Emerging victorious over the weekend in the Mini Full Tilt Online Poker Series(MiniFTOPS) Main Event was Tim RioMata Clark, who came away with $124,000. The $75 buy-in tournament was anything but “mini,” as a colossal field of 14,396 showed up to create a prize pool of over $1 million. A total of 1,890 players finished in the money and Clark turned in his richest online poker performance to date. So what’s his secret? PocketFives.com traveled to the temperate climate of Oregon to find out.
PocketFives.com: Talk about your mentality headed into the MiniFTOPS Main Event on Full Tilt Poker.
Tim Clark: Out of all the tournaments I was in, that was the last one I pictured getting deep in. About midway through, I decided I wasn't going to let the huge field size get to me and focused on playing each hand optimally. In the past, larger fields have kind of intimidated me and I looked at them like, “Well, if I bust, I bust, it’s not like I’m going to run through 10,000 people anyway.” On Sunday, I just decided that since someone has to win these things, it might as well be me.
PocketFives.com: What does it take to win a tournament that has more than 14,000 entrants?
Tim Clark: You definitely have to run pure to win something like this, in my opinion. However, lately I’ve had a lot of help with my game from a couple of friends like Dan WretchyMartin, Runnin Rich, and Mohsin chicagocards1 Charania (pictured at left). I can definitely attribute a change in my mentality toward tournament poker to them.
PocketFives.com: What does this win do for you going forward?
Tim Clark: This boost of confidence going into the WSOP next week is huge. Having a little extra change helps too. I am still fairly new to playing poker at the level I’m aiming for and this win is something I would have never seen coming. It's still kind of surreal to me, actually. Confidence is huge in tournament poker and I’m hoping my game stays tight while I’m in Las Vegas, so that's going to be my focus.
PocketFives.com: You’re three-for-three in live tournament wins according to the Hendon Mob database, which is impressive. Tell us how you got started in poker.
Tim Clark: When I was a freshman in college, a guy in my dorm decided to challenge my whole floor to see who could get to one million play chips on Absolute Poker. I had only played a couple of times before that. Before I knew it, I was staying up way too late and not finishing my homework, but I had heaps of play chips.
When I transferred to Oregon State, I moved in with Drew Crawford and started making trips to a casino on the weekends to grind $3/$6 Limit. Another good friend of mine, Martin, started getting really good at tournaments online and that's about when I started learning what they were about, back when Paradise Poker was in the U.S.
I think the first time I realized how profitable poker could be was when I ran $50 to $5,000 in two days in college. I started getting a taste of how great the game really was, seeing my friends succeed and having some results myself.
PocketFives.com: Is there anyone you want to send a shout out to?
Tim Clark: I want to thank the rest of the guys I’ve met over the past couple of months; they know who they are. Having friends that are supportive is huge in this game and life in general. Also, "kmttp."
Visit Full Tilt Pokerfor results from the recently completed MiniFTOPS.