Jay Kinkade – SEABEAST

I think if all I did was play poker and be friends with poker players, I would go insane

Australian Jay Kinkade won the $750k GTD this month to add to his awesome collection of results….

Jay ‘SEABEAST’ Kinkade must be feeling on top of the world from down under right now.

The Australian, based in beautiful Perth, celebrated the biggest online result of his illustrious career two weeks ago with outright victory in Full Tilt’s flagship Sunday major, the $750k GTD, for a whopping $147,912. Kinkade fought through 4,187 other players to emerge victorious and it is the icing on the cake for a fantastic start to his year (he plays on Full Tilt as ‘THE_GOLDMINE’ & PokerStars as ‘shaihulud’). Other significant results in 2009 include a 3rd in the Stars $100 Re-Buys ($19,014), victory in FT’s $65k GTD ($24,622) as well as a 3rd in FTOPS Event #6 ($500 PLO) for $44,800.

These results probably came as no surprise to most online players in the know as ‘SEABEAST’ is also a formidable NLH cash player on Party Poker (at $10/$20 & $25/$50), a well respected coach on Leggo Poker & a regular contributor to the Two Plus Two forums. During his biggest ever win, taking down the Victorian Poker Championships in Melbourne for $186,477 (August ’08), he was wearing a ‘lol donkaments’ Barry Greenstein t-shirt to the delight of the forums!

SEABEAST is also a big name over at Pocket Fives, where in 2008 he won a Triple Crown as well as the monthly PLB race for October ’08 in the process. Notable successes in that heater included winning the Stars $50 Re-Buys ($25,850) & a 4th in the Full Tilt $1k Monday ($31,728) in the space of just 9 days. He told P5’s: “I had a pretty insane heater in October and then ran really badly in November and December. I was feeling disillusioned with tournaments, so I hardly played in January and February. I traveled, came back enthusiastic, and hit a big heater again.”

Given his world-class tournament results (with prizes of almost $1million on Stars & FT combined) it is surprising that Kinkade isn’t even one of the highest volume players online. If he is missing from a major Sunday event it could well be due to his band, Extortion – he told P5’s that he missed both the Aussie Millions & the WCOOP due to touring, but sees the plus side as well: “It sucks to miss big events, but it definitely keeps me sane. I think if all I did was play poker and be friends with poker players, I would go insane.”

There are not many renowned online Australian MTT players, with James ‘Andy McLEOD’ Obst a rare one that springs to mind, but ‘SEABEAST’ definitely deserves credit for being one of his nation’s top tournament players. Let’s hope his donkaments t-shirt will get some TV time at the WSOP.