Poker Talk – Scrimitzu

2017 is behind us. So much has happened in such a short space of time, from our official opening to the UK launch in October. We have been hard at work! As content creators we strive to provide the most fun and entertaining poker content out there.

This blog is the first in a new series called PokerTalk, where we’ll be chatting with the some of the most interesting streamers and poker people out there.

For this inaugural interview, we asked our Twitch partner Scrimitzu to tell us all about himself; the man behind the legend, if you will. You can catch Scrim on Twitch streaming live poker, singing and dancing his way to the final tables and much more! Be sure to check out Scrim streaming at GGPoker throughout the week – you won’t regret it.

Without further ado, let me introduce our amazing Twitch partner Scrimitzu. Scrim is a renaissance man with a penchant for poker, photography and everything in between.

The interview:

1. How long have you been playing poker and how did your poker journey begin?

I’ve been playing poker for almost 9 years now. Boy, it’s been a wild ride. My poker journey began when I was in my college dorm room. I was very depressed because my basketball career just ended with an injury and I stumbled across a site that was offering free bankrolls if you presented your ID and passed a test.

I landed the whole bankroll at one table and tripled it. The following morning, I joined a higher buy-in table with my full bankroll again, thinking I could make a lot of money. I ended up losing it all.

The thing was, I was really unlucky losing with K9 to AK on QJT rainbow, so understanding that, I figured that couldn’t be that terrible of a move and I couldn’t be all that bad at poker.

 

2. What are your goals for 2018 for poker and streaming?

For poker, the goal is to grind more and keep improving my game to the maximum level that I’m capable of.

Grinding on GGPoker has been great for me and I want to keep going to reach the highest levels and beat the best of the best. For tournaments, $100k in online winnings seems like a good target to aim for.

On the Twitch side, I want to embrace technological advancements in streaming even further to make everyone giggle with dank memes and good vibes. I want to interact with my viewers more and build a strong community – the sky is the limit.

I am also going to cut back on my coaching hours to focus more on Twitch. 500 students later, I feel like I’m doing the same thing over and over and I believe that making a coaching ‘lab’ or ‘program’ would save a lot of time. So after writing my two books (more on that below!) , I’m actually thinking of making a video platform.

 

3. If the ‘Scrimitzu’ was a cocktail, what would it contain?

I think a little bit of everything but that would make it a crazy cocktail, so I’ll say:

– Jagermeister

– Orange and lime juice

– white rum and mint leaves on top

– maraschino cherry on the side

Like James Bond, I have my own recipes.

 

4. There’s a streamer out there for everyone, whether you prefer a quieter, more contemplative player or someone cracking jokes, what can people expect to see on your stream?

Personally, I like a streamer who can crack some jokes and make you chuckle at least, but also the professional aspect of games is very attractive for me as a viewer.

I believe the level of energy also plays a very important part. But who am I kidding, most of my Twitch time is watching someone use software to make him look like a dog and then throwing dank memes on screen! It’s so fun!

On my streams, you can expect to experience the weirdest dream you’ve ever had, with tons of variety. Depending on how my mood swings – sometimes I’m crazy and I do a lot of dancing and crazy meme-ing (is that a verb? It is now), and sometimes I myself am the contemplative guy and you can learn a massive amount of poker from my streams. There will be a lot of new stuff and some major announcements and challenges for 2018, including personal goals like weight loss and living healthier.

 

5. Everyone loves a winner but satisfy our sadistic urges – what’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in a game while streaming?

I actually do this once in awhile – instead of pressing the Fold button, I hit Call or Raise… but then I magically hit two pair on every flop with hands like 69o and win the pot. It’s ridiculous. I need to stop getting lucky when I make mistakes.

Other than that, I pay too much attention to chat and occasionally fold AA/AK when timing out from the tables. I think that’s the biggest mistake I make.

 

6. When you’re not ‘crushing the micros’, what do you do in your spare time? Tell us about yourself!

I have a website that I tend to, www.crushthemicros.com, and my YouTube channel CrushTheMicros. I work on my stream a lot to keep it tidy and running well and add new stuff. My fiance and I also do a lot of photography. Check out some of our work here – www.facebook.com/tags8/

When I’m not out with models shooting, I read up and trade cryptocurrency. I also game a lot,and am a former Quake Live World Top 100. I mainly play CS GO, Battlegrounds and Quake Champions nowadays. FPS aficionado here.

I also have a new book in the making, but unlike my other two, this one is comedy literature – it’s called NeoDracula and it’s about a mad scientist who wanted to create the elixir of eternal youth, succeeded only partially, and had to drink other lifeform’s blood to not feel completely terrible. People misunderstand him and banish him back to his castle. He feels pressured to end his days and partially succeeds with a reversal potion. He eventually wakes up in our time. His first words are “Oh God, I need to take a shower!”

 

7. I know you’re interested in photography and have expressed interest in posting some snaps to your Instagram. What’s your camera setup like and what type of photos interest you?

I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark II and my girlfriend shoots with the new Canon 80D. We both interuse respectively Canon 50mm f1.4, 85mm f1.8, 50mm f1.8(The Nifty Fifty), a super wide 10-18mm that can capture the whole world it seems, and a Sigma 30mm f1.4. I also have two gems in my collection that are hard to use because manual focus but recently I got them completely down: an 85mm f2 Jupiter and my prized Carl Zeiss 50mm f1.8 Pentacolar. I shoot the most absurd, creamy bokeh with that lens!

I’m interested in capturing a person’s soul, gazing into their eyes as close as possible with the camera and capturing their state of being in that precise moment. I’m also very interested in travel photography, this is a project for the future.

 

8. I recently watched your stream of Layers of Fear for Halloween, any plans for more game streaming on the Twitch channel? Do you think there will be a lot of crossover between the two mediums in future?

I believe there will be a lot more room for games, I recently also got a 1080TI and that should help massively with gaming performance while streaming. You should see what this beast of a graphics card can do! I’m planning on streaming a lot of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, CS GO, H1Z1 and, of course, Quake Champions. There will also be some horror games and some novelty games like Getting Over It or CupHead, but I’m waiting for some interesting prospects.

 

9. With a couple of big gamers here at GGPoker, I’d never be forgiven if I didn’t ask; what’s your favourite computer game of all time?

This is almost impossible for me to answer, but I have to choose Prince of Persia. The first one, made by Jordan Mechner was, and will be, my favorite PC game of all time. Why? It’s really simple, it was my first game ever and I managed to finish it when I was 3 years old. I still can remember that game by heart and it will always retain a special place.

If we were to be unbiased, I do believe that everything that ID Software made has been a massive technological advancement and I still remember playing DOOM and Wolfenstein 3D and Quake on my old Pentium Pro 200MHZ and 4MB ATI Graphics Card. Those were the days. I also consider everything John Carmack did was a massive technological advancement and we all owe him our souls nowadays for all the ‘pretty’ games that come out and would have not been possible without his ideas back in the day.

 

10. People who read the GGPoker blog regularly might have read that you’re a big anime fan and have even included a top ten anime list. Have you any recommendations for new shows from 2017 that casual fans might have missed out on?

Of course! I believe Kakegurui is one of the best animes of the year so far, and it’s about gambling! An educational institution that has a tradition for gambling during breaks. You do NOT want to miss this one. Hilarity ensues (interviewer’s note to self; enroll at poker academy).

Also, if you’re a long time fan of the Berserk series, they had their first Arc and then started to roll out Berserk (2016) which I thought was a semi-disaster, but this year they have totally redeemed themselves with Berserk (2017). I consider this one to be even better than the original and it continues the story in an amazing way.

 

11. What’s your favourite movie?

Fight Club and it’s not even close. Although The Matrix, Ocean’s Eleven, Rocky and Scent of a Woman aren’t far behind on my list.

With regard to TV series I loved Mr. Robot, Supernatural, House MD and The Walking Dead. All of these I watched while meticulously grinding.

 

12. I’ve read about poker books you’ve written and heard rave reviews from any players who’ve experienced your coaching – any plans for more?

At the moment I feel that with Master 6-Max I’ve exhausted the 6-max cash knowledgebase and it’s truly the best book out there on the matter, but in the future I do feel like I will write more poker oriented content, but I think it will be free in the articles section on CrushTheMicros.com. I really want to expand that project.

You can get a free sample of each one of my books in the http://Crushthemicros.com/shop/

 

13. What’s your rig like?

Sick if I’m honest. I got it on loaned money in 2015 because I was just a micro grinder but I really wanted to start streaming. I had a huge upswing right afterwards and paid the loan back in one month. I was just grinding NL10 back then. Making around 100 buyins+ per month. I was living off that for a long long time!

It is truly a beast of a machine, but I also cared about casing, enough air flow, and the peripherals. I think they are most important because through them you interact with your PC. Chroma Mechanical keyboard, 3 mice that I switch between, a 32 inch curved monitor and a 120hz gaming 27 inch, both Samsung. My trademark is a hanging iPad above one of the monitors which I connected to the PC and use as a 3rd monitor, for you, Twitch Chat. Also, I will never run out of space with 14TB of sheer emptiness. My PC is like an endless black hole.

 

14. Who’s your favourite poker player?

David ‘Raptor’ Benefield. He was the man before Tom Dwan and Isildur1 came along. Ran $450 up to $20k in a public challenge and then continued making millions in the online scene. After that he detached from online poker, retired, got a beach house, started learning mandarin and practicing Yoga and Martial Arts.

Fact: By the age of 20, he shared a half-million-dollar house in Fort Worth with fellow online high-stakes cash game specialist Tom Dwan.

Double fact: He Final Tabled the Main Event after he retired!

 

15. Aaaand finally…  If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

To read other minds, of course. Would make my work a hell of a lot easier!

 

Check out Scrimitzu on Twitch and join the party – you won’t regret it!

You can also catch him on Youtube with coaching videos and videos of past livestreams. You can also catch him across various social media sites: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.