Player Interview: UFPokerStar

By James Hipwell

29 May 2007

Johnathan Westra is one of Bodog's most successful players...

Name/Age/Location/Poker ID and why you chose it? Johnathan Westra, age 21 from Gainesville, Florida. My screen name "UFPokerStar" comes from being a University of Florida student at present.

What poker sites do you currently play on now?

Bodog and PokerStars.

When or what started you off in playing poker? How were your early experiences in learning how to play?

I started playing poker regularly when I moved to college at .25/.50 no limit home games. I did very well early and slowly raised my limits.

How did you start off your online bankroll?

I made good money at low limit home games and put the profits online and played lots of SNGs to build my roll.

So what factors/skills /attributes got you to that level?

I’m very good with numbers added with the potential for big money makes poker a natural fit for my skills.

How much money have you made from online poker in the last two years?

About $200,000. My biggest win was on Bodog where I won $14,000 heads up against Josh Arieh in the Weekly TLB Heads Up Match.

Do you play Sit ‘n’ Gos and, if so, which ones are your favorites?

I love $220 six-handed SNGs and $110 turbo heads-up games.

If you play MTTs what are your golden rules?

I only have one rule and that’s to have enough chips to survive the blinds. Never just sit back and blind out of tourneys.

Do you play live, and if so, where/when did you play? Best live results?

Since I turned 21 in October I’ve spent half my time playing online and half live. I’ve been to Vegas six times since; I also went to LA for the WPT celebrity invitational, Reno for WPT events, and New Orleans for WSOP Circuit Events. I chopped Event 6 ($1,500 buy in) at the Five Diamond Classic at the Bellagio heads up for $223k. I also chopped a WSOP circuit event at Caesars Las Vegas for $34k four-handed.

Has there ever been a time when things just weren't going right for you while playing poker? What was your worst run ever and what did you do to get through these times?

I was in Reno, Nevada in March for the WPT events. For the entire series I would just run into the worst luck at the worst possible times. Instead of tilting away a lot of money I took a few days off to go snowboarding and when I came back I grinded satellites non-stop. The trip was still a loss, but I made over $15k in the satellites to counteract the loses from the MTTs.

Who is your favorite professional poker player and why?

Allen Cunningham as he plays a very solid basic poker style with amazing reads. He may not be the most entertaining, but his style is set for short and long run consistency. He constantly finishes high in every event and if he loses it’s usually on a suck out.

Which adjectives best describe your style of play?

My style of poker changes based on the blinds and my knowledge of the table. Early tourney or new table I play tight, solid, patient poker. My late tourney strategy is aggressive towards shorter stacks and tighter players, but solid semi-aggressive versus larger stacks and aggressive players.

There’s got to be something that sticks out in your mind as a particularly good mindset or a strategy that has helped you in tournament play thus far. What is it?

I learned really quick that you are always in a tourney as long as you can survive the blinds. The Five Diamond Classic event that I chopped I was short-stacked for the first 11 hours of the tourney till the bubble came around and I opened up since the blinds were large and people were playing conservatively.

What proportion of poker is luck and what proportion skill?

I would say 80% is skill 20% is luck. Playing good solid poker is great, but you can’t win a tourney without luck. You have to survive a lot of coin flips and 60/40’s to win and if you lose the wrong coin flip you may be out.

What do you consider is your biggest accomplishment in poker?

I think my biggest accomplishment would be how successful my switch from ring games and SNGs to MTTs went. Before June '06 I played maybe five online MTTs, but with a large promotion for the weekly tourney leader board on Bodog I decided to switch my game and have never looked back.

Do you have one memorable hand you would like to share?

Only hand I can think of is the suck-out that set my bankroll off. There were 17 players left in Event 6 at the Five Diamond Classic at the Bellagio. Farzad Bonyadi was the huge chip leader playing a great aggressive big stack raises in position, an aggressive shorter stack who has been looking for a spot to push finally does. I have Jacks in the small blind. I knew I had Bonyadi beat for sure and I'm probably destroying the other guy also, so I push. The big blind wakes up with QQ and calls, Bonyadi folds, while the short stack has A7. The flop comes up empty for me, the turn was a blank but a beautiful $220k Jack comes on the river.

Which online poker players do you consider to be the best? And why?

I think the best online poker players in the country are all from Title town AKA Gainesville, FL. We have last year's #1 leader board player for Bodog (Nevertilt22) and PokerStars (Tnetter). Along with them there is Fppoker, Head2782 and Papadelpoker. The Gainesville guys are the best because along with very strong records most of us are still going to school.

What are some tips and tricks you can give out to the readers that might improve their games/build a bankroll? What do you suggest is the best ways to improve?

I think the best tip I could give someone is to play a lot of turbo SNGs. Play ones only within your bankroll. This will help you slowly build a bankroll, but more importantly it’ll teach you how to play blinds and I think that’s the most important thing for MTTs.

Which one poker book/video, if any, revolutionised the way you play poker?

The Zen of Poker which showed me patience as before that I was pretty easy to put on tilt, but this book showed me that if you just wait, eventually things will roll your way so there's no reason to stress out.

Do you want to say ‘Hi’ to anyone?

Yeah sure, how about a quick shout-out to the Bodog grinders. I’ll see you guys at the tables...get those chips ready for me.