Rep Porter Looking To Improve Upon Last Year's 12th Place Finish In World Series Of Poker Main Event

Two-time bracelet winner Rep Porter did the improbable by finishing 12th in last year’s main event. On Friday at the Rio, Porter had a big stack of 918,000 on the dinner break and was looking for another incredible run. There were just 443 remaining in the 2014 WSOP main event.

Porter is without a doubt an elite player, but last year’s $573,204 was the result of some serious run-good. Late in the event, Porter was all in and behind with A-Q vs. A-K, K-Q vs. K-K, 10-10 vs. Q-Q, 9-9 vs A-2 on an A-7-3 flop, and somehow he won all of them to double up each time. It was an absurdly fortunate rush of cards, though one could make the argument that he was pretty unlucky to see his good hands dominated. At any rate, that’s the nature of the main event.

So far this year, Porter has steadily chipped up and avoided the pulse-pounding drama. However, he did witness a crazy situation on day 1 that made him recall last year’s tournament with extreme clarity. It could be a sign that he’ll make the final two tables again.

Card Player had the chance to speak with Porter on the break to talk about the main event, as well as what makes him so good at navigating through these huge fields.

Brian Pempus: Is it surreal to be going deep again after finishing 12th last year?

Rep Porter: A little bit, but it felt more surreal on day 1 and day 2. Today is like I have gotten deep enough to where I am just playing a poker tournament. On day 1, during level three, I ran kings into aces. The exact same thing happened last year. I doubled a guy up for 20,000, but I rallied back and ended the day with a decent stack—both years. It was super surreal.

BP: Is remaining patient kind of the key in this tournament? Because the structure is so good.

RP: Yeah, there is a ton of play. The average stack is over 60 big blinds for the first five days, so you can be well below average and still have 30 or 40 big blinds. And even if you feel you are short relative to the current limit, it’s not like it is going to double in three hours like it does in a lot of tournaments. It’s going to double in six hours, so there is a lot more play and a lot more opportunities to recover.

BP: I know last year there were a number of pretty stressful hands late in the tournament. Have you encountered any similar types of situations so far this year?

RP: No, not yet. Other than taking that big downswing on the first day with kings versus aces, it has been a pretty steady climb. I lost one big pot today, but I still had almost average after I lost it. Since then, I’ve been getting some hands and have ran it up pretty good so far.

BP: Is it pretty crucial in the main event to be able to chip up without putting everything at risk?

RP: That is certainly the ideal in any tournament, but especially in this tournament with the slow structure. You will see that on day 7 when the stacks finally get shorter and people will really only have 40 big blinds. In a lot of situations in which two people have 40 big blinds, it is right for both to put all the money in queens versus A-K. When you are 80 big blinds deep, that’s a little too ambitious. So the pots stay a little smaller even in those what would be cooler situations.

BP: Is there anything that you are trying to do differently this year at this stage in the tournament?

RP: Nah, I was pretty happy with my play all year last year. I’m just trying to make good decisions and pick good spots, keep the pots smaller unless I have really strong hands and then hope my opponents can stumble their way into putting their whole stack into the pot. But, you know, stay involved because you can pick up the antes and the blinds. Slow and steady.

BP: What is it about your game that allows you to thrive in this tournament?

RP: I think playing a lot of cash has helped me a lot. Cash games tend to be a lot deeper and involve a lot more decision making post-flop. You know, you have to play the whole hand out. A lot of the tournament pros play in events where a lot of the action becomes preflop once you get to day 2. This is not a tournament where it’s all preflop decision making. That definitely helps me.

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