First We Take Sydney: The Martin Rowe Interview

By Martin Derbyshire Dec 9, 2008 | 11 months ago

Martin Rowe wins the 2008 APPT Grand Final Sydney

With the kind of skill and poise usually reserved for a more seasoned pro poker player, 34-year-old Sydneysider Martin Rowe took down the PokerStars APPT Season 2 Grand Final title in his hometown Sunday night.

A few moments before the Star City Hotel & Casino handed this insurance risk-management exec his $1 million AUD first-place prize and he took off to celebrate with his pregnant wife and their 18-month-old daughter, he sat down with PL.com to discuss the win, surprising us with the first question.

 

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You're Martin from PokerListings, right?

That's me.

I'm a big fan of PokerListings. I read it all the time. Especially the Question of the Day. I must have read 30 of them right before this tournament started. It's really a great learning tool.

Sounds like it helped here. This must all be very exciting for you?

Tremendously exciting. I came into the day and I wasn't excited at all. I don't know. I was just calm because $40,000 was great to me. It just didn't seem like the $1 million was realistic for me and now that it's actually happened, I just haven't processed it really.

Was there a time throughout the final table where it did start to look to you like first place was realistic?

It just never was. It was just like a sit-and-go, pretty standard. But the quality of the other players was just fantastic. In the end I just had to play my own game. I'm not a professional. I'm just an interested amateur and so I didn't have anything hanging over me like trying to work out the next level or how much I needed to get there. I just enjoyed playing the game.

What's your background in poker?

He comes from the land Down Under.

I saw it on TV. I started watching it on TV a lot and about every three months or so I used to play a game with my mates. We used to play sit-and-gos, maybe go away for a weekend with the guys, and whoever would win the tournament would have to pay for the weekend. I was always interested and when they started having pub games here a couple of years ago I got involved in that.

Then it got to the point where the randomness was starting to exceed what I knew about the game. So I started looking for more challenges.

Last year I played my first real tournament. I happened to be in Melbourne working during the Aussie Millions and I literally walked by when one of the prelims was starting so I sat down there and I cashed. Then I started playing some of the tournaments here [at Star City]. Not too many cash games, but I started playing the tournaments here once a week.

The thing was, when I was down in Melbourne and I was sitting with lots of people I'd read about in blogs like yours, it just gave me much more comfort with my game - that it was up to the right standard.

So you were a little less starstruck coming in here then?

Yes. But the thing is, I was sitting with players who, given the right opportunity, would absolutely cut me up.

Cut up.

Well, it did appear for a while that's what was happening with Jason Gray heads-up. You went in with such a huge chip lead, but then he grinded his way back to almost even before you really switched gears and put your foot on the gas.

He played a great game. I was completely disoriented and, I think, put off kilter a bit. I was really calm and collected before the break, then when I came back from the break I was a lot more, not nervous, just confused. That's a bad word. I just got knocked around in a couple of hands and started to doubt myself. Jason played that great, he must have tripled by the time I turned around.

Then, as it always seems to happen, you end up with good cards and that starts you up, because luck comes in clumps. That is actually a scientific fact. Tear up a piece of paper and throw it on the ground, they don't end up evenly spaced [laughs].

So I started with that and I had pretty much had enough. I knew I had to change it up, change gears, and so I did. I was just lucky that when he tried to push back, I had killer hands. Luck does have a part to play.

I was just really happy with my balance this whole tournament. I was happy with the hands I was folding and happy with the hands I was playing and the way I played them. I made some mistakes throughout the tournament, about three or four mistakes, but I was lucky they weren't fatal ones.

The student becomes the teacher.

One of the things I hope to learn as I'm improving my game is that professionals play so they can't make mistakes, amateurs play so that they won't.

So is this $1 million AUD life-changing money for you, and what will you do with it?

Yeah, of course, it's life-changing. I know it's very topical to say something like paying off the mortgage, but I really haven't even thought about it yet.

So what's next Martin, will we see you on the professional circuit?

I would like to have a mentor. I don't have enough poker friends who I can share things with and have discussions about hands with. So I'd like to do that. I haven't really decided yet if I want to play professionally. I've only been playing for three years, so it's fresh and new. I've sat down at enough tables with some really great players to know that I've got a lot left to go. A man has got to know his limits.

 

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Humility is a quality rarely displayed by players who take down major titles, and it was refreshing to see in this amateur from Sydney. Rowe being a self-confessed student of the game with a lot to learn, it will be interesting to see if and when he finds himself in the PL.com spotlight again. After watching him display the kind of raw talent it takes to snatch the APPT Grand Final from a field full of experienced pros, we're certainly looking forward to watching as he refines his game.