WSOP Rookie: Ben Myers Playing Main Event After Qualifying in Florida Poker League
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Playing the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event is a dream for many poker players. While some are lucky enough to play it each and every year, for others it’s a one-time bucket list sort of thing.
Ben Myers falls into the latter camp. The 48-year-old from Florida is playing in the WSOP Main Event for the first time thanks to his participation in a 22-week-long poker league at SKC Poker Room. He failed to win the league coming in second, but fortunately for him, there were two $10K seats up for grabs.
“The league was a very different strategy than any other tournament I've played, as it was more important to try and make the final table every week than it was to actually win,” Myers told PokerNews. “Points progressed the further you made it and there were nice payouts to the top three players on a weekly basis.”
Preparing for the Biggest Tournament of His Life
Not surprisingly, the small stakes poker player and part-time Uber driver has been looking forward to this day.
"I'm now at the point where I have taken everything learned and have applied to my game to hopefully give me small percentage edges for the Main."
“I feel ready. I'm now at the point where I have taken everything learned and have applied to my game to hopefully give me small percentage edges for the Main,” he said. “Previously, when living in Vegas, I played satellites to play two $1,500 events – unsuccessfully. I do believe the 12-year layoff was supposed to happen for a reason.”
Formerly ingrained in the corporate world for a decade and a half, Myers has found that while he doesn’t make the money he used to, a life of cards and driving is much more agreeable.
“I've been blessed to have been out of the corporate world now for about 15 years,” he said. “Even though I made 2x-3x more with a six-figure salary back then, I'm 10 times happier now having been able to jump back into my passion of poker. This passion got taken away from me for about 10 years, where previously, I was having some success while living directly in Las Vegas.”
Now living in Florida, where there are plenty of poker rooms, Myers has not only reconnected with the game but taken it more seriously, especially after he knew he’d be playing in the WSOP Main Event.
He continued: “As you're aware, we have some amazing talent on the Florida Gulf Coast. I've been extremely fortunate to have had some poker training with one of our best, Michael Laake, who also writes some very informative articles in Ante Up Magazine. I've also immersed myself in everything poker from books, Vlogs, YouTube, etc.”
A Life Full of Games
For Myers, it’s the culmination of a long life of playing games. When he was young, there would always be some sort of game being played for money at family functions, be it dice, Scrabble, and of course poker.
“A lot of times I was able to quadruple my allowance,” Myers said with a laugh. “Since then, I’ve been mostly self-taught, although now I currently have also been blessed to surround myself with a good network of other players who I have a lot of respect for.”
Speaking of people he has respect for, Myers has a poker hero who happens to also be playing in the Day 1b field.
“Easily, Daniel Negreanu,” Myers said when asked about his favorite poker player. “His ability to read people and extract information from them is beyond admirable. He also serves as a great ambassador to the game itself. All of his attributes, I look to emulate. That being said, I would want nothing more than to play against him in the Main. To be the best, you have to beat the best.”
Follow Myers' progress on Day 1b of the 2019 World Series of Poker Main Event by following PokerNews live coverage here.
