“As I was winning my friends’ nickels, I saw a gold mine out there, so I decided to learn poker.” Those were the words of TheKeyser, who chopped the PokerStars Sunday 500 last month for $45,000. He got into poker through movies like “Rounders,” but might have never imagined he’d be hauling in five-figure paydays in one of the most challenging tournaments around. We caught up with him to learn about his groundbreaking weekend on PokerStars.

PocketFives: Tell us about the chop. How and why did it go down?

TheKeyser: The chop came down pretty well for me because two tough players on my right were eliminated in fourth place and sixth place and I think I had an edge against the other two players left. I definitely wasn’t pulling for a deal because I also had the chip lead. Blind versus blind, I opened with A-J offsuit and the other guy shoved 30 big blinds with A-2 offsuit. I lost that one and after I was down to 22 big blinds, we decided to take a look at the numbers.

ICM showed $43,300 and I wanted at least $45,000, with $6,000 left for the winner to play for. It’s hard to play with 22 big blinds three-handed, so after they give me some extra money, we made the chop. Looking at the stack sizes, the chop was good for me. I had 1.3 million in play and the other two guys had 2.9 million and 3.2 million. So, I think I made a pretty good deal. The other two guys cashed for $50,000 and $55,000.

PocketFives: The final table was pretty tough. Chris Big HuniHunichen (pictured) and Charlie chaz_man_chazCombes are very well known and successful PocketFivers who also finished in the top nine. Tell me about your competition at the final table.

TheKeyser: I actually had a ton of chips when 30 players remained, so I had enough room to play, and with the great structure of the Sunday 500, it wasn’t that hard to get to the final table. Because I had a lot of chips most of the time, I didn’t need to worry too much about the other good players out there who were a lot shorter.

PocketFives: You’re a student, right? What are your other interests besides poker?

TheKeyser: I’m still a student, but yeah, you can say I play full-time. I was going to school, playing soccer, and training with a professional youth squad. So, soccer was my dream. Unfortunately, at the age of 20, I had to quit because I wasn’t good enough and it was time for me to do something else.

I was studying too, but soccer was my world and I didn’t know what else I wanted to do with my life. There wasn’t really a backup plan. So, I’m very pleased that poker came into my life. I love the traveling and the freedom parts of the job.

PocketFives: How did you find poker originally?

TheKeyser: I remembered hearing about poker in movies like “Rounders.” Bluffing had me excited to start with and I learned poker with a friend of mine. I remember I was disappointed at first that you could only bluff with bet sizes. I also remember being disappointed that you could only play or fold, not swap cards, which bored me. But, as I was winning my friends’ nickels, I saw a gold mine out there, so I decided to learn the game.

PocketFives: What are the biggest strengths and weaknesses of your game right now?

TheKeyser: Let’s start with weaknesses since that’s a hell of a lot easier. At the beginning of my career, I had a lot of tilt problems, probably just like anyone else. I still have them and the problem nowadays is I sometimes flake a lot and spew off chips. I have blown up my stack on many occasions.

Also, even though I make enough money, if I don’t ship regularly, my confidence drops fast. Obviously, that’s normal in MTTs – not shipping for several months – but my confidence can still lack sometimes. I guess my strength in that area would be that I’m always eager to keep learning and trying to achieve my goals every year.

PocketFives: You’re living in Poland. Tell us what the country is like.

TheKeyser: My mother is Polish, so I have a lot of family here. It’s my first time living in Poland. It’s cool and the girls are hot and everything’s cheap. I’m doing research about the European Championship 2012 in soccer for my studies, so that’s also a reason I’m here until next summer. After that, we will see what life brings again.

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