So let's start from the beginning - how did you actually get into poker and especially mixed games?

“So into poker I got very young like 14 or 15, when I saw my dad was playing online and that interested me. And kind of went from there and then also similarly kind of mixed games a little bit later when I was 19-20 years, I saw him playing PLO8 and thought that's an interesting game so that was kind of the first mix game I ran into. Well, I was in with limit hold´em as well before then but don't necessarily calamics game so much. Then a friend recommended me to try again on FullTilt this was the biggest at the time. I was like wow, this was then all the biggest games that we're running mixed games so I was fascinated by those.”

Would you say that PLO 8 or better is your favourite game?

“It's not my favourite game I'd say limit PLO8 is probably my best game but my favourite game I say is no limit single draw 2-7.”

Do you think you played a bunch of No Limit holding stuff recently is that something you want to focus more on are you like really staying on the mix game track?

“I think mostly staying on the mix game track. I just prefer it probably everywhere and I find it more fun. The variety, the enjoyment is always fun, and I just think I'm better at it and my edge is higher there. It is always fun when you feel like you're just playing better than your opponents and more fun when you know the results are generally better and I think variety is low as well in that way it's always nice. The fact I'm playing No limit more recently is honestly kind of out of necessity aside from like WCOOP where there are so many mixed games there's not very many mixed games happening right now in the series, so I go to stops if they do have mixed games and I'm prioritizing those. But no limit just for what's available on the biggest price pools and things like that.”

Do you play any mixed games as cash games as well or just tournaments?

“Sometimes I do. I haven't been for a while lately. Honestly, the online action is pretty dead. On Stars, literally nothing is running even over WCOOP at all. I stopped even trying frankly. At SCOOP it will just be me sitting by myself waiting for someone to join me for like eight hours a day and maybe one person who join me, but I would forget that I had my cash game tables open because I am just sitting by myself. That's quite sad and I occasionally do live but really, it's only Vegas that has them and when I'm there it's for the World Series so I'm prioritizing that and putting all my energy into those tournaments so that's what I'm doing instead of cash games there.”

I mean your results right now and like how you performing is like really speaking for itself but is it something that you were thinking about maybe promoting mixed games more like twitch streaming or something like that to get more people into the games?

“I've always kind of tried to promote mixed games when I've had the opportunities to. I'm always encouraging anyone to try them. I coach mixed games too I'm a big proponent of that. Twitch not so much both because essentially, I'm just going to be giving away all the secrets for free which I wouldn't really want to do, and I don't think that stuff comes very naturally or easily to me to be honest. I'm a bit more of a private person I'm not necessarily able to just be broadcasting myself out to hundreds or thousands of people very comfortably and whilst I've kind of tried to do once then I just found it difficult. Although I do enjoy a commentary actually and I've done that quite a few times and I've always enjoyed that. I do think I'm quite good at that which makes it more fun. Especially if I have fun co-hosts and things like that. But aside from that I don't really have any other opportunities to promote them I'm not planning to bring out any courses any time soon.”

It's actually quite funny because one of the questions is literally you make it look so easy, so without giving anything away like is there any kind of like a key learning especially online that you have for like winning so many tournaments?

“The best ways to learn and improve for mixed games is just volume and experience. Things like stud games where it is harder to be running spot or running equities. You can definitely do all those kind of study things on the side which I think for every game is definitely helpful. But things like various up cards there's just so many very rare scenarios that you don't come up very often generally so the more you are familiar with those scenarios the more you get into the kind of difficult spots to the better you're going to be. The better you're going to be thinking about scenarios, the more comfortable you're going to be with them when they come up again in the future. Yeah, and mixed games, there's still potentially some good room for adjustments and exploitations as well so just knowing the player pools that you're playing with. They're just smaller online currently so you kind of know the people you're playing with and how they might play generally. And watching final table replays, watching any other broadcasts where you have the top players playing is a great learning tool as well.”

Thinking of that, like putting the hours and what's your prognosis like with all your COOP records now, how long do you think it might take for somebody to break those if it's not you?

“I was talking about that today and recently. I mean seven in one series is honestly just so absurd that right here I don't know if that's ever going to be beaten. I mean lots of people have been saying to me that they don't think it's ever going to be beaten. It would be very cool if it's never beaten very cool if I beat it, but I think very unlikely. I think that's the main record that is going to be very difficult to beat. Other than that, it's just as far as overall number of titles per series, obviously is just going to keep going and people are going to be getting more and more, including myself hopefully. So yeah hopefully that'll just continue to extend as well.”

Would you have some kind of number in your head, where you say: okay, this is the achievement, this is when I'm going to go and retire and leave all this behind?

“Not particularly. I think, as long as I keep having some hunger for it, some enjoyment of the battle for it, then I think will keep going for a while. There's nothing like 50 COOP titles and I'm going to stop. I don't have anything like that in mind I don't have any particular goals. I think I'm just going to keep trying to play my best and hopefully the results will keep continuing.”

This time you fought really hard as well on battled really hard for the Player of the Year title and you just missed it narrowly to Patrick Leonard. But you did win one leaderboard right so it's like, what do these kind of achievements mean to you?

“Yeah, the high leaderboard that I won is obviously very nice that was for 15,000$ which is very nice for a series, but the player of the year of the series, I do feel like it has more meaning to it. It just feels more of an achievement and an accomplishment which I wanted for quite a while honestly. I've tried to get it for a few years. Last year I was basically also joint second as well and I fought hard for it then. So, it's both the money of the winning the leaderboard but also, I would feel very proud of myself if I've accomplished that. So it is something that I still might go for the future I think, but it’s just a very hard commitment in a lot of ways. It's really hard to get it.”

Gg this #WCOOP.
A pretty rough last 4 days of it, and unfortunately I didn't win the Player of the Series overall leaderboard☹️
Congrats to @padspoker!
Although I did win the High TLB, for $15k 🏆
But overall it was still an amazing series!
Now a few days off before EPT Cyprus✌🏻

— Benny Glaser (@BennyGlaser) October 4, 2023

Well good luck, it's very likely that you might get that one as well at some point. And so like you're a man of many talents right your musician as well you're like your fitness enthusiast is there something we don't know yet about you also really good at?

“I think most people by now probably know that I'm talented at music and guitar especially. I guess some fitness things are cool I don't know about other things. I can't think of anything particular right now anyway.”

How do these things like especially music and fitness and so factor into your success like to balance everything?

“It is honestly really hard to balance things. It's nice when I have my own setup in one particular place like in an apartment where I have my guitar, that I'm able to play and it's really nice after long days of online you know to help me keep my sanity of it. Even if you've had a rough day something that is fun and enjoyable and something else, I know I'm good and I'm going to enjoy. So that is important and can be a bit of a creative outlet too, but it's hard because I'm just traveling so much that almost have no other chances to play. It's just when I'm in one place. Otherwise I'd have to be carrying my guitar and amp to various places so for example here I did bring my guitar over from the UK and I rented an amp here, but on most places for example the World Series I don't have it. Where I mean I wish I would, but one year I did actually bring it there and I played it for maybe half an hour throughout the whole summer. I just don't have the time and energy. So it's hard, because I do feel like it needs some energy as well for it and these series are very draining. So, it's hard and when I'm traveling so much, I would like to be able to dedicate more time to it. Maybe in the next year or two if I'm traveling less.

And yeah, in terms of exercise, then that's similar. I try to as much as I can, but also that is energy issues especially when poker is really draining. I find it hard to just finish a day and then go work out. It is a bit easier here for example in Vancouver because the days ended about 5:30 p.m. so it is nice to be able to go work out and after that and still feel like I have more of the day ahead of me. If I was in the UK playing, then my day ends 2-3 a.m and that's pretty rough to do something after that. But I do try, and I do find it important for balance as well. Something like a workout where it can help me reset and make me feel good about myself.”

Where's your base right now actually like in England? No base, nomad?

“Pretty much, lot of things are at my parent’s place in the UK in Southampton so that's pseudo-base, but I don't have any current accommodation really.”

Speaking of your family, like how do they think about like your success is today realize what all this means in the poker world? They fully in it?

“Absolutely they do, they´re very proud. It's very nice and they perhaps do read all the articles about me. They're even actively search articles and send me articles that they see about me and it's all very nice. They definitely understand everything about it, and they followed it for a while so they know exactly what that is and very nice.”

Last question, so you are at Vancouver right now - what's next?

“Next is EPT Cyprus. I'll have a few days off, until then which I'm going to try and enjoy, relax and decompress of it. Cyprus should be interesting with that being a new EPT stop so I am excited for that. And honestly, after that I don't really know yet. I got like a month or so after it where I don't necessarily have anything planned and I think I'm going to take a bit time off. Maybe even travel for a couple of weeks hopefully somewhere more interesting like for example Thailand. And then, the last kind of plans I really have is Vegas in December. That's really the last thing I have kind of firmed up as plans for the series but other than that I'm not sure. Well one or two other stops later this year I think we'll see how I feel after Cyprus.”

Well looking forward to see your results with all the other and online of course. That's it basically, so can do cut and thank you very much!

“Thank you very much for having me.”