On May 6, Owen ozzieowenShiels (pictured) earned himself a few brownie points, literally. He took third place in the weekly Sunday Million on PokerStarsfor $116,000 and plans to use part of the funds to upgrade several areas of a newly purchased house, including the oven. Why? So he can indulge in brownies, of course. We caught up with this longstanding member of the England poker community to see what happened.

—

188BET Pokeris a brand new addition to 188BET’s famous sportsbook and casino. It is pleased to offer all its players exclusive promotions, €500 freerolls, and weekly satellites for your trip to Las Vegas in June 2013 and WSOP side event buy-ins. Go to 188bet to download the softwareand enjoy your 188BET experience.

—

PocketFives: Great job in the Sunday Million. Tell us how you’re feeling about it.

Owen Shiels: I’m feeling great about it. It’s kind of like a sense of fulfillment. I’ve had a lot of deep runs in Majors, so it’s nice to get a decent score in one. Over the last two months or so, I’ve gotten 36th in the Million, top 30 in the $350K, top 100 in the Brawl a few times, and top 50 in the iPoker Major a few times, so I was really pleased to finally get there!

PocketFives: Tell us about playing alongside Keven StamdoggStammen at the final table and in general.

Owen Shiels: I thought he would give me a lot more trouble than he did. He was on my direct left, so I wasn’t pleased when we got to the final table, but for the most part, he didn’t seem to be messing around with me that much. PokerNoob999, who finished fifth, is one of the best in the world, so having him at the table was difficult as well. I was watching him intently to learn because he seemed to do things differently than your standard reg.

PocketFives: Did you learn anything from PokerNoob999(a.k.a. Tobias Reinkemeier, pictured) or see anything notable?

Owen Shiels: I’m going to have to watch the replay on PokerStars to find out for sure, but he seemed to do a lot of flatting with 10 to 20 big blinds and played a lot more flops with that kind of stack than most people would. It will be interesting to see what kinds of hands he was doing it with. Obviously, most hands didn’t go to showdown with him, so it was difficult to figure out what he was doing.

PocketFives: Do you have any plans for the money?

Owen Shiels: Nothing exciting. I will pay off some of the mortgage, buy a new oven, and redo the bathroom. My wife and I just bought a house last November, so we have been holding off on getting a few things done, but this will make it a lot easier to do. I said I would buy her a new oven if she made me brownies; it seemed like a good deal.

PocketFives: How did you get started in poker?

Owen Shiels: I used to play for pennies on the bus and during break time at school when I was about 12. That was just Five Card Draw. But, the school caught us and cards were banned. I didn’t play again until I was about 21 when I saw my brother playing on PartyPoker back in the day. I deposited $25 on PokerRoom and from that point I was pretty hooked, but only recreationally. That was back in 2005.

I didn’t really take it seriously until about 2010, but had a few good scores back in the day. I won the Sunday Storm back when it used to be the $100K in 2007 for like $18,000. That was when I was just playing up to the $22 level, so that was massive for me. I turned pro in 2010 with varying success, but the last eight months have been pretty good.

PocketFives: What does your wife think about it all?

Owen Shiels: My wife has been really supportive. Back when I started, I think she found it hard to deal with some of the emotional swings it can cause. I’m a really chilled out guy, so when she saw me getting angry, I’m not sure she knew what to do about it, but these days, she really understands that sometimes things will be frustrating and so she supports me through it. My mom and brother are also really supportive. The first thing they ask me after a Sunday is how I did, so it was nice this week to finally ring them up with some really good news.

I’m also a lot more chilled out about the swings in poker these days. I have been around enough to see it all.

PocketFives: What else do you do besides poker?

Owen Shiels: I’m really into cooking. My wife and I are pretty obsessed about cooking shows, so we spend a lot of time doing that sort of stuff. I’m really into music as well and play guitar. We just moved to a different part of the country, so we are building up a friend base here slowly, which means we don’t go out as much as we did where we lived before, but I love going out. Other than that, I’m a massive F1 fan and love any sort of competitive driving and pretty much any sport in general. Put any sport on TV and sit me in front of it and I can probably get into it.

PocketFives: We understand you have a shout out.

Owen Shiels: Shout out to teamfoldtosecond!

Want the latest poker headlines and interviews? Follow PocketFives on Twitterand Like PocketFives on Facebook. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed.