Earlier this month, Hong Kong’s noclue_just(pictured) finished second in the PokerStars Sunday 500to CrownUpGuy and earned $47,000. “I feel very happy and excited about it,” he told PocketFives in an exclusive post-game interview. “This is my biggest score ever in a tournament.” noclue_just plays poker full-time online and live and said he’d use the money to build a bigger bankroll and move up in stakes for live cash games.

He takes full advantage of his proximity to the gaming metropolis of Macau, an hour away by ferry. “When I don’t play online, I travel there and play cash games. I’ve been playing mostly $25/$50 HKD, which is about $3/$6 USD, and I’ve been a consistent winner in that game. With the recent cash in the Sunday 500, I plan to move up to $50/$100 HKD. I’m also a regular in live tournament series like the APPT, Macau Poker Cup, and ACOP.

Macau (pictured below) has almost three-dozen casinos, so we asked noclue_just how bustling the games are nowadays. “Macau’s cash game have matured over the past few years,” he responded. “The players have improved a lot and the cash games consist of more pros than amateurs now. Unlike Las Vegas, there are only three casinos with cash games. My favorite place to play cash is Wynn Macau and my favorite place to play tournaments is City of Dreams, where PokerStars Macau is based.”

While his friends are very supportive of his poker career and somewhat envious of his lifestyle, his parents are not. “Poker is still not well understood in Hong Kong,” he explained. “A lot of people, especially the older generation, still do not know what it is and think it is just like other forms of gambling. Poker is still not a very popular game and we do not have something like ESPN to broadcast poker on TV. So, most people have no idea what poker is about and will never consider it a career.”

“I would like them to support what I’m doing,” noclue_just said of his parents. “I tried to explain to them and they understood poker a bit better, but they still do not support or accept it, although they don’t argue with me about my career choice anymore. As I’m over 30 years old already, they know they cannot insist on my career choice, but I hope one day they will understand it and respect my career more.”

noclue_just was in Canada when he was young and obtained his master’s degree in the United States. He had a full-time job as an engineer at a semi-conductor company, but played home games, cash games, and online poker before moving back to Hong Kong. He started playing poker full-time about four years ago.

“The Sunday 500 final table was a very big achievement for me,” he concluded. “This is a tournament with a relatively high buy-in, a good structure, and a very tough field. I’m very happy to be the runner-up in a tough field and this proved to others and me that my skills have reached another level. I can continue to pursue poker as my career to sustain my cost of living or even eventually get rich!”

The Sunday 500 runs weekly on PokerStars. If you don’t already have a PokerStars account, sign up through the links on PocketFives to get a 100% up to $600 deposit bonus and one free month of Tournament Poker Edge or CardRunners poker training. Get started here.

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