“Bryn12” is the kind of guy who likes to drift through life without much of a plan, stumbling on a WCOOP win and catapulting himself towards the top of the low stakes leaderboard.
I like his style.
I got the chance to catch up with Bryn12 for a chat. His sleeping pattern was legitimately wrecked, owing to an involved line of work and a night time WCOOP schedule. I sympathized, owing to my complete inability to go to bed on time.
We got talking, and Bryn soon revealed tales about his times in Vegas, his life direction and philosophy, and what it means for him to win the WCOOP event.
Everything just worked
Bryn won his WCOOP title in the 07-L: $22 PLO8 (6-Max). He admits that he’s no specialist in PLO, and only plays the game during big series’. He says he gained an edge by taking advantage of tight table dynamics.
“Everyone seemed to be trying to ladder up and play tight, so I just opened up a bit”, says Bryn.“It was one of those final tables where everything just works. Every time you bluff, they fold. Every time you value bet, they have a worse hand. Heads-up lasted like six hands. It all just came together.”
At the moment of winning, Bryn says he “Celebrated. Woke the neighbors up. Woke the dog up. It was pretty crazy. It didn’t really feel real… I never thought I’d win. You have to get so lucky to get through a field.”
“It was a great experience!”
Unraveled narrative
Bryn12 scored a third place in a SCOOP event earlier in the year. His results seemed to be pointing towards something. When I asked Bryn whether he thought everything was building up to his WCOOP win, he quickly unraveled my narrative.
“I didn’t really feel that it was building (to this) at all. I think that’s an easy narrative to put on it. What I will say is I have been generally more prepared for SCOOP and WCOOP this year. I’ve done quite a lot of studying.”
“But I haven’t studied Omaha hi-lo at all so…”, laughs Bryn, again acknowledging the luck he knows is involved with winning an event of this caliber.
Drifting to a WCOOP title
Sensing his sharp unraveling of my suggestive narrative, and knowing by now that he studied philosophy, I felt compelled to ask Bryn more about his views on life.
“I’m not really a big thinker”, he said, “I tend to be one of those people who drifts through it. I probably have more of a plan now than I ever have before, with actually finding a job that I really like, and the plan is to do a PhD. But to this day I’ve kind of drifted through life and just gone with the flow.”
The flow has carried Bryn to a WCOOP title, but there may be more to his win than good luck and downstream manoeuvres. He’s a smart guy with a mind for poker and experience on the felt. He’s had decent runs in cash games in Vegas, played in a WCOOP tag team event, and played professionally for a couple of years after graduating.
“I studied logic as well. My first Masters degree is actually in reasoning, which is sort of very analytical philosophy and logic, so I guess that probably helps with poker to a certain extent.”
Bridging the gaps
Poker is not Bryn’s full time occupation. He’s currently pursuing other ambitions.
“I used to work as an accountant. Absolutely hated it!”, says Bryn. “I was in Vegas talking to some friends and they were all trying to get me to quit (accountancy). I did quit, but with the view of doing something else more long term. Now I have a job helping professors do research into competition policy and law; it’s about how to control big tech, examining mergers between different companies, things like that.”
“I tend to do poker when I have a gap in my life, you know between work, or if I just want to take a break.”
Pizza time
When asked about the financial aspect of the win, Bryn revealed an appetizing plan for the money that nearly had me picking up the phone to call for one myself.
“$8k is not a trivial amount to me. So the money is helpful, certainly. I might order a 24 inch pizza, just to see how ridiculous it is… I’m also sure I’ll incinerate some of it in more WCOOP events.”
I’m yet to follow up with Bryn to find out if he’s ordered that pizza, or how many slices he managed to eat, but what I can say is that he hasn’t been incinerating those winnings. In fact, he’s been climbing up the leaderboard.
Moving up the WCOOP Leaderboard
Although he may not be “one of these people who crushes online tournaments”, Bryn is doing well for himself. His win in the WCOOP 07-L catapulted him up the low stakes leaderboard and, for now at least, he’s in with a shot.
At the time of the interview, Bryn pointed out that he was sitting in fourth place. “But I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep it up for. I don’t know how long my leaderboard glory will last.”
Since then, Bryn has played and cashed in enough events to bring him up to joint second place (as of Day 9) with 210 points. “alexsanrs10”, “Rinat “Zapahzamazki” Lyapin and Spraggy are also in the mix.
Bryn says he will be playing more WCOOP events, at least whilst the leaderboard is in his sight. All the best to him in poker and in life!
(With thanks to Bryn for sharing your stories. Hope you drift your way to the top of the leaderboard!)
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