Poker Articles

By MattW | Published Sep 20 2007, 03:51 PM
Who am I?  I have won over $310,000 in two Sunday majors in the past two months.  Additionally, I have won the 100k Guaranteed and the $50 Rebuy on PokerStars, as well as the $30 Rebuy on FullTilt.  Out of 92 cashes on Stars and Tilt, I have won 10 outright.  I started my poker career by winning $5 bucks in a freeroll on Pacific Poker...

If you don't know who this poker pro is, I don't necessarily blame you.  However, this is most likely the last time you're going to be let off the hook.  The mystery man we are talking about is the up and coming 20 year old phenom, Jason 'JCarver' Somerville from Long Island, NY.  You may remember seeing him absolutely running over his competition HU, winning $204,363.30 last Sunday in the FT Million Guaranteed.  Even though he puts in low volume, he always seems to be deep in the tournies he decides to play in.

So, let's go back 4 years.  This kid never deposited on a single site and managed to win $5 dollars in a freeroll which ultimately catapulted him into the dream of life as a pro poker player.  At the time when he started, no limit wasn't even being offered at Pacific, so he grinded the low limit holdem games until he had enough to enter tournaments and larger cash games.  He told me about how he remembers Pacific first advertising no limit with their slogan, "RING OUT THE NEW YEAR WITH OUR NO LIMIT GAMES!!"  Well, let's just say he took their advice and didn't look back once.

The past few years, Jason has been mainly concentrating on cash games and has won over 100k playing 5-10nl.  He has also ventured as high as 25-50nl.  This is why his tournament results are limited in terms of quantity.  Last semester, Jason decided to drop out of Hofstra University in Long Island to pursue a full-time poker career.  He told me that he plans on finishing college at some point, but for now he is content playing poker.  He commented on the fact that some of his peers didn't understand his choice and insisted that he was a "student with a gambling problem."  He replied by letting everyone know he was in fact a "gambler with a college problem."  His recent successes are reason enough for me to believe him.  

Although Jason began his poker success by playing cash games, he is now taking the time to dedicate himself to MTT play. I talked with Jason about his most recent score on FT for over 200k and what it means to him.  He said, "This means I can buy a bigger T.V. than I had planned.  But seriously, it takes the burden of a new house off my shoulders.  I almost wish I hadn't bought [the house] last week because I could buy a bigger house this week!"  I suppose I should also mention that Jason is awaiting a housewarming gift from Mr. Bax, who is his new neighbor.  He guessed that Bax will probably bring him a microwave.  Don't ask me what this means.  

Anyone who watched JCarver last Sunday can attest to the fact that he played beautifully.  He told me that he really only got lucky once, winning a 20-80.  Up until the last 3 tables, Jason had an average stack when a key hand flashed before his eyes that helped propel him from average in chips to one of the leaders.  The hand took place with the blinds at 12k/24k and 300 antes.  Jason had approximately 1.5M in chips, and the villain had 1.2M.  Villain opened from UTG+1 to 62k, and it folded around to Jason in the BB.  He woke up with AQo and called.  Flop came Q4Q with a flush draw on board.  Jason led out for 80k, and the villain re-popped to 200k.  Jason called.  Turn came an off-suit 7, and both checked. River came a 5, missing the flush draw.  Jason led out for 375k.  The villain went into his think-tank but eventually called revealing 78, for a pair of 7's.  This hand put JCarver around the 2M mark, and he never fell too far past 2nd in chips afterward.      

Jason attributes much of his success to other players.  When he was starting, he talked over many hands with Vivek Rajkumar (P5s handle: psyduck) and still does so.  He said that Vivek really helped him understand when to step up his game and aggression in general, playing any two cards in the appropriate situation to pick up chips through tactics such as re-steals.  He has also learned from players such as EC10, MrTimCaum, Superflous Man, gobboboy, mlagoo, ActionJeff, A_Junglen, and RandALLin.  As if this wasn't enough, he spent 5 weeks at the WSOP with some of these players, where they were 'eating and breathing poker.'   This was all key to his development as a poker player, he said.
 
So now you know a little bit about Jason's prowess at the poker table, but you should probably know that you don't wanna mess with him away from the felt either.  He has been practicing martial arts for 14 years and is now an instructor at Master Bonfiglio's Excel Karate Academy in Long Island, where he teaches Shorinyu, a form of Karate.  At the Academy, Jason's students call him 'Sensei Jason.'  What this all amounts to is that he most likely won't be getting Wubangalangalangled in poker or elsewhere anytime in the near future.

Jason will be turning 21 in April and fully intends on taking the live poker world by storm.  In fact, he already has a live score at Turning Stone, where he finished 2nd for $30k in the Heartland Poker Tour. In terms of his future plans, he will be playing Aruba in a few weeks and then Niagara, leading up to his 21st birthday.  If his recent results are any indication of what the future holds, I think it's safe to say that Jason may have more than just Karate students.  
 
If you wish to follow this young promising player, he is part of a website called www.badbeatscrew.com.