2009 World Series of Poker preview – Gavin Smith profile

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

As the WSOP Commisioner keeps telling everyone who will “listen” on twitter, the 2009 World Series of Poker is less than a month away from kicking off. Full Tilt Poker is in the process of putting together a team to bring you all you need to know from the floor of the poker room to the backroom interviews with your favorite pros to the pre-game post-game parties and festivities. No stone will be unturned.

As we quickly approach the series, we will start running some profiles of various Full Tilt pros as they attempt to put their stamp on poker history.

Gavin Smith is our first profile from Tuscaloosa Johnny. I’m very familiar with Gavin from his exploits around the poker world as well as the skill he shows at the table and the generosity away from it. Back in the fall of 2006 I was running a little charity function for Cystic Fibrosis and Gavin offered his time and services. In no time flat we had ourselves a little $1,000 charity SnG with all the proceeds going to charity and the prizepool coming from the man himself.

Then he stuck around and the rest was Gavin Smith lore.

Gavin Smith is one of a kind

By Johnny Kampis

Known for both his prodigious talent and ability to have a good time, Full Tilt Poker pro Gavin Smith is a fan favorite among poker connoisseurs.

It was actually another casino game that got Smith hooked on poker about 15 years ago. He traveled with some friends to a charity casino in Ontario to play blackjack. A $5-$10 limit Hold’em game broke out and Smith took a seat and won. He kept playing the game for fun and side money until 1998 when he went with a friend to Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut for the World Poker Finals. Smith made two final tables and was hooked. He went home and sold out his interest in an underground poker game he helped run and hit the tournament trail.

“It was impossible. It was so hard,” Smith said of his start into the poker life.

Life on the trail was full of SNG play for Smith at first. He estimates he spent up to 14 hours a day grinding at these one-table tournaments. He sold the tournament buy-in chips after winning them then so he could play more SNGs and build up his roll.

“I had a very small bankroll. I was playing satellites into $500 and $1,000 tournaments, grinding away trying to make $300 or $400 a day.”

Because of the expenses involved in the travel, profits were tough. Smith recommended a different course for current up and coming players on the circuit. “I think players with similar skills would be better off playing live no-limit games,” he said.

The now 40-year-old Smith caught his big break in 2004 and 2005. At first, he wasn’t sure he would be able to attend the World Series of Poker when his mother was stricken with cancer. She was treated and her condition improved. Smith’s friend and now fellow Full Tilt Poker pro Erick Lindgren staked him in the main event. Smith made his way through the majority of the field to finish 52nd and earn $45,000.

Then Smith heard about a new event in downtown Las Vegas called Championship Poker at the Plaza. Again, Lindgren and Smith worked out a staking arrangement, which proved fruitful as Smith made the final table, collecting $30,000 for fifth. After this flurry of success, Smith was staked by Lindgren for the next year.

The first part of the staking deal did not go smoothly for the pair, as Smith had no major cashes for the rest of 2004 and first part of 2005. Then things turned around. He finished 30th at the Five Star World Poker Classic for $56,000, then got his first six-figure cash for $156,000 by winning a $2,000 NLHE event at the Mirage Poker Showdown. A week later Smith was a poker millionaire when he won the main event of the MPS, a World Poker Tour event, and earned $1.1 million for himself and Lindgren.

“It was pretty cool because I was starting to get pretty dejected. Eric and I had been together for a year and I hadn’t done that much. I cashed here and there along the way. My makeup was getting up there around $100,000. When I won the 2K I finally proved I could win something. And then it all aligned for me over the next 10 days.”

After winning a WPT event Smith felt he got more respect, as well as a boost of confidence. “When you win a major event like that then all of a sudden you get recognition. Before people who knew me knew I could play, but no one else really did. It gives you a lot of confidence too, and poker is a game where when you are confident you can make a lot more positive decisions and when you are not confident you might play more scared. Confidence has a little bit of a snowball effect.”

He was on a heater after his monstrous May, cashing four times at the 2005 WSOP, then final tabling two more WPT events at the Doyle Brunson North American Championship at the Bellagio and the World Poker Open at the Gold Strike.

The one thing missing from his resume is a WSOP win. Smith came close by finishing second in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em event in 2007, but wasn’t been able to finish the deal after dominating the final table and then getting cold decked heads up.

“It bothers me a little bit because I definitely want to win a bracelet, but I don’t measure my success as a poker player strictly on whether or not I win a bracelet. The fact that I have never had a losing year as a tournament player is probably a better accomplishment,” he said.

Smith is known as much for his heart as he is for his poker prowess. He helped organize a charity tournament for the family of WPT cameraman Paul Hannum, a friend who died suddenly in 2006, and is often participating in other charity events.

“We’ve been pretty lucky as poker players along the way that we can make a living, and a damn good living, doing what we do. It’s not really hard to help out people or change their lives. You don’t have to do much to make a big difference. A lot of times you do these things too and you meet really cool people and have a really good time.”

Many people also know Smith as co-host of the very popular PokerRoad radio podcast, which can be found at PokerRoad.com or on iTunes. Smith has been involved in the program since it was born as The Circuit years ago. He and Joe Sebok have co-hosted the program for several years, and Smith agreed to continue that work after the program moved to PokerRoad.

“It’s sometimes a whole lot of fun and sometimes a big pain in the ass. Especially during the World Series when you are grinding for six weeks straight, instead of coming in at noon you have to come in at 11 a.m. We do the show live during the World Series.”

As for the future, Smith may one day entertain the idea of going into business, such as owning a bar, but for now he plans to stick at what he excels at – a little game called poker.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do for dinner tonight,” he said with a laugh when asked about future plans. “I will continue to play poker. Poker is what I do for a living.”

Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Gavin Smith, Guest Posts, Tuscaloosa John, WSOP

Permalink | April 28th, 2009 Play Online Poker at Full Tilt Poker

One Response to “2009 World Series of Poker preview – Gavin Smith profile”

Jose Villadiego Says:
June 27th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
What a cool guy Gavin is and a great poker player. Who will knew that he got help from Edog whe he began to play poker full time…

Thanks

Villa