Here’s a thought: molliemalonejust rolls off the tongue. It’s almost alliteration and, for England’s Martin Malone (pictured), who was in Canada when we caught up with him, it was the chosen user name when he signed up for a PocketFives account in March of last year. Fast-forward 18 months, when Malone took down the Full Tilt Poker Sunday Brawl for $52,000.

“I’m feeling great,” Malone told PocketFives in an exclusive interview. “I’ve obviously been in a very good mood the last few days.” And who wouldn’t be? For Malone, who is backed, the win resulted in his makeup being cleared and gave him a few extra bucks in his wallet to boot, which he labeled “lovely.” The UK resident added, “I am planning on coming back to visit Southampton at Christmas, so I’m sure it will come in handy there.”

The last few people we interviewed have pointed out that, besides their blockbuster win on a particular Sunday, the rest of the day was pretty uneventful. The same was true for Malone, who explained, “It was a weird day. Everything was going wrong in other tournaments, but I said to my friend who grinds at my place on Sundays, from very early on in my session, that as long as I win the Brawl, I wouldn’t complain. That’s pretty much what happened.”

Early on in the Sunday Brawl, the action folded to the cutoff, who open-jammed 15 big blinds. Malone narrated, “I re-shipped my 16 big blinds with A-10 and when the small blind snapped put it in for 60 big blinds, I thought I was probably in big trouble, but they showed Q-J and K-Q. I held, which was definitely an important pot.”

Three-handed, Malone (pictured with Toby 810ofclubs Lewis) opened the button with K-J and the big blind, who had been short, 3bet. Malone called with K-J offsuit and the flop came K-8-X, all diamonds. Malone explained his thought process after calling a continuation bet: “I felt maybe I could raise and get it in there, but the right play was to peel. The turn was an offsuit deuce and he bet a size I felt could be a barrel with Ad-X, among lots of other hands I was beating. Also, the villain probably wouldn’t be balancing his bet sizing and have strong hands there too, so I felt it was more likely he had fewer strong hands, so I decided to call again.”

The river was an offsuit five and his opponent put Malone to the test, shoving all-in. Malone said he time-banked “for ages,” reasoning, “I wasn’t sure he was going to triple-barrel bluff me there, but I felt when thinking everything through that I had to call. Against some players, I would be a lot happier doing so, but this was a tough one. I called and he showed up with A-J, no diamond, for a pure bluff and we shipped a big one and left him very short. That was obviously a key pot which thankfully went my way.”

His $52,000 cash influx was the largest PocketFives has tracked for Malone, who prior to poker had been working with young adults and children with autism. He told us, “Back home, I worked at a unit for 18- to 21-year-olds with autism and at a secondary school for children with special needs. I also worked as a youth support worker for at risk young people. I still volunteer one day a week at a program for young adults with autism.”

Malone has been playing poker for eight years and seriously for half of that time, but in the last 18 months, he has started focusing on the game and putting in more volume. Outside of poker, he dabbles in golf, which is going on with mixed results, and football, which he plays as much as possible. He added, “I am lucky enough to be in Vancouver (pictured) at the moment, which means I get to skiand do lots of outdoor activities. To relax, I tend to sit in with the girlfriend and watch Netflix. That’s a pretty standard evening for me after a session online.”

He wanted to close by saying, “I am lucky to have an amazingly supportive girlfriend and mother and to be friends with some very talented players who have helped my game to no end. I have improved so much in the last 18 months and it’s massively because of them.”

If playing in the Sunday Brawl sounds like a good time, you can sign up for Full Tilt Poker through PocketFives’ links and make a deposit to get a 100% first deposit bonus plus one free month of PocketFives Training with the sign-up fee waived, a $65 value. Get started here.

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