The night-long Micro Mayhem and week-long Micro MTT Team competitions have long been staples of PocketFives.com. Over time, they have attracted some of the top names in the world of poker including threeven, Nick agriffrod Mitchell, ICuRaRook, dpottz, and Damage1. Now, it's time to meet the man behind the curtain, Mike Mr. Blonde Good. A 36 year-old retiree from Delaware, Good has nearly 19,000 posts on P5s and has been a member of the site ever since Year 1. A father of two, he still finds time to play online and organize wildly successful events for micro- and low-limit players. PocketFives sat down with Good to talk about his Micro festivities and former career as an optician.

Micro Mayhem contests are one-off events that award points based on a player's finish in a series of tournaments. A Micro Mayhem contest in December, for example, had a buy-in of $3 and a baker's dozen of tournaments to choose from, the richest being $4 Limit Hold'em and Pot Limit Omaha High-Low events on PokerStars. Payments are sent ahead of time and the top three scores are counted for the overall tally. The bottom line is it livens up a micro-limit player's evening at a very low price. The Micro Mayhem contests typically run on the first Wednesday of every month. However, the April '09 contest will take place this Wednesday (for more details, click here).

Good explained the logic behind his wildly successful event: “If they're going to play anyway, they might as well take a chance and try to make more.” He's modeled his contests after similar ones run by Craig cjm Muir during the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS). However, instead of four-figure buy-ins, Good's Micro Mayhem contest comes in at the price of a gallon of gas circa July of 2008. Good and his friends originated the Micro contests in 2006. Participants at the time were blown away by whitealroker (pictured), who was its perennial champ.

Just like the WCOOP and FTOPS contests, the week-long Micro MTT events run every few months. Teams of three enter a series of low-stakes tournaments and jesterwords, the manager of PocketFivesGear.com, often contributes prizes to its winners. The contest uses the PokerStars TLB point system to keep score. On attracting a bundle of teams every time out, Good commented, “I have a recognizable name and people trust me, but it takes a lot out of me.”

When the week-long competition is ongoing, you won't find Good at the tables. He explained, “In the beginning, I was playing and participating and found out that I couldn't do both. When I have different types of poker like Stud, Hold'em, and Razz going at once, I get confused. Tables are flying open and I also have a spreadsheet up, so I usually don't play.”

Good was an optician by trade for 13 years prior to turning to online poker when he suffered an injury on the job in 2004. He took recurring trips to Atlantic City and was a regular on the live poker scene. Now, the 36 year-old grinds away in tournaments on his computer and raises his two daughters. He told PocketFives.com how he got started in online poker: “Once I got injured at work and found Paradise Poker, I thought I could kill it online and got my ass kicked. You have to learn to make adjustments. Live and online poker aren't the same thing.”

In addition to keeping his popular Micro Mayhem and Micro MTT events going, Good is also searching for his first sizable online poker cash. He admitted, “I'm looking for my first big score, but I don't play as much as I used to. My problem is that I always grind up money and then cash out, so I never have the bankroll. I'll probably never play with the big guys.”

Right out of high school, he was hired at an eyeglass shop and never looked back. He has two daughters: Ashlynn, who is 12 years-old, and Nicole, who is 14 and wants to become the next Jacques Cousteau and pursue a career as a marine biologist. He hopes to be up enough in poker by the time Ashlynn graduates to travel around the world.

You read PocketFives.com for breaking news, right? Here's a juicy nugget to hold you over until you're done reading this article. Good described a big change coming to his contests, which until this point have traditionally been held on PokerStars: “I'm going to do a contest just at Full Tilt Poker. There have been a ton of requests and the site is now catering to the low-stakes guys as much as ever. Full Tilt has added a lot more lower stakes tournaments.” PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker are the first and second largest sites in the world, respectively, and typically see over 10,000 real money ring game players at any given moment, according to PokerScout.com.

Who will win the next Micro Mayhem contest and Micro MTT series? Stay tuned to PocketFives.com to find out. A special thanks from all of us for Good's hard work and dedication.

Players can view this month's Micro Mayhem thread in the Poker Discussion forum by clicking here.

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