In an episode of “The Showdown with Jon Friedberg” filmed prior to last Friday’s indictments of 11 people, including the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker, Steve “gboro780” Gross discusses his high-stakes online poker career. Little did we all know that within a few days of filming, his life and the lives of poker players everywhere would be turned upside down.
Vanessa Selbst has taken flack in recent days for serving as the face of poker. Friedberg shared his opinion on Selbst’s poker prowess: “She does have a very reckless game, although I’m sure there’s a lot of skill behind it. Do I think Vanessa should be speaking in front of Congress to try to legalize poker? Absolutely not. Yes, she has an impressive background from Yale. Yes, she’s a smart person. Yes, she’s a very successful poker player. But, her style is very reckless, not the most effective in my opinion to be out speaking about how poker is a game of skill.”
Friedberg instead suggested that a cash game player serve as poker’s voice: “I think that whoever speaks in regards to poker being a game of skill should be a cash game player, not a tournament player because… the best tournament player in the world can go their whole life without winning an event. Cash game players, on the other hand, have very little luck. Most importantly, you can look at results.”
Gross, a DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member, then joined the set and discussed whether a person’s aggression level is increased if they’re backed: “When I was coming up and I was on a short bankroll, I’d make sure I didn’t screw a tournament up if I was deep in it because it meant that much to me.”
On the wealth of training sites now available to players, including offerings like CardRunners and PocketFives Training, Gross opined, “You can watch a high-stakes player’s video as a beginner and learn these moves, but you can’t learn what it took him years to learn as far as timing and when to make those moves and stuff like that.”
Prior to last week’s upheaval of the online poker industry, Gross had turned in a rash of second and third place finishes. Why hasn’t he been closing tournaments? “I think it’s mostly just variance,” Gross reasoned. “A month or two ago, I won three tournaments in a week, but they were all smaller tournaments. These bigger ones I haven’t been able to close out, which I don’t think is a coincidence. There are obviously better players in the bigger tournaments and bigger final tables. I’m also not trying to win the tournament from the get-go, so maybe my stack isn’t as conducive to a win.”
Outside of poker, Gross’ plate is quite full: “I met a great girl out here, so I hang out with her a lot. I have two dogs. I’m trying to get into good shape since I was a little lazy for a few months there. I’m trying to go to a Mixed Martial Arts gym with my roommate three or four days a week. Hopefully by the World Series, I’ll be a new man.” Gross makes his home in Las Vegas and his home site, DoylesRoom, has continued taking U.S. action.
Finally, we’re about five weeks away from the start of the 2011 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas. Gross previewed the annual tournament series: “I’d love to do well. I say that every year, but it’s so easy to get tired and burnt out and not want to go in there every day. I’m going to try to be a little more selective… I feel better about my live game this year.” He spent between $70,000 and $80,000 on WSOP buy-ins last year.
Catch new episodes of “The Showdown” every Tuesday on Poker News Daily.