Last weekend, PartyPoker's $200,000 Guaranteed brought out a field of nearly 1,100 players. Anthony Gaughan, who goes by Ant040689 on PocketFives and anupreturns on PartyPoker, found himself in dead last with four players remaining. In line for a $12,000 fourth place payday, Gaughan persevered and laddered all the way up to second place, which brought him $26,000 and his largest cash ever. The United Kingdom poker community member sat down with PocketFives to relive his moment in the sun.PocketFives: Thanks for joining us. Tell us how you're feeling about the runner-up finish in the PartyPoker $200,000 Guaranteed.
Anthony Gaughan: Grateful. I think I was 4/4 for most of the time near the end, but as the short stack, I still managed to ladder when the chip leader was knocking out players with larger stacks. Each jump was for so much money, so I loved it.
PocketFives: Can you talk about being at the bottom with four players left? What was your mindset and how did you overcome the odds?
Anthony Gaughan: My mindset was that I was pretty short and didn't have many options with my plan of attack. I just had to wait for a spot to open-shove. Every time I went all-in and got called, I was lucky enough for my hand to hold. It became so shallow that it really became a lottery with four people left.
PocketFives: This was the largest cash ever for you, right? What did you do to celebrate and how will the score change your career, if at all?
Anthony Gaughan: My largest score before this was $9,400 on PokerStars. I did nothing to celebrate and think there is something wrong with me (ha). I feel un-phased by the win, but I'm now more determined to make more and more big scores. My career will change now since I have more padding to play higher-stakes games, and hopefully that will result in larger profits. It has been all coming together recently for me. I feel I may be able to make a nice amount of money from the game in the near future.
PocketFives: What did your friends and family think of your PartyPoker $200K score?Anthony Gaughan: They are starting to take my poker exploits a little more seriously considering the amount of money I have been winning as of late. I think I just need more consistent scores before they can handle the idea of me doing this for a living. Plus, they were very happy with the score, as it is what some people make in a year, and I am looking forward to reinvesting the money wisely.
PocketFives: Will you start playing poker full-time now?
Anthony Gaughan: I am probably going to give poker a very serious trial run for the next one or two years. If I am not winning as much as I think I should, or nothing at all, I will make sure to get out and move to a different career. However, I am going to give this a shot so I won't look back in the years to come thinking, "What if I really went hard at trying to become a poker pro?"
If it goes well, it could mean a lifestyle that really shouldn't be available to me: working my own hours, having enough money to buy a flat, etc. I'm willing to trudge through to hopefully be a phenom online.
I am sort of at a crossroads right now. I am about to graduate from university with a degree in history, but have been pretty aimless about what career I would like to do. So, it seems to be the perfect time to give poker a try before I commit to whatever it is I decide to do in the long-run. Journalism is a career I would be looking into and I hope to find work in while I play poker.PocketFives: How did you get started in poker?
Anthony Gaughan: Playing the Double your Monies five years ago on Cryptologic from an initial £200 deposit. I played the £5 and £10 buy-in six-max events. I also played their relatively modest MTT schedule with decent results.
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