Small Talk with Yohan « Yoh_Viral » Guilbert

The French poker streamer and Youtuber Johan « Yoh_Viral » Guilbert, who busted five places from the money yesterday, made his very first trip to Russia and we took the opportunity to have a little chat with him in Sochi. Read our interview to learn more about his activities on social media and colorful lifestyle as well as his views of the poker community and the travelling part of the professional player life.

-It was your first experience in Sochi and in Russia in general, what motivated you to go to that stop?

I realized that as a poker player, we’re travelling a lot but we’re actually always going to the same main destinations, like Las Vegas, Prague, Marrakech, Monaco ect. so since around one year I’ve decided to stop that routine and change a lot of things in my poker life and my social circle. I travelled much more to countries I’ve never been before because I think that if we choose that life and reached that financial freedom it was to not have a routine life, and Sochi was a real discovery for me, as well as Russia. I did my visa two weeks ago. Recently I only travelled to new poker destinations for me like Bangkok, Bucarest, Tallin, Sochi, Belgrade ect. and I really enjoy it.

-As a french player, what do you think of the differences between the French type of play and what you experienced here?

As a french player, I think the field is pretty different here. There are a lot of live players, and also the age of the field is a bit older than I’m used to seeing, it’s a different type of game with more regular live players and I’m happy to have experienced that. I also saw a lot of good players here, like Anataly Filatov who’s a good friend of mine. I’ve played with many different type of players during the WPT Russia and I’ve seen very good types of play.

-You’re very active on all the social media, YouTube ect. and show a lot of your lifestyle, which can lead to criticism sometimes, what could you say about your evolution through the years on the social media and what are your goals today?

I was working as a radio host before going into poker, where I had to talk a lot and I always liked social media in general. So I’m quite used to sharing about my life, it has always be a fun activity for me and now I’m not shy to show my daily life to people. It’s like a countinuity with my previous work and that’s why I started a twitch poker channel a few years ago, to associate radio and poker. I almost reached 30 million views since the beginning so I’m really happy with the result and it motivates me to keep doing it. I have a nice community and I like to share with them about my travels and my lifestyle in general in a fun way. My goals now are to continue to make a living from poker and continue help other players make a living with the game throughout my coaching activities in France. And also keep working on Youtube and my activities as an influencer, which is a good way I think to prepare the future and my life after poker. I’ll continue playing all my life because I love the game but if one day I stop my professional career I would be happy to have YouTube as a job. For me sharing videos is a very rewarding activity. I just love social media in general, it’s my thing!

– What was your favorite activities outside of poker in Sochi?

I really loved the restaurants in Sochi, the food is delicious here, and I also liked a lot the Russian people in general. They were really friendly and welcoming and, in my opinion, have the most beautiful women in the world! I went snowboarding with Anatoly and Matas Cimbolas during a day off. It was terrific to be able to go in the mountains to ski during a nice event such as a WPT and I’ll definitely come back to Sochi!