Poker Tournament Trail -- Arnaud Mattern Part IIFrench Pro Arnaud Mattern Discusses the European Poker Tour and His Fellow Pros |
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In part I of Card Player’s interview with Arnaud Mattern, the French pro spoke about his recent signing with Poker Stars and his experiences of playing against legends like Daniel Negreanu and Doyle Brunson. Here in part II, he speaks about the European Poker Tour London and other EPT’s, as well as a bet he has with French online phenomenon, Bertrand Grospellier.
Rebecca McAdam: How was the EPT London?
Arnaud Mattern: I had a deep run in the EPT also. I had a good table at the beginning but one or two people got moved and then it was an awful table. I had [[p:Johnny Lodden] on my right, who I think is one of the very underrated players, he’s really one of the best. I think he’s just a brilliant player. He can go from crazy bluffing mode to making some sick tight folds that are insane and he’s right 99 percent of the time. So we had a good chat at the table, making fun of people but gently and nicely and having a lot of fun.
I managed to go down to 12,000 while chatting, and nothing went my way, but after that, thanks to the structure which is pretty slow, I managed to double up and I called with fourth pair triple-barrel —like one guy bet the flop, bet the turn, bet the river, and I had a pair of sixes, and the guy mucked, so I ended up with 80,000, so that was nice, and after that I managed to finish among the top 20 stacks. I came back and played a very big pot, where unfortunately I only had like 90 percent on the turn (laughs), so the guy got lucky and I went down. There was a lot of ups and downs and people got a bit more aggressive after that and the end of day 3, and I finally made the money fortunately.
RM: What do you think is more difficult, the WSOP or the EPT?
AM: London is a bit special because I think all the people go there and the level of play is very similar. I think the World Series of Poker Europe had more stars in it that made the trip, so it was just a bit more difficult but all-in-all it was pretty much the same.
RM: What about the WSOP Europe and the WSOP in Vegas?
AM: Very different. I mean if you go to Tunica or Las Vegas, a lot of people just go 
there and play the $2,000 tournament and they are just there for the fun. They probably saw poker 15 times on TV and never opened a book, so it’s really a great tournament to play. There’s great value. All the stars are going to play but they are going to be dispersed so much as the fields are so big.
RM: Do you think a champion in the WSOP Europe is better quality than a WSOP champion?
AM: Oh yeah definitely. You can see John Juanda and Annette Obrestad were the two first ones to win. You can see the level of the play is really, really world class, it’s going to be very hard for a casual player to achieve this.
RM: Apart from maybe Peter Eastgate, in regards to WSOP champions.
AM: Oh yeah he’s very skilled. He came second in the EPT London, he’s very, very good and he’s playing great.
RM: Are you going to play all the EPTs like in last season?
AM: I’m going to try and play everything. I’m going to play all the EPTs and hopefully try to win a second title because that’s my obsession, and I’m going to play some WPTs and some events in the Bellagio.
RM: You’re still after that second EPT title then?
AM: Yeah, still. I’m very stubborn.
RM: Does that mean you’re still in competition with ElkY even though you’re on the same team now?
AM: Yeah, we actually made a bet. We just bet $20,000 as to who is going to be the first one to ship a second EPT and he gave me 2/1 because he was excited because he won two WCOOP and he was playing good. So, it’s going to be a fun bet.
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