What's Jeremy Becker's secret?
How is he so good at these lower stakes live MTTs? His results are unreal. He doesn't seem like a GTO expert. Is he more just a volume guy like Maurice Hawkins, with numerous rebuys? Or is he actually super good?
4 Replies
He seems like one of those "fire 12 bullets" type of guy. I think they should post how many times every participant entered the tournament at its conclusion.
Have played with him several times. First played with him March 2023 before all his hype and he definitely caught my attention even back then with some cool plays and a slightly different style. I think his results are a combination of being very good and playing VERY high volume. I don't know him personally, but I see him almost every time I'm in Vegas. I'm guessing his live MTT volume is at least top 0.5% of all active players. Even among regs he seems to love the tournament grind more than anyone. Only a handful of very good regs will play the $200 dailies around town when nothing big is running, but Becker seems happy to play every day.
The other thing is that he got a big publicity boost from Negreanu picking up on the story and platforming him. If you look at the same time frame when Becker has become a well-known player, there are other guys who have been on a similar trajectory like Nicholas Seward and Daniel Sepiol. Players know them, but they are not as well-known to the casual audience because they haven't gotten the same type of attention. Becker was a more viral story.
Have played with him several times. First played with him March 2023 before all his hype and he definitely caught my attention even back then with some cool plays and a slightly different style. I think his results are a combination of being very good and playing VERY high volume. I don't know him personally, but I see him almost every time I'm in Vegas. I'm guessing his live MTT volume is at least top 0.5% of all active players. Even among regs he seems to love the tournament grind more than an
Sepiol and Brandon Wilson have been fun to watch lately.
Probably a combination of a few things:
1. He's clearly good - fearless and willing to make what he perceives to be the right moves. Given the volume he plays, he has a mental database against the locals that is probably unrivaled.
2. At the same time, he's probably firing ridiculous bullets in these tournaments. Bust? Don't care, Rebuy.
3. Because the other regs know he's going crazy early, he's going to get paid when he has it, so he will run up big stacks and running up a big stack early is a huge edge in a daily. He probably plays the chip bully very well.
If one has the time and the bankroll (or backing) the strategy is viable, so long as you can play the end game well. Becker clearly does that; he seems to be an outstanding closer and that's where the money is. But you have to have lots of time and the financial ability to weather freezing cold runs where you fire 20-30 bullets without so much as a mincash, and not give a single F about that.
