Final Table Profiles: Brian Delaney, 28, United Kingdom
Hometown: London (lives in Playa del Carmen, Mexico)
Chips: 10.425 million
You’d never have guessed that this was Brian Delaney’s maiden EPT Main Event…unless you looked at his Hendon Mob profile. The Londoner doesn’t have much in the way of live results (just one small hyper turbo cash from earlier in the EPT Paris festival) but what he lacks in live cashes, he makes up for in online longevity.
Known as “bdel123” on PokerStars, the 28-year-old has already been a poker pro for a decade. “I’ve never really had another job other than poker,” he says. He fell in love with poker during his teens and began playing low-stakes online multi-table tournaments (MTTs) professionally at the tender age of 18. In recent years he’s switched to online PLO cash games, with great success. He now lives in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, where he shares a place with high-stakes MTT crusher “FishOnHeater”. “We talk about hands a lot,” Delaney says of his talented housemate. “And on Sundays, I’ll sometimes play MTTs with him.”
It was a challenge between Delaney, FishOnHeater, and the latter’s brother who was visiting them that led Delaney to Paris. They decided that if they could win $20K online between the three of them within a certain amount of time, then both Delaney and "FishOnHeater" would join him on the flight back to Europe.
They did it, and a few days later Delaney found himself snowboarding in Austria. The next stop on the Eurotrip was EPT Paris. And now Delaney’s next stop is the Main Event final table. “I’m actually surprised [I’m so relaxed],” Delaney admits. “I don’t play many tournaments anymore but I did play them online for many years, so I guess I still know a lot.”