Jean-Robert Bellande is the poker pro you love to hate but he’s a survivor in more ways than one. He’s lived like millionaire for years despite living on the edge of being broke and he loved playing the villain the TV show Survivor. We caught up with Jean-Robert in Vegas the day before this year’s World Series of Poker first event to see how his new found fame has changed his life, what crazy prop bets he’s gotten himself into this year and how he started his rise to poker stardom.
PokerLizard: So how is registration for the World Series going, they always seem to make a few screw ups along the way? Is it going smoothly or is there a big line of the people?
Jean-Robert: I just went over there and there was no line, I just registered now situs poker online,
PokerLizard: Are you going to play in the 40K?
Jean-Robert: I am actually not going to play in the 40K now, too big a buy in.
PokerLizard: Sure, why not just play in the smaller events where it is a bunch of donkeys? Playing in the 40K, will be good for publicity if you make the final table to be on TV; but it seems like the field will be way too tough not to mention the huge buyin.
Jean-Robert: Yeah it is tough field equity wise; it is not a great value. May be it is good for people who have a lot of money and want to get a bracelet because it’s going to be a smaller field than I had imagined with somewhere between 200 and 300 people. The TV value is there, but it is only 2 hours of television time, and no real guarantee of getting on TV.
PokerLizard: What you think about the choices for the televised World Series of Poker only having four events televised. The $40k, Main Event, Ante up for Africa charity event, and the Tournament of Champions event with all the past champions.
Jean-Robert: Actually TV-wise, I can understands the decision on the part of ABC or ESPN because I mean that is what the public is interested in. The general public does not really understand games like HORSE and Pot Limit Omaha. They have been spending a lot of time educating the public which I think they could have benefited from this year. The last three years had been televising the $50k HORSE event, , they have been educating the public and I think they get more viewers each year, so this year they might have got more than last year, but the bottom line is people would rather see No Limit Hold’em. With this 40K that they are basically guaranteed that they are going to have big names at the final table because half the field is going to be all big names.
Jean-Robert: Half the field is going to be big names and really really good players for the guaranteed star studded final table. It’s the same thing with the Tournament of Champions; then you’ve got the main event. I would not be surprised if there are more big names deeper in the tournament this year because they have given us 30,000 in starting chips instead of 20k. the more starting chips you’re given it makes it more challenging deeper in the tournament.
Jean-Robert: Yeah, so for them I think it’s a good decision but for poker players of course more televised event is better. We would like that. Yeah, I can understand why they would do that.
PokerLizard: Right, just the cost to putting it all together is going to be a lot cheaper than to stick around as long to pay Norman Chad his huge salary.
Jean-Robert: I do not think that is the case. I know there are still a lot more taped days this year. I would not be surprised if the viewership on ESPN 360 goes way up. I know that they are going to be showing quite a few of the events online.
PokerLizard: That should be pretty cool. How many events are you going to play?
Jean-Robert: I am really going to see as we go. Last year I think I played like 23 events last year. I was looking at the events that I am interested in. I am actually interested in 42 different events, they overlap each other, but I would imagine that I would probably end up playing somewhere between 20 and 25 events again this year.