he'd never do it...have him at least put a fantasy price/terms on it.

An example would be something like student already has proven results, 30% profit sharing for life (min $50K per year), $1M buy-out clause.

The "interview" happened Thursday April 28th at 12:15 pacific standard time. It was originally suppose to happen on April 27th, but I asked for it to be pushed back 1 day so I could have time to come up with more questions.

The interview is also going to be posted online but I won't post where because Phil is the owner of the site, and I'm a paid "pro" of the site. (too spammy imo to post the site).

why even interview him? he acts like hes above everyone and will only give vague/1 word responses....we'd all love to hear Phil open up but that'll never happen