Adrian Mateos: Not a Robot, Just Really Good at Poker

Adrian Mateos, a high-stakes tournament legend, has over $25 million in live tournament earnings. He recently sat down for an interview with PokerNews at the EPT Prague, sharing his thoughts on the return of live high roller events and his approach to these major tournaments.

Mateos won the WSOP $250,000 No Limit Hold'em - Super High Roller for $3,265,362. He believes that the criticism of younger elite players being like robots is unfair. "Most of the guys on the High Roller scene are really good guys. Some people call [High Roller players] robots, but that's not fair because they're not. They're just really good players who study a lot, and that's all."

Mateos says that to compete in Super High Roller tournaments, one must be in the top 20-30 players in the world. He added that every player capable of competing at this level is working incredibly hard and he must follow suit to be able to maintain his status as one of the game’s very best. "It can be really hard though. If you want to compete in these Super High Roller tournaments you have to be in the top 20-30 players in the world. It's a small percentage of people that can win at this level, so it's normal that faces can change as not everyone can win. For me it's about the challenge to maintain this status and to be a winning player."