World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star Q and A -- Pat WalshWalsh discusses his Win at The Big Event Bounty Shootout last week and how he is approaching this week’s Bounty Tournament at Bay 101 |
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Pat Walsh won his first major tournament title last week when he topped the field in The Big Event $10,000 Bounty Shootout at the Bicycle Casino. He took home $251,700 for the win. Walsh is no stranger to the tournament trail; he has traveled its path for the last couple of years, primarily focusing on cash games while jumping into main events when they come up on the schedule. He is also no stranger to televised final tables, Walsh cashed in fifth place at the World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic main event last year and he scored the largest tournament cash of his career ($310,694).
Walsh was at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event this week and Card Player caught up with him to talk about his recent victory and his approach to the two bounty-style tournaments he is playing in back-to-back weeks.
Ryan Lucchesi: You booked a big win at The Big Event Bounty Shootout event last week. What was the full tournament process like for you?
Pat Walsh: There were a lot of players that I recognized in the field, whether they were players who had won tournaments before or players who have done well in cash games for the most part. When we came out at the final table there were a lot of fireworks right away. There were a lot of big pots and people playing aggressively. It was kind of a winner-take-all tournament so it’s not really a spot where you can sit back and hope to move up.
There was a lot of action early but then that died off. Everybody was even in chips and it stayed like that for a long time. Real late into the morning, like 3 or 4 in the morning, the chips started to move around a little bit more and we ended up finishing at 7 in the morning.
RL: Was that one of the toughest endurance tests you’ve had playing professional poker?
PW: Absolutely. We took a break every hour and a half and I would get up and try to stretch a little bit. It was a marathon.
RL: You are a consistent player on the tournament circuit, but does this win increase the number of tournaments that you will play in during 2011?
PW: Probably not, what I pretty much do is travel around to play the cash games and then usually play the main event. That will pretty much stay the same for me.
RL: You started with the same amount of chips as everyone else at the final table. What does that do to you psychologically, having to reset from the table you won and adjust to a new set of players while starting from scratch?
PW: I guess you almost have to look at it like playing in two different tournaments. Everybody is starting even and it’s a new group of people on a new day. I looked at it as two separate tournaments.
RL: How different were the dynamics between the first preliminary table you played at in the event and the final table?
PW: If there was any difference it was that once we got to the final table everyone got a lot more aggressive. The initial first few levels everyone was trying to chip up and get to first place. The first table started a little slower because people were feeling each other out. I guess they were waiting to make a move.
The other thing was when the final table went long it was really a battle with yourself at that point to try and stay awake and keep your energy level up. Now I’m right back at it this week.
RL: So now we have jumped up north to the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star event and even though it is not a full bounty tournament there are bounties in the mix. Have you found similarities in the play between the two tournaments?
PW: Not really, because here there is only one bounty per table and some of the tables don’t have any bounties right now. It’s different in that aspect, because in the one I played last week you got a bounty for each player you knocked out. In this one only 10 percent of the players have that bounty. Here there is one bullseye at each table whereas the other one put a bullseye on every player in the tournament.
RL: What do you think about the tournament structure here, with the six-handed tables and the bounties, and the $10,000 prize for the Day 1A and Day 1B chip leader?
PW: I’m not real familiar with this tournament. I played in it last year and I decided late to come here this year. I didn’t study the blind structure sheet before I sat down but the bounties are the thing that jumps out at me, and with the $10,000 for the chip lead I don’t know how much that changes things for other people but I don’t adjust my play for something like that. The real big prize is getting to the final table and finishing in the top two or three. That is what everyone shoots for. If you’re close to the chip lead at the end of the night though, it is something to take into consideration.
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