The top-ranked online poker player in Dorset, England is Ninemil, better known in the real world as Clayton Hamm (pictured). He stormed to the top of the leaderboard of the Winamax High Rollerlast month and bagged $19,000, helping push his career online cash total to over $1.2 million. We caught up with Hamm, who is known on Full Tilt Poker as ScrillaGorila.

PocketFives: Awesome job in the Winamax High Roller. Tell us how you’re feeling.

Clayton Hamm: Thanks. It was a lot of fun. It feels great to win any MTT, let alone the Winamax High Roller on a Sunday since it pays quite a bit to first place. It had been a while since I won something, so it was definitely a confidence-booster; any momentum helps.

PocketFives: Can you tell us about that tournament’s structure and field?

Clayton Hamm: The structure of basically every tournament on Winamax is really good. I believe every MTT except the Sunday Surprise starts with 20,000-chip stacks and very low blinds. The High Roller is my favorite because of the smaller field size and the big first prize. I like High Rollers in general because of their smaller fields, which I think cuts down on variance, even though it is a higher buy-in. I don’t run into a lot of very good regs in the High Roller, which is always nice, although there are definitely a few very good grinders who play it every week.

PocketFives: You’ve had a ton of success in general. How big was that PokerStars Sunday Millionfinal table you had in 2011 for $69,000?

Clayton Hamm: It was a great feeling to get that far in the biggest weekly online MTT. I was having a sick year at that point and still playing on my own dime, so that was a life-changer for sure. I think first prize was around $240,000. There were some very talented players at the final table, so I was very happy with a fifth place finish, especially considering I came into the final table as the short stack. It would’ve been nice to win the flip at the end, but c’est la vie.

PocketFives: How did that tournament change your career?

Clayton Hamm: It gave me the confidence and bankroll to play basically every online MTT there was at the time, although I stayed away from the Super Tuesday and the $1K Monday. I just didn’t want to take on that variance at that point since I wasn’t staked or anything. I started playing $100 rebuys after that with real success, although I wasn’t able to win one.

Also, I used a lot of that money to play the WSOP that year. A big part of that was Black Friday, though. Since I couldn’t play all of those MTTs online anymore, I decided to take a big chunk of that score to Vegas. I’m definitely an introvert, so I prefer online to live poker any day. I just didn’t have a choice at that point.

Vegas went okay. I won a Rio Daily for about $15,000, which was great, but wasn’t able to break through the fields in any bracelet events. I really thought I was going to final table the large $1K bracelet event, but took a really bad beat with four tables left in a pot that would’ve given me the chip lead. But again, c’est la vie and onto the next one.

PocketFives: What were you doing before playing poker full-time?

Clayton Hamm: I mostly worked construction with my dad during high school, which was a great experience but mostly taught me that I didn’t want to have to do something that physically demanding for the rest of my life. I joined the Marine Corps directly after high school, but unfortunately crashed my motorcycle while on leave after boot camp, which eventually led to my discharge a few months later.

After that, I really didn’t have any idea what I wanted to do, so I decided going to college was a good bet. It turns out it was. I think it was one of the best decisions I ever made. That’s where I found poker, which changed my life for the better. We used to play $0.25/$0.50 cash games in the dorms and buy in for $5 or $10, which is hilarious to me now, but it was a great learning experience and I met some of my very good friends there.

PocketFives: What do you do outside of poker now?

Clayton Hamm: When I’m not playing poker, I spend a lot of time with my girlfriend and our crazy dog; they’re both awesome. I try to enjoy life to the fullest. We’re on this planet for such a short amount of time, so I think we really need to focus on getting the maximum out of the little time we have. For me, this means spending more time with family and friends, which I intend to do a lot more of this year since I’ve been primarily in the UK over the last year.

PocketFives: Is there anyone you’d like to recognize?

Clayton Hamm: I’d like to give a shout out to Pfizer Jordan (phyzer23). He was one of the guys I met playing short-stack cash games in college and is a good friend of mine to this day. Also, I’d like to thank mlagoo for coaching me and taking my game to the next level a few years ago. Finally, thanks to everyone in our Skype group; you know who you are.

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