– Hi, Koray. How does the world champion feel a few days after winning?
– I finally got some sleep, there were problems with that during the tournament. Then I naturally had to celebrate. It took a couple more days to respond to all the congratulations and finally come to my senses. After that im just go to my lovely place to play poker – Pin Up.
– You said “had to.” Were you forced to?
– My friends insisted that we go out to celebrate right after we won, but I was so tired that I left almost immediately. We had a normal party the next day.
– How did you celebrate?
– As the winner of Maine, they gave me a huge suite at Rio for two days. Only my close friends were there to support me during the tournament. Of course, everyone had a few drinks. Then we wanted to go to the club, but we didn’t find the strength until Friday, two days after we won.
– You were often a guest at similar parties after your friends’ victories. Was yours much different?
– Yes, because I had all the organizational stuff on me. It was good to have a couple of friends helping me with everything.
– Was the score the biggest one you ever had?
– Yes, but nothing prohibitive. I heard about the parties that some of the previous champions threw. With us it was more modest.
– The main tournament goes on for a very long time. What do you remember the most?
– The final two days when my friends from Germany started writing to me. Everyone followed me and supported me. That kind of attention puts you under a lot of pressure but on the other hand it’s nice. After all, it was the final table of the main tournament. I was winning the whole final, but I lost the lead in heads-up against George [Holmes]. When I got the stack back and won, it was also a very emotional moment.
– We know plenty of examples of players who started Day 7 as chip leaders and then flopped before the final table. Did it put you under any pressure?
– I was a chip leader on Day 6, and I started Day 7 with a fifth or sixth stack. So it was a little easier for me, but I had those thoughts. Day 7 was the hardest day at all, we played from the top 36 until the final table. I sighed easy only after a huge pot with Q8, when I got a full house and realized that I definitely won’t get out fast.
– Was there a moment when you thought that any place other than the first would be a disappointment?
– I tried not to think about it at all. You interviewed me briefly around the top 100, and that’s when I said I was aiming for first place. But of course I knew it was unlikely. In any tournament you get a feeling of disappointment after you drop out. Of course, I had thoughts of winning, but I realized that not everything depended on me. I think I would have been disappointed if I’d lost in seventh place. But again, I didn’t think seriously about it.
– And when did you first believe you had a chance to win?
– Probably when I was in the top 100, when I became a chipliner. But I knew there was still a long way to go. I had not been in the top 100 of the WSOP main event before, but in a lot of other series when I have made it far enough with a good stack I have been out long before the first places.
– You agree with the opinion that the WSOP main event is not like any other tournament until the top 100, because every second someone flies out and a new player takes his place and it goes on and on.
– It’s more like when the money starts rolling in. At that point, it’s noticeable that everyone starts to take what’s going on seriously. For me the tournament began on the third day, until the middle of it I kept a short stack, and after that I did not lose a single big hand.
– On the first days, did you play with all your chips?
– Yes, on the second day with A5 vs AJ.
– So luck did play a part in your success after all.
– Ha ha. There were a lot of funny deals. On the last level of the first day I folded on the board, my opponent showed. I didn’t do that kind of folding very often. On the second day I had a funny situation, when I opened with on the batton, the BB player called. On the flop I bet, on the turn he jacked, the BB called again, and on the flush river I flopped about 30 blinds. That’s a borderline velopush. To be exact, I didn’t even bet all my chips, I kept 200-300. And the opponent announced repush. At such moments you immediately think that he could not have anything worse, but I did not want to leave 300 chips either. My opponent had a ten, and I doubled. That was the second time I said goodbye to the tournament in my head.
– Aren’t you bored with my hands?
– No, no, I don’t think we’ll ever ask about them again. So now is a good time to tell you about it.
– There was also a funny situation on day three. By the second level I was back to the starting stack of 60,000, the big blind was 3,000. I opened with , both blinds paid. The girl on the big blind was playing very strange, sometimes going straight all-in on the flop. This time the board suited me – , I bet, but she just called. On the turn, we played a check-check. The river was a blanc and she folded for two. I called and I beat her low pair. In the next hand I opened, I called with a 120k stack and a pair of nines, the same girl called from the small blind. Flop , and she instantly started a 4.5 pot – 100k and the pot is about 22k. The third player threw down, I thought about it and I called, she had . It was 250k and I was going up steadily from there.
– You started the final table as a chipliner, but finally everyone believed in your victory, probably after the hand, in which Lococo gave you the stack. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Tell me your thoughts.
– Before this hand, the final table was very quiet for me, the stack was at the level of the beginning of the day. On the preflop in such a spot with nines I play either call or 3-bet. This time I decided to change it. Against Lococo it is difficult to play without a hand, luckily this time I had one. I hoped he had a jack or straight and he wouldn’t believe me. I have a pretty narrow range of openings on the board like that, even with aces and kings I’d hardly bet three streets. He was right about that. And if he thought I was bluffing a lot, he was right to call. He relied on his reads, which brought him to the final table. I can’t really judge him. Besides, poker is not his main activity, he’s a big star in Argentina. For an amateur, he played very well.
– Before the top 3 pagemps were very insignificant. Did it affect your game in any way?
– Yes, at the beginning of the final table I wasn’t able to put too much pressure on my opponents. But already from the top-6 I started to open much more actively, and my opponents could not put much resistance, so everything was good for me.
– You used to take a day off before the final table, and now you’re playing without any breaks at all. Isn’t that better for you, because your B- or C-game is much better than any of your opponents?
– You’re probably right, but by the end of the game I was insanely tired, too. George was complaining too, everyone was having a hard time. I think it helped me a little bit that I had experience playing TV tables, but it wasn’t any determining factor.
– Tell us a little bit about George. He’s the only one who could take the lead away from you at the final table.
– We didn’t see each other before the final table, but in one of the first hands he bet 3-bet with K5 to me. I knew right away it wasn’t going to be easy. George had a great game. He doesn’t have a lot of experience, but he was tough, especially in heads-up.
– Were you surprised by the hand when he flopped on the river against yours?
– He has great flair. I barely bluffed in the big pots, and he figured it out. Incredible pass. I think he did make a mistake on the preflop when he didn’t bet 3-bet. I suspect it had to do with a little experience in heads-up. And in the postflop, he obviously outplayed me in this hand.
– You praised the play of Lococo and Holmes. How do you yourself explain that the amateurs played so well?
– I’m not saying they played perfectly, they made mistakes too. But I made mistakes, too. I mean, they beat 6,500 people, so they must have been doing something right. It just happened that way. Sometimes outright weak players come to the final table, and this time it was those who understand something.
– Did you prepare for the finals? Did your friends watch the broadcast with the cards open?
– I almost didn’t prepare, I just didn’t have the time. I only had strength left to sleep. My friends watched and told me about the big deals. But only until the heads-up, there was no time for analysis. There were breaks once every two hours, and we just played.
– Tell me about the final deal. Did you think about folding? How hard was that decision?
– It was difficult because of the tournament and the situation, because we had almost equal stacks. But on the river I had too strong a hand. I could have bet myself, it was a close decision. But I had already seen that with a pair he was capable of chirofoolds. Plus he bluffed a lot. I wanted to call a check-call, but when he folded I rethought it. Plus he had more chips than I thought. And I planned to play a lot of shallow banks, so I wasn’t willing to risk the tournament that deep. I have friends who play expensive heads-up tournaments online, and they showed me a video of them celebrating my win right after his all-in. They didn’t even have a thought that I could throw away, and I thought for three whole minutes. But I chalk that up to fatigue as well, my brain wasn’t working at its best. But the showdown surprised me, I expected to see either a bluff or a hand that beat me.
– Lastly, how did your poker career start?
– I started playing in the hostel 10 years ago, when I won the Pius. In 2012 I moved to Vienna and made a lot of friends among poker players. At the beginning of 2013 I met Fedor Holtz, then Rainer Kempe and Julian Thomas. This was before Fedor’s famous upstroke. His results had a big impact on our whole group. Fedor started playing the most expensive tournaments, but we kept going through the series together, discussing handouts and strategy. “If he can play high-stakes, surely we can do it too,” we thought, and began to strive for it. But I did not play my first $10k tournament until 2016. That year was very successful and only a couple of months later I played a $100k tournament. It was One Drop at the WSOP, where I came in third behind Dan Smith and Fedor Holtz. After that I started playing regular high roller tournaments.
– In 2016, Rainer and Fedor shared in a $300k tournament, and you were just starting to play $10k tournaments. Did you take that well?
– They were always a step or two ahead of me in poker. I took it easy and was excited about their successes. When they went into that heads-up Super High Roller Bowl, I was there and it was a memorable experience for me too. My dream at the time was to play $25k tournaments, and it happened faster than I had hoped. In addition to confidence in your abilities, you need a good bankroll and the faith of the casters. After a successful start to 2016, when I won a lot online, Fedor told me that I should play for $100k, I clearly have a plus expectation there. I listened, and that started my high-stakes career.
