Few people, if any, have won more money in online poker tournaments over the past year than Chris Savage, PocketFives.com’s#1 ranked online tournament player. Chris is from Baton Rouge, which explains the “br” in his screen name. We recently caught up with Chris at the Binion’s World Poker Open in Tunica, where he got his first major live win – the $1500 Limit Hold’em event. He won $79,000 for his efforts, plus a $10,000 seat in the main event! Savage simply dominated the field, never losing the chip lead at the final table.

We had a late breakfast with Chris at the Atrium Café in the GoldStrike Casino and asked him a few questions. We also heard some great stories from the event that he won and some other interesting anecdotes. Below are the highlights of our conversation with this incredible poker pro.

PocketFives.com: Congratulations on winning your first bracelet – tell us a little bit about the final table.
Savage: I came in with a huge stack; only one other player was even close to me, and the two of us had over half of the 264,000 chips in play. I put my stack to work, opening aggressively from the start. At one point I had raised about 30 of 35 pots. Robert Perry, the player with the other big stack, had some tough breaks and my chip lead grew. The other players at my table were all excellent players, but my stack gave me a huge advantage. They knew they were going to have to win any pot they played with me, and that enormous pressure allowed me to steal a ton of blinds and consistently chip-up. I had a 7-1 chip lead by the time it was heads-up

PocketFives.com: Was this win your biggest payday to date, and can you tell us about some of your online wins?
Savage: Yes, this is my biggest win so far. I’ve had lot of online wins, but none this big. I’ve hit multiple payouts of $25K or better, spread out across PartyPoker, UltimateBet, and PokerStars. I’ve won over 20 seats to live events, and I’ve done well in the $30 rebuys on Paradise many times, most all in the last year.

PocketFives.com: You’ve had an enormous year. Take us back to before you were making a ton of money playing poker – specifically, how did you get started playing online?
Savage: I got really interested in Hold’em after a friend of mine took me to a local tourney a while back. I didn’t win the tourney, but had a great time and decided to learn more about the game. I signed up for a play chip account on UltimateBet. I saw a ton of hands for free and thought I was ready to start playing for cash. I was wrong, and actually lost a lot of money in the beginning. However, I kept working on my game and kept getting advice from players that I saw doing well. Before I knew it I was making it deep into tournaments and discussing strategy with people like Shawn Rice.

PocketFives.com: Tell me about your style of play and what makes it a winning style.
Savage: Every move I make has a purpose. I don’t like to speculate, but every time I make a move I want my opponent to be speculating. I don’t like to enter a pot unless I’m the raiser and I have a clear idea of where I want to go with the hand.

For online tourneys, you can’t be scared to die in the early rounds. I’m willing to take a coin flip early so that I can get more maneuverability later on. If I bust, I’ll buy into another tourney or go watch TV. There will always be another tourney to get into.

Once I have a bigger stack that I can play comfortably, I like to see flops and get a strong impression of where I stand before making any big moves. Of course I’ll go all in with aces preflop if the action dictates it, but I would rather wait and get my chips in with a 95% chance of winning after the flop than with an 80% shot preflop. You have to be patient enough to wait for your opportunity and sharp enough to take advantage of it when it comes along. Freddy Deeb is the player that I respect most in that regard. I’ve played with him many times, and he systematically waits until he is sure his hand is best before all his chips go into the pot.

PocketFives.com: You’re known to be a great closer – what does it take to perform so well at Final tables?
Savage: Hyperaggression. For example, when it’s down to 14, suddenly you’re table is 7 handed and the nature of the game changes. I raise a lot here, changing tempo and betting with strength. It usually takes the other players a while to catch on, and some of them are so worried about moving up in the payouts that they give little resistance. You have to be fearless at this point in the tournament. When you’re down to the final table, figure out where you can take down the easy pots and take them. When the play gets shorthanded again, I turn the aggression back up, but I usually don’t get all my chips in the middle unless I’m sure I have the best of it.

PocketFives.com: That’s incredible advice, much easier said than done. Just curious, how many tournaments do you play on any given day, and how many tables can you play at once?
Savage: I stick to the big buy-in tourneys that start at 8pm or later. All the money comes in at night online, except on Sundays. I’ll always play the $350K guaranteed Sunday tournament on Stars. I love nightly $30 rebuys on Paradise, and UltimateBet always has a good selection as well. I usually stick to tourneys where first prize will pay $10K or more, and I usually play three or four tourneys at once.

PocketFives.com: Four tourneys at once seems taxing, but I understand that’s a pretty common set-up for many tourney pros. Do you think you would perform significantly better in any one tourney individually if you had no other tables open?
Savage: Not really. I’m a decisive player, I’ve seen so many hands and know the situations well. I’m still able to keep track of how my opponents are playing with four tables running, so I feel comfortable playing multiple tournaments, especially since it gives me the opportunity to win much more money.

PocketFives.com: What online players and sites do you have the most respect for and why?
Savage: Pound for pound, I feel UltimateBet has the most competitive tournaments. The prize pools on Party and Stars are much bigger, mainly because there are a ton of inexperienced players playing on those sites and simply building the pools. You’re going against a solid field every time you sit down at a big buy-in event on UB.

I specifically appreciate PokerStars service for being there at the end of a tournament to officially chop it up for you if the players agree to do so. This means a lot