Poker Stories: Greg Mueller

Greg Mueller is a former professional hockey player turned high-stakes poker pro. Mueller, otherwise known as FBT or Full Blown Tilt in the poker world, picked up the game on a long road trip between games. After nine seasons, Mueller retired from hockey and took up poker professionally.

In 2009, he made headlines at the World Series of Poker when he won his first two bracelets, taking down the $10,000 limit hold’em championship event and the $1,500 limit hold’em shootout. But although he’s managed to rack up more than $2.8 million in live tournaments, Mueller focuses primarily on high-stakes mixed games, battling it out with some of the best players in the world.

Highlights from this interview include a love for fish and chips, why sporting events are his crack, the reason why European hockey players don’t fight, retiring at a young age, the origin of full blown tilt, the current state of the high-stakes poker world, why cash games are preferable to tournaments, the thrill of having other people win you money, paying friends to eat slugs, the difference between Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth, Phil in the third person, and why salads are for winners.