The first week of the SSOP festival taking place at Banco Casino Bratislava brought a number of interesting and great poker events, led by a multi-day 100k event. On the final day, we enriched it with a live stream from our production, in which the "home" Englishman George Sandford walked after the victory. You can also know him as a commentator from our streams, come with us to see what you went through during the tournament and what this win means to him!
POKER NEWS
INTERVIEWS
30.06.2022
George Sandford: Money is ammunition for poker players, but the feeling of winning a tournament is priceless!
George, right after crushing all players and taking home the trophy and nice paycheck – what are your feelings?
Over the moon to get over the line in one of these bigger field main events, experienced a lot of painful near misses in these!
It looks like that 16,625€ payout is biggest hit of your live tournament career (when we look at your hendon) – is it sweeter than win this ammount during CG session or online?
The feeling of winning a live tournament is unparalleled in poker. Despite there being higher hourlies available playing cash games live or online for me it’s the electricity of going deep in a live tournament that makes poker so enjoyable. The room is absolutely buzzing with emotions; jubilation, tension, trepidation, uncertainty. I absolutely live for it!
Money or trophy – what has bigger value for you?
Money for a poker player is essentially ammunition, you need to have enough reserves to keep firing but if you keep missing the target it gets very stressful! So first and foremost I play for the money but the glory and prestige of winning trophies comes a close second
Did you decide to jump into tournament mainly because of overlay?
Yes the overlay was quite significant and worth entering for. Otherwise I may have played online instead and only max late registered. It’s more time efficient.
How went your journey throughout the tournament? Which day was toughest and did you have some spots, when you were facing the bustout?
My journey was fairly smooth. Day 1 I ran really hot and was extremely active, my image paid off for me multiple times in huge pots where my opponents couldn’t get away. I also ran a few monster bluffs that sailed through. The bubble for ITM and day 2 was a little frustrating as we played for hours and the short stack wouldn’t bust!
Day 2s are always for me about patience and discipline. Trying to win lots of small pots and hoping to find a nice spot to get the double. I grinded my heart out for hours completely card dead and eventually hit a nice distribution of cards and sailed on up to average stack for day 3.
Day 3 was a bit of a blur to be honest, super intense! I made a couple of mistakes feeling a bit hot under the collar with the bright lights and insane levels of focus required. Managed to get myself back together and see it out though and that’s what I was most proud of. The resilience I was able to dig deep for.
You were starting final table only with 18bb, but then – you rouse like a phoenix. Which hand or hands were key for your success (J9 vs AT for your life, TT vs AJ with QTK on a flop…)
The turning point was indeed the J9s push vs Jesko’s button open for 15bb. It’s a pretty aggressive take but I respected his game enough to know he would be opening very wide there as the chipleader and possibly over folding vs me as he was not incentivised to double me up and then be OOP to me with a dangerous stack, with the rest of the table being much less of a threat.
What about a TV table? Was this your first playing on streamed table? Was it comfortable for you? Did you have somebody who was writing you informations about your opponents?
I conferred with a few people about some of the showdowns or hand selections when I got a chance but from doing commentary there is always a theme of players over folding and playing too tight and passive. Understandable really, with how intense it is and the amounts of money played for.
Many viewers and local people in casino was predicting you and Jesko into final heads-up – what do you think about his game, was he the toughest opponent for you?
It was quite funny with Jesko as we had played many hands on the last 2 or 3 tables together and as the tournament developed I started to realise how impressive his game is and how much I had underestimated him previously. He’s clearly done some studying and put the hours in and it shows in abundance at the tables. I was not expecting to meet a player of this quality in a €150 live tournament and have nothing but good things to say about his game.
What about heads-up? It started slowly, Jesko won few smaller pots but then, you started to run hot and nothing could stop you!
He was unfortunate in the heads up as I basically had the winner every hand. There was one spot he made a really aggressive double barrel then let me win with Q high on the river A as it was so difficult to bluff that card or have much credible value as played. Things like that are massive momentum swingers.
During live stream, there were many people railing you as a moustachio man :D Does it brings you a luck?
It was so great to have such a buzzing rail for the event! Makes you feel very warm and loved and gives some significance to the journey. Poker can be extremely lonely and dehumanising at times so having genuine support from a lot of people around me felt great!
We know that Bratislava is now your second home – how do you first came here, and what are your feelings about the casino, city and people here in general.
Bratislava for me is an incredible city. Small, pedestrianised and with lots of enjoyable culture. The cost and competitive quality of living here far surpasses most places I’ve travelled to. My plan is to get a visa and live here full time from September onwards, so you’ll be seeing a lot more of me!
Your typical talisman is rubber duck or in Slovak language “Kačička” which is also your online nick. How all this kačička thing started?
The story of Kacicka, 2 years ago I started dating a Slovakian girl and I decided to go to Sky Bar for our first date to get some cocktails and have a chat. Upon seeing the menu I was instantly drawn by the idea of trying their duck cocktail. The waitress brings this novelty drink over which is a floating rubber duck in a ceramic bath tub. After finishing the drink we decided to steal the duck and adopt it as ours. I took Kacicka everywhere and my career took off shortly after we ‘conceived’ this small ducky. What started as a silly joke has become a big part of my personality and of course the #DuckArmy keeps growing stronger and stronger! Kacicka and my girlfriend will always have a special place in my heart whatever should happen in the future. It’s been somewhat of a driving force in my career for the past 2 years and I’m only building more and more momentum going forwards.
When we look at your Instagram, we can see you play online, crushing cash games around Europe and also play live events – which kind of poker you like the most now and where do you see yourself in future (online grinder, live PLO CG reg….)
Going forward all of the value across poker is from Omaha cash games (live + online) and of course tournaments. I like variety so I won’t ever fully commit to one aspect of the game but if I had a gun to my head about picking one format to live off of it would be PLO5 cash games. Such a beautiful format especially in live whilst super deep stacked. A game which really sorts the men from the boys! Constantly learning and evolving and there is no solver to tell you what to do all the time! I much prefer unsolved games that reward creativity and an inventive style.
Our fans know, that you are always comment live stream from our production (you were supposed to commentate this one :D ) – are you enjoying that work / does it help your game?
I’m currently in Tallinn commentating for ‘The Festival Series’, which will be back in Bratislava not before too long. I love being able to be in the media side of the game, I gain so much energy from responding and interacting with poker in and around the poker world. So commentary is a natural habitat for me and I always look forward to it!
Last question, what are your poker plans for next weeks / months?
I’m looking to fire up my twitch stream again but remain on the fence about that as it’s so tricky to deal with the amount of edge I’m giving away by sharing the hole cards for cash games. I might have to do it just for tournaments or something. Watch this space ☺
Thanks a lot for everything George and good luck in poker and also in life!
