With his win at the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event still fresh in the poker world's collective mind, John Juanda finished up the kind of week most players only dream of, coming second to Jason Mercier at the PokerStars.com EPT London £1 Million Showdown.
Juanda actually held a 2-1 chip lead going into heads-up with Mercier, but despite the fact he got extremely unlucky to lose, the Full Tilt pro still had lots of reason to celebrate, and that's exactly what he was doing when PL.com ran into him.
With a smile on his face and a glass of red wine in his hand, Juanda agreed, with a little help from Team PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu, to tell us about his incredibly successful trip to London and how he's turned his game around to get back on top of the poker world once again.
Looks like it's been a pretty good trip to London for you John?
It's been an amazing trip; almost perfect. I wanted to win this [EPT event] obviously, but I'm not so disappointed. Overall, I'm very, very happy. I won the one that I really wanted to win. If I had the choice between winning [the WSOPE] and this one, I would have taken that one by a long shot.
It was also much tougher to take down, considering the 22-hour final table ...
Yeah, absolutely. I'm not saying that this final table was easy. It was a tough one too, but [the WSOPE] probably had a little bit more prestige to it.
Taking you back to The Empire in Leicester Square just a few days ago, what was it like three-handed against the two Russians? At times it seemed like it was almost two against one?
Of course I didn't see the hole cards, but for a while it seemed like they weren't playing any hands against each other. Every time there was a big pot it was me against one of them. I didn't say anything, but even the tournament directors and the floor people, they were the ones that came to me and said "We know they are not playing any pots together, but don't worry, we are going to talk to them on the break." After that things changed, but, you know, obviously I'm not suggesting anything in terms of collusion or anything like that.
No, of course not. I have to ask, though, in a marathon 22-hour final table like that, do you ever get tired or mentally fatigued? How do you stay focused after that many hours on the felt?
This is the moment that I live for. As a tournament player these are really the moments you live for, getting down to the last two or three players in a big tournament.
[Suddenly Daniel Negreanu jumps in] Negreanu: You know it has been some time since you've been in this position John. Could it be that red wine you are drinking has something to do with it that? Once you found red wine, which I introduced him to many years ago ...
Juanda: He @%$#ed me up. Daniel @%$#ed me up.
Negreanu: I made him a drunk.
Juanda: You know I won three bracelets in two years and then Daniel was like, "Let's drink some red wine." And then I started drinking like every day.
Negreanu: A bottle a day [laughs].
Juanda: And then I never won for four years. But seriously, before the start of this World Series, the one in Vegas, I think Daniel called me or I called him and we talked and it was like "Hey bro, we haven't won for a long time and it's getting kind of embarrassing." But we kind of talked about it and made a plan that we were going to try really, really hard.
Of course, Daniel won a bracelet. I didn't, but I got close a couple of times early in the World Series. I think I just made the mistake of playing too many tournaments. I think ideally we should play like 12 to 15 tournaments and play our A game in all of them. Instead I played like 40. It just doesn't make sense, and I won't make the same mistake again.
Then I came here and Daniel and I are staying at the same hotel and we've been going out to eat a lot together.
Negreanu: Yes, we eat vegan food everyday!
Juanda: We don't have our girlfriends here with us so I have no choice but to hang out with Daniel [laughs] and as you can see, Daniel has done well too.
Negreanu: I cashed in three of four tournaments.
Juanda: We've been both playing really well and we had dinner together the night before [the WSOPE Main Event] and we've been talking a lot and I just had the feeling that we were both going to make it. Both Daniel and I were playing really well in the tournament and the structure was really good, giving you a lot of chances to build your stack. We were chip leaders all the way, Daniel and I.
I suppose deep structures like that really allow the cream to rise to the top. It was the same thing at the 2008 WSOP, where we saw pros taking down more than their share of bracelets ...
Don't say that I said that because I don't want to sound too cocky. You can say Daniel said that.
Negreanu: Now I've said this, and I think that you'd agree with me John: If you and I could stake nine players, I would have staked every one at that final table. Nobody was bad; they were all pretty good.
Seriously though, if you had to pinpoint one thing that has caused resurgence in your game, would it simply be the fact that you are more focused now?
If you consider yourself a top player, you should be winning. There are so many tournaments every year, you should be winning. There's no reason not to win because there are so many tournaments, you can't blame it on your luck all the time.
Negreanu: You know what's funny, we played in L.A. in February this year and on the first day we were at the same table. I looked at him and he looked at me and I was hung over from a long flight the day before from Europe. I'm like dead, I can't play and he's not trying. We looked at each other and he was like, "Look at all these 22-year-old kids they're really trying, eyes focused, remember when we were like that? Remember when we tried like that?" I had no chance, I went all-in blind basically, and he didn't go anywhere.
After it was over we were like "We're still among the best in the world and we have way more experience than these guys. If we tried as hard as everybody else then, you know, who can stop us?"
Juanda: That's when Daniel and I really made a pact, a goal, to prove, not so much to other people, but we wanted to prove to ourselves that if we set our mind to it and try really hard that we are still the best.
Negreanu: You hear all this stuff about online players taking over. The truth is we may have become a bit complacent living a more peaceful life, but when push comes to shove and our lives are on the line, [the online players] still have a lot to prove before they can say "We're better than you guys are."
Juanda: There are a lot of great young players out there nowadays, but I think people like Daniel and I, when we set our minds to it, we're still some of the best.
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With his WSOPE Main Event win and PokerStars.com EPT London High Roller runner-up finish, John Juanda pushed over the $9 million mark in career tournament earnings. But more than that, he proved to the poker world that a focused John Juanda is a dangerous one. It has been a few years, but now that Juanda is finally back, PL.com is betting he's not going anywhere.
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