Steve and I first met online at Pokerstars in early 2003 when we were both deep in the Sunday $200 NLHE tourney. Unlike the mega fields and million dollar guarantees of today, there were only about 600 entrants, and they paid the top 63. With less than 40 players left, we both had average stacks, and from middle position I pushed over an early limper with A7 spades. Steve called after a little thought with A6. We had a split pot until the river brought a 6 and ended my night in 38th, while Steve went on to finish 13th. I’m not sure of my exact words, but Steve swears I cursed more than my share at him that night. I specifically remember asking him how he could call there for all his chips. <READMORE>

The following week, I again won a seat into the big one and again went deep. As we neared the final table, there was the usual parade of railers, most of whom were rooting for Riverloser. One of my most vocal supporters was Steve. He started railing once we neared the money by asking, “Hey, SealedDeck! Remember me? I’m the donkey who called with the A6 last week.” Ever since then Steve and I were as close as two guys could get without ever meeting each other face to face.

Since that day Steve and I always tried to be there for each other at final tables. As time went by it seemed I was railing him more than he was railing me as he started owning stars. This became even more evident in October 2004 when Steve became the only other player besides Teecoy to win the win the weekly stars tlb three weeks in a row.

The first one was when Steve won the Sunday major and then also won two other big ones in the next two days. From then on it was basically a coast to the weekly tlb win as he had a huge lead on the rest of the field. Then the second week he again jumped out to a nice lead, but had a bit of a race at week’s end and enjoyed the competition.

The third week was a big grind. After two weeks at the top, Steve wanted to really put the icing on the cake, so he played many games at once. He literally played all the games he could and at all the limits. Looking back on that time, Steve remembers that he couldn’t chat or do anything else and it was hard to keep up with so many at once. It was horrible and he hated it so he didn’t want to do it again.

Steve really wanted to win the TLB to prove to himself that he was capable of doing things like that. I asked him if, in retrospect, he thought it was worth the effort. Steve answered quickly, “Of course it was worth it. Because of that, most of the people playing online at that time knew who I was. Now few people know who I am, mainly because I don’t have much time to play online. And I made a lot of online money then. I also won 2 of the 3 heads ups, good for $3000.”

In the summer of 06 Steve came in 4th in the 1k nlhe rebuy wsop event. I was glad I was able to rail him live in that one (and even more so when I got some TV face time on espn). One especially memorable hand for him from that event came against Shaniac. Steve had 18k, Shaniac 15k, Dave Matthew had12k with Matthew in the sb. Steve was utg and Shaniac to Steve’s left, blinds at 200/400. Steve limps and Shaniac raised to 1600. Folded around to David, who pushed all 12k into the pot and Steve insta-raised all in behind him. Shaniac went into his own private think tank and got an agonized expression on his face. After a loooong time he folded his kk face up and when David turned up his aj and Steve turned up his qq, Shaniac was devastated. He acted like KGB in rounders, “You treeked me. You outplaaaayed me. I hate you.” He whined as Steve raked in the huge pot. They still joke about this hand whenever they see each other.

I asked Steve whose game do you respect and who do you think is overrated? He answered thoughtfully, “In tournaments I’m a real fan of Eric Seidel. During the Festa el Lago championship event I played with him. He really impressed me, and was probably the only player at my table who I really feared. I just didn’t want to play any pots with him. In cash games I enjoy watching Chiau Giang, not only because he’s Asian but also because he is really one of the greatest
all around players alive.”

”I don’t know much about online games, but in the highstakes games on Full Tilt there are some young players who really play a great game. People who aren’t old enough to play in the casinos are winning in ultra highstakes games against the best players in the world. I’m not really a person who says people are overrated, the people who are overrated probably know it.”

The Festa el Lago tourneys at the Bellagio were a special time for Steve who took down the 5k event and then followed it up by taking second in the main event right afterwards. The main event was a televised WPT event and we will soon be able to watch Steve in it. Those two finishes pushed him into the top ten in POY points and he finished out 2006 in 14th place.

So what does the future hold for Steve? “Well 2007 I will be playing a lot in live tournaments, all the big tournaments. I want to show the world (and myself) what I’m capable of. In 2006 I only played the WSOP, Festa el lago, Borgata, some events at Foxwoods and the Five Diamonds, and my results in that speak for themselves. I won over 1.1 million, got 4 final tables and became only the 20th Bellagio tournament millionaire.

This year also will be the year that I’m moving to Las Vegas. That has been a long-time dream for me. Vegas is the poker Mecca/Valhalla of the world. If you are a poker player then vegas is the place to be and nowhere else.”

Not bad for the world’s best poker player to hail from Hoofdorp, a small town just outside of Amsterdam. I ended our conversation by asking Steve what advice would he give to any Steve Wong wannabes?

In his typical modest fashion, he said, “Well first of all, don’t want to be the next Steve Wong. Be yourself! Try to talk to better players and learn from them. When I first started playing poker I had lessons from my cousin Steven Liu, who has been a pro player for over 10 years now, and he helped me a lot. I consider him to be the most important person in my poker career. Try to find your own Steven Liu, a good player who is willing to help you and good luck.”

Thanks to Jon Eaton for the photo at the top of this article. His blog is located here.
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