A Conversation With Legendary Commentator Jesse May – Part 2

Here is the second part of my conversation with legendary commentator and The Bombay Group’s Head of Poker Strategy, Jesse May.

This is the final piece of the interviews I conducted whilst at the world-class Bombay Club for their most recent instalment of the High Stakes Week Series. During my time in Tallinn, Estonia, I had the privilege of interviewing May, The €10,000 Bombay Anniversary Invitational Champion Mounir Tajiou, dual $50,000 Poker Players Championship Winner Dan “Jungleman” Cates, and last but certainly not least, Hall of Famer and all-around crusher Phil Ivey.

Without further ado, let’s pick up where we left off last time, which is at The Nordic Hotel on a Friday evening in Tallinn, where I wanted to know more about one of the games that was included in the Five Star tournament that was held at The Bombay Club’s sibling venue, The Chesterfield.

The Nordic Hotel Forum, Tallinn, 6:06 p.m

What’s Soko?

The first time I played was in the 90s in Helsinki. There was this one card room in a hotel. I remember going there—it was one of my first times in Europe—and honestly, everyone was drunk. I was too, but I’d never seen a poker game where literally the whole table was drinking like that. It was fun, but I got absolutely crushed. And it taught me something I’d already started to figure out in Ireland: just because someone’s drunk doesn’t mean they’re not really good at poker.

What’s coming up next for the venues?

At Chesterfield, we want to be both a local card room and a place where operators can host festivals. Since we don’t have an online site, we can work with anyone. We’ve got our own license, and the Nordic Hotel next door has a conference area and a couple hundred rooms. That means we can host anything from 20 players up to 2000.

You’re known for your commentary skills. How much did you enjoy that heads-up match that took place at the Bombay Club with Ossi Ketola taking on Elias Talvitie, Dan “Jungleman” Cates and Kayhan Mokri?

I’ve been a fanboy of “Jungleman”, since the beginning. The first time I met him when he’d just turned 21 in Vegas around 2010, and I’ve followed him ever since. So yeah, it was a great night, a great stream.

To check out the action from Bombay Club High Stakes Week, check out the video below.

Any favorite stories or hands from High Stakes Poker?

Just want to mention the Tom Dwan Challenge because that was a lot of fun, but what I remember most about that challenge it was during the period where he was engaged in a very intense heads-up battle with Isildur—Viktor Blom—online. He’d play 12- to 14-hour online sessions overnight, $200/400 four-tables, then come film these half-million-dollar matches at “Les A” during the day on no sleep. You never knew which game had more of his attention; that was quite fun.

Beyond that, my favourite TV poker memories usually involve Phil Laak. To me, he’s the most entertaining poker player ever. Premier League Poker in Vegas with him and Luke Schwartz was just so much fun.

Why should people come to Tallinn and play at the Bombay and Chesterfield?

With The Bombay and The Chesterfield, they are cashless casinos so you don’t have to worry about leaving with money. At The Chesterfield, we want to recreate that old-school card room vibe. If you’re a poker player from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, or the UK, this is an unbelievable place to come for a weekend. Even if it’s not a festival, come on a Thursday, grab a cheap hotel deal, and you’ve got tournaments and cash games waiting. It is an old school classic card room, if you come and play in the cardroom we make sure everything else is handled—food, drinks, hotel.

What’s your favorite poker variant?

I’m embarrassed to say it, but Limit Hold’em. That’s what I grew up on, so I am an old school softy for it; all my nostalgic poker memories are from limit games. I know the game’s been solved, and I know people think it’s a stupid game. You don’t see it much anymore, but I’d love to run a 3-6 white chip game at Chesterfield with those classic five-bet pots flying around.

To finish off, tell us more about The Bombay Club?

If you look at the High Stakes Week, we are not trying to get people to fire seven bullets, have big reg fees, stuff like that. We created a tournament week with short tournament days, five-six hour tournament days, to allow the cash games to happen, to allow people to relax, have a bit of fun, gamble if they want. Most of all, we want them to enjoy the poker, and I think we got that. It started quiet but the cash games got flying, ending in the high-stakes challenge.

I walked into the room one night and there is Ivey, Jungleman, a bunch of high-stakes players, in the lounge, all laughing, playing Squid Game, all having so much fun. There was a DJ, food everywhere, even private jets bringing people in.

It’s something a bit different. The EPT High Rollers are great but they are a bit more intense, serious. We want our atmosphere to be fun, playing games like Squid Game, which is high variance, and heads-up matches on live streams, and tournaments as well.

To Conclude

And that concludes the interview with Jesse May, and the coverage of The Bombay High Stakes Week in general. I would like to thank May, The Bombay Group, Pokerlistings.com, and Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk for allowing me the opportunity to experience this slice of the high-stakes world, which has enabled me to talk with some of poker’s brightest and best.

That’s all for now, folks. Stay tuned to pokerlistings.com for continued content from the world of poker. Until next time.