\nLee Davy sits down with the former European Poker Tour (EPT) London High Roller winner, Talal Shakerchi, to see if he can figure out what the difference is between a whale and a shark.
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\nLee Davy sits down with the former European Poker Tour (EPT) London High Roller winner, Talal Shakerchi, to see if he can figure out what the difference is between a whale and a shark.
\n\t<\/p>\n
\tPoker High Rollers: Separating the Whales from the SharksWhat\u2019s the difference between a whale and a shark?<\/p>\n
\tOne\u2019s a fish and the other one isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\tBut do you know which one is which?<\/p>\n
\tI have often wondered how wide the margins are when the professional poker players take on the businessmen. There is the presence of skill, there is the presence of luck, but there is also the presence of money.<\/p>\n
\tSo at what point does money start to become a leveler?<\/p>\n
\t$10,000?<\/p>\n
\tI don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n
\t$25,000?<\/p>\n
\tNope.<\/p>\n
\t$100,000?<\/p>\n
\tMmm\u2026nah.<\/p>\n
\t$250,000?<\/p>\n
\tNow your talking\u2026but I still don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n
\t$1 Million?<\/p>\n
\tWhen the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and Guy Laliberte merged minds to create the $1 Million buy-in event: The BIG ONE for ONE DROP, they created the money leveler.<\/p>\n
\tNow what\u2019s the difference between a shark and a whale?<\/p>\n
\tNot that much.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe ONE DROP was very interesting,\u201d said Talal Shakerchi as he takes a bite out of his tandoori-tinged Broccoli. \u201cI had played with most of those players before, but I would say, for many of them, their game was a little bit different in the ONE DROP, especially as their stacks got shorter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tMy mind raced back to the beginning of my card learning cycle and the balls-kicking feeling that you got every time you did your bollocks playing three-card brag against the man who had the most money.<\/p>\n
\tIt\u2019s all just a question of scale.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe buy-in was big enough to impact a lot of those players. Very rich businessmen had the advantage that the buy-in was more affordable to them. You have to remember that many of the businessmen in these games have very sound fundamentals and they have earned their money by being very good at what they do. There were no fools playing in that game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tMaybe it\u2019s not like three-card brag after all.<\/p>\n
\tI remember the build up to the most eagerly anticipated poker game in my poker lifetime.<\/p>\n
\tThe social media was awash with the view of the pro poker player that if they could just get a hold of a million bucks there was value to be had in this game.<\/p>\n
\tValue.<\/p>\n
\tPoker\u2019s one word definition for a shit poker player.<\/p>\n
\tIt seems my memories of those days were not too dissimilar to Talal\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cPeople were writing about it at the time like there was soft money to be had. It\u2019s nothing like that. There are a few Chinese businessmen who know what they are doing, and some other businessmen who play a lot of poker and are reasonable players.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cGuy {Laliberte} is very underestimated. There is this perception amongst the poker community that he is some sort of \u2018donator\u2019, but he is a decent player who knows how to apply the right sort of pressure. He has played long enough against good enough opponent\u2019s to make him a very difficult player to play against.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThere aren\u2019t too many fools who have earned millions of dollars through business. These are very smart men, and they choose to play at that end of the spectrum, not just because they have that sort of money, but also because they relish the challenge of playing poker against the very best in the game.<\/p>\n
\tIf you are smart, and you spend enough time playing poker against exceptional players, then eventually you are going to pick some of those skills, as sure as dog shit is going to stick in your tread when you accidentally walk into it.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI wouldn\u2019t always say that it\u2019s just the businessmen who are weaker. There are also some pros who are not that great.\u201d Says Talal. \u201cIn some cases I would rather play against some of the pros than the businessmen. It\u2019s not as cut and dried as people think. It\u2019s without question that some of the best businessmen are better players than the weaker pros.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tSo what did Talal think about the razzmatazz that accompanied the 2012 BIG ONE for ONE DROP?<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt was good fun, but when I turn up to play poker I just want to play poker. I get frustrated when I turn up on time and the game doesn\u2019t start on time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tI guess it\u2019s difficult to start a game of poker with a half naked Cirque Du Soleil acrobat doing strange things with your button.<\/p>\n
\tTalal Shakerchi finished 18th in that inaugural event, and as he chomps his way through a garlic nan bread, he doesn\u2019t want to give me an insight as to whether he will be returning for more of the same this summer.<\/p>\n
\tBut I\u2019m curious.<\/p>\n
\tWhat would he have done had he won the $18.3m and not Antonio Esfandiari?<\/p>\n
\tTalal picks up the napkin from his lap and wipes away any remnants of food from his well educated lips before saying\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI would have probably given it away to charity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAh\u2026so that\u2019s the difference between a whale and a shark.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lee Davy sits down with the former European Poker Tour (EPT) London High Roller winner, Talal Shakerchi, to see if he can figure out what the difference is between a whale and a shark. Poker High Rollers: Separating the Whales…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}