Ten years ago, Jared Bleznick was one of the most controversial figures in the high roller world. He was winning millions online, no one doubted his poker talent, but his reputation was, to put it mildly, questionable.
In 2013, a multi-page thread appeared on 2+2 titled “High Limit Scams and Multi-Accounting – Jared Bleznick and Others.”
In the post here, the author claims that "Very reputable sources out main suspect as Jared Bleznick," referring to multi-accounting and accoutn sharing: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/multi-accounting-cheating-high-stakes-jared-bleznick-more-1354618/
Today, the events of those years are hardly remembered, but Jared, thanks to his work as a commentator at this year's World Series, has become a favorite of the community.
Recently, he posted a video on Twitter in which he reciprocated the fans' feelings.
– Falling in love with poker... at 16 years old watching Chris Moneymaker win the 2003 Main Event was one of the greatest moments of my life.
And here we are 22 years later, as I still love the game of poker.
But the reason for this video is that I am so appreciative and I want to thank the poker community for taking me in on my commentary.
After the World Series, Jared took on the difficult mission of bringing action back to the highest stakes.
On July 27th, he started a session on CoinPoker against arguably the strongest PLO player in the world, omaha4rollz.
After this hand, the opponents moved to a new table and added $200k each. Jared quickly lost several buy-ins, omaha4rollz ended up with a stack of over $1 million.
During this match, 2+2 users recalled that in 2017, Cullen "cumicon" Connors rated Jared's performance this way:
– What are your thoughts on harrington/Jared? seems to play fishy, but like you is very good at exploiting population tendencies,no?
– He is a real enigma. Easily the craziest/most high variance player I've played. For those that don't know, he is super LAG, and 3bet tends to be in the 30-60% range. How he can get away with playing that style and not losing 50bb/100+ is beyond me.
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=53195001&postcount=23733
Bleznik's next opponent was a player with the nickname PencilArms.
Things were clearly not going well for Jared at the $300/$600 table, as his opponent ended the match with a stack of over 600bb.
Bleznick demanded and was granted a $500/$1k move. The match was a back-and-forth affair. Almost immediately, Jared lost one of the session's biggest pots, shoving the turn with no outs.
– Another GTO masterpiece from Harrington ( Ed. – one of Bleznik's old nicknames ), – JNandez assessed this hand.
After that, Bleznik straightened out and brought his stack up to a million, but lost ground a little in the end.
Bleznik's next opponent was Giselle54 at $1k/$2k.
Early on, Jared won several big pots, one of which was worth over $500k.
Jared 3-bet and bet all streets.
In this hand, Jared 4-bet 54,000 preflop, potted on the flop, and called his last 40,000 into a shove.
Jared has more than $1 million again.
He then won the preflop all-in to extend his lead even further.
But Giselle54 managed to bounce back and even took the lead.
Jared made the usual 3-bet and three barrels postflop
Blez warned that he would soon go to bed, after which he took all the chips from his opponent within an hour.
Jared raised preflop, Giselle54 check-raised 6,350-22,000 on the flop, Bleznik reraised to 50,000, got called. The turn was checked, Giselle54 bet 112,700 on the river, Jared called with top pair.
JNandez also noted this distribution.
Giselle54 quickly scattered the rest of the stack and went to rest, and PencilArms returned to Jared.
The match didn't last long. PencilArms doubled up and Jared went to bed.
Bleznik three-bet preflop, continuation bet the flop, and half the pot on the turn. PencilArms raised the pot and called all-in.
This session and the end of the match with Giselle54 were commented live by VeniVidi.
In recent days, Jared has switched from PLO to mixed games and moved to PhenomPoker where he found action at the 8-game $2k/$4k table.
First he played 8 games heads-up with Viktor Blom.
They were soon joined by other limit game enthusiasts, including Jungleman.
After the World Series, Jared gave an interview to Poker.org, in which he admitted that commentating work brought back his love for poker and said that during the final days of the Main Event, he supported Mizrachi directly from the stands:
– After Michael won, I got a bunch of messages congratulating me, everyone was sure that I had a share. But I didn’t have a single percent. When the final table was determined, I bet on him to win with odds of 4.3. I decided that this was a great odds and loaded it to the maximum. But I didn’t take a single percent from Michael himself.
You know what impressed me most about his win? From day 5, I sat in the stands and watched the broadcast at the same time, and Michael never once asked me what cards the opponents had. Although almost everyone does this and there is nothing wrong with it. But Grinder simply does not care about the cards of other players.
For me, this is an indicator of how talented he is. He has no equal in the main tournament, he is the strongest in the world there. I don’t know a single player who doesn’t care what his opponents have done. Although, I’ll be honest, there is one. His name is Phil Ivey .
Jared was also involved in commentary on PokerGo last year, and managed to work one day during the Players Championship. But this year's series was his finest hour.
– I immediately told Mori Eskandani that I was ready not to sit in the players' championship at all if they let me commentate on it. I wanted to fully concentrate on this.
This is my favorite tournament to commentate because I know 90% of the players and I know their game very well, especially in mixes. I communicate with many of them personally, so I felt completely in my element. I really enjoyed it. The victory of one of my best friends only added positive emotions. I think he himself does not fully understand how impressive his achievement is.
Jared once again emphasized that he does not comment for the sake of earning money:
I was even offered some money, but I refused. I don't want to be tied down by financial obligations, because I don't consider it work. I come when I want to. During the main tournament, we always agreed at the very last moment.
Poker is not a job for me either. For 15 years I played purely for the money, fortunately I don’t need to anymore. I noticed that 99% of the players come to Vegas hoping to make enough money for the next year, but I play because I love it. At the moment, I enjoy being behind the microphone even more, so it was an easy switch. Until I started commentating, I didn’t even realize how much I loved the game.
Jared has only commentated four tournaments so far – last year's and this year's Players Championship, the 2-7 Single Draw Championship, and the Main Event. His lack of experience is his biggest weakness.
– I could commentate much better, but I don’t have and never will have time to do it full-time. I need to run a sports card company. I constantly repeat myself on air, I don’t have enough vocabulary and my English is generally quite poor. Mori gave me some useful advice and advised me to go to TV school if I was serious.
It may sound arrogant, but I could be the best commentator in the history of poker. I haven't even come close to realizing my potential yet. My biggest advantage is that I know what the audience wants.