Yong ��LuckySpewy1�� Kwon Named 2020 WSOP.com Player of the Year
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When it comes to US-based online poker pros, you��d be hard pressed to find one more talented and accomplished than Yong ��LuckySpewy1�� Kwon, who goes by ��YK�� was recently named the 2020 WSOP.com Player of the Year.
The 31-year-old Kwon, who plays from New Jersey, collected $10,000 in cash and an exclusive WSOP.com Player of the Year ring for accomplishing the feat.
��I'm well known for the hours/grind I put in online, so it's nice to get recognition for what I do. However, the WSOP.com POY title wasn't something I strived for,�� YK told PokerNews. ��I know that putting in volume/hours as a professional poker player is an essential part of success so I'm trying to play as many days as possible. I remember some regulars were losing it when they saw me playing $10-$30 satellites the day after I won the bracelet but that's just who I am.��
Oh yeah, in addition to being the new WSOP.com POY, YK is also a bracelet winner after he topped a field of 2,825 entries to win the 2019 WSOP Event #7: $400 NLH Online for $165,263.
He��s also claimed numerous partypoker US titles including last year��s WPT Online Borgata Series powered by partypoker US Network Event #2: $109 NLHE R+A $10,000 GTD for $6,933, a pair of PokerStars NJCOOP titles, a NJSCOOP title, and more than $3.8 million in online tournament earnings according to PocketFives.
2020 WSOP.com Player of the Year Points
| Place | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yong "LuckySpewy1" Kwon | 73,039.91 |
| 2 | Krista "Pollux" Gifford | 63,265.86 |
| 3 | Anthony "boom81boom" Chin | 59,173.24 |
| 4 | David "dehhhhh" Coleman | 58,162.66 |
| 5 | Andrew "WATCHGUY42" Lichtenberger | 57,631.62 |
| 6 | James "PRPirate420" Vales | 55,377.44 |
| 7 | Angel "ChromeKing" Lopez | 50,445.25 |
| 8 | Alexander "ShadowFiend1" Condon | 49,718.15 |
| 9 | Tony "Panoramic" Dunst | 49,626.44 |
| 10 | Jonathan "jetsfan14" Borenstein | 48,951.80 |
The Allure of Poker
YK moved to the United States from South Korea when he was just 10 years old. He��s resided in New Jersey ever since and got into the game after watching High Stakes Poker and the WSOP on television.
��I always thought poker professionals were cool,�� he said. ��When my parents saw me watching these shows, they always told me how they knew someone who lost everything gambling so wanting to be a poker professional was something that I kept to myself.��
By the time he was in college, YK was 24 tabling Full Tilt Poker $10-$25 SNGs from his dorm.
��I came up with this idea of finishing college in three years to have an extra year to try poker. In order to graduate early, I took classes over the summer. I remember taking four classes in a month or two where I was in the classroom from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. and when I got back to my room, I would take another online course while playing online poker.��
The plan worked as he ended up graduating from college in the planned three years with a 3.7 GPA. He earned a year to pursue poker full time, but this was in 2011, so those plans were detailed by Black Friday. As a result, he got a job as a programmer.
Fortunately, New Jersey would soon offer legalized online poker, so YK was back in the game.
It's All About the Grind
YK, who is married and has a 17-month-old son, has been a volume beast for the past six years. He strictly plays pot-limit Omaha cash and NLHE/PLO MTTs.
��I think I played close to 1.6 million hands of PLO cash and another million hands in MTTs,�� he said. ��I semi-retired from PLO cash but lately I'm playing them both again.��
The grind paid off big time in 2019 when YK capture WSOP gold.
��I never thought about winning a bracelet before this WSOP online bracelet existed,�� he said. ��The only way to win one was to fly out to Vegas. I never really enjoyed playing live poker and when I did, I might have been the worst player in the whole field because I was always trying to bluff a guy Level 1 trying to get him to fold aces. Some of my poker buddies offered me some insane odds (500:1) on me winning a bracelet and I never took the bet because I never saw myself winning a bracelet playing live.��
"I played for about 14 hours straight and by 7 a.m. I won the WSOP bracelet and $165k."
Fortunately, the WSOP introduced online bracelet events in 2018. What��s more, players didn��t have to travel to Las Vegas, they just needed to be either in Nevada or New Jersey.
��By this time, I was playing all the tournaments offered in New Jersey from $5 satellites to $1Ks. The prize pool in NJ regulated poker sites have been pretty small compared to what it is now and this WSOP online bracelet prize pool was 10x what I was playing for so I was very excited.��
He continued: ��Before I registered that WSOP.com bracelet event on Sunday, I was walking at a park with my wife, and I don't know why but I told her, ��It's going to be a long night.�� I played for about 14 hours straight and by 7 a.m. I won the WSOP bracelet and $165k. I remember sprinting across my house to tell my wife that I won the bracelet event like a kid on a Christmas day. I've won countless tournaments online but this one just felt different.��
The heater continued for YK as a week after the bracelet win he won the WSOP.com $500 buy-in, $300K GTD NLH for another $121K, meaning he won over $300K in 10 days. It was good enough to earn him the PocketFives Monthly Leaderboard that month.
So, what��s in store for a man with a laundry list of poker accomplishments?
��I don't really have many poker goals other than putting in volume/grinding, but something new in 2021 would be to stream poker. I have everything set up to stream so it should be happening very soon.��
In addition, while live poker has never been his jam �C he once flew out to Vegas after winning two $10K WSOP Main Event seats only to sell them for $20K and spend his time watching and betting World Cup games �C YK isn��t ruling it out once it rebounds post-pandemic.
��I actually plan to play more live poker going forward,�� he said.
For more on YK, be sure to follow him on Twitter @LuckySpewy1.
