Shane "shane147" Hellyer started off the month of September right. In addition to claiming the first WCOOP title of 2008 with his victory in Event #1, he became the first British player to claim WCOOP gold when he took out Austria's pffwhatever heads-up in Event #1 - NLHE Six-Max. We caught up with Shane after he had a couple of days to soak in the enormity of his feat, and got his opinion on being a WCOOP champion and the first British player to claim that honor.
Hellyer bought into the tournament on a lark because he saved money on a car purchase that day, an investment that certainly paid off in spades! According to Shane, "four hours before the tournament start time I brought a cheap car for £200. Because of the cheap price I thought I would treat myself [with a WCOOP buy in]." 17 hours later he got an even better treat when he claimed first place!
A 27-year-old blade technician, Hellyer has been playing poker for about 3 years now. He concentrates on No Limit Hold'em because it's the biggest game, a fact certainly proven out by the 7,000-person field he bested to win the event.
When he's not crushing 17-hour online tournaments, he enjoys cycling and snooker, which is where the "147" in his screen name comes from.147 is the highest snooker break possible, also called a "maximum." Hellyer played snooker semi-professionally in his "miss-spent youth." He got into poker when he watched snooker legend Steve Davis playing in a tournament and decided to take a shot himself.
This is by far the biggest tournament win of Hellyer's career, the biggest score previous to the being a $5,000 prize online. Living on the Isle of Wight, there aren't a ton of opportunities for live play, but Hellyer admits to the occasional wager among friends. After all, "what snooker player hasn't?"
His final table strategy as simple - punish the small stacks. As he tells it "being the chip leader, I was able to bully most players into folding the blinds. I could feel people thinking about the money, so I played very aggressively which paid off." And pay off it did, to the tune of $202,409! With this win, Hellyer might think about upgrading that cheap car he just bought!
Congrats to Shane "shane147" Hellyer for a great performance in WCOOP Event #1 and on becoming Britain's first WCOOP champion!
