$3.8 million was shipped Jake Balsiger‘s way in the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event. Three-handed play took nearly half-a-day to complete, but Balsiger (pictured), a student at Arizona State University, hung tough and was eliminated in third place in just his second WSOP cash ever.

“I had 18.2% of myself,” Balsiger revealed to PocketFives, “which might be one of the lowest totals ever. But on the other hand, especially considering my financial status before the tournament, that was an advantage for me. I was never worried about busting. For me, it was a $1,800 tournament. My cost there is not the end of the world.”

Winning nearly $4 million and gaining international fame by having his face beamed across the world have its advantages. “My career aspirations have changed a ton,” Balsiger told us about the effect of finishing third. “Before, my life goal was to keep playing $5/$10 at the casino. I didn’t even see myself playing much higher than that. Now, I love live MTTs. I want to keep traveling and want to go to some tournaments outside of WPT stops in the U.S. My goal is to keep playing the live circuit and playing big tournaments.”

When Balsiger turned 21, he played live cash games almost exclusively. Then, he moved to Las Vegas, where his eyes were opened to the world of MTTs. Balsiger elaborated, “I didn’t really know how to play them and didn’t know about things like a 20 big blind re-shove. Now, I feel like I know what I’m doing. That was in June and July of this year, right before the Main Event started.” We think he caught on pretty quickly.

As we said in the open, it was a grueling final three in the Main Event. “I definitely didn’t see it lasting that long,” the third place finisher claimed. “It seemed like an aggressive final table. Greg Mersonand Jesse Sylvia (pictured) are very good three-handed, much better than I am. I wanted to get it in pre-flop and play a high-variance style.”

Merson and Sylvia tended to focus more on post-flop play three-handed to combat Balsiger’s high-variance approach. Thus, plenty of flops were seen and three-handed play took nearly 12 hours to finish. Balsiger evaluated, “That was a great strategy on their part. During the tournament, I realized when people were better than me. My adjustments against them were to play 3bet, 4bet, and 5bet poker where their edges were smaller.”

Balsiger has had plenty of time to reflect on his play and told us that he had one major regret during the final table: “I was happy with my play except when I started limping the button when I had the chip lead. I should not have done that. I should have kept raising and playing the same game as before.”

Right after Balsiger drew out on Sylvia with A-10 against A-Q three-handed, he watched as Sylvia doubled through Merson with A-K against K-K. The hand nearly spelled the end of Sylvia’s Main Event run; instead, play continued in dramatic fashion.

“I had just gotten it in bad against Jesse,” Balsiger rehashed about the key hands. “I went from being almost certain that I was going home to Jesse being 14% to win on the turn. It was an insane swing. I felt like Jesse was going to lose and then I was going to lose heads-up to Greg because he would have had a huge stack. On the one hand, you can’t complain after you just sucked out, and I was actually okay with Jesse doubling because that evened the stacks up more and the tournament was winnable at that point. Otherwise, I would have been heads-up against Greg with not a lot of chips.”

Balsiger’s youth is fairly obvious. My wife dubbed him the “cute one” because of his age, so we asked him whether his youth plays a role in his game: “Maybe people view me as more aggressive because I look 16. Whenever I see someone who is young, I assume they’ll go crazy and keep 3betting, and I’m guessing that’s how a lot of people perceive me. I didn’t play that way until the very end of the tournament, though. I changed the way I played day to day. Some days I played tight and other days I played aggressive. Especially since I look so young, people would probably think I’m scared money.”

Balsiger signed with 888 Poker and wore the online poker room’s patch during the tournament’s finale. In order to keep playing on the internet on sites like 888, the American is eventually headed to Canada, but wants to finish college first. He’ll likely skip the country after the 2013 WSOP and his graduation next year.

On why getting a degree is important to him, Balsiger told PocketFives, “It’s a personal thing. I’d like to have a degree to fall back on. I’m studying Political Science at ASU. There is no chance I don’t do poker, though. I don’t even like politics and didn’t even follow the election. I like history a lot, though. I originally wanted to become a history teacher, and Political Science falls into that.”

Balsiger signed with 888 Poker after becoming a member of the so-called Octo-Nine. “It seemed like a good deal,” he said. “Everyone seemed really nice. I got to go to EPT Barcelona and WSOP Europe through them and that was awesome.” You might recall that 888 Poker was the home of our most recent PocketFives Open.

Merson took down the 2012 WSOP Main Event title (pictured) and booked a payday of nearly $9 million. In doing so, he claimed his second bracelet of the series and was named WSOP Player of the Year. Balsiger admitted that Merson was one tough customer: “He plays very well. He was the only person at the table I was legitimately intimidated by. Greg was the only one who actively scared me because I expected him to play so well.”

The final table of this year’s Main Event was held inside the roomy Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio in front of over a thousand spectators. We asked Balsiger what kind of pressure he faced down the stretch given the setting and money at stake: “It’s easier than it would seem. At the end of the day, you’re going to look down and see your cards, so you’re in the poker mind frame. Whenever you see your cards, you’re focusing on poker.”

He added, “In July, I cared about the money a good amount. After three-and-a-half months to October, though, the money starts to feel intangible. It doesn’t even seem real anymore. When I won a hand and my rail cheered, it was a nice pick-me-up too.”

In the three weeks since the Main Event ended, Balsiger’s purchases have amounted to a few clothes and some food. He hasn’t binged yet and explained, “I don’t spend money ever. I want to do some investing, but I need to learn how to do that. Other than that, I’ll probably reinvest in myself. I think that’s a good idea for any poker player.”

We’d like to thank 888 Pokerfor setting up this interview. You can get $8 free, a 100% up to $600 sign-up bonus, and a month of free PocketFives Training if you sign up for 888 Poker through PocketFives and make a deposit. Get started here.

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