Ian Steinman has had a very good summer compared to his last few. =

Ian ‘APokerJoker2’ Steinman, the #4-ranked online poker player in Nevada, has had himself a decent 2017 World Series of Poker. He’s cashed five times, including a final table, and now starts Day 1B of the Main Event with an above average stack of 94,300.

It’s a stark difference from years past for Steinman.

“I think I played 10 or 11 tournaments (this year). One was Lowball, ten were Hold’em and I had five cashes and a final table which is pretty crazy for me, because I’ve had terrible summers the last six or seven years,” said Steinman.

The numbers don’t lie. Prior to this year he had two WSOP cashes and just $6,729 in earnings. This summer he’s earned $70,658, with $48,276 coming from his seventh place finish in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event in late June. He gives one of his friends, Taylor Black, a some of the credit for giving him the confidence to play better.

“I think it all started because one of my best friends made the Colossus final table and ended up doing really well and it felt like a freeroll for me, and I didn’t even have a piece,” said Steinman, of Black’s $545,430 score for finishing second in the $565 buy-in event. “Just seeing him make it I was like ‘well if he can do it, then I can do it’. I’ve just been crushing since then, it’s been crazy. I’m running well and I think I’m probably playing well.”

Looking back now at his own final table appearance this summer, Steinman can’t help but wish things had gone better for him. His elimination hand saw him racing with AcKh against Brandon Ageloff’s QsQh for a pot worth over 75 big blinds.

“It hurts. It’s the standard conundrum where, I made a lot of money and I made the final table and I enjoyed every second of it but then it’s like I flipped for all the chips in play for a massive chip lead. Had I folded my way there it would (hurt) less, but the fact that I flipped a coin, I got in a $100,000 real money equity coin flip was brutal, ” said Steinman. “I’m super happy with all of it honestly, because money comes and goes, I would have liked to have won the bracelet, but other than that I’m super happy.”

Even though he’s had some success this summer, don’t expect to see him playing bigger buy-in events all over the world. It’s not necessarily an issue of bankroll, it’s about the travel required. Steinman isn’t comfortable flying thanks to a scary incident in his teenage years.

“I used to fly all the time. I took a plane trip when I was 15 with my high school band and there was a few of us that got stuck on a second plane. It ended up getting hit by lightning, all the lights went out, it dropped and people were praying,” said Steinman. “It totally traumatized me. I’ve flown once since then and it was a horrible experience.”

Even with that, he does want to travel more and has talked about doing hypnosis and other forms of therapy to get him past the fear.

“It’s like the final table. In the moment you can’t think about what’s really happening. You’re in a gigantic metal tube flying at 600 miles. I’m playing for more people make in eight years for first place, I can’t think about that. I just have to play,” said Steinman.

Even with the profitable summer he’s had, Steinman still wasn’t sold on playing the Main Event.

“Everybody was asking me if I was going to play it and I didn’t have any plans to play it, but I answered yes every single time and my friends were like, ‘You’re an idiot, you’re professional poker player, you’re going to play the Main Event’,” said Steinman.

He played the Main Event last summer, and even found himself flirting with a top stack late on Day 2. The next day his run was over and he had nothing to show for three days of effort.

“Last year I made Day 3, with 300,000 with the 2,400 big blind and I didn’t make the money, which is like six hours into Day 3 so it’s hard to say I played well. I feel like I played well but it had to be some kind of punt,” said Steinman.