ActionJeff, while he is not the most popular guy around sometimes, he continues to amaze us with his ability to win poker tournaments. With wins on Paradise, Pokerstars and UltimateBet totaling just shy of 30k, he makes the third Triple Crown winner in what has been a very good September thus far for Pocketfivers. This is his first time joining the exclusive club of Triple Crown winners, which is a bit surprising given his track record of dominating tournaments. This is perhaps because he has been a part time player for most of his career thus far, or maybe it is a testament to how difficult the Triple Crown can be to attain. <READMORE>

Shortly after Jeff posted “Triple Crown Please”, I caught up with him on IM for a quick interview about his latest success.

Lenny: I was just checking out your blog, it looks like things have been going well for you lately.

ActionJeff: Yeah, I lost huge last month but I have been recovering well. I ran terrible in cash games, but I’m back up now.

Lenny: How much of your play has been in cash games?

ActionJeff: I have logged 10k hands so far this month, so a good amount, but I’m sticking to a little 10-20 nl, and MTTs to prepare for the WCOOP.

Lenny: You are really looking forward to the WCOOP aren’t you?

ActionJeff: Yes, I am going to play all the Hold’em events, try to win the LHE again, maybe some Pot-Limit Omaha, and the $200 HORSE. I’m not good enough at the other games.

Lenny: So you say you plan to play the HORSE event, but don’t feel you have an edge in non-hold’em games. Is that mostly for the experience?

ActionJeff: Yeah, I don’t have any experience in the other games, but I want to give it a shot anyway. Not the $5k obviously, I’d get crushed. Unless I learn enough in the $200 to feel confident playing, which is unlikely.

Lenny: So this is your first P5s triple crown, do you put that down to the fact that you are playing more full-time now?

ActionJeff: Yes. Before when I was in school I only played 50-100 tourneys a month. Near the end of the school year my quality of play probably declined and then I took most of the summer off to spend time with friends. Now I am playing more and more focused, so I’m not surprised.

Lenny: How many tourneys would you say you are playing now?

ActionJeff: I have played over 100 already this month, about half of which were this week. I expect I’ll be doing a couple hundred most months now. If it weren’t for live events and travel, it would probably be more. I really want to put in as much volume as some of the other top players and see what happens.

By the way, that UB win was sick. I was playing insanely aggressive, stack going up and down wildly. Then I've got 110k at 2.5-5k blinds, five handed and there is a raise to 20k and a cold caller in front of me. I jam all in on the button with JJ and the cold caller calls off all his chips with K10s and beats me!

I've got 30k left and I push the next two hands and pick up the blinds, fold my big blind and then push from the SB with Q8 and I beat the BBs AK, so I'm back to 100k! Then I pick up AA on the button and raise to 15k, the SB calls all in and the BB jams with 10-10. My aces hold up and I am up to 200k and go on to win. It was just insane.

Lenny: So do you have any plans for this year other than poker?

ActionJeff: Not really. Traveling, but mainly for poker. There is a good chance some friends and I may get a house together by December or January, that would be awesome! I dont have many plans though, just going to chill, play poker, go to live poker tourneys and hopefully things will work out. I am going to work on college applications for next fall.

Lenny: How high a priority is college for you at this point? What do your folks think about you taking this year off?

ActionJeff: They don't mind much, because I've done so well with poker. My parents are practical, but they expect me to go to college, and I want to go to college. I wouldn’t want to miss out on the college experience.

Lenny: Thanks Jeff, good luck in the WCOOP!
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