Rob King: We're here at the Poker Star's week in EPT London.
We've got Liv Boeree with us.
Liv, how you doing?
Liv Boeree: Very well.
How you doing now?
Rob King: I'm doing okay.
Slightly it's been a little exciting experience for us.
First EPT.
Liv Boeree: Oh great.
That's right.
Rob King: We have one steep learning to go shall we say.
[Inaudible 00:32:00], quite interesting.
You've bubbled at UKIPT right?
Liv Boeree: That's right.
Yeah, I bubbled the UKIPT.
A little bit annoying.
I made a bad shove I think on the bubble.
In fact I know it was a bad shove and I walked into kings and ran into Kings again.
Yeah it was what it was.
Rob King: It happens as to all of us.
Unfortunately not all of us have quite half the skill itself so we come up with a lot
more often.
Also when you were online I noticed you got quite deep in the Sunday Million and partly
some other [inaudible 00:01:02].
Liv Boeree: Yeah.
Actually I haven't been playing that much online for the last six months or so.
Yeah I played the, I was out in [inaudible 00:01:10] and I just finished that.
Thought of the Sunday Grind, just played a few tournaments to help to the Sunday Million
and I ended up finishing 27th I think and it was a big one as well.
A little bit frustrating to be playing until five in the morning and then for not that
much to show for it.
Rob King: Was that the one you were playing on your iPhone?
Liv Boeree: Yeah.
Half of it I was playing on my iPhone, because the internet at the hotel was awful, it kept
disconnecting and then I found out how to get onto another one.
Eventually I was back on my computer, but it really counted.
Rob King: Thank God for small miracles, right.
Liv Boeree: Yeah.
Rob King: Knowing your history, you came from and Astro Physics backgrounds.
What interest you into Astro Physics, I have to ask?
Liv Boeree: I just love Physics at school.
Maths and Physics and Geography and Biology were like my four subjects that I liked the
most.
I knew I wanted to do Physics at university really and then the Astro side of it.
I had always been interested in space and the bigger picture and that sort of thing,
so yeah I decided to apply for that.
Rob King: Would you consider yourself a geek?
Liv Boeree: Yeah in some ways for sure.
Yeah I can be pretty, no doubt on a lot of things definitely.
It's hard to sort of set the exact definition for the word.
I have been called a geek many times and I'm happy to call myself one.
Rob King: What led you to poker?
I know you did the reality stuff, but was there anything else behind it?
Liv Boeree: No.
I didn't know the show wasn't poker.
I just was applying for game shows, because I didn't really have anything else to do and
I seem to be successful at getting on them and I like doing them.
Yeah it was another game show basically and it turned out to be about poker and I learnt
about the industry and the lifestyle and the celebrities and so on.
I was like wow the seller to really, really fun thing to do, I want to see how well I
could do at it.
Rob King: Have you ever thought about if you were to leave poker what you would go into?
Would you go back into the Science side?
Liv Boeree: No, I think I'm too sort of far gone in my terms of academic studies.
I mean maybe I could if I really immerse myself back into it.
To go purely into academia, I find it too claustrophobic for me now.
I love meeting, all the human interaction of traveling the world and I love show business
as well.
What I would like to do at the same time and still playing poker is to get back into Science-Fi
TV.
Maybe do dome science related broadcast.
Hello BBC.
You know that sort of thing is what I'd really like to get into.
I love the documentaries that are being made at the moment, like Brain Cox and people like
that and they get to travel all over the place.
Be with animals, adventure, danger or just purely sort of an educational TV show, I'd
love to get into that sort of thing.
Rob King: You did quite a lot of work for the EPT Live guys, I have to be honest I'm
one of the guys that watches.
Liv Boeree: You listen, oh good.
Okay.
Rob King: [Inaudible 00:04:40].
Liv Boeree: Oh that was you right.
Fantastic.
Thank you.
No, it was awful.
Yeah.
Rob King: You mentioned a company broadcast about [inaudible 00:04:50] around the poker
table?
Liv Boeree: Right.
Rob King: How did that come about and most of you guys get asked the same question.
Liv Boeree: Yeah.
It was just a result of that, but always been asked what's it like being a woman at the
poker table, I'm like well, I don't know I've never been a man at the poker table, so I
have no point of comparison.
We were just thinking of belligerent answers to annoying questions.
Rob King: I could understand.
Do you actually think that the way poker media for the game is heavily sexist or do you think
its [inaudible 00:05:26]?
Liv Boeree: I don't think poker media are sexist in anyway.
I just think it's their job to write stories that it's going to go on a reader interest.
If readers want to hear about women in poker then they're going to have to ask those questions.
It's just one of those things, if I wasn't a woman in poker I wouldn't be as nearly as
well known as I am.
It's part of a flip side of the coin.
I don't mind being asked the question.
I like being a woman and I like being in poker so ask me about that that's fine.
Rob King: Fair enough.
What about the World Series Ladies Event, what do you think of what they've done with
a 10K buy-in for them?
Liv Boeree: I don't know.
I can see again both sides of the argument, I could see why you could argue that it's
a little bit discriminatory, but I wouldn't care if they wanted to hold a one event that's
a 1K for men and the 10K for women I'd be okay with that.
If they really want to do that, fine by me.
Because women have got one, so why not men.
People are getting on their high horse about it, it's not like it's the only event.
There's 50 other events, its one tournament.
If there's a big market for it and it gets more people into the game and that they have
fun and play the game and what's the harm in it really.
The fact they have 2,000 or so women turning up excited every year looking forward to it
and they wouldn't play the event if it was a completely event, then just let it happen.
It's one out of thousands of tournaments a year.
Rob King: Do you think they are good for the game?
Liv Boeree: Yeah.
I do think they're good for the game, because like I said a lot of the women whether it's
right or wrong would not play if it was a mixed game, if it wasn't a mixed event.
A lot of us in the poker industry might disagree with that mindset, the point is it exists
and there's a market for it.
There's a market for it and it encourages people to play the game, which is what surely
we all want why fight it.
If 40% of the events started paying women own events, then yes, I think that would be
a problem.
It's one or two events, maybe they'll be one at each stop and it's a low by-in and just
let the women have their event if they really want it and if there's a desperate call for
one or two men only events as well, fine by me.
Rob King: What would be your standard advice for people getting into poker?
Would you amend any of that for a young lady trying to get into poker, maybe not the same
route you went through, but is there anything that you would advice people to do or not
to do from your experience?
Liv Boeree: Yes.
Obviously the holds and be extremely with bankroll.
I would still always advice someone to getting into poker in anyway as to just still keep
it as a hobby and not just quit everything and drop out of school or quit their job or
anything like that.
You need to make sure that you have diversify your income.
Now, obviously I understand there can be an issue for someone in a full time job to then
try and play poker full time, it's impossible.
So see how you do at poker, you can still put in a quite a bit of volume in the evenings
or on weekends and if you start showing good results and your proving over a large sample
size to be a profitable player then maybe you can consider sort of slowly winning yourself
off and just more into poker, but always have other options I think is the thing to do.
That's what I always did, I always had.
I never solely relied on my poker income, in fact I've never relied on it, I've always
had other ways and means of making money and I would recommend that to anybody, be it a
business that you're running or employment.
Rob King: I have to say, I'm a musician myself.
I've worked in the industry on and off for years.
I have to ask, I've seen some of your videos of your playing.
How often do you get to play these days, how often to you get out the guitar?
Liv Boeree: Unfortunately never.
I've just bought an apartment in London.
For the last three or so years my guitars have basically been in storage at my parents
house and I just haven't played at all.
I can't put all the blame on the fact that they were in storage, I just haven't had the
burning desire to get it out and play.
Those videos that were on the internet were filmed four or five years ago I would say
and I was much, much, much better than I am now.
With that said I do believe it's something if I really knuckled down I could get back
into it and I'm setting myself up a studio in my apartment, sort of to give me that kick
up the ass that I need to get back into it, because I loved it.
It used to give me so much pleasure, hearing an amazing song and being like I want to be
able to play that, I want to learn that solo.
I never quite got to the level that I wanted to be at.
I was okay, I definitely wasn't a great guitarist.
Rob King: Have you thought about putting a couple of poker players together setting up
a band and just for fun?
Liv Boeree: I would love to, I'd always have a jam session.
Weirdly I've been getting, not that I can sing, but I really enjoy doing it and I like
getting friends together and we'd have karaoke nights or singing nights.
I really do enjoy music, but I don't know if I would ever have time to do a band.
Rob King: It would be.
Liv Boeree: Very time consuming.
Rob King: I would pay money to come and see a band of poker players.
Liv Boeree: I don't if you would.
Just bring ear plugs probably, would be my recommendation.
Being that said there is a lot of talent in poker.
I know a lot of people that are very good at many different instruments.
Rob King: As we're at the EPT, you really should mention the event.
You played Day 1A yesterday.
How'd it go for you?
Liv Boeree: It went well.
I'm with a 56K, which I think is around average or just a little bit above.
Yeah, it went fairly smoothly.
Pretty much just build up steadily.
I got up to 75K at one point and then in the last level bluffed off 20K, in a stupid spot.
Rob King: You can't leave without that, it's a great story.
Liv Boeree: Oh no.
I know its whole story.
It just was bad.
Then I was down to 45 and I built back to 56 and then the day ended.
I'm happy we going into 400, 800 so back to the room.