By
Dan |
Published
Sep 14 2008, 03:56 PM
Landing in the 12th spot in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings this week was Steve gboro780 Gross. Another veteran of the online poker community who has been a member of the site ever since April 4, 2005, Gross had a successful month of August, finishing second in the Full Tilt Poker $1K Monday for $64k and also winning the Nightly Hundred Grand on that site for another $33,600. The native of Marlboro, New Jersey sat down with PocketFives.com to discuss his phenomenal month and divulge what launched his online poker career.
Gross’ largest cash in August came by virtue of finishing as the runner up in the $1K Monday on Full Tilt Poker. He commented, “I was 0 for the century in the $1K Monday and was down $35,000 or something disgusting like that in it. Then, I then went deep in three in a row. I hate variance.” Despite his massive payday, Gross stayed composed. The finish served more to bolster his confidence than anything else: “I don’t really go out and buy stuff after a big win, but it really helps with my state of mind a lot. Playing tournaments really wears on you. The best players cash in 15-20% of their tournaments, so you have to be able to accept failure.”
In tournaments that are tracked for the PocketFives.com Rankings, Gross piled up over $160,000 on 37 cashes during the month of August. In June, he won the Absolute Poker $150K Weekly for $37,500, a tournament that he’s won twice in 2008. On July 4th, 2008, won both the Full Tilt Poker $30K and $20K Guaranteed tournaments. Needless to say, he had had a very profitable online poker career. He started on Party Poker and “dumped $50 a few times playing $5 sit and go tournaments. I then discovered multi-table tournaments, which I just caught onto from the start. Like other players, I found PocketFives.com worked my way up from there. PocketFives helped me because it made poker more competitive and also makes me feel more normal about my job.”
Gross had a very successful 2008 World Series of Poker, finishing ninth in the $1,000 rebuy event for $57,881. It earned him some face time on ESPN, which carried Event #5, and set the tone for two more cashes during the 2008 WSOP. He told PocketFives.com that, despite his phenomenal success so far, “I still struggle in determining how aggressive is too aggressive. I think one of the things that has helped me recently is realizing that even if you think you’re the best player at a table, it doesn’t mean you have to be the table captain or try to run it over. I was trying to run over the final two or three tables of every tournament that I got deep in and blew a lot of good chances in the process. I think with the game changing, tournament money bubbles are probably overrated now.”
For the number 12 ranked player on PocketFives.com, the best advice he can give beginners in the game is to be observant of others at the table: “Watch the big games and the best players online. Read their hand histories and ask yourself how you would have played that hand, looking for what they’re doing differently than you are. Also, it’s important to be honest with yourself and not be afraid to take a step back if things aren’t going well. When you do that, you take the ego out of the game.” If you have any doubt on Gross’ advice, you can note that he won the Triple Crown in February of 2006 on PocketFives.com, winning tournaments on UltimateBet and PartyPoker.
He’s ranked 25th in the PLB and seventh in the Pro Poll on PocketFives, landing in the Rankings just ahead of Evan PURPLEPILS99 Parkes (#13) and Tony holdplz Spinella (#14). Congratulations to Steve gboro780 Gross for an incredible month of August and we look forward to reporting more about this poker prodigy in the near future right here on PocketFives.com.
