Shuttle to Success

Brian Tatum is living the dream of the common man. The Indiana native qualified for the main event of the 2008 World Series of Poker by winning an $82 satellite on Poker Stars, and now finds himself with just under 800,000 in chips and among the final 79 players still standing.

Yet the low-key Tatum, already guaranteed $77,000 in prize money, still catches a shuttle to the Rio, and still remains in awe of the experience on this, his first ever trip to Las Vegas.

Tatum, who may well buy his own shuttle bus if he captures the first place money of over $9,000,000, took a few minutes to speak with Card Player magazine about his experience as the main event enters day 6.


Cameron Yoos: It's your first trip to Las Vegas, and you've only been here about a week and a half. Has it been difficult to get acclimatized to the city, and the WSOP?

Brian Tatum: Every day I see things that make me go, "Wow, I can't believe I missed that, or, I can't believe I didn't see that before". But I've been spending a lot of time in the card room.

CY: There were a lot of big names still in the tournament even through yesterday, with Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Shawn Sheikhan, Allen Cunningham. Is that at all unnerving?

BT: Maybe a little bit. The first day I had a couple of professionals at my table, the second day I had Phil Gordon and John D'Agostino. Then I've been at two tables with Kido Pham. I don't think it was unnerving, but it was exciting to actually play poker with some of these guys I've watched on TV.

CY: Going back to the first day or two, were you ever short-stacked, ever in danger of not advancing to this point?

BT: There was a couple times. The first day, I had about 30,000 in chips and I got moved to a second table, and I got sat next to Shawn Sheikhan, and I played a couple pots that didn't work out, and I was down to about 11,000 right before the dinner break. I came back and I looked down at pocket 10s, and I said "well, it's now or never" and I pushed in, and I got called by a guy with ace-king, and my 10s held up. So I doubled up there.

I finished the first day with about 43,000, the second day with about 80,000, then 200,000 the third day. I fell a little bit behind now so I'm a little bit shortstacked to begin today.

CY: Does that change your style of play? Even say from your $82 qualifier, have you noticed a change in your game? Have you developed as a poker player?

BT: I think I'm more aware of the mistakes I make, whereas before, when you play online, it's a whole different game. But I think I'm more aware of "hey, don't bet into that guy, he's shortstacked" and that type of thing.