There is half a six pack of Windhoek Lager leaning against some other alcohol on a white plastic table. The rest of the living room is sparse except for two oversized Pilate’s balls in the corner. A fridge for drinks sits against the main wall in place of a TV. It’s 11 am and this could be any student digs in the country. The two 22 year olds that live here are just waking up on this Thursday morning. Looking at this scene one would imagine that these two guys are about to head up the road to UCT or maybe relax before hitting a bartending job. It’s hard to believe that this scruffy student digs is home to two of the top online poker players in South Africa.

Daz summons the energy to make himself a cup of coffee before loping back upstairs in his bathrobe and logging onto his poker site. Thirty minutes later he has lost and won more money than most twenty two year olds will see in a few months of work. He is nonchalant as he chats to me about his strategy for the hands and his approach to poker. His flatmate and fellow poker player Andreas pops his head into the room to say hello. Andreas is known as Andvanwyk online and is also a high stakes grinder. He is on his way to catch some sun by the pool before heading out to lunch.

Daz has recently dropped out of University. “I was bored” he says. It’s easy to see why as he folds and raises at the highest stakes games online. His old micro-economics textbook is on the floor next to his bed and the irony is inescapable. Here is young guy making wagers with vastly complicated thought processes in a new online economy. Supply and Demand graphs and Marginal Utility have been replaced. by Pre-flop Raising Ranges and Fold Equity. The micro-economics textbook looks like a stone tablet in comparison to this new economy that he exists in.

Choosing to focus on online poker was a tough sell for his family. “They weren’t too happy in the beginning. My dad asks to be kept informed of how I am doing so I let him know. I don’t tell too many people how much money I am making” he says. Poker has become his singular focus. He explains, “It has to be my main focus, it’s my job”. It is difficult for a player’s family to come to terms with poker as a full time job. Most people see poker as pure gambling; people assume you need luck to win and that sooner or later your luck will run out. The reality is that if you dedicate yourself to the game the luck factor becomes less and less relevant. For some fortunate and hard working individuals poker is a viable and rewarding career choice.

The online world has changed poker radically. The advent of video training has given players an insight into the thought processes of the world’s most successful online players. Poker books are now being published prolifically and forum posting has connected poker players in a global market. Online poker is played at a very high pace giving dedicated players hundreds of thousands of hands in experience. The result is that with hard work and study one can make poker a success.

This is Daz’ formula and he sticks to it. For every hour that he spends at the table Daz spends half an hour studying the game in one form or another. Posting hands on forums and getting the advice of other people is a key element in his study of the game and one that he engages in regularly. Forum posting forces one to own up to how one’s play as anonymous players on the internet will not be shy to tell you how badly a hand was played. His desk is surrounded by poker books and the wall above his computer monitors is pasted with charts of different poker statistics. It is clear that this is someone who takes the game very seriously. A large printed page above his desk reads, “Trust Your Game”.
I ask Daz if the amounts of money he plays with get to him. While I watch him play he seems to remain calm. He chats and jokes with me whilst raking in pots that would make any normal person blush. He says the money doesn’t bother him. “This isn’t really a lot of money though,” he says. I ask him how many twenty two year olds make in a month what he just made in this 45 minute session. He laughs sheepishly and agrees that there probably aren’t too many. “Ok, maybe it is a lot of money,” he concedes.

It is the one great irony in poker that a lack of concern for money will result in the greatest return of that money. Daz seems to have this principle well and truly understood as he plays a style of poker way beyond the standard in South Africa. He is aggressive to a fault and plays a very wide range of hands. Most players are not willing to make large bets based on their gut instinct or on their read of a player. Daz is. He is willing and he is more than able to read a player for a hand and continue betting with it to the death regardless of the financial implication. “This isn’t money,” he says gesturing to his chips on the table, “this is just poker.”

Daz’ aggressive style forces his opponents to react to him. When he is at the table he calls all the shots. After losing a few hands with outlandish bluffs and calls Daz flops a pair of kings on a very dry board. His opponent bets into him and Daz thinks before fl at calling. The turn card is a blank and the player in the small blind shoves all his chips into the middle. Daz thinks for a short while and calls. The raiser shows a lowly pair of threes and Daz’ Kings scoop a big pot that more than covers his earlier losses. The opponent immediately leaves that table and one can almost sense that feeling that he has. How did he make such a big mistake? Why did he not give Daz any credit for a hand? Daz’ aggressive and almost wild style irritated his opponents into making suboptimal plays as they just cannot seem to give him credit for a good hand. Commenting on his style of play Daz chuckles, “When I make a good hand I get paid”.

Playing the player is a strategy that most poker players have heard before. Daz takes this strategy very seriously. He adopts a different approach for each situation he is faced with based on who his opponent is at the time. From a cursory glance at someone’s online screen name he is able to switch his decisions from folding to raising in an instant. Knowledge of your opponents is a key factor in Holdem and Daz will happily call people down very light to gain information. I ask him if he is okay with losing a buy in just to learn something about a player and he doesn’t hesitate for a second before saying yes. After almost every hand he plays he makes notes on his opponents and refers to them whenever he can.

We are nearing the end of our session when Andreas pops his head into the room and asks Daz to move his car. “Where are you going?” asks Daz. “Lunch with mom and dad”, replies Andreas. “Woo, party”, Daz mocks. Daz has forgotten about his poker hand at the table but from outside the room and with only a sideways glimpse at the screen Andreas says without skipping a beat, “Just bet that flop and bet pot on the turn if he calls”. I never knew Queen high was that good?