PokerTube - James Dempsey

James Dempsey is a full-time tournament specialist with a WSOP bracelet in the trophy cabinet.

Hailing from the seaside town of Brighton in England, James Dempsey is a full-time tournament specialist with a WSOP bracelet in the trophy cabinet. He achieved this dream of every poker player in 2010 by winning the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event for $197,470. During this same series – less than 10 days later – James was on the verge of making it two bracelets in two weeks when he got down to heads-up play versus TV poker notable Sammy Farha in the $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 event. Unfortunately, Dempsey couldn’t get the job done and had to settle for just one bracelet in 2010 (though the $301,789 he earned definitely softened the blow).

2011 proved to be similarly successful year for the Brit, since he picked up a major WPT title when he shipped the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship Event at the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic for a whopping $821,612. In his biggest score to date, James triumphed over a start-studded final table that included Vanessa Selbst and Antonio Esfandiari.

Dempsey kept this hot streak going when he he shipped the winner-takes-all €10,000 No Limit Hold’em iSeriesLIVE event in Dublin for $131,742. The Brighton resident proved once more that he was not phased by famous faces at the poker table, cruising to victory by getting past a table that included Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu. This two-year period of big scores saw Dempsey accumulate over $1,500,000 in live tournament earnings.

James is also no stranger to the online MTT world – he has bagged more than $1,000,000 across PokerStars, Full Tilt and PartyPoker. Most of these winnings came under the screenname ‘MKKMOO’ on PokerStars, with big scores including a runner-up finish in the 2009 SCOOP-08-M Main Event for $211,748 along with a WCOOP title win the previous year.

In recent years, James has changed his attitude to poker and is not driven by the same goal of big money as he once was. In an interview with Lee Davy in 2014, he explained, ‘I have gone through a period of change where I don’t need as much money to live. I used to spend insane amounts of money, but now I’m happier with a lower income and a much more balanced life’.