Monaco First-Timer Ronnie Bardah Talks WSOP and Second Chance On Shark Cage After Embarrassment by Miss Finland
Ronnie Bardah has been around the poker scene for quite some time now, but it wasn't until 2010 that a breakout performance in the World Series of Poker Main Event propelled him into the spotlight. That year, Bardah took 24th in the "grand daddy of them all" for $317,161. In 2012, Bardah solidified his place in WSOP history by winning a gold bracelet in the $2,500 Six-Max Limit Hold'em event for $182,088 — an event that was removed from the WSOP schedule last year, but will be making its return this year with a $3,000 buy-in edition.
"I've very excited about it," said Bardah about the return of a mid-buy-in, short-handed limit hold'em event. "It's like bringing back our main event. Myself, Jesse Martin, David Baker, and a few other players were complaining on Twitter about the WSOP taking it out last year. We didn't understand why because the field kept getting bigger and bigger every year, but they got rid of most of the limit hold'em events."
Although the event did decrease from 2010 to 2011 and again from 2011 to 2012 — going from 384 entries to 354 to 302 — it was on the up in 2013 when 343 players competed. It had also increased from 2009 to 2010 when the field size went from 367 to 384 players. From 2009 to 2013, the event did see an average of 350 competitors, which isn't too shabby at all for a game that many consider to be "dying." At least one wouldn't think a 350-player average would warrant removal from the WSOP schedule, but it did.
"They had a mixed hold'em they got rid of, too, but I didn't care too much for that one because the structure wasn't that good," Bardah added. "At least they brought this one back for us, and now we have three limit hold'em events. We've got the $10,000 buy-in, which I think should be a $5,000 buy-in — an eight-handed $5,000 buy-in — a $3,000 six-max, and a full-ring $1,500. That's what it should be, but we've got a $10,000 buy-in, a $3,000 six-max that I'm really excited about, and a $1,500 buy-in. Plus, we're getting more chips."
Indeed the players will get more chips to start the tournament with in most WSOP events this year, including the $3,000 Six-Max Limit Hold'em. Last time the event was held, players began with three times the tournament buy-in, 7,500 in chips, and the first level limits were 75/150. For this upcoming edition, players will start with 15,000 in chips, or five times the buy-in. The catch is that the first two levels will be played at limits of 150/300. Although both times players began with 50 big bets in their stacks, this year the second level will maintain that amount, whereas in 2013 the 100/200 limits of the second level meant players only had 37.5 big bets to work with for 7,500 in chips.
"I'm really excited about the WSOP bringing the $3,000 six-max back, and the limit hold'em community is really happy about that," Bardah said. "I expect a big turnout for it."
As for those that say limit hold'em is a dying game, Bardah begs to differ.
"I don't think it's a dying game, but no-limit hold'em is the best and purest game for tournament poker," he said. "When you go to California or Borgata on the East Coast, limit hold'em is definitely still alive. I don't mind that there aren't more limit hold'em tournaments around at these festivals, because when there are only a few big ones a year, when they're limited, a lot of people travel and come out for them. I think it's cool that the big ones are at the WSOP, but it was nice when partypoker had a $10,000 limit hold'em event on a boat, which I did not play because I thought it was going to be every year. I don't think it's dying, though. They've had some programs that have solved it, specifically heads-up limit hold'em, but I enjoy it and I love it. I have so much fun with it, especially short-handed limit hold'em. I just want to keep playing it. I'm young, and I'll be supporting it."
Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Whereas Bardah may love the game, others can often be seen complaining a bit about the variant on social media. That doesn't mean much to Bardah, though, as he thinks it'll give him and the other members of the limit hold'em community an edge.
"It's one of the H.O.R.S.E. games, it's in the mixed games most of the time, and I love that people hate it so much," he said with a smile, almost laughing. "Guys like Jason Mercier and all of these Europeans tell me they hate it. If they hate it so much, I feel like they just don't know what to do in a lot of spots, so I'm happy that I do and they don't. I need something to get ahead of these guys with (laughs)."
Bardah's also making his first trip to Monaco for the European Poker Tour Grand Final. He's played other EPT events before, even if his records don't show many results from the stops. As someone who's making their first trip to the French Riviera for poker, we asked him what he thought of it all.
"It's going good. It's a beautiful place to be," Bardah commented. "It sure beats a lot of places in Massachusetts. It's really nice, everything is really, really expensive, but at least everything is really good quality when you pay for it. I didn't do well in the Main Event, but I can tell you I did much better in Shark Cage than I did last time, so we'll say that. Monaco is great. Tons of hot women, hot cars, and a lot of Europeans that like to splash money into the pot."
It's true that Bardah was here in Monaco for a second stint on PokerStars' Shark Cage television show, but we are unable to reveal the results of that contest or how Bardah did. In Season 1 of the show, he did play a famous hand where he was bluffed on the first hand of his heat by former Miss Finland, Sara Chafak. Deemed "Mayhem On the Shark Cage," you can watch the hand in the video below.
"I went back to my room in Barcelona and my roommate was the first person I talked to about it," Bardah remembered. "I told him the hand history, and he literally woke up like a zombie out of bed and looked right at me with a face that said, 'Are you f***ing serious?' It took me a few days, a little while, to get over it. When I got home, I told some people the hand and they just were laughing. After that, It kind of disappeared for a bit, and then boom, when it hit the Internet after PokerStars released it, it was absolutely crazy. I got texts, Facebook messages, tweets, and more."
But, as Bardah explained, it was entirely bad feedback. He revealed that he got a lot of female attention from the hand airing and it was good for him.
"A lot of girls Facebook messaged me, too, so it helped me a lot — not a little, but a lot," he said. "I had women from all over messaging me telling me how they thought it was adorable that I folded, so I guess I came off like a soft puppy and they loved that."
As a young, single male who travels the world playing poker, recognition from women can't be a bad thing, but what about Bardah's peers? Did they find Bardah's fold as "adorable" as the women who saw the show, or what was their reaction?
"My friends made fun of me. They still make fun of me," Bardah said. "I just had dinner last night with Ole Schemion, Mustapha Kanit, Dario Sammartino, Mercier, and Matt Waxman, and they all knew me from that. Kanit was saying, 'Oh, you're the guy from the Shark Cage. You're the bluff! I would've folded, too!' They were all laughing, but it's fine. My mom even hit me up one night in the early morning, asking me why I folded three fours. I get teased about it, but I hope when people approach me that they approach me and say they've seen me before but it's about the five cashes in a row in the WSOP Main Event and on the ESPN coverage. Usually eight out of 10 times it's the Shark Cage hand against Miss Finland, though."
Unlike earlier when Bardah's stats were a little incorrect about the limit hold'em tournament "getting bigger and bigger every year," the fact that he has cashed five consecutive times in the WSOP Main Event is spot on. It's the current record and an ongoing streak he'll be looking to continue for another year come this summer. Dating back to 2010, Bardah has reached the money of the WSOP Main Event every year, earning $442,479 in total. His average finish is 323rd place in an event that has averaged just over 6,763 entrants over that time period.
Getting back to his second appearance on the Shark Cage, though, we wondered if Bardah's embarrassment from his first foray would give him the jitters the second time around. Would it be hard to get back under the bright lights in front of the cameras knowing what happened last time?
"No, it wasn't hard to get back on TV," Bardah said with confidence. "It was great to come back on Shark Cage because I was super comfortable. I mean, how more embarrassed could I get after what happened to me? I was at a good table playing with three women this season, so I guess they want to see me play against some more women on the show, which is fun and I like it. I had a lot of fun with them, and you're going to see a great episode that was shot this time around. I was really comfortable, and it went really well. It wasn't embarrassing at all. If anything, I was way more comfortable and ready for it."
While we'll have to wait to see how Bardah does on Shark Cage when Season 2 airs, he did continue to tell us about his maiden voyage to Monte Carlo, which included another first in his poker career.
"I played four tournaments the other day, all in one day, for the first time in my whole life," Bardah said. "I busted the Main Event, busted a €2,000 side event, busted a €1,000 side event, and then played a €500 hyper turbo at midnight. I chopped the turbo three ways for €10,500. I should've won it all, but I'm happy with the €10,500 I got when we chopped. That's like a trip saver for me!"
With his trip saver in the bag, Bardah will have a few more side events to look forward to, as the EPT Grand Final schedule is jam packed with poker everyday until the end. If those side events are as much to the liking as the Main Event was for Bardah, he should have a lot of poker on his plate for the next couple of days.
"It's crazy because I thought that the Main Event would be insane — so hard, with all the best European pros," he said. "And it is, there's tons of good players here, but there's a lot of soft spots in the Main Event. I sat at my table and thought, 'Wow, this is amazing!' There were three people who had no idea what they were doing, and these aggressive Europeans that are the better players are almost so aggressive that it makes it very easy to pick them off. I just felt it was a good spot for me overall, but it just didn't happen."