Philipp Gruissem is not only an absolute tournament legend, he is also one of the most entertaining and spiritual players in the poker world. We spoke with Philbort about rap, Yoga, the German high roller scene and why effective giving is so important.
VIP-Grinders.com: On your Twitter bio it says „Would also like to be: rapper,poet,tantramaster!“ What makes up the fascination of those professions for you?
Philipp Gruissem: I’ve always been interested in rap since the early days and something stick to me. The possibility to get a message out in a playful way is very interesting.
“It is something really cool to write lyrics down in an artistic way”
I started to do it a little bit, but mainly for fun with friends and as with every profession it‘s tough to get started.
It is something really cool to write lyrics down in an artistic way. It frees you up on many levels, it puts stuff out and makes things more clear as you see yourself from the outside.
Tantra is something I’ve been getting more into in the last couple of years. It’s a super interesting and very deep topic, you can put your whole life in it and get deeper and deeper into the mindset and practices. If you do it properly it’s an undescribable experience, which unfortunately only 1% of the people make during their life.
VG: Speaking of rapping, I heard your David Peters rap song. How did you come up with the idea and will we see a Philbort rap song or record in the future?
Who doesn’t love @TheRealPhilbort? Because of, or maybe in spite of his rapping ability. You can catch all the action from #MILLIONSRussia right here: https://t.co/6csKMWKpP0 pic.twitter.com/8H5oUD9TW2
— partypokerLIVE (@partypokerlive) August 10, 2018
PG: Everything is possible, but I don’t have any plans. I am really not good at it yet, especially this song is really crappy and comes more out of my stupid thoughts.
This song for sure gets not produced that much I can tell you (laughs).
VG: I saw a funny picture on your Instagram, where you pose with a gun in front of a Don Corleone painting. Can you tell us the story behind this?
PG: I was at a restaurant in Malta, where I live now, and there was a Don Corleone painting, which was always the favorite of my friend Igor Kurganov, so I made it for him.
The restaurant owner also had a gun there, so I had to combine it. That’s the idea behind the picture.
VG: In the beginning of the year you joined Team Partypoker Pro. How did you get the sponsorship and do you believe Partypoker will replace PokerStars as the number 1 poker site one day?
PG: Anything is possible. I think Partypoker will continue to grow, but becoming the number 1 is not so likely and also depends on what PokerStars is doing, regulation and many other factors.
Partypoker is on a really good way though and doing a couple of things way better than PokerStars.
That also relates to how I became a Partypoker Pro, I got to know the people behind the scenes and had a good connection with them. They told me about their plans, it is a young team full of energy and with good morals, which made it interesting for me.
VG: A lot of people don’t know that you are also an excellent table tennis player and that you have beaten Malta’s number 1 ranked player this year. What was your game plan?
Breaking news malta!
Happy philbort episode nr 1: pic.twitter.com/hcU41apCg2— Philipp Gruissem (@TheRealPhilbort) April 3, 2018
PG: Good question. First of all, he is still much better than me, but I caught him on my best and his weakest day.
I did crazy meditations that day, which a friend of mine had recommended. A lot of people say before an accident you see everything in slow motion and that’s the state I wanted to get in for the match, so I tried some more advanced meditation techniques.
It wasn’t like that slow motion state, but it was great, like something took over and also a crazy experience.
VG: You are co-founder of the charity organisation Raising for Effective Giving (REG). Can you explain why effective giving is so important? How do you choose the charities you support?
PG: Effective giving is important, because you don’t want to waste money. With money comes resposibility and if you waste it, then it will make you feel bad.
“We made a huge effort to pick the best charities”
In charities the differences are 100x regarding their effectivness. We made a huge effort to categorize charities to be able to pick the best one from each category.
It’s difficult to compare charities from different fields, but within the same field it is easy to compare using available numbers and information.
VG: You are practising a lot of Yoga. Was there any experience in your life that brought you on the spiritual path? How is your poker game benefiting from it?
PG: The whole thing with Yoga started, because we wanted to get better at poker. I asked myself how can I train my body and mind to be best prepared for a poker session.
If you only have 30 minutes to prepare for a session, Yoga is definitely the most effective way to do so.
The results were pretty good and when I got deeper into it, I discovered how much more it is. There are hundreds of treasures to be found on the way and it has been an amazing journey!
VG: Fabian Quoss, one of your buddies, recently retired from poker. Were you ever thinking about retiring or got to the point, where poker was not fun anymore?
PG: Yeah, I’ve been to that point for sure. It will come up, but I can just give the advice to simply take a break, instead of quitting straight away.
Nobody can tell the future and maybe in 10 years you will realize that this was the best way to make some money or you will miss the game, so I wouldn’t make long-term plans and say I retire from poker.
VG: You are one of the original German High Rollers. Do you still have contact with your former crew or with the second generation of German High Rollers such as the No-Limit Gaming Team?
PG: The original German High Roller crew is very much broken into pieces and spread all around the world. I don’t have much contact with any of them, but we will always be friends.
“Partypoker is doing a lot of things much better than PokerStars”
I am not integrated into the new German High Roller scene, so I am holding the flag up for the oldschool Germans (laughs).
VG: At the moment the biggest buy-ins are running at the Triton High Roller Series and they generate insane action. Are those games not tempting for you and have you been playing in them already?
PG: Yeah, the Triton events are really cool. I’ve been playing the No-Limit events last time.
The Short Deck events I can’t play as I have zero clue about Short Deck Poker, but it is an interesting game and if you want to get into High Stakes, then it might be a good option.
Most of the side games and cash games at the Triton High Roller Series are Short Deck, so no high stakes action for me.
VG: Is there anything you always wanted to do in your life, which you haven’t done yet and if so, would you like to share it with us?
PG: I am really interested in my spiritual development. If you move one level up and see the world from a different point of view, then everything is interesting again.
If there is anything I would love to experience, then it is enlightenment, for sure.
VG: Thank you very much for this great interview!
