Online Poker -- Interview With Sunday Million Winner Ross Mallor

New York native Ross “tysonduke23” Mallor loves poker, but it’s by no means his job. The private investigator just has a very serious hobby that has paid off handsomely over the last 3 years to the tune of more than $700,000.

Just two weeks ago, Mallor exploded for nearly $180,000 over the course of three tournaments. On Aug. 11, Mallor took down the daily $100 rebuy. The next day, he finished second in the same tournament for a nearly identical score. Then, just a week later, Mallor took down the biggest tournament of the week, the PokerStars Sunday Million.

In this interview, Mallor explains how he got his start in poker, takes us through a few hands that helped him win the Sunday Million and explains why he decided to slowroll Joe Hachem.

The Interview

Julio Rodriguez: So Ross, I heard you had a birthday recently.

Ross Mallor: I turned 34 the day I won the Sunday Million. My wife let me play all day as part of my birthday present. She’s the best.

JR: You are not a professional player. What is your regular 9 to 5 job?

RM: I have my own private investigation business. It’s funny, people always say, “Oh, you’re a P.I. It must help you with your poker game.” But that’s not really the case. I mean, I interact with a lot of different people on a daily basis, so maybe it helps a little bit with just cutting through the bullsh*t, but I’m not exactly an FBI agent who’s an expert at physical tells or anything.

JR: How did you first get into poker?

RM: I started playing in 2004 and I spent one solid year losing money. I played in a lot of underground clubs in Manhattan and made the occasional trip to Atlantic City, but I was just bad. I couldn’t win and even worse, I had no idea why.

JR: Was it just fundamental mistakes?

RM: The one glaring example that stands out is a tournament I played in Atlantic City. I was sitting with 7,000 in chips with the blinds at 400-800 and a tight, under-the-gun player opened to 2,500. I shoved from the button with K-J, even though I was clearly getting called by this old guy, no matter what he had. He had A-K and took me out and he even said to me, “What are you doing shoving that hand?” I got mad and defensive, wondering why this guy was critiquing my play, just because at the time, I didn’t understand hand values or fold equity for that matter.

A friend of mine pulled me aside and tried to explain the situation. He told me the guy was just trying to be nice about it and let me know what I had done wrong. It was weird, because I had never bothered to put anyone on a hand before. I would overplay my face cards to the flop and if the guy bet, I assumed he hit. If he checked, I assumed he missed. It was that black and white for me starting out.

JR: Did you bother to read up on the game or analyze hands with friends?

RM: I guess “Harrington on Hold’em” was the huge boost in my game. I think I started reading that in late 2004 or early 2005 and that’s when I really turned a corner. I started to approach poker like I would a video game. There are certain strategies and plays you need to make in order to win and at the time, I was letting the cards make my plays. When I play “Madden,” there are certain plays I can run where the running back will always be open. In poker, there are plays you can make that increase the likelihood that you’ll take down a huge pot. Things like limp-raising aces in early position just never occured to me until I read about it. Learning those key basics really allowed me to get more creative at the poker table.

JR: When did you realize that you could actually make some money with the game?

RM: I was ready to quit poker at the time. I had saved up money through work, but I only had about $9,000 left in my poker bankroll. In December of 2004, I won a tournament on Party Poker for $24,000. That was my “holy sh*t” moment, just having that much in my account. I’ve never been a huge poker degenerate, so I didn’t immediately jump into the nearest $25/$50 game or anything. I kept playing tournaments and the next month, I took second in their big Sunday tournament for another $35,000. That’s when I realized that I could really make some money and knew what I was doing.

JR: I’m assuming it wasn’t all smooth sailing after that. What got you through the dry spells?

RM: I’m actually friends with JohnnyBax and Sheets [Cliff Josephy and Eric Haber]. I had a leak in my game, and for a solid six or seven months, I just couldn’t get anything going. One day, I went to Bax’s house and watched him play the Sunday tournaments and he watched me play mine and just like that, he fixed my leak. It turns out, I was calling too high of a percentage preflop with small pairs and suited connectors trying to flop huge. Once I stopped doing that, the results started coming.

JR: I see you made a deep run at this year’s WSOP Main Event, going out in 400th place. How did the fateful hand go down?

RM: Yeah, that was a good story. I was in the $1k online with Joe Hachem maybe six months ago. A buddy of mine was at the table and he really doesn’t like Hachem. He was telling me, “If I get the chance, I’m going to slowroll him.” He ended up getting knocked out and told me, “Hey, if you get the chance, please slowroll him.” Being the good friend I am, I said “no problem.”

So Hachem raised under the gun, I reraised with aces on the button and Hachem shoved. I took my full time bank and with two seconds left, I called. He had A-K and I doubled up, but Hachem went nuts in the chat box. My chat was banned at the time, so I couldn’t respond, but he went off. I couldn’t read most of what he wrote because Stars bleeped it, but he did issue a challenge to me. He said, “I dare you to approach me live and tell me who you are. You think you are a tough guy hiding behind your computer. You would never do this live.”

So, fast forward to day 4 of the main event. It was around midnight and both of us were still in. The day was almost over, we were on our last break and I went over to say hello. I introduced myself, he was friendly and introduced himself and then I asked him if he remembered that hand. He said he did and I immediately told him that I just wanted to let him know that it was me. A complete look of shock came over him and we ended the conversation on that note.

The next morning, I get to my table and there’s a bag of chips to my right that says Joe Hachem. I couldn’t believe it, he was in the three seat and I was in the five seat. He eventually sits down and says hello to the rest of the table and points out how funny it was that we were at the same table. About five hands into the day with the blinds at 4,000-8,000, he raised the cutoff to 22,000 and the button folded. I was sitting in the small blind with pocket kings and I went into the tank for a good eight minutes. I apologized to the table, I told them it was a tough decision and that they could call the clock if they wanted. I was really trying to sell it and finally I moved all in for 155,000. The big blind folded and Hachem insta-called me with A-Q.

I stood up, put my hoodie on and started to get my sh*t together just in case the ace came and he started in on me, saying, “That’s right, buddy. You better get your stuff ready, you know the ace is coming.” I didn’t say a word and the board came 9-4-2-J and sure enough, the river was the ace.

JR: So, what did you learn from that? Don’t mess with the Aussies?

RM: Immediately, I knew it was karma biting me back and I gave a little smirk. Hachem then said, “Hey buddy, see you online. Thanks for your chips.” I thought for a second and really, really wanted to take the high road, but I just couldn’t. We got into some name-calling, he told the slowroll story to the table and the floor had to break it up before I left. I wish I could say that I learned my lesson, but I guess I just don’t like Joe Hachem.

JR: Any particular reason other than your encounter with him?

RM: The guy won one of the biggest tournaments in the world and a pretty big one after that. He has one of the best sponsorship deals around and yet he still complains about every single bad beat as if he’s never had one before. Come on, everyone wants to win, but you can’t expect to run perfect your whole career.

Listen, the day after I won the Sunday Million, I played a few tournaments and ran terribly. But after a score like that, I’m not going to berate anybody or curse anybody out. What right do I have to complain? And that was only after winning an online tournament, it’s not like I took home $5 million.

JR: Speaking of the Sunday Million, let’s look at some key hands you played at the final table:

Sunday Million Final Table Hands

Hand No. 1 — Mallor Doubles Up With Queens

Action: Mallor raised to 750,000 and Specialk66 called behind him. The flop came out Q-J-5 and Mallor continued with a bet of 1.8 million. Specialk66 then raised to 4 million and Mallor moved all in. Specialk66 called with pocket kings and they failed to catch up. Mallor doubled up to about 20 million and his opponent was crippled and eliminated shortly after.

After the hand, Mallor’s big chip lead didn’t last long…

RM: People started three-betting me to death. I went from having a big chip lead to losing half of my stack without ever really seeing a flop. A lot of it was standard, though. I would raise with K-Q and someone would come over the top of me and I’d have to lay it down. I raised with a couple suited aces and then I had to dump them. This happened quite a few times and all of a sudden I was left with 8 million.

I literally think I was three-bet all the way from first place to sixth place with six remaining. At that point, we decided to make a deal leaving $30,000 for first. We agreed pretty quickly and for some reason, everyone decided to play like an idiot after that.

Hand No. 2 — Mallor Gets Gifted Chips

Event — Blinds/Antes	Sunday Million	250K-500K with a 50K ante
Player	Ross Mallor	DDfromDS
Chip Count	6.7 M	4.5 M
Hand	5-5	K3

Action: Mallor moved all in for his last 6.7 million and DDfromDS called all in for 4.5 million with a marginal suited hand. Mallor’s pocket fives held up on a board reading AK5310 and put him back into contention with over 11 million.

Hand No. 3 — Mallor Gets Lucky

Action: dmytro1 limped in middle position, Mallor raised to 2.4 million and dmytro1 shoved for 16 million. Mallor called all in with queens only to see he was behind to aces. Nonetheless, the board came Q-J-10-J-3 and Mallor doubled up to nearly 23 million.

Hand No. 4 — First Hand of Heads-Up Play

Event — Blinds/Antes	Sunday Million	300K-600K with a 60K ante
Player	Ross Mallor	Faraday
Chip Count	30.4 M	43.8 M
Hand	QQ	A10

Action: Mallor raised to 1.5 million on the button and Faraday called in the big blind. The flop came J72 and Mallor continued with a bet of 2.4 million. Faraday called and the turn was the 10. Mallor then shoved for his last 26 million and Faraday made the call with A10 for second pair and the nut flush draw. The river was the 9 and Mallor doubled up to 60.9 million, leaving Faraday with just 13.4 million.

RM: Honestly, my favorite poker play these days is a ridiculous overbet with a strong hand. Because, it doesn’t matter if you bet small, medium or large anymore. Nobody looks at bet sizes, they just narrow it down to bluffing, or not bluffing. Do I have them beat or not? If they decide to call, they’ll usually do it regardless of your bet size. It’s kind of a home run play, but when it works it really pays off.

Hand No. 5 — Faraday Comes Back Temporarily

Action: Faraday raised to 1.8 million and Mallor moved all in. Faraday called all in and his pocket kings held against Mallor’s pocket eights, brining his stack back up to 26.8 million.

Hand No. 6 — The Final Hand

Event — Blinds/Antes	Sunday Million	300K-600K with a 60K ante
Player	Ross Mallor	Faraday
Chip Count	60.9 M	26.8 M
Hand	A9	KJ

Action: Faraday raised to 1.8 million and Mallor moved all in. Faraday made the call and lost when the board ran out A63QA, giving the extra $30,000 to Mallor for a final payday of $117,009.

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