Australians to look out for at the WSOP-APAC: Tom “tollgate” Grigg

The inaugural World Series of Poker Asia Pacific is just around the corner and PokerNetwork believes that Australian poker players will shine on home soil. In the run up to WSOP-APAC we will be showcasing a number of players who we think will be shining jewels at the Crown poker Room.

First up is Tom Grigg, better known in online poker circles as “tollgate,” where he regularly terrorises his opponents at the virtual felt. Grigg has over $2,500,000 in online poker tournament winnings, including a score of $143,618 for finishing second in the PokerStars Sunday Million in 2011, and more recently (March 2013) a $71,000 score for winning the Full Tilt Poker $350,000 Guaranteed. His fearless approach to the game saw him ranked as high as 17th in the world by PocketFives although currently resides in still more than respectable 150th today.

Grigg’s first taste of online poker saw him sit down at cash game tables, but he wasn’t really suited for them so he made the switch to tournament poker. After grinding out a bankroll playing a variety of tournaments, including sit ‘n’ go and the 180-man turbo games, Grigg started to take shots at bigger tournaments. Amazingly, the first major online tournament Grigg played, the Daily Eighty Grand on PokerStars, he won for $15,000! The rest, as they say, is history.

It is not just online poker where Grigg excels, he is a force to be reckoned with in the live arena too. With five final table appearances and over $380,000 in live tournament winnings, Grigg has already proven he can make the transition to brick-and-mortar venues. His largest live cash is for A$130,680 which he picked up for finishing fifth in the AA$6,000 buy-in APPT Sydney Main Event in 2009, but more recently Grigg finished third in the recent A$4,700 ANZPT IV Grand Final in Melbourne for a cool $114,750.

Although Grigg has openly admitted in an interview with PocketFives that from an EV point of view you are more likely to make more money from grinding smaller games online and playing lots of tables than playing one live $10,000 event, we think the lure of the WSOP and the chance to win a bracelet will prove too strong for Grigg to ignore and that is bad news for anyone who gets seated at his tables.

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