The roomates from Vancouver have found their way to the top of another leaderboard. Greg FBT Mueller ended Day 1 of the $5,000 Pot-Limit Holdem World Championship as the chip leader at 228k. Just behind him in fourth place was his roommate Shawn Buchanan.
Shawn grew up in Abbotsford, British Columbia, about 45 minutes east of Vancouver. Like so many of us, his interest in poker was sparked by Rounders and nickel/dime/quarter home games. Shawn's first session at an actual poker table saw him turn a $100 profit in $6/$12 limit holdem at a casino in Coquitlam, BC.
Soon after he began playing $1/$2 limit holdem online, quickly moving up limits and ultimately adapting his game to no-limit. In September 2005 "Buc" won a promotion that made him an honorary member of the Ultimatebet team for 2006. He represented them in five major tournaments, cashing in three (his screen name was "pud99").
During one tournament series, Shawn had just busted from a satellite. As he started leaving his seat the guy who busted him yelled, "They're just giving it away here at the World Series!" A few months later he sat down in a game at the River Rock Casino in BC when he heard the same obnoxious voice declare, "The pros are coming from everywhere!" Thus, his friendship with FBT was born.
"He likes to give the juice and he didn't even know me." They have been traveling the circuit together as roommates since then.
Last week, I joined the Vancouver boys for a late night trip to the Bellagio buffet. Actually, it took us a while to get there because a "discussion" over where to eat had to be moderated. Shawn wasn't too hungry* so he ruled out Fix, voting for Chinese. So, naturally, FBT steered us back to Fix (even though Shawn had just made the final table at Mandalay Bay, these guys weren't about to cut him a break). The place was packed, and we ended up at the sushi joint--but the hour long wait was about three too many for these guys--so ultimately we made our way to the buffet.
After a quick game of credit card roulette to see who would pay the bill, we finally found ourselves at a table (where FBT ordered his magical poker juice). The conversation quickly went to how Kyle, FBT, and Shawn are always able to accumulate a ton of chips early in a tournament, but sooner or later find themselves struggling in the middle stages of an event.
After ending the day at Mandalay Bay as chip boss, Shawn had commented to me that this was the stage where he has a difficult time "gauging the value" of his hands. "The reason we're so good early on is because it's basically a cash game."
FBT continued, "When the stacks are deep we each have the ability to control the table, but, man, it gets tough right in the middle." As a reporter, I often see winning cash game players not able to adjust to the mounting pressure that comes with each stage in a tournament. We discuss this concept on every final table preview show for PokerWire Radio--at certain points all of the factors come together and it's just about winning pots as quickly as possible.
Kyle elaborated, "When I've got KQ on a K high flop, I'm gonna check-call someone in a cash game; I want to give him some room to hang himself while keeping the pot small." FBT chimed in, "But in a tournament, man, it's tough to know when you have to just start taking it down."
It's obvious they've figured out at least part of the equation--Shawn won Mandalay Bay and Greg dominated the Mixed Holdem WSOP event on his way to a bittersweet second place. Hopefully they will both be able to finish strong in today's event.
*The not-too-hungry Buchanan polished off three plates of food.
