In the first five months of 2010, accomplished poker pro Andrew achenChen has taken down the PartyPoker $300,000 Guaranteedexactly twice. His first win came back on the final day of January, when Chen topped the field for $38,000 after a four-way deal. On May 23rd, Chen took home the largest payday in the event once more, this time coming away with a $63,000 top prize after an outright victory. In between, his tournament cashes include a runner-up effort in the Full Tilt Poker Friday Night Fight for $19,000 and a win in the site’s $22 Cubed *1r+1a* for another $9,200. Just prior to the start of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), PocketFives.com sat down with Chen to recap his phenomenal five-month ride.
The $68,000 bankroll boost was the richest of Chen’s young poker career. He told PocketFives.com, “It's my biggest online score so far, my next biggest being $38,000 after chopping the same tournament earlier this year. It's especially big for me since I've had so many miserable seventh to 18th place finishes in big online tournaments until now.” Chen final tabled a Mixed Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha event during the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) for $7,600.
How did his run through the PartyPoker $300,000 Guaranteed in January compare to his latest win? Chen admitted, “In the first one, I chopped it four-handed with the chip lead, so I wouldn't call it a win since we didn't leave anything to play for. Obviously, this one was way sweeter. They both played out pretty similarly in that there were really, really short stacks that folded way too much and it was an ICM nightmare for the medium stacks. This time, I was the big stack all the way and won every all-in.”
Chen has been a force to be reckoned with on the live poker circuit. In December 2008, he took third in the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) Prague stop for $329,000. The following June, he was the runner-up to Germany’s Carsten Joh in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament during the 2009 WSOP for $412,000. More recently, Chen final tabled the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final in Monaco, adding $532,000 to his bankroll.
As you can tell, Chen has been highly successful in the brick and mortar poker world. He told PocketFives.com, “I've run really, really well on the live circuit, so most people are happy for me, but mostly more because I've run pretty badly in online tournaments rather than because of the money. Don't get me wrong; the money is obviously pretty sweet too.” According to the Hendon Mob database, Chen owns more than $1.4 million in live poker earnings since November 2008.
Chen will arrive in Las Vegas during the first week of action in the 2010 WSOP. The tournament series will be in full throttle by that point and he plans to enter every No Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Hold’em, and Pot Limit Omaha tournament he can with a $5,000 buy-in or less. He’ll also be one of the thousands of poker players to throw their hats into the ring for the Main Event, which begins on July 5th.
Riding his high into the Nevada desert, Chen told us that he doesn’t expect momentum to play a big role when the cards start to fly at the Rio: “I guess in a broad sense I think most people would generally feel more comfortable during an upswing versus a downswing. I'd like to think it wouldn't affect my game very much, as I have a decent amount of live experience and feel pretty comfortable as it is.” He has three WSOP cashes to his name; all three came last year and total nearly $430,000.
Chen was the lone member of the online poker community to reach the final table of the May 23rd installment of the PartyPoker $300,000 Guaranteed:
1. A_Chen – $63,000 (achen)
2. olikingkong – $36,000
3. Pancake_Whip – $21,750
4. giertje – $17,250
5. natsusu – $14,250
6. inheritance – $11,250
7. Akvee – $8,550
8. aranil16rus – $5,700
9. krazyie111 – $4,350
10. luukk1 – $3,000
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