Saturday 4 Jul 2009

Where are you from?'' - ''New York City. Can't you tell by my accent? I'm just kidding, I'm from London.'' - ''Oh, I knew that, I could tell by the way you were betting

Dave Colclough facing questions from local at the WSOP

James Akenhead interview

LuckyJim

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You may have heard that Gutshot habitue James Akenhead just won $520,219 and came a flop away from winning a bracelet in a $1500 NLHE event at the WSOP, coming 2nd after 160 hands of heads-up play.  A remarkable achievement considering it was the fourth largest field ever seen in a poker tournament, with nearly 4,000 runners.  I caught James on the phone while he was on a fifteen minute break from a $2000 event at the Bellagio, on what was also his 25th birthday.  Here\'s what he said. 

* So what was your background before you became a professional poker player?

I was a tube train driver for two years from when I was 21 to 23.  I was also a professional pool player, rated 15th in the UK, but there\'s no money in it.   So I\'ve been playing poker for a living since December 2006.

* Tell me about your progress to the final table of the WSOP event.

From day one I felt in control.  I had 65,000 chips at the end of the day, having started with 3,000.  That meant I started the second day in 16th place out of 430 runners, when the average stack was 27,000.  I started off on weak tables, but got moved four times and each table was tougher than the last.

A key hand came when I had pocket nines versus the blinds, and the flop came QJ9 with two spades.  The small blind bet 45,000 and the big blind moved all-in for 200,000.  I was sitting on 250,000 and called.  I knew I\'d still have 50,000 if I lost.  The guy in the big blind turned over A3 of spades.  As the dealer prepared to deal the next cards, a Chinese guy who wasn\'t in the pot actually stood up on his chair and shouted \"SPADE!\"  I thought \"What the fuck are you doing?\" The turn was a blank, but the ten of spades came on the river.   

I walked away from the table for a few minutes.  When I came back, I saw the pot had been miscounted and too many chips had been taken from my stack, leaving me with just 8,000.  Just before the chips were pushed to the big blind, I argued with the dealer for my other 42,000 back.  If I\'d been there a moment later, it\'d have been too late.  But I got my chips, doubled up, doubled up again, won another hundred thousand, and had nearly 300,000 by the end of the second day.

* How did you feel going into the final table?  Were there any players you wanted to avoid? 

Well, I respect Chris Ferguson.  But I\'d have actually rather played him than Grant Hinkle.  Theo Tran is good also.

When we got to the heads up, I felt confident.  Grant had played well at the final table, but I felt I had his measure in the heads up and I didn\'t really want it to come down to a race.

* So, what about that final hand.  How did you feel when the cards were turned up, showing your AK versus his T4, and then that horrible flop came? 

There was a pause of about a minute and I just thought \"This is it.  One time.  Let me see an ace!\"  And then \"Oh, fuck!\" and \"Maybe next time.\"

* How will your WSOP score affect your life?

I\'ll be playing more events than I might have done.  I was in the $5000 WSOP event this morning, though I bust out.  I\'ll just go where the games are good, and that might be 5/10 or 10/20.  Nelly was playing 10/20 last night, and that\'s where everyone wanted to be.  I played in a 5/10 live game today but I didn\'t even put all the money in myself.  I\'m not going to go crazy.