Fedor Holz Talks About His Sick Run, Retirement & More On The Poker Life Podcast
On Thursday July 21st, Poker Life Podcast host Joey Ingram sat down with poker’s top-trending tournament superstar — 23-year old Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz of Germany.
The $18.5 million live event winner, 2014 WCOOP Main Event champion and current #1 ranked Global Poker Index player Skyped-in for a 150-minute chat on the backdrop of what many are calling one of the sickest poker tournament runs of all-time.
Global Poker Index: Fedor Holz Ranked #1 Worldwide — July 20, 2016
TwoPlusTwo: Fedor Holz up $10 Million in 2 Months
PocketFives: Fedor Holz up $18 Million in 14 Months
Polker News: Fedor Holz Sickest Run Ever? — July 13, 2016
F5 Poker: Fedor Holz Hottest Player in Poker? — June 2016
The Hendon Mob: Fedor Holz (Career Results)
CalvinAyre.com: Fedor Holz Interview with Lee Davy — July 18, 2016
PokerUpdate: Fedor Holz or Jason Mercier – Who is Having a Better Summer? — June 28, 2016
PartTimePoker: Fedor Holz Wins Again — January 4, 2016
PokerNews: Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz Wins 2014 WCOOP Main Event for $1.3 Million
PokerListings: Fedor Holz – The Secret Life of a Major Poker Backer — August 24, 2014
Since such a large amount of authoritative information was discussed on last week’s Podcast, this Upswing Poker writeup will focus on amalgamating resources for Fedor Holz fans to watch/read at their convenience.
Below you will find links to all previous Poker Life Podcast episodes featuring Holz, links to the books he recommended last Thursday (110-minute mark), links to websites he’s associated with or promotes, and finally a TIMESTAMP section with transcribed quotes that cover highlights from the July 21st show.
Poker Life Podcast: Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz
Fedor Holz #6: July 21, 2016 (2.5 hours)
YouTube Ratings: 18,170 Views / 189 Likes, 14 Dislikes
Fedor Holz #5 (PCA Drunkcast): January 14, 2016 (5 hours)
YouTube Ratings: 29,300 Views / 226 Likes, 19 Dislikes
Fedor Holz #4: September 5, 2015 (2 hours)
YouTube Ratings: 16,570 Views / 169 Likes, 11 Dislikes
Fedor Holz #3: April 22, 2015 (3 hours)
YouTube Ratings: 13,640 Views / 104 Likes, 3 Dislikes
Fedor Holz #2: January 4, 2015 (1 hour)
YouTube Ratings: 8,800 Views / 61 Likes, 8 Dislikes
Fedor Holz #1: October 9, 2014 (2 hours)
YouTube Ratings: 13,440 Views / 94 Likes, 2 Dislikes
Fedor Holz Recommended Reading (109:50 Minutes)
The Art of Learning, Josh Waitzkin
ISBN: 0884241239630 — Amazon Customer Reviews: 4.4/5
Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
ISBN-13: 978-0374533557 — Amazon Customer Reviews: 4.4/5
The Most Important Thing, Howard Marks
ISBN-10: 0231153686 — Amazon Customer Reviews: 4.3/5
The Man’s Guide to Women, John Gottman
ISBN-13: 978-1623361846 — Amazon Customer Reviews: 4.4/5
Taming the Mammoth, Tim Urban
WaitButWhy.com — June 2014
Fedor Holz Outreach
@CrownUpGuy (Twitter)
RunItOnce.com (Elite Pro)
PokerMindCoach.com (Elliot Roe)
Discipline and Deep Poker Thinking (Fedor Holz Seminar)
Casa Esperanza Chile (Endorsed Charity)
Timestamps & Quotes (Poker Life Podcast: July 21, 2016)
(6:40) 2016 Super High Roller Bowl
“I think 98% of it was just amazing. There were two things standing out to me that were very poorly handled. There was like, Day 1 the last 10 minutes they didn’t draw for hands. In tournaments that’s the worst thing you can ever do at the end of the day. Justin Bonomo — no offense to him — he was sitting at my table and he used like 4 timebank chips in the last 7 minutes just waiting. And I was in the Big Blind and I didn’t play another hand. So like obviously it’s smart for him. I would have done the same thing but that was really annoying that they didn’t just draw for hands to make it fair.
And every table for like the last 10 minutes they just stalled. They played one hand in the last 10 minutes or something. So that was pretty stupid.” “On Day 3, when there were 9 players left they only had a 7-handed table and 8-handed was the maximum they could do on the TV Table. So what we did is we played 5-handed and 4-handed on two different tables? One table was significantly better than the other table. So the people on the other table, they just stalled. They did a 20-minute rotation. They did like 20 minutes and then they switched one player to the other table. So on the other table they just played like 3 hands in 20 minutes because everyone max-stalled the entire 30 seconds on every action.”
(9:40) Fedor backed eventual SHRB winner Rainer Kempe
“I think that’s why it’s important that you don’t put yourself into a weird spot [beforhand]. Like I wouldn’t buy a huge piece of someone for example where I would ever suspect that he might abuse it, or that I wouldn’t play real. So there are only like two or three people who I would buy big pieces that I just would never worry about anything where I don’t have a problem. It’s not the first time I have big pieces of [2016 SHRB champion Rainer Kempe].”
(14:00) Fedor’s summer run (19:00) What percentage did Fedor have of himself?
(22:00) WSOP grind is exhausting (25:15) Fedor retiring from poker?
(29:00) Hourly rates and 1 year hiatus (30:30) Pressure of commitments
(32:30) Opportunities for Fedor (39:20) Poker & PEDs
(40:00) Happy 23rd Birthday, Fedor!
(41:10) Do people treat Fedor differently because of success?
(50:00) Comparisons to Dan Colman
(50:50) Is it more difficult to trust people now?
“Oh yeah. I mean… for good reason! You know it’s not like this just pops up and now you don’t trust people. It’s like because you can’t really trust people. Like… no offense but that’s the way it is now. If people get an easy spot they take advantage of you. It’s this kind of line where [people think] How much can you get out of this person? and do you take advantage of him or not? Like how much energy does it cost you? And if it’s really easy and there’s a lot to gain, pretty much everyone takes advantage of you.”
(56:25) Fedor is 5’10” or 5’11”
(57:05) How are women treating Fedor?
“Yesterday it was actually pretty nice to just go on the lake and be like someone normal. For example, I went with a friend and chilled with some of his friends, and I was just no one… and it was great! It was so refreshing to just talk to people and sort of like zero-in and talk to girls and just have a conversation.”
(60:00) Social media engagement WaitButWhy.com article
(62:40) Who in poker comes across as genuine?
“Personally I like [Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger] a lot, but that’s because he’s very pure in this kind of sense. Like what he thinks is just completely showing. He would never feel bad about himself, and that’s already in itself such a great message to learn from.”
“Erik Seidel. We haven’t really talked much but just from the way he carries himself. He teaches me something just by being there and being the way he thinks and treats other people and talks to other people. I feel like you learn something just from observing this.”
“I also really like Jason Koon. I feel like he’s been through so many different stages of life? I feel like he’s been so many different personalities in his life already. He’s smart enough to combine the most important things of these stages he’s been through. That’s very interesting because he always has a different perspective. Completely different from me because we have completely different backgrounds, but [he’s] also very smart about things. Very empathetic.”
Joey Ingram & Jason Koon
“Cate Hall. Very interesting personality. I’ve never seen anyone throw something as bad as her. We played [a beanbag tossing game]… OMG. No offense. It was so funny. We just had such a great time but she’s the worst of all-time. There is literally like this scale when someone’s bad and you’ll be like OMG. ‘Okay. It’s just fun, whatever,’ but it’s tilting in a way? And then there’s below that. Where it’s actually just hilarious because you can’t believe that someone can throw that bad.”
(67:00) Fedor Holz 2016 Big One for One Drop coaching pitch
(68:00) #1 Global Poker Index Ranking and its significance to Fedor
“That was really important to me. That was my main goal. And then there were all these other goals around it… like little achievements you get on the side. So as far as these achievements, online PocketFives #1 — that was important to me. I grinded for that. Yeah, it’s sort of life. I just wanted to be on the Global Poker Index #1 because it shows the commitment.”
(77:00) Influence of Elliot Roe Skype Hypnosis on Fedor
(81:00) Donnie Peters calling Fedor “overrated”
(85:00) Fedor EPT High Roller hand vs. Phillip Gruissem
“I’ve thought about it a lot and I want to make sure nothing like this ever happens again obviously. I was quite ashamed to be honest.”
“It was so weird because it was such a tense hand and the whole tournament was so intense. Only regs. We were fighting the whole day. I was playing pretty tight and then knew exactly the spot where he’s gonna give it to me. So then it happens like this and I asked him if he has Aces and he says, No. So I’m like now I’m going to win the hand and in the next second he tables his hand and I’m like fuck this, you know? It just snapped for a second and I didn’t even realize until I saw the video how the chips flew.”
(91:00) Coolering Joe McKeehen
(97:00) Story behind “CrownUpGay” screen name
(100:00) Fedor Bots (Euros superior to American poker players?)
(105:30) Rapid-fire Twitter questions
(108:15) German poker scene
(109:50) Recommended reading
(115:00) $50/$100 online cash games
(120:50) Pokémon GO
(124:00) Why doesn’t Fedor play PLO?
(126:00) No-porn prop bets. Prawn’s effects on brain.
(135:00) Papi says he can go rest of 2016 without masturbating. Fedor spots 3-to-1
(139:10) Papi’s $3k to Fedor’s $9k booked. “OMG you’re doomed! You can buy-out for $2.8k.”
Joey Ingram accepts prop bet
(144:40) Losing $400k in prop bets versus Jason Mercier this summer
(148:30) Papi and Fedor brainstorm future Poker Life Podcast guests
(150:10) Social media shout-outs & wrap-up
(152:00) Fedor’s plans in the near future
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