Ricky Davies

What do you love about poker?

The mind games. You constantly have to try and outwit your opponents and come up with new ways to lead them into a trap. It’s really easy to pick up the basics of Hold’em, but you can never perfect it. And no two games are the same.

Who are your poker heroes?

I got into poker back when Poker After Dark was on every night, among other poker shows. I watched players like Ivey, Negreanu, Brunson, Hellmuth, Devilfish – the big names. And the legendary Mike Sexton on commentary. 

Out of all of them, Tom Dwan was the first player where I thought, this guy is on another level. I remember being blown away by an image of him playing online poker on multiple monitors at once, before I knew multi-tabling was even a thing.

What was your biggest win in poker?

Not much – about £2,700 at the UKIPT. But I did qualify for that tournament from an $8 satellite. Playing at the WSOP Main Event is on my bucket list, so hopefully there’ll be a much bigger win down the road! 

What do you think of online poker these days?

I’m not sure we’ll ever get back to where we were during the poker boom around 2003-2006, but it’s also not as bleak as some people make out. Poker rooms are finding new ways to tackle bots, and there are some exciting new poker sites which are becoming quite prominent.

What’s your favorite poker site?

I’ve worked for a few, so I’d better not choose one or the others might get upset! What I will say is that the newer sites are quite interesting. For a long time, it was the same few poker rooms doing the rounds. Now, you’ve got crypto-friendly poker sites like CoinPoker which are giving the others a run for their money. That’s definitely a great thing for players.