Dan Heimiller has been prolific in 2014.
He won the Seniors Event this past summer, claiming his second WSOP bracelet and more than $600,000.
That’s just one of what is now 32 cashes this year alone after finishing in-the-money in the first two events at WSOP APAC.
PokerListings caught up with Heimiller to find out if he considers 2014 the best of his career, how he manages to continue posting so many results and what his plans are while here in Australia.
PokerListings.com: You tweeted that Event 1 of the WSOP APAC was your 31st cash of the year, so Event 2 is the 32nd. You also won a bracelet this summer. Has 2014 been one of the best years of your career?
Dan Heimiller: No. I don’t have a really good year I don’t think. They are all just okay. Yeah, I think I could always do better, that’s what it is.
If I’m not in the top three in Player of the Year, then it’s a disappointing year. So therefore every single year I’ve played is disappointing! [laughs]
PL: Looking at the volume of live tournaments you put in, it’s probably apt to suggest that you grind just as hard, if not harder, than most young players. What do you attribute that to?
I guess I do have a pretty good technique to finish in the cash and to get through these tournaments.
At different times I didn’t really have the bankroll to play the biggest ones.
Hopefully since I hit this tournament at the WSOP for $600K I now have the bankroll to play pretty a big event.
The only thing that will slow me down now is a $100,000 tournament and I’m still tempted to play those.
PL: So does that mean you are going to play the $25K here at APAC?
If I’m not busy in the Main Event.
It’s my own incompetence of bankroll management that’s kept me out of these bigger tournaments in the past.
PL: You don’t have strict bankroll management?
My bankroll management involves losing half my money on sports. I get to such a small bankroll that I’m forced to grind it back from poker.
PL: Well you have started strong in Australia. This is your first time out here, yes?
Yeah first time. It’s a great city for poker. The tournaments are great and just walking around for a few days. Even the layout of the city is friendly.
PL: There are quite a few small buy-in events at APAC and of course the High Roller. Do you approach the different buy-in levels the same?
I think I approach them the same. You just have to analyse your opponents and it’s certainly a different set of opponents in the different buy-in levels.
But If I had those same opponents from higher buy-in events in a smaller buy in I would play them the same way there.
PL: Do you prefer to go up against the type of players in the lower buy-in events or in the higher buy-in events?
I think it’s sort of silly that people say they want to play against better players. I always want to play against the worst players.
It’s a silly notion when people say they can beat good players, but they can’t beat bad players. There’s a lack of logic there. Number one I want to play for the largest prizes, number two is that I want to play against the worst players.
Then if you try to bluff a low-level player, and he calls you, and you are angry because he shouldn’t have called you, well that was your mistake from the start. If you are able to bluff a player, it doesn’t mean he is good, it mean that in that spot, he failed, he played bad.
PL: Apart from your two bracelets, of the numerous results you have posted over the years do any of them stick out as the most memorable?
There are a few. One was in Tunica, Mississippi. I was coming into the final table with the lowest stack.
When that happens and you end up winning a tournament that has players like Erik Seidel and Phil Hellmuth at the final table, that’s great.
Another memorable one was the PCA. It was memorable because it was irritating actually. I came in 7th for $300K but that was the largest PCA ever and first place was $3 million.
That kind of money for first way back then would have put me in high-roller status for the last seven years or so.
The only reason I play the “low rollers” is because the bankroll hasn’t been there in the past. Now with the cash this summer hopefully I can stay with the higher ones.
