Friday, 29th March 2024 07:10
Home / Uncategorized / PokerStars’ BrainGuy: PokerStars Sunday Million Winners

After Seth Moody took down the Easter Sunday Million, we thought it would be nice if we could introduce you to him. So, here’s a little bit about the guy we call BrainGuy…in his own words.

PokerStars player BrainGuyI’m 23 and was born and raised in Canton, Ohio. I went to school in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins and graduated last May with a degree in neuroscience (hence the screen name). I supported myself during college by playing poker part-time, but it wasn’t until last summer–at which point I had no idea what I wanted to do post-grad and was starting to make significant dough playing online–that I decided to just play poker for the time being.

I’ve made most of my money playing sit-n-go’s, multi-table tourneys, and limit hold’em. I bought directly into this particular tournament for $215. I’ve had several 5 figure cashes, but this was, by far, my largest cash — by almost $100K.

The final table was relatively normal and went by pretty quickly. I was pretty calm the whole time, but I did throw back a couple of drinks on one of the breaks to ensure that I would continue to play fearlessly. I was playing for one of the top couple spots (as opposed to just trying to inch up into higher money spots) and had no interest in discussing a deal until there were 3 or fewer players remaining.

Once it got heads-up I had a huge chip lead and decided, at that point, to just play to attempt to win it outright. However, my opponent doubled through me and, even though I still had a 2:1 chip advantage, I thought it was prudent to look at the numbers. After a short bit of negotiating my opponent and I cut a deal which ensured me $140K, and it was only a couple hands afterward that I took him out and garnered the extra $30K for winning.

Right after I won I didn’t really celebrate much. I was alone in my one bedroom condo (I find that I play my best when I’m by myself and can zone in) and it was close to three in the morning. I called up my brother, who was still awake, and talked about it with him a bit. But then I just lit up a “victory cigar” on my balcony and tried to let “$170,000” sink in. I’m sure there will be more gregarious partying and celebration in the days and weeks to come, though.

I’m not sure what I’ll do with my winnings. Some of it will be added to my poker bankroll but by no means all of it. A large chunk will go to the IRS, which sucks. As far as a “splurge” purchase, I may look into buying a new car.

It was an awesome experience and definitely my biggest poker achievement to date.

Lastly, I’d like to make a shout out to my boys Chris, Stevie, Donnie, Seth, Dave, Keahnan and Eddie. I clearly wouldn’t have had this great success without the $5 home games that I’ve played with these guys.

Study Poker with Pokerstars Learn, practice with the PokerStars app