From 'Beginners Luck' to Running the Game; WSOP POY Rob Campbell is Back Where it All Began
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Rob Campbell makes his way across the Crown Casino poker room where the 2020 Aussie Millions is being held to where PokerNews is waiting for him.
"You know there's no Player of the Year points on offer here right?" we ask the 2019 World Series of Poker Player of the Year.
"No POY points? What are you talking about, that's why I'm here!" replied Campbell.
It’s the type of response you expect from the former stand-up comedian and something that many people mention when talking about the Australian.
'Robbie Robot'
“He’s very funny once you understand his humor,” former WSOP Main Event winner Joe Hachem told us. Hachem is one of only two ‘Legend’ members of the Australian Poker Hall of Fame, the other being Jeff Lisandro, and says that he and Campbell first met around 12 years ago in 2008.
“He’s always been a nice guy from day one,” said Hachem. “But he came from the online poker world, so he was very uncomfortable when he first started playing live. He was just this weird-looking robotic acting guy who told us he was a stand-up comedian on the side.
"We called him Robbie Robot"
“We called him 'Robbie Robot'. He’d sit there keeping still the whole time because he didn’t want to give off any tells, so Robot’s stuck with him all this time.”
Robot or not, Campbell is back in his native Australia for the Aussie Millions, a festival that until his double-bracelet winning summer was the site of his only career victory.
"We taught him how to play!"
In fact, his victory in the 2013 A$5,000 8-Game was his most recent cash at the Aussie Millions (“Was it?" said Campbell. "I'm hopeless…") but his relationship with the Crown goes back even further than that.
“I’m 99.9% confident we taught him to play,” said Aussie Millions Tournament Director Joel Williams when we asked him about Campbell. “I remember teaching him the difference between a spade and a straight!”
According to Williams, Crown used to run a A$2/4 Limit Hold’em table called ‘Beginners Luck.’ This was “pre-Hachem” as Williams put it before the poker room was renovated and expanded following the Australian’s historic victory in 2005.
‘Beginners Luck’ was a table reserved exclusively for new players, each receiving a card that would be stamped every time they played. After the player had filled their card with stamps, they wouldn’t be allowed to come back and play at that table.
“This game would run with all the locals and regulars on the rail wanting to get in and play with the new people. I’m 99.9% confident he came through that game.”
"If he argued a point or spoke up and said something, it was rare that he was ever wrong."
Campbell then moved on to the A$4/8 Limit Hold’em Table, Williams remembers, and it quickly became obvious that Campbell was an out and out student of the game.
“He reviewed his play afterwards,” said Williams. “He came in every time slightly more experienced than when he left, and he was one of those players even at an early age that if he argued a point or spoke up and said something, it was rare that he was ever wrong.
“It was clear he had a poker head and was a little bit special.”
Positive First Impressions
That’s a sentiment echoed by 2019 Aussie Millions H.O.R.S.E. champion Daniel Mayoh who, despite only knowing Campbell for 18 months, says he made a positive first impression.
“I was playing heads-up 25/50 mixed game cash with him one day, and he was just letting me pick whatever game I wanted to play. That was my first time talking to him. I’d seen his name in the WSOP results over the last few years.
“He came across as really friendly and was happy to share his knowledge, and over the last year we’ve played more and more, especially in some of the cash games around Melbourne.”
The two are common foes across the felt in both cash games and tournaments, including one encounter Mayoh says may have been the catalyst for Campbell’s summer of success.
According to Mayoh, in the week before the 2019 World Series of Poker, both he and Campbell made it to heads-up in a mixed game tournament in Melbourne.
“It was heads-up and I had a lead,” Mayoh recalls. “I suggested that it was time to do a deal because the first prize was triple what second would get, but he said no. ‘I need the practice’ is what he said to me.
“So we played it out, and it was a good 45 minutes worth of heads-up play, but eventually I came out on top. I like to think Rob got the practice from me that put him in good stead when he went off to Las Vegas.”
Table 46
Campbell is back in Australia playing at the Aussie Millions after an extended stint on the west coast of America, but his tournament appearances have been limited to just the H.O.R.S.E. so far.
“As much as I love the Aussie Millions, sometimes when I'm here I play cash games. I know that's blasphemous, I'm not a tournament player."
"Not really a tournament player" comes as quite a shock to us, but as the festival progresses it’s clear to see why.
Situated on the second tier of the Crown Casino poker room, Table 46 doesn’t quite have the same ring as Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio or even Table 1 at the Aria but make no mistake this is the table everyone wants to rail.
Literally, on occasion, as a rope is drawn up just feet away from the table’s edge allowing anyone to wander in and catch a glimpse of some of Melbourne’s biggest mixed game cash game in action.
A couple of days ago, with this table occupied by the record-breaking A$25,000 Challenge field, there was a crowd of anxious-looking Mixed Game regulars waiting for the ‘Big Game’ to get underway.
Big Game Player
It’s these big games, Williams says, that helped Campbell hone his craft when he was emerging onto the scene.
“He put himself in these big situations as quickly as possible to learn as much as possible,” said Williams. “He always was courageous and/or risky if you like. Back then he was pretty out of his depth, but he would have seen it as paying for their knowledge, which in hindsight was the right move.
“Players like Jeff Lisandro, you know, the best that were ever available. He put himself in that sort of world.”
Now, Campbell was joined by Lisandro and a whole host of mixed game players such as Billy ‘The Croc’ Argyros and Jan Suchanek in waiting for what they consider “their table” to become available.
Campbell "Runs the Game"
“He runs that game,” Suchanek told us. “He’s the king of running that game. He’s probably the best player and everyone lets him run it. That’s the dynamic of the game.”
Suchanek has his personal feelings about his business partner’s position in the poker world, especially framed around last year’s POY contest, and he makes them known.
"The rules of the game weren’t in his favour and he binked it anyway"
“It’s a shame because the whole POY thing became more about Deeb and Daniel losing and not him winning. It’s a shame that he’s not more popular than he is. He’s a very unique character.
“The rules of the game weren’t in his favour and he binked it anyway. He’s gonna keep focusing on poker. That’s what I love about him.”
Work Ethic Propells Campbell to POY
Hachem agrees that it is Campbell’s focus, especially during the months in Vegas during the World Series of Poker, that propelled him to win Player of the Year.
“The POY is not set up for limit players which is what he is so that just shows the effort that he put in to get there. Anyone who knows Rob or has spoken to him knows that when he’s at the WSOP he clocks on the minute he lands and doesn’t clock off until the minute he finishes.
"This year it all came together for him"
“Most of us go out there and play some tournaments, but we also play some golf, go out and party, have some dinners, that sort of thing. He deserves everything he gets as a result because he put in the hours and the time and the effort to get there. It wasn’t like a sheer coincidence. If you look at his record the past few years, he’s been doing pretty well in all those events. But this year it all came together for him.”
Campbell the Ambassador
Campbell says he understands the new role his POY success will bring him going forward. Knowing he’ll be his countryman in adorning the walls of the Rio Hotel & Casino when his Player of the Year banner is hung up later this year, does Campbell feel a sense of responsibility with regard to Hachem's effect on the poker community, especially in Australia?
“Personally, I do feel a little bit of responsibility, but I know Joe and he takes it quite seriously. He understands that he’s a permanent face of the game whether he likes it or not. I think that’s a good thing. He should be like that.
“When he sits down next to me, he’s just Joe. But people always want to speak to him and he’s instrumental in the Australian poker scene. He carries himself well and he’s how you’d hope a WSOP Main Event winner would be.”
Hachem believes there are many different types of poker ambassadors, with both he and Campbell completely different versions.
“He’s still an ambassador though,” said Hachem. “And he’ll be a great ambassador. He cares about the game. He works hard and he’ll go out of his way to educate and share with people around him.”
Mayoh agrees, saying his newfound fame will only serve to help the Melbourne mixed game scene and beyond.
“He comes across as one of the elders of the Melbourne mixed game scene and always been quite friendly with the other players and supporting them. That’s important with mixed game players because when people play, they’re often learning and it’s important they don’t feel discouraged or made to feel stupid if they’re still learning the game. Rob’s great at that. “
“He has a great personality,” continued Hachem. “It’s not a vibrant out there kind of personality, but it’s a personality that is warm and honest and very sincere to the game of poker. We may be different personalities but that doesn’t mean he can’t step up to fill those type of shoes as well.”
