At the end of August, Jordan Cristos (pictured), known on PocketFives as inblue, took down the World Poker Tour’s Legends of Poker for $613,000. He beat longtime poker pro Dan Heimiller heads-up in a field that totaled over 700. Shortly thereafter, he won the iPoker Network Sunday Special for $34,000, his largest tracked online cash to date. It has amounted to a solid second half of 2013 for Cristos, who sat down with PocketFives to talk about his recent run.

PocketFives: Nice job on iPoker. Tell us how you’re feeling about the score.

Jordan Cristos: It feels pretty good. I won a WPT event for $613,000 just before it, so it was just another day at the office. I was actually really tilted after winning the iPoker $200K because 30 minutes later, I was 1/6 with twice the second place stack in another big tournament and only got fifth.

PocketFives: It was a pretty interesting final table in the WPT event. Talk about that experience.

Jordan Cristos: The final six had one of my best poker buddies to my immediate left, Alex Masek, who got fourth. I swapped with four people in the tournament; three of them made the final four tables and two were at the final table. It made me think about the game a bit differently when two of them were to my immediate left with 14 remaining. They know a few of my tricks that 99.9% of MTT grinders don’t do, so that kept me on a leash for a while.

I still executed a few of the tactics in the right spots. My endgame strategy was pretty nitty from three tables down as the flow and energy dictated that style of play. At the final table, I went berserk and stole the tournament from all five of them.

I got half of my WPT score. I get backed for major live events and keep 100% of myself online. I’ll put the money away and pretend like I never won it, just focusing on building steadily with the lowest variance possible. I’m definitely going to buy a house in the next year, probably after the WSOP in 2014.

PocketFives: Where are you from originally and how did you end up in Mexico to play online poker?

Jordan Cristos: I’m originally from Los Angeles County, Palmdale to be exact. I relocated to Mexico part-time to grind mostly, just on Sundays, and get access to all of those beautiful majors on the non-U.S. sites.

PocketFives: How did you get started in poker?

Jordan Cristos: I started by playing a $2 six-way winner-take-all sit and go when I was 16 a few months after Chris Moneymaker took down the big one. That was on New Year’s Eve and I won the $12 prize pool and never looked back. I was instantly in love. I was really good at Magic: The Gathering when I was 12 and 13 years old. I was better than all of the kids my age playing tournaments at the local shops. I literally won nine out of the ten 14-and-under tournaments and finished in the top four of all-ages tournaments in my hometown whenever they had them.

I always knew poker and music were for me. I had the grades to do anything I wanted. Originally, I wanted to be a doctor, lawyer, or stockbroker – anything with a six-figure income. But, after discovering my love for music and poker, I lost all interest in schooling. I knew I wanted to do those two things all the time for the rest of my life with no distractions.

PocketFives: Tell us about your music career.

Jordan Cristos: I play drums, guitar, and bass. Drums are my primary interest, though. I played in a band from 15 to 22 years old. We recorded one album. We got halfway through the second album and my guitarist/bassist went to college and we broke up. We were called inblue, hence my PocketFives name. My life plan has been to get stacked off of poker and buy a house with a soundproof music room.

PocketFives: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Jordan Cristos: babyshark33 is my hero. His consistent work ethic and results changed the way I thought about variance and winning at poker in general. The entire MTT community is caught up in the idea that some people run better than others and that you can’t win every month. babyshark33 is living proof that they’re all wrong. Winning every month is possible if you have the right attitude, work ethic, and motivation.

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