Veteran Player Rob Sherwood Talks All Things Poker
In December 2024, a British poker player, Rob Sherwood, rose from relative obscurity to reach the final table of the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. He proceeded to finish runner-up, collecting a cool $2.2 million.
$2.2 million man, Rob Sherwood, will return to the USA for a “Vegas summer”. © WPT/Flickr
Sherwood’s enormous cash windfall underlined the saying: “Good things come to those that wait.” Over 14 years had passed since the popular player landed a six-figure score, and his biggest scoop in the interim was $35,000 collected for his 488th finish in the 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event.
Unassuming Sherwood, an annoyingly youthful-looking 46, has been a regular feature at poker festivals in the UK, Ireland and the USA for the past two decades. Very few can boast this longevity in the notoriously precarious world of live and online poker.
Loss Assessor Turned Money Maker
Online-casinos.com’s Roy Brindley recently sat down with the riding-high Manchester native to review his outstanding Las Vegas success, his 20-year poker journey and to ask what is next for the new ‘poker millionaire’.
How long have you been playing poker Rob? What got you interested/started?
“I’ve been playing since 2002, and the old Late Night Poker [groundbreaking Channel 4 TV show] sparked my interest.”
So, how long has poker been your sole source of income – thereby making you ‘professional’?
“Since March 2005. Before, I earned a maths degree and then worked in financial services as a loss assessor, analysing mis-sold pensions. Fascinating stuff, obviously!”
Where do you live? And has your partner claimed half the big win yet?
“I’ve lived in Birmingham for the last 12 years, although I’m not there much at all. I’m originally from Manchester. I prefer travelling nowadays and being independent, so no ties.”
You played online poker and won satellites into events before recent success, right?
“Since the Covid era, I’ve reduced online volume and played live more. I still play some Sundays and satellites into decent live stuff.”
$2 Million Locked up in the Blink of an Eye
Let’s talk about the biggie. What was your path to the WPT World Poker Championships? At $10,000 entry, it was not a cheap event.
“I went to Vegas for three weeks to play the Wynn Festival and maybe some of the Venetian and Aria tournaments, too. I had already committed to playing the Championship, but then I won a live satellite the evening before.”
“I had already sold some action to a couple of friends and was going to play anyway. I really think of satellites as winning the cash equivalent rather than the ticket. There were no online satellites for this event for UK players – we can’t play on the WPT Global online poker site.”
How did the final table unfold for you? Can you give us a glimpse into how it played out?
“With nine players remaining, I won a big flip with 88 verses Queen-10 suited. If I lost that, I would have been out in ninth collecting for $310k. The TV table was the final six players; I was in fifth position and folded the first five hands. In that time, two players busted. So, obviously, I took huge jumps up the prizemoney ladder.”
“Then, on the sixth hand, I doubled up through Chris Moorman with QQ v 66. On the tenth hand, Moorman busted unluckily. We were down to three players in the blink of an eye. It all happened so fast; it was hard to process, I guess.”
“The TV crew were all panicking, thinking they wouldn’t have enough hands or footage for a show. I think they were planning to make four episodes from this final table. Then, after 21 hands, the stacks had become a little closer, 86 million, 83 million, and 70 for me. We agreed to flatten the payouts at this point, locking up $2 million for third place.”
“We played three-handed for 30 hands and then went into the heads-up stage, which I began two-one-down in chips. We played over 100 hands heads-up, and the stacks went back and forth. Ultimately, I was disappointed not to win and get the trophy and title – after having a six-to-one chip lead at some point – but still, I can’t complain!”
Poker Focus and Love of the Game
$2.2 million. Can we ask what you have done or plan to do with all/some of your winnings? Cars, house, special treats?
“I did sell some action, so I’ve not got as much money as some might think. At the moment, I haven’t done much with it. I don’t want to be in the UK much at all, so no plans to buy a house or a new car.”
“For now, it just guarantees more freedom to travel, and I will stay in slightly nicer hotels than I might have done before. Maybe I’ll reassess what I want to do with it after the ‘Vegas summer’, but for now, I’m pretty much focused on playing more.”
A huge congratulations to Grosvenor Poker regular Rob Sherwood who finished 2nd in the WPT World Championship at The Wynn.
Rob satellited in for $1,000 and turned that into a massive $2,200,000!
Well played!
Also, congrats to Chris Moorman finished 4th for $1,150,000. pic.twitter.com/gX5pKNNi9x
— Grosvenor Poker (@GrosvenorPoker) December 22, 2024
So, let’s look back. You have results going back 20 years ago now. A lot of players have come and gone since 2005. How come your passion for the game remains intact?
“Good question. I’ve had periods where I have played a lot less and then came back to it. I think, with the emergence of solvers, it is easy to stay ahead of the field, and you can always try to improve further.”
“I am playing less and less online. I don’t enjoy it as much as I used to, and maybe age is catching up with me. I still really enjoy playing live, though. And do I want to go back to sitting in an office looking at pension plans? Of course not!”
What does the future look like now? More poker, less poker? Big plans for the 2025 World Series of Poker?
“If you had asked me before December how the future would look for me if I won a million-plus, I would have said ‘less poker’. But I’m still hungry and really enjoying playing, so I’m not slowing down just yet. I’m not sure, but maybe finishing second [in the WPT World Championship] and not winning has made me hungrier.”
“I’m flying out to Vegas at the end of May, and I plan to play slightly higher average buy-in competitions. I’ll play at all the venues: WSOP, Wynn, Aria, Venetian, and even the Golden Nugget, whilst avoiding the WSOP events that they make play 10-handed. I absolutely cannot stand playing 10-handed.”
Where is the best place to play poker? And what’s your least favourite country or venue?
“The best place to play is the USA, without question. Poker is more mainstream there, and there is so much recreational money in the big tournaments. It’s also super fun. My least favourite is the UK as there is a higher concentration of decent players, and most of the casinos are located in places I have no interest in spending any time.”
Big Blind Antes and Shot Clocks Are Welcome
Poker has not changed, but events and how they are run have changed immeasurably during the past two decades. Was it better in the old days? What are the best innovations?
“When I started playing, the casinos were super smoky, and most of the players would smoke between hands on the edge of the cardroom. I don’t miss that, but I do miss the characters that came with it.”
“There was no late reg. Whoever made the rules made that illegal. If you weren’t sat down for the first hand, you could not enter. And there was no re-entry. That felt like a much purer competition than the unlimited re-entry and long late reg we have today.”
“The ‘big blind ante’ was the best innovation I have seen. Many players pushed back against it when it was first introduced, but now nobody would go back to every player anteing every hand.”
“Now we have ‘shot clocks’ and ‘time banks’, which I think is a huge improvement, and I think every tournament should incorporate them from the start of play.”
“I recently watched an EPT livestream and was shocked to see there were no shot clocks even on day 2. The pace of play was unbearably slow. It is a no-brainer to have these in every event. In fact, this summer, I will play more at venues that use shot clocks.”
You have taken trips to Cambodia and Taiwan since last December’s ‘touch’. Is part of the appeal of poker the opportunity it gives you to see the world?
“Yes, definitely, poker tournaments are a good excuse to spend time in different parts of the world. I played in Cambodia and Taiwan last year, too. There are still a lot of countries I want to visit and play poker in, such as Japan, South Korea and Brazil.”
Online-casinos.com would like to thank Rob Sherwood for his time, and it wishes him the best with his ‘Vegas Summer’ and future endeavours.
