Even after the final hand was dealt and the bracelets presentation had ended, Allen Carter still appeared a little shell-shocked about his Southern Poker Championship victory.
Prior to the event the 40 year-old entrepreneur and father from Texas divided his time between playing internet poker and coaching youth football. With his win in Biloxi, Carter proved that he could compete with best of the best in a live arena as well as online. After the shock had worn off, Carter sat down with WPT Poker to discuss his big win and his competitive spirit.
WPT Poker: Allen, let’s start at the beginning. How did you get into poker?
Allen Carter: It was back in 2003, the year Moneymaker was on TV. That was what made me think, ‘That looks like a pretty cool game—the tension, the drama, the competitiveness.’ From there, I set up my first account online, played a little poker, and it just became something that really clicked with me as a hobby. I started off and played a lot. Now I probably play 10% of what I was doing back then.
WPT: Do you prefer live poker or online games?
AC: Now for me to sit in front of my computer is so difficult because I’m coming to play in these live events. It’s something that is fun to do, the people are great, and it just adds so much more texture to the game, which is also what makes it hard. Online is a great place to learn the skill though.
WPT: Will you be playing on the circuit more now?
AC: I think this will still be just a hobby for me. I still have three kids at home and they’re 14, 12, and 9, so I’ll be there for a while. I’ll certainly play more, because I’ve learned I can compete with these professional guys.
WPT: Take us through your tournament here. What were the highs, the lows, the turning points?
AC: Well the first day was brutal. Midway through the day I was playing a really big hand. I started the hand with 35,000 chips. By the end of the hand I had 26,000 of those chips in the pot and [my opponent] put me in for my last 9,000. I decided to fold the hand. Luckily, she showed me her hand and that gave me some confidence that I could make big folds. After that, I just sat there completely disheartened with my cards yet somehow I managed to finish the day with around 22,000. The second day I woke up and I was really ready to play. I basically just killed it – I went up to 776,000 or something crazy. On the third day I had a bunch of changes. I played a couple of big pots with hands you might not play big pots with and they really worked out. Sometimes it helps to play a little bit bad, you know? To win poker tournaments you gotta be bold. When that boldness works, your stack grows and this game is all about having that big stack.
WPT: What was your final table experience like?
AC: Ha, to be honest the final table sucked, mostly because I was folding for the first four hours. I just couldn’t get my chips through the deep stack [Soheil Shamseddin]. Tyler Smith was the same. He was sitting to my right and we talked about it and we just couldn’t get anything through that corner. I thought Tyler was a very good player and for me to be able to bust him was good because he was certainly the biggest threat there. Besides him, it was just me having to deal with the maniac [Shamseddin]. He’s a maniac, but that’s a good thing. Heads-up the cards just came and came for me. When people see it [on TV] they’re gonna be like, ‘Wow, this guy sure is lucky.’ And I am, obviously!
WPT: The million dollars aside, how much of a validation is this victory for you?
AC: I’m very fortunate and the million dollars won’t change my life. The respect is really what I play for. Just to be called the champion and to have bracelets you can keep—those kinds of things you can’t really put a price on. This is all about the hardware for me. I don’t play cash games; I just play tournament poker because I think it is really cool to beat 300 people. And to do it at the top level is all you can ask for. That is my personality, I want to be competitive, and besides, I’m getting too old to play basketball (laughs).
One For the Future: Mohsin Charania
While he may have come up short of the final table in Biloxi, finishing in 15th place, internet poker pro Mohsin “chicagocards1” Charania is still making waves on the tournament circuit.
The 23-year old Northwestern University law school student decided to take a semester off from school in order to test the live poker tournament waters. Mohsin didn’t just test the waters though—he dove right in with a 26th place finish at the Bellagio Five Diamond event in December and he is now two for two in WPT Main Event cashes.
Mohsin is no stranger to poker success. With over $650,000 in online tournament winnings, he is a notable name in the world of internet poker and off to a fast start in 2009. A mere two days after busting out in Biloxi, he final tabled two major online tournaments in the same day, earning himself almost $90,000 and he currently ranks in the Top 20 players for several Online Player of the Year races.
So far Charania’s transition from online to live play has been relatively smooth, but there are still spots in his game that admittedly need some improvement. When asked to comment on his live tournament play, Charania admitted he has trouble not giving off tells when he is bluffing or holding a big hand. “I also just get bored halfway through a 14-hour day and start thinking everyone is bluffing and make bad calls,” he added.
One thing Charania does think works to his advantage are the slow structures the WPT events offer. “I love the WPT structures. I think that’s why I get deep,” he said. “I used to play a lot of cash games, so I am very good at post-flop play, even though I’m a much better pre-flop player now. But I am much better than most tournament players post-flop too.”
For many players two deep runs in WPT events would be very rewarding, but they were less than thrilling for Charania. “In all honesty, I am very disappointed because having played internet tournaments I have this thing where I just want to win. If I get 2nd, I’d break something before I realized I made, like $500,000,” he explained.
That is not to say that Charania does not have high hopes for the rest of the WPT season. “I am very optimistic with my deep runs that I’ve adjusted to live poker semi-well and I think I should get a win or close to it soon,” he predicted. Since he plans on playing every WPT event he can between now and September, there will be plenty of opportunities for Charania to do just that in the near future. |
