The Sixth Anniversary PokerStars Sunday Millionwas epic any way you slice it. The prize pool nearly lapped $7 million despite the buy-in staying at its usual $215 after a ridiculous 33,000 players showed up. It was one of the largest tournaments ever held in the history of our industry and, perhaps not so surprisingly, ended in an eight-way chop. Each person who dealt banked at least $225,000.

Coming away with a crisp $481,000 for second place was Wayneo, who hails from the United Kingdom and sat down with PocketFives to discuss his monumental finish.

PocketFives: Thanks for joining us. You must feel like you’re on top of the world right now.

Wayneo: I wasn’t even going to play until someone offered to put me in a couple of hours beforehand because I helped him get money on PokerStars. It’s crazy how these things line up. I obviously wasn’t expecting it and didn’t do any preparation for the tournament. I had been ill the previous week with the flu, but felt really relaxed going into it anyway. I thought tiredness might have been an issue going into the final table, as I had been up for nearly 24 hours at that stage.

This win came at a time when I have my own personal stuff in order. I am about to move into a senior position at my job with a greater wage, live with my girlfriend of two years, and am generally happy. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this win came when it did.

PocketFives: Did fatigue have anything to do with agreeing to the eight-way chop?

Wayneo: No. Going into the final table, I wasn’t going to chop. I was playing really well, had good reads on all of the players, and felt like everyone was playing scared. One of the short stacks was trying to get a deal going at nine players, but I said no straight away and wanted to play on, as I had the chip lead and felt that I could pressure the other players.

Nobody was particularly playing back at me for a couple of hours leading up to it and I had been watching the other table as well, so I felt like I really had an advantage with my stack and reads. The problem was I made a move at the incorrect time and got shoved on, so I lost chips in that hand and then lost with A-9 suited against a low pocket pair. I dropped down to third, so when the option to deal came up at eight and, feeling like I may have lost momentum, I decided to look at the numbers.

I had 50 million at 1M/2M and obviously a lot can happen. In hindsight, taking the chop at nine would have been amazing for me, I’d imagine, since I had around one-third of the chips in play. However, I don’t regret my decision and would do the same thing now.

PocketFives: What do you plan to do with $481,000?

Wayneo: I got backed in, so I have around half of it. I’m going to continue working (I work full-time at an advertising agency in London), go on a nice holiday with the girlfriend, and look at property. Of course, I’ll leave some to play with. I used to play poker professionally about five years ago and realized it wasn’t for me.

At the time, I had just come out of university and my days were never very structured. I carried on that unstructured lifestyle into playing poker professionally. I also found that I wasn’t being as sociable as the kind of person I am. Since getting a full-time job, I’ve realized the importance of structure. Some people don’t need it, but I definitely do.

As a poker pro, I was very lost. I needed poker and relied on it too much. I don’t want that to ever happen again and recommend other people who don’t feel 100% into poker try to do other things. Get a regular 9-5 job; it isn’t the worst thing in the world. There are so many really great opportunities out there.

PocketFives: How did you get started in poker originally?

Wayneo: I started playing poker in a home game when I was 17. I realized I was picking the game up quicker than my friends. Researching it online and noticing I was winning, I deposited £10 online on Ladbrokes as soon as I turned 18. I was a losing player for the first year or so. I wasn’t dealing with the wins and losses very well and was too extreme either way.

PocketFives: Are there any fellow poker players you look up to?

Wayneo: I often rail the big names, but John Tabatabai is a close friend and I have known him for eight years. We were both killing Ladbrokes at the same time. We’ve gone through similar highs and lows in poker and he’s also probably the smartest person I know. He’s a great person to bounce ideas off of.