Life and Times of Tim West
With nearly $1.3 million in career tournament winnings coming from a long list of live cashes, Tim West is a pretty recognizable face in the poker community. On top of that, West holds over $3.6 million in online tournament earnings where he most commonly goes by "Tmay420".
In 2009 and 2010, West didn't do too much on the live felt. In fact, he barely broke into six figures for earnings when you combine both of those years, winning $41,084 in 2009 and $61,309 in 2010. His best year live came in 2008 when he earned himself over $320,000. His best single live score came in December 2006 when West took second place in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em event at the Fifth Annual Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas. That score netted him $181,115.
West's 2011 has been off to an extremely solid start. A month ago in February, West scored a 21st-place finish in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Championship Event at the World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic. He earned $43,800 for his run there, but did a lot better just days before heading here to Rincon.
West scored first place in the Wynn Classic $5,170 Main Event after beating a field of 212 players. The field was packed with big names and West had to conquer a tough final table to earn the title. It was one that included John Kim, Carter King, Eric Froehlich, Max Steinberg, Matt Waxman and Annette Obrestad, who West eventually beat heads up for the win. Not only did West win the event, but he pocketed his largest live cash with a first-place prize of $318,738. That puts his total for 2011 at $362,538, which makes it his best year ever even despite only being three months in.
Right now, West is sitting with one of the top five chip stacks in this event and it'd be an amazing feat if he could go on to victory after coming off his recent win just several days ago. If West can make it to the final table alone, he'll have earned his way into the $1,000,000 National Championship Freeroll at the end of the 2010-11 World Series of Poker Circuit season and keep himself going strong. Right now, it seems West is as hot as anyone on the circuit and he's certainly going to be someone to keep an eye on as we head into the summer and the 2011 WSOP.