Sit-N-Go: Eric “Ericb09″ Blair

Jessica Welman | October 30, 2009

It’s been the best of times and the worst of times for online poker player Eric “Ericb09″ Blair these days. On the plus side, he has been crushing the online MTT team for the past couple of months and currently sits in 10th place in the BLUFF Online Player of the Year race. On the down side, last month Blair came up just shy of making his first televised final table, finishing in 8th place at the World Poker Tour’s Borgata Poker Open after getting his pocket aces cracked by the tournament’s eventual champion, Olivier “livb112″ Busquet.

Blair, known as “Ericb09” on PokerStars and “blizair” on Full Tilt has been taking the wins and the losses in stride though, thanks to lots of support from his friends and family. Eric recently sat down with BLUFF to talk about his brutal Borgata beat, his biggest online victory and how they happened to take place within one week of each other:

Let’s start off with some congratulations since you won the $25,000 Guaranteed PokerStars $100 cubed yesterday for $12,713!

Thanks, that turbo cubed in the afternoon is so sweet. Then I got 5th in the $100 rebuy at 8pm. [I came] so close, James “POKERPR0″ Campbell got me good.

You’ve had a pretty decent little run as of late, huh?

Oh for sure. That one week [at the end of September] was the craziest I’ve ever had…I got 8th in the Main Event at the Borgata Poker Open, then I won the Full Tilt $1k Monday three days after that. At Borgata, I just missed out on the televised final table. I lost a 4.5 million chip pot to livb112–my AA to his AK off suit (Blair flopped top set of aces only to lose to Busquet’s runner-runner straight)…It was really tough for me. He’s a great, great player though and it was a standard hand so… it is what it is.

Did the $1k Monday win with the $76,750 score help ease the pain a little?

I came back from Borgata so shocked and hurt, but I know this is what you sign up for when you play professionally. I looked at it like, “that’s the worst beat I will probably ever take in poker, so it’s all uphill from here.” Then the $1k was amazing. It started September 28th, but finished in the wee hours of the morning on the 29th, which was my birthday! Winning the $1k on my birthday was so freaking cool.

So you had your best and worst poker moments in the span of a week?

Exactly. It was surreal. I just wasn’t scared of any beat they could spit out after that Borgata one and played really hard that Sunday and Monday.

You said the beat was rough, but overall did you gain confidence about your live game or your game in general for that matter after going so deep in such a big field?

It gave me so much confidence. I really felt good about that tournament because the trip was going great before that Main Event started with my best friend Alex “ags104″ Santiago winning the 1k buy-in for $108k 3 days prior. He is an amazing player and friend. I truthfully consider him better than myself, but he probably won’t ever get ranked because he puts in such small volume. For example, last night he played like 5 tourneys and got 3rd in the Wednesday $300 for $27k.

You mentioned you’re from Connecticut. Is the Foxwoods World Poker Finals the next live stop for you?

Yeah, I’m going to play the $1k prelim and possibly the $10k Main the next week if I’m feeling frisky (laughs). [Foxwoods] is actually where I learned to play. I would sneak in when I was 19 and play $1/$2 No Limit almost ever day until they caught me because I looked like I was 12 when I was 19. It’s so close by, so I would take my tips from being a bus boy at the Macaroni Grill and drive up there with guys like ags104, and Wubanga and we would grind all night at $1/$2.

Sounds like quality bankroll management.

I used to be awful with my roll. For example, I won a tourney on PartyPoker for $28kish back then and was playing $10/$20 No Limit the next day. I was so degen. I busted that roll then put 200 bucks on Ultimate Bet two years ago around Thanksgiving. Threw it on two $.50/$1 No Limit tables and haven’t deposited since.

I’ve gotten so much better. I used to mix cash and MTT’s and that would lead to huge losing days. If you play cash after losing in an MTT session, you’re toast. There’s no way you’re going to profit consistently doing that.

Do you still play cash? Or just MTTs now?

I rarely play cash unless there’s a huge fish sitting. Now I just play a pretty full MTT schedule about 5 days a week and back a few players, which is really fun. Ags104 and I back three of my really good friends. I’ve got to give shout outs to iloseflips2424, woj422 and dmon2323. It’s so cool watching these guys improve so fast. They have all already had multiple five figure scores in the last few months and play buy-ins up to $1k after playing nothing over $100 previously, so just to see that progress is awesome. Iloseflips2424 had actually been a high stakes player for some time and had won the Full Tilt Sunday Mulligan, so he had played bigger before the stake.

It seems like you have a very good group of poker people around you. Did one of you get into poker first and then the rest followed?

Well, West Hartford has a great deal of poker talent nowadays. Guys like Luke “bdbeatslayer” Vrabel and wubanga were the first to really hit it huge. Now there’s people like myself and the others I mentioned as well as stanman420. In my immediate friend group the best was always ags104 and he taught me a lot about being level headed and being smart with your money. Alando44 is great too. He’s a legend…he’s up six figures in the past six months.

Is there friendly competition between you guys at all?

Oh of course! When one hits a bunch of scores in a row and I can’t get a win it motivates me to play my best. You need good friends to help and push your game just like in any other sport.

You’ve got this great group of poker friends. Has your family been equally supportive about your poker career?

They have been amazingly supportive. No one wants their kid to be a professional gambler, but they couldn’t be any cooler and more helpful with anything. For about a year and a half they hated it, but in the last two years they have seen that it’s beatable. My dad checks my PocketFives page daily, which is just so great to hear.

Did they come to Borgata to watch or was it too far to travel on short notice?

They were going to take work off and come for the final six if that had happened. I didn’t even tell them I was deep until we were 9-handed. Then I told my dad to check the updates and my dad was like, “woah!”

You recently cracked the top ten in the BLUFF Online Player of the Year race. Do things like OPOY and Tournament Leader Board races push to play more?

I would definitely like to stay in that top ten…but there are so many guys out there now who are very smart dedicated players and the edge is growing thinner.

Do you think the MTT scene is just going to get tougher and tougher?

Oh yeah, 100 percent. Everyone is just so knowledgeable these days with the training sites out there. High stakes MTT’s are no joke anymore. You can’t just steamroll a table anymore. You have to pick and choose your spots better than ever. In a $100 rebuy, I’ll probably know and have history with 7of the 9 players at the table.

Will there come a point where they become too tough to be profitable?

That’s a good question. In my opinion, that won’t ever happen because there will always be the random gamblers just taking shots…the regulars, myself especially, have really off days as well, so if you’re dedicated I’d imagine MTTs will always be profitable.

If Phil Ivey wins this Main Event that will be a really good thing for poker, because his legend will grow and so many people will be amazed at how rich that man has gotten off gambling. He’s basically the biggest baller around. I’m just in awe of him.

Is that the ultimate goal for you? Be like Phil Ivey and jet set around the world?

Haha, no way. There’s no way you can get that rich playing MTTs. I never have an exact goal. You can’t have that in poker. You can’t just be like, “I’m going to win $1,000 every day.” This game will toss you in all sorts of directions and if you keep your head down and grind, good things will come.

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