Earlier this month, the Full Tilt Poker $250,000 Guaranteedsported a field of 1,614 entrants. In the end, three of them orchestrated a chop, including Liverpool’s Gavin gavb31Ball (pictured), who landed in second place and walked away with $43,000. Winning the tournament when all was said and done and earning a $54,000 first place prize was mincepie.

“I’m pretty pumped,” Ball told PocketFives in an exclusive interview. “Not too long ago, I was on the verge of quitting poker. I had a really bad 18 months and was recently dropped by backers, albeit on good terms.” The weekend in question was his second Sunday for a new backer.

On his decision to chop instead of play the tournament as normal, Ball explained, “It had been awhile since I had a decent cashout, so I was pretty happy to lock up $40,000 and reduce variance, although most of the best players had busted two tables out.” PocketFivers seized over half of the in the money positions and won $213,000.

Matt ch0ppyKay and Griffin Flush_EntityBenger (pictured), both former #1 players in the PocketFives Online Poker Rankings, graced the Full Tilt $250,000 Guaranteed final table that week. Kay took fifth, while Benger was the first casualty of the final nine, courtesy of Ball: “I busted Flush_Entity on the second hand of the final table. I 3bet with J-J from the small blind and he peeled with Q-10 of diamonds. We got it in on a 10-high flop.”

On the hand, Ball told us, “I 3bet really small, as he was pretty short, but I was obviously planning on calling all day. I got the perfect 10-high flop where he’s never folding.”

Ball won a coin flip against Mathew matfranklandFrankland with 8-8 against A-K and Frankland landed in 47th place for nearly $700 as a result. Along the way, Ball also tangled with the likes of current #1 ranked PocketFiver Cal cal42688 Anderson, whom Ball told us “was short and I had position on him.” Anderson took 26th place for $1,200.

We mentioned Ball was on the verge of walking away from poker. He has nearly $2.5 million in tracked online poker tournament cashes and explained how he persevered: “phaplap (pictured) had just won a WCOOP event and we had been friends since we met in an old stable. So, he knew my game and decided to give me a chance, albeit at slightly smaller stakes for now. Even so, I’m so happy to still be able to avoid getting a real job for now anyway.”

Instead of poker, Ball had been considering returning to carpet fitting, his old job. The 36-year-old relayed how he moved from working with carpet to battling on the virtual felts: “I played part-time and my friend johne147 was doing really well online, so I decided to give it a go after my first decent live score.” According to the Hendon Mob, Ball has about $24,000 in live tournament cashes to his credit.

johne147, whose real name is John Eames, brought Ball into the industry and staked him for a while. He wanted to send a shout out to phaplap “for giving me the chance. Congrats on his WCOOP score.” Online, Ball took second in the Full Tilt $750,000 Guaranteed two years ago for $87,000, the largest cash PocketFives has tracked for him. The same year, he finished third in the $1K Monday for $36,000 and won the PartyPoker High Roller for $35,000.

Catch the $250,000 Guaranteed weekly on Full Tilt Poker. If you don’t already have a Full Tilt Poker account, sign up through PocketFives’ link and make a deposit to get one free month of PocketFives MTT Training. You’ll also get a100% first deposit bonus and a special free $25 ticket package until October 26. Click here for PocketFives’ Full Tilt Poker link.

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