Michael “Mikey Casino” Azzaro (pictured) is the first player in New Jersey regulated online poker history to win a Sunday Major on back-to-back weekends. He won the PartyPoker $50,000 Guarantee on December 1 and then again on December 8 for a total of $15,140. He is no stranger to poker. According to the Hendon Mob, he has cashed for a total of $113,219 in live MTTs. We caught up with Azzaro to talk about his breakthrough in New Jersey.

PocketFives: Congrats on your back-to-back wins in PartyPoker’s Sunday Major. Tell us how you’re feeling.

Michael Azzaro: I feel amazing! It’s pretty unreal that I went back-to-back.

PocketFives: Talk about the wins. Do any hands from either tournament stick out?

Michael Azzaro: In the first one, I was short stacked near the bubble and had to make some tough folds. I had to make a tough decision on the actual bubble when a player, who unknown to me at the time was my friend Artem Perlov, put me all-in on the river on an ace-high board. I tank-called with A-Q and won the hand, and that really changed everything for me and propelled me to victory.

The second victory was, amazingly, smooth sailing. I was a big stack for most of the tournament and rarely had a big part of my stack at risk. Shortly after hitting the money, I got dealt aces versus kings versus queens. Obviously, that was a huge boost to my chances of going back-to-back.

PocketFives: Do you play on any New Jersey online poker rooms other than PartyPoker?

Michael Azzaro: I played on WSOP.com for the first time last Sunday and enjoyed it. As of now, there isn’t any tournament rivaling the PartyPoker $50K, so I’ll definitely continue to play on both sites in the future.

PocketFives: We see you are originally from New York. Do you travel to New Jersey to play in the Sunday Majors?

Michael Azzaro: During my wins, I was already in Atlantic City to play the WSOP Circuit stop at Harrah’s Atlantic City. I was mostly grinding the live series and playing online on Sundays. I plan on renting an apartment in New Jersey after the holidays so I can start playing more regularly.

PocketFives: What have your friends and family said about the wins?

Michael Azzaro: Everyone is pretty shocked. It’s so unlikely to win two tournaments in a row of any kind, so making New Jersey poker history was pretty special.

PocketFives: How did you get started in poker originally and why was it appealing?

Michael Azzaro: I got into poker in 2003 during the Moneymaker boom. I know, pretty standard. I love the game and love the freedom of being able to play wherever and whenever I want. I get to play a game for a living, and that’s pretty cool.

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