Poker Articles

Last Sunday Pocketfiver Braien made the biggest score of his life, and one of the biggest scores of the year online by winning FTOPS #7. He outflopped, outplayed and outlasted a field of 4,475 entrants in the $300 buy-in event. Two other Pocketfivers made the final table as well. Chicagocards1 and ellizizcute took home 70k and 30k for their fourth and seventh place finishes. Braein was the man of the hour, however as he walked away victorious and 237,072 dollars richer.

This win could not have come at a better time for Braien, who just had his first child a few months ago. He and his wife are stationed in Great Falls, Montana where Braien is serving in the U.S. Air Force. I suppose for someone who holds the title of Missile Combat Crew Commander, playing the money bubble of a major tournament is child’s play. It may seem that Braien almost came out of nowhere to this win, but he is no newbie to the online poker world.

Braien has been playing online off and on since 2002, when he graduated from his drunken college game with buddies to grinding micro limits online. He quickly turned his first $50 deposit into $500, but then stalled out. Most players at this point would have floundered around for a while, taken a few shots and likely ended up busto. Instead, Braien invested a chunk of his profits in poker books, and made the effort to take his game to the next level. This strategy worked handsomely for him, because between steady winning play and grinding the bonuses across several sites he was able to make more money playing online than he was as a manager at a Pizza chain.

Not that it was a lot of cash, but it was a great way for a college student to make ends meet, and it also gave him valuable poker experience. After graduation, as an ROTC candidate, Braien was commissioned and directly entered service in the Air Force. Naturally between the rigors of military life and the demands of his new family, Braien has not had much time to play poker over the past year or so. He did manage to play from time to time, mostly mid-stakes games earlier this year. Since his return to the game, he has been playing exclusively on Full Tilt Poker.

How did Braien graduate from playing mid-stakes tourneys to the biggest buy-ins online? Did he get staked? Did he win the lottery? Play out of his bankroll? No, he did it the old fashioned way, by parlaying a satellite win into a big score. With an officer’s pay in real life, he was not getting rich, but had plenty to live on, so his poker winnings were now freed up to take a few shots. Braien started playing satellites to the big buy-ins on FTP and in June he managed to win a seat in the Monday 1k. This is one of the premier weekly events in online poker and Braien proved he belongs by making the final table where he finished third for a very healthy $30k prize.

The very next week Braien was threatening a repeat final table in the 1k, but fell short, finishing 18th for a very small profit. He also cashed in two of the FTOPS events the last go around, including the main event, but neither was very big. Three months later, FTOPS event #7 was the first tournament he had played since August and he certainly made the most of it. This huge win has reenergized Braien’s passion for the game and he is now aggressively pursuing poker as his post-military career. He played event #13 (a $2,500 buy-in!) on Saturday, making it somewhat deep only to get bounced by K10s vs his AK. “Oh, well, there’s always the Main Event,” he said as the villain stacked his chips.

As a word nerd, I was very interested to discover the origin of Braien’s screenname. Apparently he did some research to come up with a unique handle, and he found that "braien” is the middle English form of “to bray” which is not only the sound a donkey makes, but also means to crush and pound to a fine consistency, as in a mortar. It conjures quite the image as he crushes and pounds his opponents at the poker table and the donkeys scream for mercy. Of course, the likelihood of someone actually catching the reference is probably much lower than catching a perfect perfect royal flush.

As you might expect from someone who chose such a screenname, Braien definitely approaches poker as a thinking man’s game. He was not the biggest fan of school, but he is an avid student of poker. He owns 40 poker books, and has read each and every one, sometimes twice. He has also taken the time to condense what he learns from a poker book into key concepts through mnemonic devices, flashcards, and he also keeps a poker blog in which he discusses many of these concepts. Braien is also a member of PokerXFactor, which he says, “Took my MTT game to a whole new level. It’s better than any book.”

Braien is currently working on his own strategy that involves the “militarization of poker”, which sounds scary but is really just another way of thinking about the game. As Braien said, “I think it is helpful to relate poker to something important in your life.”

By thinking about his opponents’ strengths and weaknesses in a complex array of tendencies and situations, Braien is able to apply tactical and strategic thinking to the game. He also recently picked up The Mathematics of Poker, on the recommendation of our book review here at Pocketfives. “I am really excited to read it. Some people think poker is all about math or all about psychology. I try to combine both as much as I can,” he said about his approach to the game.

Braien is no poker phenom. He is the poster child for the player who wants to improve their game through hard work and discipline. I am convinced that anyone can be a winner in Poker if they put their mind to it, and Braien has certainly shown that study can pay very nice dividends.

Pocketfives would like to congratulate Braien on his big win, his new baby and the start of a promising poker career.