Interview with Raph 'InMexico/HannahArendt'
(Raph, his gf, Elliot Roe)
Charles Hawk: First off, introduce yourself briefly to our community or to those who don't know you.
Raphael “InMexico/HannahArendt”: I'm Raphaël, a french 24 years old husng and spin grinder. I play under the sn InMexico on .eu and HannahArendt on .fr. I've been playing spins ever since they introduced the 100s and I still play hus aside.
Charles Hawk: Could you write short introduction about yourself describing your personality and some facts about your poker carrier and off-table activities?
Raphael “InMexico/HannahArendt”: I used to do a lot of sports, especially rugby but I dislocated both of my shoulders when i was 16 so had to stop and needed a replacement. At 1st it's been UrbanRivals a strategy card game where I held the world record for 6 months and then poker. Because of that I was over confident I would crush poker when I discovered it, my beginnings were a lot tougher than expected :D In college I was as broke as you can be, mostly cause my mental game and brm were non existent.
Charles Hawk: Tell me more about your day-to-day life. How your standart week looks like?
Raphael “InMexico/HannahArendt”: I was lucky enough to start working with Eliott Roe a couple years back, so now my schedule is pretty good. I awake early in the morning and play til the evening with some breaks. I do this 5 days a week with a few gym sessions.
Charles Hawk: When you decided to choose poker as your main activity? Tell me the story behind it.
Raphael “InMexico/HannahArendt”: I was in a good french university and got kicked out cause I was barely attending classes, at this time poker started going well so it was the obvious transition. Today I wish I had been able to manage both at the same time. Its such a luxury for grinders to graduate.
Charles Hawk: Tell me briefly about your successful journey up to your current limits. How long did it take? What are you memories: what was the most exciting or troubling during it? How you develop threw it?
Raphael “InMexico/HannahArendt”: I started to have decent results when I bought the Chadders hyper pack in 2011, it really helped me tons. To do something well I need some certainties and Chadders provided with that. My BRM was still disastrous but at least I was consistently making money. In 2013 I achieved SNE for the 1st time on psfr which was very sweet, we basically had 95% rakeback :D This is when I really started building my roll and to save up. I think it all went well because I was working hard but also got lucky. I became very good friend with one of the guys who was holding the highest lobbies so I didn't have to fight as hard as others to get my spot. Also got coached by Chadders and coffee who both helped me tremendously.
Since then it's been going very well and every year is better than the previous ones.
If I had to pick one memory that would be this one: In 2015 I played the EPT Malta and I am chipleader at the bubble, to my right is a spanish guy who is the second or 3rd biggest stack of the tournament. I end-up running a questionnable bluff for his full stack, it does not work and I'm left with just enough to get itm. Dan Smith who was at my table told he liked the way i played it and Olivier Busquets agreed behind me, I think they were being nice but that was sweet and made me feel better. That spanish guy who I thought was a donk was actually Sergio Aido who is now doing well in super high rollers in Macao.
Charles Hawk: You wrote that rakeback back then was huge in ps.fr. What other advantages it had over the ps.eu in the best years? Do you think lots of European poker pros didn't notice the opportunity to grind husngs there because of bigger rake comparing with .eu?
Raphael “InMexico/HannahArendt”: The most important was definitely the lower rake, but there were also weaker regs.
I don't think a lot of Europeans missed on the opportunity. France is still a relatively small market compared to .eu, making it hard for more than 10 regs to play there at 100s+. Some guys tried but we fought hard to protect it, and we had a huge rakeback advantage over them, which helps a lot.
People often say how .fr is great, it was definitely very nice value but it takes much longer to improve when you only play there.
I've played spins on .eu last year for a few months and I did really well at 100s with one of the best ev vs regs. It's also really nice to be able to get action at any time of the day. So both .fr and .eu had their advantages.
I just resumed grinding in March this year, cause I was living in Czech Republic and they regulated. PS applied for a licence and it's only in February that we learned that the new licence would not have spins or heads-up hypers, so we moved back to Malta.
Charles Hawk: Are you happy that now ps.fr is french only site? What is the action and situation in lobbies after this restriction was applied?
Raphael “InMexico/HannahArendt”: I think it's just the sign that PS is kinda giving up the French market because Winamax is crushing them in France.
Charles Hawk: Are you happy about spins being introduced? What do you enjoy more playing (husngs or spins) and why? If not a secret, hows your hourly profit? Is it increased after the transition to them?
Raphael “InMexico/HannahArendt”: Not really, my hourly is higher since they are here but I enjoyed playing husngs a lot more. I also feel that it is when spins got introduced that PS stopped caring about regs and started to decrease rakeback every six months. Spins are a big shift in the history of their strategy.
Charles Hawk: Have you had any huge multipliers?
Raphael “InMexico/HannahArendt”: I've had 2 10k at 100s, won both.
Charles Hawk: What are your current aims in poker? Do you have any other goals or dreams, which you are planning to realise in the near future?
Raphael “InMexico/HannahArendt”: I'm trying hard to learn other formats, like short-handed cash. I love the new challenge feeling that I get from it. Aside of that, I hope I will make some investments in real estate this year.
Charles Hawk: How are you maximizing your “life-EV?”
Raphael “InMexico/HannahArendt”: It's all about balance in my case and I feel extremely happy ever since I started poker. I'm in a great relationship since 4 years which helps too.
Working with Elliot helped me a lot, I am able to completely stop thinking about poker once my sessions are done and to fully enjoy my free-time. He's also responsible for my healthier lifestyle and all the balance I feel like I achieved.
He definitely is the best poker investment I've ever made.
Charles Hawk: How have you come up with your screenname „HannahArendt“? Do you enjoy philosophy or reading books in general? Have you read any of Hannah Arendt's works?
Raphael “InMexico/HannahArendt”: I had to pass tons of exams to get admitted to my college. The teachers who were helping us to prepare them were constantly mentioning her so I picked her name. I've only read "The Human Condition".
I enjoyed philosophy a lot, it's part of the reason why I didn't like my college so much. We had to pass tons of philosophy exams to get admitted and once admitted it was not even a subject...
I feel like this nickname choice was a bit arrogant. Nowadays on Winamax (you can change nick every 6 months) I pick things like KingKong113, fits me better :)