Last weekend, Costa Rica’s Chris Big HuniHunichen (pictured) came away with the win in the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Upfollowing a heads-up chop with Phemo. His reward was $89,000 and he became the ninth PocketFiver ever to pass $7 million in online tournament scores for his career.

PocketFives: Talk about how you’re feeling. You’re all the way up to #4 in the world in the PocketFives Rankingsafter your Sunday Warm-Up score.

Chris Hunichen: For the most part, I feel great. As far as my game, I’m very happy with the way I have been playing the past year. I have worked extremely hard, put in a ton of hours, and the results are starting to come along with it.

I have moved up the Rankings pretty fast lately and didn’t realize I was up to #4. I have only gotten up to #2 before, but have never held the top spot, so it would be nice to take over the top spot. I plan on playing a lot of live poker in the next few months, however, so unless I hit some big scores on Sundays, I don’t see it happening because my volume will be too low.

PocketFives: How did the chopgo down? Are you still happy with it?

Chris Hunichen: When we got heads-up, we pretty much had even stacks. It was almost 7:00am here in Amsterdam, so I was pretty tired and didn’t feel like I was playing my best. I was also deep in the Bigger $109 and the Sunday 500, so it made more sense to play a $10,000 heads-up match instead of a $25,000 heads-up match.

PocketFives: Do you have any plans for the money? Big holiday presents?

Chris Hunichen: I really don’t have many plans. I have taken a lot of big shots lately in some higher stakes cash games and was on a decent-sized downswing between that and buying action, so as crazy as it sounds, I kind of needed this to get back on the track I was on. I am constantly firing, so my swings are much larger than most people are aware of. I’m also playing around $100,000 to $150,000 in live buy-ins over the next three months in Europe, so the money is getting used to buy into more tournaments.

PocketFives: You just passed $7 million in career tournament winnings. Did you think you’d be around as long as you have? Talk about a few of the keys to your success.

Chris Hunichen: I knew going back to college that poker was what I was going to do with my life. I made some big decisions back then and lost some friends and a relationship because I chose poker over everything else and, once I made those decisions, there was no looking back.

I always knew I would still be here, but am very thankful and blessed to have learned as much as I have since moving to Costa Rica and being able to improve my game over the past few years to become a top-ranked player.

Once you put in the amount of time and money I have and once you start playing higher limits, you tend to lose a little respect for the value of money. When it’s on the table, it doesn’t seem nearly as real as if you are at a mall about to spend the same amount on items for yourself. It can be good and bad for poker players to have this mindset, but I feel like in order to play the highest stakes, you almost have to have this type of mindset to be successful.

PocketFives: How has the game changed in 2014, from your perspective?

Chris Hunichen: The game seems to change every day. Overall, it has gotten a lot harder. There are so many good players and sites putting out training videos and there are other tools like HUDs and Holdem Resources that have really advanced the overall play on average. Even the “weaker” players are much better and a lot of the spots are drying up. Unless there is a big change coming, online poker seems to slowly be dying.

PocketFives: Do you have any poker goals for 2014?

Chris Hunichen: My main goal is to hit a seven-figure score. I have several friends who have hit the million-dollar-plus tournament score and I am quite jealous. There are very few opportunities a year for me, though, so it’s definitely a possibility it never happens.

PocketFives: Do you play cash games?

Chris Hunichen: I have played a whole lot more cash games the past year than ever before. I have been told by several high-stakes cash game players and heads-up regs to stay away from the $25/$50 tables, but I can’t help myself. I think this is where the best players are and I feel the only way for me to learn as much as I want to is to play against the best players and learn from them.

I started off running hot and was up around $55,000, but have recently given most of it back. It’s all a learning experience for me, but I feel I will take some time away until I build my roll bigger and can handle the swings a little better.

One other goal is to play more live. I really feel online is dying and drying up and I enjoy playing live tournaments. I am currently in Amsterdam playing the MCOP and will be heading to Prague after that. I plan to head to the Bahamas in January and hopefully to Australia for the first time for the Aussie Millions. Then, I may hit up more EPTs or take a break and go back to Costa Rica to play online until the WSOP starts.

My final poker goal is to win a WSOP bracelet, which I feel like I have been so close to. The last couple summers have been very good to me in Las Vegas and I hope to keep it up, finally securing my first WSOP win.

PocketFives: What do you do away from poker? What else interests you?

Chris Hunichen: I put in a lot of hours in poker and lately haven’t had too much time away from the game. I believe balance is very important, but sometimes you have to go after it a little harder than normal. With the games getting harder and drying up, I have increased my workload because you never really know how much longer the money will be there.

My girlfriend has a two-year-old named Derek who has been living with me since he was four months old, so away from the tables I spend time helping raise the kid and, apart from that, hang out with friends in Costa Rica.

I have always been a sports fan as well, so I spend a lot of time watching games or playing sports games on Xbox with my friends. I also enjoy playing daily fantasy sports on FantasyDraft. I haven’t had much success at it so far, but I have had a lot of fun with it.

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