Olivier Busquet: A Face, A Voice and A Mind For Poker’s Next Step

The name Olivier Busquet first became known in the poker community in 2008, when someone began a thread on an online poker forum noting that “Livb112 has 1 hell of a sick graph!”

The particular graph in question showed a spiky red line ascending precipitously over a sample of more than 18,000 heads-up sit-and-gos played, only a fraction of the total amount he’s played in his career.

The graph detailed how Busquet had racked up earnings of more than $940,000 over a short period of time. As his fame grew, the New York native became one of the most respected heads-up sit-and-go players in the game. He was the first player ever to profit $1 million dollars in sit-and-gos, and he reached $2 million in profits before anyone else had even matched his first million-dollar benchmark.

After his breakout heads-up sit-and-go dominance, Busquet established himself on the live multitable tournament scene. He has garnered nearly $3.3 million in lifetime earnings, including a win at the 2009 World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open title for $925,514. Busquet worked hard to achieve great success in his new profession, and was enjoying the spoils with his wife and two stepchildren.

Busquet was born and raised in Manhattan, the son of two highly educated and successful French immigrants. As a child, Busquet attended prestigious schools, worked hard, and, after graduating from Cornell with a degree in philosophy, took a job as an analyst on Wall Street before eventually finding poker and carving out a profitable niche.

Then, on April 15th, 2011, poker’s Black Friday threw a huge roadblock into the path that seemed to be going so well for the then 29 year-old. Though there have been many changes in the year that followed, this is not a story about a man who was doing well and fell on hard times. This is a story of a man who saw opportunity where other people saw only an obstacle.

The Obstacle

Black Friday affected everyone in the poker community, but for a number of reasons Busquet was hit particularly hard.

“I think that is for a couple of reasons, one is that I am a heads-up sit-and-go specialist, which is a game that is hard to translate to live play. The second reason is that I am a little bit older and a bit more established then some of the other online players, in that I am married, and I have two step kids. I couldn’t just pick up and move my whole family or just myself when Black Friday happened.”

Busquet did establish a place in Toronto in order to take small online grinding trips for four or five days at a time, and also has stepped up the number of international tournaments he enters, so that he can both play the live event and grind online.

“In general, it’s been really tough. A lot of the way I understood how I had been making my living was based on volume; you run good, you run bad, but if you put in enough games then you can have a semi-predictable stream of income.” Busquet took comfort in this predictability, as he found it to be less stressful that relying on earnings from live tournament poker. But with the changes that Black Friday has brought about, things have been much harder.

“It is tough to put the volume in, and these trips are tough psychologically,“ Busquet notes. “I put pressure on my self to win in a short period of time, and if I have a losing trip then I come home obviously having increased my expenses and having lost money.”

Also, Busquet believes that the competition has changed. Heads-up sit-and-gos have gotten tougher over the past three or four years, but he believes that the process has been accelerated even more after Black Friday, because there are fewer casual players, money is consolidating faster, and players who were playing high stakes cash games before have moved down to play in $5,000 buy-in sit-and-gos with Busquet.

“All of that has made the game, and therefore my life, a little bit tougher,” says Busquet, “But at the same time, I also viewed this as a challenge that I welcomed: to adapt my game, step it up and get a little better in heads-up sit-and-gos and poker in general.”

Announcing A New View On Poker

Busquet did his best to keep earning as much as he could, but playing poker was never his only interest. In an interview he gave to Card Player last year he shared, “If poker is my main focus five years from now, I’ll be genuinely disappointed.”

One of his dreams has always been to be involved in the media.

“My long-term goal is to host an interview-based TV show similar in format to the Charlie Rose show: an in-depth exploration of a range of topics, focusing on politics, economics and culture.”

He took his first major step towards this goal in Las Vegas during the summer of 2011, where he provided commentary for the World Series of Poker live broadcasts on ESPN.
“After playing on Poker After Dark and the NBC Heads-Up Championship, I developed a good relationship with Poker PROductions, who happened to also be producing the WSOP for ESPN.  I explicitly expressed interest in commentating and when an opportunity came up, I was given a shot.”

Busquet and a few other pros were asked to commentate on the live stream of the $50,000 WSOP Players Championship mix-game final table as a tryout of sorts, and the producers liked what they heard. Busquet went on to do commentary for a number of other broadcasts, such as the WSOP Europe final table and the WPT Prague final table, and will be doing more WPT and WSOP final table commentary in the coming months.

“I was pretty nervous at first since it was something I really wanted to do well.  The first time I was in the booth, and Lon McEachern asked me my first question, I was like a deer in headlights.  I even stuttered for a few seconds just praying that I wouldn’t blow it.”  

Busquet quickly overcame these beginner’s nerves, and is now well on his way to cementing himself as one of the games most insightful analysts, presenting the complex strategy behind poker in a way that amateur players can learn from and enjoy. Busquet saw this new approach to poker television coverage as a great way for the game to take the next step in its evolution.

“I think poker is in a transitional period. If and when legislation passes in the U.S., I hope to have the opportunity to help represent a new face of poker. With the combination of the internet and the boom in poker interest, the public at large is beginning to understand the game a little better and the idea that you can make a serious living as a poker player is becoming more and more accepted. Without legislation, however, the consolidation of this poker evolution remains in limbo.”

How Commentary Can Move Poker Forward

With most of his experience coming in a heads-up format, Busquet has welcomed the opportunity to focus on his tournament game that comes with calling the action for ESPN.

“The nature of being the analysis guy in a commentary booth, I am trying to talk through the thought processes of hands out loud, trying to read hands, predict outcomes… all of that has been good for my game. I have always done that when I watched poker on TV.”
Busquet has been praised by many fans for his in-depth examination of hands that introduced more complex concepts to viewers in a way that was challenging, but accessible.

“I have gotten a lot of positive feedback and its been reinforcing for me, so that’s been great. I think that this in depth live coverage is just good for poker in general, because it helps people understand that poker is not just a gambling game, its not just a random flipping of the cards and whoever gets lucky wins. There is an enormous amount of strategy involved in poker and anyone who plays seriously knows that, but to get that message out so that more people can understand that can only be good for poker.“

Busquet wants to emphasize the importance of looking past the immediate arguments against educating beginning players.

“I hope people understand that this is bigger than whether or not the next person that you get into a hand with three-bets a little smaller, this is about bringing poker out into the open, making it more well respected and more popular. I just think the overall attitude should be more inclusive.”

Player of the Year Contender

Busquet is mostly self-deprecating when it comes to his tournament success, but has garnered an impressive $3.3 million in lifetime earnings. In March of 2012, he finished second in the European Poker Tour Campione main event for $570,382. He lost heads-up to eventual champion Jannick Wrang.

“Getting second place is tough, especially when you play a lot of heads-up poker. I ended up being very happy with the result. Jannick was a very tough player and seemed like a very nice guy, and I was happy for him.”

As a result of this score and a final table finish in a smaller preliminary event at the L.A. Poker Classic, Busquet now sits 18th in the Card Player Player of the Year race.

“I’ve never put together enough scores to be in contention, but if I have a good summer and I am in the mix, I will definitely go for it. I think it would be awesome, especially in terms of the potential recognizability and visibility that comes with such a great accomplishment.”

Moving Forward

Much like the poker world itself, Busquet is in the process of adapting. From the chaos incited by Black Friday, he hopes to emerge from the ordeal in a better position, and thinks this is the perfect time for the poker community to focus on making the same changes.

“If we hold each other to higher standards, the overall level will be higher. I just think as a community we can all make more of an effort.”

Busquet is making that effort while working on his game, developing his skills as a commentator and looking towards the future. Despite the many changes he has faced in the past year, he’s optimistic about what comes next in the poker world, and how he fits into that picture.

“With online poker legalized, with corporate sponsorships from land based casinos, with live tournaments based on the European Poker Tour model where people can qualify online, then maybe there can be a new boom in America. Hopefully I can be a part of that and pair up with one of the main new companies that emerges in the industry.”

In a way, not much has changed for Busquet since he first made waves in the poker scene with a graph of his heads-up sit-and-go success all the way back in 2008. Much like the line charting his profit, he just seems to just keep rising. ♠