When we asked Wade ricestudTownsend (pictured) for more information on his life, he did what anyone relevant would do: directed us to his Wikipedia page. There, he we saw that he was the eighth overall pick of the Major League Baseball draft in 2004 and 2005, eventually spending time with the Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays. We caught up with him after a final table in the PokerStars Sunday 500 last month for $31,000.

“It was the culmination of a fantastic day,” Townsend told PocketFives in an exclusive interview. “I had five other finishes of $6,000+, so I was in a great mood. I wish I could have won it, but, hey, I’m not complaining.”

That week’s PokerStars Sunday 500 featured PocketFivers finishing in the top four spots, with TheDecano(first place for $77,000), Staceop(second place for $56,000), and norajean (third place for $41,000) all excelling. Townsend explained, “Everyone at the table was competent, so it would come down to who made the first big mistake, who got coolered, or who tried to turn hyper-aggressive so they could manipulate ICM. I tried to do the latter, but ended up shoving A-8 into 10-10 and missed.”

What went right in the 865-player tournament that helped send Townsend over $1 million in tracked cashes on PokerStars? He evaluated, “I ran well in spots and felt like I played pretty well overall to build stacks and then exploit with them.”

Townsend also took down the 888 Poker Whale for $65,000 in early June, his largest tracked cash to date, while the Sunday 500 weighed in at #4 overall. “The Whale was a fantastic win for me,” Townsend commented. “I honestly feel it was the best overall tournament start to finish, but specifically the final table was the best I think I’ve played.”

Part of Townsend’s success may be due to his aptitude for heads-up sit and gos. “I have played more heads-up sit and gos than anyone on Earth, so I’m pretty comfortable with No Limit Hold’em tournaments in general. I played professional baseball for six years and couldn’t play MTTs because of schedules and travel, so I got into heads-up sit and gos because I could play them when I had an hour or two free.”

As we said at the top, Townsend was the eighth overall pick in the 2004 and 2005 MLB drafts. However, four arm surgeries in five years, including Tommy John surgery in 2005, derailed his career. It might have been for the better, as he admitted, “Honestly, I do not like professional baseball that much. I love baseball in general, but hate the lifestyle that was minor league baseball. I literally hated every minute of it.”

He found poker in 2004 after one of his friends showed him PokerRoom. “I didn’t beat any game to start with,” Townsend pointed out. “I hate losing, so I decided the best way was to find a game I could beat and move up. I was playing $0.10-$0.25 Hold’em after I signed a $1.5 million contract for baseball. I taught myself exclusively as far as heads-up sit and gos went. I developed a lot of MTT strategy from that and from meeting Calvin cal42688 Anderson (pictured) at the PCA three years ago. We moved to Mexico immediately after Black Friday and I feel my MTT game right now is pretty stellar.”

Anderson is a former #1 player in the PocketFives Online Poker Rankings and can be found at #11 worldwide. Townsend is not too far behind at #58 and is #5 in his home country of Mexico.

If you don’t already have a PokerStars account, you can sign up through PocketFives’ link and make a deposit to get one free month of PocketFives MTT Training. You’ll also get a 100% up to $600 sign-up bonus. Click here for PocketFives’ PokerStars link.

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