KEVIN MACPHEE | FANTASY POKER GURU
MANAGERSPEAK
Poker pro Kevin MacPhee was the top Fantasy Poker Manager in our
inaugural season. We talk to him about the advantage he gets being on
tour and how you can improve your team for the coming season…
Let’s expand on the advantage
you may have over others being
on the live tournament circuit.
What sort of edge do you have?
For starters, you get to know
what’s going on with the players
personally. Someone that might
look like a good buy on paper
may have been out drinking the
night before, or may have just
broken up with his girlfriend.
There are lots of other variables
you get from knowing the players
and being on tour with them.
The biggest advantage is
being able to submit my team at
TM
KEVIN MACPHEE
LIVES COEUR’D ALENE, IDAHO
CURRENT GPI RANK: 115
LIVE EARNINGS: $2,558,466
BIGGEST LIVE CASH: $1,356,429
WSOP CASHES: 17
WSOP FINAL TABLES: 1
I can also ask him how the
Germans are doing. If you see
me field German teams a lot it’s
because I know exactly how
they’re doing and what their seat
draw is like.
But I’m also actively scouting
all the time. I’m sending out
tweets and asking who has
chips in the event. I think I
might actually take it a little too
seriously, but I want to compete
and have fun. And get the
bragging rights!
THE #1 MISTAKE THAT I SEE
IS PEOPLE SUBMITTING
THEIR TEAMS FAR TOO EARLY
the last possible minute with
the maximum amount of
information. The phone app has
helped out a lot as it means I
don’t have to take my laptop to
the tables with me if I want to
submit at the last minute.
Also I can have a live look at
table draws. I often pick players
because of their table draws. Joe
Serock, for example, didn’t have
a lot of chips in the $5K (at last
year’s WSOP Event #57), but he
final tabled that event.
We’ve heard rumors that you’re
doing a fair bit of scouting. We
noticed text messages that you
sent to a player while we were
covering the WPT event at
Jacksonville a few months ago.
Confirm or deny?
Yeah, I mean I sell a lot of action
to many of the top GPI players
who play high roller events, so
I’m in daily contact with them
anyway. So I can send a text to
Igor Kurganov and ask him, ‘Hey,
how’s your chip stack right now?’
FANTASY POKER MANAGER
You’ve been one of the biggest
cheerleaders for Fantasy Poker
Manager. What do you like most
about the game?
I’ve always been into Fantasy
Sports. My first introduction to
gambling was when I was 13
years old. My da