Over the last year, the 23-year-old English pro Gavin "gav101" Cochrane has emerged as one of the biggest winners in the high stakes PLO games on PokerStars. He earned an honor's degree in neuroscience at University despite admitting he spent more time playing poker than studying. Cochrane is presently sitting on over $1 million in winnings from the PLO games in 2011 and recently gave a good interview with HighStakesDB.com.
Here are some excerpts:
Asked about his matches with Viktor “Isildur1” Blom and how it feels to win $600k in a session?I'm pretty sure these sessions have been the main contributor to me developing RSI-type pains in my wrists and hands! My hands use to be cramping up so bad in those matches. I was exhausted afterwards but also very wired and completely unable to sleep. Viktor is one of a kind - he puts insane amounts of pressure on.
You just have to learn to desensitize yourself to the money at some point. The start of this year was just absurd though - I won over $1.8 million and the majority of that was within the space of a few weeks. I don't think of the money in my poker roll as real money though as it is constantly at risk. I'll continue to play high stakes and stretch my roll as long as I think I am playing well.Asked about who are his toughest opponents and why?People can be tough in different ways. Some opponents are very tight and game-select hard so that makes it incredibly tough to win off them. Some people like Isildur play anyone and play crazy aggressive and they are tough when they are catching cards and playing well. Rui Cao is probably the toughest opponent I have ever played HU. He has undoubtedly run well but he just seemed to relentlessly turn hands in to bluffs vs. me in really weird spots and I couldn't get a handle on his tendencies.Asked what his future plans are?I wanted to try and not deposit online so have been trying to spin up my Pokerstars account in to something reasonable but I ended up losing it all playing $100/$200 and $200/$400 the other day. I've wired more money in so will be back playing soon. I intend to play WSOPE and EPT London and probably some other live events too. Hopefully I can run good in one of these things and win one - I definitely think I am capable. It’s not a huge thing for me though - I'm far more interested in playing high stakes online against the best and winning - that's a real buzz.
Here are some excerpts:
Asked about his matches with Viktor “Isildur1” Blom and how it feels to win $600k in a session?I'm pretty sure these sessions have been the main contributor to me developing RSI-type pains in my wrists and hands! My hands use to be cramping up so bad in those matches. I was exhausted afterwards but also very wired and completely unable to sleep. Viktor is one of a kind - he puts insane amounts of pressure on.
You just have to learn to desensitize yourself to the money at some point. The start of this year was just absurd though - I won over $1.8 million and the majority of that was within the space of a few weeks. I don't think of the money in my poker roll as real money though as it is constantly at risk. I'll continue to play high stakes and stretch my roll as long as I think I am playing well.Asked about who are his toughest opponents and why?People can be tough in different ways. Some opponents are very tight and game-select hard so that makes it incredibly tough to win off them. Some people like Isildur play anyone and play crazy aggressive and they are tough when they are catching cards and playing well. Rui Cao is probably the toughest opponent I have ever played HU. He has undoubtedly run well but he just seemed to relentlessly turn hands in to bluffs vs. me in really weird spots and I couldn't get a handle on his tendencies.Asked what his future plans are?I wanted to try and not deposit online so have been trying to spin up my Pokerstars account in to something reasonable but I ended up losing it all playing $100/$200 and $200/$400 the other day. I've wired more money in so will be back playing soon. I intend to play WSOPE and EPT London and probably some other live events too. Hopefully I can run good in one of these things and win one - I definitely think I am capable. It’s not a huge thing for me though - I'm far more interested in playing high stakes online against the best and winning - that's a real buzz.
