BLUFF: Congratulations on your win at the Sun City Million Dollar Challenge. Tell us a bit about  your strategy going into the tournament.
Ryan: I had a very good feeling going into the tournament. Last year I placed 6th, so I was very confident going to Sun City. I haven’t had a good year in poker tournaments thus far as I had quite a run of unlucky beats, but I just felt like it was about to turn for the better.
I didn’t have the greatest time in the beginning during the re-buy period. After taking a really sick beat, I ended up spending a bit more on re-buys than I initially wanted to. I was relatively short stacked going into day 2, but I knew I just had to keep grinding at it to get to the next level. I fought through day 2 without getting any great cards at all, but on day 3, I managed to pick up a pair bigger than tens for the first time in the tournament. On day 3 of play I finally found aces and managed to get some chips. From there I slowly accumulated more chips and found myself as one of the last 40 players. Although being in the final 40 ensured me a seat in to the 2009 Sun City event, my goals were clear and the final table was in my sight. We finally reached the money, just 20 players left of the original 273. At that point, I was guaranteed about $7500 but my focus was only on making the final table where the real money was. From 20 down to the final 9 players was a long period of play and after grinding it out to reach the final table, the thought of winning and ensuring a better placing then my previous year’s 6th place came to the forefront of my mind. I was feeling quietly confident when I went to bed on Saturday night!

BLUFF: Let’s just go back a bit and discuss the whole “short stacked” situation. What’s was going through your mind during that time and what kind of strategy were you adapting?
Ryan: I obviously try and change gears according to the stage of the tournament taking into consideration, the size of the field, the size of my chip stack in relation to everyone else’s and the level of the blinds etc. There was a time when I made a huge fold though. I raised with a pair of 8’s and then found two guys with short stacks re-raising all in. David Dadic was standing behind me at the time and he actually saw my hand and couldn’t believe I folded because the pot was laying me such great odds. But something didn’t feel right and I knew I was behind. I folded, only to find out the other two guys had aces and kings. I was well dominated and that would have been my tournament life over if I had stayed in the hand.

BLUFF: Apart from the previous hand, are there any other moments that you would deem as a “close call” to possibly getting knocked out of the tournament? Which ones in particular can you remember?
Ryan: I was at the table with Michael Binger, who is rated as one of the top 5 tournament players in the world this year, for quite some time. All in all I think we played on four different tables together and spent about 8 hours butting heads. I had an idea about his range and I played some key hands against him. I remember on the beginning of day 3, I was blinded down to around 70 or 80 thousand in chips. Michael Binger raised the button on my big blind and I found ace eight. I knew his range was much wider than ace eight so I moved all in. It wasn’t costing him much more to call so he called and turned over jack nine. The flop came and there was a nine, so I was in big trouble. Luckily I hit an eight on the turn and an ace on the river, making me two pair to win the hand. That was probably the closest I came to getting knocked out of the tournament. I don’t feel like it was a big suck out though because I knew that I had my money in first, and I was ahead and gave myself a chance to see all five cards! Shortly after that I found myself in another hand against Michael. I had around two hundred thousand in chips and the blinds were 5000 and 10 000. Michael raised from an early position and I found ace-king. Now usually everyone is a shove artist with ace king, and I had only just built my stack up to a level where I could possibly survive and play some real poker. So I decided to flat call with ace-king, (playing it a little tricky) knowing that if I missed the flop, he was going to bet and I would have to fold ace-king in that situation. However, in the same hand, Karen Hasseris was in the small blind and pretty short stacked. She only had 73000. Michael raised to 30 000 and after I had called Karen took her time to think about her next move. I was sitting there hoping that Karen would push all-in which would give me an opportunity to reraise to isolate her if Binger happened call her all-in. To my delight….she did go all-in. Michael ended up folding. I called the 43000 balance and Karen turned over jack nine and I ended up taking down a big pot without risking a big portion of my stack. From that moment on I played pretty solid and kept building my stack.

BLUFF: When you eventually got down to the final two, how long were you playing heads up for and give us some insight into the pattern of play that took place?
Ryan: Well we were heads up for about an hour. I got the heads up started by eliminating Durand Botha in 3rd. When we were sitting as the last 3 players, I had Durand Botha on my left. I had just raised out of the small blind with ace-nine and Durand immediately moved in on me for around 2 million chips. I had around 4.5 million at the time, but I thought to myself that I didn’t want to race right then. I didn’t want to double him up and leave myself as the short stack at the table, so I folded ace high because he had been playing pretty snug all day. The very next hand I picked up king-queen on the button. It was me to speak first and I raised again. Durand immediately moved all in on me yet again. I looked at him for a while, took my time to work out the odds and was generally getting fed up of being pushed around. It was then that he gave his hand away. I asked him to pull the 600 000 out that I had initially raised, so that I could see what he had left. He looked at his remaining stack and said “It’s too much”. Right then and there I knew he didn’t want me to call, so I did. He had eight-nine and flopped a monster draw. The fl op came with a six and a seven giving him an up and down straight draw. The turn was a club, putting 3 clubs on the board, which immediately took away some of his outs as I had the king of clubs in my hand. He didn’t hit his draw on the river, so I took down the hand. It was a good call to knock him out and going into the heads up match I had around 7 million and Dermot had around 5 million or so.

BLUFF: Tell us a bit about the build-up to the final hand.
Ryan: The heads up was quite entertaining because I won the first big pot with a good hand and managed to push Dermot down to just under 4 million in chips. This meant I had around 8 million in chips. He then came back at me and went all in with one hand that I was a little confused about. He played it well, raising with six-nine off-suit and paired his nine on the flop. He instantly moved all in on a flop of nine-eight-four, I didn’t believe that he had hit the nine and I called with king-eight, so after that hand, the match had swung in his favour and I was left short stacked. Shortly after that I found ace-six and pushed all-in. Dermot called with pocket sevens. For the very first time in the whole tournament I had to get lucky as I got my chips in behind. The flop and turn where dry but the river brought me my “saving ace” and I doubled up to about three million and played quite aggressively for the next few hands. That ace was really the turning point, and I found a new confidence for the rest of the heads-up match. When we eventually got to the final hand I picked up seven-eight of hearts and limped into the pot, fully prepared to call a raise but not wanting to shut myself out of seeing a flop and taking the chance of getting re-raised if I opened the pot with a raise. Dermot checked and the board came four-five-six. Wow! I flopped the nuts, an eight high straight.
Dermot checked so I bet straight into the pot hoping he had some kind of a draw, plus there were 2 diamonds on the fl op so having a flush or straight draw was a definite possibility, and he called. The turn revealed the jack of clubs and Dermot immediately went all in. I called and he turned over queen-seven. So he had the up and down straight draw, and was drawing only to an eight to split the pot. The river was a blank and it was all over!

BLUFF: At that exact moment when you heard him say “All-in” did you immediately think you had him, or were you still concerned that he might have had the better hand?
Ryan: I knew I was ahead; I had the nuts at that point. The only concern was that he could of had a hand that could outdraw me….either 2 diamonds for a flush draw or eight-nine which would give him a gut shot straight draw to a nine-high straight if a seven arrived. When I saw him turn over queen-seven I was relieved to see that he could only split the pot with one of the remaining 3 eights in the deck.

BLUFF: Tell us a bit about the agreement at the final table with respect to the final prizes.
Ryan: I’ll start by saying that there was a lot of money at the final table. In my opinion the prize money breakdown and structure was not right. It was incredibly top heavy. The tournament was only paying the top 20 places, with tenth place only getting $12,500.00. Ninth place was $15,000.00 and first place was $650,000.00 so there was a huge variance. I remember from last year that as soon as I got knocked out in 6th place, the other 5 guys still in the game made a deal. Greg Ronaldson who came 5th last year walked away with $50,000.00 more than I did and there was even more money on the table this year. To the guys that were on this year’s final table, the money was really important, even life changing. There were no players to whom the money wasn’t important and so structuring the prize money differently at this year’s final table was really beneficial to everyone. We all sat down at the end of play on day three and said let’s talk. I told them that I thought the prize money structure was way too top heavy. I said that we should guarantee all the players that were left a really good pay day. They agreed and so we took money off the top end of the prize structure and every player got an additional $50,000.00 added to his placing. So ninth place became $65,000.00 and first place was a still a massive $350,000.00. This meant that the money was split from $65,000.00 for ninth place to eighth place which was $75,000.00, then $85,000.00, $100,000.00, $125,000.00, $150,000.00, $200,000.00, $275,000.00 and then the first place prize of $350,000.00. I thought this was a very fair breakdown and if I was personally responsible for the initial breakdown of the prize money, I would have structured it something like that. When we eventually got down to the final 4, we then made another deal. The reason for this deal was simply academic….it made sense at the time. The biggest stack had 3.1 million chips and the smallest stack had 2.6 million chips and with the blinds at 150,000 and 300,000 there was nothing in it and we wanted to eliminate the luck factor when it came down to the money. We agreed to let fourth place take home R1.6m, third place took home R1.7m, R1.8m for second and R2.2m for the winner. I’m really glad that we setup the prize structure like we did and I believe it worked out great for everyone. I don’t feel hard done by at all, knowing that I won the tournament and didn’t take home the full $650,000. I am not greedy and I am overjoyed at the great prize that I won.

BLUFF: How much did you eventually take home as the first place winner?
Ryan: It worked out to R2, 010 000.00

BLUFF: Now that we’ve chatted a bit about the tournament, tell us a bit about your life before poker.
Ryan: Before poker my life was all golf. I started when I was 14 and by the age of 16 I was a scratch player. I started playing poker in the form of seven card stud hi-low at the golf club every Thursday with some guys that were pretty good at that time and had a regular game. When I finished the Army in 1991, I got a golf scholarship to go to an American University where I studied and played collegiate golf for 5 years and got my degree, a BSC Journalism in 1996. I returned to South Africa and immediately turned pro, pursuing my lifelong dream as a professional golfer. I played the Sunshine tour for 11 years where I made well over one hundred cuts. My best finish was 2nd and my best score on tour was a course record 62 at Royal Johannesburg. Even though I was a good solid tour player for all those years, I never really made a real living from golf. I was always under financial strain. I only started playing Hold-em around 3 to 3 and a half years ago, which was towards the end of my pro golf career. I played a bit online and started on the really small stakes being at 50c R1. When I realised that there was potentially money to be made from it, I started to get into it a bit more. As I do with most things in my life, when I do something I like to do it properly. So I started studying poker and speaking to people that knew the game. I checked online for as much information as I could find and I must have read around 30– 40 books on poker. I took it upon myself to become a very good poker player.

BLUFF: Tell us a bit about your role as one of the commentators on the All Africa Poker channel.
Ryan: Well bearing in mind that I have a degree in Journalism, I was asked by Sandy Koor and Wendy Graaf if I would be interested in helping with the production of the All Africa Poker Tournament. Initially I was just supposed to write the scripts for the program. However, it soon became clear that someone was needed to offline the whole program. So I got involved with that and eventually ended up working for Michael Collet Productions, who I still work for today. That’s what I have been doing for the past 2 years. I was really fortunate as it gave me a way out of Golf. At the end of my golf career I was frustrated and almost broke and I had nowhere to go until this great opportunity gave me the chance to do something I enjoyed, and be involved with poker. The next thing that happened was that I was asked to become a commentator on the channel. An opportunity which I took and have since embraced.

BLUFF: Do you play a lot of poker?
Ryan: The one thing I need to say is that I am not a professional poker player. I think many people confuse me with a full time poker player. I work full time and I have a job. I only play poker when I have free time and I don’t play anywhere near the hours that some of the other guys do. I don’t play enough online to win any loyalty packages to go overseas or anything like that. I play in the mid levels of online poker. I am very conscious of poker bankroll management and I have always played with a small bankroll putting any money I make into the likes of my car and my bond. I don’t want to be seen as a full time poker player because I am not. I love the game and it is definitely a hobby!

BLUFF: With respect to online poker versus live poker, what do you think are the fundamental differences between the two?
Ryan: They are very different. Online poker is so much faster and the information you are given by the other players in the game far less than playing live poker. With online poker there are only a few things you have to work with such as timing tells, betting patterns and player reputations if you keep track of players. Live poker on the other hand has a complete intimidation factor involved and there is a lot of extra pressure when playing long tournaments. On that note, the one thing that I learnt in the Sun City tournament is that you can’t play poker tournaments with the fear of being knocked out. A lot of the guys were simply trying their best to survive and hold onto their chips for as long as possible without making the necessary moves. For once, I wasn’t scared to get busted out, I played my game and it worked.

BLUFF: Do you think that up until your win at Sun City people have been viewing you as more of a commentator than a poker player?
Ryan: I think that’s definitely the case. We have a pretty small poker community in South Africa and I think I had already earned some respect for making last year’s final table at Sun City and also for finishing second at a Poker Ace tournament. In 90% of the tournaments that I do play, I end up in the top 20% of the final field of the tournament. But now I think that finally winning Africa’s biggest poker tournament has solidified my reputation not only as a commentator but also as an accomplished tournament player. The money is great, but in poker it’s definitely about earning respect as a player. Nobody really remembers all the players at a final table, but they do remember who won! So it was great to be able to win a major tournament.

BLUFF: Who do you rate currently as the best players in South Africa?
Ryan: That’s a good question. There are a lot of great players in South Africa at the moment.
You have to look at guys like Darren Kramer who has really had a phenomenal year.
Ryan Brauer had a great year last year, but has battled to carry the momentum through into his tournament play this year. I still rate Ryan as one of the best tournament poker players in the country. Ray Rahme has had a phenomenal run over the past 14 or 15 months. Greg Ronaldson is another great player who hasn’t really had a great 2008, but made a lot of money in 2007. Andre Johnstone is another great player who solidified his reputation by cashing in the main event at the WSOP 2008. I think these guys are some of the best we have here in SA and they are the ones you can always count on to make it to the final table at tournaments. Joe Rahme is another guy to look out for on the tournament scene, he always seems to have chips and also recently won a tournament.

BLUFF: Apart from your recent win at Sun City, can you mention a few other highlights that you have had in your poker career?
Ryan: Obviously cashing in at last year’s Sun City tournament was a huge highlight for me. It gave me the confidence and the financial means I needed to prove to myself that I have what it takes as a tournament player. Cashing in at the 2008 World Series of Poker in the 7-stud-High-Low event, even though it was only 55th place, was a great thrill for me. There were over 600 players in that specific event and to be there playing with Scotty Ngyen and Phil Hellmuth was awesome! One of my biggest highlights, however, was playing in this year’s WSOP Main Event. I can only compare it to what it would feel like to play in the Masters or the British Open as a golfer. I made it to day 3 in the Main Event, outlasting 5500 of the 6800 players in the field. Knowing that I lasted that long even after having aces cracked once and kings cracked twice was a good feeling and definitely a confidence booster for me and my poker future.

BLUFF: South Africa as a poker playing nation is still very new and at times the standard of play does reflect this, what in your opinion can be done to increase the standard of play in SA?
Ryan: I think the standard of play is rapidly improving. Obviously with Ryan Brauer, David Dadic and myself taking it upon ourselves to have the show on the All Africa Poker channel called “Ask the Commentators”, we are allowing people to email questions to us and ask us different strategies. So we are educating the guys watching the channel to play better poker. The viewership on the channel at the moment is incredible and as I understand it up to around 2 million viewers monthly at times. The standard of play is definitely improving all the time though, so the learning ground is definitely here.

BLUFF: What are your feelings on the status of poker in South Africa? What do you feel are the current issues we need to deal with and obviously what do you see as solutions?
Ryan: I think there are a few problems and one of the main ones is that everyone is trying to jump on the bandwagon with respect to poker tournaments. Our market isn’t quite big enough to sustain the boom in poker at the moment. For instance, if you played in every tournament in the last six weeks building up to the Sun City Million Dollar tournament, you would have spent in excess of R150, 000.00 in buy-in fees. How many guys can afford that? With every tournament there is a massive chunk of the money that is not going back into the poker market. The R2m I made at the Sun City Million Dollar tournament is not going back into the poker market. Maybe I am one of the smarter guys that actually put the money into settling things like bonds, cars and other expenses. I think organisers need to make as little as possible with respect to rake and profit from tournaments. Its money that doesn’t go back into the market that is the problem and I think that needs to be looked at a little more carefully. But on a positive note, poker is growing rapidly in South Africa and I think we will see a lot of young new players coming up through the ranks. The All Africa channel and Piggs Peak have definitely made poker in South Africa what it is today and I think they have done a tremendous amount to uplift and promote poker in South Africa.

BLUFF: What are your future plans in Poker?
Ryan: I think a lot of guys suddenly think that I am going to throw myself into the next All Africa tournament. The reality is that I help out quite a bit when it comes to the tournament and I am needed as an assistant more than as a player. I am loyal to my roots and my recent win doesn’t mean I am going to throw myself into as many poker tournaments as I can. I’ll play whatever tournaments I can, whenever I can. I’d like to look at getting a sponsorship to go the Aussie Millions, so I’ll see what I can do about that. I love the game, but it costs a lot of money to play in big tournaments. I plan to continue learning and studying the game and trying to become the best player I can be. I have no plans to now become a professional poker player. I am content with my job and playing poker as an amazing pass time.

BLUFF: Final words of wisdom from Ryan Dreyer?
Ryan: I’ve been known in the poker market as one of the ultimate grinders. Someone that can play a short stack for hours and someone that sticks to his levels to try and grind up a bankroll.
I think there is a lot to be said for that and my advice is, don’t get ahead of yourself. Apply yourself and do whatever you can to make yourself the best player you can be. Read as much as you can. I remember reading Super System 2 and once I was finished I thought I had all the answers (he laughs). For a three week period after I had finished reading the book, I had my worst run in poker ever. The reason for this was that I didn’t quite understand the strategy completely, but the important factor was that I used that time to go through the bad run and learn from it. It’s trial and error and practice and there is no substitute for putting in the hours at a poker table. The last thing I will say is that you need to look after your bankroll. It is your poker life. Always give yourself an out!