When Pokerstars first told me that they wanted to shoot an online documentary about me my first reaction was "no way!". To me it is one thing to do a poker interviews about the differences between online and live poker or why Scandinavians are so aggressive, but it's a lot more personal when you have a film crew following you everywhere for two days, no matter if you are in your apartment, going for a walk with your girlfriend, or at the pubs with friends. It's not really a side of myself I am used to showing to the public, and I didn't feel very comfortable doing it at first.
Luckily Ryan Firpo and his crew were extremely professional, and I soon felt less nervous and much better about opening up about my story. They were also very good about improvising. When we first exchanged emails about the shoot in London, I was visiting Elena in California, and Ryan decided it would be a good idea to get some footage of us together. So the next day he sent out a camera crew but couldn't be there himself. So he ended up directing the whole thing through Skype! A big plot line that ended up not making the cut was me going to a live tournament. After shooting for seven hours, I ended up being the exact bubble boy (sorry guys!), and the story just wasn't doing much for the movie. So, they ended up cutting it, and it made the movie much stronger.
One of my biggest concerns when we started it was that my story wasn't special enough to fill out its own movie, especially with many people on Team Online who have incredible background stories and skills that makes them very unique. The more I thought about it though, I realized that us all being so different is exactly the reason why Team Online is so special. Timex said it perfectly:
Congratulations to @PSTeamOnline for finally having a team of pros that literally spans the complete spectrum of coolness within poker
— Mike McDonald (@MikeMcDonald89) October 25, 2013
I am really happy with how the video turned out and I think it gives a good honest look into my life and person, hope you all enjoy it!
Editor's note: If you think you can make a better movie, Team Online is giving away a $15,000 PCA package in its Team PokerStars Online Film Festival.