Generation Next: Must Be Nice To Be Toby

Toby Lewis is just 20-years-old and, without being able to play poker truly internationally just yet, the Southampton lad has already begun what looks set to be an exciting career at the felt. Most came to know him when he took down the PokerStars European Poker Tour Vilamoura for €468,000, however you need not look too deep to see that he is no “fly by night”. Lewis juggles online and live with tremendous success, and now lives between London and whatever exciting destination crops up next on the live event schedule. This year the young man joined a long line of respected winners in what has been the poker year of the Brits. Card Player caught up with him to find out more.
Rebecca McAdam: What were you doing before poker?
Toby Lewis: I was at college and school playing a lot of sports — golf, football, cricket and snooker. I currently play some tennis and golf when possible.
RM: When did you start playing poker and why?
TL: My friends from school and I played a lot of golf. When coming in after the round we would go into the clubhouse and see the older guys playing poker, we watched a little and then eventually had a go for ourselves. We started playing home games like £5 sit ‘n’ go’s. When I turned 18 I went down the local casino, played £20 freezeouts and £5 rebuys with some cash games, mainly losing money I didn’t have, but I had made some friends by then and enjoyed going down there. I met a guy in the casino and we started chatting, I went back to his place and watched him play online. I decided I wanted to try and get better and win some money, so I talked a lot with him and other friends. They told me I could win money online so I borrowed £500 off my dad, he didn’t realise until I paid him back [smiles]. I started grinding small stakes cash online, this went well from November 2008 until April 2009 when I went to Brighton to play a £200 freezeout and won it for £4,500, this got me hooked on tourneys.
The next week I went to DTD [Dusk Till Dawn] to play the monthly deepstack, I managed to chop that seven ways for just over £10,000 which meant a lot to my roll at the time, and so I started pushing on from there, playing a little bit bigger and travelling around the UK. I did the Black Belt Poker grading where I met a lot of cool people including Neil Channing, and Nik Persaud, who is now a close friend of mine. This grading gave me the belief and enthusiasm I needed to kick on further and play full time as a “job”. I played my first EPT in Prague in November 2009 where I came 28th and since then have played and cashed in a few more and had some very good results online including $88,000 in the Pokerstars $100 rebuy and $40,000 in the Absolute Poker $1k Wednesday. Then came EPT Vilamoura which was a dream obviously, I binked that for €468,000. I followed this up with a third place finish in the PartyPoker World Open and another first place in the £1,000 EPT London side event — I think the word you’re looking for is MBN [must be nice].
RM: Was there a particular moment or result that made you think you could play fulltime on a professional basis?
TL: Once I did the grading I then believed I was good enough to work hard and progress into a decent player, therefore play for a living. RM: What would you like to achieve inside/outside of poker in the next few years?
TL: Years is probably too long for me to be thinking about [smiles]. But in the next year I’m just looking forward to playing more and more whilst taking a decent amount of time off to chill out and enjoy the lifestyle. I’m already looking forward to the WSOP next year and all of the remaining EPT’s this and next year.
RM: How often do you play online/live?
TL: It’s hard to say really, it was 24/7 for the first stage of playing, nowadays I just play as and when I want to, generally every Sunday grinding online tourneys and then a mixture of live cash games, online PLO, and weekday tourneys, and a lot of travelling to different cool places around the world playing tourneys. RM: You appear to be doing consistently well in both arenas – do you feel like you have found a good balance between online and live, or a good approach to both games, or are you simply doing what you always did?
TL: I feel like I’m always improving at the moment. I spend my time with a really great bunch of guys travelling around playing tourneys and we’re always talking about hands and poker in general which is a massive bonus because they all have different views and styles. I play when I want to play, I never force myself to play because I don’t feel like I’m going to make money or the best decisions when not in the right frame of mind.
RM: Does your game differ much between online and live? If so, what are the major differences and can you describe your playing style/s?
TL: It differs a lot I guess, online I play a very tight-aggressive style trying to keep my head down and just chip up here and there. Live is different again because people tell you so much more about their holding, so I guess live is a little bit more table and player dependent, I’ve had tables where I’m raising every single hand because I’m not getting played back at, but on the other hand if I recognise a tough table with players that I don’t need to tangle with, I’ll be a lot more quiet and raise/play less hands.
RM: Describe your experience of taking down your first major live win.
TL: Well to be honest it is a ridiculous experience which I don’t think hit me until I got back home and gave the trophy to my dad because it’s a insane amount of money and I feel privileged I played well enough and got lucky enough to win such a big tourney.
RM: Have things changed much for you since Vilamoura?
TL: Not really, I’m still playing the amount of poker I was playing before, I guess I get to do more interviews for you guys and other cool things like that but I don’t really want life to change — I’m enjoying everything at the moment.
RM: Any nice purchases?
TL: Not yet, I’m looking at being boring, getting a house et cetera. I have spent quite a lot on going out, drinking, eating nice meals, and wearing expensive clothes [smiles].
RM: Did the stakes and games you played change after Vilamoura?
TL: Not really because I was playing pretty much any tourney before Vilamoura, this just means I shouldn’t go bust anytime soon!
RM: Once you play a few EPTs, is there a specific style about the circuit that you can adapt to?
TL: The EPTs are great, you get to go to great cities and the tournaments are run extremely well by Thomas Kremser et al. I think like I said before I just try to adapt to the situation I’m put in at the time. So with the EPTs there are some very good professionals and some very wealthy businessmen wanting to play some poker, so I will obviously play differently against each opponent.
RM: What was your most memorable moment in poker?
TL: Winning the Vilamoura EPT unsurprisingly, but not just for the obvious reasons of the money and the title but also because I had most of my best friends there to celebrate with afterwards, they’re all legends!
RM: What do you love most about the game?
TL: The feeling you get when you win a tourney.
RM: Are there any players you think we should be keeping an eye out for?
TL: Tom Macdonald, Ashley Mason, Craig McCorkell, Sebastian Powell, Martin Malone, and I imagine you will hear a lot more from the likes of Jake Cody, Matt Perrins, JP Kelly, John Eames, and Stu Rutter — this list is definitely getting longer!
RM: In your opinion, what is the secret to the Brit’s success this year?
TL: No real reason, I just think everything that has happened is a bit of a coincidence really, but trust me all these guys know exactly what it takes to win big in cash games and tournaments! ♠