Englishman Chris Moorman is arguably the best online tournament player in the world right now, with  an incredibly consistent record of victories including the FullTiltPoker.com $1k buy-in which is widely considered one of the toughest fields in poker — both online and live. Moorman branched out into the live arena in 2008, playing a succession of UK circuit events, yet finding little success. However, the young man from Brighton has been firmly tipped to replicate his online success soon, and the 2008 World Series Of Poker Europe main event, presented by Betfair, is a pretty good place to start.

When Card Player caught up with Moorman, he was on the money bubble with a sizeable stack. However, shortly after we spoke, Moorman was crippled in a huge pot holding pocket kings against Johnny Lodden’s aces. He eventually crashed out in 38th, just before the cash, yet his great display here has sent a statement of intent to the live poker community.

Shane Gittes: Talk us through how your main event has gone so far.

Chris Moorman: I had a really good start managing to stack Howard Lederer in the very first level and I built up to about 80,000 before the antes kicked in. And then this guy from my hometown who I’d never met before pulled the sickest bluff on me, which tore me into pieces after he showed it. The rest of that day I stayed pretty level at 60,000. Day 2 started with me bluffing off most of my stack to send me into pieces once again before I managed to bust a Scandinavian and build up gradually through the day. It was all a bit of a rollercoaster really.

SG: You have an online reputation as being super-aggressive. Have you been bringing that same style here to the WSOPE?

CM: Yeah, really aggressive. Sometimes I give myself a heart attack. I’m aggressive in all positions really!

SG: How has Day 3 gone for you so far?

CM: I had a few tough hands early. I made a big laydown with jacks. I called a raise against a guy  and we were both very deepstacked. The flop came down ten-high and it went check, check. The turn was a 3 and I just figured when I bet that he would call me down with A-K or something like that. So I bet and then he raised me which I wasn’t expecting. I called anyway. The river was a king which didn’t really change much but then I think he owned me with his bet sizing because it looked so much like a value bet and I laid it down because I was sure he was just taking me to value-town. It might have been a bad laydown thinking about it though.

Then I played an awful hand against Mike Matusow. A really bad player raised under the gun when both me and him were really deepstacked. I was pretty sure I’d be able to take him off most flops and so I called with 2-2. If he  had an overpair and I flopped a set, I was confident I’d be able to stack him. I called. Mike asked how much he had and he called so I put him on a speculative hand. Mike had been playing pretty tight and reminded me of that every five minutes by singing ‘Tight Mike, tight Mike’! To be honest, I was pretty happy to have another player in the pot. The flop came 9-3-3 with two clubs. The preflop raiser checked and I knew 100 percent that he didn’t have a hand. I bet two-thirds the pot expecting to take it down and then Mike raised me. I started to own myself by thinking, ‘How can he have a 3?’ Pocket nines is about the only hand he could raise me with, I thought. But I knew that if I raised on the flop it just looked like a bluff. So I just called and then bet into him big on the turn. Mike then put me all-in! So I folded …

SG: This is your deepest run in a major live tournament, despite all your online success. When you lose big hands and a big chip stack like you’ve just described, did you start to panic a little bit?

CM: Yeah, I was just thinking, ‘Here we go again’! If this was online with my stack then I still would have been pretty healthy but all I could think of was how many chips I’d lost and how hard it was going to be for me to get them back. The field is so tough.

SG: We are approaching the bubble now. Does cashing really matter that much to you or is your sole aim to shoot for the final table?

CM: I’d be lying if I said cashing didn’t matter. Obviously it would be nice but it’s not the main aim. I’m trying to chip up and give myself the best chance to win the thing.

SG: You had a huge hand against John Juanda where you got all in preflop with pocket sevens and doubled up. How did that come about?

CM: Juanda had been raising with any two cards all day. I had an awful image, yet I had a really weird sized stack of about 32 big blinds. I had 7-7 and didn’t love to raise but really didn’t want to just call out of position. I figured that a lot of the time I was going to pick up the pot by reraising. Yet when I raise I know I’m going to have to go with the hand whatever happens. When Juanda moved all-in, I obviously wasn’t thrilled but I knew a lot of the time that I would be in a race.

SG: How important is it for you make a mark in a major live tournament such as this one? Would a final table here for example stand out as your greatest achievement in poker?

CM: Definitely. At the moment, all online players pray for this. And I just hope I play well enough to keep it going.

Source: CardPlayer.com