Anton Ionel: ”Poker has helped me build strong friendships and successful business relationships” 2o6c64
We offer you an exclusive interview with Anton Ionel, 3rd place at Pokerstars Carribean Adventure in 2011 when he won $1,350,000 and 2nd place at the WSOP the same year at the tournament with a buy-in of $2,500 where he won $428,140, being in the top 5 most important poker players Romania has ever had in of prizes won. He did us the honor to give us a new interview after 14 years since the previous one, during which time he focused on his family and business, but he has also become a promoter of recreational poker and responsible gambling through his new project, Black Swan. Read more in the following material. 6i6ps
Anton Ionel 4r481u
What has happened to your poker career in the last few years? What tournaments have you played in? What notable results have you had?
I haven’t played very much, I’ve only played a couple of tournaments mostly in Northern Cyprus where there is an amazing atmosphere and the field is sensationally good, I made a couple of final tables in one of them and finished in the top three and if I correctly I cashed $168,000. I also won a senior tournament J, I got to play also senior tournaments and I think I also played EPT Paris where I got out quickly, as I had no cards, but it was nice because I played 5 hours with Galen Hall – the guy who won the PCA when I last played in the final so we met again after 13 years… he hadn’t played for about 10 years either. On that occasion, he also made a confession that shocked me: “I was the biggest winner in the Bahamas then, none of the players at the final table had more than 20% of the winnings”.
You have started a new project – Black Swan. What is it about?
As you know I wasn’t a fan of media appearances, but I felt I had to do this project, it’s a project that first of all fights the mentality that poker is a game of and on top of that I want to promote responsible gambling. We also want poker players sitting in front of the computer see also another world, other stories from people who have other occupations but also play poker. It is not an easy format but we try to learn from it…
The aim of this project is to popularize more easily poker in Romania? What do you want to achive with Black Swan?
It’s a show for those playing poker, but also for those who don’t play yet, to attract people who have heard about the phenomenon but don’t know what it’s about. If you come with nice stories, it might attract them, there are not many formats like that anymore and that’s why it’s harder to do. Initially I thought it was like when I used to go to TV tables where I’d do a little bit of atmosphere, I played poker and that’s kind of what it was, but it seems to be harder.
How do you see poker today compared to the early years?
It’s much more technicalized with all the “solvers” that I don’t agree with, that I don’t use and will never use, because I think it takes away from the beauty of the game, but at the same time I’m more keen on the live gave than the online one so it’s a valid point of view more for live games. The difference is that players who play a lot online don’t understand that in live play, poker should be a leverage for them to help them in life, in business …. I mean if you are lucky enough to find yourself sitting at a table for 8 hours with the President of Coca Cola in Europe or of another big company that you don’t have the opportunity to know, to talk to, except in a different circumstance and make friends with him and finally make business together. That’s what I did, I managed to do business with the help of the s I made at poker.
With the new generation it’s harder, but we have to educate them and that’s what I’m trying to do with the show.
Now I see that there are less and less tournaments, the fields are not so big, PokerStars has gone down a lot, but still luckily PlayGG is coming from behind very well and they are really doing a very good job, I’m not saying that because they are funding Black Swan but because I started playing online because they came along.
You are a very sociable person. Has poker helped you build lasting friendships?
Definitely YES both friendships and business relationships! For me that’s the biggest plus from playing poker, not necessarily that I’ve made a few final tables, but that I’ve made friends that I wouldn’t normally be able to find. I played at the table with Jerry Buss who I really befriended, may he rest in peace, the owner of the LA Lakers, I played with Ben Afleck, Matt Damon, with the owner of Careffour in Europe who helped me open two Careffour stores in our country, I played with a lot of people…
Also, I played with all the great players from my playing days, with Phil Ivey, with Daniel Negreanu who didn’t speak Romanian very well when we met…
Live poker is still your great love, but do you still play online?
Yeah, I started playing on PlayGG about when I started the show and it’s not bad at all. I like that they have a really good rewards system and they realized that the most desirable tournaments for recreational players are the bounty tournaments where there’s a chance to get, like Alin Grasu got, a $1,000,000 bounty. That brings them to the game, I mean you play a $200 buy-in tournament and you can win $1,000,000, they all think they can win this money and they enter game.
You caught the romantic period of poker in Romania. How do you feel about poker after 25 years of career? Has it evolved? Could it be better? Has the number of poker players increased?
Strictly for poker in Romania I can say that we are facing a regression, there is not so much money, they play for very small sums, the economic state of the country is also very important. We have players who have “hit” nice sums in recent years: Papazian, Darie, Duță or Răzvan Belea, but none of them have had more than 20-25% of the winnings because 90% of the successful players in online and live are unfortunately few, or not to say unfortunately, because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to play, but from an economic point of view it’s not ok and my sorrow is that I have not managed to coagulate the poker community in Romania, although I tried when I did Romanian Masters of Poker in Brasov. This community doesn’t exist, there are some small groups, but we don’t have what the Bulgarians or the Germans have…
You are in with a lot of people, you play poker with a lot of celebrities, how do you think Romanian society perceives poker now? Still as a game of chance where people lose their money, in other words as something negative, or have things evolved?
Unfortunately, a lot of parents put poker on the same level as drug or alcohol consumption, I had the pleasure after two episodes of the show to be stopped by parents who thanked me, telling me that they had calmed down because they understood that poker is not so harmful, on the contrary it can be even beneficial for their children.
poker player
Finally, please tell us about your future projects and how do you think poker will evolve in Romania in the coming years?
Looking at the younger generation, it is absolutely normal that when they discover the phenomenon, they fall in love with it, it is even more normal to study and inform themselves and play responsibly. Also, if the community would coagulate, there would be the chance that 10 players from Romania having a $1,000 bankroll each to each put $50 and one of them play a tournament of $500 and all 10 might win … that’s what I’m talking about the community.
In of my projects, I can say that I want to grow Black Swan, make it go viral and make everyone watch it because that would be really good for the whole poker phenomenon. More than likely I’ll also do a podcast because it’s hard to say all your ideas when you have 6-7 guests, to keep the conversation going, to play quality poker, to offer prizes, to also chat meantime, but I would like Black Swan to be a topic of conversation in one year!
