Dermot Blain -- Movin’ On Up

Dermot Blain was born in Sligo, Ireland but calls Killybegs, County Donegal in the Emerald Isle his home. That is, however, when he’s not flying around the world playing high stakes cash games and battling amongst the best in the business in major live poker tournaments. His name hit the headlines in 2009 when the young pro scored a touchdown at the APPT Macau main event to take the first place prize of $541,100 back to Ireland. Card Player wanted to find out more about how Blain got to the level he’s currently at and what he has been doing since his big win.

Rebecca McAdam: I want to start off with your background. How did you get into poker? what were you doing beforehand? and so on.

Dermot Blain: I did a three-year sports and recreation course and a one-year add-on degree in business. I was mad into sport when I was younger; played soccer, gaelic football, and basketball, night and day, I always had a bit of an addictive personality, like a lot of poker players I think. I had no real clue after college so I got into sales and moved to Derry [Northern Ireland]. I loved it there and that’s were I started playing weekly tournaments and ended up winning their end of month type tourney and that kind of got me hooked. I think it was something like £2,000 which was a fortune to me back then.

Then I felt like a change work-wise, all my friends were in Dublin so I decided to move there. I like the hustle of the old city life. After a night on the piss with the lads we went to the Jackpot and I won a chunk, so I decided to play the next few nights and ended up going on a mad heater. I won about €20,000 in three weeks playing €1-2, €2-5. I remember having the 20k on my bed back in the apartment, I guess it was pretty hard to go back to work after that considering I won nearly a year’s salary in three weeks! The funny thing is I probably hadn’t an idea what I was doing. I think that was about two-and-a-half years ago and I haven’t looked back since. The economy was still booming at that stage, the games were amazing.

RM: Was it mostly about the money or did you also love the game?

DB: I think at the start obviously the money is a huge attraction but I do love playing, ask the lads, I’m pretty sure they would all agree I probably have put in more hours than most over the last two years, either playing or studying. [John] O’Shea always takes the piss out of me because I’m always railing him when he’s playing! I think all the top players have a love for the game — I remember watching a Phil Ivey interview and the guy asked him about his first three years in poker, his response was he played 16 hours a day, 7 days a week — if it’s good for Ivey, it’s good for me.

RM: When did you start playing online?

DB: I only started playing online in the last year. My online results are nowhere near as good as my live results but I’m currently working hard to improve them. Online is great because you can log so many hands and I think that’s what gives you such a huge edge when you play live. I’m so much more comfortable than the live regulars (someone who has played live all their life and has very little online experience — this is more common in the states where games run all the time). I mean at a live game there will be approximately 20 hands per hour and obviously only one table. Compare that to playing 100 hands per hour on six tables which are generally sixhanded online.

Online, you are forced to make more decisions, which can only help your game. When it comes to making big decisions, because I played so many more hands and had to make similar decisions numerous times, then I think I am going to be more comfortable, especially in the big pots.

Also the standard is so much higher online. It’s weird, the higher you play live the more gamble their seems to be — the highest I have played is $100-$100 pot-limit Omaha for a week in LA, and I can honestly say only a handful would have a chance at $5-$10 online, most would struggle at $2-$4.

RM: Why do you think you’re better live?

DB: Hmm… good question! I’m pretty good at reading people and know what certain people
are and aren’t capable of, which is pretty important, and I think I’m pretty disciplined in that I don’t tilt very often. It’s hard being stuck five buy-ins in a live game because it’s so slow and it’s generally nine handed which means you can’t really push the action, so I guess you have to be really patient, which I’m pretty good at.

RM: It’s not hard to be stuck five buy-ins online?

DB: [Laughs] Well, being stuck five buy-ins online is not a big deal because you’re playing five or six tables and maybe 200 hands an hour, so it is a normal swing especially in pot-limit Omaha. If being stuck five buy-ins is enough to put you off your game, I suggest you stick to playing live.

RM: Live is less risky on the wallet?

DB: Well you can deposit a small amount online and roll it up so it doesn’t hurt so much if you bust your account because most of the time you’re only in for small but yeah if you deposit a large amount, you can definitely lose it quicker. I don’t necessarily think live is less risky but definitely a slower death, which I guess can give people false hope.

RM: You have a good circle of poker friends, when did you get into that clan?

DB: I got more friendly with John [O’Shea] and the lads after I won in Macau, by that time those lads were already traveling the tourney circuit and playing big online and I was a relative nobody in the poker scene, but I traveled loads with them last year especially John and Dave [Callaghan] and have learned loads and had some good laughs along the way. It’s very important to have a good circle of friends to help with the ups and downs, the downs in this game can be so brutal, it helps to know that you’re not the only one — It’s a shame because I can think of loads of talented players who couldn’t quite handle the variance of poker.

RM: Did your life change much after Macau?

DB: Yeah for sure, I don’t think I have changed that much as a person but it has given me the freedom to travel and play bigger events, which gives me the chance to win big. I don’t think I have managed my money perfectly since but I still have put enough away that I won’t go life skint and I’ve invested a lot in building so I will have that if things go bad in the next while. I think the knowledge I have gained the last 18 months traveling and playing bigger will be invaluable in the future.

RM: Do you travel and play more than when you are at home then?

DB: Yeah I travel like six months of the year at least, expenses are high probably close to €100,000 and that’s not even including buy-ins so you got to be winning, but I really enjoy it, nothing like the buzz of going deep in a major event with loads of chips, although I have got pretty good at busting big stacks lately. I need to fix that, I really want a new apartment in Dublin!

RM: Your expenses are €100,000 without buy-ins?

DB: Actually no that’s too high, but definitely €50,000 plus.

RM: So tell me about the second annual Chad Brown Championship — both you and John O’Shea made the final table…

DB: Well we got to know Chad through a friend, Chad is a real nice guy so we said why not? It was a funny field, it only got about 70 runners with a mix of real good guys and some of the worst players I have ever seen. I’m actually really annoyed about that one, I played pretty terrible, bluffed most of my chips off in a bad spot when I had gotten myself into a good position with four left. John played well; he was a little unlucky. I would definitely go back, some good cash action there as well.

RM: Did you have any run-ins with John on the final table?

DB: A couple, I doubled up through him once but it was just a standard hand. I think we both have a lot of respect for each other’s game so I won’t be going out of my way to get him and vice versa. Obviously I wanted to win but if I didn’t I would like to see him win — we didn’t have any of each other’s action.

RM: Why?

DB: It was only a small field and we both had horses in the field that had already died so it wasn’t really worth it, but normally we do, it helps keep the variance down.

RM: How exactly are you improving your game? Are you working on certain areas or just generally playing more hands?

DB: I watch videos sometimes on CardRunners, or Phil Galfond’s site Bluefire is quite good as well, but mainly just by playing more hands.

RM: What stakes do you play?

DB: I’m currently playing $3-$6 and $5-$10, I’ve had had a pretty terrible year so far but hopefully once some run-good comes back I’ll be playing $10-$20 and shot-taking at $25-$50.

RM: Do you play the same stakes live?

DB: I generally play bigger live, I’m a pretty big winner in live cash so I’ve no problem taking shots.

RM: What are your goals?

DB: l would love to win another major tournament title, I think that would be my number one goal. I also would like to buy my own place in Dublin, it’s a pretty good time to buy.

RM: Do you see yourself in poker for the foreseeable future?

DB: Yeah for sure, I can’t really see myself doing anything different at the minute, I’m not really too good at anything else! ♠