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Phillips Set To Leave Pro Poker For University

Written By: PokerNet.com | June 20, 2012 | Posted In Poker News

Carter Phillips just won his second WSOP bracelet and what other way to win a great game than to beat former poker champion Joe Cada in Event #31 $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament last Monday. Joe Cada was a great contender in the game, but he fell short and earned Phillips his second bracelet.

This win is timely considering Phillips has made his decision of dropping poker in exchange for a degree. He is scheduled to return in September to UNC Charlotte where he is enrolled. Phillips said that he had always thought of poker as something like a summer camp that he would be attending in the years to come.

He says he is not sure if he will be playing poker forever so he wants something that he can fall back on. A degree is something he can hold and make good use of in case he decides to permanently quit playing poker professionally. He added that he would want to go into business and use the money that he had earned from poker to start something that could be of use to him in the future.

Phillips dropped out of the University in 2007 to pursue being a poker pro. He has won many games, mostly online, and was able to snag huge scores and prizes. In 2008, he was able to earn five-figure scores for online poker and even won at EPT Barcelona in 2009. With that winning alone, he was already $1.2 million richer.

His first WSOP bracelet was worth $482,000 in winnings during the WSOP in 2010. At that time he thought that winning the bracelet was more important than getting that amount of money as his prize. For him, the bracelet “was such a new experience”. He even feels prouder now that he has won his second bracelet.

Most of his poker experience was spent online not until the 15th of April 2011, or what poker enthusiasts call the Black Friday. It was the day that online poker players in theU.S. completely lost their access to the games. For Phillips, the Black Friday was a turning point that made him decide to go back to school.

With his winnings of over $4 million in total, he knows he can live a very financially secure life. Being a millionaire at 23, he now wants to focus his attention to life off poker. He was quoted saying, “Poker will always be at least a part-time thing for me. I could really see myself playing in the summer when I’m not in school”.

This year’s WSOP events were not that easy according to Phillips. There were lots of smaller fields where there were more pro players than recreational players. Final tables showcased the presence of big names in poker, which made it even harder to win the prize.

Perhaps, this could be caused by the significant drop in the number of recreational players versus pro players. Most poker enthusiasts are greatly affected by the recent struggle of the economy. Also, online poker players have suffered great losses when access to online poker was completely banned in theU.S.In turn, they sign up for WSOP as a means of regaining what they had lost during the Black Friday.

Phillips found it tough to win a bracelet at WSOP 2012. But he also said that even in 2010, games were harder to win and the opponents were tougher. Event #31 was tough enough with names like Tom Chambers, Cherish Andrews and Joe Cada in the lineup.

Other pros who have already won bracelets in this year’s WSOP are Brent Hanks, Adam Friedman, Brian Hastings, Andy Frankenberger, Phil Hellmuth, Joe Cassidy, Matt Matros, Leif Force, Andy Block, Jon Monnette and Simon Charette.

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