Canadian Poker Player Rod Grierson- CA$HE$ in at EPT Monaco

By Louis “King of Roncesvalles” Pisano…

Rod Grierson who is turning 26 July 1^st 2009 is an avid poker player at Pokerstars and who finished 61^st out of a field of 842 at the EPT Grand final in Monte Carlo with a buy-in of 10,000 Euro’s, playing against such pro’s as Annette Oberstad (The youngest player to win a WSOP bracelet 2007), Phil Laak (The Unibomber WPT winner 2004)and others. Obviously the competition was stiff for this young Canadian, but he did finish ahead of some of these pro’s, like Phil Laak.

I talked with Roddy about this experience…

What notable players did you play against during the tourney?

 Day 1 I had Max Pescatori and Nenad Medic at my table.  Day 2 I played with Nenad again, along with Annette Obrestad and Johannes Strassman, who is probably the most intimidating player I have ever played against.

How was it sitting face to face with some of these professionals that you have obviously seen play on TV?

It was pretty cool, but to be honest the toughest players I played against were the online guys that nobody has ever heard of.  These guys are super tough, they are always putting pressure on you, making it so tough to play against them.

How do you change your game from playing on the net to playing live? (Aside from having to shower and not sit in your underwear…jk LOL)

I tried not to change it too much.  My strengths come from hand reading and numbers, whereas a live pro reads players more.  I felt like if I did that I would be second guessing myself too often and would make bad plays.

What drew you initially to playing poker?

It was two things, the 2003 world series of poker where Chris Moneymaker won.  I must have watched that footage 50 times, and the movie Rounders.  Pretty well the extent of my poker knowledge came from that movie.

How did you win your buy-in?

I won my buyin by earning Supernova Elite on Pokerstars.com.  Basically, what this means is that I played on average of 40 hours a week for 2008 and as a reward for this pokerstars.com will buy you into 2 major tournaments along with other great rewards.  Monte Carlo was one of the tournaments I chose.

How long have you been playing poker?

I guess it is going on six years now, wow how time flies.

How much did you win CDN$?

It was roughly $44000, not a bad 3 days of work.

What are your aspirations e.g. get on the EPT WPT?

I am heading to the world series on Sunday, so I guess my immediate aspirations are to succeed there with a few big cashes.  But, on the whole I just want to get better everyday and be respected as a solid player among my peers.

He placed 170^th and more than tripled his money in this event on July 12^th in Las Vegas.

Other hobbies, you used to be a ranked golfer?

As a teenager I played golf at the provincial level, as well as hockey.  Now I enjoy tennis and yoga (it helps me forget about those bad beats lol).  I also love to travel and poker gives me the ability to do just that.

Anything else you want to add?

Just like to thank Lou for the interview and I hope that this is only the beginning of my poker success and there will be even a bigger cash in my future.

Roddy is a great guy and a heck of a poker player and as I wrote this article I was actually playing at Pokerstars myself hoping to follow in the footsteps of some of the players like Rod Greison that have made it on the poker scene from playing on-line, I wouldn’t bet on me, but Roddy sure has a shot at making it big. Good Luck Bro and keep it rollin!