A recent running of the Winamax High Roller, a €300 buy-in tournament, saw Austria’s Josip Jozinho6 Simunic (pictured) come away with the win and earn $20,000. He blasted through the 200-player field and told us, “I feel great. I have been running well online and live the last few moths, so I feel very confident and happy.” He was one of two PocketFivers to crack the final table of the Winamax tournament.

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We’ve interviewed a handful of PocketFives members who have won the Winamax High Roller before, so we wanted to ask Simunic what kind of field turns up for it. He profiled, “The field was very solid. There were a lot of good regulars and, at the last two tables, there were only one or two weak guys. So, it’s a tough tournament.”

That Sunday marked the third time Simunic had ever played in the Winamax High Roller. “On my first try, I made the final table and finished in fifth,” he relayed. “The second time, I finished out of the money, and I won it my third time.” We guess the third time is indeed a charm, as the adage goes.

Why has the tournament been so kind to him? Why has he been able to make two final tables in the High Roller in three attempts? “I think the most important factor is that it’s six-max,” he told us. “I was a cash gamer before and played a lot of six-max, so I think I have an advantage.”

His two largest tracked online scores have both come in the Full Tilt Sunday Brawlfor $66,000 combined. On his success in the Brawl, a tournament on Full Tilt with a bounty component, Simunic explained, “I don’t know why, but I have had a lot of deep runs in the Sunday Brawl. I won it last year after a deal, took third in January after a three-way deal, and then finished 29th and 13th after that. So, I feel good every time the Sunday Brawl lobby opens.”

As far as the money goes, Simunic (pictured) said his newfound earnings would largely be “put back into the system,” but said he hoped “much more comes back.” He is nearing $500,000 in tracked online winnings to go along with almost a quarter-of-a-million dollars in live scores, according to the Hendon Mob.

Simunic’s poker journey began eight years ago. “I started like everyone else,” he said. “I saw the game on TV and was immediately addicted. Then, I cashed in for €100 and started my new life.” He is currently the 16th ranked player in Austria and #12 in the capital city of Wein. Worldwide, he can be found at #805 in the PocketFives Rankings.

As Simunic said, when he first got turned onto poker, he was hooked. “I always was a kid who wanted to play with cards and so I loved it,” Simunic recalled. “I am also a person who wants to beat every game I play. There is no better game in the world for me than poker where you have to work and work and work on your game to be able to beat others.”

Finally, the Austrian wanted to share a few parting words of wisdom: “It’s good to be successful in poker and win or have a lot of money, but with just money, you cannot be happy in life. That’s the most important thing I have learned.”

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