Pro Players Michael Loncar on Main Event Patience, Pressure and Remembering It’s Still Poker Owen Gaines Owen Gaines is a professional poker player and author who has played an estimated ten million hands and written four poker strategy books. September 10, 2026 The third interview in ACR Poker’s weekly 2026 WSOP series follows the longtime pro and coach through the Main Event lessons he sees recreational players miss, the danger of getting too cautious and the reminder that even strong preparation still needs the cards to cooperate.ACR Poker’s 14-part weekly interview series continues with Michael Loncar, better known on ACR as FerrisBuuueller. Loncar has been playing poker professionally since 2007, beginning online with a heavy focus on Sit & Go tournaments before moving into live cash games after Black Friday.Tournament poker eventually pulled him back. He won the 2014 Ante Up NorCal Classic Main Event for $37,835, then caught ACR Poker’s attention in 2018 when he topped a 3,854-entry Million Dollar Sunday for $138,563 after a three-way final-table deal. He later joined the ACR Poker Team Pro roster and has since combined playing with coaching, streaming and regular appearances around the ACR community.His 2026 World Series of Poker conversation is built less around a single result than around experience. Loncar reached Day 2 of the Main Event, but the lessons he took from the summer stretch much further: how recreational players should think about tournament survival, why cash and tournament strategy do not have to blur together, how Main Event pressure can make players too cautious and why preparation can never completely remove poker’s dependence on variance.Interview quotations have been shortened and lightly edited for clarity, repetition and spoken filler while preserving Michael Loncar’s meaning and intent. Patience Matters, but It Does Not Mean Playing ScaredLoncar’s first lesson is straightforward. The Main Event rewards patience, and preserving tournament life matters. For players entering a long tournament like the Main Event, simply understanding the value of survival can change the way the event feels.ACR Poker: What can recreational players learn from the way players approach the WSOP Main Event? “Recreational players could definitely learn that patience is key and tournament life is everything, especially in the Main Event.” That answer becomes more interesting as the conversation develops because Loncar is not arguing that players should simply become tighter.There is a difference between respecting tournament life and becoming afraid to lose it. In Loncar’s view, patience is part of tournament strategy, but so is recognizing the moments when the correct decision still requires aggression.That tension would become the central theme of one of his strongest observations from the summer.Cash Game Brain and Tournament BrainLoncar has spent significant stretches of his career in both tournament poker and live cash games. For him, moving between the two does not create the kind of strategic confusion some players might expect.The reason is partly practical. He approaches each session knowing which game he is playing rather than trying to blend the two styles together.ACR Poker: How difficult is it to move between cash game thinking and tournament thinking during a long summer? “It’s not difficult at all to move between cash game thinking and tournament thinking during a long summer because I’m mainly playing tournaments almost all the time. And when I do play cash games, I’m not playing cash games and tournaments at the same time, so it’s easy to go into a session and say, “Okay, I’m playing cash games now, and now I’m playing these strategies.” And it’s not that hard to differentiate what you need to do in a cash game and what you need to do in a tournament.” That separation is simple, but important. Cash games allow a player to reload and continue. In a freezeout like the WSOP Main Event, once the tournament stack is gone, the run is over.Loncar does not ignore that distinction. His point is that recognizing it should make the adjustment clearer, not more complicated. The Main Event Mistake He Sees Every YearThe biggest strategic warning in Loncar’s interview came from something he says he sees repeatedly in the Main Event: players responding to the importance of tournament life by becoming too careful.ACR Poker: What was the most common tournament mistake you saw this year? “It’s not difficult at all to move between cash game thinking and tournament thinking during a long summer because I’m mainly playing tournaments almost all the time. And when I do play cash games, I’m not playing cash games and tournaments at the same time, so it’s easy to go into a session and say, “Okay, I’m playing cash games now, and now I’m playing these strategies.” And it’s not that hard to differentiate what you need to do in a cash game and what you need to do in a tournament.” Loncar pointed to a hand from the 2026 Main Event final table.Greg Mueller opened from the button with queen-jack offsuit. Han Feng was in the small blind with pocket tens and a little more than 20 big blinds, but instead of moving all in, he called. Chip leader Lucas Jumalon then came along from the big blind with pocket sevens.The flop came A-A-7, giving Jumalon a full house.For Loncar, the important decision happened before any of those cards appeared. “At the final table, I saw a player face a button raise in the small blind with pocket tens and 21 big blinds. That’s just the most standard slam-dunk shove, even at the final table of the Main Event. It’s still poker. It’s still math. The player decided to be super careful because of ICM and pay jumps and ended up calling. Pocket sevens came along and flopped a full house. Perfect example of being too tight and too careful, and it can really, really hurt you. It’s still poker. You still gotta make the right plays.” One unlucky flop does not determine whether a preflop decision was correct, and Loncar’s point goes beyond the result of one hand.The larger issue is what the Main Event can do to a player psychologically. The money becomes enormous. Pay jumps become impossible to ignore. Tournament life feels more valuable with every elimination.All of that information matters. But Loncar’s warning is that players can overcorrect until the importance of surviving begins to interfere with decisions they would otherwise view much more clearly.The Main Event may be different from an ordinary tournament in scale, pressure and atmosphere. The cards still follow the same rules.His Advice for a First WSOP: Keep It SimpleThat same idea carries directly into Loncar’s advice as a coach.A player preparing for a first WSOP event can spend months studying ranges, reviewing hands and imagining what it will feel like to sit in a World Series tournament. Once the cards are actually dealt, Loncar believes the best response is to stop making the occasion bigger than the game itself.ACR Poker: What would you tell a student of yours who was about to play their first WSOP event? “I would tell a student of mine that was about to play their first WSOP event to just remember that it’s just poker. Just remember the studying that you did. Apply everything you’ve learned. It’s still poker. Don’t put too much weight on it. It’s just the same game like everywhere else. Just play your game and don’t think too much.” For someone who spends part of his time coaching other players, the message is fittingly uncomplicated.The preparation is supposed to happen before the difficult decision arrives. Once a player is sitting at the table, constantly reminding themselves that they are playing the WSOP can become another distraction.Study the game. Trust the work. Then play the hand in front of you. The Main Event Still Feels DifferentThere is an apparent contradiction running through Loncar’s answers.Strategically, he keeps returning to the same phrase: it is still poker.Emotionally, the Main Event is anything but ordinary.When asked to choose the moment he expects to remember most from the entire 2026 WSOP, Loncar did not pick a particular hand. He picked the experience of playing the Main Event itself.ACR Poker: What is the one moment you will remember most from the 2026 WSOP? “The one moment I’ll remember the most from the 2026 WSOP is playing the Main Event. Even though I only made it to Day 2, it’s just an incredible experience. It really is. There’s something special in the air when you are playing the Main Event out in Vegas during the Main Event. It’s just, it’s magical, it’s amazing.” That distinction explains much of the interview.The challenge is allowing the Main Event to feel special without allowing that feeling to distort every decision. Players can appreciate the room, the history, the size of the field and the possibility attached to a deep run while still treating the next hand as a poker problem.For Loncar, both things can be true at once.It is just poker.And it can still feel magical. What the 2026 WSOP Taught HimLoncar’s final answer shifts from strategy toward something every tournament player eventually has to accept.Preparation matters. Study matters. Mental readiness matters.None of them eliminate variance.ACR Poker: Complete the sentence: “My 2026 WSOP taught me that…” “My 2026 WSOP taught me that no matter how good you are, no matter how studied you are, no matter how mentally ready you are, things still just have to go your way. You still just have to get lucky. You still need to remember that no matter how good you think you are, you can still get slapped by the deck. So stay humble, stay focused, stay patient and always be, you know, mentally ready for anything in poker.” The lesson is not that preparation is pointless. It is almost the opposite.A player can control how much work goes into the game, how carefully decisions are made and how well they respond when things go wrong. They cannot control the next card.Loncar’s advice across the interview keeps returning to that balance. Be patient, but do not become passive. Respect tournament life, but do not let fear dictate the strategy. Prepare seriously, but remember that the WSOP logo does not change the mathematics of a hand.And when the cards refuse to cooperate, stay humble enough to recognize the part of the game nobody gets to control.More WSOP Stories Are ComingLoncar is the third featured player in ACR Poker’s 14-part weekly interview series looking back at the 2026 World Series of Poker through the people who played it.His installment lands on a useful tension within tournament poker. The Main Event demands patience and respect for tournament life, but treating every chip as too valuable to risk can create problems of its own. Loncar’s answer is to trust the preparation, make the play the situation calls for and accept that even the best decisions still need some cooperation from the deck.Follow ACR Poker News for the next interview in the weekly series.