How the West Was Won
Tim Tmay420West (pictured) has owned the live poker world as of late. In a one-week span last month, he took down the $5,000 buy-in Wynn Classic Main Event for $318,000 after defeating Full Tilt Pokerpro Annette Annette_15Obrestad heads-up. He wasn’t done there, however. West then traveled even further west to San Diego, where he was the runner-up in the $10,000 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit Regional Championship for $174,000.
While both deep runs were impressive, West told PocketFives.com that the Wynn Classic victory carried a little bit more weight: “It was very exciting to be part of the whole television aspect of the WSOP, that being the major way I got into the game of poker, but I would have to say that winning the Wynn Classic was better. Beating such a sick final table along with a sick heads-up opponent in Annette was such a huge confidence boost and a fun challenge for me.”
West and Obrestad (pictured) battled heads-up for six hours to determine a winner in the Las Vegas poker tournament. On facing the original WSOP Europe Main Event champion, West recalled, “She’s definitely one of the best in the game, and a student of the game from what I could gather. We both were extremely tired and drained during it. However, we both played strong and it went back and forth.”
In the final hand of the tournament, Obrestad min-raised on the button to 160,000 and West called with K-9 of spades. The flop came Q-6-3 with two spades and West checked. Obrestad bet 175,000, West check-raised to 600,000, and Obrestad shoved all-in. West called and Obrestad showed Q-10 for top pair. West hit a king on the turn to pull ahead for good and also spiked a nine on the river.
At the time of writing, West had ascended all the way to #6 in the Bluff Player of the Year race, but don’t expect to see him try to hit #1 anytime soon: “I am not going to be focused on the Player of the Year chase, but I do want to play every live tournament I can right now. The structures are getting good and I think it’s a good policy to strike while the iron is hot. Tournaments these days have phenomenal structures. A couple years ago, it was tougher to find. Now, there are more levels than ever and tournaments have never been better.”
By virtue of final tabling the WSOP Circuit Regional Championship in San Diego, West scored a seat into the 100-man WSOP Circuit National Championship in Las Vegas. The $1 million freeroll will pan out from May 27th to 29th and the winner will walk away with a shiny gold bracelet in addition to a pile of cash.
On being able to participate in the unique freeroll, West told PocketFives.com, “Winning it is the goal for sure. I find that when you don’t think about the money, you focus more on playing your best game and winning.”
Finally, no interview with West would be complete without a discussion of facial hair. We were surprised to see him sporting a full beard in a recent image (pictured, courtesy of PokerNews) and so asked him about his look. He responded, “I used to have really nasty facial hair. These days, I still have the beard. The soul patch is in there, but with the beard, I don’t consider it a soul patch. I kind of like my beard. I think it might stick around for a little while.”
Online, West owns over $3 million in tracked cashes and closed out 2010 by final tabling the PokerStars Super Tuesday in November for $33,000.
