Winning the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Upearlier this month was bittersweet for Feng Zhao, who is known on PocketFives as valkyri3. On the one hand, he earned $117,000 as a result of a heads-up chop, the largest amount given away. On the other hand, he warned PocketFives of a potential Black Friday of sorts coming to his home nation of Singapore. His big cash comes on the heels of a TCOOP final table for $175,000 in February.

“I’m still trying to process the shock from shipping two six-figure cashes in back-to-back months, but I definitely feel extremely happy about it,” Zhao told PocketFives in an exclusive interview. “I think I played well throughout the tournament, but that is not to say it was an easy one for me. There weren’t that many recreational players once we were down to the top 50, especially at the final table.”

The field of the Warm-Up had 4,183 entrants and the prize pool of $836,000 lapped its $500,000 guarantee. “I know the amount of luck-boxing it takes to reach a final table for a 4,000-player pool major,” Zhao admitted, “but I can still extract an edge between the money bubble and the run to the final table. Having said that, the final table was one of the toughest I have played. There were so many big names and all of the players at the final table were at least as experienced and skilled as I was, if not better.”

Entering the final table, the task was even more daunting, as he was seated next to the chip leader, Apathy123. Zhao said, “I was pretty lucky to get to heads-up with him through winning all of the crucial flips at the final table.” Apathy123 ended up with $111,000 after the chop for his second place finish, $6,000 less than Zhao.

What to do with almost $300,000 in cashes in two months? Although he conceded that he’s a “nit” when it comes to splurging, he bought his friends dinner at a fancy restaurant. You also might see him play more mid- and high-stakes tournaments on PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site. Right now, he plays “everything I find juicy” between $11 and $215.

On what he attributes his recent stellar run to, Zhao explained, “I attribute a large part of it to my soul-crushing $30,000 downswing last year. Throughout most of the downswing, I brushed it off as bad variance. I did some soul-searching and stopped playing for a bunch of months to look through all of my hands and rethink all of my spots.” He also signed up for a poker training site and tweaked his approach to the game.

He’ll be the first to admit that his game still has plenty of flaws, but remarked, “Poker is a game that is constantly evolving. There are no talented regs, only hardworking ones. I will constantly review my sessions to ensure I am not being exploited in any way. I am already well adjusted to the tendencies of certain regs who are always in the games I play.”

Zhao is the top-ranked player in Singapore (pictured), a nation that we said at the top of this article could soon undergo changes in how poker is viewed. “Since laws in Singapore forbid the hosting of real money live tournaments, Singapore tournament players generally lack live experience,” he told us. “However, I do see poker tournaments gaining traction.”

He added that a Black Friday of sorts could soon descend upon Singapore: “Our Parliament is currently in discussions over the implementation of certain legislation aimed at curbing or preventing online gambling. Although some people would like to argue that poker is a game of skill, there is little we can do to change the views of our politicians. There is a high probability that online poker in Singapore could end up as road-kill.”

According to Zhao, Singapore is a rather conservative society. “Although Singaporeans love gambling,” he said, “there are certain negative connotations associated with it.” We’ll keep you posted on the latest poker legislation news from his homeland.

Let’s get back to cheerier conversational topics now. Zhao’s poker career began four years ago when one of his schoolmates introduced him to the game. “Zygna poker was quite popular on Facebook at the time and I opened an account and started playing on it,” he recalled. “After I won my first play money sit and go on Zynga, within the first few entries I was hooked. Then, someone told me about the magical site called PokerStars where you could play for real money, so I deposited $50 and started to play my way up from $0.20 90-mans.”

The Sunday Warm-Up 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 PocketFives Training. Get started here.

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