Capture the Flag with With Brandon Steven

With more than $1.9 million in career tournament scores, Wichita businessman Brandon Steven is one of the best poker players in the game who considers himself just an amateur.

Steven’s tournament resume includes a 10th-place finish in the 2010 World Series of Poker main event for $635,000, a seventh-place finish in the 2013 $111,111 high roller at the WSOP for $621,000 and a fifth-place finish at the 2013 World Poker Tour $25,000 buy-in championship for $223,000. When he isn’t playing tournaments, running his business or spending time with his family, Steven can be found playing some of the biggest cash games in the world. He makes frequent trips to Las Vegas to play in the nosebleed action at Aria, located on the Strip. Steven is one of the game’s most dynamic players. He is usually the most aggressive at the table, but sometimes that can change.

Steven and his two brothers own five car dealerships in Kansas, as well as Genesis Health Clubs. In addition, he owns a couple of teams in the Central Hockey League (CHL).

Card Player had the chance to speak to Steven about a week before he entered the $1 million “Big One for One Drop", which he ended up still being alive in with 11 left on Tuesday morning. Steven talked about his start in poker, as well as gearing up for playing in the $1 million in late June. Steven said he fares well against the game’s best players.

Brian Pempus: Can you talk about the One Drop tournament? What was your experience like last time and what are you trying to do differently this time around?

Brandon Steven: Well, it was interesting. I drew the table of death. I was the only amateur at the table. I decided to say, ‘screw it’ and I just kind of went for it. For six or seven hours, I did pretty well at the table. I was near the top of the chip counts for much of the tournament, but ended up going out in 12th. It was tough. Bubbling the main event was tough, but One Drop was harder.

BP: Can you talk about the caliber of the competition in that tournament? You have a mix of professionals and players who don’t play the game for a living.

BS: Yeah, I think it gives me a little bit of an edge. I do play at a high level. I play the biggest cash games I can find—and I play with all the wizards. I communicate well with business guys. It makes me able to play both sides. I think it kind of balances me out in the bigger buy-in tournaments.

BP: Do you think your background in business helps you make reads on people at the table?

BS: Absolutely. And risk tolerance.

BP: Can you talk about your background playing cash games? I know you first dabbled in those before branching off into playing live poker tournaments.

BS: Yeah, it was interesting. I learned to play poker playing cash games, and I kept playing bigger and bigger, but it got to the point where winning in cash games wasn’t as much fun. So, my uncle made me buy into a tournament over at Binion’s [Gambling Hall and Hotel] in 2006. I won the thing. It was like $7,000. I said, ‘Geez, this was fun.’ I started playing tournaments after that, but my work schedule doesn’t allow me to play too many.

BP: Does being in the winner’s circle trump any feeling you can get in a cash game?

BS: Yeah, well that’s another reason why I haven’t been coming down [to the Rio] too much and playing tournaments—I’ve been playing that big game at Aria. It’s a big game, and big enough where I can concentrate on the cash and not worry about tournaments. I still get the high from having a big six-figure score in a cash game. But there’s nothing that beats the feeling of going three or four days deep into a tournament. Last year, I went five or six days deep in the main event again. The coolest thing for me is watching them break the tables down.

BP: Would you say playing tournaments are a lot more exhausting?

BS: Yes, I am just beat when I am done. It’s mentally and physically exhausting.

BP: Now, are those cash games at Aria much better during the summer WSOP than they are if you came to Las Vegas during a different time of year?

BS: There are pretty good all the time. But in the summer it gets juicy. When the Macau guys come into town…they like to fire it up. I am usually the most aggressive at a table, but with those guys I become the most passive. It is hard for me to switch, but you have to.

BP: Does the game accommodate what the Macau guys want to play?

BS: Yes, size-wise. We’d be playing $300-$600-$1,200, and they’d just say ‘make it $2,400.’ No one says ‘no.’ The next night you come sit down and the game is $1,000-$2,000-$4,000—and you’re like ‘wow.’ That’s when it gets a little bit too big for me…it’s a good group of guys. Probably one of the best games I’ve ever played in…the games I play are no-limit. They have mixed games, but I only play no-limit. If I get buried at work, having my nose to the grind for three or four weeks, I come home and my wife says, ‘will you please go to Vegas for like two days?’ That’s how I blow off steam. Those guys are so much fun.

BP: Do you have issue playing against guys you have developed friendships with?

BS: Never. Just because they are playing in the same game I’m in. They are playing with their gambling money. They aren’t starving. It’s not like it can hurt them, or vice versa. They want to beat the shit out of me just like I want to beat the shit out of them. The great thing about the game is that we talk the whole time. Not one person wears headphones. We become buddies. I’m friends with a lot of those guys…These guys are good players. They are successful in business. They have money, so people just assume they are bad players. But they are competitive as hell and hate losing. Business guys really don’t like losing. That’s what makes them good poker players. If I sit down and am not on my game they will own me. They are really skilled players.

BP: Do you ever get invited to play poker in Macau?

BS: No, with work and family, I don’t think I’d ever travel overseas to play anything—tournaments or cash. I go to the Bahamas once a year. When I go there, I take my family because it’s an easy trip.

BP: Do you think some professional poker players maybe view One Drop as too juicy—as in they, in their minds, inflate the amount of value there is in the tournament because they think the amateurs don’t know how to play very well?

BS: Definitely.

BP: Do you anticipate that you will be playing poker for the rest of your life? Do you see this always being an outlet for you?

BS: That’s an interesting question. I would have said ‘yes’ last year. But last summer I went deep in a lot of events. It was grueling, and so that wore me out. I don’t miss playing tournaments that much [when I am away from Las Vegas]. I hate to say that. I will keep playing until I win a bracelet. I am going to win a bracelet. I tell that to people, and they are like, ‘yeah, right.’ I don’t know. I really don’t know what will happen. I will win a bracelet in a big event, not a small one. I will play the main event every year because I do well in that tournament. It’s such a great event….I can’t retire [from work]. I have this drive. I just want and I want. I always want more. I don’t know what my problem is…I never force myself to play poker. Poker doesn’t predict my life at all. The only exception is the main event.

BP: Do you think in giant tournaments like the main event you are slowly but surely becoming more of a recognizable face at a table?

BS: Unfortunately, yeah. I would say so. I just don’t want to be associated…I do so many cool things in my life—business and family. And when I go places sometimes people just want to talk poker. I’m like, ‘really?’ It is fine, though. It has changed. I used to be able to get away with a lot more crap in the early stages of tournaments, but now I don’t as much because people realize I know how to play.

BP: I saw that you and Dan Bilzerian are friends. Can you talk about that?

BS: I played with Dan years ago in some other private games. We didn’t really connect, but then we started playing a lot in the Aria game together. He has this image on social media, but he’s a good guy. He’s a lot of fun. The other day I went to his house to have dinner while on a break, and he said, ‘I hope you bust because I want to go shooting tomorrow.’ I was like, ‘thanks, Dan’ (laughs). He is one of the true guys that has money and is going to use it. It’s kind of cool to see. I would say I’ve actually learned from him, in terms of having fun sometimes, when you are so used to not spending and not doing.