Remko Rinkema, Director of Digital Content and Brand Partnerships at PokerGO, has made a triumphant return to the poker podcasting arena. Rinkema's newest auditory endeavor, Face the Ace, promises to deliver listeners in-depth interviews with "the most interesting people in poker."
And to launch the podcast, he tapped Jeremy Becker, one of poker's rising stars, for an hour-long chat – check it out above.
Throughout the conversation, the two cover all manner of topics. From Becker's well-known aversion to solvers to gambling big on bowling matches against the PokerGO Tour regulars, there's not a single dull moment in this one. As a host, Rinkema excels in the long-form medium – allowing his guest to do the majority of the talking while occasionally redirecting the conversation with thoughtful and pertinent questions.
'I didn't believe it'
Becker's poker story is a unique one – and his insights into what it takes to grind from the low stakes to the upper echelons of tournament poker are worth hearing for any up-and-coming players.
In perhaps the most interesting segment of the conversation, Becker shares details on how he ended up in a staking deal with one of poker's biggest names, Daniel Negreanu. As he recalls, it was a surreal moment.
"I didn't believe it. I was playing basketball – I'd only been in Vegas like a month or two before he contacted me," he told Rinkema. "I remember, I finished playing and I looked at my phone and I had all these messages from multiple people being like, 'Did you see Daniel's tweet?'"
"I thought someone was running some sort of bit on me."
It wasn't a bit. Negreanu was impressed with Becker's string of results in low buy-in daily tournaments around Las Vegas – and he wanted to back him at the World Series of Poker.
"He offered me a stake for the WSOP, which was a month or two later. We talked before then and got comfortable with each other, I think," he continued. "And, yeah, the rest is history. It's really worked out."
Rinkema goes on to ask Becker how he thinks his poker journey will evolve in the coming years – and his answer is an unsurprising one: he wants to play bigger.
"In 20 or 30 years, I would like to be talked about as one of the best poker players there was," he said. "I think to do that I just need to play bigger and bigger."
"Obviously, I would like to get rich rich from poker – that would be great."
