Last month, Wes Wyvill (pictured), who is known on PocketFives as Wesss, was part of a six-way chop of the PokerStars Sunday Million and bagged $100,000, not bad for a day’s work. He was one of four PocketFivers to participate in the chop and there were 5,573 entrants total.
“I can’t lie, I’m super stoked,” Wyvill told PocketFives in an exclusive interview. “I feel great. I feel the same as always, but wealthier, I guess.” The chop payouts ranged between $62,000 and $103,000. Wyvill got the third largest amount given out and officially finished in fifth place.
We asked Wyvill to tell us how the chop went down, so he responded, “I gained a bunch of chips in the final two tables, but at the final table, I was behind a laggy, good chip leader, so I had the worst position at the table by far. It looked like the three chip leaders were mostly skilled and I had the chip leader behind me. We all agreed to a chip-chop, which gave us all more equity. I felt it was very fair given the table dynamics.”
On to the money. He certainly can afford to do a wide variety of things with his $100,000. He explained that he’ll allocate “some for stocks, some for mortgage, some for bankroll, and some for new bling like cool baby toys to rock.” He has a 20-month-old baby girl, Carly, who joined him in Canada for the Sunday grind that fateful day. “The wife makes me juices during the grind,” he explained. Apparently, they worked.
In Canada, Wyvill plays poker 40 to 50 hours per week. When he’s back in the US in Virginia, that number drops by half. Having the baby around, by the way, makes grinding those long hours all the more entertaining. Wyvill told us, “I love to play with Carly during my break. It’s pure run-good getting some baby rubs on break. They should just fold when I get a re-ship hand coming back from break. As an ex-banker, I definitely feel tons of poker players complain too much. We have it pretty sick.”
As opposed to having a defining moment, Wyvill’s career has developed gradually over the years. He has been a member of PocketFives since 2012 and relayed, “My development has come from learning via books and training sites. I always felt any goal would happen eventually should I put forth enough effort. Normal stuff you study in business books applies to poker. I was a big fan of Napoleon Hill, for example. I always had confidence that I’d do well before I left my job or I wouldn’t have left it.”
After he departed his banking gig in 2012, “the US MTTs got pretty easy after Black Friday for a little bit and I got lucky to be part of learning MTTs during that time. I was railing a $215 buy-in tournament on Carbon for four months before I ever registered for that event.”
Wyvill is good friends with Corey Kennel, aka a1phadoggg, who helped him with the mathematical side of poker. Wyvill said, “I’d like to think I have helped his deep-stack play and meta-game adjustments” in return.
He has also been heavily influenced by Chris and Nicky Frick, who “have been amazing helping us get familiar with Canada. From hiking trails to vineyards, they helped us really feel at home in St Catherine’s. So, special thanks to the PocketFives network and the Frick family.” The city, by the way, is in Ontario.
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