This week, the PocketFives Podcast welcomes longtime community member Mrrain Jeff Banghart, who calls-in during a break in the action of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event. Jeff, who finished 41st in the 2007 WSOP Main Event for over $200,000, is looking to earn a spot among the November Nine at this year’s Series.

In his interview, Jeff describes the action from the Pavilion Room at the Rio in Las Vegas, where he has been able to outlast more than 7,000 opponents. Just moments before action began on Day 1, Jeff learned that he would be playing at the feature table with poker legend Doyle Brunson. “Right out of the box I got to play all day with Doyle. Despite him abusing me and me looking bad on national TV, I did end the day with a nice stack. Being the second best player at the table that day was probably okay with me.”

Jeff has a number of marquee online tournament scores in his career, including a win in the PokerStarsSunday Million, a 3rd place showing in the larger buy-in Sunday Million (formerly known as the “Quarterly,” and a November ’09 victory in the Full Tilt Poker Sunday Brawl for $111,400. On his success in big tournaments, Mrrain offered, “I think I’m a decent large field player. I think that’s definitely where my niche is. I think that’s where all the value is on Sundays.” At the time of the recording on Thursday afternoon, Jeff was just three days away from making the WSOP Main Event final table.

Our second guest this week is PocketFives Senior Writer Dan Cypra, who has featured over 100 members in front page profile articles since 2008. Dan was out in Vegas for the PocketFives party, and had an opportunity to meet dozens of members at the Gold Coast Bowling Center on July 3rd. Dan summarizes his experience in Las Vegas during the call-in, and looks forward to the FTOPS XVII and WCOOP major online tournament series that are scheduled to begin in upcoming months.