Sydney’s Didier Guerin says he felt “in his element” against an elite field as he narrowly missed out on a WSOP final table in the $25k High Roller No Limit Hold’em on Sunday.
Guerin, who is rapidly closing in on US$1.5 million (AU$2.1 million) in career tournament earnings, busted in 11th for US$100,300 (AU$142,320) after finding himself card dead at critical stages on Day 3 – but not before tangling with some of the very best in the world.
He busted high-stakes crusher Aleks Ponakovs and the infamous Martin Kabhrel earlier in the event (even appearing on Kabhrel’s video blog below), clashed on multiple occasions with Nick Schulman and at various times throughout his run sat alongside the likes of Brandon Wilson, Brian Rast, Jesse Lonis and Stephen Chidwick.
Despite this, from a field of 345 starters, Guerin finished Day 1 sitting sixth in chips and was comfortable among the final 22 heading into Day 2 – ultimately falling just short of the final table after busting at the hands of former PCA champ Galen Hall in an unfortunate blind v blind spot.
While Guerin admitted some of the table draws throughout his run were the toughest he’s ever faced, he told PokerMedia Australia he was happy with how he played and never felt overawed by the quality of his tablemates.
“There were so many really good players, but I did feel in my element,” he explained. “You know, I recognize that almost all of those people [listed above] are better than me but I also feel like I understand where the high stakes regs mindset is at when I shift into these high stakes buy-ins.”
Pointing to past success he has had in lower buy-in events with larger starting fields, Guerin added, “I’d like to believe I’m sort of getting to the stage where I have different strategies for those big field, weaker tournaments where you’re playing against more recreational players. Then when I shift into [events like] this, I have another gear where I can play against those really high stakes players.”
It is perhaps no surprise, then, that, Guerin’s best live results in recent years have come in high buy-in events, including a AU$412,000 score for finishing runner-up in the $25K TLPT Challenge at APT Sydney in 2023 and AU$152,459 for another runner-up finish in the $10K WPT World Championship Warm-Up at WPT Australia in 2024.
Notably, Guerin received strong support from the Aussie rail and revealed that the first to congratulate him in-person afterwards was none other than James Obst: himself having final tabled last week with a fourth-place finish in the $10K Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship. He becomes the fourth Australian to book a deep run so far at this year’s WSOP with bracelet holders Jarred Graham and Gary Benson also reaching final tables.
Asked about his experience at the WSOP over the past few days, Guerin said, “I’m a pretty chatty person and you probably saw that on the stream, and [when you’re sitting at the table] you just recognize that all of these people are humans at the end of the day, and they make mistakes as well. Once you realize they’re not robots and they’re humans as well who make mistakes, just like you do, it really dials the tension down and then you realize it’s just about playing another game of poker.”
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