Getting your first win in a Sunday major online is difficult. The task often requires muscling through several thousand poker players en route to a win. Many of us struggle to achieve our first win in a Sunday major. For Josh DahJineratMancuso, the win in this weekend’s $750K Guaranteed on Full Tilt Poker marked his second major tournament victory. He also took down the Sunday Mulligan back in January. PocketFives.com sat down with Mancuso to learn about his success on Full Tilt Poker and also learn how he got started in the game.

Notching your first win in a Sunday major is a feat in and of itself. However, is the achievement any less the second time around? Mancuso commented, “Winning the $750K Guaranteed is definitely a lot bigger. Obviously the money is huge, but the field size is also much larger. It feels a lot better. It’s a lot harder to get through that big of a field size.” The $750K Guaranteed attracted 3,409 players this past weekend. By comparison, the field size in the Sunday Mulligan was 970. On his plans for the $132,788 payday, he told PocketFives.com, “I’m pretty conservative. I plan to try and remember what I learned from my undergraduate finance degree and take advantage of some opportunities in the stock market and real estate market.”

He took fourth in the Sunday Mulligan in February for over $18,000 and also logged a 30th place finish in a Full Tilt Online Poker Series event in August for an additional $1,300. In recent months, the majority of his cashes have come on the virtual felts of Full Tilt. He explained, “I can’t figure out why I can’t win on PokerStars. I won a few tournaments last fall on PokerStars, which is how I developed a good bankroll in the first place. I’ve just been on a bad run for a year there. However, if I keep winning majors, I’ll take it.”

Like many poker players, Mancuso got his start with the movie “Rounders,” which piqued his interest in poker. He recalled, “We would have ‘Rounders’ playing in the background and played games like Baseball, Challenge, and Chicago and the big winner would take home $40. I found out about online poker and made a few small deposits. I had no luck in the beginning. I just played $5 sit and go tournaments for fun.”

Mancuso went to Florida State University and noticed a player named SamENole dominating tournaments online: “He was a fellow Florida State guy and I happened to see him deep in a $25,000 Guaranteed event. I saw him deep in another tournament a couple of days later. I thought poker tournaments were all about luck and didn’t think they could be beaten long-term. I found him on PocketFives, saw he was in the top 10, and then started reading strategy guides.”

He graduated from law school at Louisiana State University (LSU) in May. He’s been grinding out poker to pay for law school. We asked Mancuso if his parents were supportive of his poker endeavors and he responded, “They definitely are happy for me and want me to be happy no matter what profession I choose, but they would prefer that I play poker as a hobby or for side income rather than professionally, which is what I plan to do anyways. I just have been playing live cash games ‘professionally’ recently before taking the bar next February because I was pretty sure that I could make more money than whatever job I could get in the meantime.”

Following his graduation, Mancuso didn’t take the bar because he wanted to head to Las Vegas for the summer. As part of his experience, he claims he became a better poker player: “I learned a lot just from playing in the same room as PearlJammer, McNallyville, and Bearw8 this past summer. Seeing someone else’s hole cards and how they play in different situations is immensely helpful. It can drastically change your perspective.” As you might expect, he advises that newcomers join poker training sites: “If newcomers want to take poker seriously, then the training sites are the best ways to get better. You can hear and see people discuss how they think about hands. In addition to joining training sites, soak up as much knowledge as possible from your friends who are better than you.”

Congratulations to Josh DahJinerat Mancuso for winning the $750K Guaranteed on Full Tilt Poker.

* PocketFives.com now offers rakeback on Full Tilt Poker! To sign up for a rakeback account through PocketFives, visit http://www.pocketfives.com/visit/rakeback/. We have also included aRakeback Forumto field questions about our rakeback program.

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