That quote comes from the poker story of Paul pvas2Vas Nunes (pictured). Without a miracle last-minute satellite entry into the Sunday Million, he may not be playing poker today. We caught up with him following a three-way chop of the PokerStars Sunday $100 Rebuyin which he brought home $46,000. We reached out to the England poker player to get the deets on his latest cash.

PocketFives: Nice job in the PokerStars Sunday $100 Rebuy. Tell us how you’re feeling about it.

Paul Vas Nunes: The $100 Rebuy is one of those tournaments that I always want to do well in because it is one of the tougher tournaments in my schedule. To come in second in the Sunday version is incredible. I’ve come in second in the Sunday version once before and was hoping to go one better, but maybe some other time. This was quite a big Sunday and because of the $5 million Sunday Million, it seemed to make all of the fields softer. It was a good tournament throughout and not as tough as most weeks.

PocketFives: Tell us how the chopwent down and whether you’re still happy with it.

Paul Vas Nunes: We had just gone three-handed and all had the “discuss deal” checkbox ticked. I didn’t have many hands on the remaining two players, so I was looking for more than ICM because I felt I was the favorite to win. ICM showed that I should get $45,000 and I asked for $47,500 with $4,000 to play for. One player was keen to get the deal done and give up some to me, but the other wasn’t. We eventually agreed that I would get $46,000, but it would only come from one player’s ICM numbers, which I accepted.

I finished second, so I got more than second place originally would have gotten, but I think with the year I’ve had I should have decided to play on. Maybe those two players were very good, but I didn’t recognize them and felt I had enough of an edge to get more. After playing heads-up and three-handed, I think I probably shouldn’t have dealt, but there is so much variance short-handed and none of us were that deep. The final table had been an average stack of 20 to 25 big blinds for an hour from eight-handed to five-handed, so we weren’t that deep for the edges to be too large.

PocketFives: Do you have any plans for the money?

Paul Vas Nunes: I’m getting married in May, so we can add one or two more people to the wedding and have a more expensive honeymoon! Most likely, it will stay in my poker bankroll. I like to take bigger shots at live tournaments when I have a nice score.

PocketFives: Tell us about the wedding plans.

Paul Vas Nunes: We are having a small wedding near where we live. It’s nothing too extravagant because we already had an unofficial wedding in China with all of her family, and my family already went out for that. That was great fun to have my family over there and experience a completely different culture. It also lined up nicely with ACOP Macau.

PocketFives: Any prospective honeymoon destinations?

Paul Vas Nunes: I’m not sure yet. I’m quite disorganized about these things. I suppose it will depend on what the WSOP schedule looks like. It would be nice to go somewhere exotic and not be there just to play poker. I do enjoy traveling for poker, but I never see much of the destinations, so it will be great to have an actual holiday.

PocketFives: How did you get started in poker?

Paul Vas Nunes: When I was in high school, my friends had seen poker on TV and were interested in playing. I think a few of them had been practicing and wanted to win some money off the rest of us. I had always been into playing card games and board games, so I learned the basics quickly and a group of us played together most weeks. I decided to try playing online and would play some SNGs and a few $1 MTTs and other small-stakes tournaments.

I continued playing off and on for the next couple of years while I started university to study math and I was about breakeven. The first summer holiday away from university, I was completely broke because I had spent all of my year’s student loans already and I decided to focus on online poker for the summer to try to earn a little money.

I took out a small overdraft with my bank, deposited $400 online, and decided to play Sunday Million satellites. I won $14 in my first week doing that, then final tabled an $8 MTT and won a deadline satellite to the Sunday Million, so I had to play it and somehow won.

From there, I played a much larger buy-in schedule. I also decided to travel to a few tournaments and try my luck at poker for a while and it all went well. After university, I stuck with poker and, although I have my ups and downs, I’ve had a great time and good success.

2014 was my best ever with a Sunday Warm-Up win, Sunday Brawl win, SCOOP $2K win, $100 Rebuy second place, and a $100K live score. I hope I can continue the run-good into 2015.

The only real trouble I had was not coming through the ranks with a group of friends like so many of the other grinders did. I skipped a few rungs on the ladder and may have missed out on a few things. For the longest time, I didn’t have the people needed to bounce ideas off of, but traveling the EPT circuit, I’ve met enough great players to talk poker with and hopefully I’ll continue to improve because of this.

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