Oh yes, the title of this article is most definitely a Nelly reference. It’s relevant because earlier this week, Chris Big HuniHunichen (pictured) became the #1 player in the PocketFives Rankings for the first time ever. He’s the first player from Costa Rica to top the Rankings in a year and is closing in on $7.5 million in tracked online MTT scores.

PocketFives: How does it feel to be #1? We know it has been a goal of yours for a while.

Chris Hunichen: As expected, it feels really good. Last year around this time, I made it as high as #2 and then was forced to take a couple months off, so I dropped down pretty far and never really had a shot at #1 again until now.

Previously when I got in the top 10, I would follow the Rankings a lot, but this time around it kind of just happened. I had moved into the top 10, but was about to travel around Europe for a bit to play live and then to the Bahamas for the PCA, so I thought I wouldn’t have any chance because I didn’t expect to play much online. Luckily, I was able to win the Warm-Up on a Sunday while in Amsterdam during one of my first weeks in Europe. Unfortunately, I bricked pretty hard the rest of my Europe trip.

At PCA, I invested a lot into myself and final table bubbled the $5K I had chopped the previous year. I bricked everything else including the $25K High Roller twice, so after an expensive couple of months, I immediately came back to Costa Rica and have been putting in a lot of hours trying to recover. I have been running pretty well since I got back and had a couple of good scores, so I had a feeling the Full Tilt Sunday Major win might would propel me to #1 even though I started the week all the way down at #4.

PocketFives: Talk about winning the Full Tilt Sunday Major last weekend.

Chris Hunichen: The Sunday Major is unique because it has incremental blind increases as the tournament goes on and allows one reentry. The blinds start off at 12 minutes, go up to 15, and then eventually end at 20. I feel like this benefits good players a lot and gives me an advantage over some of the recreational players and satellite winners that were still in the tournament deep.

It used to be one of the best tournaments on the internet pre-Black Friday, but since Full Tilt has re-opened, there have been a lot fewer people playing and the prize pools have been much smaller, with fewer recreational players.

When I got to the final table, two of my friends were there, Sean Ripp (SirCrafty) and former November Niner Joseph Cheong (subiime, pictured), who are very tough opponents, and the rest of the players I knew absolutely nothing about. Joe ended up going out in seventh, which allowed me to be able to work my position throughout the final table without any problems.

I eventually got three-handed with Sean and donkno2and was fortunate to come out on top in a big all-in pre-flop flip, my 6-6 to Sean’s K-Q. I won the heads-up match to get my first ever Sunday Major win on Full Tilt.

PocketFives: Do you do anything to celebrate these kinds of achievements?

Chris Hunichen: Not really. I play a lot of poker, have been playing high-stakes for years, and one thing that’s for sure is if you play high volume like I do, you have to win consistently not to go broke. Every day I play, my tournament buy-ins range from $3K to $10K, usually around $4,500 on average, and so it’s important to stay consistent in order to be successful. I also quit drinking alcohol over a year ago, so I don’t do too much celebrating these days. I stay on the grind and continue to try to improve every day to stay ahead of the curve.

PocketFives: Did you ever think when you started in poker that you’d come this far?

Chris Hunichen: From the beginning, I always knew this is what I wanted to do. I have always been very competitive and played several sports year-round growing up. After growing up and not being able to play sports competitively anymore, poker allowed me to get that competitiveness back in my life.

Add on the fact that I could make this my job if I took it seriously enough and could make a career out of poker and I knew this was for me. After getting my Bachelor’s degree in four years from East Carolina University in 2006, I went back for another three years and earned my MBA.

I started playing poker my freshman year and continued to play throughout college. After receiving my degrees, I ultimately had to make a life decision whether I would get a real job or play poker professionally. I asked my first ever backer at the time, Matt Graham (mattg1983, pictured), for his thoughts and he told me he was positive I could go the poker route if I worked hard. So, that’s what I did and, ever since, I have given my heart and soul to this game and put in many hours to try to give myself a chance to play at the highest level.

PocketFives: What advice do you have for up-and-coming tournament players?

Chris Hunichen: My advice would be to try to never get backed, always play on your own dime selling action if you need, and be really good with bankroll management. Unfortunately for me, I wish I had people to tell me this because I have made a lot of money that has disappeared in many ways. It’s okay to take shots from time to time, but it’s very important to keep strict bankroll management, and that has always been one of my biggest flaws.

Additionally, make sure to pay your taxes and be very smart about keeping up with write-offs and deductions. If you allow taxes to get backed up, the IRS can make your life pretty miserable. One of the biggest problems I’ve seen in the poker industry is players getting into tax troubles. It can be very difficult to stay organized and difficult to keep up with records. Once you get behind on your taxes, the fines and fees add up and it makes it very difficult to get back on track.

PocketFives: Besides yourself, who is the top online tournament player out there right now?

Chris Hunichen: Poker has gotten extremely hard. It’s very difficult these days and everyone has become very good. It’s hard to say, but if I had to name a few of the people I thought were the best online players in the game right now, it would probably be European, p0cket00, Fresh_Oo_D, s_dot111, cal42688 (pictured), pleno1, and an honorable mention to Zackattak13 because despite a lot of hate, he has consistently crushed year after year and his graph goes straight up.

PocketFives: Remind us how you got started in poker.

Chris Hunichen: I started out in college playing $20 home games for fun with friends and progressed to online poker mainly for fun as well. I started off on PartyPoker before it was originally banned in the US and played on PokerRoom and Hollywood Poker. I was not very good at the time, but it was where it all started and where I first gained an addiction to play consistently.

For a period of my college life, I was too dedicated, had lost touch with balance in my life, and was glued to my screen, but it was all a great learning experience and allowed me to freely live the life that I have now in Costa Rica with my friends and gorgeous girlfriend Heilyn.

PocketFives: What else do you do besides poker? What else occupies your time?

Chris Hunichen: I have always been a sports fanatic, so I spend a lot of time following sports. Every year, I purchase MLB TV, NFL Sunday Ticket, and the NBA package. I play some daily fantasy sports here and there, but haven’t gotten into it too much. My girlfriend’s kid just turned two years old and he is a little wild man these days, so most of my non-poker time goes toward my girlfriend, the kid, hanging out with my friends in Costa Rica, playing video games, and tubing or wakeboarding on the boat.

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