Daniel Strelitz Excited for Big Blind Ante and the Action Clock

By Kevin Taylor

Daniel Strelitz knows plenty about winning big tournaments at his local casinos. The Southern California native won the Mega Millions at the Bicycle Hotel & Casino in August 2014 for more than $280,000, and just last year he joined the WPT Champions Club when he won the WPT L.A. Poker Classic Main Event for more than $1 million.

Strelitz was in action on Day 1a of the WPT Gardens Poker Festival Main Event and built up a good stack to kick things off.

“It’s been pretty good so far,” Strelitz said during the first break on Day 1a. “I like my table. I chipped up to 53,000 from starting stack of 40,000, so can’t complain at all right now.”

Strelitz continued: “It’s nice that I get to go home sleep in my own bed. I had breakfast at my house this morning, and it’s nice I can just drive whenever I want. I don’t have to worry about taking an Uber or anything. It’s great.”

This WPT Gardens Poker Festival Main Event is the first WPT Main Tour of the 17th season of the World Poker Tour, and it comes with some enhancements. Every WPT Main Tour event will be using the recently popularized big blind ante format. With this in play, the big blind will post one ante for the whole table, rather than having each player post an individual one. This makes for quicker play, more hands, and less stress on the dealers and players to break change and slow down the game.

Strelitz has been a huge proponent of the big blind ante, being vocal on Twitter and other forums, and he is ecstatic to see it being used here on the WPT.

“It makes the hands move so much faster,” Strelitz said. “Even the dealers are advocating for it. During the World Series of Poker, one of the dealers just randomly said, ‘So, you guys like big blind ante? My shoulders didn’t hurt at all when I dealt. I know a lot of places are implementing it.’”

Strelitz went on to say that he hopes it won’t be long until the big blind ante is universally used around the world.

“The WPT is doing it, which is great,” Strelitz said. “I think the World Series of Poker will catch on soon and I hope it becomes the industry standard, maybe even a TDA rule.”

Additionally, the WPT is bringing back the Action Clock, provided by Protection Poker, that was used at every WPT Main Tour stop last season. This tournament, like all others on the tour, will start using the Action Clock when the field is just one table from the money, in an effort prevent stalling on the money bubble and to also keep play flowing at an efficient pace once the money has been hit.

“At first, I was kind of skeptical of the Action Clock,” Strelitz said. “The first time I did it, it kind of messed with my head, but within an hour I was able to get adjusted, and you really want a clock in play when you are playing without one. It just speeds up the game. There’s less sitting around being bored.”

Lastly, we asked Strelitz about the Gardens Casino adding $250,000 to the prize pool, included offering a brand new Mercedes-Benz SLC Roadster to the eventual winner.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Strelitz said. “People like added prizes. I mean, a free car for first place? I’m sure it attracted a few people who might not have played otherwise.”

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