all right my name is Ben dietch and I am here with Mr Jeff bowsky a man who is not only looking
out over the world itself as you can see he's looking to conquer it in terms of the world of
online poker throughout the next couple of months Jeff this challenge that you are in is one that uh
I think really gives you the opportunity to kind of prove yourself in the pantheon of online poker
particularly in the ACR Realm tell us what this challenge involves and how you got involved in it
well thank you for having me on Ben it's a pleasure love your work in Reno I know you're
a legend at the pepper mill it's just great to be interviewed by you on this glorious day
sitting here in Las Vegas many miles away but I'm sure I'll see you soon when you visit the
win this challenge is extremely special to me um ACR put this similar Challenge on for the
Vietnam Triton event 100K in buy-ins to three team Pros I emerged Victorious after a month
long social media and grinding micros and heads up competition and I'm ready to do it again I
I'm going to outwork every single Pro sleep is the only rest I get every waking moment I'm
help I'm growing my social media playing online tournaments or live or preparing for the heads-up
competition 100 000 is a lot of money I'm not gonna take this lightly and you can follow my
progress on Twitter I have a pin post with a video that outlines more about the contest and daily
updates of my poker tracker graph and my overall profitability as I grind my ass off thousands of
hands online and I even turn on Twitch once in a while so you guys can watch it I'll go down
I like what you said because it's something that I have said before in the past too and that is I
may not be the smartest guy in the room when it comes to this but I will work the hardest
and that is the the mindset that that you really have got to respect and something like this but
first of all take me back to Vietnam how did uh how did how long were you over there and how did
this uh come about how it's ultimately play out really uh yeah Vietnam did not expect to go there
I've never even been to Europe rarely travel and uh pretty pretty scared of flying all that scared
just like the process is very tilting to me and I get anxiety when I just like realize I'm on
a plane stuck in the middle of the air with nowhere to go but you can't think like that
um yeah same contest popped up out of nowhere they said hey win some micros uh do well on
social media grow your grow your channels and stuff and you'll have a chance to go to
Vietnam and play a hundred thousand dollars in tournaments in High Roller events the cheapest
events like twenty thousand dollars so uh that's only a few events but you got to make them count
I was able to uh get it done uh there were some problems with an e-visa which postponed
my trip which tilted me even more but in the end I got there uh 20 30 hours later
7 500 miles away from my home and uh never had to take a Xanax never completely freaked
out and uh made the best of it played with a bunch of all the best on best players in the
world and I wasn't intimidated played my game and bricked all hundred thousand in buy-ins
well I'm looking at this uh these numbers that came out of this and he was you it was Jeff Van
Fleet and it was Monica zugowitz if that's how she pronounces it and it seems like the three of you
really just dominated the poker like it doesn't really even seem like it was all that close but
the part that I find particularly interesting is that they also uh gauge this off of how
you did when it comes to actual social media interaction and you had the highest score of
anyone in this challenge in that department what how important is that in terms of what's going
on here to really kick ass at the social media game something that I know you've always done
well the each kind each segment of the competition was weighted with points unfortunately the heads
up competition was too heavily weighted um for the time and effort you put into it compared to
the social media and the grinding the micros so the poker portion was micros and heads up
and social media was overall engagement across the platforms uh comments likes shares mentions
there's programs that gauge this and you know there's a fine line you can't buy followers you
can't buy likes you can't use Bots and stuff it has to be organic and I just tried to be
as creative as possible and uh make posts that people enjoyed and found informative
and luckily I was the the top top scorer on the social media segment and everything I was
third in the micros and fourth in the heads up and that combination was enough to give me the
first place which is the same as second and third three packages between me ape Styles and Monica
so you have that competition and you are now on this quest to be one of two ACR team Pros
uh to win this hundred thousand dollar package and it and and so the way I understand this we gotta
we got high roller tournaments in May in Cyprus of all places so this I mean this sounds particularly
intriguing the travel included yeah big one thing that really helped my anxiety is uh business class
travel I never really experienced the difference but man it's night and day compared to coach I've
flown coach my whole life sitting three deep rubbing elbows no legroom people leaning back
into your seat people coughing on you people sweating and stinking no service
38 rows back and let me tell you business class and I even got upgraded to first
class for free once uh night and day the late the live flat beds on 12 hour flights
which is invaluable the the premium dining just the service of anything and everything you want
um super expensive you know five maybe five five x coach flight um but ACR paid for it all
and uh the first class accommodations really made the travel a lot less stressful for sure
so when you're looking at uh what's going to happen in May what do you intend to do
for Preparation wise uh just put in the work just every day just the hours with the um the
online tournaments the live tournaments uh the social media and the heads up those are the four
components uh two two different judgments on the social media growth and percentage growth overall
interaction quality of posts top five posts um I put out a pretty moving post yesterday on Twitter
about alcoholism and my battle with addiction and uh just everything I've been through and
I've been sober for three days for three years as of yesterday and I just wanted to spread the word
as to if I can quit you can and alcohol is a big problem and it really destroys a lot of families
and relationships and if it can be avoided or solved I think it's a net positive for everybody
and this challenge I mean really this is quite a quest in terms of your poker
career and unlike anything else that you've been involved with how do you intend to
showcase this via Vlogs to your followers on YouTube which obviously is going to be
where the uh the vast majority of Poker fans know you from yeah luckily on the last uh the Triton
um the Vietnam Adventure that I was just on the ACR paid for a three-person camera
crew to actually shoot a documentary for the experience for America's card room which they're
currently editing it's going to be a long process unfortunately so I do have four Vlogs lined up for
the four tournaments that I played when I was in Vietnam but I can't release them until ACR puts
out their documentary but then I the good part is they're going to help me with the editing and I'm
going to have access to all of the professional footage that they shot following us around
um at the resort and in the High Roller tournaments and live action shots big big
bubble moments that I was involved in and all in situations and I might have even hit a final table
so stay tuned for those Vlogs they should be very exciting I can't wait to see them come out in the
next few months but I'm going to do the same for this afternoon package I'm going to do the
same thing and of course log the experience and be able to share it with all the viewers
by the way Cypress home to someone that if you're an NFL history fan you'll appreciate when Guero
you premium the man who famously had his kick blocked in Super Bowl 7 Dolphins Redskins and
had to try and throw a pass after his field goal attempt was blocked but failed to realize that he
had the ball in the wrong hand and he threw a pick six with the with the in one of the
funniest moments in NFL history I always think of that when I think of the country of Cyprus
but here's the question I want to ask with regards to uh this grind that you were in in Vietnam over
um about the course of a month uh I want to know something that you really picked up on
because generally speaking you know poker is always learning experience uh give me
a concept that uh that really kind of stood out to you in terms of something you learned
something that you feel that you really have to work on as a result of that grind
uh just balance balance and life is super important I mean like I said I was I'd wake up at
eight start working at Nine and just grind micros and grind social media until midnight so 15 hours
um midnight comes around I go walk the dogs whine down go to sleep at one and start it
all over again what it taught me was just how to push my limits um but there is definitely a point
of attrition where your quality is going to go down if you don't get enough sleep or you're just
overworked so I did take a few days off to or not not days off a few hours off just to get a massage
you know just to let my body rest and relax and just enjoy life instead of just being on the
grind just completely dedicated to a goal which I just had nightmares of waking up and getting
like fourth place because I didn't I didn't try hard enough on day number 32 or something
and that just motivated me to give it my all and luckily I came away in first place so it
didn't really matter in the end but um better to Sprint through the Finish Line than jog
I've always known you as a sprinter Jeff Boats key any final thoughts as you get set to uh make this
run as Cyprus in me um I just uh just appreciate all the audience that you know we've accumulated
through our exposure on YouTube and social media platforms it seems like you gotta you
got a crew rooting for you um of course there's always gonna be one percent haters but we don't
we don't pay attention to those they're just mad because we're successful in doing great things out
there and providing great content and we're going to continue to do that and uh make a difference in
this world because you only get one shot and I'd rather be on my deathbed thinking about
how I failed and went for it and how I didn't try and I'll never find out
well you're certainly going to get the chance to find out coming up here in a couple of months
best of luck on that Journey sir thank you Ben it's great to have great thank you for having
me on this exclusive interview if you guys like poker Vlogs especially cash game poker Vlogs in
the Reno area specifically the pepper mill check out Ben deach on YouTube one of my favorite OG
poker vloggers out there show them some love live and learn vicariously through bandage
in the news business in Reno too he balances both you can too
well said sir thank you Ben have a great day
supporting