Do you remember the beach volleyball scene in Top Gun? That completely needless scene to the tune of Kenny Loggins’ “Hanging with the Boys”? For a few athletes, volleyball is more than just a beach day diversion.

Tomas ‘dartazzzz’ Jozonis is a 25-year-old pro poker player from Lithuania. He has a Bachelor’s degree in International Business and Communication and after getting a job out of school didn’t pan out, Jozonis found poker.

When he’s not playing poker, he’s on the sand bumping, setting, and spiking in beach volleyball. Like Tom Cruise from that 1980s movie. Or Goose.

“There are few indoor beach volleyball courts in Lithuania where I practice and compete during the bad weather season, but the main action for beach volleyball players is, of course, during the summer, which is when all national competitions take place,” said Jozonis. “I am not yet at the level to compete among professionals in beach volleyball, but my plan is to reach that level in two years’ time.”

He’s not yet Misty May-Treanor, but Jozonis has a lot of friends in the beach volleyball community who are professionals as well as good coaches.

“My plan is to work hard with them on improving my technical skills and mental game,” he said. “Also, I have a knee injury that I am fixing now, which means I have to get in good physical shape as fast as possible.”

Beach volleyball is played to 21 points – the first team to get that magic number wins the set, and you must win by two. It’s played with two people on a side, so there’s a lot of movement on a very soft surface. Endurance, agility, and reaction time are at a premium.

“You have to be good at all of the basics like serving, spiking, and setting the ball,” he said. “Improving these skills means making faster spikes so that the blocker will have a hard time blocking your spike, making a more precise set so it would be easier to attack the ball, and so on. That takes a lot of time to become skilled at, especially when you start practicing at the age of 20, which is what I did.”

Rather than be exposed to beach volleyball his entire life, Jozonis is certainly new to the game. And regardless of whether he played traditional volleyball before that, beach volleyball is a whole different animal.

“Beach volleyball differs a lot from regular volleyball,” the Lithuanian said. “In regular volleyball, you have unique tasks. For example, the attacker only spikes and blocks; he does not have to set the ball. Beach volleyball players have to be skilled at every aspect of the game. I could probably win some games of beach volleyball against very good volleyball players, but I would have a zero chance of beating them if I played inside.”

His brother is to blame for his love of beach volleyball.

“I loved the game from the start,” he said. “My brother and I were a team at first, but now he does not play much. I usually practice or play two or three times a week and maybe more during the summer.” Because he plays at an amateur level, he has a different partner every time.

While his partner on the court might not be consistent, his rise in poker has been steady. Over the years, Jozonis has piled up $1.2 million in career online tournament winnings from over 3,000 in the money finishes. He’s the top-ranked Lithuanian online poker player and stands at #46 in the world. And if there’s a tournament with the name “Big” in the title, he’s probably won it.

On May 21 and 22, just a month ago, Jozonis recorded the two largest scores of his poker career in a France Poker Series High Roller event and a SCOOP $2,100 No Limit Hold’em Min-Max tournament. They were worth almost $50,000 total and have helped him shoot into the top 50 in the world in the PocketFives Rankings.

“If I could reach the same level in beach volleyball as in poker, I would definitely consider moving on from poker,” he said. “But, I will never be skilled enough to compete in world-class competitions like I can in poker.”

“I really like the competition aspect of poker like in sports, as well as the mathematical and analytical side of it,” he said. “Moreover, I like the financial freedom and the ability to be your own boss that poker brings.”

His typical grind session is 8:00 PM to 4:00 AM and he tends to skip Fridays, Saturdays, and Wednesdays. He’s racked up 144 top-three finishes during the eight-hour grind over the last two years and has begun moving up in stakes fairly quickly.

In fact, the Lithuanian online poker player is about to pass $1 million in career winnings on PokerStars alone with only one $20,000+ cash, and he’s less than 1,000 PLB Points away from cracking the top 10 worldwide on PocketFives.