Poker News Daily: How did you get started in poker?
Esfandiari: I was about 19 years-old and lived at the time with Scott Stuart, who played poker in local casinos. He got me into it. He gave me a book to read, “Winning Low Limit Hold’em” by Lee Jones. I started doing what the book told me to do. At the poker table, I could figure out what other players had before they turned their cards over, so I knew there was something there.
PND: You’ve played in tournaments around the world and even made the final table of the European Poker Tour’s Monte Carlo event. What tournament do you look forward to the most?
Esfandiari: I would say my favorite tournament of the year is NBC’s National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Heads-up is my favorite type of poker because it’s “mano a mano.” Sixty-four people are chosen and one person walks away with the victory. As far as regular tournaments go, the World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship is one of my favorites. You get 50,000 starting chips, the blind levels are long, and there is a lot of play. It’s a fantastic event overall.
PND: Do tournaments played overseas vary from those in the United States in terms of style of play or aggressiveness?
Esfandiari: A lot of people from Finland and Sweden are very aggressive. You get some of those types of players in Europe, too. In Europe, there are more very good players, but also a lot of bad players. In the United States, there are a lot more average and good players. I think there are more great players in Europe than America.
PND: What is the greatest accomplishment of your poker career?
Esfandiari: I would have to say winning the WPT’s L.A. Poker Classic in 2004. Sometimes in life, you have to be at the right place at the right time. If I hadn’t won that event, I wouldn’t have been invited to events like “High Stakes Poker” and the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. That was the breakthrough for me. It was the most monumental moment in my life.
PND: You specialized in magic before poker. Could you see yourself as a professional magician today?
Esfandiari: Magic was my passion and my dream. I practiced about 12 hours per day every day for two years. I was pretty decent at it, but it’s very difficult to make a lot of money doing magic. There are only a few magicians in the world who make a significant living performing. It was going to be very difficult to break through and become one of those guys. Poker rescued me in that sense. If poker hadn’t come along, I probably would have been doing magic and pursuing my dream, but poker has enabled me to do things in my life that I would have never been able to do in magic.
PND: Talk about your relationship with poker pro Phil Laak.
Esfandiari: I can honestly say that I’ve learned a lot more from Phil than he’s learned from me. He was a professional gambler when I met him. I was very young and arrogant and didn’t know anything about bankroll management. When I met him, my bankroll was about $7,000. I went to New York and spent half of that partying. He taught me the importance of not playing games that are too big and not spending as much as I was.
I met him at the World Series of Poker in 2000. I was doing magic tricks and he was the guy watching my hands to try and figure out what I was doing. That irritated me and we started chatting. That night, we went out and had a good time together. Now, we have a show together on the television network MOJO called “I Bet You.” We walk around and bet on everything.
PND: What aspect of professional poker do amateur players not understand?
Esfandiari: It’s a very tough way to make an easy living. There are so many variables that go into becoming a successful poker player. Until you’re in it and experience it, you can’t realize how tough it is. No matter how good you are, you’re going to go through some difficult hurdles like running bad, getting unlucky, and going on tilt.
PND: What advice do you have for new players entering the game?
Esfandiari: Give it up, go back to school, and get a real job.
PND: As one of the most accomplished players in poker, how do you continue to remain competitive and stay focused?
Esfandiari: It’s difficult. The way I do it is by making bets. For example, I was getting pretty bad at using my phone during tournaments. I get bored very easily, so in between hands when nothing was going on, I would send a text and that would distract me. I gave my assistant a freeroll: If I use my cell phone during the tournament, I have to pay her a certain amount. I made a bet where I have to work out four times per week, otherwise there’s a heavy fine. During the World Series of Poker, I made a no drinking bet and a no going out bet. Those help me stay in check.
