Gordon Vayo’s journey to the November Nine is a familiar tale (WSOP photo / Joe Giron)

There have been plenty of documented cases of poker players lying about their age to play in cardrooms before they turned 21. Gordon Vayo, however, was lying about his age so that he could play online before he turned 18.

At just 27 years old, the Illinois native cut his teeth on the virtual felt and has been playing poker professionally for over a decade. After earning over $1.4 million in online tournament earnings under the screen name “holla@yoboy,” Vayo comes into this year’s November Nine third in chips and has a chance to etch his name into live poker’s history books.

Vayo found his love for the game during his time in high school. He was only 15 years old when the Moneymaker boom happened, but his core group of friends were a few years older and they got him involved. It started with a group of around 30 students from the three local high schools playing a regular game at rotating homes, but soon, Vayo found himself taking it much more seriously and putting in a ton of time honing his craft online.

“I had another friend who started taking it seriously,” said Vayo. “He was playing online and everybody would go through that phase when you start playing poker that you think online poker is rigged or whatever. Then I saw him play and I was like ‘Okay, maybe it’s not rigged.’”

After Vayo took down one of the home games, he gave one of his friends some cash to have it transferred online. Vayo took the deposit and ran up the stakes online. He was hooked and never looked back.

As a 15 and 16-year-old playing online poker, Vayo met some resistance from his family when they found out what he was doing in his spare time.

“I was hiding it as much as possible from my family,” said Vayo. “But I mean, when I started to actually have success at it, it was impossible to hide. I didn’t really try to hide it from people besides my parents, but once it kind of got out, there was no putting it back.”

Despite his parents’ objection to his online poker playing, Vayo found ways to play and continue his success. From online winnings alone, Vayo was able to buy a car and rent an apartment before he was out of high school.

“At that time, I was not going to not do It,” said Vayo. “I was too motivated to do so and it wasn’t that difficult for me to find places to play. It just wasn’t that difficult.”

Like many young players at the time with little financial responsibility, Vayo’s main goals were to continue to play higher and higher and be the best he could be. The money and the gambling aspect of poker were not what was attractive to him. It was the strategy behind the game and the drive to get better.

“For me, it was never about running up a bunch of money,” said Vayo. “When I was younger, I was barely cashing out. I was just trying to see how high my account could go. It was like a high score or something.

“I was really active on PocketFives and stuff when I was really really young. The ratings and getting the respect of my peers and the people on the forums and the people that I was playing tournaments with, that was my motivation.”

At one point during the early stages of his poker career, variance got the better of Vayo and he went on a prolonged downswing. One of his first poker friends, Jared Hamby, convinced him to reach out to a backer.

Hamby suggested Vayo get in contact with the current chip leader of this year’s November Nine, Cliff Josephy. Josephy, better known as ‘JohnnyBax’ online, was well-known for his stable of successful tournament grinders.

“I reached out to him on PocketFives and he gave me an email address,” said Vayo. “I sent him a hand history and he was very enthusiastic about wanting to back me. He said that this was the fastest he’s ever wanted to back someone. But I was like 16 at the time and he was like a king to me. That meant a lot and it boosted my confidence for sure.”

Vayo contends that Josephy had no idea he was underage and he told everybody that he was 18 and in college. After about a year of being backed by Josephy, Vayo went back out on his own and continued to crush online tournaments.

Now, more than a decade later, they will be sitting across from each other playing for poker’s biggest prize. Even with some history between the two, Vayo tends to laugh the situation off, almost chalking it up to variance.

“I don’t think there is going to be huge implications or anything emotionally,” said Vayo. “Cliff and I were always friendly and when he was backing me, we would like chat and stuff on a much more personal level.

“We’ve been friendly ever since, but it’s not like this deep student meets master or anything. We almost never talk poker strategy really. I mean this endearingly, but he’s almost like a poker dad to me. Especially for me because I met him at a really young age. It was never really like a student-teacher relationship. It was more like a friendly relationship.”

Like almost all online players of that era, Vayo was heavily affected by Black Friday. Vayo opted to stay in the country and start playing more live poker. Initially after Black Friday, Vayo, in his own words, was not very good at live poker.

He left Illinois the following winter after Black Friday and headed out to the San Francisco area. He was able to play more live poker in both Northern and Southern California, which helped his growth as a live pro, eventually leading him to the 2016 November Nine.

With over $2.5 million in live tournament earnings following a successful online career, Vayo has just as much poker experience as anybody else at the table. But dealing with emotions while playing for $8 million is the one question mark he has when cards get in the air.

“I think that’s the thing I’m most anxious about because that is the one thing you can’t prepare for,” said Vayo. “At the end of the day, the one thing you can’t prepare for is the moment. I think it’s something I’m going to have to live and adapt to in the moment. You’re going to have to experience it and do your best to not let it be overwhelming.”