It’s always a pleasure to interview Chris Big HuniHunichen (pictured). The Costa Rican has been a member of the site since 2007, was once ranked as high as #3 worldwide, and has experienced the ups and downs that our industry offers. Sitting on a colossal $5.8 million in tracked cashes, the 13th highest total of anyone on PocketFives, Hunichen won the PokerStars Sunday $100 Rebuy last weekend for $67,000. Despite an earthquake in the middle of our interview, he talked about the Sunday $100 Rebuy, an altered approach to the game, and his goals for next year.

PocketFives: Thank you for joining us. How are you feeling about the win?

Chris Hunichen: I’m feeling great. I have been on a pretty sick heater over the past six weeks or so. I also had nine winning sessions in a row and felt extremely confident, but then had an insanely awful week leading up to Sunday, so it felt great to get it all back in one lick.

PocketFives: Talk about the play of Chris cdbr3799Dombrowski, who finished seventh. Like you, Dombrowski has been around PocketFives since nearly the beginning.

Chris Hunichen: I have played with Chris for several years now and he’s quietly one of the best. I know a lot of people respect his game, but there are probably more out there who don’t realize how good he is. He came into the final table and had a huge chip lead, which is something I didn’t like to see. He had some unfortunate events play out, but I also feel he overplayed a bit considering there were some soft spots at the final table that he could have taken advantage of.

Considering the $100 Rebuy is a complete reg fest, it was awesome to get to the final table and only see three other solid players there out of the remaining eight. In addition, AngelinaWins is a competent player who I was fortunate to win with Q-Q against A-K early on nine-handed at the final table to give me the chip lead, which I never relinquished, but I know his game very well, so he’s pretty easy to play against.

PocketFives: What do you attribute your heater to?

Chris Hunichen: Over the past two years since moving to Costa Rica, I learned more about the strategic views of poker than ever before. I was blessed to be able to learn from some sick players such as Chris Oliver (Gettin Daize, pictured) and Mike Telker (telks) and incorporate their strategies into my own game, but that also hurt me some.

I had completely changed my overall style and post-flop play more toward the way they played instead of just incorporating these changes into my arsenal and increasing my ammo. About a month ago, I saw some good players do a few tricky things post-flop that I used to do way back that I didn’t really ever notice anyone doing back then and it caught me a little by surprise. I finally realized I made a huge mistake trying to completely convert my game into a different style instead of just adding to the arsenal.

I made a promise to my horse that I was going to go back to the way I used to play post-flop instead of my new hyper-aggressive style and it has done wonders for my game. Since that day, over 80% of my sessions have been winning and there has been a drastic change in my results.

PocketFives: Can you describe your new style of play?

Chris Hunichen: Because the game has gotten so hard these days and there are so many good players, and with the use of HUDs player tendencies are laid out there for everyone, I don’t want to go into too much detail because it took the better part of a year to adjust my game and start crushing the way I used to in the past.

In the old days, I played a much more pot controlled style of poker overall, but still had a huge spew problem. In recent times, I started playing much more aggressively post-flop, betting way more often, and having to bet/fold a lot and make a lot more tougher decisions. While this is very effective and hard to play against, I realized I had thrown pot control out the window and it really cost me a lot of EV over the past year. I incorporated both styles into one and it has drastically increased my results.

PocketFives: What poker goals do you have for 2014?

Chris Hunichen: I have been playing poker for quite a long time now, going on ten years, and it wasn’t until this past year that I hit my first six-figure score. I am backed for live poker, but have all of my own online action, and I hit the score live while in a good amount of makeup. One of my main goals this year is to get my first six-figure online score that I’ve been close to so many times. I want a six-figure score on my own dime more than probably anyone.

I also just want to continue to improve every day to try to be the best player I can be. I also want to try to make it where I don’t have to grind five or more days a week like I currently do. I have lost a lot of enjoyment out of traveling, so I have stayed in Costa Rica mostly playing online instead of traveling the circuit with a lot of my friends out there. The online schedule is so much more withered these days than before Black Friday, so it’s hard to get rich from playing online, but I’m really looking forward to the days where I can limit my grind to two or three days a week and start doing something else with my free time.

PocketFives: Is there anyone you’d like to send a shout out to?

Chris Hunichen: I want to give a big shout out to some good friends who had a really sick Sunday. Steve Illini213Barshak hit $260,000 in the FTOPS Main Event, Bryan bparisParis hit over $40,000 on 888, and David My Brim Low Ivers got second on 888 for $71,000.

You can catch the Sunday $100 Rebuy on PokerStars. If you don’t already have a PokerStars account, create one through PocketFives’ links to get a 100% deposit bonus up to $600 and one free month of PocketFives Training. Get started here.

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