2010 WSOP -- Steve Billirakis Determined to Make a Deep Run24-Year-Old Pro Believes This Could Be His Year |
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It’s the calm before the storm.
On Sunday, for the first day since May 27, there will be no bracelet event in action at the Rio. The Pavilion and Amazon Rooms will be mostly deserted, apart from a few cash games and the annual media freeroll tournament where reporters will play for bragging rights and an iPad — not exactly $8.9 million, but not a bad prize all the same.
Fewer than 2,700 players out of a starting field of 7,319 have made it to Day 3. They will all be in the Rio on Monday and play each day from then on until the final nine is reached on July 17 (or in the wee hours of July 18). As players prepare themselves and hope for an opportunity to play six straight long days of poker at the Rio, most of the field is taking it easy on this final day off.
Steve Billirakis, however, can’t help himself. The 24-year-old pro admits that with it being Sunday and all — the biggest and busiest day of the week for online poker — he probably will be playing a bit online.
“I’ll play a couple hours of poker, but I’ll also relax a little bit, play some video games, basically not think too much because I don’t want to get my brain fried,” said Billirakis.
The young pro has had quite a dramatic first two days of play in the 2010 main event. He led all Day 1d entrants at the end of the day with 187,150 in chips, then saw that chip count balloon to nearly 300,000 on Day 2b before falling all the way back down to about 95,000. He recovered nicely though to finish the day with reportedly 155,000 in chips.
Card Player caught up with Billirakis during one of his more robust moments, when he had about 270,000 in chips. He was confident about his chances, saying anything less than making the final few tables would be a major disappointment.
“Anything less than top 30 players would be an extreme disappointment for me, because I feel like I’ve learned how to weave my way in and out of these fields, and I’ve gotten so much better reading players,” said Billirakis. “Especially in this tournament, people just don’t want to do anything stupid, and I’m pinpointing the guys who have that style and just being extremely aggressive against them.”
Even before he lost a good portion of those chips, he indicated that his style was going to be fearless and that he wouldn’t sit tight on the chips that he had obtained.
“I’m obviously less afraid to lose chips, so I play a little bit looser pre-flop,” said Billirakis. “Sometimes when I know they have aces, I’m just calling them with bad hands because if the board gets scary, I’ll put pressure on them and usually they’re going to lay a big hand down. I’ve at least got to make them make a tough decision.”
Known as “MrSmokey1” online, Billirakis’ biggest claim to fame in the poker world is of course the age that he won his first and so far only bracelet. It was a mixed hold’em event in 2006, just 10 days after his 21st birthday. At the time, he was the youngest person to ever win a WSOP bracelet. Annette Obrestad now holds that distinction for her win as an 18-year-old in the 2007 WSOPE main event in London.
Billirakis says a lot has changed since his bracelet win, noting that his game has vastly improved and that he’s now making more money playing cash games than tournaments.
“I’m definitely a lot better (than when I won my bracelet), but it’s weird because I felt like I had better chances to win tournaments before. I did better in tournaments before because I didn’t have a lot of money and I just really wanted it really bad,” said Billirakis. “I’ve made more money since then playing cash games, and now I’m a little bit looser in these tournaments.”
A former foosball prodigy from the Chicago area, Billirakis admits that he has had trouble staying focused and playing his best in the main event in years past. But he decided that enough was enough, and that there would be no excuses this year simply because of what was at stake.
“I just told myself: if you’re ever going to play your best poker, it has to be this tournament,” said Billirakis. “I can make more money in this tournament than I can make in at least five years, and that’s if I’m playing amazing poker every day for five years straight, and that usually doesn’t happen. This is life-changing money, so you have to play your best.”
Billirakis and about 2,700 others will try to play their best as day 3 resumes on Monday. Until then, the Amazon Room and the Pavilion Room will be fairly quiet, one last bit of serenity before the madness begins in earnest.
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