Exclusive Jeff Lisandro Q&A

Four bracelets in two years – you must be feeling amazing.

	I did everything for the poker world, I did a hundred interviews and I never got anything in return

It’s great. You can go ten years without winning a bracelet and I’ve won another one.

The heads-up against Joe Serock was compelling to watch. You came from behind and seemed so intense.

Yeah I was really focused.

How does that rank out of all the heads up you’ve played?

In the middle! It was pretty intense. He was a good player; he didn’t give me an inch. He was really good. But I still think that the match against Phil Ivey when he had a 6/1 chiplead was the best heads-up I’ve ever played.

You’re obviously happy about your bracelet win but you’ve made it quite clear that you are not going to talk to the media about it. Why have you gone into ‘no-media’ mode?

I don’t like people using my success to promote poker.

What’s made you so embittered against the poker community?

I spent a few years trying to promote it and the game did nothing for me. I don’t want people using me. Not the websites, nothing. It’s just part of my principles. I might devour those principles in the future but not for now. I did everything for the poker world, I did a hundred interviews and I never got anything in return. Absolutely nothing.

But you’ve achieved so much, winning more bracelets than anyone else in the last few years. Don’t you want to share that with the poker world?

Well, I did. I went out of my way. Last year, I went to 20 interviews and I took 3 days off just to go to studios for photos. On one occasion I was completely exhausted and I refused one interview out of a hundred and I got a bad write up. It shows how things are going.

It’s a shame, because you seem like a nice guy and no one is ever going to see that.

I mean, I’m never going to be the guy who is going to be out doing dinosaur walks. I’m a serious player when I sit down and promotion wise is what gets me. I just don’t like the way that poker is going.

You still enjoy the game itself though?

I do love it. But when you sit down on the final table and the commentator asks, ‘who likes this guy’ and ‘who likes that guy’. Do they do that at the US Open or a grand slam tennis game? I don’t want to be the guy who no one likes or liked. I just don’t like that. I don’t want to be part of the circus.