Tournament Trail POY Q and A -- Michael Binger

Michael Binger cashed an astounding 21 times in 2008, at poker tournaments on three different continents. He found early success at the Aussie Millions, where he cashed twice, and then he returned to the United States and traveled the tournament trail. Binger had a lot of success in preliminary events in 2008, winning tournaments at the L.A. Poker Classic and Bellagio Five-Star World Poker Classic for six-figure paydays. He won a World Series of Poker circuit championship title in November at Lake Tahoe. That win gave him his fourth six-figure cash of the year, and he finished 2008 with just over $1 million. Since his third-place finish in the largest poker tournament in history at the 2006 WSOP main event, Binger has proved that he truly belongs in the poker world and he now holds $5,883,204 in career winnings. Card Player caught up with Binger at Bellagio and he talked about the way his game has grown in 2008 and why he likes to play in so many poker tournaments.

Ryan Lucchesi: This year you’ve put together a solid collection of results on a lot of different poker tours. Do you think that shows a certain maturity level in your poker game at this point?

Michael Binger: I don’t know if I would draw that broad of a conclusion. I mean I’m certainly always trying to improve my game and hopefully I’m better than I was a year ago or two years ago. It’s also the luck of the draw, beginning of the year last year I just ran horrible and I didn’t do anything, and then at the World Series things started clicking and I did well. I really didn’t do anything last year except at the World Series where I did OK so it was a mediocre year overall. This year it was almost the opposite, I’ve done well except for the World Series, which was a disaster for me. I made one final table but I played in a lot of events. This year I’ve done really well in a lot of the preliminary smaller events. I won a 5k here and I won a 5k circuit event in Tahoe, but as far as 10k events I have had no success this year. I did bubble the final table at Borgata.

RL: Is this the most you have traveled in one year to play tournaments?

MB: This year I’ve traveled to and played in most every event that I could get my hands on. I enjoy it, I’m a tournament junkie…I’ve played over 100 tournaments this year.

RL: You have mentioned before that you really burned out during the WSOP this summer. For a guy like you, that really attempts to play every tournament that you can, how do you pace yourself?

MB: If things are going alright then I’m happy playing tournaments every day, but once it starts to get to be a grind or be frustrating I should take a day or two off. You’ve got to know when to take a break and hopefully I’ll be better about that next year.

RL: Getting day-to-day tournament repetitions like you are what is the way that you have been able to really improve your game this past year?

MB: I’m always trying to improve and this year I’ve changed my game in a number of ways. One way that has definitely helped me is that I’ve trusted my instincts and my judgment to a greater extent. In a couple of key spots I have made big calls or big lay downs in a non-standard situation where before I might have gone with a safer route and done the standard thing. It’s worked out for me usually when I have a really good read or good feeling. That’s something that I’m always trying to work on and it really requires focus and mental clarity and discipline at the table, and watching everything that’s happening, and watching what your opponents are doing and simulating all of that. It helps being healthy coming in and being focused, the trying thing for me has always been being healthy coming in.

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