Several weeks ago, you likely won’t have even heard of the name Jake Cody. The correlation between fame and success seems to be unusually distorted in today’s spotlight obsessed game, but it’s a diversion that remains prevalent in the online world as numerous players like Jake are quietly, but surely, acquiring fortunes from the comfort of their own armchair without so much as a murmur.
But to say Jake hadn’t caught even the occasional glance prior to his EPT win would be inaccurate, as within the small clique of MTT players, the 21-year old Mancunian had built up a fierce reputation with a number of impressive performances, albeit under the guise of neverbluff67. The majority of his cashes have been five-figure wins, but in September, 2009, Jake pulled off a mammoth score by coming second in an FTOPS event for a mouth-watering $198,000.
However, despite his success, Jake was eager to conquer the live felt in equal fashion and so jetted off to Deauville with lofty ambitions and more hunger than most. Several days later and the baby faced Brit was the subject of many a camera flash and the proud owner of a comedy cheque worth €847,000, whilst the aftermath brought interviews, magazine articles, Facebook requests and more recognition than he could ever have imagined. In certain circles, Jake was well known, but now he was an EPT Champion and future TV star.
As we wait eagerly to see who takes our breath away in Berlin, Black Belt Poker catch up with the first EPT winner of 2010 to probe him about all things Cody related.
Snoopy: How did you get into poker?
Jake Cody: I used to play for a pub pool team with Matt Perrins when I was 15 and they had a £5 poker game after every match day. That’s where I learnt the game, but after playing there for a while I eventually moved to online.
Snoopy: Are you a natural player or a student of the game?
JK: I'd probably say a bit of both but I’ll always be a student of the game. If you’re not constantly trying to improve you get left behind so quickly and before you know it your edge will be minimal at best.
I read forums and watch videos all the time, but to be honest, the best way to improve by a mile is to play and talk about hands with players you respect - there's literally nothing better.
Even though I’m mainly an online player, I never use any software, I do take notes on players though about certain aspects of their games.
Snoopy: Is there any particular moment that you’d attribute to your good results?
JK: There wasn’t really an exact moment, but last summer, even though I’d already been doing really well for myself, I spent a lot of time playing poker with Tom MacDonald and Matt Perrins, and by the end of the summer, things kind of clicked and I felt like I’d taken a huge jump in becoming a better player.
Snoopy: What was the main motivation for going to Deauville?
JK: I obviously play for the money but, to be honest, I’d been getting crushed live over the past year or so and although it was over a really small sample size, I was so hungry to win. I’m hugely competitive and losing all the time live was the most tilting thing ever. I wanted to win so bad. Also, I knew from friends that the standard of the EPTs relative to the buy-in was really, really weak.
Snoopy: What was your thought process behind the T-4 hand?
[Two tables out, Jake five-bet shoved with T-4o from the small blind, was called by Hugo Lemaire’s kings, but rivered a straight to win a 3.6 million pot]
JK: Ha ha, I’ve had to answer this question so much. The villain, Hugo, had an online background and had been playing really well so far. Maybe I gave him more credit than he deserved but I really felt he was four-betting light in that spot. I have in fact discussed the hand with him and he actually really likes the shove not being results orientated and said he's light there a lot. This definitely made me feel a lot better about it because I feel like I’ve had some unfair flack over this hand. It was by no means whatsoever a random jam, I just felt it was such a good spot because I thought he can have nothing so often and just looking to put me in a tough spot.
Snoopy: Can you tell us about a hand where you were particularly pleased with the way you played?
JK: Believe it or not, I really liked the way I played the T-4 hand. I should probably say the 7-4 suited bluff on the final table, but I made a such a tough call on Day Two for my tournament life with top pair no kicker that I’d have to go with that instead.
The blinds were 2,000/5,000 with a running ante of 500 and a really aggro girl had just been moved two to my right. She’d been opening relentlessly for the past orbit or so, whilst I’d not played a hand since she arrived. She opened to 10,000 and I three-bet to 25,000 from a 180,000 stack (she had me covered) with J-2 of hearts. She flat called, which was pretty gross, but I felt I could take it down on a lot of flops and there would also have been spots to barrel on later streets.
The flop came J-6-3 rainbow and she checked. I checked behind for pot control and the turn came a 10. She bet 35,000 and I called. The river was a seven and she snap-jammed. I tanked for a while before calling; she had Q-9.
It was a pretty sick hand, but I just went with my gut instinct. I didn’t want to go against my read, even if it was for my tournament life. I would have felt like a huge idiot though if she had something like T-T.
Snoopy: Which opponents did you find particularly tough and how did you try to combat them?
JK: My seat draw was really good on the final table as I had position on Mike [McDonald] and Craig [Bergeron] and knew the chip leader didn't want to get involved with me early on. Having position on both of these guys made things so much easier and I knew I could put them in some difficult spots where they would find it hard to play back at me.
Sometimes I find it more awkward to play against some of the crazy locals. Don't get me wrong, I don't prefer to play players like Timex because these guys are so much easier to get chips off in the long run, but you can get into some ridiculous and goofy spots against them when they have flatted raises in position with awkward stack sizes and so on. This makes it really tough to work out the best line sometimes.
Snoopy: Was there a particular strategy or move that seemed to work well for you in this tournament?
JK: Playing a lot of pots in position against the bad players was my general strategy and three-betting OK thinking players in good spots too. I only really three-bet great players in really good spots.
Snoopy: Who else would you predict for taking a major title?
JK: Tom MacDonald is so due to win something big, he totally deserves it too.
Snoopy: What are your thoughts on sponsorship?
JK: I would love to get sponsored and this win was huge in getting me more well known. Hopefully a few sites have started to consider me.
Snoopy: Is this win going to change what and where you play?
JK: Not too much, I’ll still be grinding online the same as I was before. I’ll probably be playing even more live poker this year though.
For more high profile interviews see:
Phil Ivey
Patrik Antonius
John Juanda
Ian Frazer
Annette Obrestad
James Akenhead
Richard Ashby
Sammy George
Roland De Wolfe
Jeff Lisandro
Freddy Deeb
Barry Greenstein
Phil Laak