I love meeting players at poker tournaments who are experiencing the thrills of an action packed live tournament for the first time. In the third episode of my Living the Dream: Punta Cana Poker Classic 2016 videos I aught up with Tyler, from Missouri. This was his first big tournament -- in fact this was his first time in a plane and first time out of America! He won his way to the Caribbean in an online tournament at Americas Cardroom and is thoroughly enjoying living the dream at the Caribbean poker tournament.
“I’ve never even been on a plane before, and I’ve only ever played poker online, so I sure was nervous coming down here,” Tyler told Living the Dream host, Larry Colcy (aka TheGamblogger). “But I’ve got 71,000 chips going into Day 2 so I’m feeling pretty good about now!”
Last year the winner of the tournament pocketed over $185,000 of the $500,000 prize pool. Like many players, Tyler has already thought about what he’ll do if he wins some money at the tournament.
“If I just place, that’s good enough for me. But if I win I guess I’ll buy some stuff for my car,” said Tyler. “Folks back home won’t be surprised to hear that! I guess I’d invest a lot of it – and set some aside to go to the WSOP and try my luck in Las Vegas!”
For a tournament newbie, a big event like the Punta Cana Poker Classic, and all the professional players that it attracts, can be a bit frightening.
“I was pretty nervous at first. I was playing really tight. After a while I started opening up. My image made everyone think I must have something, so I was winning most of the pots.”
My full interview with Tyler is on the Americas Cardroom poker news blog. On the Winning Poker Network, Americas Cardroom is one of the biggest and most trusted US facing poker rooms.
