I recently started talking to you about online poker, taking advantage of the fact that I had remembered the fantastic game that Daniel Craig plays against the bad guys in ‘Casino Royale’, that great movie about agent 007 (yes, it’s great, but I already told you that, so don’t I will be heavy). My partner was enchanted with the electrification of each hand and the tension that is chewed trying to guess what play each opponent is hiding behind their cards, so since then we have been playing every weekend.
And it is that Poker has what many card games have, although more than any other: when you start to understand it, to learn the plays and to win, you can no longer stop enjoying it. Be careful, we are not talking about gambling addiction but about passion for the odds and the mental battles that this modality provokes. And since in our last talk we reviewed the most famous poker hands, now we have to focus a bit on what we have at home.
Because if sports betting has undergone a brutal evolution in Spain in recent years, poker has gone hand in hand. More and more of us enjoy playing online poker and learning from the lowest levels, and thanks to this several players have emerged on the international scene, rubbing shoulders with the greatest in the world.
Make no mistake: the ultimate feeling of happiness playing Poker is not winning; not even win with a big hand. The best thing is to know how to win without having to win, without the best cards, alluding to our ability to calculate what our rivals are carrying and making them fear us just by looking at them. And some of our next protagonists know a lot about that. Here are the five historical moments of poker.
2001 World Series
It is held in Las Vegas and is undoubtedly the most important tournament in the world. In that edition, Carlos Mortensen won the title, starting what is undoubtedly one of the most brilliant careers in international poker. He is of Ecuadorian origin and lived practically all his life in Spain until he moved to Las Vegas. For this reason, there are those who consider it a triumph and those who do not. In any case, he is key to understanding the game in our country.
IFP World Championship in 2011
This tournament was born as an alternative to the WSOP in Las Vegas, organized by the IFP (International Federation of Poker). The chosen setting was London. Although it did not have continuity, the truth is that it brought together players of a very high level and of course the winner, Raúl Mestre, thus obtained the well-deserved recognition for a constant contribution to our national poker.
The current scenario of continuous success cannot be understood without the analytical revolution that Raúl has championed at all times.
2014 World Series
Andoni Larrabe, a brilliant Basque player, qualified for the final table of the WSOP 2014 in Las Vegas, thus becoming the first strictly November nine. His letters did not accompany him in this important event and he finally finished in an extraordinary sixth place.
The whole country lived that final table with the intensity that the feat deserved. No doubt we will see him in similar situations in the near future. For the memory remains the emotional video that his friends from the poker community edited cheering him on, in which Athletic Bilbao players even appeared, his other passion.
WSOPE Paris 2013
Surely this tournament represents a turning point in poker. The triumphs of players are constant both in live tournaments and especially online, where practically all possible events have fallen. But only Mortensen had managed to win in this prestigious face-to-face tournament.
And then Adrián Mateos appeared, from Madrid, only 19 years old but with several tournaments both live and online in his showcase. An unstoppable talent who was going to win a prestigious victory that placed him in the international showcase at the highest level. Undoubtedly the first great achievement of many that were to come.
2015 EPT Monte Carlo
The EPT, the world’s most prestigious circuit, seemed like a forbidden fruit. Numerous national players had reached the final table but without crowning or without getting the highly prized pike, in reference to the tournament trophy. The main event of the great EPT season finale was taking place in Monte Carlo.
So Adrián Mateos, who if not, would be in charge of correcting that blur in the history of poker. He prevailed over all his rivals in an anthological tournament, topped off with a final table that we will hardly forget, displaying a game as superb as it was authoritarian. Adrián entered Olympus when he was only 20 years old.