Final Table Interview: Dennis Phillips
To the poker community, Dennis Phillips is best known for his horn-blowing rail and third-place finish in the 2008 Main Event. For that win, Phillips earned just over $4.5 million and since then he has earned an additional $1 million in live tournament winnings mostly from small to medium buy-in tournaments.
While we were waiting to speak with Phillips, we overheard a few people talking about him. They didn’t recognize him from his Main Event run, but rather from his runner-up finish to Allyn Jaffrey Shulman in the 2012 Seniors Championship. We spent of few minutes catching up with Phillips to find out what is he’s up to and what’s so special about the Seniors Championship.
PokerNews: You have always said how much you love play the Seniors Event. What about it makes it one of your favorite tournaments?
Dennis Phillips: It is such an enjoyable thing. I love playing in this event. These are the guys I grew up playing with. I have been playing poker for 40 years so we kind of know how to play. And it’s a heck of a lot of fun and when you are relaxed, you sometimes do better.
You have registered some consistent circuit event finishes during the first part of the year. What is it about the circuit events that you like playing?
I just started playing them. I missed the first 16 of them and then I final tabled a couple and thought I might as well try to make a run for the National Championship. Unfortunately, I didn’t make the top 50, I came in 62nd. But heck I only played the last five, so that isn’t too bad.
Will you keep them on your schedule?
I don’t know. I have a lot of things going on. I enjoy playing them but we’ll see.
How much poker are you playing now?
Actually, not nearly as much as I used to. I own a number of companies now and I am doing consulting work for a couple of companies. I play less now than I used to. I’ll only be playing six or eight events this summer. That’s about it. But this event is one I look forward to each summer.