By
Dan |
Published
Aug 02 2009, 10:06 PM
Well, not really. PocketFiver Kevin ImaLuckSac MacPhee has been the talk of the online poker world in recent weeks. In July, he won the Bodog weekly $100,000 Guaranteed twice, earning $50,000 total for his efforts. He also took down the Absolute Poker $100,000 Guaranteed Deep Stack, adding another $25,000 to his bankroll. He’s probably best known for his final table appearance in a Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) event in February for a blistering $218,000. So what does it take to be one of the world’s top online poker players? PocketFives.com sat down with MacPhee to find out.
MacPhee finished 28th in a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament held during the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) for $15,000. Nevertheless, he told PocketFives.com that he was on a “massive downswing” following poker’s most prestigious tournament series, which made winning the Bodog $100,000 Guaranteed twice in July even more noteworthy. MacPhee recalled, “It was really fun the second time. I was playing really aggressive in the end game and really going for the win.” Both Bodog victories were worth $25,000. All told, he racked up $147,000 in tournaments that are tracked for the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings in July in 94 qualifying cashes.
Despite an increased buy-in for the Bodog $100,000 Guaranteed, the marquee tournament remains relatively soft. MacPhee commented, “Bodog is one of the softer sites in general. Players are either way too tight/weak and let themselves get too low or are too loose and spewy. In the first win I had, I got in 35+ big blinds versus an under the gun raise with A-K against A-Q. I ended up losing that pot and got really short for a while, but people really weren't calling shoves, so I was able to chip up easily.” The Bodog $100,000 Guaranteed kicks off at 4:00pm ET each Sunday and boasts a $162 buy-in. On the last weekend of July, the online poker room added $27,000 to the prize pool to cover its overlay.
Despite his success and final table showing in an FTOPS event for a six-figure payday, MacPhee’s drive to improve is higher than ever. He sits at #12 worldwide in the Rankings, but told PocketFives.com, “I'm happy with my progress, but also very hungry. I want to win the
PokerStars Sunday Million or Full Tilt $750,000 Guaranteed. So many of my friends have jerseys, like
gboro780 (Steve Gross, pictured at left),
PiKappRaider (Steven Burkholder), and
rivermanl.”
So why has MacPhee continued to tear up online poker tournaments even after reaching the top of the mountain? He told PocketFives.com that poker provides an escape: “When I'm playing, I can forget about my problems and lose myself in the game. For almost two years now, I've eat, breathed, and slept poker. I split up with my ex-girlfriend and moved to a poker colony in Idaho with
ImaLucSac (Dylan Linde, pictured at right) and
devinr12.” He’s been on the road playing in poker tournaments ever since, heading to events in Macau, Las Vegas, and cities across Europe. He’s fresh off a 39th place showing in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Venice stop for $10,000.
MacPhee has taken his game to the next level by surrounding himself with poker’s elite. He explained, “I constantly travel and grind online. Everywhere I go, I meet top players that expand my game. For brief periods, I've even lived with a lot of top players. I've forged a lot of lifelong friendships in my whirlwind of travels and it’s really helped my game to be exposed to so many top players. The more I learn about this game, the more I realize how much there is to learn.” That sounds like a line from a fortune cookie. His mantra has earned him the fourth best PLB score in the Rankings, trailing only Shaun
shaundeeb Deeb, Gross, and Chris
moorman1 Moorman.
When asked whose game MacPhee admires the most, the ranked PocketFiver responded Ludovic
Cutsss Lacay (pictured at right), who finished 16th in the 2009 WSOP Main Event for $500,000. MacPhee noted, “He was my sleeper pick in the WSOP this year and nearly made the final table of the Main Event. He is the best live player I've ever played against and was trained from grinding $3/$6 cash games online. That’s important because cash game players are better post-flop than tournament players and it’s something that I'm working on.”
In May of 2008, WSOP bracelet winner Eric
basebaldy Baldwin took down the Bodog $100,000 Guaranteed twice. Congratulations from all of us to Kevin
ImaLuckSac MacPhee for his impressive month of July.