Simon with PokerNZ.com Kings shirt
Simon Watt doesn’t seem to have changed a bit. Less than a year ago he was a shy, quiet poker player thrust into the limelight with his maiden big field tournament win. I remember his reluctance at being interviewed after he’d beaten all comers at the 2009 NZPT Auckland. It was almost as if he secretly wished he’d finished second.
But he’s polite so he finally agreed. In a poker world that’s full of trash talk and young guns that at the age of 20 think they alone have the system beat Simon Watt is refreshing. Yes he’s young and he’s good. He’s certainly the biggest thing New Zealand poker has seen since Lee Nelson.
Eight months after his quarter million dollar win in Auckland Simon found himself in an even trickier position. He was never going to fly under the radar again. Simon Watt, 27, had just become the first New Zealander ever to win a World Series Of Poker bracelet and the almost Million Dollar haul that comes with one.
What’s more he did it by taking down a giant field and a three handed session with two of pokers most celebrated new comers, David “GhettoFabolous” Randell, and Tom “Durrrr” Dwan. Earlier in the year Dwan was so confident he’d win a bracelet this year he’s rumored to have made a number of bets totaling in the millions. He finished 2nd. I had the chance to catch up with the man who vanquished him… And once again I put the nice guy on the spot and pressed record…
What have you been doing since the win Simon?
I’ve been playing lots of poker. I didn’t have too much time to celebrate in Vegas because I was playing a $5k event two days later, then had another half dozen events between then and the Main Event.
Did you have anyone there cheering for you?
When I won the event I had one friend there, Joe, he was cheering very quietly. Daniel Negreanu described it in his blog as golf clapping. Where as Durrrr’s fans were being very loud and rowdy.
I guess immediately after you had a lot more friends…
Yeah I got a few comments and congratulations from some well-known guys. Mike Matusuw came over and said in reference to Durrrr’s bracelet bets: “Thank you for saving us all millions of dollars! How does it feel to be every high-stakes gambler’s hero? They’re gonna, like, put you on the wall in Bobby’s Room or some shit.”
Talk me through some of the pivotal hands in the tournament.
I guess the most important hand was at the final table when we were 3 handed and David Randall (a top online pro: GhettoFabolous) opens the button, I have about 35 big blinds and 3bet with 77 on the Small blind, hoping to induce a 4bet shove from air, he 4bet shoves T6o and I call. My hand holds and I double up into the chip lead for the first time in the tournament.
We had an aggro dynamic going on, so I was expecting him to 4bet shove light a lot. However 77 doesn’t actually play that well against his 4bet air range, I’m only flipping against JTo for example, so it was definitely a very marginal play. It worked out well but a couple of my friends have given me shit about how I played it!
So now you’re heads up with the poker worlds Wunderkind, Tom Durrrr Dwan. Was there any point in time where you felt intimidated?
It’s a little bit crazy looking up and seeing Durrrr but the final table had already been going for four of five hours so you’re no longer intimidated. I had a 2 to 1 chip lead and he never had much more than 30 big blinds, so he couldn’t really out play me too much. If we’d both had 100 big blinds it would be a lot scarier.
I’ve played a lot of heads up cash games online, so it’s an area of the game I’m very comfortable with, which also helped.
A couple of hands from the end, you raise from the button and he flats. The flop comes down Jh, Th, 7c, He leads out and you smooth him, the Ace of hearts come on the turn he throws out about a third of his chips committing more than half his stack to the pot. When you shoved did you expect a call?
I thought he’d be calling some of the time yes… (Grins) If he snap called I would have been in trouble. I wasn’t bluffing… I don’t really want to say what I had… (Laughs) I turned two pair… I had Ace Ten.
Calling the flop is definitely the best option, but on the turn I wasn’t sure what to do, I mean I’m beating his hand a lot but if I shove all in he’s not really calling with worse which makes shoving feel pretty awful. However he only had 13 big blinds behind so eventually I decided to shove and kill his equity share in the pot if he was bluffing, as another heart, K or Q on the river would of been gross.
So, back to the night after…
Before I went to Vegas I said, if I win a bracelet I’m going to have a crazy night and party hard, but I was so exhausted after playing all day that I just went back to the hotel room, had a couple of beers with my friend then crashed out and went to sleep.
Did Joe get anything for the support?
We’d actually swapped a little action in the tournament so that’s enough of a gift.
Can you disclose how much?
I’d rather not (Laughs)
Let him know if he’s getting that kind of action he needs to do more than golf clap! There’s quite an interesting contrast between say a Joe Hachem (not the golf clapping Joe) at the main event with Hachem working the crowd chanting Aussie Aussie Aussie… You’re heads up, you didn’t think about getting a little crazy?
That’s not my style… I was pretty quiet at the final table. I don’t really celebrate hands when I win. I think the only time I celebrated was after the final hand. I sometimes feel a bit bad when someone gets knocked out, or at least feel like it’s rude to celebrate in some over the top way when they have been playing for days straight and have just got some cooler or bad beat that has cost them a ton of money.
Ohhhh did you feel bad for the multi multi millionaire…
I didn’t feel bad for Durrrr, no! He has enough money already…
Have you talked to him since?
No, he would have no reason to want to talk to me. He actually took finishing second pretty well I thought, It must be very frustrating getting through that many players then losing heads up.
I’m guessing you wouldn’t know! Vegas was your second major final table and your second win… Do you think winning NZPT Auckland was a good road map for this one?
Yes definitely. I try not to think about the type of money we’re playing for, and I’m prepared to gamble even if the pay jumps are huge, so I’m always giving myself a good chance to win. I’m not going to sit there and fold and try to jump up pay spots.
Were there any plays at that final table where you were like, “holy crap thank god that worked”
There were two consecutive hands, quite early on at the final table, where I opened, get 3bet by someone in position and I 4bet shove with air, the second hand was against Durrrr. Before that I wasn’t managing to steal many blinds, so it was really good for my table image as people stopped 3betting me as much. It’s the time where I really gained some momentum on the final table, but it could of ended badly if I had actually run into a big hand.
So BACK TO THE WEEKS AFTER… Did you play any more events?
About 6 more events before the main event…
Did you have your sleeves up, bracelet on?
Haha, no! The only time I’ve ever worn the bracelet is when photographers request I wear it for a shoot. I think you look like a bit silly if you walk around wearing one…
Does anyone wear them at the poker table?
I saw a few people yeah. I think someone wearing a bracelet at the table is more likely to be a bad player than a good one. I’d prefer people don’t know who I am at the table but in the tournaments after event 11 lots of people recognized me at the table and said, “oh you’re that guy who beat durrrr”.
Coming into the World Series of Poker Main event, you’re obviously on a pretty amazing run. Did you go in thinking “this is mine”
I never feel like that going into a tournament. There are so many people and so much variance in a big tournament like that. I’m always confident that I have a good chance, better than most, but never feel like I’m going to win until I get very deep.
You did run deep in the Main Event. With about 400 people left and a first place of about 8 million USD what were you thinking?
I knew I had a decent chance. Going into day five I was probably about 50th with around 450 people left of 7500 starters so I knew that if I had a good day I had a good chance of making a very deep run. But the day went horribly, I bluffed off my chips in about 5 different pots!
How active are you that deep?
I was very active throughout the tournament, especially in position. The players are generally of a low standard in the Main Event so with deep stacks I feel very comfortable playing a lot of hands. Near the bubble I was extremely active and opened nearly every time it was folded to me for an entire two levels.
How much has your game changed since your NZPT win?
I think my tournament play has improved a lot. Before the NZPT last year I’d mainly played cash games online and not really a lot of tournaments, but I’ve put a lot more focus into tournaments since then and fixed some pretty big leaks.
So will you be mainly focusing on live events from now on?
I want to play some live tournaments, but not over do it. I’ll be playing most of the major tournaments around New Zealand and Australia (NZPT, etc), and probably the World Series again next year. My poker focus at the moment is getting better at cash games online, as my real aim is to be able to beat high stakes online cash games. I’d get much more satisfaction from doing that than winning tournaments. There’s so much luck involved in tournaments, but beating high stakes cash games online then I’d know I was good…
Really, no tournaments out there you want?
Of course the Main Event at the World Series. (Grins)
Brooke Howard-Smith
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