"I Would Regret It Later in Life if I Didn't Give Poker a Chance"
The final Sunday of July saw 2,901 entrants show up for theSunday Warm-Up on PokerStars. With nearly $600,000 on the line, Jorge Alberto Carvalho Abreu (pictured), who is known on PocketFives as jorginho88, took home the win for $91,000. We caught up with the Portuguese player to learn about bringing his career online tournament earnings to nearly $500,000.
“It feels awesome to win a major,” Abreu told PocketFives in an exclusive interview, “but I’m not over my head. It’s not even close to a life-changing event, but it’s amazing to win the Sunday Warm-Up.” He defeated fellow PocketFiver bigal37 heads-up.
He surveyed. “The first time I remember playing bigal37, I remember him being a solid player overall. aaronbeen, who finished third, is very solid too. I can’t say they gave me too many problems. I was just lucky to run a little bit better than them.”
He is the top-ranked player in the city of Guimaraes, Portugal and said he has learned from past bankroll SNAFUs. This time around, “I know that buying a bunch of stuff isn’t the kind of thing that makes me happy. I’m just happy I’m able to enjoy the freedom that comes with being a poker pro.”
He got started in poker with friends during high school who would skip out on class and deal cards in a nearby restaurant. “I really loved the game right away and started reading all I could find on the internet about it,” Abreu recalled. He signed up for PocketFives in the final month of 2012.
Prior to playing poker full-time, Abreu said he felt “lost” in his third year of university, but knew he’d probably regret dropping out if he pursued that path. He told us, “I was kind of afraid of quitting, but just figured I would regret it later in life if I didn’t give poker a chance. I have no idea what I would be doing if I weren’t playing poker. I would probably be passionate about something else and be devoting my life to it.”
There are over 1,500 PocketFives members who call Portugal (pictured) home. Its members have generated $61.6 million in online tournament winnings, $7.3 million of which has come in the last three months. Portugal is one of our most heavily trafficked countries worldwide and comes in at #12 in the PocketFives Country Poker Rankings.
Abreu wanted to send a shout out to leguito, EmanPS, sousinha23, and T 54 T 97s, saying, “99% of what I know in poker is because of them and I want to thank them for believing in my game.”
The Sunday Warm-Up runs weekly on PokerStars. If you don’t have a PokerStars account, sign up through the links on PocketFives and get a 100% up to $600 deposit bonus and one free month of PocketFives Training with no signup fee. Click here to create your account.
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