Dietrich Fast Reflects on LAPC Win At His WPT Vienna Homecoming

Dietricht Fast after winning the LAPC Main Event

Dietrich Fast is a man who lives up to his name when you translate it into its English meaning. He has cashed half a dozen times in 2016 already, zooming from Australia to Dublin and over to Los Angeles. It was in the City of Angels that Fast found his halo, as he achieved the divine achievement of winning the L.A. Poker Classic for a cool $1,000,800 and becoming one of the latest WPT Champions Club members.

To see him in Vienna should not be a surprise, then, as he bids to add a second World Poker Tour Main Event title to his ever-growing roster of impressive wins. But it is an expected appearance for another reason as the popular German moved to Austria’s capital city in January. So, this is a homecoming of sorts, but how does that feel after taking down such a prestigious tournament on his travels?

“It felt fantastic to win the LAPC. I hadn’t enjoyed the best luck in other tournaments running up to LAPC. I’ve won other tournaments before, just not one with a prize near one million dollars. I never went so deep in those type of tournaments before, but this time I managed to reach the final table and run pretty hot. I feel pretty good right now!”

It’s a landmark for any player, to win a tournament the size of the LAPC, but particularly in Dietrich Fast, one gets the impression that the LAPC win signifies a watershed for his career, a level of achievement to which he had been aspiring for a long time. So how did he do it?

“I tried to play my best game, I didn’t think about the result or money. To be honest, in my whole career I never thought about what the next pay-jump is, or about how much more money I can make if I fold this or that hand. It was always the goal for me to win the tournament, and that alone. I won smaller tournaments, €200 euro or $500 dollar tournaments in Las Vegas, and I always went for first. I’m always focused to achieve that. I see a lot of players doing that; on the money bubble, on the final table bubble a lot of players are weak and fold hands, and I abuse that. I put a lot of pressure on them to get them to fold hands, and I make a lot of chips without making hands myself. That’s a huge advantage to have.”

Dietrich’s signature piece is applying huge pressure on others, and is vital to his success. Making those moves at the right moments is down to judgement. So how did Dietrich get to the level where he’s confident to ramp up that aggression?

“I learned a lot in the last two years. I studied a lot, I got a lot of help too and I now play way better than I did 2-3 years ago. I always know what I’m doing and am pretty confident in my game. If you run pretty well and the cards fall your way, it can be pretty easy if you understand the game better than the others.”

Dietrich Fast on Day 1a of WPT Vienna

Part of Dietrich’s attraction as a player to watch comes from his nature away from the table. He is popular amongst his peers, and seeks their advice often. His support group is clearly important to him, but how integral is it to his success?

“I think that it’s one of the key reasons I’ve been so successful in the last year; to speak day and night with other players is great. It’s crazy how many more hands I discuss now than 2-3 years ago, so I think that’s a big part of a successful poker player. In the end, it’s not a team sport. You’re on your own at the table and have to make your own decisions, but before and afterwards, if you can talk with your friends and colleagues about the hands you’ve played, you will always see adjustments, or, small mistakes or different points of view. If you’re open-minded to see other strategies, you can take these different strategies and choose which ones to add to your own game to become even more successful.”

Being open-minded was the key to his answer, something he clearly places a lot of importance in.

“Everybody thinks that they’re the best at poker, that’s the truth! If somebody tells another player they made a huge mistake or berate someone, they always feel like offended. That’s a big part of winning. You have to be open-minded to learn from better players if they give you advice.”

With six cashes on the road already, the tour provides Dietrich with real inspiration. He clearly has the travelling bug.

“It was one of my biggest goals when I was a low-mid stakes grinder playing online. I always wanted to travel and play all the major tournaments and high rollers. I didn’t expect to play high rollers back in the day, but now if the field is soft enough – they are still tough but if the line-ups is pros and some weaker players – then I have no trouble playing 24 hours later at the other end of the world. I’m relaxed about that.

Dietrich is a pretty cool character at the table, and his switch from gregarious personality when the break is called to the success-blinkered pro he embodies at the table is a striking contrast.

“I used to be emotional but that was 7-8 years ago. Now I’m really focused and try to be as unemotional as possible. As a tournament player, you lose maybe 9 out of  10 times online and live you can lose straight for 6, 12 or 18 months and not cash. If you get emotional about that, it can change your game and your style, then you lose even more. I try to avoid that, and just think about the game. I don’t have a lot of emotion during gameplay. I think about the best play and collate all the information I get to make the best decision. I’m pretty confident with that style. Almost all pros have it.”

We wished him well in Vienna, Dietrich’s adopted home-town. His game plan is pretty simple, and as focused as Dietrich Fast seems to be in everything he does.

“Let’s take it down!”

Few would bet against the German based on current form.