AJKHoosier has online prizes totalling well over $1.5million.Even the casual online tournament player will probably have heard of ‘AJKHooser1’, whose MTT exploits in the last two years have become legendary.
Real name Alex Kamberis, Hoosier has been cleaning up across the major sites, with over 35 five figure scores and beyond in the biggest tournaments the net has to offer. This has all totted up to prizes of over $1million on PokerStars and more than $500,000 on Full Tilt.
His biggest score to date came in the Full Tilt $1million Guaranteed (in July 2008), where he fought through 2,396 players to finish runnerup for a monster cash of $134,895. It actually turned out to be a rather sick month even for Kamberis’ standards, as the next week he took down the Absolute Poker $150,000 GTD for a further $27,500.
But its on Stars that he has really cut loose and is arguably the most successful $100 & $200 rebuy player the site has ever seen. He has won the $100 version an astonishing four times, the biggest cash coming in November 2007 for $40,075. In fact, he has finished in the top four of this event on a mindboggling nine occasions! The $200 rebuy hasn’t escaped his wrath, either, and has taken it down twice (in June ’07 for $47,080 & in October ’07 for $57,475), as well as a second and fifth in the same event. Combining all of his total cashes in the two rebuy tournaments, the figure is close to $500,000. He is no onetrick pony, however, and has also taken down the notorious weekly Hundred Fifty Grand (December ’07) for a further $45,960.
Residing in Bloomington, Indiana, Kamberis is playing live tournament with increasing frequency and already has offline earnings of over $120,000. His biggest score to date was in the WPT Doyle Brunson Classic (December ’07), where he came in 30th for $57,815. In his excellent blog in Bluff he says the 2008 WSOP did not go to plan and secured just the one cash, the $5,000 NLH, where he busted in 34th for a modest $16,147. He is one of the darlings of P5’s, being regularly in their top 10 rankings as well as being a contributing writer, and has recently become an instructor on Poker XFactor (where he has published a video of one of his $100 rebuys victories). After taking the last two years off college to focus on his poker, Kamberis now says he will return to Indiana University to finish his studies (unlike most of the young pros) and this down to earth attitude should ensure he is one of the most respected tournament players going for a long time to come.
SH: Firstly, congratulations on your 2008 so far: what’s your secret to being such a consistent player in online tournament poker?
Alex Kamberis: First off, I put in a good amount of hours with a very regular schedule. I play almost every Sunday, MonWeds nights, and most Saturday afternoons. I treat it like a job, and I think the consistent success goes hand in hand with that. Also, it takes a lottt to make me tilt… I think that a lot of good tournament regulars throw away a good amount of buyins simply because they tilt them away.
SH: Obviously your biggest cash of the year was in the WCOOP Main Event. Were you disappointed that you didn’t manage to win the whole thing after getting so far?
Alex Kamberis: While it really took a few days to set in that I’d just won so much money, it didn’t take any time at all for that disappointment to set in. My initial reaction in the hours after the tournament was very subdued, which the people around me would definitely confirm. I was pretty genuinely upset that I didn’t take it down, especially since I ran really bad at the final two tables, and grinded very hard to mount a big comeback at the FT. I’m still lacking a major first place (my biggest scores have come in 2nd and 3rd place finishes), and to win the biggest online tournament ever would obviously have been verrrry fulfilling. It took a solid day or so to stop feeling disappointed and start feeling proud.
SH: And would you say that result was the highlight of your career to date?
Alex Kamberis: Absolutely not sure how that could be debateable. It is six times bigger than my second biggest score, and like I said, I don’t have any major first places yet, or any TV final tables.
SH: You’ve had a few cashes in live tournaments this year – are you planning on playing an increasing amount of offline events?
Alex Kamberis: I really haven’t played many live tournaments at all… probably about a halfschedule over the course of one year. I’ve had some success in prelims and a couple deep runs in WPT majors (and one WSOP event) which have made me really hungry for more but… since I’m going back to school in the spring, the live poker is going to have to be on hold until WSOP. I’ll be at the Bellagio Five Diamond in December, and the PCA in January, but that’s gonna be it for now, which is pretty unfortunate because you really need to put in a lot of volume live to have the kind of success I’d like.
Top of Pocket Fives Rankings
Came 3rd in PokerStars WCOOP Main Event
Three time Triple Crown winner
Multiple wins in $100 & $200 ReBuys
SH: You’ve been at the top of online tournament poker for a while now – do you feel that the fields are still getting tougher? And on that note, which major MTT would you say has the toughest field?
Alex Kamberis: The fields are getting tougher, but overall I still see a lot of absolutely horrible play. People say that tournaments, and especially sitngo’s are starting to become unbeatable, but I definitely don’t buy that. There will always be a lotttt of horrible players in poker, thank God. = )
The toughest field every week is probably the PokerStars $200+Rebuys, but I’ve been fortunate to have incredible success in that. Strangely, the sofest major field is (easily) the Sunday Million, and it’s probably the tournament I’ve had the worst results in by far. That’s poker for ya.
SH: Are you one of the players caught up in the Omaha boom at the moment? Do you have plans to expand your tournament game with the likes of Omaha and H.O.R.S.E?
Alex Kamberis: I’m just now starting to play more cash games, and that’s including a decent amount of PLO. As of right now, the competition is a lot softer than it is in NLHE, and the games are incredibly beatable, even at midhigh stakes. Also, I satellited into the Full Tilt $25k PLO Headsup Championship, won my first round match, and had a very close, hardfought battle against one of the best cash game players on Full Tilt (trex313) in the second match, so I was somewhat proud of that. Overall though, I’m definitely still working on my game… it’s a great way to break the routine from NL.
SH: Do you play cash at all and if so what levels?
Alex Kamberis: Right now I’m just playing 3/6, since I’m still working on my game, but will be working my way up the ranks pretty soon. When I play cash games while on the tournament trail, it’s usually around 25/50.
SH: You probably get this a lot but which online players would you say are your toughest opponents? Who do you really not want to see next to you on a final table?
Alex Kamberis: The guys who I think are the best in the world online are Mr. Menlo, mig.com, and SCTrojans. They are the best at playing a style that is fundamentally perfect, while still being very aggressive. Really though, there’s a lottttt of other players whose games I respect a ton, and hate to play against. There’s not nearly enough room to list them all here.
SH: How long do you see yourself being involved in the game? Do you have any plans to get out of poker at some point and what do you see yourself doing if you weren’t a poker player?
Alex Kamberis: I’m sure to some extent, I’ll be playing poker for my entire life. For now, my plan is just to play until I have enough money to support myself (and a family) for a while, so that I can branch out into other ventures, like investing, running a business, working with a charity, etc… maybe even politics, but that’s probably a reach. Eventually, I want to go back to school (again) and get a graduate’s degree, and maybe use it to teach college courses.
I’ll always love to travel and play the major live tournaments I can’t imagine a single year for the rest of my life where I won’t play the WSOP Main Event, for example but I’d say it’s really unlikely that I’ll still be playing online poker in a few years. It’s been a great way for me to make a lot of money and make a name for myself, but it’s not something I want to do with the rest of my life. I have much bigger goals than that, both careerbased and otherwise.
SH: And finally, what are your poker plans for the rest of 2008? Another triple crown perhaps?
Alex Kamberis: I’ll be playing a regular online schedule through October and November, which includes the upcoming FTOPS series on Full Tilt. In December I’ll be playing the WPT Five Diamond series at the Bellagio. I might be spending New Years in Vegas, but I’m not really sure yet. Obviously, I’ll be spending some time with my family over Thanksgiving and Christmas, which I’m really looking forward to.
The online accomplishments (especially those like the Triple Crown, which can be achieved while barely even profitting) are a little played out. The Online Player of the Year would be a great honor to achieve, but I’m hoping I already have that locked up. Otherwise, i don’t really think about that stuff much anymore. All of the accomplishments I’m looking for are in the live poker arena now, so hopefully in 2009, I can start making some of those dreams come true. = )
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