Lorem: Fund Founder Talks State of Poker & The Future
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We discussed the current state of online poker with Fedor "Lorem" Truntsev, the founder of FunFarm & FirstFund, how to learn the game in 2026, and why poker doesn't just have two years left.
A little introduction first, for those of you who don't know Lorem.
Fedor "Lorem" Truntsev is a Russian poker player with a massive following outside of the English-speaking community. He plays on PokerStars, Winimax, and several other rooms, but has recently played more live poker (including WSOP events). With 45,000 YouTube subscribers, almost 35,000 Twitch followers, and an active Telegram with 10,000 users, calling him a popular player is an understatement.
He also founded FunFarm & FirstFund, poker training funds where players collaborate, learn, pool funds, and (hopefully) succeed together.
GipsyTeam caught up with Lorem to discuss the state of online poker, how to start learning in 2026, and more.
— Hey, how are you?
You haven't posted on GipsyTeam in a while, haven't streamed lately, and I'm sure not everyone checks out your Telegram channel.
What have you been up to lately?
Hi! I used to know what I'd be doing until evening when I woke up. Now I have so much free time, it's not always clear what to do. I'm catching up on series, watching football... I no longer have the urge to play Sunday games.
— So, you're no longer an online regular?
If not a poker pensioner, then a poker media personality. And my FunFarm foundation is growing; this year we launched a new brand.
Someone recently called me a journalist. Sounds cool! I mostly spend all my time online, researching content, and posting short notes on Telegram. I like it!
— What media projects in the poker industry have you enjoyed or remembered over the past year or two?
There's not much good content. My favorite is Marley, Spraggy's wife—she's mind-blowing! Others tried to follow her example, but it looked unnatural, forced. With Marley, everything was very organic.
Early in her career, before the pandemic, she was making TikToks, and in one of the videos, she walked around the Bellagio and listed the players she'd slept with... Cool!
— What are modern MTTs like? How do tournaments and amateurs differ now from what they were 15 years ago?
I like to compare poker to chess. Compared to, say, Ilya Gorodetsky (GipsyTeam Founder and Chief Editor) at the board, I'm a dunce.
Meanwhile, I watch GothamChess, and I know the basic openings, the French Defense... I'm really happy that I understood Magnus's first six moves. So, I understand something! But for Ilya, my level is still child's play.
It's the same story with amateur poker players. For example, they've learned to donk on paired boards—it's a very simple concept. Or to bet big on a scare card. Or to keep one chip for themselves, rather than all their chips. And everyone does this, with or without reason. The fact that an amateur understands this isn't a problem for a regular. But the game is moving toward a point where acquiring a certain base is no longer difficult.
When I started, there was no software. I vividly remember sitting at a whiteboard with a marker, trying to figure out whether to push or not. Now, with a solver, any amateur can brush up on their skills and eliminate a ton of minor errors. But they won't become professionals; ready-made solutions aren't enough.
The situation is similar to chess engines: you know the right move, but why should you move the knight? What's the logic, the point? Why should you move the rook in another position? These answers are the secrets of professionalism: where it's correct to limp, where a raise is needed, when a shove is necessary.
It's from these nuances that we regulars gain an edge, and a pretty significant one at that. At the start of my career, a win rate of 5bb/100 was respectable. Now, though, that's the mark of a weak regular—people are showing 10 and even 15bb/100.
Since most funds still focus on win rates, players have adapted and started inflating them—entering tournaments early and trying to beat the fish for 500 big blinds. In blind terms, that's a lot, but in monetary terms, it's a pittance. But if someone less knowledgeable looks at the report, the player gets promoted and starts playing for more.
At FunFarm, we realized that win rates can't be trusted; they're rigged. So we created our own metric.
It's a tricky formula: we multiply a bunch of things, hard and easy tournaments, stats at the beginning and end of MTTs... We measure the actual edge over opponents. There are situations where a player's Hand2Note or HoldemManager offers 20bb/100, but their EV according to our internal metrics is -2bb/100.
Let them learn the game and come back. We introduced this metric in April and called it FFEV, and that's when we really took off.
— How can you come up with something like this? Who does this?
It all started six or seven years ago, when we came to the conclusion that we were only seeing the tip of the iceberg and that we could dig much deeper, making new discoveries in poker science. For example, in how hand selection works. Tournaments need to be studied, patterns identified, and conclusions drawn. And so it is with everything.
We began creating departments that eventually became our research institute. These departments push us forward, inventing things that never even existed before. They employ people who truly understand specific problems and do so full-time, without combining them with anything else. We recruit strong specialists—not just friends, wives of poker players, or acquaintances—but true professionals.
And these people opened up new opportunities for us to grow. They developed new tools like FFEV and the selection page in the personal account.
Players no longer have to worry about choosing tournaments at all—they can simply sit down and play the green ones (the ones our department has determined to be the most profitable for the individual student). This saves a huge amount of time and stress, and is also very effective in terms of maximizing profits.
And we carried out such transformations absolutely everywhere, including in education.
— What can we come up with? It seems like everything is already known by 2026.
There used to be no system or structure for training. I remember, early in my career, I just went to the top 200 PocketFives and messaged everyone privately: "Train me, I'll pay you!" About thirty people responded, and twenty declined. I managed to chat with five more.
It was very useful. For example, I trained with Aaron Bean. He promoted the idea of defending the big blind very wide; the only other player playing like that at the time was Konstantin Puchkov. He was five years ahead of poker theory; he was a visionary.
In general, the role of a coach back then was largely not about actual teaching, but about giving you confidence that you had learned something.
And this is also important! Inner confidence is 40% of success. Many are afraid to bluff the river or, conversely, call. When you only covered the bare minimum in training, the usefulness of the actual training dropped sharply. They explained to you that you could check or bet, but they didn't specify when to do so.
Then I started carefully studying the frequencies. I grouped everyone I considered strong into an alias. Individually, I had few hands for each (2,000 hands if I was lucky), but collectively, it added up to quite a few. I entered them into the software, looked at the stats, and searched for ideas.
It really helped me that I never considered myself the smartest. Until you're the best, you shouldn't come up with your own strategies. I simply "stole" others', taught them to my students, and it worked. We built up a huge archive of ideas and only then began to come up with our own. For example, that you can push 40 big blinds against a raise from the button. Back then, no one would have thought of that.
Feruell (One of the top Russian online high-stakes players) once wrote on GipsyTeam that in 20bb spins, you can call a shove with 76o and fold with AKo. This was a real mind-bender. I started digging deeper
There are several possible solutions:
Against an unknown opponent, a SNG HU reg only shoves 22-55 for 25bb. 22-44 is more likely, but that's irrelevant in this case. 76o against a 22-55 range has 51% equity. A call requires only 48%. So, by calling instead of folding, I earn 30 EV chips, which, given the limit, is about $60.
You might ask why the all-in range is so unbalanced, and that's a good question. The answer is that small pocket pairs play very poorly postflop, as almost every flop consists of three overcards, and at the same time, they're strong enough to be shoved. If you have, say, 55, you can already min-raise, hoping for a resteal all-in with 22-44 or A3o, A2s, which you dominate. With 22, there's practically no point in inducing a resteal. The higher the pair, the more profitable it is to min-raise. Naturally, with some history, calling with 76o is out of the question.
Back then, it was perceived as a message from a higher power, but now everyone would just say, "Aha, GTO guy." Then came more sophisticated exploits, and we developed them into entire strategies.
All sorts of ideas came up. For example, if a flush hits on the river, a bet the size of twice the pot will be folded far more often than it should be. Basically, the key is to try everything and see how it works. Remember the Yeti Theorem! (A three-bet on a dry flop, especially a paired one, is almost always a bluff)
At one time, I trained with RomeoPro, Pads, Bencb, and Dvoress. Back then, you'd go to a trainer and hear, "I'm really cool, ask me anything, I'll answer." That was training.
They opened the door for you to see the plant's chief engineer, who could tell you everything. The problem was, if I'd known what my problem was, I could have figured it out myself.
Essentially, all the training boiled down to telling someone, "This is a mistake, so it's better to play this way." Of all the people I worked with as a student, RomeoPro was probably the only one who knew how to teach properly: by identifying the student's problems himself and explaining exactly what needed to be corrected.
All this antediluvian learning was a kind of chaos that needs to be systematized and structured. Imagine we need to build a wall. Someone would simply try to pile stones as high as possible on top of each other, and that's also a way, but it's unreliable and also limited in height.
We strive to build the wall systematically, brick by brick, with a solid foundation and clear prospects.
We created our own system and called it The Player's Path: students receive a training program with clear steps and complete them like a quest, gradually improving their competencies.
We don't just push players through lessons; a whole team of specialists works with them individually.
— What do these people do? Isn't one good coach enough?
In my opinion, it would be a huge mistake to blindly follow the name of a single coach. Their results as a player aren't even as important. To develop, you need a system that won't fall apart if the coach disappears or their strategies fall out of the meta. This system must be adaptable to change and tailored to identify and solve your unique problems.
Every coach has their own strengths and weaknesses. Some are masters of ICM, others are well-versed in knockout tournaments, and still others are skilled in heads-up and 3-max. MTTs are a multi-faceted game where you need to be proficient in everything. That's why we have specialists who can help players improve in all areas.
History knows of countless foundations that built their operations on big names and then ingloriously collapsed. Returning to the question of why we need so many people.
In addition to trainers, we have curators, mentors, and mental coaches.
Coaches handle the technical aspects of the game, while curators act as personal managers, helping you stay focused and on track. Mentors are senior players at higher stakes who share their experience and provide support. Poker is a highly psychologically demanding game, so having someone nearby who has already walked the same path as you is extremely helpful.
Mental coaches and psychologists are experts at putting things in their place. They provide individual support, organize group sessions on various topics, conduct their own webinars and intensive courses, and explain how your brain works and how to befriend it.
— How much of a poker dream is still alive?
Let's say I've learned the combinations and the rules, but know nothing else. How long will it take me to win five hundred or a thousand dollars a month?
Based on our experience, the poker dream is alive. We take people with completely different experience levels and backgrounds and transform them from nothing into worthy, profitable players. We even have a FF Start course for this purpose; you can learn the rules with us for free. Some of them will even grow to very large winnings with enough dedication.
Compared to other professions, poker still offers a promising and fast path for anyone interested. Of course, not everyone will become a millionaire, but everyone can earn a decent income.
Overall, the poker dream is more accessible now than ever. While it used to be largely a matter of chance, now it's a matter of dedication and a willingness to work hard. We're probably the only foundation dedicated to professional poker education, with an infrastructure built literally from the ground up. We're proud to have learned not only how to play well, but also how to teach well.
Compared to chess, it's easy to talk about it as a profession. I'll never make money playing chess. It takes more than ten years to reach a level where I'm paid anything. In poker, three months is enough to earn the first couple hundred dollars. Not bad, considering that with a regular job, you have to go to university and live in a dorm on a stipend of three thousand rubles.
I often tell my students that the first money they earn shouldn't be seen as a salary. It's a stipend that keeps them motivated to keep playing. The main goal is to learn to play at a basic level. And that will provide a minimum income.
After that, it all depends on talent. Not everyone will become Messi. Dmitry Kombarov and Artem Dzyuba aren't playing for Barcelona because they're lazy: they lack skill, and the Russian Premier League is their objective ceiling. You can't go higher, no matter how hard you try. It's the same in poker. There are players whose maximum ABI is $50. They'll never be able to play higher. And then there's someone like Ronaldo, obsessed with his craft. For him, success is inevitable.
The inner fire can't be ignited. It can only be nurtured and cared for, so it doesn't go out. But if the motivation isn't there to begin with, you won't accomplish anything.
I remember when players named Ilya AcidVaule and Vladimir Polomar first arrived. They were rising every month, like icebreakers out of the sea. I was already writing back then that they were future stars. Six months to a year passed, and they were already playing in tournaments that were more expensive than anyone else in FF, and then they were playing in all the most expensive tournaments there are. They had this fire, but most people, naturally, aren't like that.
There are other examples: Vladimir Minko, Arseniy "hello_totti" Malinov – he recently played the final table of the GG Millions for $10,300, and we played 45/90/180-max SnGs for $0.25 together. I told him back then, "You'll be the best in the world!" It's nice to see that in him.
— You've mentioned your students many times. Are you still training them?
I haven’t worked as a coach for about three years now.
— What do you do at the foundation?
The easiest way to compare my activity is to Steve Jobs. My role is largely one of ideological mentorship. People are working around me, and I slink around like a solemn goose, offering advice. I often attend conference calls as an expert, ensuring that nothing goes wrong.
— FunFarm is already 13 years old, right?
The first mentions in the chronicles date back to that time, but strictly speaking, we weren't a fund in the modern sense; we were simply actively involved in backing. The fund itself was about eight or nine years old.
— Why do you think you’ve managed to stay afloat so far?
Because our approach claims to be scientific. We try not to make arbitrary decisions and don't regret abandoning what's been historically established. We're open to criticism and change, and we're ready to redo everything if we believe it can be improved.
Competitors are often unwilling to admit they're doing something wrong. For example, an obvious, basic mistake is giving rakeback to the player. This is bad because it forces them to focus on playing more, not better. They understand that they'll play 700 tournaments and earn a certain amount of rakeback. The fundamental goal also changes—not to win money at poker by playing well, but simply to play as much as possible and see if the machine will win or not.
A backer can't function normally in a system where the player isn't motivated to win money. Or when they show an ROI of less than 12%. In that case, it's a loss for the backer, as I mentioned five years ago. They need to show at least 16-17%, and even better, more.
— Remembering the well-known saying about “poker has two years left,” how much longer do you think poker actually has left?
Poker had 'two years left' when I first got into it 15 years ago. Everyone was sure of it back then. Now we look back and think: only an idiot could have thought that.
At the moment, a lot depends on cryptocurrencies. How willing are rooms to use them? For example, licensed sites (like PokerStars) are turning away from cryptocurrency, apparently due to legal issues. Otherwise, their business would be a hundred times better. They probably understand this, but they've trapped themselves.
This isn't a new story. PartyPoker was the first to fall into this trap. When the American market closed, PartyPoker was the largest room in the world. They made a fatal mistake – they went legal and went public. They had shares, everything was fine... And then – bam, regulations: "Closing the American market."
PokerStars and FullTilt were private companies back then. They said, "We're above the law; we can sell golf balls."
(In 2011, the Department of Justice accused FullTilt of disguising deposits to poker rooms as payments for goods from fake online merchants who supposedly sold jewelry, golf balls, and the like.)
This is a true fact about Full Tilt—that's how they defrauded banks. And they existed—until Black Friday.
There's a cool documentary on YouTube, Bet Raise Fold, about an old-school reg crowd. Andrew Lichtenberger said he had so much money that he'd already set his sights on a private island. Then Black Friday, and everything, his normal life, came crashing down...
FullTilt and PokerStars gained momentum and blew everyone away. Now PokerStars is a legitimate company, and GGPoker is private, able to circumvent problems and thrive on crypto and affiliates.
In a sense, GG's move was brilliant: they don't accept Americans, and there's no one who could arrive on an aircraft carrier and bomb everything. But the European Union, for example, might find fault; they love to issue billion-dollar fines... But they simply won't be paid and will be told, "Find us wherever you want, contact the Curaçao commission." It's hard to imagine them being strangled. More likely, they'll be legalized and forced to pay taxes.
For me, poker exists online, and the live game is the real deal. It will always find new ways to survive, despite online challenges and legal complications in various countries.
When I was 18, I thought it would be cool to invent a system like the lottery, but more fair, so that only the smartest people would win. And then I realized—that's what poker is!
Previously, casinos could charge any commission, and everyone was happy with it. Now the situation has changed: the structures have become worse, and the level of professionals has become more equal. The advantages are diminishing, and charging a higher rake is no longer feasible—the game simply won't hold up. Galfond has already implemented a similar idea in the States: there will be no rake at all.
BetRivers plans to monetize through casinos and sports betting.
Evolution is leading to the complete disappearance of rake in tournaments sooner or later. For now, the system can survive with a commission. If it stops, it will be removed. The problem with rake, as I understand it, is not only its existence but also the legal approach to it. For example, in the States, you can organize a game even in your own home as long as you don't charge a commission. As soon as you start charging, it's criminal.
If you play rake-free and charge an entrance fee, that's fine. Doug Polk's club in Texas operates on the same principle. You buy a membership, pay an entrance fee, and the game is commission-free.
When you're no longer annoying anyone with rake, poker becomes more like chess: advertising might even appear. High roller tournaments could easily feature ads for Porsche, Lamborghini, and Patek Philippe. That's their target audience!
Poker will not die, but rather evolve under pressure from external factors.
If the game becomes too easy to beat, they'll come up with something to make it more challenging, like adding a third card or drawing cards from the discard pile. We're not at the pinnacle of evolution; there's a whole new ladder to climb.
It's a billion-dollar business. It's naive to think everyone will just give up. WPT Club Gold is now on a second try: first, they sold chips, and they got to the bottom of that. Now they've come up with something else... Polymarket isn't a bookmaker, it's a prediction market. DraftKings isn't gambling, it's fantasy. Everyone is evolving and looking for loopholes.
The private sector is more flexible and agile than the public sector. What could destroy us is a government-backed AI that can change laws without bureaucratic delays. Many say the world itself has two years left… We'll be gone, but the game will live on. There will be a new empire, an AI equivalent of GG, robots will play among themselves, and AI players will stream. So, don't worry about poker!
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