Image courtesy of PartyPoker
How old are you and where do you call home?
I’m 45 and I was very keen to do this interview when I can still say that, as I turn 46 next week. I live in the United Kingdom (UK) in a place called Sheffield, which is famous for Def Leppard, the Full Monty, and the guy (Dominic West) who played McNulty in the Wire (HBO drama).
Tell us your poker story, please. How did you not only get started but get to where you are now?
Twenty years ago, a friend at my office job showed me Party Poker and how easy it was at the time. I was hooked, and I started a personal blog on the game, which was spotted by the editor of what was World Poker Tour (WPT) Magazine.
The editor asked me to write some stuff for them. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as “poker media” back then, but that one moment led to a twenty-year career and counting as a writer in poker.
My main job is serving as the editor of PokerStrategy.com and writing poker books with Dara O’Kearney and Jared Tendler, but I am also lucky enough to be a sponsored ambassador for Party Poker, the first site I ever played on.
Do you predominantly play cash or tournaments and what’s your “normal” buy-in?
I only play tournaments, and I specialize in satellites, at which my co-author Dara O’Kearney is arguably the best in the world. Because I specialize in satellites, my normal buy-in varies massively. Overall, I am mostly a low-to-mid-stakes player.
Where’s your favorite place to play and why?
My favorite place to play is pretty much anywhere in Ireland. They just have a really relaxed attitude about poker over there, and poker often takes place in a hotel, making the events so fun and convenient.
In the UK, my favorite card room is Manchester235. It’s quite a quirky, cool card room, and it has the same relaxed atmosphere I associate with Ireland. Party Poker recently had an event there and it had the right balance of serious poker for meaningful money, but also the kind of place you are happy to stay around after playing to have a drink.
Do you prefer playing online or live, and why?
If I had to pick one it would be online, because of how convenient it is. You have a lot of travel disappointments when playing live. But there is no feeling in poker like going deep in a live event.
What’s the largest pot you remember winning and what was your hand?
The biggest online score I have had was online at Party Poker. I turned a $5 satellite win into a $15,000 score in a Progressive Knock Out (PKO). It also technically led to my single biggest poker hand, during which I won a bounty that was worth about $4,000 when I called a shove with king/jack suited and the guy had king/ten offsuit.
Do you get recognized on and off the felt? If so, what’s that like for you? Do you remember your first time being recognized offline and in the wild?
It always happened a tiny bit before, but it happens all the time now. I get recognized in Ireland a lot because of my work with Dara O’Kearney, but for the last two years I get recognized a lot in other places because my Twitter/X profile has blown up a bit. I mostly get recognized as the “meme lord” these days.
I won’t lie; it does feel quite nice. Somebody asked for a selfie this week at the Party Poker event in Glasgow while I was with my wife, so it was cool looking like a big shot in front of her.
I have had moments though when I get knocked down to reality. This occurred most notably in a casino when a pretty young girl came up to me with one of my books and asked for an autograph.
I felt like a rock star for about twelve seconds, until I asked her if she liked the book, and she informed me that she had just found it on the floor in the card room and had no idea who I was.
Where do you get your comedy inspiration from? Does it come naturally, or do you have to work at it to reach the level you’re at now?
It just comes naturally; it’s more a case of I see a meme template and instantly think of what the poker version would be. Or a scandal hits in poker, and I just get a bunch of silly ideas.
In the last year, I have been doing some work creating memes for poker operators on their social media, so I now spend a bit of time brainstorming ideas, but the vast majority of the good stuff just comes to me.
Having said that, poker has some incredibly funny people in it who do inspire me. Nikki Limo, Caitlin Comeskey, both of the Spraggs, Stapes, my good friend David Lappin, and many more are such inspirations.
The Greatest of All Time (GOAT) though, when it comes to being funny on Twitter/X, is Jamie Kerstetter. If Jamie tweeted just a little bit more, nobody would pay attention to my account.
What’s it like being one of the best meme creators on Twitter/X?
I do love that I have found my niche, and I am lucky that my account has gotten big enough that now when I post something, it tends to get a lot of attention. It was an absolute joy winning an award for it, and having people say nice things about my jokes. I have had work opportunities and even sponsorship off the back of it, which is amazing.
I have had some concerns recently that it might have started to have an alienating side effect, though. There are people and operators who are the subject of my jokes and most of them take it well, but I do sometimes worry that some people think I am just a troll. I have pissed a few people off, which is never really my intention.
I try my best to get the right balance and mostly make myself the subject of the joke, because Twitter/X is toxic enough. Having said that, if I think something is funny, I can’t stop myself from posting it.
Do you have a favorite viral meme or joke you or someone else created?
My favorite of my own is this one:
It’s just a bit silly and it came to me after I saw two guys almost fight after one of them said he folded an ace when the other was all-in with ace/king.
My favorite poker joke is a Marle Spragg short video called “Whale Songs”:
I think this is a perfectly executed joke. There is no fat on this joke and it lasts the exact amount of time it should. It’s a brilliant gag, the hand example is perfect, and even the funny voice in the recording is hilarious.
If you could be an even better poker player or comedian, which would you choose?
A better poker player. Since I have worked with Dara, I have been a consistent winning player online for six years, but not a huge winner. I am just a recreational player, but I am friends with so many professionals, and you can’t help but compare yourself to them.
Also, as a writer in poker, I am constantly writing about the most successful players, so of course it makes you a little envious.
Do you have a favorite poker memory?
It probably will go down as what happened this week. I won my first ever live tournament at the Party Poker Glasgow event in one of the side events. For whatever reason, I kind of thought I was cursed in live poker, so to get that monkey off my back was great.
The real memory, however, was the rail. I had all my colleagues at Party Poker and my good friend David Lappin drinking and cheering me on.
I’ve always wanted to have one of those winner pictures with your friends in the background, and I got one. It wasn’t the biggest tourney in the world, and I have had many much bigger wins online, but it was probably the thing I wanted the most.
I’ve heard you won a couple Global Poker Index (GPI) awards. Could you tell us about that?
I’ve always felt poker awards were just a bit of fun and that people take them too seriously, but now that I have two I think they are THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD.
Dara and I won best book, which was great. That said, Dara and I feel like it was more in recognition for the six books we have done rather than for just “Beyond GTO”.
The Twitter/X award, however, meant the world to me. To get an award for being funny vindicates my inner child (I was the class clown).
What’s it like working with Dara O’Kearney?
We joke a lot online that he is a slave driver and I am his “tea boy,” but it’s actually been one of the best and easiest experiences I’ve had. I have learned so much from Dara; he is the reason why I am a winning player.
More than anything, though, he is a “yes-man,” and I don’t mean that in the negative sense. If we have an idea, we just say, “Yes” and go for it, which is why we are both quite prolific in our output.
Tell us about Simplify Poker, please.
After writing six books, we realized that what we really do is take the lessons that the solvers teach us and simplify them for a mainstream audience.
Simplify Poker is our training website where we have standalone courses, an Academy, which is a close-knit community that replicates Dara’s coaching and, of course, our books. I think we are a site for smart players who feel a bit left out or intimidated by modern poker theory.
Tell us about your role as an ambassador with Party Poker.
The Party Poker role was a complete surprise, and it has been so much fun. I already play there anyway, because they have the best satellites. I say this because they have a flexible token system, and all of their satellites overlap with each other.
I feel blessed to be associated with them, because they care so much about game integrity. The role is specifically to promote their live tour, which has been so much fun. The satellites are great: the live buy-ins are perfectly set so that you are playing for big money, but it’s not so big that the atmosphere isn’t good-natured.
Best of all, the venues are all places you would happily go for a drink, and the side events are all in fun formats you don’t get a chance to play live much. For example, I played a game called Tennessee Hold’em yesterday, which was bonkers.
I am not a professional poker player, so I’m not the sort of guy who would expect sponsorship, but what Party Poker has done is assemble a team of ambassadors who actually represent their target customers. I feel very lucky that “funny poker Twitter guy” fits into that model.
