Poker News Daily: How did you get started in poker?

King: I originally started playing after watching the Main Event run by Chris Moneymaker in 2003. It got me interested in poker. I also had just started at a new high school and was trying to make new friends. Some guys asked me to be a part of a poker tournament they were having. I didn’t know much besides what I saw on television. I enjoyed it and made new friends in the process. It was something to do socially and something I was pretty good at.

PND: You won the 2008 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event, which was a two-day tournament. How did you prepare for an event like that?

King: The main difference is that you can expect a pretty long Day One, so you need to make sure you have water and things like that around. The structure is going to be a lot better, which is why it takes so long. You’re going to have deeper play and big-stack poker. You have a lot of room to play, so you don’t have to act in bad spots. You need to take advantage of the structure given to you.

PND: How did you celebrate taking home over $1 million for your WCOOP win?

King: I went down to a bar with my friends and got really drunk. We ran up quite a tab of $2 mixed drinks. It was a lot of fun and everyone was really supportive.

PND: You’re a backed poker player. For those who aren’t familiar with what that means, talk about some of the pros and cons of being backed.

King: It comes down to the elimination of the variance of tournament poker if you’re backed, which is really nice. When I make a big score like this, I get to put the money in my pocket. I don’t have to worry about losing it. It’s my money and I don’t have to worry about downswings or anything like that.

The cons come down to the fact that when I have a big score like this, having to ship a lot of it away really hurts. I enjoy the fact that I was able to play in the WCOOP Main Event because I was staked. If I wasn’t staked, I probably wouldn’t have played.

PND: What are the main differences between online poker and live poker?

King: In live poker, there is so much more information available and it’s a lot slower game. People play less fundamental poker and more read-based poker. People aren’t playing against you the same. You can’t expect to induce squeezes the same way, for example. A lot of plays in your arsenal as an online poker player won’t work if people are going to ignore the odds.

On the plus side, once you get a feeling on how to manipulate the players at your table and use the information that’s available in live poker, you can have a lot of success. When you mix it all together, it’s quite satisfying to play live poker.

PND: Whose game do you respect the most and why?

King: All of my former backers: THAY3R, Shaun Deeb, and Psyduck. Also, “Intervention” taught me a lot. “Cdbr3799” was one of the first people ever to teach me about poker and is someone whose game I respect.

PND: What advice do you have for beginners?

King: Start with low-stakes sit and go tournaments. You want to have a decent bankroll and then work your way up to the $4 180-man sit and gos. That’s where I really built my bankroll. Use good bankroll management. You want to have over 50 times the buy-in and ideally 100 buy-ins. That said, you can take some shots at a $4 180-man when you get to about $150. They’re very soft and if you can play well, you’ll do well. As long as you play strong and play smart, you’ll be successful.

Want the latest poker news in your twitter feed? Follow PokerNewsDaily on Twitter.