Poker News

Paul McGuire

fields ever held in tournament poker. Some of the best players in the world entered the $25,000 buy-in event that featured a first place prize of close to $4 million. Carlos Mortensen would go on to win the WPT World Championship but had to beat some of the best online players in the world en route to his victory. Several of the premiere online tournament players in the universe competed at the Bellagio such as ZeeJustin, daut44, TheWacoKidd, Shaniac, JohnnyBax, imper1um, Mig.com, gigabet, NeverWin, Imsolucky0, and BeL0WaB0Ve.

At the time the WPT Championships began, Sorel “imper1um” Mizzi was ranked the number one online tournament player in the world according to PocketFives.com. Those that knew about him finally got a chance to see him play in a live setting. He had just turned twenty-one years old which made him eligible to play in Las Vegas tournament.

“I was very excited. This was obviously the biggest tournament I have ever played in. The stakes were very high. With that said, I was not really nervous about it. I wanted to play my game and do the best that I could. If things go my way, that’s great. If they don’t… then they don’t. You have to play every poker tournament the same. You gotta play it very well. You can’t be playing it scared. If you make a mistake or lose a big pot to a suckout, well that’s the situation. I had been playing very confident and playing some of the best poker of my life.”

Imper1um had an advantage due to his anonymity. Since many of the top pros had no idea who he was, they had a tough time gauging the style of hisgame because they never had experience playing against him.

“I know how other people play and they don’t know how I play. That’s really good. I’ve seen all of these guys on TV. I know what they are capable of doing and what they’re not.”

Imper1um used that edge to finish in 15th place. He won $154,705 as many players finally put a face to his name. A couple of players went deep at the WPT Championship such as Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo who took home $77,350 for 35th place. Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby finished in 44th place and won $61,880.

TheWacoKidd won two other events at the Bellagio’s Five Star World Poker Classic worth over $500,000. He took first place in their $2,000 and $2,500 buy-in events. By the time he left the Bellagio, TheWacoKidd won over $580K.

ZeeJustin is one of the more well-known online players and he can’t use the anonymity of the internet to maintain a low profile at tournaments.

“I can’t fly under the radar. I don’t really have a look that blends in. People see a 21-year old kid with spikey hair, so I kinda stand out amongst the older pros here. A lot of people know how I play before I sit at a table so it can be a disadvantage. “The majority of online players treat a live event the same as they would an online tournament. They might have to adapt to making sure they mask any tells and be conscious of their physical self. However, their strategy is often the same live as it is online.

“I always go into every tournament with the same mentality,” explain Zee Justin. “I don’t go into a tournament with a specific strategy. Each hand I look for the best play possible. It doesn’t matter if it’s a $10 tournament or a $25,000 tournament.”

The one thing online players often regret about live tournament is the slower paced action and inability to play more than one tournament at once. Then again, when you’re playing in the WPT Championships with $4 million at stake, focusing on one table isn’t such a bad idea.

Paul ?Dr. Pauly? McGuire is a writer, poker player, and avid

traveler from New York City. He’s the author of the Tao of

Poker blog which can be found at taopoker.blogspot.com.

Filed under: Poker News