On the first Sunday of September, longtime PocketFiver Ryan gutshtallinWelch (pictured), who joined our site in 2007, took down the PokerStars Sunday Million, a WCOOP event, after a seven-way chop for $200,000. There were over 11,600 entrants that week and Welch was one of two to pocket at least $200,000.

“It feels really awesome to finally win a WCOOP tournament,” Welch told PocketFives. “It’s one of those things where it’s nice to know I’m still able to keep up with the young guns. I basically have been traveling to Canada to play only SCOOP and WCOOP each year.”

It’s not every day that you see a seven-way chop. Welch said it happened due to a “weird dynamic” and explained, “One guy who was on my direct left had almost half the chips in play. I was second with 35 big blinds and there were five other stacks with 20 big blinds or less. The blinds were getting big and I was happy to lower my variance since my spot was pretty horrible with ICM implications.” The amounts given out in the chop ranged from $80,000 to $269,000.

Welch and his wife are planning to start a family soon, so a portion of the cash will go toward a baby fund. In the meantime, he has been shuttling back and forth from Canada to play online poker, which he called “really easy,” saying, “My wife is Canadian, so I stay with my mother-in-law. I have a nice area to grind whenever I want to make the quick flight up to Calgary.”

When he’s not in Canada, you can find Welch in Las Vegas, where he has owned a house for the last four-and-a-half years. He travels around the world to live events and plays quite a bit of PLO cash. On the latter, he critiqued, “It has been nice to dive into a new game and really learn the game as a beginner. I find it to be more interesting than NLHE cash and a nice change of pace.”

Speaking of Vegas, Welch finished fourth in a $1,500 NLHE event during this year’s World Series of Poker for $119,000. Four years ago, he won a bracelet in a $3,000 Triple Chance NLHE tournament. He said it was “great to close one out” this year in Nevada.

Fun fact: Welch’s brother, Thomas Welch (pictured, image courtesy RantSports), was selected by the New England Patriots in the final round of the 2010 NFL Draft and has formerly played for the Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills, and New Orleans Saints. He played his college ball at Vanderbilt.

Speaking of his family, our interview subject labeled himself a “family guy” and explained, “My wife and I live in a quiet neighborhood filled with families. I’m hoping soon to be able to play PokerStars from my own home. Fingers crossed that happens sooner than later. Poker allows me to be home a lot, or at least close to home.”

As Welch said, and we immortalized in the title of this article, he is one of the old school members of PocketFives and was ranked as high as #5 on our site in 2009. He has $3.5 million in career online tournament winnings and two tracked scores of at least $200,000.

On his longevity in the highly competitive world of poker, Welch rationalized, “Old guys can still win online! Of the original regs I played with six or seven years ago, most aren’t around anymore. I take a lot of pride and work hard to keep ahead. It’s important to be passionate about your job. As long as poker can do that for me, I’ll be playing and giving 100%.”

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