JF: You weren’t left with a bad taste?

JY: The tournament structure is the best in the world. You start with 50,000 chips versus 10,000 to 20,000 in most professional tournaments, and the blind levels are two hours long. [Note: This means that the required rotating antes are low with respect to the size of the players’ initial chip counts and they do not increase that frequently. This makes the game less prone to luck.] It takes patience and time. It takes mental strength and focus.

JF: Did you do anything special to prepare for the World Series?

JY: My close buddies and I bought a subscription to a website to review strategies, how to play certain positions and how to extract the most from other players. I also watched Daniel Negreanu’s Masterclass online. Chris Moorman’s Book of Poker was also helpful. These resources really help with game theory for optimal strategies.

JF: How long did you have to be in Las Vegas for the tournament?

JY: Seven days, but I blocked off two weeks just in case; that’s how long you need to be available.

JF: I like the confidence!

JY: Yeah, but I only booked the hotel for the first three days. Once I survived day one, I had to book another hotel night. Vegas was packed because there was an Ultimate Fighting Championship event happening too. So, I had to switch hotels which was a little stressful.

JF: Walk us through a day at the World Series of Poker.

JY: I try to be as healthy as possible: Get a minimum of eight hours of sleep, don’t set an alarm other than an hour before the tournament starts, just to be safe, eat breakfast (I eat a healthy egg white omelet), drink some coffee to stimulate my mind.

JF: How do you even register?

JY: You can actually carry $10,000 in cash and just register the day of. Or you can sign up a well in advance. I did it ahead of time, because I didn’t want to get robbed while having 10 grand on me. If you’d paid ahead of time, you get your seat assignment pretty quickly.

JF: How long are you playing at a time?

JY: Two hours of play, followed by a 30-minute break. Then, there’s one main dinner break. Depending on the day and the ESPN coverage, you don’t always know when you’ll get a dinner break. Each day is 12.5 hours.