Jeff YoungSupremacy Hakim closed out the month of September in style, winning the Sunday 500 on PokerStars for a cool $91,500. He’s currently at #88 in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings and hails from Montreal, Quebec. A deep-stack tournament that plays to his skills, the Sunday 500 gives each player a 10,000 chip starting stack and offers up blind levels that are 20 minutes long. In addition to dominating tournaments online, Hakim has recently branched out into live play, cashing in two out of the five World Series of Poker tournaments he played in over the summer. We sat down with him to learn about his Sunday 500 win as well as his blossoming poker career.
On his run through the competitive Sunday 500 field, Hakim noted, “It went pretty smoothly in the early going. I chipped up nicely around bubble time and had a top five stack. Into the final 50, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I needed to get lucky on two crucial hands to double up, but of course that’s the nature of tournaments.” When play concluded for the night, Hakim had notched his largest score ever online, padding his bank account with $91,500. He told PocketFives.com, “It felt great. It’s such a rewarding experience. With the nature of tournaments, it’s always difficult to come out on top, but with the big wins, I’m reminded that hard work is rewarded. You can’t fail if you never give up.”
With Wall Street and markets around the world sitting at their lowest levels in years, I asked Hakim if purchasing stock was in the offing. He responded, “I’ve been advised to get into stocks several times, but I don’t feel ready to just yet. I’d like to be well-educated about the stock market before investing in it. For now, I will probably invest part of it and put some away for the more expensive things that I hope to purchase down the line.”
He has quite a bankroll to purchase anything he’d like. In the beginning of the year, he logged a win in the 15th event of the Full Tilt Poker Online Poker Series, cashing for $72,600. He also won the PokerStars $100 rebuy for $19,000. In April, he won the PokerStars $25,000 Guaranteed for over $18,000. Hakim also recorded a second place in the PartyPoker $300,000 Guaranteed, adding another $33,000 to his bank account. In tournaments that are tracked for the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, he pocketed $166,000 last month alone. He sits at #88 overall.
On the deep stack of the Sunday 500, Hakim quipped, “You can really enjoy the benefits of playing deep-stack poker for much of the tournament, which unfortunately isn’t something we have the pleasure of doing day in and day out in online tournaments. In many ways, it becomes a different game of poker being played, where adjusting to your table dynamics becomes more crucial and profitable. You have more time to exploit week spots.” He noted that he enjoys playing in the World Series of Poker for its focus on deep stack play.
He got his start in poker by playing in the Steps tournaments on Party Poker. He found those challenging and noted, “I loved the risk-reward that the steps provided and was able to build up my bankroll. Soon enough, I began playing more and more multi-table tournaments and eventually shifted my interest into tournament poker.”
He cashed in a pair of events during the 2008 World Series of Poker, taking home a 611th place finish in the Main Event for $21,230 and finishing 57th in a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament for another $8,495, his first two WSOP cashes ever. He told PocketFives.com, “I had a great time in Las Vegas this summer. I cashed in two of the five events that I played in and am hoping to build on that.”
You may be wondering what kind of advice a successful player like Hakim would have for beginners. Your answer: “As many players have said before, people’s playing styles are adaptations of their personalities in many ways. I find it crucial to experiment with different playing styles.”
Congratulations to Jeff YoungSupemacy Hakim -- winner of the PokerStars Sunday 500.
