To avoid boredom in environmental science class in high school, Brian Yoon would write poker quizzes for his best friend.
Together the two boys would improve their poker skills, proposing the smartest response to hypothetical situations they invented.
Now, Yoon, a fourth-year economics student at UCLA, will turn his high school hobby into a full-time profession after he graduates this quarter.
Yoon began his poker career playing online for free. Eventually 20 cents earned here and there added up to a real dollar that he used to enter in an online tournament that had a fee to register.
Over time, he multiplied that dollar. Since he began playing, he has won more than $200,000 between online and in-person tournaments.
Last summer, he won $131,000 dollars in the main event at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. He describes it as one of the most surreal moments of his life.
Yoon was even shown on ESPN, much to his friends’ excitement. But Daniel Strelitz, the one who took Yoon’s poker quizzes in high school and a professional poker player himself, said he felt ESPN showed hands that made Yoon appear less skilled than he is.
Yoon said, however, that that’s the nature of television poker. And his poker face? Yoon said the media sensationalizes that part of poker too much.
“(The media) makes it about reading souls,” Yoon said. “Maybe that’s 5 percent of the game, but the rest is just playing poker.”
Yoon attributes his success to hours of hard work and number crunching, not poker superstitions. Poker is a game against other people, not the casino, which means that the player is more in control, he said.
He only recently bought sunglasses ““ not to improve his poker face, but to hide the fact that he is watching the others playing against him, he said.
Last spring, however, his winnings took a hit when some of the biggest online poker sites were shut down by the U.S. Department of Justice for unlawful behavior. Online poker has yet to be restored in the United States on a large scale.
The shutdown, referred to as “Black Friday” by Yoon and other poker players, hit hard, since online poker was Yoon’s main source of winnings. When he played frequently, Yoon would participate in 15-40 tournaments a day, sometimes taking more than 10 hours a day, three to four days a week.
Online is also where Yoon is most comfortable playing poker. Yoon’s older brother, Charles Yoon, introduced him to online poker. Playing in person is similar, but requires a small adjustment, he said. Yoon said he prefers online for its more consistent income.
“The time commitment is probably similar to a day job, but the hourly is better,” Yoon said, laughing.
Being closed off from poker sites during the shutdown had a silver lining, however. Yoon became more involved in college life, joining the business fraternity Delta Sigma Pi in the fall quarter of his third year.
Before that, he decided not to drop out to pursue his career because he did not want to miss out on the college experience, he said.
“I didn’t capitalize on UCLA as much,” Yoon said of his first two years in college. “It’s kind of a good thing that (online poker in the U.S.) got shut down, I guess.”
Now that his college career is ending, he’s looking ahead to a future in professional poker. His family supports him in his career choice, he said.
“He’s good at what he does, and should continue to play,” said his brother, Charles Yoon.
His friend Strelitz has already dropped out of UC Irvine to play poker professionally. The two have known each other since middle school and both say they will likely move to Canada to continue playing online, as the ban remains in place in the United States.
Their friendship does not mean they go easy on each other. The two often play for bragging rights, and the competition is aggressive. It means more to beat your best friend than to beat a random person, Yoon said.
As of late, Strelitz has been winning. With a chuckle, Yoon said he hopes that trend will change. After all, poker is all about waiting out the down times until one win brings you back, he said.