Level 5 (200/400/400)
Total Entrants: 92
The first scheduled break has just wrapped up and we took the opportunity to speak with Bob Roberts (pictured). Roberts has come to every RGPS stop so far this fall, and just cashed his first RGPS event by finishing 8th in the Deepstack on Thursday for $1,290. One could argue that Roberts should have gone further, having gone out with AxAx versus KxKx, all in preflop, but one could also argue that he is lucky to even be playing at all.
It's 2015, and the Bryant, Arkansas, real estate broker known as Broker Bob to friends and fellow players, has a very serious traffic accident. The severe concussion Roberts suffered virtually erased large swaths of his memory.
"So much about life changes after a serious concussion," Roberts explains. "I mean, you remember how to eat and dress yourself and go to the bathroom, but do you remember your hobbies and passions?"
The implication being, sometimes you don't; and for Roberts, this was the reality. A lifelong poker player, Roberts had no recollection of either playing the game or even wanting to play the game.
"Poker wasn't part of the recovery," he says, very matter-of-fact.
Then one day, close to a year later, a friend happened to look up Roberts's stats on the Hendon Mob website. The friend called up Roberts and asked why he hadn't said anything about playing the tournaments shown.
It was at that moment Roberts remembered, "That's right! I am a poker player."
The A-ha! moment led Roberts back to the card rooms and competition. "I started playing seriously again at the beginning of this year, and I love it."
Asked what attracted him to so many RGPS stops, Roberts says it's primarily the level of competition, "I want to play with the best competition, and the competition at the RGPS is very good. The players here take the game seriously, and they really make you work at it. These players are motivated."
We've gotta say, going from no memory of poker to outplaying 332 players to finish 8th in the RGPS Deepstack--Broker Bob, no one's as motivated as you.