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Iain 'TillerMaN' Girdwood Profile

Iain "TillerMaN" Girdwood is a professional high stakes poker player who was an accomplished esports gamer before turning to poker. He excelled both at Warcraft 3 and StarCraft. Although his poker career has been largely under the radar due to playing predominately online cash games on untracked European facing sites, he has won hundreds of thousands of dollars consistently. He doesn't particularly enjoy or play many live tournaments so there really aren't any big scores of note. Girdwood was born July 8, 1975 in Scotland and resides in Glasgow, Scotland currently.

Things you might not know:
  • Girdwood's username "TillerMaN" came from the album Teas for the Tillerman by Cat Stevens. He used it both in esports and poker.
  • Girdwood played computer games at a high level from 1996 to 2003 playing in order Duke Nuke’em 3D, Warcraft 2, Starcraft, Starcraft – Broodwar and Warcraft 3.
  • Girdwood was considered the best Warcraft 3 player in the world in 2002, winning VGA-UK-Warcraft 3 and Champion War3 beta.
  • Girdwood was a part of the IN clan.
  • Girdwood's famous quote "The Human Army is bettah than your army!"
  • Girdwood's first exposure and fascination with poker started when he watched Late Night Poker.
  • Girdwood gave the official game guide tips for multi-player aspects of the game.
  • Girdwood founded and led the team of 4Kings before becoming the head of ProGaming.
  • Girdwood started playing play money poker in 2003.
  • Girdwood qualified for the PGL StarCraft World Championship and KBK in Korea.
  • Girdwood competed against Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier in StarCraft.
  • Girdwood biggest prize in gaming was $5000 for winning I2E2 USA in the game Warcraft 3, but made significantly more from training and coaching where he could bring in $3,000 a month at his peak.
  • Girdwood lost connection and moved to poker when Warcraft 3 expansion The Frozen Throne came out.
  • Girdwood started playing poker professionally in 2004. Within six months he had moved up to $600 NL, the biggest games on the internet at the time and had paid off his mother's mortgage.
  • Girdwood played 300 plus hours per month when he started and 200 plus hours for at least a year after.
  • Girdwood played in his first World Series of Poker Main Event in 2004 after having won the $10,000 buy-in via a $27 satellite on PokerStars where he got to sit with Johnny Chan on Day 1.
  • Girdwood experienced his first major downswing in 2005 testing his sanity and canceling his trip to the WSOP.
  • Girdwood moves to bigger games like $25-$50 in 2006, focusing on 6-max and short handed games.
  • Girdwood has never been a big fan of live play, as the options are limited in Scotland.
  • Girdwood's biggest pot won online is $62,000.
Girdwood has always had conservative bankroll management, never risking more than 5%-%10 in a session. His recommendations for bankroll management at various levels of play keeping in mind that any money taken offline is not considered part of your bankroll.

100NL - $2000 (20 buyins)
200NL - $6000 (30 buyins)
400NL - $16000 (40 buyins)
1000NL - $50000 (50 buyins)
2000NL - $100000 (50 buyins)
5000NL - $250000 (50 buyins)
Girdwood is known as a pleasant, well rounded and social player who has always been competitive and obsessive in mastering a new game. Known for marathon sessions and great intensity in his youth, Girdwood now prefers to play a lighter schedule while enjoying his success. He plays barely 30 hours a month nowadays. He has talked of trying out StarCraft 2, but is hesitant to get into a game where he isn't the best.

As there are apparently no videos of him playing or being interviewed, I have two videos of his providing commentary on Warcraft and a two part match he played:


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