Series like the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) can be a grind for anyone. Doing so at unnatural hours of the day can lead to a host of health problems. Just ask Australia’s James ‘Andy McLEOD’ Obst, who won his fourth SCOOP title this year, reinforcing his reputation as one of the top tournament players on the planet.

Obst’s fourth SCOOP title came in a $1,050 Pot Limit Omaha Rebuy Six-Max and was good for $166,000. “The non-Hold’em events are what most differentiates big series like SCOOP from other times of the year,” Obst said. “When big non-Hold’em tourneys run is when I tend to crank up the volume since the edges can be much bigger in those.”

The rebuy drew 244 entrants. There were 235 rebuys and 195 add-ons for a total prize pool of $674,000. In the end, Obst became a four-time SCOOP winner.

“Variance plays a big part,” the Aussie said of his SCOOP success, “but it’s hard to have too many SCOOP wins if all you play is No Limit Hold’em.”

His largest online tournament cash to date came in April 2009, when he won a SCOOP $3,150 Six-Max Mixed Hold’em event for $188,000 after defeating acclaimed poker pro Steve ‘gboro780’ Gross heads-up.

“That SCOOP win was my most memorable one for sure,” he said, “because it was my first and came against a strong field in Hold’em. It was a nice feeling to overcome a legendary opponent heads-up from a big deficit and it’s also still the biggest score I’ve had online. Winning big tourneys in Hold’em does seem to be more satisfying now because of the sheer difficulty of it.”

The Mixed Hold’em event, as its name suggests, was half Limit Hold’em and half No Limit Hold’em, testing players’ prowess in both. “I was lucky that it was half Limit Hold’em, where Steve Gross was less experienced. The structure was amazingly deep, so it gave me a chance to use my edge and experience in that format,” Obst said of his heads-up defeat of Gross, who has $6.2 million in career online tournament winnings.

“Given there aren’t so many Aussies playing in the same games I am, for obvious time zone reasons, it’s nice to help us stay relevant sometimes,” Obst said of representing his home nation and defeating fellow longtime players like Gross.

SCOOP sessions in Australia can start in the wee hours of the morning, making any sort of “normal” schedule during the high-stakes series nearly impossible. Add in health issues that can arise from throwing your body completely off-kilter for a couple of weeks and you see many Australians heading east to grind.

“The 2016 SCOOP was the first time in my career I’ve played online in a particularly friendly time zone,” Obst said. “I went over to Toronto for it because playing on the Aussie time zone for so long has taken a big toll on my health that I’m doing my best to reverse. It has probably been the most challenging factor to overcome and the main reason why my volume is low compared to most regs. Playing in Canada has been pretty amazing.”

If you’re Australian, or anyone in a time zone that doesn’t accommodate a grind, Obst highly recommends you be aware of the “metabolic chaos” that having a backwards circadian clock, or no clock at all, causes.

“I’ve spent more time studying health than anything else over the past year or two and it’s apparent to me that optimizing the circadian rhythm is the #1 foundational pillar for sustained health,” Obst said. “Mainstream advice hasn’t caught on yet, but if you have to play during night hours, the best thing you can do is learn as much as you can about the risks and take as many protective measures as possible to mitigate the damage. Those tend to center around tricking your brain by manipulating your light environment during those hours.”

There are almost 3,500 registered Australians on PocketFives. And in the live world, Obst is #22 on the all-time money list for Australia with $1.2 million in career winnings. He had four top-ten finishes at last year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas to help his cause and will be back with a bracelet in mind when the series begins in 2016.

“Very few Aussies have been going to Vegas in the last few years for the WSOP, so there are plenty of spots available on my rail,” he joked. “In truth, I’m glad I’m not the guy with the huge rail cheering my every pre-flop steal. I prefer to play the villain and have some fun with my opponents’ rails.”