Luke Staudenmaier has made IWEARGOGGLES#72 a household name in the online poker world. I still chuckle at it every time I read his screen name. However, his play is nothing to laugh at. Staudenmaier is fresh off a third place finish in Event #17 of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series, a $322 rebuy six-max tournament. He cashed for $119,542 for his troubles, behind Kevin "BeL0WaB0Ve" Saul (who finished second) and "MishkaT." He’s a former Sunday Million winner who has made cashing for six-figures the norm and not an anomaly. Shortly after he logged a cash in the 2008 World Series of Poker, Staudenmaier finished third in the World Poker Tour’s Bellagio Cup IV for $452,465. PocketFives.com sat down with the Pittsburgh native to learn more about his budding poker career.
His wild run through poker took a turn for the better during the recently-completed FTOPS. He notched another six-figure payday and commented to PocketFives.com, “I got lucky with table draws. I ended up doubling up a couple of times before the break. With 7-8 tables left, I started getting good table draws. Players were folding too much, so I coasted towards the final table.” He also got lucky in a few spots, most notably hitting a nine on the river when he trailed with pocket nines against pocket aces.
Staudenmaier’s massive FTOPS cash was enough to propel him from #91 to #62 in the PocketFives.com Rankings. He’s ranked 43rd in the Pro Poll. He talked about his future in the Rankings: “I’ll never break the top 10 because most of my points are big scores and after three months, they drop out. It’s not very important for me to be ranked high. I play one-third of the number of the number of tournaments as other players on PocketFives do.”
His largest score to date came as part of his third place finish in the WPT Bellagio Cup IV. He cashed for $452,465 and was hungry for more: “I’m never satisfied. Getting third on the Bellagio Cup was more crushing than exciting. It was a really long tournament and I felt like I had an edge. If you think about it, $450,000 in that tournament is only 30 buy-ins. It’s not nearly as much as if you win the Sunday Million online. It’s disappointing when you play for five days and you think you’re playing good poker. You cooler people and when you get to the final table, you can’t win a pot. I would have liked to see humungous stacks of cash in front of me.”
He cashed for over $180,000 in the Empire State Poker Series in 2006. In March, he finished second in the $500 buy-in $1 Million Guarantee on Full Tilt Poker for $126,393. Although he’s succeeded consistently both live and online, he comments on the unique challenges that are presented in live play: “The speed of live play can make it tough to focus on important tells. You have to get a good night’s sleep before the tournament and motivate yourself. When I woke up to play in the $1,000 WSOP event, I wasn’t excited about it.” He cashed for $8,103 in a $1,000 rebuy tournament in the 2008 WSOP, his second career WSOP payday.
We always ask our interviewees what their advice would be to up-and-coming online poker players. Staudenmaier’s response: “It’s mostly about being patient in live tournaments because the variance is mind-blowing. It’s happened so many times. There are so many big equity pots that you lose. I’ve started to become immune to it. In a recent live tournament, I lost with kings versus aces pre-flop. I was bummed that I woke up at 9:00am to play and didn’t last more than an hour, but you have to put it out of your mind.”
He started playing poker with friends, who would put down $5 for sit and go tournaments on Sundays during football season. Then, he began to play online. In his job during college, “I had a lot of free time, so I played limit poker on PartyPoker in the office. I had so much time to play that I cleared a lot of bonuses. Then, I moved onto sit and gos, which helped me build my bankroll.”
Staudenmaier dropped out of college to play poker. He talked about how his parents reacted to the decision: “Getting me into college took my dad working overtime. I’m sure the first time that I dropped out they were disappointed in me and didn’t think I’d be able to pay back my loans. After online success, I went back to school and then dropped out again. I quit school because I had an opportunity to build a nest egg.” He commented that, if he went back to school, his credits would carry over. He’s 24 credit hours away from a degree.
Congratulations from all of us here at PocketFives.com to Luke IWEARGOGGLES Staudenmaier on his latest six-figure payday.
Recent Scores for IWEARGOGGLES
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| $215 buy-in, Sunday Warm-Up $500K guaranteed [$215 NLHE] on PokerStars. 03/09/2008, 1 place for 108,524.68 |
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| $322 buy-in, Hold'em No Limit on FullTiltPoker. 08/14/2008, 3 place for 119,543.00 |
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| $500 buy-in, $1 Million Guarantee on FullTiltPoker. 03/16/2008, 2 place for 126,393.50 |
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