One of the largest cashes by any PocketFiver recently went to Jose Carlos Garcia (pictured), who is known on our site as TryToExploit. His victory came in the PokerStars Sunday Million after a heads-up chop and was worth a swashbuckling $230,000. The Million that week was gigantic, with well over 9,000 entrants and a prize pool that passed $1.8 million.

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“It feels nice to take down the Sunday Million,” Garcia told PocketFives, “especially after playing this tournament for a few years and having finished over 10 times around 50th to 100th place.” His chopping partner, Stev0L_, came away with $219,000.

What to do with nearly a quarter-of-a-million dollars in newfound revenue? “I am going to buy a flat,” Garcia predicted. “With the rest of my money, I’m going to restock my bankroll and play poker.” The location of the flat is to be determined. A residence in his home nation of Poland is certainly a possibility. Ultimately, he’d like to set up shop in the sunny Bahamas.

One week before winning the Sunday Million on the largest online poker site in existence, Garcia finished 80th in the tournament’s special eighth anniversary edition. Why has he had so much success two weeks in a row? “Without the cards being on my side, I could have busted each one after an hour,” he said. “I don’t attribute it to anything special, just running well, playing well, and doing well in coin flips. It’s just variance. I could make the money three or four times in a row and then not get deep for a few months.”

He is the #2 ranked player in Poland and #1 in the province of Podkarpackie. “They got used to my big scores, but this one was a lot bigger,” Garcia said of his friends’ and family’s reaction to his monstrous payday. “It was like they all knew it was going to happen.”

Garcia began playing poker at age 15, engaging in live games with friends for a few dollars. He has played poker for the last half-dozen years, two-and-a-half of which have been as a pro, and said he has loved heads-up cash games. “I love busting bankrolls in them every time I play,” he said.

Garcia admitted that he’s a tournament player by trade, “but my fundamentals are mostly heads-up cash. From the first time I saw it on TV, I found poker very fascinating. That fascination has grown ever since I started to learn how to play better. I found passion for the game pretty quickly in the first few years of playing. I didn’t imagine I could play for big money.”

He added, “I remember when I saw poker on TV for the first time, I was so curious how two guys could be sitting there, trying their best to hide their holdings and, after a few minutes of play, one guy is able to say the exact two cards of his opponent and be right most of the time.” We remember Phil Hellmuth calling out players’ pocket cards in World Series of Poker telecasts that predated hole card cameras.

Speaking of the WSOP, the yearly gathering in Las Vegas starts in late May. Garcia is looking forward to hitting the ground running for the first time this year, saying, “If I manage to win a bracelet, I’ll be one of the youngest ever. I’m so excited about the WSOP. I am looking forward to it and am going to do my best to take down a bracelet. It feels like I was born to play this game.”

As far as his general game plan heading to Nevada, he joked, “I’m going to pack all of my dollars into my pockets and play as much as I can.” He plans to be camped out for a month-and-a-half.

If you think Garcia is all about poker, you’re wrong. Outside of the game, he enjoys playing tennis, going to movies, listening to music, and hanging out with friends. “I also love traveling,” he added, “and trying to have a good time. I’d like to thank all of my friends and everybody who railed me and was by my side. It meant a lot.”

The Sunday Million and other big-time tournaments run regularly on PokerStars. If you don’t already have a PokerStars account, sign up through PocketFives’ link and make a deposit to get one free month of PocketFives MTT Training. You’ll also get a 100% up to $600 sign-up bonus. Click here for PocketFives’ PokerStars link.

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