With the Main Event of the Asian Poker Tour Championship taking place right now, we take a look at some of the many routes people have taken to make it out to Taiwan.
As we’ve previously mentioned, Kevin ‘Kevmath’ Mathers is in Taipei providing players with the answers to their many questions, from prizepools to payouts and timetables to tournament updates.
But how did he end up bringing his talents for digging out the facts and figures to the APT? And how did he even get started doing what he does?
We asked Kevmath to fill us in.
My ‘day job’ was originally in customer service, working in call centers and stuff. One thing that taught me was patience, and I feel like providing good customer service is what I did and what I continue to do.
I have officially been in the poker industry 15 years now. I was doing a lot of stuff on 2+2 in the early 2000s, posting and then eventually becoming a moderator, and then Twitter came about. Around 2010 I decided to be a public person in poker media.
For a couple years before then I was writing for a website where I would do these recaps, called ‘Way Outside the WSOP,’ because I was basically like the guy on the outside, just seeing what was going on in Vegas and writing about that. I also worked for BLUFF magazine — I did two separate stints there — and then PocketFives and PokerAtlas, and the WSOP.
People would come to me, asking questions about WSOP-related stuff, so eventually I contacted Seth Palansky of the WSOP in early 2016 and basically asked them if they wanted to hire me for the summer.
The WSOP
People appreciated that I’m going to give them information and not just give hot takes or go after people, and I figured it'd be my way to actually go to Vegas for the summer. And they were all for it. So I’ve done that gig for the last 9 years now; it seems like it's gone pretty well.
All I'm doing is just providing information and answering questions. That's stuff I'm really good at. Some people on Twitter are really good at stirring the pot — that’s not really something I’m comfortable doing.
This year was a little different because I was doing a lot of stuff on the WSOP+ app. GGPoker hired a team to do a lot of the social media stuff; I was providing information, and they were doing interviews, videos, and all sorts of other stuff.
That's stuff that's not really my specialty. So, in a sense, I was replaced by several other people — not exactly, because they were doing something different for this year — but in a sense I feel I was replaced by eight people, which in a way is kind of flattering.
The Hendon Mob
I also work for The Hendon Mob. Back in 2021 I was in Vegas working the WSOP, and Eric Danis contacted me asking if I wanted to work for The Hendon Mob. I said sure, because I love The Hendon Mob – it’s a great resource.
We get criticized sometimes for only showing the wins and not showing any losses. But it all comes down to what we’re provided.
If we had complete player lists for every event, then sure, we’d be able to show more complete records and how people are actually doing overall, but that’s not feasible.
And we’d also have to have every player list, not just some, because that would skew the results, and there are events taking place all over the world, all the time. It’s impossible.
Flaghunting in Taiwan
This week in Taiwan has definitely been a great experience. They've treated me very well. You see all these tables full of poker and all sorts of different events, not just no-limit hold’em. When you get 100 tables running, it's pretty cool to see.
Coming to Asia was one of those bucket list things. I remember back in 2010 I was invited to Macau, when all those big cash games started. I hadn't done a lot of traveling, I didn't have a passport or anything like that, and I didn't go.
I've been to Australia a couple of times. I would like to visit Europe more often or maybe even go to South America. Brazil has always been a big, growing market for poker, and just to see that in person would be pretty cool.
One of my goals here is to cash in something so I can get my Hendon Mob flag. People are going all over the world trying to collect flags, and we had someone like Dominick French last year, collecting over 40, and then we have Koen Roos actually beating that record. We thought it was a record that could never be beaten, and then it was beaten the next year. It's cool to see people doing that.
Flaghunting is like collecting baseball cards or stickers – you're trying to get the complete set. It would be nice if more Americans would get on that list. A lot of Americans don't really travel for poker.
As for me, I have an Australian flag, I have a Malta flag, a Bahamas flag, and a Czechia flag from WSOP Europe. I would like to get one from Ireland and the UK, maybe play at Dusk Til Dawn. I feel like the Goliath would be one of those events I would like to play because it's just so huge. It's a small buy-in and a five-figure field, just dealing with the chaos of all that… it’s on my poker bucket list.
Here in Taiwan I played the industry event to start, and I played a couple of the ‘hyperturbo homegames.’ The first one I played, I played one hand.
It was 3/2/1, which is basically 3 flops, 2 turns and 1 river. First hand I get A-J, I open, flop a straight. Bet all my chips by the river, and the guy had a full house.
That was it. One hand. I walked back to my room.
The Asian Poker Tour Championship runs through to November 30 at Red Space in Taipei, Taiwan. Stick with PokerOrg for more, direct from the tournament floor.
