On the final day of January, longtime PocketFives.com member Mark dipthrong Herm emerged victorious in the Absolute Poker $100,000 Guaranteed. His win in the $1,050 buy-in tournament was worth $58,000. Herm’s long list of accolades includes victories in some of the industry’s largest tournaments like the Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guaranteed, Bodog $100,000 Guaranteed, Full Tilt Sunday Mulligan, PokerStars $250,000 Guaranteed, and the Nightly Hundred Grand. In October 2008, Herm chopped the PokerStars Sunday 500 for $70,000. PocketFives.com sat down with Pennsylvania native to recap the latest feather in his cap.Herm defeated Dan Wretchy Martin in a final table that also featured amandaw111, Nate njw11 Wachtel, and the number one player in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, David Doc Sands Sands, who finished in seventh place for $9,300. Here’s a look at how the final table shook out:
1. DIPTHRONG - $57,884 (dipthrong)
2. LMBSMDGFY - $34,800 (Wretchy)
3. CUSSWORDJAR - $23,780
4. AMANDAW111 - $16,240 (amandaw111)
5. DICKYDUNCE - $13,920
6. KINGSILAS222 - $11,600
7. DSANDS25 - $9,280 (Doc Sands)
8. A_THEKEVLAR_2 - $6,960
9. NJW111 - $4,640 (njw11)
PocketFives.com: Thanks for joining us. Was it as though of a final table as it looked?Mark Herm: Yeah, I was heads-up with Wretchy, who I think is one of the most improved players and has been crushing recently. Also at the final table was Doc Sands (pictured at left), who has won more than anyone out there at this point.
PocketFives.com: You’ve had a lot of success yourself on the virtual felts. Is the level of competition at the Absolute Poker $100,000 Guaranteed final table intimidating to you at all?
Mark Herm: Sort of because I haven’t played with them a whole lot. On Absolute Poker, it’s generally the people you haven’t heard of that you have to be the most worried about. The site has some cash game regulars who are pretty good.
PocketFives.com: Talk a little bit about your staking endeavors. We’ve had a multitude of interviewees say that you’ve helped their games immensely.
Mark Herm: I actually think staking has helped me a lot to keep getting better because I talk so much with the guys I back and I’m good friends with a lot of them. As far as sending money and arranging things, I generally try to get everyone stocked before Sunday or some other day when I’m going to be playing high volume.
PocketFives.com: Talk about the state of Mark Herm’s poker game.
Mark Herm: I think it’s okay a lot of the time, but I still spew a ton, especially against regulars. Generally, I just get into my head that people are playing back a lot more than they really are. I’d do a lot better if I folded to resistance more often, which I’m working on.
PocketFives.com: What poker moment of 2009 stands out to you the most?Mark Herm: Probably when Jamie pokerjamers Armstrong (pictured at right) chopped a PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) event in April for $380,000. He had been playing really well and getting unlucky a lot deep, so that was huge. I used to back him and now we are really good friends.
PocketFives.com: Can you remind us how you got started in poker?
Mark Herm: Sure. I started off as a Limit Hold’em grinder actually. When I started in tournaments, I was really, really tight, so I’ve come a long way from that. I started playing serious MTTs in 2006.
Canada
United Kingdom
Costa Rica
Australia
Mexico
Denmark
Russian Federation
Sweden
Brazil
Germany
