5 Questions with Paul Wasicka

All In asks Poker Star Paul Wasicka 5 questions about poker.

1. When’s the last time you went on tilt at the poker table?
When I go on tilt, it’s mainly online. I don’t go on tilt live very easily. I really can’t even remember the last time that I’ve blown up at the table. But online, it happens on a daily basis. I think it’s probably because you’re in the privacy of your own home and there’s really no repercussions for blowing up, whereas if you’re at the table, you don’t want to be that guy that throws his cards and embarrasses himself.

2. You’re obviously a very good heads-up player. All modesty aside, if you and Jamie Gold had come up into heads-up play even in chips at the 2006 WSOP, do you believe you would have beaten him?
Yes. (laughs) It’s funny, I thought going into the final table that he would either go out very early or he would be a commanding chip leader when it got to heads-up, and I said in my interview at the time, and I stand by it, that given the structure of the tournament and my reads on Jamie, I really did feel that even if he had a 10-to-1 chip lead on me, that it wouldn’t matter. You know, he and I are friends, so I don’t want to talk too much trash, but I do feel like if we were to repeat the match given an even number of chips, I’d feel really confident.

3. Of all the famous poker pros you’ve met since becoming famous yourself, who’s the most different in person from how you thought he or she was on TV?
I would probably say Phil Hellmuth. Sometimes he gets kind of a bad rap from his antics at the table, and his personality can come off as whiny and arrogant and all that—and he definitely is whiny and arrogant—but I think that he really is a good guy. He has a good heart, and he and I have become friends, and I definitely respect him not only as a player but as a person too.

4. Who would you say is the best player that the public hasn’t heard of yet?
That’s a good question. There’s a lot of good answers. And there are degrees of public knowledge, because someone like J.C. Alvarado or Jared Hamby, phenomenal players, a lot of the poker world know them, but I don’t know if Joe Schmoe at home knows them. There are a lot of guys like that. Then there are complete unknowns, like my friend Thomas Fuller. We basically learned the game together, and we bounce ideas off of each other, and we’re almost always on the same page, so I think I’d say he’s the best player out there that people have never heard of.

5. Which would you rather do: Finish second in the Main Event again for maybe $4-million or $5-million, or win your first bracelet in some other event for about $500,000?
Money talks. Look, winning a bracelet would be amazing, but … how about winning my first bracelet in the Main Event? Can that be my answer?