Ever imagined locking eyes with Young-hee, the murderous oversized doll from Squid Game?
Steven Jones did – and lived to tell the tale. Well… sort of.
Netflix chose the 2023 WSOP Main Event runner-up from a staggering pool of more than 800,000 applicants to compete on Squid Game: The Challenge - Season 2.
Who knew that poker instincts — reading people, staying calm, and never blinking first under pressure — would be the perfect skillset for staring down a psycho doll in the Red Light, Green Light showdown for a winner-take-all $4,560,000?
Turns out, Jones and Netflix did.
“I told the Netflix people all about my poker background and winnings,” says Jones. “Then I submitted a video on why I thought I would win the game. I pretty much said, ’This is basically a big poker tournament. This is what I do. I'm going to win.’ I think that helped me to be one of 456 challengers.”
PokerOrg tracked down Jones at his home in Arizona after the final episode aired last Tuesday evening to get the lowdown on his mostly ‘harrowing’ and sometimes ‘fun’ experience, finishing 3rd out of 456 runners.
When did you tape the show?
It was at the end of last January and the beginning of February in London. We were there for close to three weeks.
You weren’t featured much in the early stages of the TV show. Was that a deliberate effort on your part to stay under the radar or just part of the show’s editing?
Both. My closest ally was player #402/Kevin, and we both chose not to volunteer for anything. We wanted to stay in the background. We toned down our personalities a bit until it got deeper into the tournament of the show.
What happened once you arrived in London to film?
They put us in hotels and took our phones and laptops. We had no access to technology. They had hall monitors to make sure we didn't leave our rooms. They were de-stimulating us before we went into the show. That way, we're used to it and don't go crazy.
What was your tactic going to be if it got out that you had won $6,000,000 playing poker?
I was being pretty strategic about it. I didn't tell people for the longest time. I didn't even tell people I played poker for the first few episodes.
I did tell Kevin, who was my main man. I even told him the dollar figure just because it was cool to connect with him. I knew he wasn't going to tell anybody, and he was super happy for me.
It seemed like you waited till the final few episodes to share more fully about your poker success.
Yes. I didn't want to tell everyone until we got down to lower numbers – then it wouldn't matter anymore. I did tell some people that I was a poker player, but no one really asked how much I had won.
Eventually, people knew the dollar amount. I wanted to be real and just be authentic, but I probably should have kept it to myself. That info kind of made people go a little crazy and made them feel like I was undeserving. That was honestly probably my only regret.
In the end, I don't think it jeopardized my playing because I made it to the finals.
You set yourself up as a target in the Slides & Ladders game. Was this just an emotional response to your friend being eliminated, or was it a deliberate tactic?
My mindset was changed entirely, and I was just coming for revenge. I was ticked off because that was my homie. I was going to try to land on one of the card spaces. I landed on it. And from the card I got, I could get revenge.
Player #72 was pretty upset the whole time. She was crying about a lot of things and was just an emotional person, which is okay.
I was coming into the game with a free mind. I think I had the least amount of pressure in my mindset, which made it look like I didn't care that much. I think it was an easy way for them to edit me in as a villain. It was a stretch, but it was an easy one, I guess.
What was it really like being on the show? Was it as tough as other people have made out, or a lot of fun?
It's as tough as people made it out to be. I would say 5% to 10% fun, and the rest was just tough grit. It was mental warfare.
You wake up and you're just with these same people every day. You've got to make friends. We're eating porridge for breakfast every single day. The meals were just okay. There were no snacks till the end of the challenges.
Guess what? You got no caffeine. If you smoke cigarettes, good luck. You're just getting used to this de-stimulated state. It wasn't that fun.
Did you think you had an advantage at the beginning of the Red Light, Green Light finale game?
Honestly, before we started, I thought I had the biggest disadvantage because I have ADHD. I've never played this game as a kid in my entire life. I can barely sit still for two minutes, and they had us frozen for 10 minutes at a time while the cameras were on our faces.
That’s very, very difficult.
I know. I just can't stand still. I should have practiced in comfortable positions. But you could also get caught in a bit of an awkward position when wearing those dress shoes. That's ultimately what happened to me.
It looked like you fell down. What happened?
I just can't stand still. I was in the same position a couple of times, and my right foot was going completely numb. It started shaking. I was thinking to myself, ‘God, on the next one, I have to get down.’
So, at the end, I just fell to my knees. I did that on purpose – I just went too late. On my next run I was just going to crawl and finish it. It looked like a fall, but it was actually intentional.
Did the final four players ever talk about doing a deal?
We never discussed a deal or anything like that. I don't think everyone was friendly enough or trusted each other enough to do a chop. Obviously, the producers wouldn't let us do anything like that, and we were mic’d up 24/7. It was just really tough to orchestrate something like that.
Did being a tournament poker player help you deal with getting so close to a monster score, or was the fact that it's winner-takes-all make it more brutal?
It was very brutal at the moment. That was probably the most depleted I've ever felt in a singular moment, being that close and just letting it slip away.
But because I'm a tournament poker player, it enabled me to get it over quickly. I just got past it quickly because I'm always in these positions to win large sums of money.
I feel like in life, if you keep putting yourself in these positions, you're doing the right thing. Maybe that wasn't meant for me. Perhaps something else is meant for me out of this. I think I'll be in more positions in life to keep having these big scores or big opportunities. That kind of helped keep my mind at ease about it and just brought me peace about the final results.
What was tougher, the WSOP Main Event final table or the Squid Game finale?
The Squid Challenge finale. Mainly because I feel like the Main Event final table went well for me personally.
It's really hard to compare the two, because at the Main Event final table, everyone gets money. The pressure is still on, but you're guaranteed a million dollars at that main event final table.
I was way more nervous in the finale of Squid Game than I was in the Main Event because it was first place or nothing. I'm not used to that in poker tournaments. At least you get a consolation prize, second, third, fourth, etc., when you make the money. So yeah, I would say the Squid Game finale was a lot tougher.
