When I Was A Donk with Sean Yu

Sean Yu

Sean Yu earned his first World Series of Poker Circuit ring back in 2014, winning the Harrah’s main event for $101,881. He followed that up with a win at the 2014 WPT500 for $260,000, and at the 2015 L.A. Poker Open for $124,590. Yu then picked up another main event title in 2016, earning $170,286 at the WSOP Circuit stop at Planet Hollywood.

Last summer, he won his first gold bracelet in the Global Casino Championship at the Cherokee Casino in North Carolina for $296,941 and in September, he won the Commerce Poker Series for $209,030. In total, the L.A.-area resident has $1.6 million in career live tournament earnings.

Here, Yu talks about his struggles with preflop aggression.

“When I first started playing poker, I had a problem that I think a lot of players have, and that was calling too much. I don’t necessarily mean calling bets on the river, although I probably did that too much as well, but I mean calling preflop. Rather than come in with a raise or a three-bet and be aggressive, I was just calling and playing passively.”

“I started as a limit player back in 1996 when I was in the Marine Corps, and I really didn’t play no-limit until the mid-2000s. So I guess for that reason, it took me a little while to be more aggressive preflop, because in limit it’s very hard to get people to fold to a single raise.”

“I had a lot of the usual leaks. I would play too many hands, see too many showdowns and call people down light. I might even call someone down with ace high. You know, in limit hold’em sometimes ace high is good. (laughing)”

“Another thing is that I have to use the chips I do accumulate wisely. [If I’m in a tournament] and I build up a big stack early, I’m not using those chips just to coast to the later stages, and I’m not using them just to gamble, I’m using them to be a lot more aggressive and have leverage over the other players.” ♠