Exclusivo- Rafael Moraes e o tão esperado BSOP

The biggest poker tournament in Latin America is back in São Paulo for a great event, at the Sheraton WTC, filled with different tournaments and modalities and millions in prizes.

Scheduled at the Sheraton WTC in São Paulo, the event that was supposed to be the second edition is actually the first (postponed by COVID-19.) This week (between the 24th and 29th) big names in Brazilian poker, such as from the Four Bet team, led by Rafael Moraes, among them Thiago Crema, Victor Begara, Pedro “Gusma” Madeira, “Naza”, Eder Campana and Will Arruda.

Players from the rest of the world are also expected to come to Brazil in search of the trophies and part of the BRL 3 million that the event promises, of which BRL 1.75 million will be delivered in the Main Event.

To talk about the tournament, iGaming Brazil exclusively interviews the Pokerstars ambassador and owner of the 4-Bet Team, Brazilian Rafael Moraes, who is currently participating in the competition.

With an extremely winning career that speaks for itself, Moraes is one of the great influencers of Brazilian poker in several aspects: training players in the 4bet Team, offering valuable tips on social networks and being a spokesperson in interviews for an off-poker audience. . Now with his Twitch channel he teaches people how to play (and win) at poker.

With only 30 years old, born in São Paulo, married to Lali Tournier for 7 years, who is also a professional poker player and streamer, they live 100% within the poker universe.

Check out Rafael Moraes’ full interview below.

iGaming Brazil – When was the 4-bet team created and for what purpose? Who is part of it?

Rafael Moraes – 4bet was born in 2010, created by my friends and now partners Caio Brites, Marcos Sketch and Will Arruda, with the idea of ​​discovering talents in poker and transforming them into high level professional players. Initially I started as a team player, then I became an instructor and a few years later a partner. Today, more than 10 years later, 4bet is the biggest poker team in the world and has around 40 instructors and 550 players of the most varied levels and modalities of poker.

iGaming Brazil – How does the Twitch channel work, what is the content and what audience is it intended for? Beginners, professionals, people who like poker, fans, etc?

Rafael Moraes – My Twitch channel is where I have the opportunity to communicate more directly with the people who enjoy my work and like to follow me playing. There I do lives playing the main PokerStars tournaments, interacting with the chat and explaining the reasoning behind my decisions.

In addition, I often do lives in the “review”, where I just chat with the chat, watch videos of poker hands, receive a guest, etc. The audience is usually made up of recreational players, who have poker as a hobby and want to learn more.

But I believe that because I use a very didactic language and talk a lot, make jokes, I can also attract a lot of people who are just starting out or are interested in learning to play poker. That’s why I always try to vary the content so it’s not too simple for those who already know how to play or too complex for those who are learning.

iGaming Brazil – How is it to return to face-to-face cloth after so long a pandemic (BSOP)? The people who will participate in the BSOP should be excited? Is that you?

Rafael Moraes – Playing the BSOP is always so much fun. A BSOP lounge is certainly the place where I have the most friends gathered in the same place and that’s why, in addition to playing high-level tournaments, I still have a lot of fun. It was really hard to go so long without playing live poker because of the pandemic and it’s a great joy to be able to be back on the ground, not only for me but for everyone who enjoys playing poker.

The BSOP Millions that took place in November was already an absolute success and I’m sure all the events this season will be too.

iGaming Brazil – What was your biggest award in your career?

Rafael Moraes – The biggest overall was online, at The Venom tournament in 2019, when I won 1 million dollars, at the time the biggest prize a Brazilian player had ever won. In live poker my biggest cash was in an EPT Monte Carlo High Roller in 2016, where I received $568,200 for third place.

iGaming Brazil – Do you prefer in-person or online poker? Because?

Rafael Moraes – The two formats are very different and each one has its particularities. I’ve always been more of an online player, which is where we can sample tournaments that make a living from poker, but playing live always has a special emotion. Being at the table with the other players in person is very cool, either because the dispute is more “real” or because of the interaction, conversations, jokes, things that we can’t have online.

iGaming Brazil – How did you get started in poker, at what age, why, and what did you do before?

Rafael Moraes – My only profession in life was poker. I’ve always been a very competitive guy and since I was a teenager I played in semi-professional chess championships in various places in Brazil. When I discovered poker and started playing online at the age of 18, I fell in love and in a short time I started to make a living from it. I even entered the civil engineering faculty at USP, something that had always been a dream, but 2 months later I ended up leaving the course to dedicate myself fully to poker, which has been my profession ever since.

iGaming Brazil – What are your plans for a short-term future?

Rafael Moraes – The plans for this year are to play even more and achieve great results, mainly because I now have the responsibility of representing PokerStars, the biggest poker site in the world. In addition to playing in the series online, I will travel the world to play the main live events on the circuit. I was recently in Prague for the EPT, where I had some good results, and my planning for the year still has trips to Monte Carlo, Las Vegas, Bahamas, Barcelona, ​​in addition to the BSOP stages in Brazil

BSOP – The other stages will take place in Rio de Janeiro (from June 1st to 7th) and in Gramado in October (from 12th to 17th) at the Hotel Wish Serrano. The carioca capital hosts the tournament again after a decade, having been in 2012 the last edition at the Hotel Royal Tulip. The cloth will boil!

To know the 4bet pokerteam visit the link: https://www.instagram.com/4betpokerteam/