Luck Has Nothing To Do With It: Kevin MacPhee, Double WSOP Bracelet Winner, Battles Back Into Winner’s Circle

It doesn’t take a bona fide Mensa member to surmise that one of poker’s most successful players, Kevin MacPhee, is of Scottish-Irish descent. So why not capitalize on that illustrious heritage while playing poker on the Internet and lead opponents to believe that luck was his ally and not rock-solid poker? Thus, MacPhee’s alias – ImaLuckSac – was born online.

The origin of the word luck actually comes from ‘gheluc’, meaning happiness and good fortune. But the often-used phrase the “luck of the Irish,” was a term of derision. It was a kind of stigma for the successful Scottish and Irish gold miners in the late 19th century. It was thought only by sheer luck, as opposed to brains, could these fools succeed.

Obviously, MacPhee is no Scottish fool. Luck has had very little to do with MacPhee’s slow but steady rise in poker, nor the respect he garners from peers. He has succeeded on his own terms, luck or no luck, through personal turmoil and an ego-crushing downswing. Through it all, MacPhee credits family and friends for their love and support, which can sometimes be in short supply when the life of a professional gambler is your chosen vocation.

It’s Not Luck, It’s Magic

MacPhee inherited much of his poker prowess from playing the card game Magic: The Gathering professionally as a teenager growing up in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. He won the Idaho State Championship in 2002, toured professionally, and cracked the top 10 as one of the best online Magic players in the world. After the Moneymaker poker boom in 2003 and former Magic player David Williams’ score of $3.5 million dollars at the 2004 WSOP main event, most of MacPhee’s friends turned towards poker. He soon followed suit.

“The transition from Magic to poker was pretty seamless,” says MacPhee. “When you bring that level of competition to poker, a high level Magic player’s success rate is going to be pretty high. It taught me to read situations and put people on a range of possible holdings, which is very much like poker. And, in order to be a very successful Magic player, you really have to streamline theory and do your homework away from the table.”

Poker became MacPhee’s new obsession, a new puzzle to solve. It wasn’t long before he set up a poker boot camp of sorts in 2007 and moved in with friends Dylan Linde and Carter Gill, both of whom have gone on to have successful careers in poker.

“We can all play when we are running well, but it’s a true test of character registering new tourneys 11 hours into a session when you are in the midst of a 100 buy-in downswing,” shared Carter Gill. “Not giving up and keeping your nose to grindstone. That is where Kevin is remarkable. He never quit. He never gave up. He would bust out of a tourney and jump in another one. He would study push/fold ranges to the point where he rarely ever made a mistake. He would be playing poker, studying poker, or watching someone else play poker. If anyone deserves to be successful in poker, it is him. He’s certainly earned it.”

Craig Tapscott: Kevin, what was it like living with two other poker players?

Kevin MacPhee: We were bouncing ideas off of each other and learning the game 24/7. I didn’t have much of a bankroll being a small-stakes grinder, as I was constantly cashing out to pay rent and buy groceries. Then I hit it big in April of 2008, and broke the record for most Tournament Leader Board points accumulated in a month on PokerStars. I think I made $100,000 in profit. That summer, we decided to go to the World Series of Poker and play live.

CT: What strategy concepts were you working to master during that period?

KM: I didn’t really know shoving ranges back then. I found push/fold charts and that helped my development. Also, I was able to see what does and doesn’t work for other players. Carter was extremely volatile at the time and would punch the screen and storm out of the house while events were running to go jog and blow off steam. When bad beats happened, I did some of the same stupid things. But seeing it from a different perspective and how it affected my friend(s) made me hyper aware of how important emotional control is when playing poker.

CT: And how did you fare that year at the WSOP?

KM: I gained a lot of confidence when I finished eighth in a $1,500 event. It was then that I decided to travel the world playing poker. Why not? There was nothing tying me down, no girlfriend, no house payment, or even a car. It was an easy time to head out and see how I would do. That really appealed to a kid from Idaho that had never really traveled anywhere. After Vegas, I went to Macau and then Barcelona for the European Poker Tour. I qualified for all 11 events during EPT Season 5 from 2008-2009.

Finding Success Overseas

MacPhee was dead set on creating success on the live poker circuit. Whatever profit he grinded out online, he sunk into satellite events to play live around the world. While many American players set up home base in Las Vegas and grinded out World Poker Tour events, MacPhee chose the historic locations Europe offered. He has played about 65 events to date on the EPT, and eventually had a breakout win in 2010 at the EPT Berlin main event.

In fact, that same year MacPhee won the EPT Player’s Choice award, voted on by his peers. “Kevin was a big inspiration early on for me and was maybe the first North American player who decided to do every single EPT,” says Mike “Timex” McDonald. “He was a big motivator to travel more and improve my work ethic, so it’s no surprise he is one of the most successful players on the EPT tour.”

CT: Your first major win in 2010 came with a little more excitement than just the $1.3 million payout.

KM: It did. There was a robbery in the casino with about 20 players left in the event. I was at the feature table when robbers stormed in carrying machetes. People were trampling over each other running to the exits and the streets were filled with ambulances and police.

CT: What did you do?

KM: I was at the TV table and got out okay. I went back to my hotel room to chill, but soon found out we had to continue play. This was about five hours after the robbery. It was pretty crazy. I was upset about having to come back and play that day. I thought it was pretty unreasonable, because we were playing for big money. I was chipleader at the time, but obviously it worked out well for me.

Luck Be a Lady… Or Maybe Not

Not long after winning the EPT Berlin in 2010, MacPhee found himself in a relationship with one of the most popular women on the poker circuit, Liv Boeree. They dated for two years, during which MacPhee would face the longest and most horrific downswing of his poker career and experience some dark days while questioning his own personal worth, before a breakup in 2013.

CT: You’ve shared that your life seemed to be spinning out of control after your break up with Liv Boeree. What happened?

KM: Well it’s hard to pull off a relationship on tour. On one hand I did enjoy being on the road and living out of my suitcase, but I didn’t see my family much. And I lost touch with what’s really important in life and truly real.

CT: What do you mean?

KM: Well one thing I became aware of was how many of what I call ‘pigeons’ are around the poker scene. All these people who want to hang out with successful players. They are extremely narcissistic and only out for themselves. Every time I won an event the pigeons came flocking and I would get 100 Facebook requests the next day to borrow money. I’ve learned to say no to those people, that is a very valuable lesson. And I’m no longer trying to climb the social ladder. It’s just not important to me anymore.

CT: You backed some players at the time also, with less than stellar results.

KM: I did. I was also scammed for money by people I thought were close friends. I backed a player that borrowed $50,000 cash from me, and then disappeared from social media and all ways to contact him. I never got paid back.

CT: And you went on a horrendous downswing yourself.

KM: Yes. Playing professional poker on the circuit is very mentally challenging. I had a pretty bad streak after I won the EPT event in 2010. In 2011 I didn’t cash in any WSOP events and was 0 for 30. I went on a 0-51 streak in $1,000 events live and larger during that period. That’s pretty brutal as that’s a lot of money. It shakes your confidence.

CT: You almost went broke too.

KM: Definitely. There was a time where I went from $1 million after EPT Berlin to pretty near broke. The swings are incredibly difficult on your psyche and emotional state. It really tests your character to go from a million dollars to close to zero and then back to a million. It was pretty crazy.

CT: But you persevered. You obviously are very dedicated and passionate about the game.

KM: I am. But professional poker is not really a career I would wish on anybody; because I know how difficult the swings are and I’ve seen many players not recover from them. It’s a pretty volatile game and it takes a lot of mental fortitude to succeed. Poker is an occupation that demands success. If you are not successful, you are just out of the game, because you’re broke.

CT: It seems those rough years eventually impacted you in a positive way. That’s quite the testimonial for perseverance, staying strong, and recognizing what is truly valuable in life.

KM: It’s so true. Those years were very important to my growth as a person and player. When I first came on tour I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, trying to be friends with everybody. I was paying my own way and wasn’t backed. Those experiences taught me to keep my really good friends close and the riff raff away.

WSOP Europe 2015 Main Event Champion

Once again the city of Berlin, Germany would be a magical and lucky venue for MacPhee. In 2015, he traveled to the WSOP Europe brimming with confidence after winning a gold bracelet and $500,000 in Las Vegas earlier that summer at a $5,000 turbo no-limit event.

MacPhee bobbed and weaved to the WSOP Europe final table, which was stacked with experienced pros and no weak spots to pressure. He would fight his way through Erik Seidel, Kilian Kramer, Andrew Lichtenberger, JC Alvarado, and David Lopez for another major title and a hefty $972,000 payout. This title would catapult MacPhee’s combined live and online career earnings to more than $12.5 million and cement his status as one of the elite poker players in the world.

CT: That’s a tough lineup at the WSOPE. Did anything unusual happen on the way to another championship title this time?

KM: Yes, it did. I kept getting aces.

CT: That’s horrifying; but a lot better than a robbery.

KM: (Laughs) Even more surprising, they held up every time.

CT: What was your plan at the final table?

KM: My basic plan was to not screw anything up. I wanted to pressure people and pick my spots carefully. The crazy thing about the event was how many times I had aces leading up to the final table of six players. It was becoming a little bit of a joke. I got A-A vs. Q-Q, then A-A vs. J-J, and then aces a few more times. Then A-A in the small bind vs. Seidel’s A-K suited in the big blind all-in. It was a very fortunate tournament.

CT: Congratulations. It had to be some satisfying redemption after the tough years you’ve battled through.

KM: Thanks. It was. I went through a massive losing streak, fell into a black hole, and eventually pulled out of it. I give a lot of credit to my girlfriend Marie-Pier for all her encouragement and support.

Let’s Talk Poker Strategy

MacPhee played a now-famous hand with thousands of views on YouTube during the 2012 EPT Berlin main event where he faced off with poker phenom Vanessa Selbst. It gives some insight into how MacPhee’s devious poker mind actually calculates decisions. He ended up calling a six-bet shove from Selbst with A-9 offsuit and won; it’s worth watching.

The hand demonstrates poker at its highest level, where it becomes a game of chicken, and who will swerve out of the way at the last second and surrender. MacPhee is very good at it. “I always want to be the aggressor when I’m in a big stack situation vs. another big stack,” says MacPhee. “I really like to go after those spots. I feel that gets me the wins more often than not, as I take those spots that other players might avoid.”

CT: You’re a master of stack size management. So let’s talk strategy in terms of stack sizes at a final table.

KM: What makes stack size management at the final table so interesting is Independent Chip Model (ICM) dynamics, which is unique to a final table. Because you can’t have the exact same shoving ranges that you have at any other stage of a tournament.

CT: Why is that?

KM: You can put more pressure on medium and large stacks, because players have to be cognizant of the pay jumps. It affects the hand ranges quite a bit. Especially for re-shoving, which I feel is one of my stronger points. I really know when I get short how to re-shove on people who are trying to put ICM pressure on other players. That is one situation that I think many players miss out value on. You can actualize your fold equity in a way that you don’t have to go to showdown. You can win that 20-25 percent of your stack and not let your opponent actualize their equity by seeing a flop.

CT: And when you have the big stack at the final table what things are you acutely aware of?

KM: I recognize what stack sizes my opponents are playing and that is basically for all purposes my stack as well. When I raise with 100 big blinds into those stacks, I have to be aware of what they think in regards to how wide they believe they can shove on me. I can’t let them pick up those chips for free, so I might play a little tighter in some spots. It all depends on how the stack size distribution is at the final table. The medium stacks are less prone to shove on me when someone else is super short and about to bust; because they want to make that pay jump and not shove into me when I might have aces again.

CT: How about stack size management during those turbo events? You won one recently at the WSOP.

KM: Well those shoving ranges are pretty well solved now. I’ve gained a lot of experience from just knowing my stack size management and doing a lot of work playing hyper turbos online and studying shoving charts at www.holdemresources.net. At that site, you can plug in pure EV situations and see in what spots and with how many big blinds and in what position you can shove with. These decisions are costing you thousands of dollars, especially if you play online, and you need to learn this to be the best.

CT: I’m curious. What do you think the most successful players in poker have in common? Players like Scott Seiver, Daniel Negreanu, and Jason Mercier and yourself, to name a few, who always seem to rise to the occasion year after year.

KM: I think the most important thing is a passion for the game. The three you mentioned, that is the one thing that unifies all those guys. They want to learn. They are very competitive and they put in the work. When you are in the trenches playing, you draw on those experiences to make your decisions. And it’s hard to say any one of us wouldn’t be where we are without a little bit of luck. But the truth is you have to put yourself in the spots to be lucky. People may be great poker theorists, but when it comes down to the application of it, you have to keep showing up to play.

Family, Friends, and OK… a Little Luck

MacPhee realizes that he’s been very fortunate in poker and in life, running far above expectation. He’s won three major events, developed friendships that will never fade, and relishes the support of a boisterous family. But there was a time when MacPhee’s parents were anything but pleased with his chosen profession.

CT: So what did you parents think of your decision to be a professional poker player?

KM: I had graduated from college, but my family was extremely apprehensive. I understood. It was tough for my parents to deal with, as they wanted me to be a functional person in society. It was a rough few years when I first started playing poker; I didn’t have much contact with my family at all. I remember telling them if my projections were right by tracking my results, I could easily be a millionaire within five years. In fact, it was three years later that I made my first million. Now they are all very supportive, and my Dad is my biggest fan. I think that support came from them seeing my success and feeling they don’t have to worry about me.

CT: I understand that you did something very special to honor one of your grandfathers before your deep finish at the 2014 EPT London main event.

KM: I did. My grandfather had just passed away and the MacPhee lineage can be traced back to a specific island near Scotland. Before the EPT London, my brother and I did a pilgrimage to spread his ashes there. It was very therapeutic for me to get more in touch with my roots and very cleansing. I was able to put the dark times behind me. I went back to London and played with incredible focus, possibly the best tournament I’ve ever played in my life. I didn’t have great cards, but was fighting, fighting, and fighting. It was very gratifying to get second there, and just as important as any of my big wins.

CT: It sounds like your grandfather was watching over you a wee bit.

KM: I think so too. He was very good at cards, a master bridge player well into his eighties. And my grandfather on my mom’s side was a war hero who flew 35 B-52 missions in WWII. He was a good cribbage player and taught me to stay tough when I was a kid. He never took it easy on me and played cutthroat style. That taught me to keep my wits about me. It gave me a lot of positive energy in London at the final table and at my bracelet win at last summer’s WSOP, the feeling that my grandpas had my back.

CT: Your game has grown over the last few years, but more importantly, so have you. And I mean that sincerely, because we’ve worked together a few times over the past 10 years.

KM: Thanks Craig. It’s true. It wasn’t always smooth sailing. There was a point in time where I was thinking about quitting poker. I’m glad I stuck with it. Those wins last year felt pretty sweet after going through all that mess. Life is good. I definitely feel lucky to be living the life I want to live and playing a game I love. ♠