Baby Dragon Warm-Up NLH (800,000 KRW)

Veni, Vidi, Vici For Tommy Maguire Shipping The Baby Dragon Warm-Up For KR₩ 8,017,000 (~$5,885)

Australian pro Tommy Maguire wins the first RDPT tournament he ever entered, beating a field of 34 in this KR₩ 800,000 (~$584) buy-in event. Already his third victory this year in a very successful career mostly in Australia we caught up with the Jeju newcomer after his victory.

Congrats on another win! Your third this year already. How does it feel?

Pretty good, it's nice to have a good start, but it's one of the smaller event, so I'm not going to get carried away celebrating or anything like that.

How did the tournament go? Smooth sailing?

So I was the shortest stack when the final table started and I just got outrageously lucky. First I won a 3-way all-in where I had Kings vs J9 off and J10 suited so that was for a lot of chips. And then the very next I had Aces vs Queens and so I doubled up again so after that I became the chip leader and I just kept running really fine.

How do you know about Red Dragon Poker Tour?

My roommate and my best friend his name is Jordan the commentator in the livestream so I heard about it through him and the timing was good so I decided to come.

With a perfect start to the series already, planning on breaking the $500k life time earnings this RDPT?

It would be great, but I don't think about that, I actually have a few incorrect results in Hendon Mob, so if results were accurate I would really be well over 500K. So I don't actually think about it, I'm just going to play my best and see what happens.

Is this your first time here in Jeju? How was your experience so far?

Yes this is my first day. Nothing in particular. Actually I am interested in going on the rides at Shinhwa World, especially the water park. I am quite looking forward to doing that actually.

The $117k high roller runner-up last year was massive, how big of a change was that for your career, if any?

So that was actually one of the wrong results. So my actual score is 230K so that was actually a heads up deal that was a massive result for me. Especially because it was right at the very end of that series and I'd been having a terrible series. So to bring it all back in the last event was brilliant and yeah that was a massive, massive win for me.

How do you approach variance and maintain a positive outlook?

It's probably one of the toughest things about poker. It's not easy for me or for anybody. Consistent mindset work is really all you can do and just hope to run good.

How do you manage your bankroll and ensure you have enough to cover expenses during downswings?

I haven't had to worry about that for a long time, so it's not really something I have a good answer for. But definitely moving down stakes when you start down swinging is a good one. A lot more of people have too much pride to do that, but it's a very important thing to do if you're losing. And also you can consider selling action.

Do you have any advice for aspiring professional poker players?

Just invest in yourself as much as you can. Your mind is your biggest weapon in poker.