Generation Next: Michael Benvenuti Forgoes a Career in Medicine for Poker’s Bright Lights

Michael Benvenuti loved emergency medicine. While attending the University of Texas, he worked in an emergency room alongside the doctors, tending to the immediate needs of each patient. And some mornings he worked in the laboratory dissecting rat brains, which was all part of his premed training to move into neurosurgery after graduation. To relax from a jammed class load, Benvenuti played online poker. He read a few books, played basic ABC poker, and gradually built a bankroll. Then, one day changed his life.

“I remember winning $20,000 one night after a long day,” said Benvenuti. “Then, I had to get up and go to the lab that morning and put rat brains onto slides. I just couldn’t think about anything work-related. I was so excited about poker. I was hooked.”

Around this time, Benvenuti studied all of the Harrington on Hold’em books as if he were cramming for year-end medical exams. He then took a tight-aggressive style out for a road test. The hard work took Benvenuti to a new level of understanding of the game. He went on a hot streak, winning three tournaments over three consecutive days, for more than $15,000. The road to medical school had come to an abrupt end; the bright lights of a professional poker career had won the day.

Since that fateful day three years ago, Benvenuti has come close to taking down a couple of major live events. In 2009, he took home $129,000 and a second-place finish behind Isaac Baron in the $5,000 Caesars Palace Classic. And this year, he came close to winning again, once more capturing the runner-up spot in the WPT $10,000 Festa al Lago main event, for $564,200. But online tournaments have been Benvenuti’s bread and butter, as he has more than $2 million in career cashes to date.

We caught up with Benvenuti soon after the biggest score of his career at the Festa al Lago. We wanted to find out how he has soared up the online poker ranks so fast over the last three years, and what adjustments he’s had to make in his live game.

Craig Tapscott: What kinds of things did you do to go beyond the poker books to improve your game?

Michael Benvenuti: As I got better, I leaned toward playing more hands and improving my hand-reading skills. Then, I really focused on the psychology of the game.

CT: What specifically did you pay attention to?

MB: I learned how to be very aware of my table image and how people viewed me. I had a pretty tight image. Once I realized that, I started to mix it up a little bit. Also, I learned to trust my first instinct about certain situations. What happens is, those “feelings” that you get about your opponent’s hand strength come from your brain recognizing a pattern that you’ve seen over and over again through experience, whether or not you consciously recognize it. Then, you act accordingly.

CT: What do you think you do well at the table?

MB: I try not to make ego plays. A lot of players will four-bet you or make some crazy play because they don’t want to get run over. They don’t want to look weak. That’s a big leak. I try to keep my ego out of it, and simply focus on making the right decisions.

CT: How exactly have you learned to tame your ego at the table?

MB: I think that I’m really a humble person in general. And one of the things I focused on was that to be a great player, you can’t go on tilt. You have to learn to control your emotions. A lot of players have that issue as a huge leak. I try not to let certain things that go wrong affect my decisions.

CT: What did you notice right away that you had to adjust to when making the transition to live poker?

MB: I think hand ranges are completely different in the live game as opposed to online. It’s just an element of the table dynamics that causes people to play differently. Sometimes their ranges are tighter. It depends. Some live players will reraise on a dry board, like a K-4-2 rainbow flop. They will turn certain hands into bluffs, or they will raise to see where they’re at in a hand. That is something you don’t see online very often, and it’s something you have to adjust to in live poker.

CT: I understand that you made a huge comeback at the Festa al Lago.

MB: [Laughing] It was amazing. On day five, I lost with K-K to Randal Flowers’ all in with K-10, and was down to two big blinds. I then won a few crazy pots in a row, and was back up to 20 big blinds. It was a ridiculous comeback.

CT: Congratulations on the deep run. I’m sure that you’ll capture a big win soon.

MB: Thanks. ♠