Generation Next: Athanasios Polychronopoulos Enjoys the Good Life

Most online pros wake up at noon each day, take a shower, grab a not very nutritious breakfast, and then fire up a dozen tournaments. Thus begins another laborious day of the poker grind. It’s not uncommon for many players to enter as many as 15-30 tournaments daily, six days a week, hoping to make a few final tables and a juicy deep score. It’s a numbers game, a standard practice designed to beat the variance that goes hand in hand with playing multitable tournaments. But that life can be incredibly draining and can literally rip the love for the game right out of your heart. Then, the job you fell in love with turns into the job you hate, and your bottom-line profits can’t help but suffer.

Online pro Athanasios Polychronopoulos adheres to a philosophy that happens to be the polar opposite: Enjoy your life and then play poker. Make no mistake, he loves the game with every ounce of passionate Greek blood running through his veins. But poker is simply a means to an end to fund Polychronopoulos’ other passions: golf, tennis, surfing, and traveling the world.

“If I play five days in a row, I get burned out and lose my edge,” said Polychronopoulos. “I think you can start to spew chips, get frustrated, and not be able to control going on tilt. Being fresh when you play is so important. And, I try not to play too many tables. If you’re playing 20 tables, you lose an edge and miss all of the little nuances that paying attention to each hand gives you against your opponents.”

Polychronopoulos’ laid-back style has garnered him more than $1.4 million in career tournament cashes to date. In May, he finished third, for $418,500, in the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker “medium” main event. Most recently, he scored a $98,750 win in a Full Tilt Poker $1,000 no-limit hold’em Monday event on Sept. 13.
Polychronopoulos recently sat down with Card Player to discuss his refreshing viewpoint on the game, an approach that goes against the grain of the standard daily grind.

Craig Tapscott: How do you begin your day on the days that you choose to play?
Athanasios Polychronopoulos: I take the time to relax and meditate before I play. Just by putting yourself in a good mindset, your game will evolve naturally.

CT: How long have you been playing poker?

AP: Ever since I was a child, with my sister, Fotini.

CT: You took money from your sister? Shame on you.

AP: (Laughing) It was for pennies, playing stud and draw with wild cards. It got a little absurd when all the red cards were wild. My sister and I would always argue about whether or not five aces or a royal flush was better. Somehow, my sister always won, regardless. Then, my friend Andrew Overby introduced me to online poker. I started to play the small 180- and 45-man events on PokerStars.

CT: What did you learn?

AP: I started to learn stack-sizing, what to do when, the standard stuff. But I learned the most from paying attention to the muck. I would look at the hands people showed up with, and went from there. With experience, you’ll find different spots to exploit the standard plays that most online players have learned.

CT: What mistakes did you see the small-stakes regulars make?

AP: Most of them lacked discipline and patience, which were also the biggest things I had to learn. I was always trying to win every single pot, however I could. You have to let go of your ego. Also, a huge leak in many players’ games is not knowing when to change gears.  It’s one of the most important aspects of the game that few understand. You must be able to slow down and pick up your aggression at the right times.

CT: Have you played many live events?

AP: A few. I played the Mohegan Sun main event. Phil Ivey was to my right. I literally tried to play every pot with him to see what would happen.

CT: How did that go?

AP: (Laughing) Not so well.

CT: Do you like tangling with the best players in the world?

AP: That’s how I learned the game. I have always followed the best online players and watched them. In the beginning, when they were at my table, I would do my best to try to get involved with them. I wanted to play with somebody better. I wanted that experience, and by doing that, it made me a better player. If I saw a good player at my table, I tried to play a bunch of pots with him, and that would make me clearly see my mistakes.

CT: I love your approach to the game. Thanks for sharing it with our readers. ♠