Late last month, Steve Tripp (pictured), who goes by betrthanphilon PocketFives, chopped the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up for $79,000. He officially took down the tournament as well, which meant over 700 PLB Points added to his total. “I couldn’t be happier,” Tripp told PocketFives. “It was a good way to begin the summer.” There were three players involved in the chop and Tripp had the largest payday by a $24,000 margin.

“I had the chip lead the whole final table and once we got to the final four, I had around half the chips in play,” he said of the deal. “There was an offer for $64,000 for me with $8,000 to play for, but with first place being $81,000 and second place being $60,000, I didn’t see it as a good deal for me. Everyone these days is stuck on thinking that ICM is what a fair deal is, but I disagree. Two stacks had around 10 big blinds, while one had 25 and I was sitting with 50. So, I didn’t see the need to accept that deal and take a lot of the stress off them.”

A deal never went down four-handed. Instead, it took until three remained to hammer it out. Tripp explained, “We ended up getting to three-handed and looked at a deal again. One guy was very new and willing to give up money to guarantee me $71,000 along with $8,000 to play for when originally I was offered $66,500.”

Tripp got hitched in May and has plenty of expenses associated with the wedding to funnel money into. He added that he might splurge on a new ride for his wife, but “she likes to earn things herself, so it might be tough to convince her.”

This author is married, so hearing about other players’ weddings is always a good time. Tripp had a destination wedding in Jamaica (pictured) with 30 friends and family. “It was amazing,” he said. “I love Jamaica. It’s a great atmosphere with great people everywhere. I was very lucky to have so many people who were able to come. They all made the experience amazing.” He hasn’t taken his honeymoon yet, but that might come during the colder months.

Like 49th ranked The Spewtard, who has won two PocketFives Triple Crowns this month, Tripp recently passed $2 million in online scores. “It’s a start in the right direction,” he said of his new profile badge. “It’s a big goal to reach, but I hope it’s just the beginning.”

Tripp is the 24th ranked player in Canada and #184 in the world. As such, he is relatively content with his game right now, saying, “I think my overall game is fairly strong at the moment. I’ve done lots of hand history studying as of late with some great players who are really underrated, as they just haven’t had that breakthrough score yet: shakentoucan, actyper, and julesdaa. I’m currently focused on better note-taking while I play.”

Tripp got his start in poker during high school, when his friends held home games. He had some success prior to university, but decided to put education ahead of poker anyway. He recalled, “The first year, I lost a lot of what I had made prior to university, so during the summer I worked construction. That was tough work and I realized I needed to work hard at this game so I didn’t ever have to do that again.”

Finally, we wanted to ask where the screen name betrthanphil comes from. “When I made the name, a lot of the big names in the poker world had the first name Phil,” he explained. “Plus, Phil Ivey (pictured) was my favorite player at the time, so it seemed like the right name to put there.” There remain a glut of high-profile Phils in poker, including Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Galfond, and Phil Collins.

He closed by telling us, “All poker players need a good support system around them to be successful both on and off the tables to help them through the lows and celebrate the highs. My mother, my new wife, and my friends are a huge part of my success. I couldn’t do it without them.”

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