There are two types of players that enter high buy-in large-field tournaments, those who want to make the money, and those who want to win. In order to win, you have to be prepared to take well calculated risks and apply pressure on those who are focused on pay jumps, or 'playing it safe'.
Never was this more evident, than in one of the biggest online tournaments of the year, where the turn of a card, or a well timed bluff could make the difference between hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In accordance with the Pokerstars payout structure, the ninth place finisher 'orange6' recieved $53,296 dollars. However after his elimination, the table decided to do a chip-chop - dividing the remaining money in the prizepool between the final eight - based on the size of each players stack.
When all was said and done, eighth place received $USD 185,973 more than ninth. That is one ginormous, life changing pay jump. And Francis was in the thick of it, using experience and his large stack to be one of the chip leaders when the split was made.
"With 8 players left - the most profitable play for me may have been to NOT make a deal," Francis said.
"There is a good chance that I was the most experienced player remaining, and with a first place prize of $1 Million my equity at that point might have been over $650k USD.
"But just because you are expected to win x amount, it does not mean you will. I'm happy to lock in a guaranteed cash payout in real life."
Francis has been playing poker for over seven years and has dabbled in 'every variety of the game'. In the past year he has been focused on multi-table tournaments and also coaching less experienced players.
For many professional online pros, a huge win is viewed as the culmination of thousands of hours spent studying, playing and living the game. But it is not all hundred thousand dollar pay days and for every success story like Francis' there are thousands of professional 'grinders' waiting, hoping for their turn.
For the past three years I was one such grinder. I travelled all across New Zealand, playing anywhere from 1-16 online tournaments at a time, starting at 5am - to mix it in the best tournaments the US and UK had to offer - and finishing whenever the last bad beat, spazz or success story finished.
I lived with other professional poker players at 'stables' in Papamoa, Mount Manganui and Queenstown and was backed by a company called Poker-Allies, who paid my buy-ins in return for a share of the profits.
It was an exhilarating, trying, complex existence which came with euphoric highs and desperate lows. When winning, and surrounded by other like-minds in a buzzing poker-house it was the greatest job in the world.
On the flip-side, after gruelling through a nine hour day staring at a screen home alone in Auckland, only to lose a few thousand dollars on the day, it was hard to get up and do it all again the next day.
But on reflection it was a three year period that I would not trade for the world.
I do wish I had a Monday like Francis' though.
In future columns I will look to analyse, discuss and comment on the NZ poker scene, online and live poker and the top stories from the poker world.
