Up close and personal with John Juanda

• What’s your game?
Anyone can play me at FullTilt.com [his sponsor] for $5-$10 no-limit Hold’em or $5-$10 limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split. If I’m feeling confident I might play the $2,000-$4,000 games. A lot of players will lose at $400-$800, go on tilt and play $1,000-$2,000 to try to get their money back. That’s an absolute no-no if you want to be successful.

• Poker on TV?
I don’t think the World Poker Tour will be the number one show in three years’ time. The World Series of Poker is already bigger than the WPT and there’s other projects coming out now. There’s a big new professional poker league in the offing where the top players will get paid for playing. If that happens none of the top players will want to play WPT anymore.

• Cup glory?
When you first learn how to play poker you’re best playing side games. You’ll learn the fundamentals of the game: what hands are stronger, the pot odds and so on. Side games are like warm-up matches in football, so that when a big tournament like the World Cup turns up, people stop practicing and apply what they’ve learnt.

• In the black
Friends like Mike Matusow or Daniel Negreanu are doing super well now but they’ve all been broke before. I’ve been playing for nine years and never had a losing 12 months. I moved to the US by myself so if I went broke it would have been the end of me. I wish I’d focused more on my personal life though. That’s my only regret, but maybe if I’d been less successful I’d be wishing I’d played more.

• Hand of God
Soccer is the biggest sport in Indonesia but living in the US it’s difficult to watch. I really liked the Dutch team when they had Marco Van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit but Maradona’s my all-time favourite. He was unbelievable when Argentina won the World Cup in 1986.

• Eagle eyes
The most important thing is to observe the players. That’s what makes the great players like Phil Ivey and Chris Ferguson so good. A lot of people will bet fast when bluffing and when they’ve got a good hand take a long time to think, look away or start shuffling their chips. If you pay attention you’ll realise that, uh oh, this guy’s got the nuts.

• Full Tilt ahead
When I feel that I’m running a little bit bad I’ll go and play in a softer game. Some of my best friends will stick to the Big Game [where many of the best players in the world play] and that’s not a smart idea [he laughs]. You should find a softer game to build your bankroll and your confidence. You need to get that feeling of, ‘Wow, I’ve won two nights in a row,’ and get back on a roll.