There were a bevy of big winners in online poker tournaments held over the weekend, including PocketFives.com member Larry BBOY3110 Sharp, an assistant high school basketball coach from Pennsylvania. As part of a five-way chop of the PokerStars Sunday Million, Sharp banked $213,000 and the quintet played on for $30,000. Sharp, who has been a member of the online poker community for the last two and a half years, sat down with PocketFives.com to recap his monumental run and first six-figure score to date.Five-handed, Sharp held the chip lead over the rest of the pack with a stack of 35 million. The second place player had 29 million and the field dropped off dramatically from there, as the three short-stacks had a combined 28 million. Sharp banked $213,000 and the final five battled for an extra $30,000, with PokerStars member coach6999 ultimately capturing the extra loot. Sharp was the chip leader when 80 players remained and coasted down the stretch.
With 12 players to go, he won a 12 million-chip race with A-J against the wired pair of tens of beat the_snail03. The flop came K-J-K, giving Sharp kings and jacks; he never looked back and entered the final table second in chips with 24 million. On his first six-figure payday, Sharp told PocketFives.com, “It feels great, but it hasn’t really set in yet. It was one of my goals for 2010, but it just came a little early.” On Super Bowl Sunday in February of 2009, Sharp final tabled the Full Tilt Poker $500,000 Guaranteed, adding $32,000 to his bankroll.
What will Sharp do with his newfound riches? He admitted, “It’s definitely a life-changing amount. I’m going to put it all away, pay some bills off, treat myself to something nice, and try to be as smart as I can with everything.” He final tabled the Sunday Brawl on the last week of November for $12,000 and won the $11 rebuy on PokerStars for the same amount four weeks prior. On Christmas Day, he took down the $42,000 Guaranteed on Full Tilt Poker for $10,000.
By midday Monday, the poker community had issued a wave of congratulatory messages to Sharp. He revealed that he had been selective about who he told outside of the industry: “I only told three of my best friends outside of poker and my mom. It’s a little different for them than the online guys because they’re not used to people making that much money. They all couldn’t believe it at first.” He racked up $235,000 in tournaments that are tracked for the Online Poker Rankings in December in just 27 qualifying in the money finishes.
He could be found playing $20 buy-in multi-table tournaments and $5 rebuys in mid-2008 before Mark dipthrong Herm (pictured at left) approached him about a backing deal. An agreement came to fruition in August 2008 and it’s been all uphill ever since. Sharp explained what’s been the most influential factor on his game: “It’s been learning from everyone and talking strategies with people I’ve gotten to be close with online. I pick up concepts pretty quickly, so anything I learn, I just try to apply right away.” Herm and Dan djk123 Kelly currently back Sharp.
The Sunday Million runner-up is an assistant high school basketball coach, which limits his time to play poker in-season. The team is currently 5-1 on the season and Sharp admitted, “I can only play Sundays pretty much because it’s our only day off.” In addition to his team, Sharp wanted to send a shout out to “Nick agriffrod Mitchell for letting me run good with his cute picture as my avatar on Stars and Paul ComeOnPhish Lieu (pictured at right).”Here were the results from this weekend’s PokerStars Sunday Million. Note that the payout amounts reflect the five-way chop:
1. coach6999 - $143,444
2. BBOY3110 - $213,443 (BBOY3110)
3. tsakalias - $190,767
4. schnaggels19 - $122,287
5. mystinen60 - $100,474
6. OBVAMENTS - $56,064
7. robvleugel - $37,376
8. plusmillion - $20,557
9. Mr Puckey - $13,082
Canada
United Kingdom
Costa Rica
Australia
Mexico
Denmark
Russian Federation
Sweden
Brazil
Germany
