Mike Lavin was a casualty of poker’s Black Friday. When the United States Department of Justice seized the internet domains of three major online sites on April 15, 2011, Lavin – almost exclusively an online player – had no alternatives to pursue the game. “I basically quit poker cold turkey after Black Friday,” he tells us. “I didn’t really touch it again until 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.”
The pandemic provided Lavin with the time, and the inclination, to dive back into the game. “I was in Pennsylvania, stuck inside, and discovered that PokerStars was legal and regulated,” he continues. “So I picked it back up.”
While he had played professionally for years before Black Friday, Lavin’s hiatus from the tables saw the game advance in many ways and, on his return, he felt slightly behind the learning curve. “I didn’t need to do any studying right away, but it was pretty evident that I had a lot of catching up to do. The game’s a lot different than when I last played seriously and I still have a lot of bad habits I need to break.”
'The extra motivation'
In spite of the time away – and any lingering bad habits in his gameplay – Lavin hit the ground running. With access to the World Series of Poker Circuit through PokerStars’ regulated services, Lavin started to rack up result after result. In December of 2020, he notched his first outright Circuit win and he hasn’t slowed down in the years since.
Lavin has accrued a total of 17 World Series of Poker Circuit victories – and the accompanying rings – in less than five years. With a WSOP Online bracelet in his trophy cabinet as well, Lavin's haul of rings to date places him fourth on the list of all-time Circuit winners, behind only Ari Engel (19), Maurice Hawkins (19), and Dan Lowery (18). In the last year or so, the race for the top spot has intensified as each of the four players have increased their count – with Hawkins once again tying Engel's lead just this week.
For Lavin, the competition provides added incentive to battle. “The extra motivation that comes from competitiveness is always great,” Lavin explains. “Whenever I see Ari in Pennsylvania I know I’m not skipping the tournament that night. I’ll see his name in the lobby and I have to make sure I get in there to not let him have a free shot at it.”
Ari Engel has had his work cut out for him in defending the top spot on the all-time Circuit winners list – and Maurice Hawkins has piled on the pressure by drawing level. Lavin’s respect for Engel comes as a two-way street. When Engel spoke to PokerOrg’s Craig Tapscott earlier this month about the Circuit race, he said: “I won't lose the top spot for lack of trying. I will lose it because there are a lot of really good players chasing it, and one of them will make a nice run. A few online guys are doing so well. Mike Lavin just won his 16th. He hasn't been discussed too much, but he's crushing it.”
Lavin tells us, “I was never expecting him to throw my name out there, that was pretty awesome. No disrespect to the other people in the race, but I think Ari is the gold standard and we’re all going to be chasing him in perpetuity.”
Engel's words of praise came with a touch of prescience – the very day they hit the front page, Lavin added to his count.
“The same night that I read the article, I went deep in a tournament with him and I ended up winning,” he continues. “It was very cool to be recognized by him and then be able to perform right after.”
Staying in the hunt, at home
In a way, Lavin finds himself at a disadvantage in the race. While Engel, Hawkins, and Lowery each grind the live events on the WSOP Circuit, Lavin gets most of his Circuit volume online. “I basically have to play all of the online events if I want to keep up with them,” he tells us.
"I dabble in the live streets, but I'm not a Circuit grinder," Lavin explains. "It's mostly convenience, but partly because the Circuit hasn't been around this area since post-Covid."
While the vast majority of the poker community recognizes the validity of online accolades, there are some who think differently. In their eyes, the unlimited re-entry feature of most online events dilutes the accomplishment – and takes away from the prestige associated with winning a WSOP event. Or, they think there's foul play involved.
Mike Lavin knows his Circuit competitors are on the grind, but so is he. "We don't make the rules, we just play by them. Yes, they've been diluted because of how the WSOP chooses to run them, but at the same time they're running $400 dailies or $400 mixed games that get even smaller, weaker fields than online," Lavin tells us.
"I've heard Allen [Kessler] say that online bracelets and rings shouldn't count because people are cheating – that you don't know who's behind the keyboard. If I'm beating the cheaters you claim are out there then I feel like that's just making a case for them being harder," he continues. "I don't think there's much validity to what he says, but I do acknowledge that rings and bracelets have been diluted a little."
"But somebody still has to win those events," he adds.
Shared liquidity horizons
Lavin intends to make his way to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas this summer to play a robust schedule, but his plans hinge on the news of Pennsylvania's impending integration into the existing shared liquidity pool of Delaware, West Virginia, New Jersey, Michigan, and Nevada.
"That's definitely in the back of my head," Lavin tells us, "This might have been the last Pennsylvania-only Circuit series. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to play with the bigger fields."
