Poker and MMA go hand-in-hand, both requiring discipline, competitive drive, precision and discretion. On top of that, the two realms overlap a good deal in terms of demographics, a major reason for the recently announced partnership between PokerStars and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC®).
One person heavily involved in both of these worlds is Bruce Buffer, the veteran voice of the world-famous UFC Octagon. Aware of Buffer’s robust history as a poker player and in light of their recent sponsorship deal, PokerStars invited Buffer to play in the $25K PSPC on a Platinum Pass freeroll.
Buffer obliged and came out to the Bahamas to announce the kick off of the biggest $25K in history, and also to take his shot in it.
UFC-Poker Connection
The renowned MMA cage announcer sat down with PokerNews’ [Removed:139] before the start of Day 2 and shared some of his thoughts on the UFC-PokerStars deal and the links between poker and MMA.
“I think it’s a brilliant move and a brilliant partnership for many reasons. The demographic with the UFC with the 18 to 34 crowd which are big in the poker world, they’ll be more embedded into this. We just signed a big deal with ESPN so we’re going to be on more TV sets and more eyeballs than ever, so the timing is perfect.”
As a longtime poker player in the Los Angeles and Las Vegas areas, Buffer is atuned to the parallels between the worlds he fluctuates between.
“There are a lot of mental similarities between fighting and poker: when to be offensive, when to be defensive, when to go in for the knockout - which means you’re either going to get knocked out or you’re going to knock out your opponent, whether it’s for the chips on the table or you knock ‘em out in the Octagon.
“In business and in life, poker is a parable to many things,” he continued. “I truly believe that and I’ve been a very passionate lover and player of poker for many years.”
For someone as passionate about poker as Buffer is, the chance to play in the PSPC was an exciting one.
Finished Day #1 with 71,100 chips & the average chip count for remaining players is 80.477. 1,015 started & 754 l… https://t.co/NmdHvKu0h3
— Bruce Buffer (@brucebuffer)
Though he got through Day 1 with a healthy stack, he wasn’t as fortunate here on Day 2 as he busted in the third level of the day. You can watch the interview with Buffer from just before the start of Day 2 below:
PokerStars has pulled of an incredible feat; organizing the biggest $25,000 buy-in event in the history of the game with 1,039 players signing up. The atmosphere in the tournament room was, as a result, more than good with smiles all around. One of the bigger smiles belonged to Lex Veldhuis when we talked to him on Day 1 of the event. And while he has since been eliminated, Veldhuis stands by his words on this event being incredible.
You're wearing a PokerStars patch so being excited about this event is mandatory, but I imagine you'd feel the same had PokerStars not been your sponsor.
Yeah, I think the response has been very positive, enthusiastic overall. We had a party for the Platinum Pass winners the night before the event started and I heard all these stories about how the people came here. I met the guy who qualified through my twitch stream promotion. I mean, it's incredible. The stories you hear; this is such a big thing for them.
"People from pure fandom level get to play an event like this, it's incredible."
People from pure fandom level get to play an event like this, it's incredible. You really sense that the people love it. There's a lot of chatter at the tables about it.
And, of course, there are the nerves. I had a guy at my table wearing sunglasses and a hat. I had no idea whether he was a qualifier playing an event like this for the first time, or an online pro. Then, when he raised for the first time, the chips almost fell out of his hand he was shaking so much. Yeah, that is kind of a tell for sure.
There are, of course, also Platinum Pass winners who'll play extremely solid, but just the whole event is sick. I said from the get-go I expected the event to get over 1,000 players, but it was more speaking about what I was hoping. It's just cool to start the year with an event like this.
There's a mix of players; from unexperienced qualifiers to top pros and from people that are taking a shot to people coming back from retirement not to miss out. What do you think about the field?
It's an excellent field. It's better than some $10,000 events. If you crushed poker four years ago but since haven't played as much anymore but coming back to play this one, that also adds to this event being so good. You see quite a lot of those players. But even though they haven't forgotten about everything, the fact remains that they haven't kept up to date on poker. A lot of stuff happened in the last four years; new little tricks have been discovered, certain spots are now better figured out. I like to think I'm better up to speed on such developments. I'm pretty confident playing in a field like this.
Where do you rank yourself in a field like this?
That's a tough question. When I walk through the tournament room, I don't recognize most of the online crushers. If you play the Daily $500s and are a regular in the $1,000 Sunday Warmup, you'll be better than me, and it's likely I won't recognize you. I'm not sure how many of these players are here, so it kind of depends. I think I'll do well against the rest of the field. If you have two or three of these guys at your table, it makes things tough. But in any other $25,000, there'll be at least five or six of them at the table.
So Top 5 percent of the field?
I don't think I'm in the group of best 50 players in this tournament, but Top 100 isn't a stretch I think.
Your hands don't tremble while playing a $25,000 buy-in event, even though you're not a regular in these things?
I fired two $25,000 bullets in the last WCOOP, but that was such a strong field I wasn't really even expecting to be winning in the long run. Even though the pots themselves were sometimes stressful, the overall feeling wasn't stressful.
I've played quite a few $2,000s and $5,000s last year, so I feel pretty confident about my tournament game. I know what my strong and weaker points are, I know from what kind of spots to stay away. I've also played a lot live in recent months and enough $25,000s in my life, so the experience is there. I've been here before so that releases some of the tension of playing in such an event.
"I don't think I'm in the group of best 50 players in this tournament, but Top 100 isn't a stretch I think."
Last year at the PCA, I interviewed you about your Twitch stream and how you kept reinventing yourself. Now, with 2018 behind you, how do you look back at your stream since?
It really couldn't be better. If I had only half of it, I would've taken it. I'm just thinking how great it's all been. I can't believe where I'm at right now with my Twitch stream.
The last five or six months I've been very consistent with my viewership numbers, it's been quite steady. It's hard to really grow fast.
Have you reached a ceiling when it comes to concurrent viewers?
No, not a hard ceiling. It's really up to me now to grow the poker directory on Twitch. With the numbers I'm now getting, I get pretty high up in Twitch's overall directory. When I stream on a Sunday and get 9- or 10,000 viewers, I make the Top 15 of Twitch's overall directory. That means that a lot of people who browse Twitch see my stream. Hopefully, they think 'oh cool, poker' and start watching. And those are the exact people I want to attract and the people I need to grow my channel. But that's a tougher demographic to reach and to get to tune in again, compared to those who are already poker fans.
I think there's a lot more potential in Twitch and poker. It's my goal for the year to get more mainstream attention for poker and introduce more new people to poker through my channel.
Do you think poker is important for Twitch just as much as Twitch is important for poker?
I think poker is unique to Twitch because people who are playing buy in themselves. They pay money to play and win money. When you watch a Hearthstone streamer, he or she is invited to a tournament because they're good at the game, but they don't have their own money on the line. That's unique to poker; the players are uniquely invested, and as a viewer, you can feel that. Sweating with someone who has money on the line is a different experience, I think.
Professional poker players need to try to not give away too much. On top of that, with 15 years of experience as a professional poker player, you must have seen it all by now. Do you need to act when on stream - screaming it out when you get a bad beat - or is that your true nature?
I think, when you're playing a competitive game, it's triggered automatically. The emotions come naturally. At least for me. When I lose a pot live, I won't be jumping out of my chair. But when you're at home, it's a lot different.
There are stories of Patrik Antonius throwing his computer mouse through the window after losing a pot playing online. The stoic Fin supposedly is as engaged as anyone when playing online poker.
Twitch gives people a view into the real life of an online poker pro. There's so much happening and with Twitch you get to see it all; the raw emotion. On top of that, the community fuels that emotion. When you win a hand and the whole chat explodes, you just feel the hype. You just go with it; you get fired up when something big happens and the community responds. I really see through their eyes how cool it is to be a poker pro. It's a poker party where everyone is hyped up when you go deep, and everyone is invited.
Talking about showing emotions in poker, a debate arose yesterday about players covering their faces in events like this. Christoph Vogelsang had his head buried in his hoodie, and Kenny Hallaert argued on his twitter that wasn't the way to go. Jake Cody, on the other hand, argued he would not object to his attire at all. Where do you stand in all of this?
Let me put it like this; I agree with Jake that I would never tell someone what to wear or force someone to be engaging at the poker table. But, if you bury your face in a hoodie, you're the last person I want to hear anything from in terms of what is and what isn't good for the game because you're not doing anything yourself to improve the situation.
"He has every right to play his game the way he does, but I have the right to have an opinion on that."
To be fair, I don't hear Vogelsang complain about 'what's good for poker' usually.
True, so I'm talking more broadly. There are people enough who are critical, who don't help their own cause by any means either. Someone like Vogelsang does nothing for the game but win, and he has every right to do so. But I don't enjoy watching it, especially not during an event like this. I would say we should all try to make things fun at the table, but that's no obligation. He has every right to play his game the way he does, but I have the right to have an opinion on that.
Do you take some extra effort in events like this to show Platinum Pass winners a good time?
Yeah, I might show a hand that I usually wouldn't, for example. And I might engage with some people at the table a bit more than I usually would. I think that's important in a tournament like this. That doesn't mean I don't take this tournament serious or that I don't play as hard as I can, but I do want to create a fun environment.
Busted 3rd hand of the day AA vs QQ. I don’t even know what to say anymore.
When PokerStars announced the giveaway of a Platinum Pass to a poker media person and asked for nominations via Twitter, the support rolled in for the man behind one of the most helpful Twitter accounts in poker. Kevin Mathers, or “KevMath” as he’s known in the poker world, has become the go-to source for players in search of event details, random poker facts, and the like.
Kevmath is no ordinary mortal. His prompt answers to tournament questions seemingly around the clock prove this. While the Twitter guru has been spotted from time to time playing at the tables, Mathers lives his life mostly on the sidelines, snapping photos undetected and constructing informative and up-to-date tweets on the events that the poker world cares about the most.
I’d say the PSPC qualifies as one of those.
After missing out on the poker media Platinum Pass the first time around, Mathers was bummed but happy for fellow media grinder Aleeyah Jadavji. Less than two weeks later, Mathers was spending Christmas Day at his mom’s house and couldn’t believe what he found under the Twitter tree: a Platinum Pass with his name on it.
What about KevMath?
In their last-minute awarding of Platinum Passes, PokerStars decided that Kevmath should not miss the biggest $25,000 buy-in event in the history of the game. Just like that, he was getting ready to ship out to the Bahamas the following week. Without much time to prepare, Mathers told PokerNews he wasn't going to try to overthink it.
“I’m just going to play my game," Mathers said. "If I thought too much, I would have donked off my stack and I would have felt really dumb. My main goal is to get the min-cash at $25K; Anything after that is going to be great.”
"People are rooting for me and it’s really cool."
Just taking it one day at a time, Mathers had 85,000 from the 60,000 starting stack at the final break of Day 1 and said he would be happy to bag that amount coming back to blinds of 600/1,200 with a 1,200 ante. He was already doing some calculations, figuring on around 180 players to be in the money, setting his sights on that target.
“I definitely got a bit of a journey ahead of me.”
With some tough players at his table on Day 1 in Christoph Vogelsang and Niall Farrell, Mathers was focused on hanging in there for the final two hours of the day. He was successful, putting 75,900 in the bag at the end of the day to return with a healthy stack for Day 2 - and he was enjoying every minute of it.
“It’s pretty awesome," Mathers said of the support he had been getting. "I’m doing my updates, getting all the hearts and everything. People are rooting for me and it’s really cool. So I’m just hoping to ride that wave, to the min-cash and beyond, that’s all I’m hoping for.”
Team Poker Media Bands Together
The group of five finalists in the Poker Media Platinum Pass decided before the pass winner was announced that whoever won, would give each of the other four a 2.5% freeroll. Jadavji was awarded that pass and that meant that Lance Bradley, Nick Jones, Robbie Strazynski, and Mathers had 2.5% of Jadavji’s action in the PSPC. When the poker gods smiled down on Kevmath on Christmas Day, he decided to extend the previous freeroll agreement to the same fellow media finalists.
“Since I won a pass myself, I would have felt bad if I didn’t offer that same free 2.5% to those players.”
His appreciation and excitement for the chance to play in the PSPC is apparent, and not even playing in a $25K tournament can keep him from providing constant twitter updates for onlookers.
Level 5 hat:
— Kevin Mathers @ Atlantis (@Kevmath)
While most players bag at the end of a long day and head for a late dinner and some rest, Mathers’ work isn't done. After bagging on Day 1, he posted all the end-of-day tournament information and even offered to provide specific table draws for individual players looking for them. The Twitter guru confirmed to PokerNews that not even playing in the biggest tournament of his life could keep him from updating the people.
"I can't stop tweeting; it's in my blood. I can't not do it. It's my duty. It's what got me here. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the Platinum Pass so I gotta keep doing that."
Today, KevMath has a new table to battle as he rides the wave to the money with the Twitter world looking on.
The Day 2 PSPC Table Draw is now online at the @PokerStarsLIVE app. I get @TOPDOLLARMAN and @hathaipoker to start t… https://t.co/3UDwUjOJSs
— Kevin Mathers @ Atlantis (@Kevmath)
You can (and should) follow Mathers on Twitter @Kevmath for all the poker updates.
