Last month, Spencer Hudson (pictured), known on PocketFives as UHBigTex, final tabled the Full Tilt Poker $350,000 Guaranteed for $18,000. He is a U.S. transplant now living in Mexico and told us the story about leaving on a cruise out of Miami on Black Friday. He has been a longtime member of PocketFives – June 2005, to be exact – and has more than $2.3 million in tracked online poker scores in MTTs.

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PocketFives: Great job in the Full Tilt $350K. Tell us how you’re feeling about it.

Spencer Hudson: Thanks. It’s funny because I was playing a ton of tables and mainly focusing on the Big Ben at the time, which I was doing well in. I got in some bad spots in that tournament and ended up getting 10th, which was pretty devastating. So, I tried to keep my composure and eventually found myself at the final table.

PocketFives: What was going through your head at the final table and how did it go in general?

Spencer Hudson: The final table was pretty stacked and it seemed like I had the three most aggressive and best players on my left. I kind of let some of the other guys battle it out, which is not typically my style, but there was some super crazy play going on. Slowly, a few guys busted, including one of the good guys on my left, without me getting into any confrontations really.

The first big pot I remember playing came when the small blind ripped for like 19 big blinds, I called, and he ended up rivering me. Two hands later, I flipped with 7-7 against the A-9 of the chip leader and lost that also, so I went out in fifth place. We briefly talked about a chop, but that got nowhere since one guy wasn’t talking and the chip leader wanted more than I thought he deserved.

PocketFives: When did you relocate from the U.S. to Mexico?

Spender Hudson: In November 2011, I moved to Playa del Carmen. There is a huge group of guys here. On Black Friday, I was leaving on a cruise out of Miami when I got the news at like 8:00am from people and didn’t think much of it. I got back to reality and soon realized my life had been turned upside down.

I pretty much did nothing for five months. I had built up my resume and was about to go through with a job, but couldn’t do it. I eventually started looking into moving to Vancouver and Rosarito. After a few talks with one of my good friends, Gus Voelzel, and doing research on Playa, it seemed like a clear and easy choice. Once I moved down to Mexico, everything went pretty smoothly and I have been here ever since.

PocketFives: When you look back on your Sunday Million win in 2009, what do you think about?

Spencer Hudson: How much my life has changed since then. I didn’t really have a care in the world then and did a lot of crazy and fun things that I don’t regret, but having that much money and not knowing how to manage it is something I regret a little bit.

PocketFives: Can you tell us what happened?

Spencer Hudson: I hardly played poker for the next year and pretty much just partied and traveled. After expenses alone, you realize money can come and go quickly, much less when you aren’t thinking about your spending. I was very generous at the time, probably too generous. I’m still the same person, just a little more careful. That and Black Friday were big reality shocks. Realizing you can have your rights stripped away from you is a pretty scary thing, especially when it comes to your main source of income.

PocketFives: How did you get started in poker?

Spencer Hudson: I got started in college. I wasn’t in a fraternity, but all of my close friends were. So, I started playing with them a few times a week and eventually in some games around Houston. I didn’t lose a ton, but wasn’t winning a lot either. Soon, I found PartyPoker and started playing on there. I was pretty clueless and just knew I wanted a big score. I won a satellite into the Sunday tournament there for $5, I believe, and ended up getting eighth for somewhere around $4,000. That was a pretty huge accomplishment seeing as how I had never seen anywhere close to that amount of money. That pretty much started it all for me.

PocketFives: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Spencer Hudson: I want to give a shout out to all the Playa grinders: buckguy 2200, badbeatme, suitedconex4, the hammer, apd0920, phishman, squintster, oleIRONhelm, and LilFishAtL! The last two both had huge scores in recent Sunday Warm-Ups.

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