The Monkey has Been Set Loose on the MSPT
There are very few players as polarizing as Will "Monkey" Souther. The Southern pro from Biloxi is a "love-him-or-hate-him" sort of guy, but no matter your thoughts, there's no denying that he's a true poker character.
Souther began playing no limit hold��em in 2003, and since then he��s amassed $657,240 in live tournament earnings. His biggest score came at the 2009 Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza III when he won a $550 event for $61,326. He��s also placed third in the 2010 Gulf Coast Poker $5,000 Championship for $59,129; runner-up in the 2008 World Series of Poker Circuit New Orleans $1,000 NLHE for $48,484; sixth in the 2010 WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Hammond for $47,772; and 175th in the 2012 WSOP Main Event for $44,655.
So where did the nickname ��Monkey�� come from? Souther explained in an interview he did with Gulf Coast Poker:
��What was the factors leading up to the name? I am tall, have long arms...and am very spastic at times. Its funny, people who don��t know me think maybe its drugs! But its not, I just have a lot of nervous energy! I say NO to drugs! I have been running sports pools for 10 years (March Madness, NFL SURVIVOR, etc etc) and someone a few years back started calling me the Pool Monkey...kind of stuck. Sold wine for a while and assumed the moniker the Wine Monkey....so when I decided to play Poker for a living it was only natural that I become the Poker Monkey!��
Prior to making the drive from Biloxi, Souther joked with PokerNews�� Chad Holloway: ��It was a tough call [to play the MSPT]. Walk out to my front yard, peel off 11 $100 bills and light each one on fire while laughing hysterically and saving the $200 on gas and 4.5 hours of driving or make the trip and watch one idiot after another beat hands like KK/QQ/JJ with hands like 3-9, 4-7 and K-2. Tough call, I know.��
No matter how Souther does here in Baton Rouge, rest assured you��ll read about it in his popular blog Poker Monkey Talk.
Souther can be one of the most jovial players in the room when things are going his way, but he��s also been known to be a bit temperamental when things aren��t going his way. We��ll have to wait and see just what sort of ��Monkey�� business we get in his first-ever MSPT event.
Written by Chad Holloway