Poker pro Steve Sung took home the victory in the $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Stimulus Special during the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP). He banked $771,000 from the 6,012 player field, the largest ever assembled for a tournament outside of the Main Event and the fourth biggest of all-time. The talented final nine included Panayote Vilandos (second for $473,282), James Matz (third for $313,826), Larry Sidebotham (fourth for $227,253), Nathaniel Mullen (fifth for $175,851), Dan Heimiller (sixth for $145,009), Jeffrey Oakes (seventh for $126,612), Phong Huynh (eighth for $117,414), and Daniel Fuhs (ninth for $114,167).
It was Sung’s fourth WSOP final table. In 2007, he grabbed third place in a $1,500 buy-in Seven Card Stud tournament for $51,000 and finished ninth for nearly the same amount in that year’s World Championship of Pot Limit Omaha. Last year, he finished seventh in the $10,000 buy-in World Championship of Seven Card Stud High-Low Split Eight or Better for $46,000. Poker News Daily caught up with Sung a few days after his first bracelet win.
Poker News Daily: What mindset did you come in with on Day One of a WSOP event like the $1,000 buy-in Stimulus Special?
Sung: I really needed to gamble more. We only started with 3,000 in chips and you need to have 18 million to win the tournament. You have to accumulate chips fast.
PND: Did you get off to a fast start on Day One?
Sung: I did and then bluffed a lot of my chips away to go down to about eight big blinds. There was a really interesting hand where everyone folded to me in the cutoff and I moved all-in for six big blinds with K-8 offsuit. The button thought and then later told me he had A-7 offsuit. The small blind thought and it turned out that he had K-J offsuit. The big blind, Brett “gank” Jungblut, called me with two sevens. I was in a race situation.
PND: You won another big race against Jack “doctor_fun” Powell. Was that the moment when you started thinking about the final table?
Sung: It was my two queens against A-K. I was thinking about the final table, but I was really trying to wait player by player because anyone can bust out at any moment.
PND: Was there anyone in the late stages of the WSOP tournament that you had trouble with or thought was your toughest competition?
Sung: I would say that my toughest competition was Dan Heimiller by far. There was another Asian guy named Steve who was a really tough player, but lost a big hand with pocket aces pre-flop against A-K. He was one of the toughest opponents as well.
PND: Is the big win going to change which events you play in during the 2009 WSOP?
Sung: No. I’m just going to try to just go with the flow and go with the momentum.
PND: We know you’re a big “American Idol” fan. Who were you pulling for, Kris Allen or Adam Lambert?
Sung: I felt like Adam Lambert deserved it, but I was happy that Kris won as well.
