In the inaugural PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), PocketFiver Matt mcmatto Affleck raised eyebrows by chopping the high-stakes version of Event 8, a $3,150 No Limit Hold’em Two Day affair. He was part of a three-way deal and took home $410,000. The finalists agreed to play on for $60,000, with Affleck ultimately taking down the tournament for an extra $60,000. Also involved in the chop were Zachary CrazyZachary Clark and Jamie pokerjamers Armstrong, who was a recent guest on the PocketFives.com Podcast. So what does it take to be successful in an event like this and what went through his head after two solid days of poker ended with a chop? PocketFives.com sat down with Affleck to find out.

First place in the SCOOP tournament was officially worth $550,000. Affleck told PocketFives.com what happened when talk of chopping the massive $3 million prize pool tournament came up: “I got owned in the chop. For the record, I know I took a bad deal, but my thought process was that making the deal would take a lot of pressure off of me and I could continue to play my aggressive 3betting type of game with a deep stack.” He instantly cashed for $410,000, leaving the title of SCOOP Two Day Event Champion and $60,000 up for grabs.

He admitted that part of his willingness to chop came as a result of his bankroll taking a significant boost in the process. He commented, “Now that I have the money, I wouldn’t do that type of a deal again, but at the time, my bankroll was only $50,000 and I had won a satellite to get in. I had all of my action, so locking up the money was important.” Clark grabbed second place for $390,000 and Armstrong (pictured at left) saw his bankroll rise on Full Tilt Poker by $380,000. Clark plays on the site under the name nofingclue11. A total of 915 players entered and the top 99 finished in the money.

Affleck noted that in the SCOOP event, he was fortunate to have an advantageous draw at the final table: “I got lucky to have Armstrong on my right. He was just running over the table, 3betting and 4betting everyone including me.” On playing out a tournament until the very end and then coming back to compete on Day 2, Affleck commented, “I would have preferred to play it out, but I was fine with having a second day. It gave me some time to recoup and focus on one tournament.”

At the end of February, Affleck scored a win in the $100 rebuy on Full Tilt for $26,000. Two weeks prior, he won a $55 cubed event on PokerStars for $14,000. On how the SCOOP event chop compared to his win in the $100 rebuy, Affleck commented, “The $100 rebuy win gave me a lot of confidence that I could compete in the big online tournaments. It was only my fifth time playing it. However, it’s nothing like a SCOOP win.” He developed his bankroll to enter the $100 rebuy as a result of finishing as the runner up to Victor Lemos in a €500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em preliminary tournament held during the European Poker Tour Deauville festivities for €36,000.

He turned 21 years-old on Day 1D of last year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. He received a $10,000 entry into the prestigious tournament, but elected to parlay the money into event buy-ins at the Venetian and Caesars. This time around, you’ll be able to catch the PocketFiver living in a house with friends during the two month-long event in Sin City. In the meantime, Affleck is in college pursuing a finance degree and will graduate in 2010. On his plans after receiving his diploma, he told PocketFives.com, “I plan on giving poker a shot. I really want to travel the live tour more, as I have had a little success. This summer will be my first with a good-sized bankroll and I plan on playing 10 to 15 WSOP events.” He expects to head to a variety of non-U.S. tournaments as well, including the WSOP Europe in London and a World Poker Tour event in Cypress.

During Affleck's first year of college, he met fellow PocketFiver Alex Assassinato Fitzgerald (pictured at right). The duo discovered that they lived just two blocks away from each other and a friendship blossomed. Fitzgerald staked Affleck in the beginning of 2008. Last April, Affleck won a $200 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament during the Spring Poker Roundup in Pendleton for $10,000. Half of his winnings seeded his online bankroll and the rest, as they say, is history. At that point, he realized that poker could become his true calling: “I realized that I could make a lot of money. My big break was in September of last year, when I got second in the Cake Poker $300 buy-in $250,000 Guaranteed for $42,000. Then, I cashed in the EPT in January and now in SCOOP. I’ve been putting in a lot of hours and have been fortunate enough to run well in some big tournaments.”

He wanted to send a shout out to fellow PocketFivers Kevin ImaLuckSac MacPhee, devinr12, Aditya intervention Agarwal, Yevgeniy atimos Timoshenko, and schaefer, who have all had a profound influence on his game. We look forward to more big finishes from Affleck in the near future.