Top Pair Podcast 333: Interview with Eli Elezra

Robbie Strazynski

Apr 30, 2019

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In episode 333 of the Top Pair Home Game Poker Podcast, Bruce Briggs and Robbie Strazynski welcome poker legend Eli Elezra to the show. He talks of his (brief, but profitable) stint playing in private Hollywood home games, shares his plans for the upcoming WSOP, compares being on televised poker shows today vs. in the golden era, and much more.

Bruce and Robbie also fill you in on their latest home game exploits, dive into the listener mailbag, and share a funny One Outer story that’ll surely leave you chuckling.

Top Pair thanks their sponsors, J Design Cards and the Poker Notes Live mobile app for their support. Be sure to check ‘em out!

Show Time Stamps

00:23	Synopsis
	How Ya Runnin? (1:06–20:28)
	Bruce: “John of the Caribbean” took part in three fun home games. Once again managing to pretty much break even through all the ups and downs at the felt.
5:20	Ongoing giveaway to receive a free strategy book on SOHE and Dramaha + feedback from a listener, Martin in Malta, telling us about the “Sviten Special” variant he plays in his home games.
10:05	The podcast unfortunately has its Facebook page unpublished suddenly after over 8.5 years. The sad details…
	Robbie: Just one home game over Passover, with a plague on Robbie’s cards that decimated his stack. “The dentist” makes a rare appearance and performed a “chip extraction” at the wild and crazy game while playing 7-27, which isn’t even a distant cousin of poker, but more like it’s estranged ex-wife.
18:20	Numerous improvements announced at the upcoming WSOP, where Robbie will be in attendance from May 29-June 7.
	Look Who We’ve Found (Interview with Eli Elezra - 21:45–55:55)
23:04	Eli talks about some of the private Beverly Hills home games he used to play in back in the day. Gabe Kaplan invited him to play with the likes of Leonardo di Caprio, Tobey Maguire, and others. After making over $800,000, he was politely told “we don’t want any more TV poker players in our game.”
25:00	An important reason why Eli only plays in Las Vegas these days rather than any of the high stakes home games he always gets invited to; the same reason why Doyle Brunson refused to play Andy Beal in Texas.
28:39	Agreeing to attend a home game in Israel run by a group of 18-year-old soldiers-to-be in the IDF, which ended up leading to the writing of Eli’s autobiography in Hebrew eight years ago.
30:45	Eli discusses the challenges and surprises along the way during the book writing process, and wanting to get it translated into English so that his kids and grandkids (who don’t speak Hebrew) would be able to read it.
34:15	Eli updates us on what his opponents from back in the TV poker glory days are up to these days, including Jennifer Harman, Barry Greenstein, Johnny Chan, Sammy Farha, and Freddy Deeb, and why they’ve all dropped down in stakes they currently play for.
36:30	The stakes Eli currently plays for, how many days a week, where he plays, and the average length of his sessions. He’s also playing a rotation of half a dozen mixed games on Dolly’s Game on PokerGO.
38:39	Where are all of the high stakes mixed game female poker players?
41:09	What sort of preparation is Eli engaging in to get ready for the six-week WSOP grind? No live multi-tabling, but planning to play a full schedule and hoping to run well at the outset.
45:45	Mike Sexton used to play “BOT” (bankroll on table). Has Eli ever been in situations like that?
51:27	How does the experience of playing on TV poker shows nowadays compare to doing so back in the glory days?
54:08	Eli will be speaking and doing a book signing of his autobiography at Las Vegas' Wednesday Poker Discussion Group at 3pm on May 29, at Ricardo’s Mexican Restaurant 4930 W. Flamingo Road.
56:08	One Outer – Welcome Back Maurice!