That's in adddition to the more than $4.5 million MacPhee has earned playing online poker.
Two years after the biggest score of his career MacPhee was back in Berlin, making a run at his second PokerStars.com EPT title.
In the end he was eliminated in 19th place, taking down €20,000, but before he went bust our sister site PokerZeit.com caught him for a quick interview.
PokerZeit.com: Kevin. Back in Berlin. Two years ago you won the tournament after the robbery. How does it feel to be back?
Kevin MacPhee: Yeah, last year we played the tournament in the casino, which wasn’t the same place where I won the tournament …
PZ.com: So this is the real comeback
KM: Yeah, this is the first time I’ve been back in the room where I lifted the trophy up so it feels a lot different, a lot more special being back here, a lot more nostalgia.
You know I just didn’t get that same sense of nostalgia last year when I was playing the tournament. I mean it’s the same city but without the same tournament room it had a different feel so it feels really good to be back.
PZ.com: Has it changed your life, the day you won €1 million?
KM: Yeah, I mean it’s obviously helped me continue doing what I like to do which is travel and play poker.
It didn’t change my life in a significant way. I mean I didn’t go out and buy a house or a car of anything like that. I pretty much lived the same exact life.
I paid a lot of it in taxes so I mean nowadays I definitely wouldn’t be where I’m at without winning it but I’d still be playing poker and I feel like I’d have results regardless.
PZ.com: You travel a lot. Do you still play online? Do you travel for that reason?
KM: Yeah, I’ll travel up to Vancouver quite a bit. I live just outside of Vancouver in Port Coquitlam. I’ll go up there and play online, try to supplement my income in my free time and, yeah, I still try and grind as much as possible.
It’s my bread and butter, like I’ve always been able to pay for my EPT buy-ins through winning packages and it helps me with live poker if I just sit and focus and play online quite a bit.
PZ.com: So you’re still “LuckSac?”
KM: Yeah, still Lucksac.
PZ.com: What about the other “LucSac?
KM: Yeah, the other “LucSac” is Dylan Linde, my good friend since I was back in college. I used to play Magic: The Gathering with him a long time ago. And we’ve been friends for a long time.
He’s a good player in his own right. We play a lot differently, but yeah obviously I stole his name from PartyPoker. It was originally his name. I just really liked it.
I didn’t think we’d be playing poker professionally. We both played when we lived together in college then when we switched over to PokerStars he kept his same PartyPoker spelling, which was like nine characters (ImaLucSac)and I just changed it to be L-u-c-k so yeah, I stole his name.
PZ.com: Are you a cash-game specialist or MTTs?
KM: No, just tournaments. I’m pretty bad at cash games to be honest. I think I’m pretty terrible at them.
Tournaments are just a different breed and I think I’ve played enough of them - I’ve played like 15,000 on PokerStars and probably another 5,000 on Tilt - that I think I know how they go and have a good feel for them.
When to change gears and when to be aggressive and stuff.
PZ.com: Why are there not more Americans playing the EPT? I mean you are now a regular. You play them really often.
KM: Yeah I started being a regular back in Season 5 so for four years now I’ve been playing EPTs and I think there’s a lot of Americans coming over - there’s a group of them just over there - that are starting to.
You know because we had to move outside the country play online poker there’s going to be a lot more guys around the tour so I think this year you’ve probably seen an increase in the amount of Americans on tour. And you’ll probably see more down the road cause EPTs are great moneymakers and people are starting to figure it out.
PZ.com: Ok, back to the robbery. It’s a singular story that happens maybe once in a lifetime. Is it still a good story when you tell good friends or in the bar?
KM: Yeah, I guess sometimes it comes up. It’s kinda hard for it not to come up because it’s such a… winning EPT Berlin is such a huge part of my life.
And obviously it’s a strange circumstance so eventually… It’s not like I just introduce myself and go “Hi I’m Kevin MacPhee I won on the European Poker Tour” or anything like that.
That’s kind of douchy. But I mean people ask me about it and I’ll answer questions. I don’t really talk about it too much to be honest.
PZ.com: Ok, I’ll give you the rest of the break. Thanks,
KM: Thanks
The 2012 EPT Berlin main event will reach the final table this afternoon. Check out Poker News Section for the update.
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