Fabrice Soulier — from hold’em to hodl’em
Cryptocurrency is still a new field and there are many who feel that investing in crypto is similar to gambling. But even in the gambling world, there are bets and bets. And there’s certainly a bit more to the world of digital money than placing random bets against odds. This is why we thought we’d have a chat with the world-renowned poker player, Fabrice Soulier, who has made over $6.3 Million in live poker tournament winnings and has recently expressed an interest in cryptocurrencies as the investment of the future. We wanted to know what drew him to poker and cryptocurrencies, why the two fields are so similar, and why he thinks digital money is the future. Add to them a number of other questions on what are his favourite crypto projects and crypto resources, and we have an interview that will give you the needed boost to look into crypto and start investing responsibly.
1. What drew you to poker?
I started poker very young, I was 15 or 16 years old, playing after school in games secretly organised in the shop’s back offices. I guess I loved playing poker more than doing ‘homework’ (laughs). I’ve always evolved in a competitive environment where I was taught to play for the win. My parents were good bridge players. But we were also having small tennis competitions every weekend, going to ski and racing. I love to compete and if ever I lose, no matter how small the game or stake is, I need some time to stomach it. It’s getting better with age though…
2. What makes a good poker player?
I guess the will to win is very important, that’s what drove all my career. It gives you the strength to learn, to spend thousand of hours playing and studying the game plan, strategy, the mathematical aspect as well as the psychological one etc… But most importantly, a good poker player is not a gambler. It may seem quite paradoxical but it’s not. A gambler loves having fun and spewing the money around, meaning he cannot win on the long term. The definition of a good poker player is a poker player that can handle the long term and that manages his money well. You must not be afraid to lose, you must be ready to take risks and gamble a bit, but you must always weigh of the risk-reward data before.
3. What are your greatest achievements?
I would say right away being a father and still being able to play in big international competitions around the world! (laughs) But on a poker point of view, winning the 10,000$ buy-in HORSE World Series of Poker was a dream come true. On a larger scale, I would say that what I’m mostly proud of is still being here after all these years, still working on my game and still learning everyday.
4. What would you say you learned by playing poker?
I learned to lose, which is something I always profoundly disliked (I probably broke 8 laptops back in the days after losing big pots online). I also learned to trust myself and my instincts; it’s very important in life in general. Otherwise, you end up thinking in a mainstream fashion. Thinking differently, living outside the box and trying new things allows me to have a very interesting life and a freedom that I cherish and crave. I don’t take things for granted and I question everything, all the time.
5. What do you hate the most about poker games?
It’s very individualistic; people are only fighting for themselves. Of course I have a lot of friends in the industry but that doesn’t change the fact that when you are at a table, you are on your own to make the decision. For years, I felt a bit guilty about the idea of doing something that doesn’t save lives or change a planet that really needs everyone fighting for it. But I also know that the money I win I invest in projects I truly believe in. My family and I try to support local economy, organic industries, eco-friendly businesses and people who try to bring some change. That is also why I’m so fond of cryptocurrencies; to me, blockchain technologies are truly the key to a better future for my daughter.
6. Why did you get into crypto?
At first, it was more for the excitement related to the gambling part; my day-trading period really gave me quite some adrenaline shots! (laughs) Then, I started digging a bit, talking with my friends (a lot of poker players are very much into crypto), reading forums, articles, exchanging ideas and I discovered a world that was going far beyond anything I could have imagined. It is beyond exciting and I really want to be a part of it. There is not a day that goes by without me learning something new or discovering an aspect that fascinates me even more that the previous one. I truly believe a revolution is coming and I don’t want to miss any of it.
7. How are, in your view, crypto and poker alike?
In terms of how I approached the two fields, I think that my crypto strategy has been the same as that for poker, meaning talking as much as possible with friends, listening to successful people around me and trying to get closer to the best people in the industry, like the GIN team for example. That’s why I like crypto so much today, because it is still a “jungle”, and it seems like everything is still possible. I feel we are still in the early stages of the game and I love that.
To add to what I’ve just mentioned, I think that poker, just like crypto, is very time consuming.
You spend a lot of time studying hard, reading as much as you can, but you can’t be sure of a win based on that only.
For both crypto and poker, if you want to succeed it is better to be passionate about what you do. You cannot be part of this field and count the hours spent doing this, turn off the computer at 5pm and go home. This way of working doesn’t exist in either poker or crypto. I wake up at night because I am dreaming about it, just like I had dreams about poker hands in the past.
8. You said your parents were pretty good bridge players; did that help in any way?
Yes, of course it helped me being around card players all the time. But in the beginning of my career I couldn’t really tell other people that I was playing poker. It was something that people around me couldn’t understand as a profession. It wasn’t a recommended game because of its dark aspects. Twenty years ago we didn’t have all these tournaments. We had to play during the night, in dodgy places with “bad” people in smoky back rooms. So, my parents were not very keen on me having poker as a main source of income.
9. How do you protect yourself against survivor’s bias? Do you take the time to also read about failed projects, or do you only focus on the positives? If any of the two, how and why do you do it?
I think poker helps me a great deal in this regard as well. In poker, you cannot consider that you played well because you succeeded, nor that that you played badly because you lost. And it is very important to keep this in mind all the time. This means that you always need to reevaluate the way you played, and review your games. With crypto I am trying to do the same thing, but I am not a trader, and I don’t want to be, since I found that my trading behavior was too much based on emotions. So I decided to focus on the best projects I could find/identify around me and invest in the ones I believed the most. I don’t invest only in crypto which is why one could say I don’t fit in the picture. I consider myself more of an “artist” than a trader. As a sideline, I invest in real estate. I also have a production company and we do some TV shows, but I don’t work on a daily basis on the projects. I act more like an investor or consultant for the company. But I am very passionate about the media. I used to be a TV director and I worked in films for several years. I also created a website about poker with videos to promote the game.
10. Can you share the website with us?
It is dead now. It was called www.madeinpoker.com. We sold the content to PokerNews.
11. I hope it was a good deal, then.
In the end, not really. But it helped my career a lot and I had a lot of friends working with me. It was a super nice experience, but not a big financial deal.
12. That’s actually great news. While here at GIN we’re all about getting people into crypto, diversifying investments is a must and something we always try to stress. Getting back to the questions, how are you handling DYOR?
I do a lot of research using internet tools, like Google, LinkedIn for teams, and forums, bitcointalks, cryptopanic, telegram and discord groups, and I try to connect daily with people around me and talk crypto as much as possible.
13. What are your favourite crypto projects? Why these?
The more I am getting into cryptocurrencies and blockchain, the more I am looking for strong projects on the long term. First of all, I am mainly looking for strong fundamentals. I invested in Bitcoin, Ethereum and a few strong alts that I think will do well on the long run. I don’t want to daytrade anymore because I realised it was not my thing and I was not good enough at it. I became more of a hodler lately. A few weeks ago I was doing research on Masternodes and mining, willing to diversify my crypto investments and when I found the GIN project I got hooked right away. Before I “met GIN”, I tried to set up a few masternodes by myself, struggling to follow tutorials, and I have to say that I wasted a lot of time… With GIN on the other hand, you can become a masternode owner quite easily and the setup process is very simple. It might seem crazy to say so but I felt at home from the first day I used GIN. User experience is super good on the platform, creating Masternodes feels finally doable for the crypto noob I am! I particularly like the very strong and 24/7 support given by the team when you need some. And I have the feeling that GIN might become my best bet ever in crypto. :)
I like to spend time on the GIN platform and I try to read some material around Masternodes with my coffee in the morning. I am still far from an expert on the subject, but I am happy to say that I understand a little bit more day after day :), and I really like GIN’s strategy. The team is super talented. Super reactive when you need anything. I like to support very promising projects like that.
14. Regarding your research — can you name a couple of websites/ blogs/ influencers that you follow on a daily basis? If a complete n00b were to stumble upon this interview, we’d like them to have everything they need to get started.
I am a twitter fan, so I follow a lot of guys on there. I’m a big fan of @cz_binance, @ventureCoinist, @cryptoDonAlt, @cryptomocho. I also read coinmarketcap, cryptopanic and forums like reddit, bitcointalk, trading view. Andrea Antonopoulos has inspired and taught me the most about bitcoin! A must watch IMO.
15. Now, for a twist. Your turn to ask us (and the community) 3-4 questions you’d like answered about MasterNodes.
For how long could a MN provide interests? Is it something that’s going to “die” once the number of coins is reached? And, playing devil’s advocate, GIN is providing one click set up MN, but what if, in the near future, MNs could be set up almost as easily with a one click set up tutorial provided by the coins creators? What will happen if we won’t need GIN as much anymore?
