In this interview, Jimmy Ficke tells CalvinAyre.com’s Rebecca Liggero how he fills his time when he is not playing poker.
Contrary to popular belief, Jimmy Fricke’s world is not boxed within the four corners of a poker table.
When not playing his favorite game, Fricke is on the street searching for the best food joints in town. A confessed foodie, Fricke said likes seeking new food experiences with gusto rather than simply eating out of convenience or hunger.
The 29-year-old professional poker player from Mahomet, Illinois, has passion for good food and frequent travels to compete in different tournaments, making him a food authority in his own respect.
For Ficke, Las Vegas should not only be known as a gambling state but also the next biggest culinary melting pot of America.
“People from all different cultures, from you know Southeast Asia, India, and, you know, Latin America, they are all coming here and they’re creating food they like back home. Everyone is a customer about everywhere and that’s great, and I think in the long run it’s like our own little live yelp going on,” Ficke told CalvinAyre.com.
When asked where visitors would find great food without paying much in Las Vegas, Ficke said: “The simplest thing I can say is never ever eat on the Strip. There’s never really good options, with the exception of a few nice restaurants. For the most part, eat in the back strip malls around town. It’s far cheaper and you’ll be eating authentic food.”
Like finding the best food joints, Ficke believes recreational players seek poker games that have much variance and is fun to play with. Having high variance is the reason why poker game, as well as other skill games like daily fantasy sports, still exist in the market, the professional poker player said.
“Poker, it attracts a far bigger audience because anyone can win on any given day no matter how bad they are, no matter how much they lose on average and that’s one of the reason why I think Hold’em is in general not a great game for the ecosystem poker because the bad players don’t win that much,” Ficke said.
“I’ve actually been in Limit Hold’em player for the last few months. That’s one of the reason why I love the game is that it is very high action, it’s very high variance, and the losing player is going to play as many pass as they want,” he added.
Ficke also shared his passion for politics and political discourse.
But as far as poker players gunning for a seat in the government is concerned, Ficke believes that it is good for poker and politics to stay apart in the long run.
“I think there are lots of good poker players out there who I will vote into office, actually I think Nolan Dalla will be a good person I would vote for office,” he said.
