Meet The Coaches
Robert Kuhn
Rob Kuhn (Pokerguru740, TRUMPING_YOU), founder and head coach of ElitePokerCoaching, has spent more than a decade perfecting his craft and succeeding at the game of poker. He is a high-stakes MTT and cash player with over $6,000,000 in total earnings.
ROB KUHN
Rob Kuhn (Pokerguru740, TRUMPING_YOU), founder and head coach of ElitePokerCoaching, has spent more than a decade perfecting his craft and succeeding at the game of poker. He is a high-stakes MTT and cash player with over $3,000,000 in total earnings.
Rob began playing at eighteen-years-old, primarily playing 6-max sit & go’s before switching over to MTTs. In college, he spent most of his time playing poker instead of going to class, grinding every night from 5pm to 7am. Eventually, due to this unhealthy lifestyle, he proposed a bet to his mother. The terms were as follows: if he could win $50,000 within the semester, she would allow him to drop out and pursue poker full-time. He was also required to make at least $20,000 per semester while dropped-out. The next week, Rob chopped the Nightly $320 on Pokerstars for $53,000. The week after, he won the Nightly $162 for $20,000.
In August of 2011, after Black Friday, he moved to Playa del Carmen, Mexico, where he primarily played MTTs until 2014, when he went on a six-month-long trip to Europe. Finding it difficult to adapt to the overnight tournament schedule in Europe, Rob switched to playing $500NL Zoom on Pokerstars full-time. He began winning at near-unattainable win-rates utilizing creative exploits he derived from his opponents’ PokerTracker4 HUD stats. He won at 9bb/100 over 300,000 hands, achieving the highest $500NL Zoom win-rate at the time (followed by OTB_RedBaron with the second-highest). Once opponents began picking up on his exploits, he adapted by incorporating a more GTO-based strategy into his game and continued his success.
After moving back to the US some years later, he mainly played $5/$10 and $10/$20 NL on Ignition, as well as $20/$40 on app-based poker rooms. He focused on cash and only played the largest MTTs—which involved flying back to Mexico for SCOOPs and WCOOPs. In 2015 and 2017, Rob claimed two $2k 6-max SCOOP Champion titles for $95,000 and $131,000, respectively. Over the last several years, he has lived in Las Vegas playing high-stakes MTTs and high-stakes private cash games.
Today, he continues to succeed in his poker career as the fourth-ever Sponsored ACR Pro, with a multitude of significant scores under his belt and a rapidly-growing Twitch stream. He combines the art of exploitative poker with his sound foundation of GTO strategy—which is the concept behind ElitePokerCoaching. As a coach, Rob aims to teach his students how and when to exploit opponents, while providing them with an expert understanding of the theory behind the game. He uses a straight-forward, no-excuses approach and knows how to relate to different people, allowing him to teach those from all stakes and play-styles.
https://www.twitch.tv/pokerguru740
ELLIOT PETERMAN
Elliott Peterman (groothedegen), featured coach at ElitePokerCoaching, has certainly made a name for himself in the decade plus he has been playing poker. Born in London, England, he now resides with his family in Costa Rica where he works as a full-time high stakes professional.
ELLIOTT PETERMAN
Elliott Peterman (groothedegen), featured coach at ElitePokerCoaching, has certainly made a name for himself in the decade plus he has been playing poker. Born in London, England, he now resides with his family in Costa Rica where he works as a full-time high stakes professional.
Throughout his career, Elliott has earned over $10 million in live and online cashes—including a 28th place in the 2016 WSOP Main Event for $216,211—and multiple millions in high stakes cash games. Half-way through 2020, he has already secured several major wins, including first for $65,000 in the $109 Sunday Warmup, first for $240,825 in the ACR $2.5k Million, first for $26,000 in a $215 $125k, and first in the $1k $200k for $66,000. Most recently, Elliott earned a WPT Online title on PartyPoker, winning the $2.1k 6-max for $235,000.
Elliott’s results speak for themselves, and his recent wins show he has no plans on slowing down. Elliott is joining EPC as a massive talent and incredibly valuable resource to all of his students, bringing with him years of high stakes experience in successfully battling the biggest names and best players in poker.
Griffin “FlushEntity” Benger
Griffin is a wildly successful poker player and former professional Counterstrike player under the name “shaGuar”.
Griffin “FlushEntity” Benger
Griffin is a wildly successful poker player and former professional Counterstrike player under the name “shaGuar”. His poker resume is nothing short of fantastic, with a 7th place in the WSOP $10,000 Main Event for $1.25 million and a win on Pokerstars’ Shark Cage Season 1 for $1 million. Griffin’s online resume as “FlushEntity” is longer than his live results, sitting as the #1 player in online poker at one point in his career.
With over a decade of competitive experience in multiple high level games, Griffin brings a unique perspective to his poker coaching that EPC students will find refreshing. There are few players with multiple 7 figure cashes in the poker world, there are even fewer that are coaching their poker game to students and we’re lucky to have Griffin on the EPC team.
Tim Reilly
Tim Reilly (PGAFan52) is a respected high-stakes MTT regular amassing over $5,000,000 in cashes in eight years. He is a Boston native, now residing in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Tim Reilly (PGAFan52) is a respected high-stakes MTT regular amassing over $5,000,000 in cashes in eight years. He is a Boston native, now residing in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Tim started playing poker with friends who were winning $100k per year, after one suggested he open an online poker account. This began his obsession with poker, and he started observing the best players in high roller live streams, molding his own game by taking what he liked and leaving the rest.
Within six months, Tim had run $500 on Full Tilt to about $17,000, and decided to play his first live series: The PokerStars NAPT. He took $5,000—a large portion of his bankroll—and went to Mohegan Sun to play some NAPT Preliminaries. He did well, winning a nightly tournament and making the final table of a side event resulting in about $5,000 profit, and then decided to take a shot at the NAPT Main Event. After being coolered near the bubble, he was down on the series, but planned to make it back online.
Then, Black Friday hit the U.S., and Tim’s entire bankroll was inaccessible to him. He stayed in the Boston area to grind low-stakes cash home games until he had enough money to go to Las Vegas the following year. There, he met a high-stakes professional who had won a bracelet and made over a million in profit in the preceding years. He liked Tim’s game and began backing him, and in September of 2012, Tim moved to Europe with him.
Shortly afterwards, Tim met Bryn Kenney, who quickly became his mentor and supporter, taking large pieces of him in high roller events and helping him take his game to the next level. In his first EPT High Roller, which Bryn had 40% of, Tim took 2nd place for $250,000—a shot that gave him a bankroll to work with on his own. He stopped being backed and continued to sell action to Bryn and other top players. Up to this point, everything Tim had learned came from observing high-stakes events and being mentored by other players. It wasn’t until 2018 that he began using software like PioSolver and preflop solutions to improve his game. With EPC, Tim plans to teach others the same way he learned. He believes in the importance of having a sound foundation and being creative from there, by learning exploitable spots and how to take advantage of player image within the constantly-evolving landscape of MTT poker.
Felix”Thedegenfund” Van Der Put
Felix is one of those rare players that has flown under the radar of the poker community while still amassing over $1.5 million in career profit
Felix”Thedegenfund” Van Der Put
Felix is one of those rare players that has flown under the radar of the poker community while still amassing over $1.5 million in career profit from tournaments with $800k+ coming from Pokerstars in the toughest fields online. He has a $208k WCOOP win under his wing alongside a $62k SCOOP win. With consistent final tables in huge field tournaments across all sites, Felix has demonstrated all the skill necessary to beat the biggest games online; now you’ll be able to learn from his gameplay in the EPC content library.
Coming from a competitive gaming background in Counterstrike, Felix has shown time and time again that he is able to keep his cool in high pressure situations. We’re as excited to see into Felix’s thought process as you are!
Mathias “Cashcid Linc” Maasberg
Mathias is a German High Stakes MTT player with a very versatile and holistic approach to playing, coaching and studying poker.
Mathias “Cashcid Linc” Maasberg
Mathias is a German High Stakes MTT player with a very versatile and holistic approach to playing, coaching and studying poker. With $250k+ scores in the 888 Main Event & the 2018 $109 SCOOP Main Event, he has navigated large fields while having the tools to close them out. He’s taken on the toughest fields online in the $1k Super Tuesday & $1k Thursday Thrill on Pokerstars and between the two tournaments has finished 1st place SEVEN times! His results show he’s a great player and his coaching style is focused on finding current weak points and turning those into strengths.
Using no way as a way, having no limitation as limitation. Bruce Lee had a training style that encapsulated situational adaptability and understanding yourself to understand your opponent and surroundings better. Mathias evaluates his own game and his student’s game to find whether now is the time to best focus on GTO play or to study the patterns of an opponent to exploit their game. He’s a huge proponent of developing a strong mental game to fortify your poker skill set and we’re excited to see what type of creative content he’ll make for EPC!
Matthew Wakemen
Matthew Wakemen aka mjw006 is one of those poker pros that somehow flew under the radar while putting together huge results online and live.
Matthew Wakemen aka mjw006
Matthew is one of those poker pros that somehow flew under the radar while putting together huge results online and live. With nearly $10m in cashes over his 12 year career, EPC is excited to see what his experience can bring to the table. But what results has he had over the last year, you might ask?
Well, he’s won the Bounty Builder $530 on Pokerstars 3 times for $85k, $60k, & $30k in 2019/2020, respectively. On top of his stellar online results, Matthew final tabled the 2019 Aussie Millions, finishing 5th place for $273k and won a $5k WSOP International Circuit in Sydney for $189k.
Mjw has been coaching poker since 2010, from private coaching to group coaching to making videos for poker sites. Matthew will enable you to learn how to play better, not just tell you how to play better. EPC welcomes mjw006 to the coaching staff and we’re sure his coaching style will give you the toolset to climb up the MTT stakes!
Girafganger
Giraf is an online poker pro’s pro. If an Online Poker Hall of Fame comes about, Girafganger would be on one of the first ballots.
Girafganger
Giraf is an online poker pro’s pro. If an Online Poker Hall of Fame comes about, Girafganger would be on one of the first ballots. Ranked #1 in the World on Pocket Fives during an absolutely monumental 2017, possibly one of the all-time greatest years an online player has seen. He had so many big results that we can only list the biggest:
2nd place in the Pokerstars $1k Phased for $700k
5th place in the Pokerstars $215 11th Anniversary Sunday Million for $292k
1st place in the Pokerstars $1k Super Tuesday WCOOP for $197k
2nd place in the Pokerstars $5k for $106k
AND 10th place in the $10k SCOOP Main for $72k
These are only results from 2017. . .
He worked his way up from the micro stakes starting in 2012, always sporting a high volume of tournaments throughout his playing career, he vaulted up the stakes and began crushing the highest stakes on Pokerstars. As a player advocate, he has brought the high stakes MTT players together to put pressure on Pokerstars to create a better ecosystem for their high stakes tournaments.
Giraf has worked with many players over his 8 year playing career, from coaching to studying with some of the best players in the world at Pocarr Staking. He has an open-mindedness in poker that creates an environment of learning through making mistakes and sometimes “odd” plays. His out of the box thinking will bring a unique perspective to the videos he’ll be creating for Elite Poker Coaching.
