Before Adam Hendrix realized his childhood dream of reaching the WSOP Main Event final table, the player fans call ‘The Iceman’ had been on a real heater, highlighted by a massive win at the 2024 WPT Championship for $629,000.
But this was the Main, and as the players in the Main dwindled and Hendrix’s chip stack grew, it was incredibly hard for the longtime MTT pro to keep his excitement under wraps.
“I was sitting there at one point and was eighth in chips or something ridiculous,” exclaimed Hendrix. “It was pretty surreal. It seemed at every moment, I was freaking out in my head.”
PokerOrg caught up with Hendrix to talk about his journey through the Main to a $1.9 million prize, how he dealt with the chaos of Will Kassouf, and the work he put in to prepare for the final table.
'On to the next one'
You’ve been on quite a run for the last year. Then you finished sixth at the WSOP Main Event for $1,900,000. What have been some of the keys to the growth in your game?
I've always played somewhat the same style. There's nothing inherently different about how I'm playing or approaching the game. I'm always pretty focused at the table, trying to pick up live tells or just some sort of baseline against my opponents, such as how they're playing.
Has your mental approach to the game changed over the last few years?
Lately, I've been trying to put less pressure on myself in every event. I took every loss pretty hard in the past, especially with the WSOP Main Event.
How did you go about that?
This year, I approached it as if it were just another poker tournament. I’ve always put so much weight on the Main because of the media making it a huge deal. But at the end of the day, it’s still just poker.
I’ve learned to live with the day-to-day if I lose a tournament. It’s ‘whatever,’ and on to the next one. But it’s tough to always stay positive, especially with all the swings.
What do you do at the tables to maintain a good mindset and reset if things get bumpy?
At the table, I'm always trying to focus until I feel bored. When that happens, I like checking in with myself. Maybe I’ll stand up and stretch. Instead of checking my phone, I'll stand up, look around the tournament area, and see if I have any friends nearby to chat with.
'I did want to get under Kassouf's skin'
You were at the table with Will Kassouf and were giving it back to him as hard as he was dishing it out. Can you share more about that experience?
When you're playing with somebody like that, you're already sort of on edge too. But it was interesting for me because the more he talks, the more he gives away about what he’s holding.
As for his speech play, I think it only works against very few players, especially at that stage of the tournament.
What does work is his tactics to get under people's skin more than his speech play, right?
What were your intentions when you began to engage with him?
It’s a stressful situation in that tournament for everyone. For me, it didn't bother me too much, but I did want to get under Kassouf’s skin a little bit.
I could tell he was really stressed and was sweating a few times when he came back from his penalties. If he's going to play that way, I’ll match him mentally. His antics didn’t really bother me.
It had to be distracting to most of the table?
Well, it's just more annoying. Every hand when it's on Kassouf, it's 15 seconds. What people don't realize is he's sitting there for 15 to 20 seconds before he even looks at his cards, and he's chirping about something irrelevant or the same thing he always says.
To what end do you think the media is complicit?
Unfortunately, in poker, it’s the controversies that tend to shine through and receive more attention. Poker is mainly talked about on a national news level when there's some sort of cheating scandal or bad news.
It's never about a good accomplishment somebody made, because the public doesn't resonate with that as much. They don't know what it means for a guy like Mizrachi to win the Poker Player Championship and the Main, right?
Could the WSOP have handled it better or differently from your perspective?
I believe that these companies need to be a little clearer with certain players from the start. On one hand, they're losing rake by kicking players out. But we have a lot of scammers in poker, and it'd be nice to get rid of them.
It affects many of the recreational players who come in and participate in these events for fun. But the operators are losing their bottom line, which, obviously, they don't want to do. Bottom line, I wish the operators were clearer.
What do you suggest?
I would do it as soon as a player registers on the WSOP+ app. There should be a flag for specific players that instantly goes up to them to say, ‘Hey, we're watching you. Let's be careful.’
That would put these types of players on a short leash for the rest of the tournament if they stall early on and are receiving penalties.
'It's been one of my childhood dreams'
Let’s shift gears. What was your game plan going into the final table of the Main?
The day before, I studied with friends, and we reviewed some tape, bouncing ideas off how the other players would interact.
I could see that Mizrachi was opening super wide. Wasnock was a bit random at times, and a few of the other guys would three-bet a little randomly instead of just calling.
I planned to play pretty tight and solidly. But if there's a situation where, especially with Mizrachi, if he opened the cutoff and I'm the big blind or small blind, I'm going to play way more aggressively than what I should do in theory. That didn’t really end up happening, as I never really had a spot like that come up.
How much fun did you have along the way to the final table?
Once I cashed, I kept pinching myself every time I saw the event clock showing how many players were left. I was like, ‘Wow, there are only 1300 people left in the main. That's pretty awesome. Then 800, and 230. What's going on?’
I took this main so seriously, always have. But once we actually went from ten to nine, I was pretty relieved and just very, very happy. I did it. I couldn’t believe it.
A dream comes true. What a journey. Congratulations.
Yes. I grew up watching the final table on ESPN, so you feel like you're a little bit part of history, which was nice. I was super emotional. It's been one of my childhood dreams since I watched ESPN as a kid in Alaska.
Follow Adam on X @AdamHendrix10 and IG @icemanhendrix.
