Player Focus: mig.com

James Mackey, aka ‘mig.com’, is one of the most successful online tournament players in the world who is fast transforming into a formidable live player to boot. Born in Kansas City, he currently resides in Columbia, Missouri, where he regularly tears up the biggest PokerStars MTTs going.

Mackey is from the stereotypical ‘college drop-out’ of new poker player. He attended the University of Missouri where he studied Medicine until postponing his studies to focus on poker; it is fair to say he hasn’t regretted this decision.

His OPR rankings show a total of over $1.2million won on PokerStars, with profits of more than $750,000 and an ROI in excess of 150%. Online highlights include victory in the $100 re-buy in August 2007 for $23,870 and winning the Sunday Winner takes-all $5200 buy-in event for a cool $100,000. But by far his biggest score was in WCOOP Event #14 (in 2007), victory in which earned him $580,212 in one of the largest payouts in internet history.

Don’t accuse this kid of hiding away in front of his computer, either. He has accumulated live tournament winnings of over $1.2million, and in 2007, aged 21 years 4 months, he became the third youngest player in WSOP history to capture a bracelet (the $5,000 NLH for $730,740). It was not only his age, but also the speed of his victory which astounded the poker world. It took just 2 hours 35 minutes for Mackey to destroy a final table that included 2005 & 2006 Main Event final tablists as well as 2 Bracelet winners. The final hand, where he ousted Stuart Fox with Doyle Brunson’s 10 2, has already led to early comparisons with the great man. It was the fastest World Series final table of 2007 and the quickest since 2003.

He followed this up in 2008 with a stunning second place in the $10,000 Mixed Event for another $297,792. This was from a table that included the likes of Eli Elezra, Sam Farha, Tom Dwan & Jeff Madsen. He then cashed in the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. (25th for $6,284) to further solidify his reputation as one of the worlds top all-round poker players. His performances in some of the lesser known games have led many to hail him as the vanguard of the online generation and there are not many aficionados who would disagree.