PTP Q&A with Dennis Phillips
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Dennis Phillips may be the most envied man in poker at the moment. The 53-year-old commercial account manager for a trucking company in St. Louis is the current chipleader in the 2008 main event with just over 26 million in chips. He finished on top of the rest of the “November Nine” (as Harrah’s has dubbed them) when play got down to the final table in the wee hours of July 15. Each player received $900,670 with the chance to come back on Nov. 10 to win another $8 million for first place.
Part Time Poker recently caught up with Phillips while he was doing what he knows best – playing in a poker tournament in his hometown.
What was it like coming home as a member of the “November Nine”?
It’s kind of been a wild ride to be truthful. Nothing but positive on it. Tremendous support from everybody who have tried to bend over backwards to help me and congratulate me. So I’m kind of living on cloud nine right now.
You said you were playing in a poker tournament tonight. Where are you at?
I’m at Lumiere in St. Louis. It’s the first tournament I’ve played since I got back.
So what kind of response have you gotten tonight from people there that have recognized you?
I’ve been signing autographs and receiving congratulations. It’s just been a positive ride all the way around. No one is giving me a hard time at all to be truthful. It’s been fantastic – a little hectic – I’m somewhere over 40 interviews now and TV appearances.
What’s it like to get that much attention?
I guess I was kind of flying under the radar before and now everybody knows me. People who claim to know me I don’t know, but they say they know me. (Laughs)
How does it feel to be the chipleader going into the final table?
Everybody else at the table has more experience than I do so I’ll take any advantage I can get, and having a few more chips more than anybody else is definitely an advantage. So hopefully I can parlay that in and use it to play deep stack poker.
Prior to this what was your previous tournament experience?
I’ve really only been playing tournaments the last couple of years. I did go down to Tunica and play in two events down there and I made the final table on both of those. I played three WSOP events prior to this and made the final table in two of them. This is my only biggie. I did very well in the tournaments around St. Louis.
How did you come to enter the WSOP main event this year? Was this your first one?
Yes, this was the first time I played any major event really other than those couple of tournaments in Tunica and I won a satellite at the local Harrah’s casino here. It was a $200 buy in, basically 100 people winner take all and I won that. It was kind of tough even winning that one. It wasn’t quite winner take all, but for all intents and purposes it was. The winner got the seat and $1,000 while second got $2,500 and third got $500.
So walk us through the main event. What was it like? How did you get through it?
I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I went out there so I sat down a little timid on it, but after an hour or two of playing I realized I could play with these guys with no problem. So I started playing my normal game. I played fairly conservative the first couple of days, just making sure I ended the day over the average chip stack. It was about midway through the third day when I tried to make a move and it worked.
How were you able to get to the final table?
Everybody has a little bit of luck involved in it. I didn’t have anybody make a major drawout on me or anything. I never really got my chips in with the worst hand except for once and I lucked out on that one. I had pocked 9s and there was a gentleman who kept pushing when he had the button and I didn’t think he had anything. I made a bet, he came over the top and I said, “All In” and he insta-called so I figured I was in big trouble. As it turned out all he had was pocket 10s so he really should not have made the call or at least I wouldn’t have in his position. But he had 10s over my 9s and then I drew a straight. That was the only point in the tournament where I put all of my chips in and did not have by far the best hand.
How do you plan to prepare for the final table?
It’s going to be difficult to prepare for it. The rest of the table is very, very good players. I’ll be going to Europe for some tournaments and there are some in the U.S. I am going to play in. I have some friends who are very good poker players and I’ll be playing some sit-n-go’s with those guys so I can get used to playing a short table – a three people, four people, five people table. That should help out.
Do you plan to study your opponents at all? To look back at what they’ve done?
Absolutely. I’ll watch them. They’ll watch me. But you can only do so much of that. When you sit down to play, you play.
Would you have rather played out the final table or do you like this delay?
Oh no, I was doing well and had a good chip count. I did not want to quit, but I understand the logic behind it and I support it. But no, I would have rather played it out.
Do you plan to quit your job or make any other career changes as a result of your finish in this main event?
I probably will not. I really do enjoy my job and the people I work with. I may cut back a little. I make take more vacation. (Laughs) But no, I am not going to be quitting.
Do you plan to play more poker?
I will be playing more poker, yes.
