You Gotta Fight for Your Right to Party
On the second Sunday of 2012, the PartyPoker $200,000 Guaranteedbrought out a field of 1,391 players. As a result, the prize pool of the $215 gala was 50% larger than its guarantee at nearly $300,000 and the top 99 players walked away with some dough. For Romania’s Valentin busto23Vornicu (pictured), the tournament marked his very first Sunday Major win and a $59,000 bankroll boost for good measure. He’s up to over $125,000 in tracked scores, owns a WSOP Circuit gold ring, and spoke with PocketFives about what the win means to him. Oh yeah, and he’s a math whiz.
PocketFives: Congratulations on taking down the $200,000 Guaranteed on PartyPoker. Tell us how you’re feeling about it.
Valentin Vornicu: It feels great. It was my first five-figure online score and it was also my first Sunday Major ship. At the time, I was also playing a full PokerStarsschedule and making a deep run in the Sunday Million. I was 40/155 left in the Sunday Million and 12/15 left in the PartyPoker $200K. I decided to stop registering for all of the other stuff to focus on those two tournaments.
To be honest, I was feeling more tingles from the Sunday Million, but it didn’t work out. Some guy decided he didn’t care and made a call with A-9 for 25 big blinds pre-flop. I had shown nothing but a Q-Q and folded the past two orbits and the guy had like 45/35 stats, 100% steal. So, I reshipped J-10 from the small blind for 25 big blinds to his cutoff open and he tank-called. I bricked a K-Q-X flop.
PocketFives: What are your plans for the money?
Valentin Vornicu: I had a backing deal that just started. Basically, if you look at my online history, you’ll see that I had played only low buy-ins until Black Friday. Since then, my game has evolved a lot. I’m playing on Merge, where I had five-digit Sundays on my own dime shipping the $60 Rebuy and $33 Rebuy on the same day. Two weeks after that, I got second in the $60 Rebuy and third in the $33 Rebuy.
Then, I talked to imawhale26, a guy who buys action on TwoPlusTwo, and he decided to stake me for high-stakes online poker while I was in Romania. So, for my cut, I will probably keep investing in my poker bankroll.
PocketFives: Can you tell us about the effect that Black Fridayhad on your poker career?
Valentin Vornicu: I’m a Romanian citizen. I own a residence in Romania and one in California. I went to Romania for one month to play and I’ll probably be back soon after I hit up the WSOP Circuit stops in the U.S. I have friends and family in Romania and I have friends and family in California, so I have to make it work. I’m sure I’m not the only one doing this, but maybe Romania and California are a little further apart than what other people are doing.
PocketFives: You won a WSOP Circuit gold ring last October in a $1,100 No Limit Hold’em event in Hammond. Have you played live poker in Romania?
Valentin Vornicu: I have. The play is very different than live play in the U.S. People like to see more flops and there’s no fold button pre-flop. Having A-A on 2-5-K flop is really scary in Romania, but in the U.S., it’s value town.
PocketFives: How did you get started in poker?
Valentin Vornicu: I started playing while in the U.S. on Full Tilt, which to this day still has my money. I loved their software compared to PokerStars; however, after playing for the first time in six months on PokerStars recently, they have really upgraded the software and I love it.
PartyPoker is close too. Their tournament structures are really good compared to what they used to be. My style of play is more along the lines of double-or-nothing. I would rather get to the final table as the chip leader than fold into it. Most of the final tables I make, I’m usually in the top two stacks.
PocketFives: Why did you decide to roll with that as your general strategy?
Valentin Vornicu: Having a lot of chips at the final table is essential. If you’re coming in short, the money is at top three, so you would have to play really tight. Your chances of shipping are small and usually pretty dependent on getting some cards. If you get to the final table with 20 big blinds or less, you usually end up getting fifth or worse.
If you get to the final table with 40 big blinds or more and you’re a good player, you should usually end up in the top three. Anything can happen, but I like having a big stack and putting pressure on my opponents.
