If you strictly follow the live tournament circuit, Sorel Mizzi might be a name with which you are only vaguely familiar. Having just turned 21, Sorel has burst onto the circuit with over $500,000 in live tournament winnings, including deep finishes in both the WPT and WSOP main events in 2007.
If you follow Internet poker at all, Sorel Mizzi is a name you are undoubtedly very familiar with. One of the most popular and recognizable players in Internet poker's short history, Sorel plays as "zangbezan24" on PokerStars and "Imper1um" on Full Tilt, and has amassed well over $1 million in online tournament winnings in his lifetime, making him one of the most successful online tournament players of all time.
Bluff had the opportunity to sit down with Sorel and talk about live poker, Internet poker, and how his life has changed since turning 21 years old.
Bluff: How did your summer go at the World Series of Poker? Did you stay in Las Vegas the entire time?
Sorel Mizzi: Not the entire summer. I was actually in France for a good part of it. I played a tournament at the Aviation Club and tried to qualify for the Paris Open as well. I got to Vegas just before the WPT Mandalay Bay main event and I played that. During the WSOP, I played between 12-15 events.
Bluff: How did you do at the WSOP?
Mizzi: It went decently, but definitely not as well as I had expected. I cashed three times, one of which was in the main event. I did, however, put myself in a very good position to do well in a few tournaments by having a huge stack right on the bubble, but ended up being unlucky in key pots late in the tournament and always against the one stack on the table that could bust me. Bluff: What was it like playing the main event? We know you built one of the more imposing stacks very deep in the tournament and a lot of people in the poker world picked you as one of the favorites to win it all. Do you feel that you played as well as you could? Is there anything you would have changed?
Mizzi: I think that's one of the few tournaments I've ever played in that I felt I didn't make one mistake. The entire Day 1, I had been struggling and didn't get my stack above $24,000, and then the last level of Day 1, I found myself short-stacked with about $6,000 and the blinds at $300/$600. I took some necessary gambles, got lucky twice, and from then on, it was almost no-showdown poker. I'm so happy with myself for making some of the moves that I did. It was the first tournament that I felt almost 100 percent confident with my live reads and was able to play live poker almost the same as I play online. This is something that I've struggled with in the past: trusting my instincts and going with my initial read.
Bluff: That brings up something interesting: the difference between live and online play. Recently, Brian Townsend, regarded as perhaps the best online cash game player, mentioned in his blog a conversation he had with Barry Greenstein about the differences between live and online players in tournaments. They decided to make a bet, and Brian picked you as one of the online players to compete against Barry. What is your position on this?
Mizzi: I feel Brian is right. First of all, I think that a lot of the known older players are no longer as ambitious as they used to be, having already established themselves, and most of them have income from sources outside of poker, not to mention endorsements. I think the young online players are thirstier for blood. Not only that, but I'm convinced that most professional online players have played far more hands than live professionals and have seen far more situations. That is an incredible edge in itself. For online players, it's just a matter of getting used to the live setting and learning to be more patient when you're only playing one tournament at a time. That has been the biggest struggle for me, but I think I'm starting to get this live poker thing.
Bluff: When you say "get," are you referring to making live reads? Do you feel that you have to play much differently in live tournaments than you do in online tournaments? Has your overall style of play changed from playing online to playing live?
Mizzi: Yes, live reads and the ability to make decisions live as I would online, with minor adjustments. For example, those who have seen me play online know that I usually make very quick decisions when I'm involved in a pot. Even when it's for my entire stack, the most time I usually spend is 10-15 seconds on any one decision. But when I played live, I would take a lot longer. I started calling the clock on myself in live tournaments because I overthink situations and sometimes I convince myself off of my initial read, which often ends with me making the wrong decision. I made a bad decision after taking nearly three minutes in the $1,000 rebuy event at the WSOP. I believe that thinking about that decision for so long caused me to convince myself that my initial instinct was wrong.
Another thing, I think it's important to give a lot of credit to some players and very little credit to others; the big challenge is finding out which player deserves which. When you play live poker, it's so much easier to profile players and put them into a category just by talking to them or generalizing them by how they look and talk, then playing according to those generalizations until they prove otherwise. For example:
Young equals aggressive
Old equals conservative
University educated equals math-oriented
High school education equals more instinct-based.
These, of course, are not always true and are just examples, but you can pick up vital information on players from anything -- from the way they comb their hair to whether or not they have a wife and/or kids.
Bluff: Do you feel your notoriety and popularity have affected your game at all? Do you feel the "Hellmuth Effect" -- having people play hands differently against you than the way they might play against others?
Mizzi: Absolutely. Most online players know who I am and play against me in a certain way. Some people fear me, while others constantly try to outplay me. Again, the challenge is finding out which player fits into which category. I think that's part of the reason why I have had so much success online and Hellmuth has had so much success live. It has a lot to do with the fact that players are willing to put their entire stack in on a bluff, just to say they bluffed us out of a pot. This makes accumulating chips much easier. When I play live I usually know who knows me and who doesn't and for those who do, I will pay very careful attention to how they play against me in order to decipher if they're trying to stay away from me or get involved with me in spots they might not normally be in.
Bluff: We all know that your success and accomplishments are well-documented all over the Internet, because you had a pretty amazing year. How much did you profit in online tournaments this past year?
Mizzi: Somewhere around $600,000.
Bluff: Do you think this put you at the top of the list of online tournament earners?
Mizzi: I think I was near the top, but I'm pretty sure there are a few who are in the same league, if not higher.
Bluff: Which online players should we look for to make a big splash in the upcoming years on the live tournament scene?
Mizzi: Just to name a few, Chad Batista (lilholdem) is a gem when he's not on tilt. Josh "JJprodigy" Field and Annette "Annette_15" Obrestad will take all the money when they turn 21. Aditya "Intervention" Agarwal, Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo, and Isaac "westmenloAA" Baron are some others whose games I really respect.
Bluff: With all this money coming in from online and live play, did you buy yourself any cool presents?
Mizzi: Yes, I finally treated myself to a Porsche Boxster recently. It is pretty much my first car. I used to drive my brother's 1989 Toyota, but it wasn't mine. I promised myself at a young age that I'd buy my first house before I bought my first car and I kept that promise.
Bluff: Owning your own house and car at 21 is quite a feat. Do you plan to stay at your house in Canada or do you want to move out west toward Vegas?
Mizzi: I'm planning on living in Canada during the summer and then have a place in Costa Rica or somewhere hot/exotic during the winter. I definitely won't be living in Las Vegas though; there is no way I can handle that kind of lifestyle. Especially because I have so much gamble in my blood and there are so many bad gambling opportunities surrounding you at all times.
Bluff: A lot of online players and young players on the live circuit have backers who put them in tournaments in order to handle the big swings of being a professional poker player. Do you have a backer, or have you ever? How do you feel about staking in the poker world?
Mizzi: I have never had anyone put me in tournaments. There have been a few points in my career where I might have needed one, but I hung in there. I always seem to play my A game and come through with big wins when I really need the money. I do back a few players, however, so we will see how that goes.
Bluff: Do you have any specific poker goals for the upcoming year?
Mizzi: Nothing specific yet. With the WSOP over, I plan to write down a few goals. I just want to get to a point in my live game where I make zero mistakes and make live reads with the same accuracy and confidence that I do online.
Bluff: Is there anyone in the poker world you credit as a mentor or someone who specifically helped you mold your game?
Mizzi: Someone I mentioned earlier. Josh "JJprodigy" Field was the biggest influence on my game. He taught me all the basics and key concepts/fundamentals that I still use today. However, Josh and I play very differently and I've developed my own style just by playing a lot and by learning from trial and error, while constantly experimenting with new strategies.
Bluff: Those strategies have obviously worked, as your name has extended past the online community. This year at the WSOP, a Hollywood celebrity came to say "Hey" to you when he heard that you were playing in a tournament. Tell us about that.
Mizzi: Yeah! Norm Macdonald came up to my table while I was playing the main event and a friend introduced me to him. I was stunned that a real celebrity knew who I was and had actually watched me play online. I asked him for his online screen name, but he wouldn't tell me! We had actually met prior to this incident, when we played in a tournament together, but he hadn't recognized me at that time.
