Tearing up the virtual felts in recent weeks has been PocketFives.com member Chris Big Huni Hunichen. On May 12th, Hunichen won the Full Tilt Poker Turbo Hundo and PokerStars Wednesday Quarter Million for a combined $57,000. Five days later, he brought home the gold in the UB.com $75,000 Guaranteed for $20,000. On May 19th, it was back to the winner’s circle, with victories in the Full Tilt $40k Guarantee for $11,300 and the UB.com $35,000 Guaranteed for $9,300. One Triple Crown (and two-thirds of the way to another), plus $100,000 in earnings have translated into a pretty profitable month of May for Hunichen (currently ranked #52 worldwide at online tournament play), who sat down with PocketFives.com to rehash his recent success.PocketFives.com: Thanks for joining us. Can you tell us what the month of May has been like for you?
Chris Hunichen: I won the Turbo Hundo, but totally forgot about it because it had been overshadowed. After the Hundo win, I was one-tabling the SCOOP $109 mid-stakes event until Noon the following afternoon only to get 10th place on the final table bubble. I was absolutely miserable, had been final table bubbling some really big tournaments, and was nearing my breaking point.
The following week, a friend asked why I hadn’t played much on UB all week for the Triple Crown and I said, “Wow, I totally forgot about the Hundo win.” I had one day left for the Triple Crown. I opened up UB only to realize they only had four or five tournaments the whole day worth playing, so I thought the chances would be really slim. But, I shipped the UB $500 for $20,000 to complete the Triple Crown.
PocketFives.com: This has to be really good timing considering the World Series of Poker (WSOP) is right around the corner.
Chris Hunichen: Absolutely. Before the heater, I was on the biggest downswing I had ever been on in my life. I was questioning several parts of my game, losing confidence, and then it just all fell into place. It’s good to go into the WSOP with high confidence and no make-up.
PocketFives.com: Is your recent run due to a change in your game or is it just variance?
Chris Hunichen: I believe variance is definitely a big part of the game and also think way too many people underestimate how big the swings can be and how important it is to poker. Hard work is probably one of the biggest factors to my recent success. There are very few players in the world of online poker who put in the time, effort, and dedication that I do.
I have been doing this for a few years now and it took me a little while to network and meet all of the sickos I know now who have turned me from just another player into something special. Every day, I work on new lines and new moves I can use at the tables. I would consider myself to be a very creative player and think a lot of that is why I have been so successful as of late.
My image from past years has helped get me paid off big-time in some crucial situations, so adapting to your table and the environment around you is also important. Once you get a history with a certain player, the door is wide open, it becomes a huge meta-game, and that’s where I get my rush.
PocketFives.com: Who have been some of the biggest influences on your game?Chris Hunichen: When I was first starting out, the two people who I admired and watched the most without them probably realizing it were Phil USCphildo Collins (pictured at right) and Randal RandALLin Flowers, both of whom are good friends of mine and two true sickos in the poker world. I was up-and-coming and never really had anyone to teach me how to play, so I had to use my own experience and watch others to improve.
As time progressed, I met several other players to discuss hands with and talk strategy. Some of them included The Lab Rat, JMaster130, JDsmith9, Michael SJUHawks18 Lavin, jet5087, John pimpnuho Feore, Mike telks Telker, phatchoy888, witcher1984, Matt mattg1983 Graham, Carter ckingusc King, The mini Jew, Brett ManchVegasPwn Boucher, Joe Joeblazenyc Chaplin, TheMark, and Andrew bankrollme87 Touchette. I feel like I already named a lot and could keep going, so apologies to anyone I left out.
I would also like to give a big shout out to scnoodle and GPTBigGuy. I have recently become good friends with both of them and have to attribute some of my success to them. scnoodle was on a little struggle and going through the losing confidence/questioning your game stage that I previously talked about. He came down to stay with me for a week to work out some kinks and ended up helping me with a lot of leaks I had in my game.
scnoodle shipped a Triple Crown at my house, which was his third, and had a $60,000+ day over here to get him out of his funk. He has since been making several deep runs and nobody deserves it more. He almost won a Triple Crown in 24 hours sitting right here beside me at my house, which would have been pretty crazy since I was the first person in PocketFives.com history to win a Triple Crown in 24 hours.
PocketFives.com: Can you tell us about your WSOP plans?Chris Hunichen: I am super excited. Starting on May 25th, I will be spending 51 days in Las Vegas with some great online players. I am actually planning to play in all of the $2,000 events and below as well as the Main Event. Depending on how things go, I will make a decision on any events bigger than that. There is a lot of value in the Venetian Deep Stack events and there are several good $1,000 and $1,500 buy-in events around the city as well.
I am excited to have the best summer of my life and hopefully bring back a gold bracelet to North Carolina. I also just took a sponsorship deal with BustoutPoker.com, a high-end clothing website that just launched and has already been all over PokerRoad and a few other big-time poker shows. So, I will also be spending some time promoting the company and getting the Bustout Poker name out there.
Also, Bustout Poker and Bluff Magazine have teamed up to host this year’s 2010 WSOP Main Event Pre-Party. It will be held on July 4th at the Sapphire gentlemen’s club. Just let them know at the door that Big Huni from Team Bustout invited you and it should be free food and open bar if everything works out the way it’s supposed to. We are really excited about this opportunity and can't think of a better way to kick off the Main Event.
