Congratulations to Jack who has made the final table of the APAT OnLive Championship, which will be played at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino on December 15th. In a series of interviews with each finalist, APAT Media Director Richard Prew caught up with Jack for his views on the event to date, and his thoughts on the London final table.
Poker Background?I first got "into" poker after watching Helen Chamberlain finish second in the 2005 Poker Million. I"d always had the idea that poker was a "sexy" game played by "sexy" people - so I thought I"d try my best to put that right. I"m not a natural gambler so I played with play chips for a while until I twigged that it wasn"t "real" poker if there was no risk. I found Poker Night Live on Sky which was fantastic free(ish) education and was gutted when the channel folded. I used to play the MTT every night and had some success, winning it 2 or 3 times and cashing regularly. I still play for small stakes and like to play one MTT a day, preferably deepstack $10-$40.
Greatest Poker Successes?
My biggest win was taking down a 700+ runner MTT for about $1,800. Final-tabling in two successive season 1 APAT Online tourneys was great managing to clinch a beautiful silver medal in one! My greatest "success" so far live (other than down the pub) was finishing 22nd in Dublin when Steve Lacey"s AK was too good for my 9 s just 15 minutes before the end of day one. My success in the OnLive event is fantastic and I"m hoping it"ll be enough to clinch a place in the Top 10 for season 1.
How did the Online section go?Generally well. I was quite card-dead early and got pretty short but then had a rush of cards including KK in consecutive hands - amazingly I won both hands, against the same opponent, holding AQ both times. I"m sorry I can"t remember his name, but he went from one of the chip leaders to out in two hands - which is never nice - sorry! Early on I made what, at the time I thought was one of my tightest, most horrible plays ever. Blinds 10/20, I raise 4BB UTG with QQ, get 3 callers and the button makes a 6x re-raise. I fold my queens not wanting to get into a big multi-way pot early - for the sake of 400 chips when I"ve got a 10,000 stack!!! Of course the flop came Q - x - Q, giving me quads (if only.). The glorious turn gave one player the nut flush and the other the full house and I would have been chip leader on 30K early doors! Still as the adage says - you can"t win it early doors you can only lose it.
Were you ever seriously at risk of going out during the Online stage? Yes, I muffed poor old Lee Mulligan when I called his all-in with KK with my slightly inferior AJ - sorry Lee - would have been left about 1BB.
How many of your fellow finalists did you encounter during the Online section? As stated by others I spent some considerable time with jacklevel (Mickey Patterson) and amitightorloose (Kevin Shutt).
What are your thoughts about the Live section?I am going to thoroughly enjoy the day! I"m pleased I"m there with a couple of familiar and friendly faces in Kevin and Mickey to help ease the nerves. Whatever the outcome I"m going to have a great weekend, a drink with MickeyP, win a bit of money - anything else is a bonus. It doesn"t get much better than that!
What do you think of the Onlive concept and the tournament structure? It remains to be seen. If the blinds are rolled back sufficiently to give us all a bit of room for manoeuvre then it will be great. To travel all that way with the accompanying expense just to play push or fold poker would be a shame. I"d like to see the small stack start with at least 20BB really.
What would it mean to you to triumph and win that WSOP seat?It would be great - possibly the trip of a lifetime - but I can"t help thinking that this weekend"s pre-APAT warm-up at Ger Smyth"s house with friends we"ve made at APAT events is going to be a whole lot more fun to play in and less coronary-inducing!
Looking at the chip count, there is all to play for. Will you go with a strategy in mind? If so, what is it?(feel free to spread disinformation!)I"m going to play my normal game with the usual adjustments for the particular situation (this is a bit of a worry as Kevin saw me donk off all my chips in one of the OnLive satellites using my "normal" game!). If Lady Luck smiles on me then happy days! If I take an early bath and have to find solace at the bar with MickeyP then happy days too!
