One member of the online poker community who tore up the virtual felts in May was Australia’s Jay SEABEASTKinkade. The Monthly PLB and two-time Triple Crown titleholder made his presence felt by winning the high-stakes version of Event #28 of the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), a $1,050 No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys tournament. Kinkade came out on top for just over $200,000. As we transition to the middle of 2010, PocketFives.com sat down with Kinkade to get his take on his recent online dominance.
The month of May also saw Kinkade come out on top in the UB.com$150,000 Guaranteed for $39,000 and finish second in a $100,000 Guaranteed High Roller event on PartyPokerfor another $18,000. Over the first 16 days of the month, Kinkade earned $334,000 in tournaments that are tracked for the Online Poker Rankings. You read that right, 16 days.
Despite his success, Kinkade told PocketFives.com that he’s been playing quite a bit less than normal: “I actually didn’t play much this year. I went back to university, moved to a different city (Melbourne), and was spending time doing other things. Then, when the SCOOP rolled around, I decided to play quite a lot during those two weeks, so I practiced for about a week beforehand and then those two weeks went pretty well.” All told, Kinkade cashed in five SCOOP events and found time to win the Full Tilt Poker $40,000 Guaranteed on May 8th.
His SCOOP title saw Kinkade blast through a field of 341 players to take down the lion’s share of a $1.1 million prize pool. The final table featured a high level of talent, including Jason JCarverSomerville (pictured at left) and Greg DuckU Hobson, the latter of whom appears in the Rankings.
Kinkade told us that the SCOOP win was overly satisfying: “I’ve put a lot of time and energy into MTTs and often felt like I didn’t have much of a chance to test myself deep in something that was tough and for quite a bit of money. I’ve always had a really consistent record in the daily mid- to high-stakes events, but haven’t had that many huge scores. It was awesome to get an experience like that to make it all worthwhile.”
Melbourne is 14 hours ahead of Eastern Time. Accordingly, Kinkade revealed that the SCOOP $1,050 rebuy ran from 7:00am until Midnight. Living on the other side of the world from many of his poker playing brethren can be quite difficult and Kinkade noted that he won’t be heading to Las Vegas this year for the World Series of Poker (WSOP): “I’ve only lived in Melbourne for a couple of months now, have a girlfriend here, and am enjoying life. I don’t really feel like taking a month holiday at the moment, although it will be tough to sit out the WSOP. I went the last two years and had a great time.”
Kinkade finished ninth in a $2,500 No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event during last year’s WSOP for $39,000. He won the Main Event of the 2008 Victorian Poker Championship in Melbourne for $186,000 and told us that he’s expanded his presence in live cash games: “I’ve been playing quite a bit of live high-stakes cash here in Australia. That’s fun and I can mix it in with studying. It’s less stressful, less of a fixed schedule than playing online tournaments, and more social.” His card room of choice is the Crown Casino Melbourne, site of the annual Aussie Millions.
Why would a successful MTTer diverge into the world of cash games? Kinkade explained, “I’m a little older than most PocketFivers (28) and having a balanced lifestyle has become increasingly important as I’ve gotten older. I like playing tournaments, but find it quite exhausting and they can detract from other things. I find it easier to balance cash games with other things. Plus, I also like a lot of the guys that play here, so I enjoy playing against them.” He can be found at Pot Limit Omaha and No Limit Hold’em cash game tables.
Kinkade sits in fifth on the Sortable Rankingsfor Australia, a leaderboard paced by 35th ranked Jonathan xMONSTERxDONGx Karamalikis:
Relive all of the action from the 2010 SCOOP by visiting PokerStars today. USA players are welcome!