Rayan "Beriuzy" Chamas is one of poker's most prolific online crushers and his Twitch stream has earned him a following around the world, but that has not slowed his pursuit of glory in live poker.
Chamas will sit down on Wednesday for the final table of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Montreal Main Event — his second shot in as many years at stamping his ticket to the WPT Champions Club. Redemption is on his mind, but that's not the story. Another second place win won't make Chamas enjoy poker any less.
Tournament poker is painful, but an early streak of bad luck and inexperience in Las Vegas has seasoned Chamas against the idea of curses, and live poker will always fuel his passion for the game.
You can trace that passion back to the beginning, or the official beginning for most players when asked — the age at which they are legally permitted to play poker online.
Sundays are sacred
"I was playing one or twice a week. I always had a job or school. I just loved the game and Sundays for me were always about poker. When I had a job I said I can't work Sundays. Forget about it."
Sundays are still special for Chamas, and that familiar weekend feeling is set to pay off big for him — along with his fellow final tablist and friend Tamer Alkamli. The urge to play poker on Sundays is no new development for anyone in his life.
"When I was in my relationship I told my girlfriend at the time (now wife) that Sundays were sacred. I even remember a few times I decided to take a Sunday off and go with my wife to a park and it blew my mind what people did on Sundays. Like 'whoa they have a picnic!'"
Breaking a Vegas 'curse'
Chamas chased his passion for poker early and soon he was off to Las Vegas to test his skills against the best in the world at the WSOP.
His first big test was the Main Event — just days after his 21st birthday.
“I was semi-serious about poker at the time because I was still in school, but I really wanted to give it my best shot. My birthday was June 30th and the Main Event was a few days later. I believe that year I was the youngest to play the Main and they made a mini interview about it."
The official 2013 WSOP Main Event recap lists Chamas as its youngest competitor at 21 years and 8 days old. He played Day 1C on June 8th and busted without much fanfare. Chamas left town with just one cash in a Daily Deepstack for a little over $400.
"My dreams were just destroyed when someone did something crazy. And I went on a long streak of never cashing anything in Vegas."
Rayan Chamas went nearly five years without a cash in Las Vegas. It wasn't until late June of 2018 when he finished 23rd in a $3,000 no-limit event for his first WSOP cash in four years, 11 months, and 23 days since that Daily Deepstack in the week following his 21st birthday.
"I believe it was 98 events I played with zero cashes over a stretch of four years. It was a really crazy mind block."
Chamas says there was a lot of bad luck, but also a lot of inexperience.
"I played really bad sometimes. I’d get close to the money with a big stack and it was that 'fear of the curse being real' thing."
When the curse finally broke, Chamas was spending the summer in a house with eight other players — mostly from Lithuania and Latvia. "We celebrated that cash as if I won the Main Event. It was funny — they got me a cake."
Hometown hero
Getting his WPT win out of the way will be no small task, but Chamas is in his hometown, and he's at Playground Poker Club — where he picked up his first big score in the 2014 Canada Cup. You can still find the entire nine-plus hour stream on YouTube, and it's a lasting memory for Chamas.
"I've randomly revisited it a few times to see how punty I was back then. I learned a lot from it. I was chip leader on that final table and just completely imploded. I gave it all away multiple times and I finished fifth."
Chamas will have to overcome Dongwoo Ko and his Final Boss chip lead to pick up his first WPT title. Turning his sights to the final table, Chamas is motivated to win a WPT title after he finished second at Seminole in November.
"When it comes to these final tables, I'd love to win. I'd like to win a trophy. I've had many opportunities. I got second twice and that was difficult. I'm very motivated."
The motivation will help, but Dongwoo Ko has a lot of chips, and he's held the lead since he bagged up at the end of Day 1A.
"It's a very tough opponent. (Ko) is extremely aggressive but I like how he’s playing. You encounter a lot of opponents like this. At my previous final table, I encountered Istvan Briski, who was playing a very similar style."
Briski maintained his chip lead to add his name to the Champions Cup in November, while Chamas came up short. He made a few mistakes near the end, but that's part of playing against an aggressive and powerful opponent.
"A lot of the adjustments are intuitive. You can't plan much for them. Sometimes you're wrong but that's why the game is so much fun. If there was an easy answer we wouldn't be having this interview and we wouldn't have more players playing this game."
Photos courtesy of World Poker Tour/Enrique Malfavon and Miguel Cortes
