Freezeout Poker Player Profile: Chris Lannoye
Getting to know the Toy Collector, Discussing problems in the Stars, Saying goodbye to one of our best, and acknowledging the "other" Toy.
Editor’s Note: This is another club specific post.
There are now a lot subscribers to this newsletter that are not in our poker club. Because of the Beginner Series and the postings on substack we have gained a lot of subscribers that have never played our Tuesday game. That’s ok. Welcome. I like the idea of expanding our reach to interested poker players even if they aren’t potential club members. However, if you are interested in playing our weekly game (the crux of the club), or just learning more about it, please visit the about page on the top of the page or click this link: About our game.
I say all this to warn the reader that today’s content is specific to our game and may not be of great interest to you. If this is the case, please tune in for future columns that are broader in poker scope.
Name: Chris Lannoye
Handle: Toy Collector
Pet Hand: Nunya bizness
Favorite Author: Bill Bryson
Me: Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. I know you have only been a member for around a year so I’m not sure I have done many interviews in that time. You are my guinea pig for bringing back the player profiles.
Me: So how did you find our club?
Chris: Michael Thurston (MuskieMan) turned me on to your game. His daughter is dating my son. I was a little hesitant at first with Venmo and all but he put me at ease and I figured the worst that could happen would be I lose $25. But I have had a lot of fun and look forward to it each week.
Me: I completely understand about your initial hesitations. I am on the other side of it wondering if we can trust new players. I guess both sides just have to feel it out. That’s why we try to grow the group in a steady and organic way. I would like to take the time to thank Muskie for recruiting to our game. I sometimes wish he would recruit players that are not as good as you but, hey, that makes us all have to get better as well.
Me: When did you start playing poker?
Chris: I started playing post Moneymaker at a game while working at General Motors. I got my butt kicked left and right but it was a way to get my feet wet.
Me: What do you do for a living Chris?
Chris: I’m a pharmaceutical engineer
Me: I’m trying to imagine the need for a pharmaceutical engineer at GM.
Chris: (laughs) – My degree is in chemical engineering. I was hired to formulate auto paints. Once you get hired though, you end up doing a little bit of everything including programming the robots as a process engineer.
Me: Are you still in that line of work?
Chris: I’m mostly installing laboratories and industrial equipment for different industries for another company these days.
Me: We are halfway through this season and you are standing at 28 points. Just to put that into perspective, last year at this time, Joe Schwenk was leading the pack with 20 points and our eventual winner, Dave Paukovitz, had 14 points. That’s half of where you are at!
Chris: You are going to jinx me.
Me: That isn’t the intention but would be a great side effect for those of us chasing you. What I really want to know is if you have thought about winning a package to the WSOP and if that’s something you are striving for each week as it is a real possibility. Pauko won last year with 36 total points.
Chris: Absolutely. I really want to win a trip out to Vegas. I have never played in a “big” tournament. It would mean a lot to me for sure.
Me: I would imagine so if that’s the case. If you do win a package, perhaps you would do another interview with me or do a guest column on your experience. *eyes shift toward Mr. Paukovitz. *
Me: Do you study the game?
Chris: Not really. I’m not a big reader but I read the club blog and watch videos on YouTube. I really like watching Daniel Negreanu’s videos and especially his summer Vlog.
Me: Those are fun to watch. Are you looking for more poker games? You can always search Poker Atlas and perhaps find something near you.
Chris: I wasn’t aware of that site but I will check it out. I have to be careful because if I play too much, I will get impatient with it. If I stick with a limited amount of exposure to the game, I can keep my patience. If I have patience, I don’t play shit hands and I usually do well. If I’m impatient, I lose almost every time.
Me: Do you have a pet hand?
Chris: * Laughs * I do but I’m not going to tell you my secrets!
Me: Fair play. However, give me something that seems to be helping you this season.
Chris: Ok. While we are playing, I am walking on my treadmill the whole time. I go 9 miles each tournament. I am dripping wet by the time we are done. Apparently working out while playing works well for me.
Me: Thank you for taking the time to answer these question Chris! I’m sorry that I have to cut this short - I have to head out to buy a treadmill. I will see you on Tuesday.
Chris: See you then.
My Stars!
Tuesday the 4th marked the 3rd tournament that we had to cancel because of PokerStars updates. The problem is they do any necessary updates on Tuesdays in what is our evening. I suppose the interruptions we face are dictated by the number of times Stars needs to do an update.
To say that this is annoying me is a massive understatement but as they provide their software to us for free, I would imagine it to be a moot point to complain to the folks at Stars. The problems that arise from this (other than not being able to play our beautiful weekly game) are primarily WSOP prize package based.
Every opportunity to play a tournament is an opportunity to gather points and each week is assumed to bring that opportunity. However, as we trim those opportunities, the benefit goes to those who need not gather points (AHEM….I’m not speaking of anyone in particular ;) ). It also isn’t quite fair to do a makeup tournament on another day as some of our players may not be able to attend simply because they can not play on an alternate day of the week.
As an administrator of the group, it has long been my goal to have 2 prize packages at the end of the year. This is making that goal more difficult to achieve as well because of the potential deficit of funds.
A few suggestions have been floated to make our year whole including: Running the makeup weeks into the next season or hosting 2 tournaments at once on predetermined Tuesdays down the stretch (essentially multi-tabling). The reality is it is hard to make these up in a fair way while acknowledging that missing tournament is, in itself, unfair to members.
With this in mind, we will try to make the most fair decisions we can when it comes to this issue. I assure you that whatever decisions are to be made will be made by the end of January and be announced when the prize divisions are announced. That way everyone is on the same page going down the stretch.
As far as future seasons go, we are looking at the possibility of having a backup host (perhaps GGPoker) for the Tuesdays that get canceled or even, perhaps, changing our day of play.
If you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments or shoot me an email.
For now though, until you hear something new, I hope to see you all on Tuesday at 7:00 Central on PokerStars. Thank you for your understanding.
Ride the Blue Wind High and Free…..
We lost one of our best. He was funny as hell, nice as can be, and a damn good poker player. Rex Bell - StarBockBeer saw his river card last weekend and his battle with cancer came to an end. I was very fortunate to have known his kindness, talent, and generosity of time when I did this interview with him last year.
Rex finished tied for 2nd place in the points last year despite missing many tournaments due to his illness. Heck he is only 4 points out of second place THIS year and definitely missed more than he attended.
We will miss you dearly my friend.
The “other” Toy
Last year, when making the decision on who to give the “up and comer” award, I was torn between Chris Lannoye (Toy Collector) and Toy Saenkham (Little Toy). At that time they were both overperforming for their amount of experience. The award went to Little Toy and for reasons gone over at great length in this very newsletter, a cloud of regret has hung over the part of my mind that hands out awards.
Weep not for me, as that dark cloud has dissipated and has been replaced by the confidence that I do have some good judgement left.
Toy won a major satellite on ClubWPTGold that puts her in the WPT Prime event in Las Vegas at the Wynn on December 7th. She bested 600 opponents to finish first of the 5 seats awarded. Not only is this feat very admirable, the ticket she won is a mid stakes tournament grinder’s dream with a retail price tag of $1100.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that, in my opinion, the Wynn is the best poker venue in Las Vegas so she will be playing in luxury.
Wrapping it up for fear that my jealousy is beginning to show, I think I speak for all of us when I say this club is rooting for you out there.
And in the words of Greg Raymer,
“Play smart and have fun!”
Great read re: “toy collector” Chris, thanks Mikie! (And Chris)
Rest in peace, Secondary Tournament Director Rexy, you were loved and are missed.
Mrs. Toy, we’ll be railing you in December - congrats!
Nice write up! I would like to suggest that you extend the year by a few weeks to make up for the lost games.