Here's the story of a teenager forced to drop out of uni for medical reasons, whose dad then introduced him to #poker mixed games.

Today he's one of the greatest mixed game players of the modern era with 3 WSOP bracelets, 7 COOP titles, & millions in cashes.

Thread time👇👇👇
1) Benny Glaser left his family home in Southampton to study product design at university when he was 18.

He discovered poker with friends and joined the university pub poker league.

“My housemates had a poker league too,” he says.

But his studies were sadly cut short.
2) Benny Glaser was forced to drop out of uni for medical reasons, but he took his love of poker back home with him.

"When I got back, I started playing both No Limit Hold'em and Limit Hold'em online," he says.

He began taking the game pretty seriously.

Then one day...
3) Benny Glaser noticed his dad playing online poker too. But it was a game he didn't recognise.

“I stumbled across my dad playing Omaha 8-or-Better (Omaha8) and it really interested me," he says.

He started dabbling in Omaha8 cash games and it went better than expected.
4) "Omaha8 was very profitable as most people were terrible," says Benny Glaser.

He discovered the nosebleed cash games on Full Tilt when he was 21, and noticed they were mostly playing mixed games.

"They were very interesting to watch and I started learning all of them.”
5) If you were into online poker pre-Black Friday (2011), you’ll remember the games Benny Glaser is talking about.

The likes of @TomDwan, @ViktorBlom and @junglemandan were dominating NLHE.

But mixed games were also being played for enormous stakes, often with a $2K/$4K ante.
6) FYI: Mixed games are poker variants outside of Texas Hold'em, usually played in a rotation.

Mixed games include Omaha high-low, Razz, 7-card stud, 2-7 Triple Draw, et al.

Poker legends like @TexDolly and @RealKidPoker believe they are the true measure of a player's skills.
7) “I just enjoyed railing them,” says Benny Glaser, who'd watch the likes of @philivey and @Patrik_Antonius do battle for millions in mixed games.

“But I also enjoyed learning new things and the variety of them."

He was soon making money playing them at the low stakes level.
8) Benny Glaser's rise up the mixed game stakes was gradual.

"When I got back from uni, I didn't have much money so I was grinding $1/$2 limit and $2/$4 limit for maybe a year or two," he says.

But once he hit $4/$8, he rolled up his stake and went to Las Vegas for the @WSOP.
9) "It wasn't until I'd made some money and got some balls that I decided to step up and say: 'OK, I'm going to take a shot in a big game'," says Benny Glaser.

“I didn't have a close group of poker friends, so going to the @WSOP in 2014 was a shot I decided to take by myself."
10) Benny Glaser lived alone during that first @WSOP, but he met some friends via the @twoplustwoforum.

Unfortunately, though, he bricked every event he played.

"I was apprehensive. I wasn't sure," he says. "But the next year I gave it another shot and it went much better.”
11) In 2015 Benny Glaser took down a $1,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball event for his first @WSOP bracelet and $136K.

“I went for the experience of competing with the best, but it was absolutely my goal & ambition to win a bracelet," he says.

He also got to play with his heroes.
12) "It was weird playing with the guys that I'd watched on TV for years," says Benny Glaser.

The win was a nice boost for both his confidence and bankroll, and it allowed him to play higher stakes.

"It also let me start travelling more as I could now afford it," he says.
13) Nothing could have prepared Benny Glaser for what happened at the 2016 @WSOP though.

“I knew I'd improved a lot and that I'd definitely be profitable if I went again," he says.

Glaser had played one $10K event in 2015, and was "pleasantly surprised with how soft it was."
14) So at the 2016 @WSOP, Benny Glaser decided to play more $10K events.

He played against players he had revered for years, as well as people he'd thought were good.

“But when I ended up playing with them I realised I was better than them. It was fun to realise," he says.
15) By the end of the summer, Benny Glaser had won two more @WSOP bracelets (in the same week).

The first came in a $1,500 Omaha8 event for $244K, and the second just a couple of days later in the $10K Championship of the same game for $407K.

“It was pretty surreal,” he says.
16) Benny Glaser didn't want the 2016 @WSOP to end.

"I was on cloud nine, playing amazing, running great, & couldn't have asked for anything more," he says. "It was an amazing dream.”

It was safe to say that Glaser was one of the best Omaha8 tournament players in the world.
17) Benny Glaser had made a name for himself among the mixed-game giants.

“Even though I'd won a bracelet the year before, pretty much nobody knew me unless they'd played with me," he says.

"So it was still fun to turn up at a table and have nobody know me or my ability."
18) Benny Glaser now rubs shoulders with the same guys he used to watch on High Stakes Poker and rail in Full Tilt nosebleed games.

“Having their respect means a lot, & it's something I strive for,” he admits.

He now has major titles in more than 10 different poker variants.
19) Today, Benny Glaser is considered one of the best mixed game players going.

He has $2M+ in live cashes, 5 WCOOP titles, 2 SCOOP titles, & 3 WSOP bracelets--the most of any player from the UK.

Yet we couldn't help but wonder: How is his dad's Omaha8 game getting on?
20) Benny Glaser laughs: “My dad hasn’t really improved in the past 10 years!”

As for himself, he's come a long way from watching his dad play mixed games all those years ago.

Glaser now strives to remain the Brit with the most bracelets.

"I just plan to keep grinding."
Thanks for reading!

If you enjoyed this story don't forget to follow for more, then scroll back to the top and Like / Share with your mates!

I interviewed @BennyGlaser for @BluffEurope in Nov 2018.

Photos by @renevelli and courtesy of WSOP and World Poker Tour.

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