Tyler Phillips has won over $1.25 million playing poker in live events, and online he has crushed for two decades. Despite his enormous success at playing poker as a professional, he has largely flown under the radar in his career. As we found out from speaking with the man himself, 2025 could well become the breakout year that proves impossible to conceal, as his results and performances at the poker felt only get bigger and better.
The Perfect Start
“I was dreaming of following in his footsteps the moment I set foot in Las Vegas.”
Back in 2013, Tyler recorded his first-ever live tournament cash, taking home almost $10,000 as he won a $225-entry event at the Wynn in Las Vegas. Amazingly, his first result was a win and as he tells us, a lot was owed to family.
“That was a fun one to win – I still remember it like it was yesterday,” he says. “It was my first time ever playing a live tournament in Las Vegas. I was 21 years old, and I was out there for the summer being backed by my brother, Carter Phillips. At this point in my brother’s career, he’d already won two WSOP Bracelets and an EPT. I was dreaming of following in his footsteps the moment I set foot in Vegas that summer.”
While Tyler’s debut win was far from the bumper payouts his brother had enjoyed, it meant a huge amount to him. But the seeds had been sown online where Tyler had been toiling away for nine years playing online poker.
“I started when I was 12!” he laughs. “I grinded mostly 45-man and 180-man Sit N Go’s on PokerStars before Black Friday. I even final tabled the $750k Full Tilt Poker Sunday Major when I was 17 where I got sixth for $23k. My brother would coach me and talk hands with me, which was the foundation for my poker success in those early years.”
Defeat to Donovan
“It was a frustrating match for me because we were still very deep.”
Since that opening win at the Wynn, Tyler has enjoyed a lot of success in live events, winning five more ranking events but as yet he’s missed out on WSOP bracelets, having won his first WSOP Circuit ring in 2019 after he outlasted 2,765 entries to win over $123,000.” A bracelet, however, still eludes him.
“I have had so many close calls for huge score,” Tyler admits. “The one I think about the most is a 13th place in the first ever ACR Venom in 2019. I was chip leader most of the final three or four tables before running into a flush over flush in a massive spot with 20 or so left. That was over $1 million to first and would have been a huge uplift in my poker career at the time. It was around the same time I won the re-entry at Cherokee for $123k and finished 13th in my first ever WPT at Borgata.”
Tyler’s biggest score remains a $220k runner-up result to Donovan Dean back in December of 2022 in a WSOP Circuit Main Event. It was a tough tournament to take part in.
“Donovan is the type of player that you need to be able to make hands against, especially when he came into heads-up with a 2-to-1 chip lead. It was a frustrating match for me because we were still very deep, but I could not make a value-hand in the right spots. I still remember a spot where I just confidently bet huge on the river thinking in my head ‘Yes, finally I am going to win a significant hand at showdown’ and he calls and of course just has me outkicked. That pretty much sums up the frustration of that match. I don’t want to take anything away from Donovan though, he is very tough to play against and has proven that repeatedly since.”
The Stateside Solver
“I am very hungry again to compete more this year.”
Tyler’s live poker results have all come in the United States. Travel has never been his focus and now, is unlikely to be, meaning he is a fearsome home country competitor.
“Traveling out of the States is something I would love to do but it’s very difficult now that I am married and have a 19-month-old daughter,” he concedes. “I think my best bet is convincing my wife we need to put WSOP Paradise on the calendar this year and take her to Atlantis with me for a poker trip and vacation mixed in one! However, I do plan on playing more events in 2025 in the U.S. I am very hungry again to compete more this year.”
Tyler is one of North Carolina’s finest, and one of only 19 poker millionaires to hail from the Tar Heel State.
“North Carolina has a lot of talent for sure, especially in the Mid Stakes scene. In terms of goals for cashes or The Hendon Mob stats, I just want to remain in the Top 10 at Harrah’s Cherokee Venue for as long as I can. I was close to the top at one point, but the same people just keep winning so it’s going to be tough. I am currently ninth all-time there.”
With Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen at the top of that list, it means a lot to Tyler to be so successful among players talents such as Greg ‘Fossilman’ Raymer and Anthony Spinella.
“The goal of catching someone like Big Huni is impossible at this point,” Tyler says. “I can’t see myself ever playing $100k entry events. When you think about the fact a min-cash in a $100k is close to my biggest score ever, it just really puts into perspective how huge some of these high roller guys Hendon Mobs are going to be years down the road. My goal is to just be as profitable as I can at the stakes I am playing right now.”
A Wild Defeat to a World Champion
Tyler came fourth in another WSOPC event back in late 2023 when a certain Daniel Weinman – that year’s WSOP Main Event winner – came second.
“That one was very smooth and uneventful for me… until my bust-out hand. I had Weinman on my left and he was playing insane. Literally calling four-bets with a third of his stack pre-flop with five-four suited. ‘Too rich to care’ type of stuff. My bust out ended up being to him.”
Tyler had played ‘very snug’ all the final table and four-handed was third in chips.
“My final hand I opened pocket sixes from the cutoff, Weinman three-bet the button with pocket aces, and I four-bet ripped 35-40 big blinds into him. It was a very marginal four-bet rip in the ICM world but given dynamics and how Weinman was playing, I assumed it was a slam dunk at the time. No regrets!”
A Belief in Bitcoin
“It is riskier to hold zero Bitcoin than it is to be all in on it.”
For many, the onset of digital currency is still something that both scares and confuses them. Poker players have traditionally been at the forefront of the phenomenon, however, and Tyler is one of them. He explained why the currency appeals to him.
“For me personally, everything about holding Bitcoin as a store of value makes sense,” he says. “I started doing more research a few years ago and really educated myself on the economics of money and banking. I wish I had taken the time to do that and gained more conviction early on. I first transacted Bitcoin in 2012 to play poker on one of the first Bitcoin poker sites. I never held it though, a story many poker players share today. In 2014 I won the Sunday Major and a weekday high roller in the same week. I had over 100 Bitcoin at the time and just never held onto any of it. Now I have just been buying over the last few years anytime I have had scores live or online. To normal people holding a large percentage of their net worth [in Bitcoin] seems risky, but personally I tell people that it’s riskier to hold zero Bitcoin than it is to be all in on it.”
One coin that once appealed was the Ferret Meme coin. Tyler has… mixed memories of it.
“Oh no, not the ferret coin! Man, that was a tough lesson. Sometimes the gambler in me likes to take some big risks still. This crypto bull cycle, a lot of hype has been being built around meme coins.”
Tyler read stories of people getting in early in low market cap coins and riding out huge gains. Long story short, he got caught up in the noise and started allocating some of his investments towards meme coins.
“I was very invested in a coin where the creator ended up basically rugging everybody,” he tells us. “I never saw the scenario playing out the way it did given that the creator was the third-biggest PetTok influencer. I lost over 200 SOL in that project… not fun. I think I’ll stick to accumulating bitcoin for the foreseeable future.”
Bringing Online Poker Back
With online poker returning state by state in the U.S. close to 14 years since Black Friday, how important is it that poker comes back across America soon?
“I think sites that can find a way to operate inside the U.S.A. are of major importance to the regrowth of the game,” he declares. “I also think fencing out the rest of the world to U.S. online poker is extremely important. Rest of World players have had the chance to battle and improve their games much more significantly than the average U.S. player. If you take the average pro outside of the U.S. and the average pro from, say, Michigan or Pennsylvania, there is probably a huge difference in skill level.”
Tyler believes that the U.S. needs time to regrow the online player pool and ensure that recreational players don’t get slaughtered by their European or South American counterparts, which might turn them off from the game.
“Live poker is booming right now, and I think there is a lot of room to grow as online poker grows. One thing I do find concerning in the U.S. market is that all the states, including North Carolina, have legalized sports betting but there’s no talk of online poker. Sports betting is a huge issue amongst the same demographic that online poker would cater to. There is only so much money this demographic can gamble, and right now it seems the people in charge are prioritizing directing that money toward sports betting.”
Staking and Selling
Tyler previously bought pieces of other players on PokerStake and now sells action himself. He’s always loved the idea of making money at poker through various means not just by playing himself. PokerStake allows him to do just that.
PokerStake is great. I’ve been heavily involved in backing players and buying action since 2020. The fact that platforms like PokerStake exist to help poker players and investors connect is extremely important for the health of the game, especially at the higher buy-ins where liquidity could be an issue for a lot of players if they didn’t have access to sell so seamlessly.”
Selling and buying action increases the enjoyment Tyler has in the game and he believes it is the same for others too.
“It’s much more fun too having 100 investors with 0.5% rather than one person with 50%. You know that many more people are rooting for you and hoping for your success because they have a vested interest. However, collecting from 100 people before an event without PokerStake would be a monumental task. PokerStake offers a ton of value in that aspect.”
Always there to help players, Josh Arieh is a huge benefit to welcoming new players onto the site too, in the opinion of Tyler.
“Josh being the face of PokerStake is obviously huge. He is a trusted source in the poker community for many years with a ton of success on and off the felt. It makes everything feel 100% guaranteed in terms of getting paid out and operations running smoothly.”
Tyler is selling to the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood Poker Open (SHRPO) and as well as offering the chance of profit to others, he sees the whole process as hugely beneficial to him. It’s ‘a huge way to network in the poker community and have bigger opportunities come up down the road’ in his words.
“My mindset is if I can sell a small percentage of these lower buy-in tournaments I play and show that I am capable of a positive ROI [Return on Investment] for investors, there will be bigger buy-ins over summer or throughout the year more people will have an interest in buying. I am looking forward to this Hard Rock series because there are a lot of opportunities to play mixed game tournaments which I have put more focus into the past six months.”
A passion for mixed games has made Tyler look forward to more of them in the future. He’s a big name in those fields and credits them as the best events to play in from his perspective too.
“The most fun I have ever had playing in a MTT is the WSOP $10k 8-Game where I ended up finishing 17th this past summer,” he tells us. “It really inspired me to study more and put more focus on mixed game events in the future. I think the edges are bigger in mixed games, especially at the lower buy ins, which is a huge positive for people looking to buy action.”
With Tyler’s action on sale now via his PokerStake page, you won’t want to miss out on what could be a huge year at the live felt for the North Carolina player.
