He’s the most successful tournament player in history, after winning over $18m in one tournament. Paul Cheung finds out what’s next for the magician…
Prior to 2012, it was hard to know what Antonio Esfandiari’s enduring legacy in poker would be. In the decade since he’d been on the scene, the ‘magician’ moniker which he’d flouted in the early part of his career had faded away and he seemed just one of the ‘old school’ live pros who was a constant fixture on televised poker shows. You’d tune in not to see if he’d make an amazing play but simply to be quietly entertained/annoyed by the banter between him and the likes of Phil Laak and Phil Hellmuth.
Despite having a WSOP bracelet, a couple of WPT titles and several million dollars to his name, his poker skills were never uttered in the same breath as his peers. He even seemed to know the limitations of his game versus the highest calibre players. In that famous High Stakes Poker season 2 hand featuring Gus Hansen’s quads against Daniel Negreanu’s full house, Esfandiari looks down at his A-Q, ruminating his next move. ‘Out of position against Gus and Daniel?’ before tossing it away disgustedly, ‘What a load of garbage…’
As of February 2013, it’s safe to say that Esfandiari’s stock has soared in remarkable fashion. In July 2012 he pocketed over $18 million by winning the WSOP’s Big One for One Drop event. What’s more he did so by beating all those old school pros that he was so used to playing a supporting role to. The 34-year-old instantly rocketed to the top of the all-time money list with an astounding $23m in career winnings and although he quickly acknowledged that some of his historic win went to anonymous creditors, he admits that ‘it was the biggest win he’d ever had’.
Esfandiari went on to close out 2012 in some style too, snatching another bracelet (his third) at the WSOP Europe and rounding off the year with a fourth place finish at the WPT Five Diamond Classic. We caught up with Esfandiari shortly after his epic travelling session across Asia to find out how he can possibly top the last 12 months.
PokerPlayer: What are you up to right at this moment?
Antonio Esfandiari: I am going from New York to DC, I have a meeting with a potential creator for [TV show] I Bet You 2. It’s probably 10% so I don’t want to talk about it and have it not happen! It won’t be I Bet You exactly but it will be a spin-off with Phil and Antonio.
How much do you see Phil nowadays?
AE: I try and see him as often as possible. I haven’t seen him for a while, but I’m actually going to see him in a few hours.
How has your relationship changed?
AE: It’s still the same, I love him. He’s just one of the most fun guys I know. We never really talked poker and we still don’t.
Do you have similar outlooks on life?
AE: Not really. I do a lot more going out to eat and hanging out. He’s a much harder worker than I am. He likes to play poker and sometimes he’ll just go down to the Commerce to play. I like to chill with friends and take it easy.
Are most of your close friends poker players?
AE: No, not really. There’s only a few poker players that are my true friends: Brian Rast, Phil Laak. I just don’t want to talk about poker all day, poker players just like talking about the game all the time.
Where have you travelled to recently?
AE: I was in Australia, I then went to Malaysia, Macau and Hong Kong. It was over about four months, just me but meeting friends in different places.
Was that a poker-fuelled journey?
AE: It was mostly poker as I went to Macau to check out the games there, but I didn’t really play much. Then I went to Hong Kong because I have a good friend there.
What was your take on Macau?
AE: I went there seven years ago when the Wynn was halfway up and there was nothing around. Now there are casinos everywhere. It is insane when you walk around a casino in Macau and every single table is baccarat, every single table was full the whole time. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Are you interested in getting involved in the Big Game out there?
AE: I would. I tried, but I was not successful although I didn’t try very hard. There were a couple of big games, one was a private Chinese-only game that I couldn’t get into.
Who holds the sway?
AE: There’s a bunch of different people, but I’m not going to name any names. The big local players obviously.
