One week ago, Ireland’s Marc sluglifeMacdonnell (pictured) came away with the win in the Betfair Grand Series of Poker’s $200 No Limit Hold’em Cubedtournament (Event #15). Macdonnell, who can be found at #442 worldwide, boosted his bankroll by $44,000 in the process. He’s captured another $200,000 in tracked earnings on PocketFives and sat down with us to discuss his latest claim to fame. By the way, you can find Macdonnell on Betfair under the screen name Chickenimo.

The 15th GSOP tournament was chalk full of brand name online poker players, including top ranked Sebastian p0cket00Sikorski, who busted on the final table bubble. Macdonnell recalled a key hand against the staple of the PocketFives Rankings: “He had direct position on me at the time, but was short. He’s a quality player, so I didn’t want him to double up. He shoved UTG for 15 big blinds and I woke up with 9-9 in the big blind, which held against his 7-7.”

Macdonnell was near the top of the chip counts after his nines prevailed against Sikorski (pictured) and evaluated, “I was either first or second in chips at that point and, with a few short stacks, I felt I could go on and win.” Macdonnell made good on his word and added to a poker resume that includes a win in the PartyPoker $200,000 Guaranteed in July for $49,000.

After friends turned him onto the 19 events of GSOP VII, Macdonnell elected to sign up for Betfair for the first time and deposit. Consequently, the tournament marked his first notable win on the Ongame Network site. Macdonnell broke down how he was able to close out a major event: “With the stacks being set up the way they were, my final table strategy was to go after the other big stacks, as the pay jumps were significant for everyone there. It worked out well in the end, but it was far from straightforward.”

Macdonnell has been playing poker since the end of his schooling six years ago. However, he’s only focused full-time on MTTs for the last 18 months. Like many PocketFivers, his start in poker came by playing with friends in home games. He quickly graduated up to live cash games in casinos playing mainly Pot Limit Hold’em.

Macdonnell honestly recalled, “I hadn’t a clue about bankroll management or anything and, when I heard about live Pot Limit Hold’em, it seemed nowhere nearly as fun to go back to playing $5 SNGs online. After a while, with many ups and downs, I became friends with a lot of the top young Irish players and things have just gone from there.” He currently makes his home in the Dublin suburb of Ballinteer.

You’ll find Chickenimo perusing the virtual felts four days per week on average, including the all-important Sunday grind. He tends to fire up $50 rebuys and freezeouts and above on European sites and described his play as “a pretty LAG style and known to spazz hard at times.”

We asked Macdonnell to provide some words of wisdom for up-and-coming poker players out there, both on Betfair and other sites. He responded that one of the most common mistakes he sees is people giving up when they’re short-stacked: “They lose a big pot and then just shove at the next available opportunity with any bag of spanners.” He added, “Also, stop making hero calls on the river; they always have it.”

Throughout his tenure in the poker industry, he’s gotten to know several of the game’s elite minds and claims the top players include Sikorski and the U.K.’s Toby 810ofclubsLewis. His favorite player, however, is Ireland’s Nick Salamander Heather (pictured): “He is a good friend and taught me pretty much everything about MTTs, even if I did inherit his ability to punt stacks.” Heather has over $500,000 in tracked cashes and can be found at #295 worldwide.

You’ll get added cash in Betfair’s $60,000 Natural Born Grinders promotion, which is still in full swing, if you sign up for Betfair through PocketFives. If you make a deposit, we’ll give you one free month of PocketFives Training and waive the sign-up fee, a $65 value. Visit Betfair today.