| 15 Outs ... One Time! |
| Join LA Mike in finding out a little more about these players and what makes them do the things they do. |
| Featuring : Sean McCabe |
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| LA Mike spent time during this busy holiday season tracking down Sean McCabe. McCabe is one of the many players on the circuit that calls South Florida home. He also happens to be a fitness maniac and reminds many of a bodybuilder. He was a member of the Absolute Poker team until AP broke his and Michael Mizrachi’s contracts prior to the scandal. He’ll provide an interesting point of view regarding the online “scamming” debacle. |
LA: Hey Sean, I know you play a lot of ring games, what’s the allure for you to tournament poker? Prestige, financial gain or the competition?
SeanMcCabe: That’s a question, I have been asking myself several times lately. Tournaments are very tough, both physically and emotionally. You have to fade so many things to win including variance (luck factor) and most importantly your own impatience. Not to mention, you get pretty tired of all the traveling and grinding. |
LA: So what have you come up with?
SM: To answer, I guess I play them for the overall challenge. I continue to learn things about myself in poker and during tournaments those weaknesses become very apparent. I definitely want to win but I also strive to improve myself and my game. I believe tournaments are the most unforgiving form of poker. (LA: LA has no clue how you can sit there for 10 or 12 hours straight multiple days in a row. So very boring!) |
LA: If you could select a super power what would you select?
SM: Definitely invisibility, I could sneak into movies for free! I could also get into other buildings and correct mistakes that need/should be corrected. (LA: LA can think of an online poker issue that might need your immediate attention.) |
LA: Speaking of something that would need immediate attention, you’ll have a very unique prospective on this. What are your thoughts on the Absolute Poker scandal?
SM: The AP mess is…well…very unfortunate. I do not make a habit of throwing people under the bus, regardless of how much they deserve it. So, I must tread very carefully. I feel bad for Mark Seif, mostly because he’s viewed as being knowledgeable of the situation prior to it being discovered. I know with 100% certainty that is NOT true.
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LA: Your thoughts on the rest of the AP folks?
SM: As for the rest of AP, they will get exactly what they deserve. I haven’t played there since they broke my and Grinder’s contracts. I asked them to delete my player’s account entirely so that I couldn’t even be called a “user”. That probably best illustrates my level of trust for them. (LA: Mizrachi and McCabe’s contracts were broken by AP prior to all of the scandal nonsense.) |
LA: Thoughts on online poker in general? Do you think it’s safe and secure?
SM: I think it’s safe for the most part. I have a few friends that play at the stratospheric levels online. They all have hardware firewalls (etc.) to protect against the never ending onslaught of hacking attempts. (LA: Insane, retirement amounts of money in an online poker account really baffles LA.) |
LA: A money-making opportunity or a leak in your bankroll?
SM: Definitely a leak. I have to be able to look at someone when I’m playing. Also, it feels way too much like video poker and I find myself screwing around way too frequently. |
LA: Moving on to your physical fitness, how often do you workout and exactly what are your goals in that area?
SM: I definitely try to workout 90-minutes a day. I perform what I’ve dubbed “traumatic” training. |
LA: What in the hell is that exactly? Probably similar to the trauma my body faces when I roll out of bed at 8am?
SM: It’s simply working one muscle group per day to complete exhaustion. The result is shape, density, stamina and heavy lifting type strength. The major disadvantage is serious stress to connective tissue which causes some pain. (LA: LA’s going to stick with his 30-minute daily run. Although, I do admit to an occasional shin split!) |
LA: How much does the poker lifestyle hinder your effort for the perfect physical specimen?
SM: The poker lifestyle is definitely what you make of it. I fell into that rut a few years ago when I got injured in the gym. I gained some weight and went out with the guys every night etc. However, I find if I stay in shape and take out my frustrations in the gym (there are definitely many) and eat well that it improves my play.
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LA: How does your play improve? Stamina?
SM: I’m able to maintain focus for much longer than most and definitely have a greater emotional stability which is very important. |
LA: What’s currently on your iPod? Whether while playing poker or when you hit the gym?
SM: My music tastes are quite eclectic. I listen to everything from Metallica to Mozart. I rarely ever listen to an iPod while at the table. I feel like I miss too much information if I can’t hear all of the little nuances of the table talk. When I’m at the gym, I listen to the Ramones, Ataris, Metallica and the Deftones etc… (LA: Small world, Kris Roe is from Indiana and actually formed the band while I was college student in there. Good stuff!) |
LA: What was the last concert you attended? Thoughts on the performance?
SM: I don’t normally attend shows, crowds really irritate me. I did see Fleetwood Mac a few years ago and they were amazing. I’d also like to see the whole Metallica “event”. (LA: Back in the day, Metallica and GNR was truly a marathon event. What a show that turned out to be.) |
LA: With the profession brings an insane amount of travel, the coolest place you’ve visited?
SM: After the WPT event in Barcelona, I shot over to Rome for awhile. You can’t take a car anywhere; you’ll simply miss too much. Every two blocks, there is another ancient ruin to see. I also saw Chicheniza, a settlement on the Yucatan. The ruins there are simply awe-inspiring. They had the giant holes (cenotes) that they threw their sacrifices into. It turns out all these holes were part of a network of underwater caverns. I managed to go diving through parts of them, really saw some cool sh!t. (LA: That sounds incredible, although LA suspects his phobia of being under water would cause some serious problems.) |
LA: Wrapping things up, the beginning of the year is always really busy tourney-wise. What’s your schedule going to look like after the holidays?
SM: Is quitting an option?? I plan on only playing main events basically what I’ve been doing for awhile now. I am planning on heading to the Aussie Millions and will play quite a bit the rest of January and February as I’ll be completely off the radar in March/April working on a potential film project. (LA: Quitters always quit, it’s an attitude!) |
| LA: Good luck in Australia and happy New Year, we’ll see you at a final table soon! |
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