Michael Binger broke into the poker scene in 2006 when he finished third in the largest tournament in poker history at the World Series of Poker main event. He has since become a fixture on the tournament trail and has posted consistent results. He followed up his success in 2006 by cashing eights times at the 2007 WSOP and showed the poker world that it was no accident that he took home a $4,123,310 prize the previous summer. Card Player recently caught up with Binger during day 3 at the 2007 World Poker Tour World Poker Finals:
Ryan Lucchesi: What's more impressive to you personally, your body of work at the 2006 World Series of Poker or your body of work at the 2007 Series?
Michael Binger: Well, they are totally different beasts. In '06 I played in five events total and made two final tables, and I feel like I played some of the best poker of my life in the main event … and obviously that was the biggest event for me and my biggest win. So, I'll always think of that as a real special time. The '07 Series was the first one where I was going to be playing as many events as I could, and I was really locked in and focused, and playing all day every day pretty much. That was more about getting a really solid work ethic and a healthy lifestyle going, and I more or less did a good job of that. It was tough, it was grueling. This year was 40-45 days straight of poker, all day every day. The main event in '06 was eight days …14 hours a day, so it was even more intense.
RL: Do you feel like the focus you attained at the WSOP has helped your performance out on the tournament trail with the World Poker Tour?
MB: Yeah, all that experience certainly adds up. That's where you really kind of prove yourself and gain long-term success.
RL: How long do you plan to stay out on the tournament circuit?
MB: I don't know … I skipped a couple of tournaments in the past month, actually, because I was a little burnt out from traveling, but for the immediate future I plan on playing a lot of them, though not necessarily full time. I've been taking time off and trying to work on my place in Vegas. I've been traveling so much that I don't really have a home. So, I'm just trying to get settled and get work done on that … . Who knows what the future will bring, I don't see myself playing poker full time for the rest of my life, for sure, but for the time being, I'm enjoying it and making the most of it.
RL: Have you finished your Ph.D. work? What was the subject of your thesis?
MB: I finished my Ph.D. in April of '06, a couple of months before the World Series. My thesis was in theoretical particle physics. Basically, the mathematical theories of the fundamental forces of particles in nature. In particular, the three non-gravitational forces and understanding the quantum field theories which describe them. So, mathematically heavy work that focused on theory.
RL: With that said about your mathematical background, is your poker game mathematically focused?
MB: There are not that many difficult concepts of math in poker … I have a head start in understanding those. When I first started playing six or seven years ago, that was the first approach I took, and it made it easier to understand pot odds and things like that. But now … calculating pot odds quickly isn't that helpful … it's more just being analytical, watching people, understanding their abilities, adjusting, and playing good poker, which is a whole assortment of skill-sets; only a small part of them are mathematical.
RL: I noticed at the start of the day you were seated at a really tough table, and then you were moved to a much softer table. What adjustments did you make during the course of the afternoon?
MB: I couldn't imagine having a starting seat that was worse. I had some really tough players seated to my immediate left. I had David Daneshgar... [Steve] Brecher, [John] Hoang, [Tony] Ma, and Nenad [Medic], and I was dealt into the big blind coming in, so I was like, OK, great. But I actually managed to chip up; I started with 150K and left the table with about 200K. Then, I was moved to the big blind over here, which is nice … I adjust to every table I go to, and at this table, you just play the situations. I managed to chip up and win a couple of big pots here, now I have 330K almost, so I'm a pretty good-sized chip leader at this table, and I can use that to my advantage and play more pots than I otherwise would have. We're approaching the money in a couple of hours, and that will change the play again.
RL: So, I noticed your first cash was over at Lucky Chances [a cardroom in the San Francisco Bay area]. Did you learn the game live or online?
MB: I started learning the game live in 2001 or 2002. I started playing as a diversion from my graduate school work and just progressively started playing more and getting sucked into the poker world. I was playing limit hold'em -- back then there wasn't much no-limit hold'em -- and started realizing I could actually make some decent money playing $20-$40 limit hold'em live. I ended up taking a year off from school for a variety of reasons in '02 to '03 and just started playing poker full time, mainly limit hold'em. In the process, I started learning tournaments in '02-'03. This was back when Matt Savage worked at Lucky Chances; he was the tournament director, so we had some decent tournaments every week. I just read some books on that, and I played in some no-limit cash games. I started to play in a $5-$10 no-limit game on Sunday night. So, yeah, that's where I cut my teeth and learned the game. When I first started playing no-limit tournaments, I was pretty clueless, and I played a number without cashing, and then I kind of put things together, I read some of books, and started winning a couple.
RL: Where do you think the best place for a rookie to start playing is, online, or live in a casino?
MB: It depends on what game you want to play, but I would say online is the best starting ground. You start there until you're able to beat those games. You just put in a lot of hours to understand the mechanics of how the game works and the basics. When you get to big tournaments like this you've got to … have the live play and the ability to read your opponents. I feel like the younger players who come from the Internet don't use those skills, and they're very good players technically with their betting patterns and so forth, but they don't utilize a lot of their reads.
RL: I see that your brother [Nick Binger] has been out on the tour with you more and more. He has had some success, so he obviously knows how to play, but he wasn't necessarily used to playing with this caliber of talent. What advice did you give to him when he first came out on the tour with you?
MB: Well, I told him to play his game, and he is a very smart guy, and he kept learning and getting better. I could tell early on he was going to be a very good player, and he has just gotten better and better. He's had some tough luck in key spots, or else he would have won a lot more than he has. We talk strategy all the time, since well before he started playing these bigger tournaments. Three years ago, when he first got interested in poker, I would teach him the basics and stuff, and he took that and ran with it to learn on his own, which you have to do … . I just steered him in the right direction, and he took off from there.
