Table Talk with PokerListings #3 – GingePoker: Beating Online Poker and 40-Hour Macau Cash Game Sessions
Achieving the “poker dream” is hard, as the definition constantly evolves.
Go back 20 years, and it was to win the World Series of Poker Main Event, get your customary picture with bricks of dollars, take multiple poker endorsements, and see your days out as a poker celebrity.
Over the past decade, the goal was to become a poker computer. To know precisely what to do in all the spots, to grind up the online stakes, and to battle against the very best, asserting yourself as the very best.
In the past few years, that’s all been flipped on its head. It feels now like poker content is back on the rise, and that’s where the current “poker dream” is filming your poker journey, building hordes of fans, and monetizing this newfound fame you have built.
It almost feels like the poker world is at a crossroads currently. Online poker faces all kinds of existential challenges, whether it is GGPoker implementing an unbeatable rake or other operators being rife with RTA and collusion. The poker content world is becoming increasingly concentrated and dominated by influencers. So, what’s left for poker dreamers?
How GingePoker Fulfilled Multiple Poker Journeys
GingePoker has arguably achieved most of the poker dreams, whether moving to Asia and creating a living through online poker or winning in juicy, high-stakes private games. During lockdown, he decided to dabble in poker content by streaming him playing in one of the toughest online games running - the 500 Zoom game on PokerStars.
Winning in this and creating engaging content led to a GGPoker streaming role, which went well but also felt like the end of the journey. The bureaucracy that comes with a huge poker operator will bring creative outlines that can be hard when you’ve experienced the freedom of being your own boss in poker content.
A trip to Las Vegas with the aim of winning $1 million didn’t pan out, with a big downswing being saved by a fortunate swap with Espen Uhlen Jorstad, the WSOP 2022 Main Event Champion.
A poker trip that didn’t pan out was followed by one that did. A super-juicy high-stakes private game beckoned for Ginge, and this time the preparation level was higher and the flops more favourable. A massive win catapulted his poker winnings, and now he sits in front of the poker signposts, deciding where to go next.
We got to catch up with him, seeing where he’s now and what it’s like at this poker crossroads.
We also covered topics like:
- The future of winning in online poker and the best ways to do it.
- Why the real poker money is in live games, and how to adapt to them.
- His trips to huge cash games at Macau, including 40-hour sessions playing $300/600.
- The importance of poker networking.
- How politics is killing high-stakes poker.
- His thoughts on poker coaching and why it’s a broken model.
- Ginge gives his thoughts on Charlie Carrel, Doug Polk, and Matt Berkey.
- What Ginge thinks of the Berkey vs. Airball HU match.
- His experience trying to get into the high-stakes games in Las Vegas and at Hustler Casino LIVE.
- Where he plans to go next for poker.
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