Poker News Daily: With your World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet win in the Pot Limit Omaha High-Low Split Eight or Better event, you’ve now earned the Triple Crown of Poker: a WSOP bracelet, a World Poker Tour (WPT) title, and a European Poker Tour (EPT) title. Does any one rank above the others?
De Wolfe: I don’t think that any of them rank higher than the others because they’re all very special to me in their own way. Winning a Main Event on the EPT or WPT is unbelievable. Winning a bracelet event, with all of the history that goes with it, is great and it was in a different game. I couldn’t pick one, but to have all three is super special.
PND: You have a lot of experience in Pot Limit Omaha. Does being a good Pot Limit Omaha player automatically translate into being a good Pot Limit Omaha Eight or Better player?
De Wolfe: You use your experience, but really the games don’t really have that much in common. If you don’t adjust, they are actually markedly different. I was finding that out myself. I’ve played a bit of Limit Omaha Eight or Better, so between the two of them, I managed to find something.
PND: What adjustment would you tell people to make if they were playing Pot Limit Omaha Eight or Better versus Pot Limit Omaha?
De Wolfe: The obvious thing is that you have to make a low hand, so you need to have low cards in your hand. The high-only hands play really badly, but you can’t overplay the low hand either. It’s about getting a balance between the high and the low hands.
PND: You were at a stacked final table, with a lot of tough competition including Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, Alex Kravchenko, and Andy Black. Was there someone you were particularly concerned about?
De Wolfe: I knew that the two I got heads-up against would be the biggest dangers because they were the most experienced and the best players. There were a few really great other players at the final table that I have a lot of respect for and I know are dangerous. Alex Kravchenko, Anthony Lellouche, Andy Black – They’re all poker players, but I know that Brett Richey and Scott Clements were by far the best two in the game. They were the two I didn’t want to get three-handed with.
PND: When you made it to three-handed play, did you feel like the bracelet was in your grasp?
De Wolfe: I never felt like that until I knocked out Scott Clements. I just went through him in two hands. I knew I had to pick my spots to gamble with them. They were better players and could just chip away at me. I just hoped that I could get spots to get it in on a coin flip and, in the end, the three key hands went my way. I’m very lucky.
PND: We couldn’t help but notice that you’ve been reading Mike Matusow’s “Check-Raising the Devil” over the past few weeks. Is it a good read?
De Wolfe: Mike’s life is really interesting and it is interesting reading his book. He’s kind of stupid in some ways, but he’s a really interesting guy. He has a lot to say and you can learn a lot of things from him, like what not to do. It is interesting if you take the right lessons from him.
