This interview with Devin "TranquilChaos" Porter is done in two parts, begun Monday July 24th before the Main Event, and concluded Thursday August 10th. I found some interesting differences in Devin’s outlook before and after:

Lenny Sharlet: When are you headed back to Vegas?

TranquilChaos: I'm headed back on Wednesday...ESPN is coming to our house to do story on the "top online players".

LS: Nice, who else is in the house with you?

TranquilChaos: SamENole, Premier, pbdrunks, h@llingol, bill_ivey, biliards, check_kills, I probably forgot some... <READMORE>

LS: Wow, people coming and going? Or have you all been there at the same time?

TranquilChaos: Usually coming and going. We have crazy sleep schedules so it’s usually always rocking. For the most part we all arrived at the beginning of the WSOP.

LS: So, my first "official question" -- you've been around for a while on the boards, but how did you first discover P5s?

TranquilChaos: Haha, I was playing on Ultimate bet and someone spammed the chat box actually. They said something like "I hope you know you’re playing against the #1 ranked player".

LS: BRSavage? Were you already playing the bigger tourneys at that point or was this a mid-limit affair?

TranquilChaos: Yup. I was recreationally playing, with the seed of greater things to come just beginning to be planted in my head. Highlight of my week was playing the UB $30 on Thursdays. Thats when I "treated" myself to a bigger buyin. (fyi, I'll be starting the stars 150, dise 100k, party super in 30 min, quite the change.)

LS: Have you played just the two events as far as WPT goes?

TranquilChaos: Yeah, I'm batting 1.000 in WPT!

LS: And you qualified for both online, correct?

TranquilChaos: Yes, I won both through Ultimate Bet. I won multiple seats for the WSOP on UB and used one for the Mirage WPT. I am definitely excited to make my mark on the WSOP like I did on the WPT, I'm using all my bad luck up on the preliminary events. The prelim events have so few chips too. I'm ready to put some serious hours in messing with my table!

LS: I know the cards have not been falling your way so far, how do you feel going into the ME?

TranquilChaos: I always feel inadequate heading into a "major" tournament, like I need to prove something, and being so competitive, obviously anything but a win is a disappointment.

LS: Does that motivate you or do you actually feel it might be a leak? I mean, playing with a chip on your shoulder as long as you know it's there can be a good thing.

TranquilChaos: I think its a little bit of both actually. I'm definitely motivated by it to play my best game and go deep. I want to show that I'm not an internet donkey that just got lucky, but it does also affect my mental attitude when approaching the first day. It usually lasts until about the dinner break when I've got a massive stack.

LS: Do you settle down then, or just keep playing your game, but with more of a feeling that you belong? I mean, do you notice changes or is it really just butterflies?

TranquilChaos: You nailed it on the head. I start a major buy-in with the notion that I don’t belong here. I should be able to relax and just play, but I always am out to prove myself.

LS: Well you have certainly proved you belong on the big stage, but maybe that little extra urge to "show'em" is working for you?

TranquilChaos: Right, I mean I know that I am no Negreanu, Hellmuth, etc. A person that knows little or nothing about poker WILL recognize them on the street, whereas often I'll walk through a poker room unnoticed, just another "young punk" trying out the game.

LS: Do you feel that works to your advantage?

TranquilChaos: Maybe not directly but indirectly a "name pro" will play the same against me as he would an amateur.

LS: What's it like being a Tournament Pro, online and now live?

TranquilChaos: The tournament scene is the ultimate roller coaster. And unfortunately I take the highs and lows to the very extreme. After I busted out of Mirage WPT in 3rd place I'm sure I was unbearable to be around.

LS: Well after coming so close again I can understand.

TranquilChaos: My friends and family kept saying how proud they were, and "look what I just won", and accomplished, but it felt like the ultimate failure.

LS: Did that feeling fade, or do you still have it in the pit of your stomach?

TranquilChaos: For the most part I'm over it. A 6 figure score will ease most any feeling of depression, but when I think about key hands and moments it definitely feeds the urge to do it again. And again.

LS: So, with the roller coaster-- are you enjoying the ride? Or is it beginning to wear on you a bit, since you've gone pro?

TranquilChaos: I've definitely played less poker after the mirage tournament. I wouldn’t necessarily attribute it to poker wearing on me, but I definitely don’t want poker to be the only thing in my life.

LS: I hear ya, what are some of your other interests?

TranquilChaos: I love the game more than most anything I've ever set out to accomplish, don’t get me wrong, but I also don’t want to look back at this time and think "wow...all this money all this time and all I did was sit in my office and play online poker".

I grew up for the most part in a small town in Utah, so being outdoors is a thing I'm used to. We go camping, boating, wakeboarding most every weekend.


TC Catching some sick air on his wakeboard

LS: It was cool meeting your dad, he seems like a great guy-- what's your relationship like?

TranquilChaos: About as good as I could hope for. He has the same passion for poker that I do, so he'll travel to the major events not only to watch me play, but just to experience everything. We are more like friends than father and son.

LS: Nice, and I imagine he is also an outdoor enthusiast?

TranquilChaos: Most definitely. He is the one that got me involved early on.

LS: Did he also introduce you to poker or did you pick that up on your own?

TranquilChaos: I would say that it was a combination of both actually. I think I discovered the game with my friends early on in grade school playing on recess and what not, but the competition of it all and the learning of the game took place at the little $20 home games we would play with him and his poker buddies- $20 buy in .25.50 nl, about 5-6 guys.

LS: Do you find cash game skills translate well to tournaments, or are they just different beasts?

TranquilChaos: I think that the really good cash players and really good tournament players do well in the other discipline due to their general poker knowledge and reading abilities. I think that there is definitely a difference in the two types and that that gap is exposed in the lesser skilled players. (eg: a winning player at the .50-$1 nl game wouldn’t be as comfortable at a $100 buy in nl tournament and vice versa.)

***Two weeks later***

LS: Last time we talked you said that you still feel like you don't necessarily "belong" at these major events, but watching you play, the way you carried yourself and your confidence level at the WSOP seemed to be very high. You played very well and were it not for a nasty cold decking I think you might still be here!

TranquilChaos: I feel like my successes in recent "majors" have changed my mindset when approaching an event. I still feel like I'm apart of a lower tier of "great tournament players", not on the level of the giants of the game. But I definitely think I deserve the right to go deep in a big event and win it, where some other players that get there haven’t exactly "earned" it.

LS: Do you have plans to start playing more live events, or continue more of an online play + online satellite strategy?

TranquilChaos: To be honest I'm not really sure. I feel as if I'm at a crossroads in my personal life as well as my poker life right now. I will look to play more and more live events, but despite the monetary successes it’s still hard for me to plop down 10k at once.

LS: There is so much equity coming in as a satellite winner too, no reason to pass that up.

TranquilChaos: Right, I mean I play this professionally so I have a certain amount of time I allocate to poker each week. I don’t have a problem "wasting" 4-5 hours in an online tournament and getting into a Major for minimum investment.

LS: How many pre-lim events did you play?

TranquilChaos: Five I think. I cashed in the first one I played, then went out of the next four all holding KK, all of them all-in preflop, all against a weaker hand. So, considering the KK run, it wasn’t tough for me to fold KK, QQ, or JJ preflop in the main event. I was shown AA on two of those and was shown KK when I had QQ.

LS: Nice, no reason to play huge pots in such a deep stacked event.

TranquilChaos: Right, with my fortunate table draws, I felt like I could accumulate chips through post flop play, and therefore avoided most all or nothing situations.

LS: Amazing you finished 204/8773, that's a great run, and it took set over set to knock you down. You are definitely "on the radar" of Cardplayer, but with PocketfivesLive.com off to a good start we look forward to covering you in future events.

TranquilChaos: Oh man, P5's live is fantastic for the unknown player and their families. With all the big names emerging its so hard for a fan of a certain unknown to get info (excluding direct phone calls) P5'slive is a great idea. I mean we all know what Phil Hellmuth looks like but to open p5'slive and seeing a pic of Denny Lemieux, or TheWacoKidd is very cool.

LS: I think it's great, especially for the ME with the enormous fields, there is no way anyone could ever cover a field of 10,000 people. So it's a great niche for us, and one with a lot of room to grow.

Hey, it just occurred to me-- tranquilchaos is a pretty unusual screen name online, any story there?

TranquilChaos: When I was playing on my old name (devinm33) "tranquil chaos" was how my poker game was described to me. They said that I'm very calm, and tight, and then BAM I'm playing every pot and reraising w/ 4 high. So, I felt a name change was in order.

LS: So, how do you feel the Pocketfives community has impacted your life and career? How did the "Taking the Plunge" thread influence you?

TranquilChaos: Without a doubt it’s the first site I visit when I jump online. When I first turned pro I got some wonderful advice from that thread and just basically jumped right into a side of poker I didn’t know existed. Every stress, every down, every up is magnified by 100x when you are doing this solely for income.

LS: Does OT help you pass the time when grinding it out?

TranquilChaos: I will admit that even though I go to pocketfives.com very first, I also head straight to OT when I first get there. I'm not sure if its just my sense of humor or if they really are the funnies people I've met, but 1.21gigawatts, wowswift, wein, bmclaughlin just do it for me.

LS: Tell me a little bit about the friends you've made through P5s.

TranquilChaos: Outside of the "taking the plunge" thread I sought some private advice from brsavage, SamEnole and others that I feel helped immensely in my success at Aruba’s WPT event. I talk to SamEnole daily about anything from World Cup soccer to being dealt AQ utg on the money bubble.

LS: How many P5ers have you met live?

TranquilChaos: I have met quite a few P5'ers in real life and honestly haven’t really had a bad experience with any of them. I find this true with most poker players that I meet though, they always seem to be the nicest of people. Some of my favorite casino partying moments include P5'ers. Denny Lemieux is a riot at the tables.

LS: OT is great for a good laugh, a random vid, etc., but it is also a good place for advice, like on what car to buy. So did you end up with the beamer or what?

TranquilChaos: Haha, yes I do drive a new BMW 325i. Definitely was good to get a quick answer on what people thought about it in terms of gas mileage, looks, handling etc.


No Parking signs mean nothing to a two time WPT final tablist

LS: Do your folks have a boat? Or is that your next purchase?

TranquilChaos: They don't and it is.

Thanks again TC! I think your performance in the WPT events and going as deep as you did in the ME you definitely have proven that you belong and you are easily up there with some of the tournament pros out there. Or at the very least well on your way.
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