"I hope to one day play in the Super High Rollers" - Mickey Petersen
EPT champ and this weekend's Sunday Million Host Mickey Petersen joins us for a chat about climbing stakes, prop bets and the time he tilt-smashed a mouse.
"I hope to one day play in the Super High Rollers"
PokerStrategy.com: What is the toughest thing about the stakes you play?
Mickey Petersen: I play tournaments exclusively: everything from the Bigger 22 to the Super Tuesday and everything in between!
I think the toughest thing is to keep believing in yourself, and always be trying to learn new things. Just because you hit a rough patch doesn’t mean you are doing anything wrong, and just because you are winning doesn’t mean you aren’t making any mistakes!
PokerStrategy.com: What was the hardest thing about progressing from the small stakes to the high stakes?
Mickey Petersen: I never really had a stake that was hard to break through. I was lucky that I was always willing to move down when things were rough, and not afraid to take shots when things were going well. I think what really helped me was the desire to always challenge myself.
After I started playing the $100 tournaments I wanted to get good enough to play the $1,000 tournaments, and then the EPTs and eventually the High Rollers. Now I hope to one day be playing the Super High Rollers!
PokerStrategy.com: How do you keep your game sharp after all these years as a pro?
Mickey Petersen: I think by far the most important thing is to play a lot of hands and really think about the way you played them. All the other things are also helpful, but at the end of the day the experience you get from playing trumps everything else.
"I smashed a mouse on tilt, there was blood everywhere"
| Quick fire questions |
| PokerStrategy.com: If you weren’t a poker player what would you be?
Mickey Petersen: Sea lion specialist.
Mickey Petersen: I don’t really think anyone could imagine it being anyone other than Chris Hemsworth.
Mickey Petersen: Marshmallows
Mickey Petersen: An apple slicer, snowball maker, and a DVD player. |
PokerStrategy.com: What’s the craziest thing you’ve done when on tilt?
Mickey Petersen: One time I was playing at a friend's place and had borrowed his mouse pad. After one too many beats I slammed the mouse down on the mouse pad.
What I hadn't thought about was that it was a special expensive gamer mouse pad made of glass so a few seconds later there was blood and glass shards everywhere!
Thankfully, nothing serious happened but it was so embarrassing that I swore to myself never to throw a fit like that after losing a hand ever again.
PokerStrategy.com: What's the best prop bet you’ve ever done, seen or heard of?
Mickey Petersen: In terms of epic-ness I think the Ashton Griffin bet (running 70 miles in 24 hours to win $300,000) is very hard to top, as it has everything you would want from a prop bet!
Although not really a prop bet, a few years ago two of my friends agreed that the first of them who had a $1m score had to give the other person $50k.
Shortly after the bet was made, though, one of the guys pretty much retired from travelling the poker tournament circuit; the other guy then went on to have a tournament cash for exactly one million.
I always thought that was the easiest $50k anyone has ever made.
PokerStrategy.com: Thanks Mickey, good luck hosting the Sunday Million tomorrow.
Mickey Petersen is hosting the Sunday Million tomorrow at 14:30 ET at 
PokerStars. As part of his hosting duties there will be a $215 bounty on his head in the tournament and when the final table is formed he will be in charge of negotiating any deals that take place between the players in the chatbox.
