Paul Volpe: 12 Incredible Months On The Tournament Circuit

It’s been an incredible twelve months for Paul Volpe on the live tournament circuit. A 20th-place finish in the 2012 World Series of Poker main event put the Philadelphia native on the map, but it was his eight subsequent final table appearances and 14 cashes so far this year that put him on top of the poker world and in the number one spot of the Card Player Player of the Year race.

The 31-year-old was kind enough to sit down and discuss his meteoric rise in the poker world.

Searching For a Career

Julio Rodriguez: Can you tell us a little about your family?

Paul Volpe: I grew up in a good family in West Philadelphia. My father was a fireman and my mom was a secretary. I was the fifth of six children, two brothers and three sisters. My dad passed away when I was 13. A few years earlier, he was fighting a fire and was exposed to benzene, which gave him leukemia. My mother passed away a few years ago from an infection. Both experiences really brought me a lot closer with my siblings.

JR: Before poker, what did you consider doing for a living?

PV: I was a bad student. I was kicked out of high school during my junior and senior years. Looking back on it, I think it had to do with the fact that I had moved during my sophomore year and I was looking to rebel. I was always getting into trouble. I went to college for about a week before quitting. For about three or four years, I worked as a cook in a few different restaurants. Then my sister got me a job working at an insurance company in Philadelphia. I started in the mailroom and ended up working in computer operations. My shift changed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to 4 p.m. to midnight. That’s when I discovered online poker.

Getting Started In Poker

From mid-2009 to Black Friday in April of 2011, Volpe was one of the most consistent online poker players in the country, playing under the screen name “paulgees81.” Volpe racked up more than $2 million in earnings, winning regular tournaments such as the Friday Night Fight, the $1K Monday, the Nightly Hundred Grand, and the Wednesday Quarter Million.

JR: How did you discover online poker?

PV: My bosses left the office at around 6 p.m. every night, so the office was basically just me and one other guy. My brother was sports betting on Cake Poker at the time and he transferred me $100. I liked watching poker on television, so I started playing while I was at work. I quickly worked my way up the ranks, playing a lot of heads-up sit-n-gos. By the time I was 26 years old, I had a bankroll of a couple hundred grand. I knew then it was time for me to quit my job and make a run at poker full time.

JR: What changed for you after beginning to play full time?

PV: Nothing really changed, to be honest. I just stopped going to work and started playing longer hours. I was fully committed to playing online and wound up winning a Mini- Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) event for like $56,000. After that I started playing all of the daily tournaments. I ended up doing really well for a couple years until Black Friday came and I had to start playing more live poker.

Learning the Ropes

JR: How was your initial foray into live tournament poker?

PV: I had played a little bit of live poker before Black Friday, making the occasional trip out to Atlantic City for some smaller buy-in tournaments. My first trip to the World Series of Poker was in 2009 and I remember being really excited when I made my first cash. To be honest, I wasn’t that good of a player at that time. I was playing at Harrah’s in a $5,000 event when I met my good friend Mark Herm. I found out that he lived near me and one Sunday he invited me over to play online. He made a comment about my game and just opened my eyes about ways I could improve.

JR: Did you find yourself studying the better players in the game in order to get better?

PV: Not just the good players. You can learn something from everyone who plays poker. Sometimes a bad player will take a really confusing line and I’ll find a way to incorporate it into my game. More than anything, it’s important to understand how other people play the game and what you can do to combat them.

A Couple of Deep WSOP Main Event Runs

In 2011, Volpe cashed six times at the WSOP and capped off his series with a 192nd-place main event finish. The next year, he bested that mark by placing 20th, earning a $294,601 payday.

JR: You’ve found yourself deep in the last two WSOP main events. Do you approach that tournament differently because of the field size and number of amateur players?

PV: I approach a $1,000 and $10,000 event the exact same way, but I do approach each individual player differently. Within a few orbits, I can use information from bet sizing to age and even the player’s appearance to form a profile. I’ll then use that to make the best decisions I can at the table. That becomes even more important in the WSOP main event, because you are dealing with so many different types of players at all levels of skill.

JR: How would you describe your playing style?

PV: I would say that I’m very aggressive, but that is dependent on my stack size. For instance, when I’m short stacked, I’m very protective of my tournament life and I won’t open super wide. There was a hand in the WSOP main event that I was criticized for in 2012. I had about 14 big blinds and folded A-Q under the gun. Normally, that’s a standard spot to raise or shove, but Steve Gee was in the big blind and I knew he was defending a large portion of the time. I opted to wait for a better spot because it’s not about making the mathematically correct play all the time. Sometimes you have to consider the situation.

JR: You picked up a big payday for your 20th-place finish, but you must have been disappointed to come so close and fall short of the November Nine.

PV: It was tough. I actually wasn’t even all-in for my tournament life until day 7. I ended up losing a flip, so if the cards fall my way, I’m making a good run at the title. At the time, I wasn’t kicking things on my way out the door, but later on you realize that the opportunity to win the main event only comes around once or twice a lifetime. That’s not going to stop me from trying again, obviously, but those thoughts do run through your mind.

Finding Success on the Tournament Circuit

In the first half of 2013, Volpe cashed 11 times, made six final tables, won two titles and earned more than $1.6 million. He’s found success in California, Florida, London and Monaco and along the way, he picked up enough POY points to vault himself to the top of the leaderboard.

JR: In February, you earned the biggest score of your career by finishing second in the WPT L.A. Poker Classic. A week later, you took third in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star. Can you talk about those tournaments?

PV: I wasn’t even going to play in the L.A. Poker Classic, to be honest. I decided at the last minute to make the trip and wound up making a really nice run at it. I was pretty brutal to have the chip lead and not finish it out. We made a deal heads up that got me about $750,000, but not getting the title was definitely bittersweet. Then I came close again about a week later in San Jose and picked up another $435,000. A week after that, I took fourth at the EPT London High Roller for $160,000.

JR: In a span of three weeks, you earned almost $1.35 million. How does that change your life?

PV: I have never come close to going broke, but my main event run in 2012 definitely came during the lowest point in my career. Now, I’m at my peak. So the turnaround has been quick, no doubt about it. I haven’t done much with the money other than buying my siblings some things. What’s crazy to me is that I don’t have to worry about my finances any more. Hopefully that will be the case for the rest of my life, but I know I have to be smart in order to make that happen.

Moving Forward

Volpe currently owns a house with his brother, but over the last year he has basically been living out of a suitcase in hotels around the world, or spending time in Canada playing various big online poker tournament series.

JR: Do you ever see yourself moving to a state like New Jersey or Nevada in order to play on U.S. online poker sites?

PV: I wish I could play online poker whenever I wanted to, rather than having to fly to Canada to play. But I don’t think it will ever be worth moving just to play against people from your own state. Maybe if they found a way to combine all of the player pools together, but that could be years away from happening.

JR: Now that you have a seven-figure bankroll, are you considering any investments outside of poker?

PV: When you win a tournament or have a big score, it’s scary how many people come out of nowhere to give you advice, or more likely, find a way to take some of your money. Everyone has a get-rich-quick scheme they are working on and everyone knows guys who can double your money, or something ridiculous like that. I’ve decided to be very, very careful and make sure that I don’t get into anything for the wrong reasons. I’m looking at some real estate investments, but I’m not rushing into anything.

JR: You currently have the lead in the Card Player POY race. Is that a title you are focused on winning?

PV: We’ll see how the summer goes. If I manage to put a little distance between myself and the other competitors, then I’ll adjust my schedule in the last half of the year to really make a run at it. Right now I’m playing great and I’m putting myself in position to win a lot of tournaments. Things are clicking for me and I want to make sure I take advantage of that while I can. ♠