Previous Best of British Interviews...

#1: Kara Scott

Name: Adam York
Position: 41st
Prize: $178,857
BoB Ranking: 2nd

Snoopy: Many readers won’t recognise the name Adam York. Can you tell us a little about yourself?
 
Adam York: I began playing poker online about six years ago and, like many others, started out with SNGs. In the last couple of years I have moved on to playing multi-table tournaments. My biggest score online was winning the Sunday second chance tournament on PokerStars for about $46,000. I also qualified for the Main Event on Stars - I won 15 packages in total, mainly playing the steps tournaments, but also some from the big MTTs, shootouts, etc.

Snoopy: Are you a big gambler? Could that $178,857 be gone or doubled up in one session?
 
AY: This year’s WSOP was my biggest cash by far, it is a huge amount of money and will be put towards a home for me and my girlfriend, Holly. I am not really a huge gambler. I will continue playing the same games online and qualifying for as many big live events as possible. My next aim is to make a final table in one of these major live events, hopefully in one of the EPT events this season.

Snoopy: You came 114th the year prior. How important was that experience? Did you approach 2009 any differently as a result?
 
AY: The 2008 Main Event was my first major live tournament so it was great to make it so far and really encouraged me to go and play more and more events. I played very tight in 2008, I was pretty nervous at first so I guess I did things a little differently than I would have online. But at the end of it I realised that a tight solid strategy works very well in a tournament with such a slow structure, so it probably helped that I was holding back a little! I never really got in any trouble and rarely got myself in to awkward spots with tough decisions to make. My strategy for 2009 was to play tight, solid poker as I had in 2008, but to be a little bit more aggressive if the time (and my image at the table) was right.

Snoopy: Looking at the end of day chip counts, you seemed to be located in the middle almost every day. Does this tell the full story or was it more of a roller coaster than a steady grind?

AY: It was a very steady grind for me, I rarely won or lost any huge pots and I don’t think I was actually all in for my tournament life until Day Five or something like that. My table draws were quite favourable on most of the days, and my big hands were regularly getting paid off even though I felt like I had a fairly tight image. I tried to stay out of the way of the really aggressive guys unless I had really strong hands.

Snoopy: How was your experience of the feature table?
 
AY: I had been on the feature table before the Main Event for the Ante up for Africa tournament so that kind of helped me get used to it. Honestly, I would rather not be on the feature table – it’s hard to say whether it affected my play but I definitely felt more pressure being there. For some reason the heat from the lights and the crowd make it feel far more intense. I definitely prefer it on the outer tables, they were much more relaxed. Sometimes I would be sat on a friendly, talkative table and forget we were playing for millions of dollars.

Snoopy: You must have played a lot of big name players. What were your experiences of them and who impressed you the most?
 
AY: I actually avoided most of the really big names until much later on in the tournament. Although I did get put on ElkY’s [Bertrand Grospellier] table when he had a massive chip lead and we were on the bubble - not a good combination! I really thought he would go all the way to the final table and it was very surprising that he didn’t even make top 100. I also played with Kenny Tran for a long time, he was a nice guy and also impressed me a lot. Other than that, there were a few ‘online’ guys who played very, very well.

Snoopy: Did you get to play Phil Ivey?
 
AY: I got put on Phil Ivey’s right at the start of Day Six I think (also, David Benyamine sat opposite me), but just as I started to moan to everyone about my unfortunate table draw, we were broken and I got a much better table in which I accumulated a lot of chips. I don’t know what makes him so good, just one of those guys that has a real natural ability to read people and play the game well.

Snoopy: Do you have any regrets about your Main Event performance?
 
AY: Overall, it was a huge success, however when I was 19th in chips with 64 people left, I felt like I had a real chance at making the final table. I made a few mistakes on my last day, in particular the hand when I doubled up James Akenhead. I had A-J on a K-J-x board. He had already reraised me preflop and I should have really been able to get away from middle pair. I felt like I was cruising along nicely until that hand which halved my stack from about four million to two million. From then on things just went downhill.

Snoopy: Your exit hand seemed nasty…
 
AY: It wasn’t really too nasty as I was so short stacked at that time. I think I had about 450,000 left at that time and the blinds were something like 30,000/60,000. It was raised from mid position with a caller on the button, I had pocket kings so obviously moved all in, both players called. The flop came K-Q-x and then an ace came on the turn. The action had gone check, check, as expected. At this point I was just thinking, “No ten, no jack!” The river comes an ugly ten and I knew I was gone as soon as the middle position player reached for chips. I wasn’t too bitter, I did get lucky with about 100 people left so I felt like I was freerolling from then on. Of course it hurts going out so close to the big money, and I did feel a bit down for a couple of days but you get over it fairly quickly and look at the positives instead.

Snoopy: You were the second placed UK finisher? Were you following this at all?
 
AY: Yes, I was following as much as possible online so was aware of it.

Snoopy: Your girlfriend Holly travels around the poker world with you. Is it difficult balancing that relationship with poker? Does she even like poker?
 
AY: Holly is very supportive and loves to travel so it is not difficult at all. We have also met some really nice people at various tournaments so it is all good fun. I wouldn’t say she really likes poker but definitely prefers it now she understands it a bit more. She has played a few SNGs online for like $5 buy-ins, but gets bored of it very quickly! In general though I feel very lucky to have her support and it definitely helps ease the pain of being knocked out of a tournament. We will just try and enjoy our time away if the poker doesn’t go so well.

Snoopy: Why did you decide to travel the tournament world and head to places like EPTs, Aussie Millions, Macau, etc rather than playing the UK events?
 
AY: When we finished university we decided we wanted to travel for a year or so and these sorts of tournaments were a great way to see the world. I seem to be fairly good at qualifying for these types of things so it meant hotel and flights were all paid for, and obviously I had the chance to play some big tournaments. I did play the Gala Casino final in Bristol, and the EPT in London, however, in general, most of the tournaments are low buy-in events so I may as well be playing online.

Snoopy: What are your goals for the following 12 months?
 
I want to play as many big live events as possible and, as I said earlier, would like to make a final table. I would also love to improve on 41st in next year’s WSOP Main Event - that will be a tough one but it’s definitely a good tournament for me, so who knows!