In April, BetMGM announced that Mike Lavin signed on as its newest poker ambassador. For those of you immersed in the poker world, he’s a familiar name and face in the live and online arenas. For everyone else, it’s about time you get to know one of the leading Circuit ring winners, a multiple bracelet winner, multi-million dollar online earner living in Pennsylvania. (If that still doesn’t quite grab you, he has two adorable dogs.)

Seriously though, Lavin is a respected player in the game. Before Black Friday in 2011, he was a player to watch – one with talent, determination, and a strategic mind that gave him tremendous poker potential. When online poker was trying to find its footing in the new United States market, Lavin took some time to obtain an accounting degree and pursue other career options. But try as he did, poker kept trying to pull him back. During the pandemic, it succeeded, and Lavin refocused on his true passion. 

Today, Lavin is a poker ambassador for BetMGM living in Yardley, Pennsylvania. Here are some other important things to know about him:

• He has three (3) WSOP bracelets…so far.
• He has 17 WSOP Circuit rings…so far.

• He has four (4) BetMGM leaderboard titles…so far.
• He has earned more than $9,000,000 online to date, the vast majority since the pandemic.
• He has earned nearly $1,000,000 in live poker…so far.

That last bullet point is likely to soon be wrong, as his current earnings just surpassed $995,000, and he is playing in Las Vegas for the ARIA Poker Classic (including BetMGM Poker Championship events), among throngs of other poker tournaments that comprise poker’s summer camp. His latest cash was for a 52nd-place finish of 1,300 entries in WSOP Event 32, and that was on top of his recent spree of cashes – three of the seven cashes were actually final tables – at the Borgata Spring Poker Open. He will then go on to play in the Borgata Summer Poker Open in Atlantic City, NJ. All of this means that he will likely top the $1,000,000 for live earnings soon.

Additionally, as a BetMGM Ambassador, you can also catch him playing on a weekly BetMGM YouTube livestream every Tuesday beginning in early August.

Meanwhile, we asked Lavin some questions, and his answers will give you a better idea of how he plays and thinks about poker. 

Q&A with Mike Lavin

BetMGM:  You’ve spoken about leaving poker after Black Friday and returning around the time of the pandemic. Did you dabble at all during that time, or do something else entirely?

Lavin:  After Black Friday, I essentially walked away from poker entirely. I dabbled for maybe one summer when regulated online poker returned to New Jersey, but Black Friday left such a bad taste in my mouth that I couldn’t fully commit to it. I went back to school – multiple times, actually – eventually earning an accounting degree, though I quickly realized it wasn’t for me. I spent years working in the service industry, and when the pandemic hit, I had just started an MBA program online. Poker wasn’t really on my radar at that point. The timing of the pandemic is really what brought me back to the felt.

BetMGM:  What are some of the major changes you noticed in online and live poker since your return to the game?

Lavin:  Online poker is basically a completely different game from what I remembered. I had to unlearn a lot of bad habits while learning GTO concepts essentially from scratch, which was incredibly difficult. I could still get away with the old-school approach at lower stakes, especially during COVID, but as I’ve moved up in stakes, the work required has increased dramatically. I’ve used pretty much every major coaching site at various points along the way.

BetMGM:  Have you had or do you have any poker coaches? Do you coach others?

Lavin:  I’ve used various poker coaching sites – basically all of them at various points – but I’m not currently working with anyone on a consistent basis. That’s actually something I’m looking to change after Vegas. I want to bring in a dedicated coach because I’m committed to continuing to grow my game. I was coaching other players for a period of time, but I’ve reached a point where I recognize I’m squarely in the Dunning-Kruger cycle – the more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know. I need to focus on improving myself before I think about getting back into coaching others.

BetMGM:  Since you play such an enormous volume online, how do you keep your instincts sharp and prevent robotic play or boredom?

Lavin:  Preventing autopilot while mass tabling is genuinely difficult; no matter how many reps you have, you’re going to occasionally slip into that habit. The key is being able to recognize when you’re getting sloppy. When I catch myself drifting, I’ll tune out distractions for a while or stop registering new tournaments until I can lock back in. Self-awareness is really the only tool you have against it.

BetMGM:  Is there a part of the game that you obsess about that most players ignore?

Lavin:  ICM, without question. The vast majority of my study time has been spent in that area. What’s ironic is that when I won my bracelet last summer, the extenuating circumstances of that run meant I was essentially playing without ICM (independent chip model) implications, so in some ways, I had studied myself into a situation where my biggest strength wasn’t even the relevant skill. I’ve also come to realize I was gravitating toward ICM poker study partly because it was the area I was most comfortable and knowledgeable in. Going forward, I’m making a deliberate point to fill in the gaps across the rest of my game.

BetMGM:  A social media video shows your celebration after you won your WSOP bracelet last summer. How did your online bracelet celebration look?

Lavin:  My first online bracelet celebration was a Discord call with the boys – pure elation. My most recent one, in the fall of 2025, was a completely different experience. I was actually heads-up in two separate bracelet events simultaneously that Sunday. I woke up my girlfriend with my celebration, but then had to immediately explain that I couldn’t actually celebrate yet — because I was still alive in the other one and needed to lock in. Unfortunately, I lost a flip to an incredibly deserving Shannon Shorr in that second event and couldn’t complete the sweep, but I was still over the moon. It’s a pretty surreal situation, and I have to think I’m the only person to ever be heads-up in two bracelet events at the same time.

BetMGM:  Who do you call first when you win a big tournament?

Lavin:  Most tournament wins happen way too late at night to actually call anyone without waking them up, so I’m usually sliding into the “Retirement Home” Discord channel to tell the boys first. After my bracelet win, I called my mom and my girlfriend, though I’ll be honest, I was in such a daze for that whole experience that I don’t actually remember which one I called first. I’ll plead the fifth on that one, and I’ll note that the memory gap gives me a very convenient cop-out.

BetMGM:  What is your most meaningful online poker moment?

Lavin:  The dual bracelet sweat is the obvious answer, and it’s not particularly close. But bouncing back after a disappointing first interstate BetMGM series leaderboard performance to win the second one this past winter is genuinely up there. I love a leaderboard; I won four consecutive ones on BetMGM Pennsylvania, so winning that one meant a lot. But realistically, it’s going to be very hard to ever top being heads-up in two bracelet events at the same time.

BetMGM:  What do you listen to while playing online?

Lavin:  Honestly, not much. My brain is all over the place when I’m playing, and music with lyrics can just overload it. If I need to find some zen, I’ll throw on some Taylor Swift. If I need energy, I’ll put on a Two Friends Big Bootie mix. But most of the time I’m not playing to music at all; I’ll just have random YouTube videos running on another monitor in the background.

BetMGM:  Can you explain the differences between playing live versus online – what you prefer, like, or dislike about each?

Lavin:  I’ll always prefer online. Live poker is so slow. It’s one table at a time compared to online, and that’s before you even factor in the pace of play. That said, I do enjoy live series, traveling to destinations, and Vegas; you get real human interaction, which matters a lot in this line of work. I’d personally choose to fill that social void with golf with my friends, though. That said, I could never be a full-time live grinder. There’s something I love about online poker in the comfort of my home, starting a session at 7 p.m., and getting in as much volume in a single night as I might see in six months of live poker.

BetMGM:  You just had seven cashes at Borgata during the Spring Poker Open, including three final tables. Did you feel like you were in a zone? Were you motivated by your new role with BetMGM?

Lavin:  There’s a lot of self-induced pressure that comes with performing at the Borgata in my new BetMGM role. Honestly, I haven’t been happy with my results since I was soft-launched into the role last year, and my limited time on stream at Borgata has mostly consisted of me folding. I’m looking forward to changing that narrative going forward, grinding future Borgata leaderboards and performing at a level that actually reflects what I’m capable of.

BetMGM:  BetMGM has both casino properties and online poker, as well as other verticals. Was this something that appealed to you when joining the team?

Lavin:  The physical properties are something I genuinely love, especially in the markets where BetMGM also operates online. You get to meet people you’ve been playing with online, you have the BetMGM Hybrid tournament format every series where you start online and finish live, and I can only hope for even deeper integration between the two scenes going forward. But if I’m being honest, the real reason joining BetMGM felt so natural was how they’ve always treated their community. Poker and the players are never an afterthought; they’re the main priority. The team is incredibly responsive to player needs, and that culture was evident long before I was part of it. I always dreamed of being a team poker pro for a poker site, but I never thought I’d be the guy who’s genuinely, enthusiastically all-in on the product.

Join Mike Lavin on BetMGM Poker Online

After his summer of live poker comes to a close in Las Vegas, Lavin will return home to Pennsylvania, and he’ll be ready to jump back into some online poker tournaments from the comforts of home. But you can play online at BetMGM Poker today and put in some practice before Lavin rejoins the tables. And if you start your new account with an online poker welcome bonus, you can start building your bankroll the right way.