Seat 3: Barny Boatman (45, London, UK) – 2,490,000
There are few in the poker world that haven’t played with Barny Boatman, and even fewer that haven’t shared a drink with him at the bar after play. Boatman has been an ever-present face of the game in the UK since Late Night Poker hit television screens back in 1999.
The Londoner, who has $1,757,882 in tournament winnings, has a string of live results longer than most players online cashes, but that one big score has always eluded him. This time round, however, he feels things may be different.
“I know I’m playing right so I’m pretty confident about the final table,” said Boatman. “I’ve got myself deep in many occasions, but have always seemed to lose that big flip. There’s not much you can do about that.”
While Boatman admits that he ran very well on Day 2, he hit a grim period in the middle phase of the tournament losing every all in he had against short stacks, but, partly due to a strategy of avoiding big stacks, he always managed to grind back into contention.
“I’m only concerned about myself. I don’t want to lose concentration because a big strength of my game is reading people. I’ve got a lot of live experience,” Boatman added.
While that could rate as understatement of the tournament, the pressure of the final table and the glare of the spotlight is unlikely to trouble Boatman, who will rate his chances of spinning up his fifth-place stack. Not only is this Boatman’s first EPT final table, but in so reaching it he’s guaranteed himself his largest single tournament score – outweighing a 2002 WSOP runner-up spot.
Bio courtesy of PokerStars.