Luke Schwartz mouths off on Daniel Negreanu, Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey and high stakes poker
In this exclusive and controversial interview Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz vents his views on Daniel Negreanu, Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan’s 2010 comeback and why he thinks Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey are the best no limit hold’em cash game players in the world.
You haven’t been seen in the high stakes Full Tilt games for a while. Do you want to get back playing them in 2010?
The games are going nowhere. They will always be there. The people that would play me at those high stakes would be the Isildurs, the
durrrrs and the toughest players around. I’ll be back there.
[Look at] Phil ‘OMGClayAiken’ Galfond. He took a long break [from the nosebleed games], played $25/$50 to $100/$200 for ages
and just last week he decided to take his spot against Isildur and won $1.6m. That could happen to me as well.
Even though you play high stakes on the Euro sites do you miss being in the spotlight on Full Tilt?
I’ve just taken a different approach to it but obviously beforehand I had millions of railbirds buzzing [whenever I played]. Full Tilt is my only
account where I use the alias of ‘FullFlush’ – all my other accounts are under different names. It’s different being out of the spotlight but I like it that way at the moment.
Do you get extra satisfaction from beating the top players such as durrrr?
When you’ve been in the game for a while you get a lot more conservative, it definitely happens. I definitely had a lot more heart for just going out and battering everyone last year than I do this year but obviously that can still come back at any point.
Do you think you are taking a more sensible approach?
It’s obviously more sensible to bank some money and stuff [like I did]. Look at Isildur. He’s probably one of the best, if not the best no limit heads-up players in the world but he can still go broke every single time he opens the laptop. He’s younger than me, he’s 19, so that’s going to happen to him for a few years. I’ve matured as a player and I’m not really looking to have the hugest swings at the moment.
The way you talk it sounds as though you want to be in poker for the
long run?
I don’t see myself doing anything else right now. Obviously I’ve proven myself at no limit cash games online – all forms of no limit online – but poker is more than just that. There’s Omaha and tournaments [as well]. I feel I can profit in every section of poker. Even though my specialty is no limit hold’em heads-up cash games I feel like I’m a very, very strong all-round player and I think I’m one of the best tournament players as well.
Why you been playing more live tournaments recently?
I have accomplished what I need to in the online world. Obviously I can make more money there and I have proven myself online. The results speak for themselves online but I just want to prove [that I can do it] it live now.
Do you feel a need to win titles or is it about money?
It’s more about the titles now because I’ve had so many close finishes that its getting a bit tilting.
Do you think you are good live as you are online?
I think generally live players are worse and I think I have an edge on most online players so I think therefore my edge live is bigger than my edge online. So, in a sense, I am better live. People say I have live tells but I think that’s a load of crap. Nobody owns me in any pots anytime, anywhere, live.
Did you have to make many adjustments moving from online to live?
Not really. The only mistakes you might make is if you did a string bet or something like that. I’ve been playing poker for six years so I’ve played a decent amount of live cash games. I’m no live donk.
You don’t try to hide your emotions whenever you are involved in a big hand live…
It’s just adrenaline and all that. I don’t know how it could play against me. People might say I have a tell when they’re doing that but these poker players are not psychotherapists and they’re not psychics either. The tells are in betting patterns and technical play not in body language.
You said in an interview that you think you’re one of the best tournament players in the world, despite a lack of great results yet. Aren’t you more of a cash game player than a tournament player?
My background is in cash games but I’ve won my fair share of online tournaments. In 2007 I had a good year and won the PokerStars Sunday Million with 7000 runners, the $100 rebuy loads of times and came 2nd in the Full Tilt $750k Guaranteed so it’s not like I’ve done badly in online tournaments. In live tourneys I’ve won every heat I’ve ever played on TV and got to every single final table before getting unlucky. Otherwise in my mind I should have had about four wins.
Do you have ambitions to win a WSOP bracelet?
It’d be nice. If Roland [de Wolfe] can get one, I should be able to! I’m joking…
You were in Vegas for the PartyPoker.com Premier League recently. Which players impressed you out there?
I didn’t know anything about JC Tran [before] and he impressed me the most. He plays a very sharky internet style, like me, where he likes to see a lot of flops and get involved. Although he did have a couple of leaks I felt. He doesn’t play the short stack that well and tends to play too many flops on the short stack but hes got his own reasons for that probably – [after all], he has won $7m in tournaments.
Anyone else?
Daniel Negreanu and Phil Laak impressed me a little bit because I thought they were weaker than they are.
Why you think Negreanu does so well in tournaments but looks a bit exposed in cash games such as High Stakes Poker?
It’s different obviously. First of all, in the first few series of High Stakes Poker Negreanu was owning because he had the big [bank]roll and nobody else had really big rolls. But now he is playing with Patrik [Antonius], [Phil] Ivey and durrrr who all have multi-million rolls and they can put a lot of pressure on him. He likes to be the person putting the pressure on the other people – everybody does.
Is Negreanu out of his depth on High Stakes Poker?
It’s not like he’s out of his depth. It’s just not gonna run as easy against those three as it is when he’s playing Jason Mercier and Peter Eastgate and people like that. He is playing the three best cash players in the world when he’s on High Stakes Poker. By that I mean Ivey and Antonius are the two best cash game players in the world and obviously durrrr is good at a no limit hold’em ring table too.
I think he [Negreanu] has realised that and he doesn’t get involved with those three in very big pots. I didn’t think he got too run over in this series.
In the bigger tournaments a lot of the players are obviously freerolling through satellites. They’re not Iveys. They are intimidated by Negreanu so he can raise it up a lot and breeze his way through them.
What do you think about Phil Hellmuth?
He’s a nice guy. He might be a little bit deluded about his poker skills and just be in denial. Then again he might be good and just running bad – but he definitely isn’t that good. He’s not as good as the top internet players and stuff like that but I’m sure he can still beat the soft fields.
Durrrr has had a great start to the year online. Has that changed your opinion of him?
Not really. Everyone says he’s up $1m, $2m, $3m but they are playing $500/$1000 here – that’s not many buy-ins. Obviously it’s good to win that much but it doesn’t change my opinion on him. It’s all variance isn’t it? Patrik [Antonius] is one of the best players in the world but he’s losing $4m this year – its just variance.
Do you think it’s a big mistake to play the same opponents over and over again when the variance is so big and the skill edges so small?
The problem is that they’ve all been doing this for so long and they have such big rolls that its not entertaining for them to play $50/$100. They have to play the bigger stakes to get the buzz out of it. The only way they are going to play the biggest stakes is if they play the best players. Its understandable.
Luke Schwartz and other great players regularly appear in PokerPlayer magazine HERE
