A few days before Christmas, Santa visited Lee BWFCLEETaylor (pictured) in a big way. As part of Double Vision Sunday, Taylor was part of a four-way chop of the PokerStars Sunday Million and earned $84,000, officially taking second place. As a result, he has leapt over $1.6 million in career online tournament winnings.

“Four-handed, the chip counts were 16 million, 15 million, 9 million, and me with 8 million,” BWFCLEE said of the chop. “One of the big stacks suggested seeing the numbers and we all agreed. ICM came out to be $100K/$100K/$88K/$84K, while a chip-chop came out to $100K+/$100K+/$83K/$80K. The other shorter stack and I said we would do ICM only and the two big stacks agreed. It seemed like a good deal for me.”

As far as his plans for the cash, he said bolstering his bankroll is his primary goal right now. He told us, “I have started to play EPTs on a more regular basis, so I might tackle the Malta leg if I am feeling it at that time.” EPT Malta is scheduled for March, so he has a while to decide.

This isn’t his first rodeo near the top of the Sunday Million leaderboard. Five years ago, the Brit finished fourth in the tournament for $78,000. “I tend to have two types of years,” Taylor admitted. “Either lots of medium-type scores and steadily increasing profit over the year or a year where there is one bigger score and breakeven play for the rest. 2010 was that kind of year, as were 2012 and 2014.”

Getting back to EPTs for a minute, Taylor said big live tournaments “excite” him. Consequently, “When I am excited, I am more motivated and play better. Plus, I love playing against the very best players. I played one in 2011 in Copenhagen, but that was destroyed by nerve pain in my tooth, which culminated in emergency dental work out there.” Ouch. Not a good way to start a tournament.

Outside of dental hell, Taylor has attended EPTs in Barcelona, London, and Prague. He recalled, “In Barcelona, I played well on Day 1, but took a bad beat in a big pot and ended up with an average stack for Day 2. Then, Day 2 was a disaster. In London, I grinded through a traumatic Day 1 on fumes and busted early on Day 2. Prague was a lot better. I had tough tables, but made it through to the end of Day 3 where I busted with a play I wasn’t overly happy about.”

Taylor is an IT Consultant by trade, but takes on very few jobs so he can concentrate on poker. He is also interested in history and politics and is in the process of getting a history degree, although he may switch to political science.

He got started in poker after a friend went to work in Florida. When he returned, he was gabbing all about poker. At the time, Taylor had an account at Betfairand would make small bets on football, but decided to give poker a whirl. He said, “It involved numbers and understanding people, things I felt I was good at. I dived straight into what I now realize were relatively high-stakes sit and gos. While not completely out of my depth, I was down £10,000 by 2007.”

His poker career was turbulent from the get-go, as he noted, but he began to dabble in MTTs in March 2007. “I gave myself a target of winning £10,000 in April 2007,” Taylor said of the rather lofty goal. “If that didn’t happen, I was giving up on poker. I won £12k and it now had my attention. I continued to make progress and win more throughout 2007 and 2008.”

In January 2009, he left his job as an IT Project Manager with the intention of getting another gig in the same role. However, he ended up playing poker full-time to recharge his batteries. On just his third day of doing so, Taylor won the Big $55 for almost $40,000. As he recalled, “After that, there was no going back. I am still playing full-time or close to full-time now.”

He is the #2 ranked player in Bristol in the UK and #496 in the world, 96 spots off his all-time high set in 2013. Congrats to Taylor on his monumental score!

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