Heads-up With APT Tournament Director – Lloyd Fontillas

Lloyd Fontillas
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  • PG News May 3, 2015
  • 4 Minutes Read

Lloyd Fontillas (cover image) is one of the most respected and familiar names in the Asian poker circuit today, as the Tournament Director for the APT officially since 2010, though he was already associated with them from much earlier.

Lloyd has rich experience in the poker industry that spans 20 of his current 41 years, back to when he joined his mother, who was a poker dealer in California. He learned the game from his mom and while growing up played several different forms of poker, such as 13 card, big deuce, tongits and even Mahjong, so Hold’em came easily to him.

Born in Texas, Lloyd has been in the Philippines from 2008. After joining a poker room at 21, Lloyd spent several years, working his way up, dealing for 7 years, even as he accumulated an impressive resume as a tournament player.

Lloyd has been associated with WSOP and some of the top industry names. In the Philippines, he has been at the forefront of the poker scene and founded ‘The Poker Circuit’. Today, Lloyd is synonymous with APT tournaments and is credited for brining in several important changes that makes APT one of the best poker tournaments in Asia.

The role of a tournament director is a dynamic one that requires balance, foresight, diplomacy and a calm head to handle complex and sensitive issues. In this exclusive feature, Lloyd speaks to PokerGuru about his journey, what it takes to be a tournament director, his experiences, his take on the game today and advice to aspiring Indian players. He also confirms a delightful rumor about a top pro. We leave you to discover it all for yourself, as you read the details straight from Lloyd…

 

How did your poker journey start? Did you begin as a player and then shift to the business side?

20 years ago, it all started after my mother who was a poker dealer at the time invited me to work at a poker room that was about to open (Bay 101 in San Jose Ca.). I started out in F&B at the age of 20 and when I hit 21, I was able to hit the poker room floor, went through 6 positions, including dealing for 7 years and also raked up a pretty good record as a tournament player as well. All that put together and being on the front end of poker on TV. The rest is history.

 

Please share your experiences with WSOP.

After I gave up Bay 101 at start of 2008, I was fortunate to get the chance to work the WSOP. You can say I was thrown into the fire. I was one of 3 guys at the time that handled the nightly no limit events. (Small buy-ins, non-bracelets, and massive fields) these events drew anywhere from 500 – 1,000 players and were one-day events. It was an experience that can never be discounted because even though at WSOP I was not part of the “bracelets limelight crew”. I was actually running events from start to finish and not just breaking tables all day long.

 

You have worked with Matt Savage of the WPT, Jack Effel of the WSOP, and Sam Quinto of Commerce Casino. Can you please share some interesting experiences with each.

Each of them have their own way of handling decisions and are very approachable guys willing to help out. Matt and Jack to me were the show guys and Sam was the brains behind the whole poker boom. Although, I have to say I took most of Sam’s traits, parts of Matt and watched Jack perform as much as I could. Rolled it all into one and here I am.

 

You were also the founder and tournament director of ‘The Poker Circuit’. When and how did this come about? Any key takeaways from the venture?

The TPC was created to put APT back into the mind of the poker players and was put together before I was actually named the APT TD. APT came in as a major sponsor and after a year I wove it into my consultancy, used now just for billing. Due to the successful year of events under the TPC, we came to realize that the market wanted more affordable events. Thus, the APT Asian Series brand was born and with that brand it propelled APT from 2 events a year to 6-10 events a year in various locations all over Asia.

 

Tell us about your association with APT. We know that you are an integral part of the APT team today, when did you join and what are your key responsibilities?

I was picked up to be part of APT at their first event in Macau. After the first CEO found out, I was making the move from the USA to the Philippines. This was back in 2009 and I came in as the Poker Specialist. Basically, I had all the answers for tournament poker when asked by anyone on the team.

When Jeff Mann took over as CEO, the face of APT dramatically changed, which included my ideal of the TPC being feasible, him coming up with the APT Asian Series and most importantly naming me as TD. Just like any other TD, the players see me as the guy to go to for whatever they need, rules, structures, schedule, where to party and tell bad beats. Hahaha! The biggest role I had coming in is bringing in my own crew and I am proud to day the crew I put together is got to be one of the best crews in the world!

 

Please let us know about the particular changes or initiatives you have spearheaded in your role as APT Tournament Director.

I believe how rules are interpreted and handled is a huge step up to the rest of the tours out their today. Along with the structures I put together to give players so much value!

 

What in your opinion are the most important attributes to make a successful and balanced TD? What are the challenges?

Knowledge of the rules is always key. But experiencing multiple positions and doing the job after being trained by guys that know what they’re doing is far way more important. What I am trying to express is how can a TD understand the feelings of a dealer if they have never dealt before or understand the weight of issuing a penalty if they have never played before. The biggest challenge or the best trait for any TD can pick up is to listen to what players want and recognize if it brings value to a tour before applying it.

 

You must have witnessed different poker player reactions during tournaments. Any that struck you as specifically significant, in terms of game or rules?

The worst one is when you accuse someone of soft playing. I have had to disqualify someone before because of it and send some on 2 round penalties. Going back to having to play the game to issue the right penalty. The DQ came in because of a chip dump situation in a satellite and the other was because the person thought it was ok to be nice to everyone of the same ethnic background. These situations happened a long time ago as APT TD and because of it, I don’t have to deal with it anymore because when players come play for us they know we run a tight and fair show.

 

What are the most important changes you have seen come to pass in the past many years, be it in structures, players or anything else?

The biggest change by far are the players; in how a big percentage of players play really good. When I say good, far way better than my capacity to play and because of that the demand for better structures is always asked for. I am proud to say APT has the best tournament structures in the Asian market today hands down that fits a 7 to 9 day schedule.

 

Can you share any bizarre/comic incident that has occurred during a tournament on your clock?

The only one I can recall was when we introduced the Ante Only event for the first time. When I created it, I revised an old structure by taking out the small blind instead of the big blind. At the 4th round I had multiple players screaming bloody mary, pulling out players books and running up to me. The fix was the clock was rolled back and the show went on.

 

How about sharing some unknown quirks of famous poker pros for our readers?

Phil Hellmuth is a character that used to be a regular and also propped the big game at Bay 101 years ago. He was one of the biggest fish in a cash game and the biggest cry baby ever (so what you see on TV is true). But, as much as many dealers disliked him for his action and how he stiffed many of them. For some reason he like me and tipped me pretty good. PH is the best tournament player in the world and no one can argue with that! (Just incase he reads this!)

 

In recent years, Indian players have slowly been emerging on the top at several tournaments in the east. Please share your observations.

I have to be honest and say I really don’t watch how players play until it’s the Final Table of the Main when I am doing commentary because watching players play takes away attention to things that need to be watched closely like, next blind level, table that need to be broken, table balance, etc. Although, this last APT Philippines I did see many Indians going deep and picking up trophies. The reason why I noticed is because they are always a bunch of great guys having fun, don’t cause problems, plus I have not seen most of them in a while and it was great to see them back at APT!

 

What in your opinion, does the Indian poker scene need to adopt or lacks to improve the game.

I have not followed the Indian poker scene since we last held an APT event over there. When it comes to the skills of the Indian players, results don’t lie and for sure if they played every APT event I wouldn’t be surprised if an Indian player came in the top 3 of the APT POY!

 

Any chance we can see the return of APT in India anytime soon?

Only thing that is holding us back is the tax on prize pools which is basically government taking player’s winnings. Definitely count us in if that changes!

 

Your advice to Indian players seeking to make it big in international tournaments?

Most players think that they have to come and play the Main event of a tour. They really don’t, now a days there is so much value in playing side events as long as they have good structures. So come in early before the Main starts set a budget to play most of the opening side events hoping to cash enough to freeroll the Main. Make sure to leave some behind to play the closing events in case you don’t cash at the start. Cheer for your team in the Main and party hard and have fun! Let’s face it, you can play a poker tournament anywhere in the world. But a quality event and having fun is something worth traveling to!

 

Thank you Lloyd for the interview!

Image Courtesy: Pokerportal.Asia

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