The Scoop: With Phil Collins

“I’ve never had a six-figure score. I am kind of proud of that, but then again I am kind of not, because I don’t have a signature win like an FTOPS title. It had been irking me that I didn’t have that big six-figure score.’

“I made the final table of the FTOPS two-day, and the top five spots were all paying $100,000 or more. I was playing to win, but I saw that top five would get me that six-figure score. I was first in chips with eighteen remaining, and then third in chips when we made the final table. Unfortunately, I got seventh. I guess I am just going to skip the six-figures altogether and jump to the seven-figures (laughs).”

“Recently I’ve really fallen in love with live poker, because it’s so nice to be able to use all of the tools available in your thought process, and really be able to apply them in every spot and to every decision. Whenever you start adding on a bunch of tables and playing many at a time, it just becomes a robotic game. The stacks are shallow and there are a lot of other really good online tournament players. How big of an edge do I have against them when we are all playing ten tables and we are all 30 big blinds deep? Whenever you focus more, you can do really well, better than people who are playing ten tables or more.”

“I flew up the online tournament scene pretty quickly. I was playing the $100 rebuy just shortly after I was playing the satellites into the $24 one. Then, I quickly jumped into the biggest live events as well. I got a backing deal to basically play whatever I wanted. Even though I thought that I was a very strong, thinking player, I had a lot to learn still. My online game has grown a lot since 2008, when I had my best year, but in live events I think I was just trying to figure it out along the way.”

“Once Black Friday went down, I really made it a focus of mine to try to figure out what I was doing wrong in live poker. I tried to do a lot of small things better, like paying attention when I’m not involved in hands. Also, making conscious decisions on everything you do at the table, because it’s developing an image. If you are rubbing your head after you lose a big pot, people pick up on the fact that you look frustrated. Everyone sees what you are doing, and take those things into account.”

“I used to play a very straightforward, ‘this is what I do whenever I get this hand in this spot’ kind of game, with the same raise sizing, the same bet sizing. You see a lot of very successful live players that do a lot of different things, raising bigger or smaller, in order to throw their opponents off the scent. So I’ve been trying to learn how to mix up my play and become more dynamic; to be able to do anything in any spot. Whenever you see people mixing up their play, it is hard to get a bead on them. But if people play like I used to, it is a game that is kind of easy to figure out, as I was just doing the same stuff. I think I was a little predictable and that people who had been around could see what I was doing.“

To see host Diego Cordovez’s full interview with Collins, check out The Scoop on CardPlayerTV.com. ♠