Interview with Kevin "Koovoon" Laird

Charles Hawk: Please write me as clear and full as possible what 'was happening' in your mind when you hit that million dollar Spin and Go? Also please describe every emotion you can remember that was flowing into you? Did you feel any significant adrenaline injection(s) during the game?​

Kevin "Koovoon" Laird: The actual story behind the day I hit the million is actually pretty ridiculous and makes the fact that it happened even more remarkable.  I had the worst month of my poker career in October, running 28k under EV, which forced me to drop down to the $60 buy ins.  So I had been playing those for the past few weeks.  A few days before I hit the million, I started to mix in a few $100s again here and there for some extra VPPs, but not many.  Probably 5% of my overall volume.  On the Saturday that I hit the million, I hadn't played a single $100 buy in for the entire day.  I was winding down my session and was ready to get some sleep, but realized I was going to be about 5-6 games short of my VPP goal.  Rather than load that many $60's since I already had 4 games still going, I figured I would just load 3 $100's to finish the session (the only $100's I loaded all day).  The very last of the 3 new tables launched and I was very surprised to see an orange-colored background to the table, obviously something I had never seen before.  I still had 6 other games going, so I was acting on those tables while trying to figure out what this orange table was.  It still hadn't occurred to me that it could possibly be the million.  I finally focused on the table as the game was starting and saw that the prize pool was $1.2M.  That's when it finally hit me...my heart started racing.  It felt like it was going to beat right out of my chest.  I still only half believed it was real.  Part of me thought I was dreaming or it was some kind of joke or that I was reading the numbers wrong.  After I folded the first hand dealt to me and had a few seconds to take a deep breath, I regained my composure.  I basically told myself something along the lines of "Alright, this is it...everything you've done in your poker career has lead up to this moment.  Treat it like a normal game, stay focused and play your best, whatever happens happens.  Worst case scenario you get a 100k consolation prize."  From there on out, I was actually surprisingly unemotional.  My heart was still pounding of course, but I didn't feel nervous.  I had nothing to lose and I felt pretty good about my edge at the table.  When the game ended and I had won, an overwhelming feeling of relief came over me.  It wasn't joy, it wasn't happiness, it wasn't anything like that.  It still didn't seem real, so those emotions couldn't even possibly occur.  The only thing I felt was relief that, as long as I wasn't dreaming or this wasn't some cruel joke, I was free from the grind, I was free from online poker (my plan was always to walk away eventually), and could move onto the next stage of my life.

Charles Hawk:  Did you play on any other tables when hitting 1million Spin and Go? Did you turn them off?​

Kevin "Koovoon" Laird: I did have 6 other tables going when the million launched.  I did continue to play them, but it was mostly push/fold without much thought process.  I kept them open and continued to play them because I figured that would keep me in my comfort zone.  I figured, why do anything different?  I knew I was fully capable of focusing my attention on the million dollar game while acting on the other tables.  3-4 of the games were almost over anyway, so pretty soon I was only 3 tabling.  If anything, I think keeping the tables open and playing them helped me because it kept my mind occupied in between hands at the million dollar table.  It ensured I didn't overthink things and put any extra pressure on myself.  Everything felt "normal" with all the games going...after all, it's just another game, right?

Charles Hawk: Have you sharkscope'd your opponents? Any regs? ​

Kevin "Koovoon" Laird: I didn't sharkscope them.  Especially with the million dollar game up, I didn't want to take any chances of doing something illegal that was against Pokerstars' terms of service.  I was pretty familiar with the guy to my left, he was a reg.  The guy to my right was an unknown, which essentially means he is a fish.  Judging by the way he played through the first few hands of the tournament, his fish status was all but confirmed.  I guess I would have preferred to know for sure exactly how much of a fish he was.  It's possible he was an MTT pro or somethingthat just doesn't play many spins so I hadn't seen him before.  But I was fairly certain he wasn't a good player and I planned on approaching it as such until he proved otherwise.

Charles Hawk: Describe the whole game of this Spin and Go together with crucial hands?​

Kevin "Koovoon" Laird: The game was actually pretty standard, which I was very happy about.  Win or lose, there weren't any spots that I would second guess thatcould potentially haunt me for life.  I recently recorded a video with Coffeeyay where we go over the entire game and talked about each hand, so you can link to that here.  One hand I regret is open shoving AQo blind vs blind about 5 hands in.  I think the pressure got to me on thatone.  The reg to my left was really aggressive and only folded 5% to raises blind vs blind.  I wasn't really interested in playing AQo out of position vs an aggressive competent player with a million dollars on the line, so I open shoved it.  In retrospect, this was a mistake and I should have just open raised as normal.  I doubled up with JJ vs A7cc, by getting it all in on the T 7 2 flop (with 2 hearts).  This was versus the random player to my right.  From there it was just smooth sailing.  I was either dealt really easy open folds, or I had hands that I had to shove given the circumstances.  Eventually I coolered the reg with 88 vs A2 and got heads up with a 4:1 chiplead.  First hand I got it in AQ vs QJ, but he spiked a J on the flop to double up.  I wasn't even upset.  There was no time to be sorry for myself, I still had a slight chiplead and I was heads up for a million dollars.  I limped a lot heads up, wanting to see flops in position vs a player I felt very confident against.  After a lot of standard play back and forth, I open shoved a weak ace into his KJ and held for the win.

Charles Hawk: You are two time SNE. Do you plan to play poker as your main activity after this win? Especially when we have unclear future with PS RB changes in 2016? ​

Kevin "Koovoon" Laird: Simply put, no.  I'm retiring from online poker, at least until it's fully legalized in the United States.  I'm not even finishing this year's SNE.  I was planning on maybe sticking it out for one more year, but with the changes Amaya has made recently this really isn't in the cards for me anymore.

Charles Hawk: Write me please your thoughts and feelings about PS RB changes in 2016? How it will affect the industry? What would be your predictions what could come next, lets say in 2017 or 2018?​

Kevin "Koovoon" Laird: As for my overall thoughts on the changes Amaya has made to the VIP system...it's tough.  The people in charge are in this business to make money so I'm sure they did their due diligence and decided this was the most profitable course of action.  I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I know more about how to run a business than they do.  What I do know is that it will have a significant impact on the lives of a few players that not only have been the most loyal to Pokerstars in the past, but have also generated them a lot of income.  It seems to methat Amaya is interested in going a different route that they think is more profitable:  catering to the recreational players and offering less incentives for high volume professionals to play on their site.  Whether or not it will work is the question.  I'm sure they have more changes in the works for next year that will aim at helping them obtain whatever goals they set regarding getting more recreational players to play.  I do think that they are underestimating how important the professionals on their site are to the profitability of their business, but only time will tell.  If I were to make a prediction, I would say they've gone a bit too far too soon in regards to the cutbacks on rakeback.  In 2017 or 2018 it's likely they will change the system to where it's somewhere in between where it is now and where it will be in 2016.  But the days of 70%+ rakeback are likely over forever.  In summary, I'm not happy about the changes.  Most (if not all) pros are unhappy about the changes.  But that's not Amaya's goal.  They are in it to make money and they think this is the best direction for their brand going forward.  If we want to see a change in our favor as professionals, we either need to hope they don't make as much money as they thought or we need to find a way to actively ensure that they don't.  I see that attempt already with some player strikes that are taking place.  I'm very lucky that I won themillion and get to walk away at this time.  I definitely don't envy the players that have to deal with this situation going forward.