WSOP: Bracelet Winner Q and A -- Max Greenwood

Recent university graduate Max Greenwood came into the final table of the $1,000 no-limit hold'em with rebuys event looking for the biggest score of his short career. But a bad flop for his underpair threatened to send him back to Toronto with a third-place finish. Luckily for the young online professional, his two-outer came on the river to give him new life and propel him to the title.

Card Player spoke to Greenwood after his big win to talk about a final table that was anything but ordinary.
 

Question: During heads up play, and frankly, throughout the entire final table, both your friends on the rail and Rene Mouritsen’s supporters were getting pretty rowdy. Did their relentless chanting and singing distract you?

Max Greenwood: No, not really. In between hands I would play along and thought it was hilarious. Both the Danes and my friends were having a great time on the rail and there was no animosity between them. When each hand was playing out, everyone was pretty quiet and allowed us to concentrate.

Q: Speaking of your friends, you had a who’s who of the online world in your corner, with Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Andrew “good2cu” Robl and Brian “snagglepuss” Powell, among others. Did you get a lot of help coming up from them and other players in Toronto?

MG: Well, I started playing online when I was in first-year university. One of my friends, Peter “Apathy” Jetten, who plays pretty seriously right now, told me about a site that was running freerolls. I ended up winning like $7 one night and poker just kind of went on from there. I’ve had the chance to talk to a lot of really cool guys and awesome players who are way better than I am. I’ve been coming down to Las Vegas for the last few years and haven’t had too much success until now, but I have had the chance to live and learn from some of the best in the game during that time.

Q: This event marks the third time that Rene Mouritsen has finished runner-up at the World Series of Poker. What did you think of his play?

MG: I think he played really well. I think more than anything I was able to win a couple of coin flips and I held over him a bit. There was one hand where he had a really tough decision on the turn and made a really big fold that would usually be really good against me. On that hand, he did happen to have the best hand, but I had a lot of outs. I don’t think he blew up or anything, he just made some good moves that didn’t pan out.

Q: You just recently graduated from university. What’s next?

MG: I really haven’t planned anything. I’m going to do some traveling, maybe a trip to Europe with some friends next year. It was five long years to finish a four-year degree so now that I’m done I’m going to take a year off and re-evaluate things. I guess I’m going to buy a house in Toronto.