While most of us will make more than $1 million in our lifetime, very few of us will make that much in a single poker tournament. Blair Hinkle is an online poker professional who won more than $1 million a couple of months before last year’s April 15, Black Friday here in the United States changed the face of the online poker world forever. Hinkle finished second in the Main event of FTOPS XIX, taking down a cool $1,162,949.75 in prize money. He had no way of knowing that his hard work and smart online play was all for nothing, and that his second place winnings may as well have been worthless Monopoly money.

When Hinkle pocketed more than $1 million in that online poker tournament, he was only the 11th player to win that much money from a single online tournament. When Poker News Online spoke to Blair Hinkle on April 15, 2012, the first anniversary of what was definitely a Black Friday for him, the poker professional who moved to Missouri to continue his ongoing education concerning live play cash games was incredibly upbeat discussing the traumatic events from a year ago.

After the WSOP, Hinkle said he was bowing out of entering poker tournaments for a while. And in a rare move for a professional poker player, Hinkle admitted that his career performance so far as a live poker player pales in comparison to his past accomplishments and abilities as an online poker player. Unbelievably, Hinkle said he kept his cool when he first heard that the Department of Justice was shutting down PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and UltimateBet/Absolute Poker. He said he was naturally concerned, but really didn’t begin to worry until he was unable to log in to his accounts at both PokerStars and Full Tilt.

Many online poker professionals in the United States immediately moved their base of operations to some country other than the U.S. when Black Friday hit and they couldn’t access their accounts, but Blair Hinkle said that was never an option for him. Obviously well grounded and realizing that life is about more than playing poker, online or off, he said he did not want to leave the United States, not wanting to “give up his life for poker.” As can easily be imagined, Hinkle admitted that Black Friday had a definite impact on his life, but not as drastically as some people may think.

At the time of his $1 million win, he was more of a recreational player, in his own words playing only “a couple of days per week.” In the Poker News Online interview, he openly admitted that he doesn’t miss playing online poker that much, but also that live cash games do not hold his interest as much as the online poker tournaments did in the past. It would certainly be understood if Hinkle was bitter concerning Black Friday, since Full Tilt Poker has still not paid him even one penny of the $1 million plus he rightfully earned finishing second in the 2011 Main Event of FTOPS XIX. He credits a “positive attitude” that helps him move on, and says he has come to terms with the fact that he may never see any of his historical winnings.

Thankfully there are still some high quality online poker rooms accepting USA poker action.