WSOP: Bracelet Winner Q and A -- Ryan HughesHughes Talks About Why Two Is Better Than One |
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Winning a World Series of Poker bracelet is the hardest part of any professional poker player’s job. Winning two bracelets is what distinguishes a job from a career. Ryan Hughes picked up his second career WSOP bracelet in event no. 47, one year after winning his first bracelet in the very same game (stud eight-or-better).
What is usually a moment of celebration and uncontrolled emotion was just another day at the office for young professional Ryan Hughes. After all of the formalities in the winner’s circle were taken care of, WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla made his way through the crowd and over to Hughes to offer his congratulations. With a youthful smile on his face, Mr. Dalla enthusiastically informed Mr. Hughes that he had set a new stud eight-or-better record, being the first player to own two World Series of Poker bracelets in that same game. Never before has a person won two stud eight-or-better events, and this win was a repeat of his performance at last year’s World Series. Quite an impressive feat for the man who implicates a certain disinterest in the game, and who openly confesses to only playing a few times each year.
Card Player met up with Hughes after his big win to find out how it feels to have back-to-back titles and to be the only player in the world with two stud eight-or-better bracelets.
Question: How long have you been playing as a professional?
Ryan Hughes: About five years.
Q: Mostly online?
RH: Both. I also travel the live tournaments a lot.
Q: You are the first person to win two bracelets in this game in the entire history of the World Series. What does number two mean to you?
RH: I don’t know. I mean, I never really play the game. This is only the second time I’ve played the game since I won the tournament last year. I wasn’t even supposed to play this event. I was supposed to go home two days ago, but someone emailed me and told me to play it, so I decided to play.
Q: Did that person have a piece of you?
RH: Yeah, he did.
Q: So what games do you normally play?
RH: I play mostly no-limit hold’em and a lot of Omaha eight-or-better.
Q: What made you decide to play this event last year?
RH: I was supposed to go home last year too for a couple of days and I then I won a few single table satellites and felt that I was running hot, so I just decided to play the next tournament that was available, it was the stud-eight.
Q: How does the second bracelet compare?
RH: Actually, I think the second bracelet means a little more because it is a tougher crowd to get into. A lot of people get the first bracelet, but the second one means that it is not quite a fluke.
Q: You came into the final day as one of the short stacks and Jonas Klausen came in as the chip leader. You had chipped up early and then went after him. What was your strategy as one of the big stacks going after the other big stack?
RH: When we started the day we had thirteen players left and I was one of the shortest stacks and I barely had any chips at all. I hit a huge rush before we lost four players and once I got to the final table I was the chip leader. I don’t know. I just had a lot of hands at the same time that Jonas had a lot of hands. I know he is a really good online player and I’ve actually played with him online quite a few times. It just worked out that way.
Q: You had a 4:1 chip lead going into heads-up play, what was your plan of attack at that point?
RH: Heads-up play is actually my specialty, so I was really confident coming in. I’ve won almost every tournament that I’ve gotten heads-up in. That‘s what I play a lot of online too.
Q: So are you going to consider playing this game more now?
RH: I’ll probably just play it the two times a year that it’s at the World Series.
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