July was a pretty stellar month for David Yan (pictured), who is known on PocketFives as Claydol. On July 7, he final tabled the Full Tilt Sunday Brawl for $4,200. One week later, he reached the final seven of the Full Tilt $250,000 Guaranteed for $7,200 and then took third in the site’s Super Sized Sunday for $13,000. On the 21st, it was back to the final table of the Sunday Brawl, which he took second in for $30,000. We caught up with the New Zealand pokercommunity member, whom you can follow at @missoraclepoker on Twitter.

PocketFives: Tell us how you’re feeling about your back-to-back-to-back Full Tilt Major final tables.

David Yan: It feels really good to have another winning Sunday. I don’t play MTTs too often for various reasons: the time zone in New Zealand isn’t great (I don’t like waking up too early) and the long sessions with almost no breaks are quite inconvenient, for example. On weekdays, I prefer playing other games like cash games, so having a winning Sunday six or seven times in a row on the highest variance and biggest schedule day feels great.

I actually sold and swapped a significant amount of my action in the Brawl, so it wasn’t as big of a day as it may seem, but it still feels great, especially since most of the swaps and investors were friends. Having three Major final tables and final tabling the Super Sized Sunday on three consecutive weekends feels pretty crazy.

PocketFives: What do you attribute your recent success to?

David Yan: I think I have been playing very well, but it is definitely mostly just variance. For example, I’ve bricked almost everything on PokerStars in the last two weeks. If anything, I feel Full Tilt is harder for me because I’m not as used to the software and I don’t recognize as many of the regs or have them tagged like I do on PokerStars. That being said, a friend of mine recently made a good point that the structures on Full Tilt tend to be a bit better late game, so that along with smaller fields possibly mean a bit lower variance.

PocketFives: What do you think of the news that Full Tilt will offer casino games?

David Yan: I tend to stay away from gambling games. I don’t like the idea that players may lose their money in games they can’t have an edge in instead of playing poker with it. Also, I have some friends who have had some bad experiences with casino games, although I suppose there’s also a chance it will bring a wider audience of players to the site to play poker.

PocketFives: Did your PokerStars Sunday 500win in May affect your poker career?

David Yan: It didn’t really change my lifestyle, especially because a good friend of mine had the majority of my action, but it definitely helped improve my confidence. I was always confident that I had a significant edge in MTTs, but over a small sample I wasn’t running the best, especially at higher stakes, so finally having a nice score that was actually a victory in a higher buy-in tournament with a tough field felt great.

PocketFives: Tell us about your live poker career. We know you took sixth in this year’s Aussie Millions Main Event.

David Yan: Since I only just turned 20, I haven’t able to play in a lot of places like Las Vegas or even New Zealand. I haven’t been playing poker that long, and traveling to Europe for EPTs isn’t the most cost-efficient or +EV decision, especially with opportunity costs, flights, and hotel. So, I haven’t logged too many live tournaments.

I ran pretty well in the Aussie Millions and final tabled the Main Event, getting sixth place for $232,000, so it has gone well when I have played live. I have also managed to be close to breakeven in the other series I played.

PocketFives: Has your confidence in online poker carried over into live poker?

David Yan: Yeah. Being a winner over a significant sample online has meant I’ve felt pretty good going into live poker. I do think that even though live poker is very soft, online guys with no live experience often overestimate their edge, as live poker can be quite different than online in many ways. I don’t think a solid online player will auto-crush live.

PocketFives: How did you get started in poker?

David Yan: Some friends of mine had monthly home games and I enjoyed them even though I was really bad. A friend did quite well online and I decided to give it a go eventually.

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