Q & A with Mark Vos
Mark Vos first became a recognizable face at the 2006 Aussie Millions championship when he made the final table, finishing in 8th place. It wasn't long thereafter that he started making American millions, locking up his first World Series bracelet and over $800,000 later that same year. This year he's been back to add to that number, booking three cashes in WSOP preliminary events. Card Player caught up with Vos during the break after level 4 of day 2A of the main event.
Ryan Cadrette: When you play in a field this large, you're usually playing with a lot of weak players. Right now you're sharing a table with Chau Giang and Hoyt Corkins. What is it like to run into players of that caliber in a field that has so many amateurs?
Mark Vos: Well, first of all, it's quite unlucky. I also have another guy, Christer Johansson, who won a WPT title a couple of years ago. So it's a pretty ridiculously tough table. But there are still some good spots. It's a bit harder. You don't get through their blinds as easily. They reraise you a bit more. So it's much tougher than the tables I had before. It's still okay. I have a few people that I feel like I can get some chips from if things go right.
RC: When you're sitting with good players like them, do you also find that you have to compete with them to pick off the weaker players at the table?
MV: Yeah, absolutely. You're competing with them to try to get everyone else's chips, but you're also trying to avoid them and not get into too many confrontations. Hoyt is kind of happy to be pretty confrontational with everyone. He's putting in massive raises, and putting us in pretty tough spots unless we have a monster hand. And no one has actually had a monster hand against him yet. So everything has been going his way so far.
RC: At one point I thought I overheard you offering money to whoever could stop Hoyt from doing that.
MV: I was kind of kidding about that. I was offering money for someone to give Hoyt a slap, because he kept re-raising me. But it was mostly a joke.
RC: You seem like you're in a pretty good mood most of the time at the table. What do you do to stay positive during these long sessions?
MV: I think a lot it is that I'm not taking the poker that seriously. I'm having fun, talking to people. I'm having fun if my table is fun. If I don't like the people at my table, I'm not going to be having a good time. That's really what determines it.
RC: You played in day one, and have had a few days off since then. Do you think that the break makes it difficult to come back and regain momentum?
MV: I think it makes it easier, actually. It gives me a good relaxing break so I can get focused. Usually if I play a full day, I don't want to play the next day. I'm glad I've got tomorrow off so I can just kind of relax, then come back and slowly get into the run of things. The momentum thing I don't think is that much of a factor in poker. Its not like in sport where you have to be warmed up to play. You kind of just get back into the swing of it.
RC: In another interview you did with us earlier, you said that you've mostly been playing Omaha cash games. I thought I saw you eyeballing the cash game tables during the break. Have you been playing in any side games while you've been in town?
MV: Actually, I was having a quick look at the dealer and casino employee's final table. But in terms of the live cash games, I haven't been playing that much. I mostly play online. I don't like playing live - it's too slow. I can tell you about a funny hand I was in earlier, though.
RC: Funny hands are always good.
MV: This is how I got 45,000 more chips quite luckily: I was in the small blind, and there was this French guy who was in the big blind. He was a bit crazy. It's folded to me, and I raised in the small blind with aces. I raise it to 3,500 and he calls. The flop comes 4-4-2 rainbow, so there's no flush draw out there. I bet 4,000, and he moves in for 45,000. I instantly call, obviously hoping he doesn't have a four, and he turns over a jack-five offsuit. So that was a nice way to pick up another 40,000.
Card Player's Live Player Database - Mark Vos
Mark Vos plays online at Full Tilt Poker
