Speaking to a professional poker player about the game they love is one thing. But what do the stars of the game we all love do in real life? How could they cope with some of the situations we all face on a daily basis and what are their thoughts on ‘the big questions’? Our 15 Bigs series attempts to answer all those questions and more as we fire 15 posers to each poker legend.
This week, we’ve set upon one of our favorite players and one of the most successful poker stars of the last two or three years – Jeremy Ausmus. Fresh from recording his own cult poker song, Ausmus sat down with us to discuss his favorite cultural picks, break down his strengths and weaknesses at the felt and tell us about the travel day from hell.
1. You’re on a long-haul flight and can only choose one TV Show or Movie to watch on repeat, which is your pick?
TV shows give you a lot more variety with many episodes, so I’d probably go with that and I’d pick Curb Your Enthusiam.
2. If you were stranded on a desert island with one book for company, what would it be?
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
3. What’s the song you could listen to on repeat forever?
I go through phases when I like a song where I just listen to it over and over again (see ‘Hey Mighty Poker Gods’, below) so I’m kind of used to this! But if had to pick one it would have to be something with variety. Stairway to Heaven captures it all doesn’t it?
4. What’s your favourite place to play poker and why?
The PokerGO Studio is probably my favorite. It’s my home turf and they do a great job in there and really take care of the players. Great food, comfortable, and great staff. On a larger scale The Wynn is very nice. There is something great and special about the World Series of Poker even though it’s on a much bigger scale. Traveling to Madrid last year was really cool and probably my favorite poker stop ever. Maybe I should’ve answered what places I don’t like to play, it would’ve been a shorter list I think!
5. If you were to be shot at dawn, what would be your last meal and drink?
Ribeye steak medium rare with baked sweet potato and home-made bread (below). And a bottle of good cabernet (I’m not too picky here).
6. Where’s your favourite non-poker holiday destination?
Rome and Madrid. Although there many other places I still need to explore
7. You can play poker every day for a year or play no poker for a whole 12 months – which do you choose?
I’d play every day for a year assuming it’s not all day or anything. I still love the game and wouldn’t want to not play for that long and also, I like to make money.
8. Who is the person you don’t have around anymore that you miss the most?
My dad. He died when I was 20 and didn’t get to see so much with his kids and grandkids. I think he would’ve thought being a pro poker player was awesome.
9. Which person would you most like to meet but never have?
Hmmm, this isn’t something I’ve thought a lot about as I’m not dying to meet anyone famous really. Let’s go with Jack Black, the dude is hilarious and super talented. I love Tenacious D (below).
10. When’s the last time life put you on tilt?
I’m usually pretty tilt-proof but a long traveling day back home a while back tested me pretty good. It was right after COVID and everything was in shambles. lt was a long travel day where everything went wrong besides the plane crashing.
First, I had to wait at the cage for 1-2 hours with three people in front of me, the service was so bad. My flight was delayed then I missed my connection and had to wait in the airport all day.
I was on little sleep and couldn’t access the lounge for some reason. I dealt with rude people all day, everywhere then when I landed, I came in on a different airline, so had to get transportation to the other terminal to get my bag. I waited for my rental car at valet and sat there for like 30 minutes before asking and then then saying that machine doesn’t work when it clearly said nothing of the sort and said my car was being retrieved, all the while the worker is just sitting there on his phone. He acted like I was an idiot that it wasn’t working.
So, when the cab driver sternly told me “Oh, you’re paying cash right?” when he picked me up, I momentarily lost it on him and told him I’ll pay him ‘however the f*** I want.’
11. If you couldn’t play the WSOP Main Event next year, which family member would you put into the action in your place?
Tough one, no one in my family really plays poker but I taught my wife years ago so probably her and would just give her some tight, hard-set rules to follow
12. What’s your best poker skill?
I think one of my best poker skills is knowing what weak or average players are up to and when they might be out of line.
13. And your biggest leak?
Sometimes I’m on my phone too much.
14. If you could make one rule change to poker, what would it be?
I think chess clocks would be great but maybe not feasible to pull off in live poker. I’ve always thought four-color decks would be great for mixed games for just speeding everything up by being able to plainly see when someone has a Badugi or flush for example. Some say there are some downsides though and they could be right. I’d at least like to see them tried out a little bit.
What’s the main argument against using 4 color decks in live poke? Mix games would play faster for sure, would be helpful in plo also. I don’t see a downside….maybe some people see as an edge with 2 color cause they never misread flushes etc in stud games?
— Jeremy Ausmus (@jeremyausmus) January 23, 2023
- You have just ten seconds with the person of your dreams… what do you say?
I’d say, “Good morning, honey.” to my wife of course!
What did we expect, the great Jeremy Ausmus to crumble under the pressure? Not a chance. From picking off weaker players to making sure that his wife knows he’d spend his last 10 seconds greeting her good morning, the man is on the right side of the Poker Gods at all times.
Just don’t tell him that the flight he just arrived for got cancelled…
