Moments after winning the
European Poker Tour Grand Final, Gavin Griffin picked up the championship crystal trophy and faced dozens of whirling cameras. He had just beaten Marc Karam to win more than $2.4 million, which was part of the largest poker prize pool of any tournament located outside the U.S.
Weeks later, Griffin was his normal, relaxed, and polite self, heading into the second day of the
World Poker Tour Championship at Bellagio. Take away his hairdo, which sported a fresh color of pink to help raise money for breast cancer awareness, and he would get lost in the crowds at Bellagio.
He describes himself as laid-back and boring. He spends most of his time away from the poker table at home in Southern California with his pretty girlfriend, Kristen, and their clan of dogs and cats. He is well-spoken and his demeanor is traffic-controller cool. He has a disarming smile and a general niceness about him, but don't be fooled by this façade, particularly if you find yourself at his table in a big buy-in event, as he is willing to put all of his chips in play at any time.
The attention he gets is nice, and he experienced it extremely early in his poker-playing career. In 2004, Griffin became the youngest person to win a
World Series of Poker bracelet when he won a $3,000 pot-limit hold'em event (good for $270,000), a record that was broken twice in consecutive years.
After moving from suburban Chicago to Fort Worth, Texas, to go to Texas Christian University, Griffin played and dealt hold'em in a game that took place in a storefront in some strip mall.
The games were relatively small, and he was a losing player until, one day, his competitive nature took over, as he was sick of losing. He studied books and read online poker forums, and after just about every session, he and his friends stayed in that storefront and talked about the game that Griffin swears was one of the toughest he's ever played in.
Griffin - who now sits near the top of the
Card Player Player of the Year leader board, thanks to his
EPT win and a third-place finish in a recent
WSOP Tournament Circuit event - was nice enough to sit down with
Card Player before the
WPT Championship event.
Bob Pajich: When did you first know you were a poker player?
Gavin Griffin: I guess it was probably that first summer that I started playing with my friends. They were all just kind of having fun with it and were playing just to play, and I was like, "Man, I really want to know more about it." As a baseball player, I was really competitive. Once I stopped playing baseball when I went to college, I kind of needed something to fill that competitive void, and I guess that's really what did it.
I think that's one of the characteristics of really great poker players. They're all very competitive people. They just hate to lose. They're always looking to get better at whatever it is they're doing.
BP: Was there a time when you thought you could make a lot of money at this?
GG: At first, I really liked playing, and I wanted to know what I was missing. That first summer, I was losing quite a bit. I wanted to know what was making me lose, and why one guy seemed to be winning more often than anyone else.
BP: How did you take the next step?
GG: I don't know. It just kind of happened. Like I said, I was playing in this game in Texas, and I actually enjoyed dealing a lot. That's really why I stopped school, because I thought I could do OK as a dealer and play on the side. I didn't believe I could do really well at it until the World Series, but after that, I kind of thought I would be able to do well at it.
BP: What did you learn as a dealer about the game that's still helping you now?
GG: The biggest thing I learned as a dealer is to pay attention. When you're dealing, you always have to be focused on the game in order to be a good dealer. So, I carried that over to my playing. I'm not necessarily focusing on little details like, "It's his turn to act." I'm focusing more on how a guy plays this hand in this position. You have to pay attention to that kind of stuff.
BP: Getting back to the
World Series, what was it like after your record-breaking win in 2004?
GG: It was awesome. It's weird to see yourself on TV; that was pretty odd. I had a bunch of friends and family over to watch it. I didn't think it changed the way I acted in life. It did change my style a little bit. I believed I had to play like I played on TV, like I had to live up to that image, and that was a mistake. I've since remedied that. I just play the way I think is right at the time.
BP: For a little while, you were the youngest World Series winner in history. How crazy were the days after the event?
GG: It was a lot more low-key [than it is now]. Even after the
EPT event, it was insane. There were all these camera guys taking my picture. I think after the
World Series, I did 30 minutes of photos and interviews. After the
EPT, it was two and a half hours.
BP: Even though your
World Series experience is limited by your age, how has the
World Series changed in recent years?
GG: When I won, it was still at Binion's. There was just a much different feel between Binion's and the Rio. I think the tournament venue at the Rio is great, but at Binion's, I felt so much more history there; there was so much more ambience. You walked into the tournament room at Binion's and felt humbled by it. You walk into the Rio and are humbled for a different reason: the size of it.
BP: In general terms, what skill sets make you an exceptional poker player?
GG: I think one of the biggest things that makes me a good player is my fearlessness. I'm not afraid to act on my reads. Also, I believe I'm very good at reading players, but I think reading someone and acting on it are two different things. There are a lot of people who read players very well but don't follow through on their reads. [I have no problem] going with it and saying, "Well, I think this guy's weak, so I'm going to move in with deuce-three, or whatever." And I'm not afraid of looking like an idiot. Just because the book doesn't say it's right doesn't mean it's not right in that situation.
BP: What are some aspects of the game that came naturally for you, and what are some areas that you still struggle with now?
GG: My emotional control was something I struggled with until fairly recently. Online, I'm still pretty bad. I don't know what it is online, but I have a higher tilt factor than I have when I'm playing live. I can't explain it to you. I guess maybe it's because there's nobody else there. What came easy? Reading people. I've always been very good at that - especially in no-limit and pot-limit. It's a lot easier to get a pretty good read on a person.
BP: In regard to reads, is it betting patterns that you're looking at?
GG: Mostly. Tells aren't that big of a deal. What I'm mostly concerned about are actual betting patterns, how they play in position. I'm not really saying his finger twitches when he's bluffing. I still could get a physical read on someone, and then have to decide what that means. But most of the time, I'm working off their betting patterns.
BP: How do you define your style of play?
GG: Adaptive. I can be superaggressive, I can be superloose, and I can be mostly tight. I don't know if I could be supertight (laughing). There's a limit to my tightness. I would say I'm pretty good at adapting to how other people are playing and switching my styles based on what I think is the most appropriate style at the time.
BP: Are you a gambler?
GG: No, I gamble when I play poker. I think that's also a quality of a lot of the very good players; they're willing to gamble when they need to gamble.
For instance, I was in San Diego (in a
WSOP Tournament Circuit event), and I finished third. We were on the bubble with 19 players left. I was short-stacked almost the whole time. We were on the bubble for about two hours. I was sitting there with 10 big blinds for almost the whole time, and every once in a while I would double up to 20 big blinds, and then I'd lose a pot and have to double up again. I moved in one time, after Peter Feldman raised, with a hand that a lot of people wouldn't move in with, when I knew I was getting called for sure. But I needed chips, I needed to gamble, and I was fairly certain it was the best hand. People thought that was a tough move-in, and I thought it really wasn't. You have to know when you need to gamble in order to set yourself up to win.
BP: How do you determine that?
GG: I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that I'm always trying to win. Every tournament, I'm always trying to win. I'm not trying to move up a spot, so I don't mind finishing 19th if it means that gathering those chips is going to help me win a tournament. So, anytime I think I can take a small gamble to put myself in position to win the tournament, I'll do it.
BP: So, you always have your eye on the final prize?
GG: Usually, when they announce the payout structure, the only thing I'll look at is where the money bubble is, to see when people are going to be worried, and how much first place is.
BP: How important is bubble play?
GG: It's obviously a key point to any good player's tournament. Whether it's the final-table bubble or the money bubble, or there's a big pay jump, it's really key to gaining chips. For instance, in Monte Carlo, we were getting toward the end of day three. There was a guy who I knew didn't want to go broke at this point. I know it's a bad term to use, but I just abused him.
BP: The
EPT Grand Final was an absolutely huge event, and put Gavin Griffin back in the spotlight. Can you recount any key hand early in the tournament that propelled you to the final table?
GG: On day three, I had $110,000 in chips to start the day. I was in early-middle position, and I think the blinds were $2,000-$4,000. I raised with the Q
10
and everyone folded to the small blind. We were pretty close in chips, and he called. The big blind folded. I think I made it $11,000. I was making pretty small raises in that tournament. The flop came A-5-2 with two clubs. He checked and I bet, I want to say $15,000 or $16,000, and he called. The turn made a four-card straight; A-5-2-4 was out there. It was a red 4. He checked, and I really thought that it was a good card for me, because if I bet that card, I would look really strong. He's probably going to fold pretty much any ace except for A-Q and A-K. I bet enough to commit myself, in case he moved in. I think I bet somewhere around $63,000, and, unfortunately, he moved all in. He had pocket threes (for the straight), but the river was the 4
. That put me up to $270,000 or $280,000. That was the key hand that got me set to build chips. By the end of the day, I had something like $650,000.
BP: Talk a bit about the final table and the final crazy hand that shipped you the
EPT title and more than $2 million?
GG: The blinds were $25,000-$50,000, and we were pretty even in chips. I think I had $510,000 more than him. I brought it in for $125,000, which was the standard raise I was making at that level, and Marc had been reraising me quite a bit. I read a blog that Marc wrote, and I guess he thought I was getting frustrated, when actually I was just kind of bored. We weren't really playing any interesting pots; we'd play an interesting pot about every half-hour. There was still a ton of play left. We both had more than 100 big blinds.
He makes it $400,000, and I actually had called in a similar spot earlier with K-7. He really didn't make a big reraise, and I didn't want him to think he could keep getting away with reraising, so I figured this was the kind of hand I could take a flop with [Griffin had K-5]. If I flop a king, I'm not necessarily going to go broke with it, because I'm not really looking to flop a king. I'm looking to flop a big draw or get a read that he doesn't like his hand.
So, I call the $400,000 and it came 4-3-2 with two clubs. Marc bet $500,000, and he has $4.6 million at that point. I didn't necessarily get a read on him at this point as far as whether he liked his hand or not, but I believed I had too much hand to fold. However, I didn't feel like calling, because if I brick the turn, I'm in a bad spot if he bets again. He's going to bet with A-K, K-Q, K-J, so I made it $2 million, which effectively commits myself if he moves in. I mean, he has only another $2.5 million at that point; even if only my straight draw is live, I have to call with two cards to come. I thought that was the right number to let him know I'm committed to the pot. He moved in. The rest kind of played out like it did [Griffin hit a king on the river against Karam's 7-4].
BP: What are some of your long-term goals and aspirations relating to poker?
GG: I don't know if I necessarily have any. I play to make money. It was nice that I had a couple of records at some point, that I was the youngest for a while. Some people were saying right after the
EPT win that I'm the only person to have won a bracelet and an
EPT event. I'm not sure if that's true or not. That stuff's nice, but I'm not looking to win 20 bracelets or five
EPT events. I just want to make money playing poker.
BP: Is this a job for you?
GG: Yeah, but it's a fun job. It's a job that I love to do. There are not a lot of people in the world who actually do what they really love to do, and that's one of my favorite things about it.
