Bloggers / Editor / 17 July 2008 / Leave a comment

Tam "BigTam" Gourlay opened his Betfair account on Friday and had qualified for the WSOP Main Event by Sunday. Betfair's Estelle Bentall speaks to Tam.

Tam "BigTam" Gourlay
DOB: 28th June 1984 (Age 24)

How long have you played poker for?

I started playing poker a year ago. My brother was playing on Betfair so he taught me how to play. A year later I fancied a wee game of poker so I signed up to Betfair on the Friday, on Saturday I qualified for the final and on Sunday I won the package - I couldn't believe it!! I only wanted to play a little bit of poker and the satellite was the next game that started, I did not expect to win that let alone go to Vegas. Since then I have had to practice online to get more experience, as the only live tourney I have played before was a £10 rebuy at my local casino in Edinburgh. I did not cash but I managed to perfect my 'all in' technique.

Any pre-tournament strategy?

I came to Vegas with no pre-conceptions and wanted to enjoy the experience, to be honest, I was still a little shocked that I had won the package in the first place. It has been a great experience joining team betfair so I will definitely be coming back to work on the strategy!

Any key hands you would like to tell us about?

It was bubble time and I woke up with pocket 9s, there was an early raise and I pushed all in with my short stack the raiser called with his 7s. My nines held up so I doubled up and made the money!

The other hand to note was the hand I busted out on, I had put a chip on my cards and when I went to look at my cards I moved the chip off onto my big blind and the bet stood. As it was half my stack I pushed all in with 62 offsuit.

Your best bluff?

It is safe to say I am still mastering the bluff but I did make a move against Robert Varkonyi who was sitting at the table with his bracelet from 2002, I bet quite heavily on my inside straight draw to him and he folded. Thinking back on it I should have made more use of my tight table image to bluff more...next time!

Did you get any good reads on your opponents?

It was when I had quad jacks, I needed to make as much money on the hand as possible and it was good to have them against an aggressive player, so I simply checked the river to entice his aggressive play and he led out with a 2500 bet (blind were 100-200), unfortunately though he did not call my re-raise.

Any famous faces on your table?

Robert Varkonyi was the only notable face although someone did have to tell me who he was!

The Betfair experience

This has been amazing, staying in a 5 star hotel at the Wynn, meeting lots of great people and cashing in the main event has been pretty special. It was also really nice that when I was playing some of the Betfair players were there supporting which was much needed throughout the bubble time, especially as I doubled up to make it into the money. I will definitely try and qualify again.

How much did you cash for and what you plan next?

I finished 654th netting $21,000 which is great. So I hired a Corvette with a team betfair supporter Mike and we spent 24 hours driving around in it. I plan to go on holiday when I get back as currently out of work and basically enjoy the bonus. I also plan to buy a mountain bike to enjoy the Scottish countryside on. Apart from that we will just have to see what happens next.