Andrew Feldman Strikes Back

People start to take notice. The long hours of grinding, the silent determination, the highs and the lows, are finally all paying off. Even one of the biggest poker sites in the world wants you. But it’s not all rosy in the garden. Forums are screaming abuse. You already have what could be described as a nemesis. And worst of all he used to be a friend. It’s almost as if the odds are against you no matter what you do, but you have not spoken a word against anybody … yet. What hurts the most is the criticism of how you go about your game, but your poker account balance speaks for you, and confirms the kind of success that cannot be denied.

This is a story which belongs to Andrew Feldman. Aged 22 and not long in the limelight, he has already experienced ups and downs most never will. The ups are of course his sponsorship with Full Tilt and his achievements both online and live. The downs are the constant criticism found mostly on poker forums where the status quo is to “jump on the bandwagon”. This kind of thing usually comes part and parcel with being publicly known, but there are two sides to every story, so perhaps if people are going to judge they should firstly make sure they are well informed.

Player Haters
After speaking to Feldman for only a few minutes it becomes clear that he is affected by public opinion, despite trying to rise above it. He is determined to set the record straight and is eager to address certain issues. The first is the accusations made on forums that he has cheated and colluded. “The problem is that these people never seem to back it up,” he says. “Some people are just out there to spread rumours about me, when simply what it basically is is — I only target softer players. You may see me on tables not getting involved with regulars because I’m not there to get involved with them, I’ll just stay out of their way. I’m only there for the weaker players and as soon as they leave, I’ll quit the game. Simple as that. I’m not there to win money off Phil Ivey or Patrik Antonius. I’m there to win off the players who are playing recreationally.”

And where does the Full Tilt pro think these accusations are coming from? “I used to approach weaker players and ask them to play heads up and I think it irritated a few regulars, and I can understand because I know that it may not be 100 percent etiquette, but at the end of the day, poker is a business. I’m not doing anything illegal, and 99 percent of the time it doesn’t even work because they’ll sort of feel it’s a little bit patronising asking someone to play you heads up because you obviously think that they’re a bad player, and most of these small players don’t want to feel like that, they just want to enjoy themselves.

“It did irritate a few fellow professional poker players and they, for some reason, wanted to start making up rumours like ‘the only reason why he can win is because he cheats, he works the players’, when there has never been a single case of that, and I’ve never in my life had a warning from a site that I’m violating any terms and conditions over the four years I’ve been playing. That says it all. I’ve got nothing to hide and I do openly admit that I target the weaker players, and that’s how I’ve made the money I’ve made.”

Simply the Best?
But what really is the problem with preying on weaker players, doesn’t everyone go fishing, so to speak? Do we need to categorise players in order to know where we belong on the food chain and should you not be able to choose where and when and who you play despite your status or does that freedom diminish as soon as you hit the “big time”?

“The thing is,” Feldman continues, “A lot of big players see the amount of money I’ve made, and they want to see the people who have made the most money as the ‘best players’, but it doesn’t work like that. It’s ultimately a business. The best players aren’t necessarily the wealthiest players because some of their game selections are just horrendous, they’ll want to play anyone and potentially they’ll put their whole bankroll on the line, and that isn’t how you approach poker, in my mind anyway. A lot of people out there are very jealous of the success I’ve had, and rather than congratulate me for the amount of time and dedication I’ve put into playing, they say, ‘he’s a terrible player, he can’t play’ and just start spreading rumours out of pure jealousy and envy.”

Keep Your Friends Close…
It’s no secret that Luke Schwartz is not a fan of Feldman. In a recent interview, Schwartz said that if you’re a really good player you don’t need to feed off the weaker players, you can also compete with the big pros. Feldman’s response is, “If he wants to do that then good luck to him but at the end of the day from what I’ve heard he’s pretty much down to his last few thousand. We’ll see who ends up with the most money.”

It could be said that Feldman is going down a different road to many others in his position. Instead of getting swept up in high stakes madness and taking on “the best” for million dollar swings online while lapping up the attention in the process, he treats the game with an entrepreneur-like attitude; studying his opponents, playing within his means, making sure he always has the edge, and generally shrinking away from the spotlight. Feldman’s opinion on Schwartz’ approach to the game is, “He just wants to be seen as the bad boy of poker. Like, ‘I will play anyone heads up’ and ‘I am the best no-limit hold’em player’. But to be honest he has got his own issues because a lot of the time he won’t even play very long sessions, he’ll quit after a few 100 hands, so he’s a bit of a hypocrite in that sense.”

The strange thing is in the beginning the two enemies were “sort of friends” and used to play together. “He wanted to take shots at bigger games and he made a lot of money from me,” says Feldman. “I staked him into a few games on some European site, and I actually trusted him at the start. Initially he was losing a lot of money, but it ended up turning around, and he made this huge amount of money from me, and after the Bahamas he decided to go his separate way. He made his money and wanted to turn his back on me and not really remember who got him to where he was, and then he wanted to spread these malicious rumours around that I cheated him and I didn’t pay up money I owed him. When again there’s no proof in it and I think he is just a bit envious that he doesn’t have the bankroll I have. He wants to speak lightly of other people, saying that I’ve cheated poker players, when no one can actually prove it and that’s what’s so frustrating."

It would not be surprising if these accusations created negativity at any live poker table Feldman sits at, but according to him most of the people he has spoken to don’t pay this any attention. He says this is because, “The amount of stuff Luke has come out with in the chat box has been filled with disrespect. It’s actually quite incredible how he has managed to get away with what he has and not had any repercussions because there is only so much offense that people will take. He may come across as a down-to-earth guy in an interview but really when he’s at the table he’s just vile to be honest.”

Credit Where It’s Due
Speaking of taking on the big guns, it’s not totally true to say that Feldman does not compete. He has played in televised cash games such as the Poker Den and Full Tilt’s Million Dollar Cash Game with some success. In the hole for $100,000 at the start of the Cash Game, (which was aired in January 2009) Feldman managed to turn it around and leave the game as its third biggest winner with $130,000. He speaks highly of opponents such as Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, and Patrik Antonius. Live high roller events can also be added to his list of achievements, and at the grand final of last season’s European Poker Tour, Feldman proved himself worthy by coming seventh in the €25,000 buy-in High Roller Championship for €79,000. So, perhaps it’s time to give the guy some credit?

Feldman is living any wannabe professional poker player’s dream, but surely his path to success has been tainted by this circus-like sideshow. He says, “It’s not nice but at the end of the day, whenever there’s success, people will always want to bring you down, and I just have to be quite philosophical about it, and try and get on with it and ignore it. I did literally come from a zero bankroll and built it up to where I am, and it hasn’t been easy. I haven’t come from a multi-million dollar family — my parents were very much against it at the start. I literally had a couple of thousand pounds to my name just from working at Sainsbury’s, being a paper boy, and just made very small deposits of £10 and £20.”

Take it to the Felt
“The fact that Full Tilt acknowledges me as a good player should shut everyone up because Full Tilt are very selective about their pros and they would not want a player on their books who has the slightest bit of controversy surrounding them, so they trust me, they know that people like to say bad things, and they are totally supporting of me,” says Feldman. “That’s why I want to let the poker do the talking and win some tournaments because I feel that’s the best way of thanking them and shutting everyone up.” Winning the next live tournament is something Feldman is very eager to do. Not just to stop the public slating him, but also for himself. “It’s just ridiculous how bad I’ve been running in tournaments lately,” he says. “I really want to show that I’m not just this guy who can only play heads up. I know I can take on the poker world and I feel I am right up there.”

Another way the young Brit has handled this adverse publicity is by challenging the players who wish to say negative things about him to a mini “Durrrr”-style challenge. Therefore, instead of getting mouthy in the chat box or on a forum, Feldman wants to settle it at a live table. “Rather than write on the Internet, I would be more than happy to meet them face to face and let them say whatever they have to say, and I will happily defend myself because I know I’ve done everything well above order,” he says. “There are some specific people who I’d be more than happy to sit down with and play heads up and then see what their opinions of me are. It’s not as such to prove I’m an amazing heads-up player because I’ve never once said I’m the best, it’s more to shut these so-called haters up and give me a chance to defend myself.”

It must not be forgotten that Feldman is a very young man whose life has been struck by what could be likened to a whirlwind, and all in front of the public’s often harsh and critical eye. At such a tender age he has experienced huge financial and personal success, and lows many people his age could not imagine, but he has dealt with it all so far with maturity and an amazing amount of calmness, and now awaits his adversaries to put their money where their mouth is.