We caught up with Sorel Mizzi the online legend and live tournament pro during the WSOP
At just 22, Canadian poker star Mizzi is regarded as one of the greatest online players ever. He first realised he had the game for online tournaments when he won t wo in a week back in July 2006. In the two years since he’s terrorised opponents in the biggest tourneys the web has to of fer and has won close to $2m in online MTTs, with more than $1.5m of that coming in the toughest fields on PokerStars where he plays under the name zangbezan24.
For much of 2007 he sat atop the PocketFives.com online player leaderboard and was determined to win its Player of the Year award, but his chance was blown apar t when he was banned from Full Tilt for winning a tourney on someone else’s account. He very quickly and publicly apologised for his actions but the damage was done.
However, the internet ’s loss is the live game’s gain, as Sorel has become a firm favourite on the world poker scene. He’s already had a third-place finish in last year’s Irish Open and a 15th-place finish in the 2007 WPT World Championship for $150k, but his big break came earlier this year when Betfair signed him as a sponsored pro. It wouldn’t be too much of a surprise if by the time you read this he’s repaid his new employer with some TV time at a WSOP final table.
POKERPLAYER: This is your second year at the World Series – where are you staying this year?
SOREL MIZZI: The Rio. In terms of proximity to the WSOP it’s great, but it’s not the best hotel I’ve been to. I actually really enjoyed renting a house with friends last year, but staying at the Rio will keep me more focused on poker.
PP: With spending so much time in Las Vegas are you considering getting a place there?
SM: No, I’m actually considering moving to Europe. Vegas is great, but only in small doses. Someone with a lot of gamble in their blood like me would be surrounded with way too much temptation.
PP: Fair enough. So how is your World Series going so far?
SM: I’ve been playing in the zone and I feel like a big win is coming up. You need thick skin to play event after event though. It gets frustrating when you sit around playing your ‘A’ game for hours and constantly fall short. But that’s the reality of playing in large fields. You have to weed through tons of bad players, and some good ones, and it’s a difficult thing to do. All I can do is make what I think is the best decision in every hand I play. The rest is up to the poker gods.
PP: You’ve cashed in a couple of events, but are you disappointed with how it’s gone so far?
SM: Very disappointed. I’ve been putting myself in really good spots in every tournament I’ve played, but things just haven’t gone my way. I shouldn’t be too upset about it though – I’m actually quite happy that people playing in $1,500-$10,000 events are as bad as they are. It’s refreshing to know there’s still a lot of money to be made in tournaments.
PP: So the standard of play has been worse than you expected?
SM: A lot worse. Live players are worse than online players at the higher levels generally speaking. But it depends on how you define a ‘live’ player. Is a live player someone who doesn’t play online, and an ‘online’ player someone who started playing online and transitioned to live? If so, then online players are far better than the average live player. But if you take the best live players and the best online players, I think that who would be a bigger winner of the two groups would be totally dependent on how many players were in each group…
I think the top 10 live tournament players in the world would do a lot better than the top 10 online players in the world in live tournaments, but of the top 100 live players and top 100 online players, I think the online players would win a lot more in the long run.
PP: Which players of the online generation have impressed you most at the WSOP so far?
SM: Justin Bonomo – he might understand the game more than anyone. Scott ‘SCTrojans’ Freeman has really impressed me as well – I think he’ll do very well live.
PP: Is it just some bad beats and unfortunate situations that have stopped you making a final table so far?
SM: Yes, I’ve taken a few really bad ones for massive chip leads. Here’s an example of how bad people play, even deep in $10k events. It’s the very first event – the $10,000 Pot- Limit Hold’em. I get moved to a new table, and there’s about 90 players left with blinds of 800/1600. I had just doubled up the previous hand to 80,000 chips. The very next hand I’m on the button and raise to 4400 with A-Ko.
The small blind makes it 14,400, and I think about it for quite some time before I announce the re-raise to 44k with roughly 36k behind. Before I put a chip in the pot he INSTANTLY moves all-in with a HUGE smile on his face…. I’m thinking, ‘Wow, this is so sick, what a cooler… he’s got to have A-A, K-K or maybe Q-Q.’ But I have over half my stack in the pot so I’m not folding. I call, he flips over J-10 and immediately I get a sick feeling in my stomach. The board comes 2-3-3-5-J… gg.
PP: It makes you wonder why guys like that play…
SM: Yeah exactly. I’m glad there are still players like that registering for $10k events though. It’s just frustrating when it doesn’t work out for you. All you can do is make the best decisions every time. I’m more upset if I make a bad play than if I lose with A-A against 2-3 deep in a tournament. That’s the menality you have to have if you want to take your game to the next level. At least I’ve been running well in swapping though. I had two percent of Nenad Medic in the event he won, and had percentages of Justin Bonomo and Roland de Wolfe in the $5k mixed event that they both final-tabled.
PP: You haven’t been on the live scene that long, but you seem to have become good friends with some big players – what’s it like being on the poker tour with some of the top pros?
SM: It’s great! What could be better than travelling the world, meeting new people and developing strong friendships with other players? I’m so happy to be playing poker for a living. I can’t see myself doing anything else at this point of my life.
PP: How do you rate your chances in the Main Event? Is it a lottery?
SM: The structure is great, but in any tournament with that many players, luck is always going to be a huge factor.
PP: What are your thoughts on the Main Event final table delay?
SM: I don’t think it’s as big a deal as people make it out to be. It’ll be a cool concept to experiment with, and if it’s not successful it will probably be discontinued the following year. People have to realise that it’s TV that has made poker as big as it is today. If there’s less interest in poker on TV this will directly affect professional players’ livelihoods. The more interest there is for poker on TV, and the more hype there is around the game, the more new players will start playing. I’d also feel a lot better about making this year’s final table than last year’s, as it would be amazing to be a part of something so huge.
PP: What would you say your ultimate goals are right now?
SM: I want to start having the same success in live events that I’ve had online. Winning a bracelet or major tournament would be nice. I just have to keep playing – the more experience I have, the better chance I have of taking one down.
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