What’s new in 2013 – Part I

So far 2013 has been a great year for me. I’ve accomplished a lot of goals, including an FTOPS win, my first EPT final table – which was made even sweeter by achieving it in London, and another WSOP final table. One of the most important though, has been working to conquer my 10 million dollar target. Obviously I’m talking about online cashes, and I’m so proud to be the first person in the world to hit 10 million.

So what has most of this year included besides poker scores? Well I’ve been quite active off the live and virtual felt as well. I’ll break down the last couple months.

I kicked off the New Year at PCA enjoying the mostly sunny weather. Between tournaments I found time to get up to some shenanigans including swimming with stingrays with my friends Sam Chartier and Trishelle Cannatella and a night out with the brits.

From there I headed to Las Vegas to participate in the NBC Heads Up Invitational. I was so honored to be asked to compete, and was hoping to show everyone that even though I am known for getting second, I actually am decent at heads up. I played great in round one to beat poker legend Carlos Mortensen, but unfortunately the draw wasn’t too kind to me and I ran into Jungleman (Daniel Cates) in the second round and found myself coolered in a 3 bet pot pretty early into the match. I still had an awesome time being able to be a part of the whole thing. It’s an event that is really great for poker as a whole.

I spent most of February checking out Playa del Carmen, Mexico. First off let me start by saying if you haven’t been, go immediately! This place is great; a perfect beach town, with awesome people and an incredible vibe. I definitely found it hard at times to have a balance between poker and life outside of that, but I made sure to take in as much of the culture and scene as possible. One highlight was checking out one of the seven wonders of the world, Chichen Itza and then ziplining through the jungle.

In March I was back home in London for the EPT, and needless to say that turned out well for me. I built a stack quickly on the first day before a huge mistep that almost brought about my demise. I six bet queen ten suited into pocket queens versus an extremely aggressive opponent but managed to make a flush on the turn. From then on I felt like I was freerolling and really brought my A game for the rest of the tournament. Unfortunately I lost a couple of huge hands on the day leading up to the final table so I ended up making the final table with only 20bbs. I knew I was going to need some luck to double up, but it just didn’t happen for me this time when I ended up going out in 8th place after losing a flip versus Theo Jorgenson. It still was an awesome experience because most of my family and several of my friends were able to be there and see me on the final table in my home city.

In April I was off to Berlin for the following EPT hoping to build on my run in London. I really love this city, mostly from my awesome memories with the lads from the last few years (a second place finish in the High Roller event the previous year also helps!). Although the main event didn’t go to plan with an early day1 exit Berlin still remained good to me as I was able to score another second place finish in the 2k euro side event.

Stay turned for part 2!