Uk ftw!

Where are you from in the Uk?
What's your educational background?
How did you get in to poker?
Who has the worst politicians between us and the Yanks?
Which game would you crush omybike in the most?
How many times have you gone broke at poker?

I'll try, but can't promise .
I've been on a Sheep hiatus for the last couple of months. But will try and participate now that I have a bit of time on my hands.

I've been trying to think of these, but honestly I'm still really not sure.
I don't feel like there is just one that sticks out for anything.
I still want to travel a lot more.
My favourite holiday ever was to Malia, Crete, which was with my friends when 18. We basically did 0 site-seeing in 2 weeks but had an awesome time .
As places, Japan and Barbados were both amazing, but for very different reasons. I would like to go back to both.

For my favourite city, I would probably either be kind of lame and say like where I went to University - Bournemouth, or probably somewhere in Japan, like Odawara, which is where my brother lived when I visited him there.
It's an incredible city. Japan seems to have this very strange and amazing way of simultaneously having extremely different things, often cohabiting side by side, kind of juxtaposed. For example, Odawara has a nice peaceful little river, where you can ride your bicycle leisurely alongside it etc, which then leads to this massive insane arcade, where people are sometimes going (impressively) nuts on the games. And with lots of high-tech stuff around it too.
Or there's a very cool and peaceful forest around there, with a temple, which then has another nearby temple that's super busy with many people there.

For poker cities, it's probably Monte Carlo. I was shocked with how beautiful it was. Beaches, palm trees, sea views, nice modern buildings, and seriously perfect weather when I was there. However everything is offensively expensive there and some of the people aren't the friendliest.
Prague gets an honorable mention though, as all it's architecture and stuff was very nicely lit at Christmas time.

I've thankfully never really been to anywhere that terrible, that I can remember.
If I had to choose, I'd probably say Malta. But that's from a small sample size. Largely because when I was there, everywhere was an eyesore and there was tons of building works and cranes about, apparently in preparation for something big that was going to happen there. And also the side street that my hotel was on was not very nice and often smelled of garbage.
Both Prague and Malta were incredibly tilting with how little people understood English. I was really surprised. Prague especially from my sample size, almost nobody over the age of 40 spoke much English, and for example trying to get help in my hotel room was a complete nightmare.

Was there last week, and this was not my experience at all. Strange.

Strange indeed. And that's not even just my opinion btw, I spoke to at least one local there who said that that is commonly the case in Prague. Largely because of how the country was years ago, and older people tend to dislike the situation, while younger people are different and know English as they are still made to learn it in schools.

Personally delivered to you.

Of course, anyone else is free to enter too.

Did you manage to jump into any cash games this summer?

What do you think about the current state of mixed game cash online?

Why do you think there's practically no live mixed game cash/MTTs in the UK? Any ideas to promote it more?

Congrats again on an amazing achievement!

Any insights into such a feat? The edge at LO8 would seem to be substantially lower than at its big bet counterparts. Yet you won both LO8 MTTs at WSOP, and Thang Luu won the 1.5k LO8 in both 2008 & 2009. Do you think the lower variance more than offsets what should be a lower skill edge?

Also, which non-O8 mixed game MTTs do you think are softest at WSOP (1.5k buy-in)?

In terms of mixed games and non-hold em events-

Which WSOP event would you add? Which would you remove?

Scarier proposition, a final table against 7 Hellmuth clones, or heads up sheep vs. Lines and dots?

Yeah, I played about 5 sessions. I think 4 mixed sessions, and one of just some NLHE, but I might be forgetting one.

Honestly, it's quite depressing. It generally really saddens me. Mixed games seem to be getting snubbed everywhere. Other sites don't seem willing to add them, the only site that I know other than Stars that has them is Seals with Clubs, which is basically almost dead.
Like first Full Tilt removed them (because apparently edges were bigger there/the fish were going broke quicker), then Stars increases rake there and starts dropping games from things like WCOOP and Micro Millions (How is LO8 or LHE not in the MM?), and of course they completely ****ed up the regular MTT schedule for mid-high stakes mixed games, by removing most of the great Weeklies (and dailies). Most of which didn't need to be touched at all. So now I don't really even play Sundays much anymore, whereas before I always played almost all the weekly mixed tournaments.
Cash there is ok but not very good anymore. HORSE is dead. $10/20-$20/40 8-game is almost dead, and other parts have been dying. Like even guys who play and used to play up to $100/200 8-game are now playing $4/8 8-game, it's kind of ridiculous.

Also I really don't think that Stars does close to enough to promote them at all. They could do sooo much more. But unfortunately I don't really think they care anymore.

Idk tbh. They just never really have been over here, or even promoted over here. Even the WSOP in general doesn't seem to be a big thing over here.
PL games seem to be popular in some places though. Like I know a couple of more private/home games that have lots of crazy PL mixed games like PL super stud and PL Badacey etc. And the popularity of 5/6 card PLO and PLO8 seems to be growing though.
In general I don't have any promotional ideas for it I'm afraid, other than what would be for individual casinos. Or like a more British/European-based online site having them.

Confirmed. Somehow I forgot that I went to Cyprus last year. I quite liked it there. It was in a package deal so we basically didn't leave the hotel, other than for airport transfers and for a morning/very early night beach trip. But the hotel/venue was seriously amazing, and weather was nice.

Done.

• Southampton.
• I went to college (and got A-levels), and then 1.5 years of University.
• I found my dad playing some online when I was about 14-15.
• It's close. Tbh they're both terrible and tilting these days so I generally try to keep out of it and not pay too much attention . I think the US probably wins it in terribleness atm though, with Trump and Clinton as the main choices. Or at least maybe will be the most terrible soon, if/when they come into office.
• Probably any of the Stud games .
• Not sure if I would exactly call it broke, but once when I was about 15 I bust and then quit for a while. But since properly taking it up again when ~19, I've gone broke 0 times.

are you millionair

I don't know if I would remove any. I think every event generally has its place now. I think there should be a low buy in event and a championship event of each main game variant.
The triple draw mix addition this year was amazing, and that was the main type of addition that I wanted after last year.
Probably what I want added most is a 10-game event, which they had but took out for the last couple of years.
But mostly I would probably add in NLO8 actually. I think at least a $1,500 event of that would be amazing. I'm sure that it would smash 500 players.
Then maybe some other things like possibly a $10k PLO8 event, a Badugi event, or a big bet mixed event would be awesome. Quite a few players have talked about that already, a mix of like NLHE, PLO and NL SD 2-7, and maybe also PLO8. Or just a NLHE/NL 2-7 mix.

I think the HU Sheep. Hellmuth (mostly) isn't very good, he often is entertaining but can be very annoying to play with/against. He often unpleasantly berates people and just doesn't shut up. I played against him in the Main Event this year and it was just unreal how he was talking to himself lol. However, lines is a non-human .

Thanks for doing this, Benny.
Congrats again on the amazing summer!

I haven't had the opportunity to play PLO8 in a live setting. How easy would you say it is for a first-time WSOP dealer to deal properly? I would imagine that occasionally one of them has trouble alculating a Pot Sized bet, reading the board and also splitting the chips.

For those reasons (because many hands are won preflop and sized of the pot isnt important), do you think NLO8 would be easier to deal?

Would you be willing to contact Jack Effel/WSOP guys in trying to add a NLO8 event? I've tried tweeting them a while back and was ignored.

Gonna Double dip here

Highest you have played Online/ Live, any aspirations to battle the nosebleeds?

Who would have a higher ROI in the 10K WSOP limit 08 championship, you or Isildur1?

Are you up lifetime from buying pieces/staking?

How long do you envision playing this game for a living for?

How does the UK tax overseas gambling winnings?

Thanks!
(Thang also got 2nd in it back to back)
I think both yes and no.
It's kind of a tough question to answer for tournaments. Like it depends on the fields, the tournament structure, and also even the person's playing style somewhat (higher or lower variance).
I think in some spots the lower variance can offset the lower skill edge. The $1500 O8 event in particular is a very soft event, and I loved the amazing turnout for it in the 934-person field. So there for example I'm sure the skill edge is still huge, and comparable to that of a skill edge in a PLO8 event. And of course if both skill edges would be similar in those 2, then the lower variance one would prevail.
Also one secret insight is that you have to also run well

Probably the $1500 Razz or Stud8.

Can you expand on the point re: picking spots to take higher variance lines? Wouldn't you want to play smallball vs the fishes you have an edge against and wouldn't you want to keep the pot sizes down vs the few competent rivals?

also I haven't played much NLO8 - cash or MTTs. what are the key differences in both forms of the game IYO?

It doesn't .
0 tax.

$75/150 live, $50/100 limit online.
I'll move up in stakes from what I was playing before for sure. But the nosebleeds are generally very tough these days. I would love to battle there, as I have just watched them for years and admired them. But I don't have infinite money , so even if I did get a bankroll that approached it, then I could probably make a similar amount of money at lower stakes, at a higher winrate, with less variance and less stress.
Having said that, I would love to become one of the very best in the world, and I still do have some aspirations for that.

I would. He isn't so good at ring - particularly 9-handed, he's still more of a HU player. (Although I also prefer playing HU.)

I'm actually not sure. I think up. But it's hard to say because I've bought sooo much action, and more recent bigger pieces bought outweigh others by a lot.

I've thought about this before, and never really came up with a conclusive answer. But honestly that's because I never felt like I needed to. I feel like there'll just naturally come a point where I will play the game less, or a time to stop/lessen my playing amount for whatever reason, like if I find something else in life, or if some other problems happen to online for example (hopefully not).
I think I plan to play it at least until I am still winning in it, games are still running, I'm not hating playing it, and am not sacrificing too much else in my life. So I think probably at least for the next 5 years or so at least part-time, and then we'll see.

And yeah no problem about multiple questions/posts, go ahead.

Oh **** you.

What is the worst play you saw someone do in a non-NLHE tournament this summer at the WSOP? Ever?

Yes. I meant more like knowing which opponents will react more poorly to pressure. And in which particular spots, like board textures, but also which particular spots like when approaching a bubble or ICM spots.
Which is kind of common sense and intuitive.
Preflop is the biggest difference. You will often see people just open shipping anywhere from like 20-50bbs, or even just 3bet ripping 100bbs over a min open for example. So limping can sometimes be a reasonable strategy because of this.
NLO8 has so much more stack leverage post. You don't really want to get into spots where people can just be overbet shipping post and blowing you off your equity. So pot controlling can potentially be more of a thing here.
Also the fact that NLO8 obviously has antes means that it plays bigger generally, especially in tournaments. Which more justifies why people are often open-ripping for so much pre.