SpadeClub Poker Winner: Boe 'PITTSBURGH' GillespieRecent $5,000 Event Winner Talks About His Win and What He Thought of His Heads-Up Opponent |
|
SpadeClub.com, the innovative online poker community, offers a risk-free way to win at poker with no deposits and no buy-ins. Click here to find out more.
Boe “PITTSBURGH” Gillespie, 65, of Pennsylvania is SpadeClub’s latest $5,000 weekly event winner. Gillespie has been playing poker almost his entire life, but was recently introduced to tournament poker when he started playing on SpadeClub just six weeks ago. He loves the variety of games available, as well as the fact that he can play whenever he wants and there is always a game about to start. Gillespie recently met up with Card Player to discuss his recent win and the level of competition he faces on SpadeClub.
Card Player: Congratulations on your recent win! First off can you tell us a little about yourself?
Boe “PITTSBURGH” Gillespie: I’m a retired iron worker and construction worker, but for the last 25 year I managed the benefit plan. So, I actually worked in the office, not on-site, but a lot of my friends are construction workers. I’m now retired, and I have some time to do some things I never had time to do before, and SpadeClub is one of them.
CP: How did you hear about SpadeClub?
BG: I heard some other poker players talking about it, and then I Googled it and signed up.
CP: Do you have a story behind you screen name?
BG: “PITTSBURGH” is my home town, I’ve lived there most of my life.
CP: How long have you been playing poker? How did you get started playing poker? What was your first experience with poker like?
BG: I would say about 60 years. Nickels and dimes with a very ratty deck of card in the back alley; we were just little kids learning how to gamble our nickels and dimes.
CP: Do you think SpadeClub is a good learning ground for people who are looking to start playing?
BG: I think when you play these tournaments, you see people from various levels of skill. You see good ones and you see bad ones, you have to be able to play with them all to succeed.
CP: What’s the most money you’ve ever won in a poker tournament? Do you have any plans for the money you just won?
BG: Only been playing tournaments for about six weeks, so this $1,500 is the most. I have no plans in particular; I’ll probably bet it on a baseball team or something [laughs].
CP: Was there a particularly key hand that you played in the tournament that helped lead you to victory?
BG: There was one hand where I had a really good hand and the fellow who was leading the tournament as the time had a fairly good hand, and I slow-played him, and he tried to jump on me, and I jumped back and burned him pretty good, and that gave me a big pile of chips to work with.
CP: What do you think of the format for the tournaments on SpadeClub?
BG: If I want to play I get on and there is usually one coming up, and that’s 24 hours a day. I don’t sleep that well, and sometimes I get up in middle of the night and play a tournament.
CP: How do you plan on keeping your points up on SpadeClub? Does your playing style differ when playing a points tournament versus a cash tournament on SpadeClub?
BG: I play a little bit of all the tournaments; I play the point builder because that easily builds them up. It’s been rather easy for me to keep my points up. I try to play a pretty good game all of the time.
CP: What advice can you give to other SpadeClub members looking to go deep in these tournaments?
BG: You have to play aggressively at first and build yourself up a little bit of chips and get the field chopped down a little bit. Then you have to get much more conservative and serious, but you need to build your chips up first so you can play.
CP: Have you participated in any of the community features on SpadeClub? What do you think?
BG: Since I had that win I have a whole bunch of people who want to be my friend, and I just always say yes to them. The only one that I’ve had any significant participation with is the person who came in second [in the $5,000 event Gillespie won] whose name is Darcy “Kincar” Ford. We’ve communicated a little bit, and she was a very good player.
CP: What do you think sets great players apart from merely good players?
BG: I think that somebody who watches everything, including pot values, player holdings, and everyone at the table, and someone who knows the value of the hands. But the most important thing … the force has to be with you.
CP: Anything else you would like to add?
BG: I’d just like to compliment Darcy “Kincar” Ford and how well she played heads up. We really knocked heads for a long time; I thought we were going to have to send out for pizza.
To learn more about all the features available on SpadeClub to improve your poker play, and to start your free trial of Exclusive membership, please visit SpadeClub.com today.
Copyright © 2001-2024
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
