Last week one of my close friends Emmett Mullin (Mully) won the PokerStars UKIPT in Galway. So straight after his win I made sure he agreed to do an Interview for PokerNewsBoy, and here it is:

Gerry: When did you pick up poker?

Mully: Started playing in my 2nd year at uni which is almost 7 years ago now.  Started by playing house games, a few small pub games, which then lead to small online games as well.

Gerry:  Tell us how you got started online, where you played, and how you moved up through stakes.

Mully: Started off not really having a clue, making small deposits, playing sit’n’goes or small tourneys and re-depositing, so it didn’t start off the best. Lol. Started then learning more about the game, reading books and picking up advise through various poker forums, gradually became a winning player and had a few decent results. Had a few breakthrough results but didn’t manage my money too well.

Then picked up a staking deal which give me more stability. That’s really the basics of it.

Gerry: So you live in a small town called Omagh. Yet for such a small town there seems to be so much poker talent coming from it. Who would be the leading local players in Omagh in your opinion, and why do you think that Omagh players seem to do so well live and online?

Mully: Yeah, there’s a fair squad of very good players and grinders, who maybe haven’t made the breakthrough in any big live tournaments yet, but are grinding away and don’t get that recognition, but I’m sure that more will make that breakthrough.

Gerry: So who would those players be?

Mully: Some players have had some success online and live. Pixie183 won the high roller event at the UKIPT in Dublin last year,  AllinStevie was considered one of the best online tournament players a few years ago before moving to mostly cash, and a stack full of other players who are grinding away and making a decent living.

Gerry: So, what was your day to day routine before winning the UKIPT in Galway?

Mully: I guess from the start of this year I had been putting in a lot of hours grinding online normally 3/4 sessions online a week, then I would go to gym/personal trainer most days before putting in the long grind online.

Gerry: So has anything changed since the UKIPT win? And do you plan on changing anything?

Mully: Nothings really changed at all since, been trying to get settled back to normality ASAP. Then the plan is to take time to decide what the next move is going to be!

Gerry: So when your grinding online, how would you classify your style of play?

Mully: Mmm, I guess I wouldn’t classify myself in one style or the other, I think its essential your able to adapt and play a variety of styles, and obviously this is true for live play aswell. Although live generally, especially in the early stages of tourneys like the UKIPT you will find live players are a bit more passive and tighter, so I’d definitely play a lot more pots and play more aggressive in these cases.

Gerry: So away from the felt. What do you plan on spending your new bankroll on? Any Vegas trips planned? Or holidays?

Mully: Poland in the summer to follow the green army èuro2012!!

Gerry: So we know you have a lot of friends who play poker. Has this helped you further your game, and who would have helped the most? I imagine having GerryPolt as a friend is a great help!

Mully: Lol, gerrypolt has been a massive help, if there’s any man you want to turn to for advice in blowing off 100bb stacks, he’s your man!! Essential stuff lol. To be honest though, yeah having lots of good friends who play poker helped a lot. The godfather of poker in Omagh, Allinstevie in particular is always good for advice on hands and spots.

Gerry: So being mostly an online player, you must also have other online players you respect. Which Online players do you follow and try and learn from?

Mully: There’s so many great online players out there at the minute, and they are obviously starting to make the breakthrough and dominate the live arena now too. Moorman obviously the first and foremost that springs to mind. But there’s so many sick online players out there at the minute. Dean23price would be another I have learnt a lot from recently.

Gerry: So lets talk a bit about your recent big win. What was it like coming back for the final day of the UKIPT Galway knowing you were at the final table and there was only 8 other players to beat?

Mully: It was obviously a great feeling going in knowing I would be going to a major live final table and was quietly confident that if I ran half decent I had a great shot, but at the same time I knew that going back with 25 bb and the rest of the table fairly shallow, one cooler or flip and I was out . So I was determined that I would play well and not make any mistakes.

Gerry: But you did run well and play well, managing to knock out nearly the rest of the remaining field. Then you ended up heads up with Ronan Gilligan having a 2:1 chip lead. Were you still confident you were going to win?

Mully: Yeah thankfully throughout the final table I made the correct decisions and, luckily enough at every showdown until heads up I had the best hand or dominating hand, that held every time. I actually started pretty even but the way the other guy was playing he sort of ran over me a bit. He wasn’t folding much pre-flop, didn’t fold to a single 3 bet and his post flop sizing’s were pretty huge, so it was awkward, and I felt I had to be patient and bide my time.

Gerry: And your time came. So after winning the UKIPT Galway, how did you celebrate?

Mully: Well as Galway is pretty hard to get to from Omagh, I had a pretty small rail of pixie183, Allinstevie, pocket55ives, and of course the random german! but they made plenty of noise believe me – they had been on the booze from midday! So after the final was over we went for a few drinks, a nice meal, followed by quite a few more drinks after! Of course this didn’t go down too well with hotel security when we arrived back at the hotel at 4am. They felt we were too rowdy to occupy our rooms for the night, cue a Garda escort out of the hotel and a 4 hour taxi journey up the road still half cut!

Lets just hope I’m not barred from Galway city to defend the trophy next year. lol.

Gerry: So if you were to blame it on one person for you being asked to leave Galway at 4am by the Garda, who would it be?

Mully: Actually the hotel security staff, who must have failed to spot pocket55ives clear tapout when Allinstevie had him in a vicious UFC style headlock!! All hell broke loose after that.

PokerNewsBoy would like to thank Mully for his time and hope he wins the next UKIPT. Thanks again Mully.

Tags: Breakthrough Results, Close Friends, Clue, Decent Results, Dublin, Galway, Game, Grinders, High Roller, Local Players, Lol, Money, Mully, Online Games, Poker, Pub Games, Reading Books, Stack

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 29th, 2012 at 9:12 pm and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.