“I was in a bad place in my life since I didn’t know what I wanted to do as a profession. I was playing table tennis for a living, but came to the conclusion I would never be world champion. Then, I had to decide between normal society and poker. I had a great start with poker, so the choice was easy.” Those were the words of Pim de Goede, who is known on PocketFives as joppiesaus. He came away with a second place finish in the PokerStars Sunday Million last month and piled up $132,000.

“It is a relief,” Goede admitted. “I’ve had the feeling I was playing well in MTTs for a while. Since I just play on Sundays, you never really see your play being paid off since the number of MTTs is so small.”

He admitted he didn’t realize how well he was running in the Million until around the money bubble. Why? “I run a stable and had about 30 tables open myself,” Goede joked. “Sundays are kind of hectic.”

Once the bubble popped, Goede recalled he was never in any major trouble: “It was one of those times that the chip collection went by itself. I won every showdown.” As for his plans for the $137,000 in newfound cash, he will refill his bankroll, as his stable was in makeup at the time. He is up to exactly $900,000 in tracked MTT scores in his PocketFives profile, about two-thirds of which has come on PokerStars.

Speaking of PokerStars, you can find him on that site under the user name “PIPI tapis!” On Full Tilt Poker, he plays as “suprnintendo” and on Winamax, which takes EU players, Goede uses the screen name “UrgoodimGod“. Yes, it’s a lot to keep track of.

“This year was really swingy and bad for me until now,” he said of 2013. Goede has his hands full running a stable and said of the process, “The selection of players is the most difficult part. I am rather selective and not a lot of players meet the requirements to be backed, in my opinion. The train wrecks are all over the place, but the success stories are less common, so I have only found two players so far. I can fully trust both; they are big winners lifetime.”

Why did he move to poker backing? “Dutch taxes forced a lot of players to be backed or broke in the Netherlands, so I was really lucky and happy to start a business with those two guys,” he said. When business goes south like it did in 2013, Goede rationalized, “I think we are a team and we are losing. I was playing cash games mainly and they taught me a great deal about tournaments, which now has paid off, so it’s a bit of a give-and-take situation. As long as you have very strict and fair agreements in your deal, you can never feel too bad about a losing streak.”

On a single day in August 2012, Goede finished second in the PokerStars Bigger $162 and Sunday Six-Max for nearly $50,000 combined. Three months later, he was the runner-up in the Sunday Warm-Up for $81,000 officially. His big Sunday Million second place run garnered him over 700 PLB Points.

Goede got started in poker seven years ago after seeing a friend playing and then learning more from a Dutch forum. He currently resides in Malta (pictured), and, speaking on his new residence, Goede told PocketFives, “I have a lovely fiancée, which I am really happy with, and there is a huge Dutch community in Malta who I hang out with a lot.”

Now, let’s “Forrest Gump” it and talk about table tennis. He used to be an accomplished player and was ranked #500 in the world at age 18. Eight years later, he’s a recreational fan and plays for fun. It’s probably just as well since he is gearing up for a wedding, which will take place at a time to be determined. Goede explained, “I am Dutch and my fiancée is Slovak and born in Ukraine, so we have no idea on dates yet.” The two met, fittingly, on the table tennis circuit and his fiancée still plays professionally.

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