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Player Interview: Ben Grundy
6 February 2008 by Simon Hopper
I figured if I buy a house then I can't give the money back to the poker community
Ben Grundy; aka The Milky Bar Kid; has now been at the very top of the UK poker scene for a number of years and has already cashed over $500,000 across the world before turning 30. Poker Verdict caught up with him midway through the EPT in Dortmund...
You seem very down to earth at the table. Are you like that away from the action, and if you catch a bad beat do you fume inside?Ben Grundy: “No not really. I’m now so used to getting lucky and getting unlucky. I get more annoyed if its later in the tournament; if I make day three and I catch a bad beat then it’s much worse but if I go out on day one with an unlucky hand or a coin flip then I don’t really let it bother me. Just get a flight home and get ready for the next one.”
Do you ever let your mild-mannered image slip and make any extravagant purchases after a big cash?
Ben Grundy: “My most extravagant was buying a car a while ago. And I’ve just brought a house in London for cash; that’s taken away most of my bankroll. I figured if I buy a house then I can’t give the money back to the poker community.”
Your sponsored by Betfair. Do you ever use the exchanges or do you stick to the card rooms?
Ben Grundy: “I only really play poker on Betfair; I hardly ever sports bet, I cant be bothered. I’d probably start doing a lot of money if I started betting on football and stuff.”
Fair play. And what’s that picture of you on the Hendon Mob website all about?
Ben Grundy: “Oh, that’s my ridiculous vodka face; in Uni when I was drunk I always used to pull that face. I do look about 15 on that; I’m turning 30 in a few weeks and I think that was taken when I was about 21 or 22 so maybe I should update it.”
What do you make of the EPT Events compared to the UK ones? Is there a difference in standard of play?
Ben Grundy: “Yeah, I think the EPT’s are much harder than the UK Events. You can have a random table at an EPT Event where a lot of players you don’t know are playing really high stakes online, 100/200 no limit, and they are really top players. In the UK you get a lot of people satelliting in and people selling chairs. But with the Euros, apart from the online qualifiers; I think here there are 100 out of 400; the other 300 are either sponsored, rich, or pro.”
You’ve been playing high level poker for a while now. Would you ever be worried if a certain player sat down at your table?
Ben Grundy: “No not really. I just want to out-play anyone at the table. I try and change my game as much as I can to try and throw the table a bit. Sometimes I start playing every hand and then I tighten up a bit; then I start re-raising a lot pre-flop to try and change as much as I can. Hopefully then when I get big hands I can get maximum pay-out.”
You probably get this a lot but if you could have an all-time favourite table of players to play with, who would you choose?
Ben Grundy: “Well I guess you want to play against the best players so I guess Doyle Brunson, (Phil) Ivey; I quite like playing the Scandies so (Patrick) Antonius as well. Throw in Annette so I can outplay her! And J.C. Tran. Oh and the guy that knocked me out of the Omaha in Vegas, I want my revenge. And Marcel (Luske), I want revenge for him too as he’s outplayed me a bit before as well.”
Surely not. Anyway thanks very much for your time Ben.
Ben Grundy: “Cheers no worries. I’m meant to be moving house tomorrow so I’m either going to have a really big stack or be out of the building by the end of the day”.
(He was out by the end of the day).
Ben is sponsored by Betfair Poker. To download Betfair Poker click here.
Ben Grundy takes it easy with THE_D_RY