On the final Sunday of July, Canada's Lockhurt (pictured) came away with a second place finish in the weekly PartyPoker $200,000 Guaranteed. His reward was $26,000 and his largest tracked cash to date along with shooting up to #1,062 worldwide in the PocketFives Poker Rankings, a rise of nearly 500 spots from his former high point. Lockhurt calls Newmarket, Ontario home and can be found on PartyPoker under the moniker Dustyourfish. He's ranked #131 in Canada and is the top dog in Newmarket.By the way, you can sign up for WPT Poker, which makes its home on the same network as PartyPoker, through PocketFives' links with the code P5WPT and make a deposit to score one free month of PocketFives Training with the sign-up fee waived. All you need to do is create your WPT Poker account through PocketFives, use the code P5WPT, and make a deposit. Get started here.
Okay, onto the interview. Lockhurt recapped his run through the Sunday Major, telling PocketFives in an exclusive interview, "I played fairly tight in the early stages and managed to chip up without showdown. I ran really well down the stretch and tried to pick my spots because there was a lot of action and a lot of aggressive players."
He added that he chipped up after dishing out a cooler with aces against kings and queens: "I happened to get in a pot with rockets against kings and queens to nearly triple up. I had a couple of big hands at the final table and won a flip to gain a big chip lead. Unfortunately, when it was five-handed, I got coolered when I ran a set into a higher set and doubled up the player who was second in chips. He had a huge chip lead and ran away with it after that."That week's PartyPoker $200,000 Guaranteed brought out a field of 1,089 players and the top spot went to EnterTheCage, who banked $45,000. Four players in the top 200 of the PocketFives Rankings cracked the top 20.
Although he admitted he was "pretty rattled" to lose the chip lead in a set-over-set situation, "It's still nice to have a big score and final table a Sunday Major. As for the money, I'm going to use it to help pay for school and I'll likely invest some of it."
Canada is tops in PocketFives Country Poker Rankings with a combined PLB score of its top 20 players of 110,000, about 10,000 ahead of the United Kingdom. "Canadians have certainly stepped up to plate since the Americans have been out of commission," Lockhurt observed. "I hope I made some of my fellow Canadians proud, but I'm nowhere near the likes of guys like ch0ppy and Flush_Entity." ch0ppy and Flush_Entity, both Canada poker community members, sit at #1 and #2, respectively, in the Rankings.Lockhurt started playing poker when he was 16 years old in home games with friends. He recalled that he "got killed" in them, which caused him to want to master the game so he could become a winning player. He began grinding freerolls online and played on Pacific Poker and Full Tilt initially when he transitioned to real money.
He has focused all of his efforts on No Limit Hold'em, but dabbles in Omaha and cash games on occasion.
He pointed out, "Once in awhile, I'll play cash games when I can only play for a short period of time, but generally I like playing MTTs the most. I've been focusing on being more aggressive and opening up my range by 3betting and 4betting players more often. I feel my post-flop game has improved a lot as of late too. I feel I have a good understanding of stack sizes as well and, in particular, playing with about 20 big blinds. At the same time, I need to harness that aggression because I tend to punt stacks by being overly aggressive and picking bad spots at times."
He closed by imparting a little life knowledge, telling us, "Like everything in life, you need to find a balance. I feel like you can really burn yourself out if you play too much. I'd also like to say thanks to my family and friends for their support as well."
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