(continued from Part 1)

* This interview was conducted with Steve "stevesbets" Jacobs following his victory in the PokerStars WCOOP $25k Heads-Up event for $560,000 earlier this week.


By flow do you mean things like mindset and recent hand trends?

Yes, exactly. For example, people often re-raise preflop one or two hands after you've re-raised preflop. It's like a "get you back sort of thing" but they're actually just opening themselves up to get exploited when they do that. It's a subtle form of tilt. There are probably hundreds of factors like that that exist during the course of a heads up no limit hold em match and to beat good players, you need to be conscious of how the match has gone and where the other player's head is at. It's really important to be aware of all of these factors as they all play into the flow of the match. In fact, flow is like a "know the odds without knowing the odds" sort of situation because "analyzing the flow" is often akin to actually just innately adjusting ranges without going through the exact calculation in your head. It's something that only comes with experience.

These sort of factors are one reason why railbirds make themselves look really bad really often. They often analyze only one hand history in sequence, but their responses are totally uninformed because the match flow is just as important as the actual hands in play. So a play that looks bad could have been a good play within the proper context.

As you know, many high stakes regulars feel you're the worst high stakes player who has been around for a long time. Yet, somehow, you have won a lot of money playing online poker. How do you respond to those who say you're not good at poker?

Heh, this is going to be a long answer, but I'll try to get it out quickly. The answer is that the people who say that about me are a small group (50-100 players) of arrogant and incredibly blessed online poker players. All of them have run well-above expectation for extended periods of time which gives them a feeling of utter invincibility and overconfidence. They seem to think anyone who is not a member of their cult is terrible. And their cult consists of CardRunners pros, the 2+2 run-good heroes, etc.

What those players don't get is that there is a huge element of luck in poker and they've been on the upside of variance for years. That isn't to say they haven't had downswings or moments of bad luck, but I believe that many of them have run way above expectation over the course of their poker careers. For all of their supposed skill and poker understanding, they are really results-oriented.

For example, in my recent matches versus $tinger88 (Brian Hastings on FTP) and FoxwoodsFiend (DaEvils on FTP), they put their money in bad in almost every big hand and they both crushed me. Then they go on forums and they talk about how much better they are than me. And the online fanboys all think these guys are the best ever. But where are these fanboys for Johnny Lodden, Brian Townsend or any other player who used to crush the highest stakes? They've all disappeared because those players have hit runs of bad luck, as is normal for most poker players. One day things will turn south for a lot of these players.

Are they bad poker players then?

No, obviously they're good poker players. I'm not even saying they're not great at poker. They have a better understanding of how to play poker than over 99% of the players online. But they also have a skewed view of how much skill there is in poker. Poker has a skill element, but in the short-term it's basically all luck, especially in the aggressive high stakes heads up matches that people play in on Full Tilt. It's easy to win or lose hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of dollars regardless of skill. I feel like I have an advantage against $tinger at Heads Up PLO and FoxwoodsFiend at NLHE. But they have run way above expectation against me.

You recently started business school at Fordham. How is that going to change your poker play over the next few years?

Nothing too drastic. I have plenty of time to play online, so I think my play levels will be similar except I won't go to as many live events. I'll still go to events like the World Series of Poker because they run during summer break, but I'll just be skipping the events that would require me to miss class. I can still play live at the Borgata because it's pretty close-by.

Do you think this win will change anything in your poker career other than a nice bankroll boost?

This win could definitely change things because it gives me more notoriety on PokerStars. I guess I've been known on there for years, but winning a WCOOP event for $560,000 is probably on a new level compared to what I've achieved on the site before. I've been trying to get on Team PokerStars for years and I'm hoping this will give me the boost needed to get on. If I do get on Team PokerStars, I would play heads up in PokerStars Sit and Goes during all of my free time. Then everyone who wants to can take their shot at me.

* Article image: stevesbets playing in the final match of WCOOP 19 against ElkY

This is Part 2 of 2 of Nat "N 82 50 24" Arem's interview with Steve "stevesbets" Jacobs. Part 1