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Check
By: Ed Moncada
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- Greg “FBT” Mueller
You ever wonder what you get when you mix the insane
competitive streak of a professional athlete, the mind
of an advanced poker player, the hyperactivity of a
13-year-old without his Ritalin, and a comic wit that’ll
have you constantly on the verge of busting your bladder
with laughter? Probably not… but in case you did,
the solution is Greg Mueller.
Greg is a former professional hockey player turned
pro-poker player who primarily goes by the nickname
“FBT”, which he says stands for Full Blown
Tilt. This guy is comedy. He’s constantly
cracking jokes and pulling pranks on everyone at the
table (dealers and floor personnel included). He’s
also probably the easiest guy to spot in a 1,000-person
casino, because he’s a 6’4” perpetual
commotion machine. Don’t let his shenanigans fool
you, though. Behind the tableclown distractions is an
extremely perceptive and calculated poker player who
banks all your moves and tendencies and fluidly adjusts
to your play. Greg is a lightning fast learner who absolutely
hates to lose.
Based in Vancouver, Greg’s been in the poker
scene for a while and enjoyed strong and consistent
results. While he was initially almost exclusively a
side game player, focusing primarily on Limit Hold’em,
Greg has started to polish up his no limit poker both
in cash games and tournaments in the past year and a
half, cashing four times at this year’s World
Series of Poker.
One of Greg’s most impressive skills at the table
has nothing to do with how he plays his cards; it’s
in his deal-making abilities. He always gets the best
of it. This is a guy who always gets everything he wants
in a deal, and has you smiling and asking him out for
beers. Mel Judah witnessed his deal-making magic once.
He later came up to Greg and said to him, “The
next time I make a deal at a final table, I’m
making sure you negotiate it for me.” Not bad
for a Canadian meathead, eh?
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- Robert Mizrachi
The oldest of the four Mizrachi brothers, Robert Mizrachi
is the guy who brought superstar Michael “The
Grinder” Mizrachi into the poker world. It must
be nice to be able to claim that one of the best players
in the world used to sit behind you at the poker table
just to watch and learn.
While Robert hasn’t had the same tournament success
that Michael has had, his results easily hold their
own. They include a half a million dollar win at last
year’s Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam.
He has a highly aggressive yet flexible tournament style,
with the ability to get away from hands some players
would be willing to risk their stacks with. Robert knows
how to build a stack, even when dealt the most marginal
of starting hands, and he plays a game that at times
can trap even the best of players.
Robert is very close to some of the top young players
today and manages these relationships well. He shows
savvy away from the table, typically acquiring percentage
ownership of many of these players early in tournaments
through trades or purchase. If an opportunity arises
you might even find him further bartering his acquired
points in the late stages of tournaments. He’s
always on the lookout.
When asked about early lessons Michael may have learned
from him, Robert responds: “Teaching him money
management was a failure at first, but it’s a
funny story. I remember the first time I took him on
a poker trip. It was a weeklong trip. I had spread out
his poker budget by placing money in seven different
envelopes, one for each day of the trip. We went to
play poker, and I came back to the hotel room at the
end of the first night only to find seven empty envelopes
sitting on the bed.”
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