Stephen Song: Circuit Young Gun Climbs The Ranks

They say that high-stakes tournaments are a hard way to make an easy living. After all, it’s called a grind for a reason, and perhaps no other player on the circuit is better equipped for that grind than rising star Stephen Song.

At 27 years old, Song qualifies as a young gun these days in the poker world, and in 2022 he showcased his youthful energy by racking up a whopping 51 cashes (43 live, 8 online) on his way to the GPI Player of the Year title.

Living out of a suitcase as he chases big prize pools in casinos all over the world, the New York-born, Connecticut-raised Song has made a name for himself over the last few years, banking a total of $5.1 million and a slew of trophies.

Song’s run started in the summer of 2019 with not only victories at EPT Barcelona and the Hard Rock Poker Open in Florida, but also a World Series of Poker title. The former chess prodigy pocketed $341,854 and scored his first career gold bracelet, to go along with his three WSOP Circuit rings.

Song’s 2022 campaign was highlighted by a runner-up showing at the summer series in the $5,000 six-max no-limit event for $476,990 and punctuated by his December win at the WPT Prime Championship for $712,650.

Card Player recently spoke with Song for an episode of the Poker Stories Podcast. Each episode profiles a well-known member of the poker world and dives deep into their favorite tales, both on and off the felt. Highlights from the interview appear below, and you can listen to the full podcast on CardPlayer.com, Spotify, YouTube, or any podcast app.

Julio Rodriguez: How are you feeling these days?

Stephen Song: I’m feeling good, definitely blessed to be able to play a game for a living. And obviously I’ve been running in the top percentile for tournament poker [players], that’s for sure.

JR: What about the stresses that come with playing a game for a living?

SS: Running really hot in the right spots will definitely help with that, but with poker there’s tons of variance and that always adds a bunch of stress. But I have been playing long enough that I know it’s a volume game. The more volume you put in, the easier it is to balance out.

JR: Is it true that as a child living in London you were a nationally-ranked chess player?

SS: I was introduced to chess pretty early on, and I got some coaching. When I was about nine or ten years old, I was top 20 in the country. Now, there was less competition in London than in places like America, but it was still something pretty cool that kind of guided my path towards strategy games.

Poker and chess are punishing in their own ways. You can be doing well for a long time, but one silly mistake can cost you everything. I think that level of concentration throughout, helps on both ends with poker and with chess. But there’s no luck in chess. When you lose, it’s your own fault. In poker, if you make a bad play, you can possibly be bailed out.

When I moved back to America, my parents were told that I’d have to play two hours a day to stay competitive, but we didn’t have time for that. So I transitioned into playing soccer pretty competitively. While I was average in London, I was above average in America.

JR: When did you discover poker?

SS: When I was about 10 or 11, my dad and I were watching poker on TV. This was 2006, so it was [Joe] Hachem repeats. That was the year I learned how to play.

My dad would play me heads-up for pennies, and he would beat me every time. Eventually I got into it with my high school friends, and I would play poker as the side game of another game called Puzzle Pirates.

JR: You got into college to study economics and even joined the squash team, but decided to drop out for poker.

SS: My mom was super against it, but my dad had gone through a blackjack phase, so he thought that maybe there was some hope. We had a deal where I had to pay back my college debt. I dropped out mid-semester, so I had to pay back about $30,000 that I wasted to my parents, which was more than fair. But it was tough because I was trying to build a roll while also paying back some of my profits every month.

When I first dropped out, I was in no-man’s land, just doing whatever. One of my good buddies Derek Sudell, who also dropped out at the same time, was one of my first coaches. He still plays today, games like $500-$1,000 online. He was the one who told me I couldn’t just play ridiculous all the time and had to have some kind of overall strategy.

Everyone has to start from scratch, and I used to be pretty awful back in the day. It was utter chaos in the beginning, and later I was able to become more disciplined. That being said, I do think it’s significantly easier to make a crazy player good than it is to make a conservative player good. They’re already used to playing uncomfortable hands, and just need to fold a little more. But someone on the conservative side is being forced into uncomfortable situations that they’ve never experienced.

JR: How long did it take you to settle things with your parents?

SS: I had paid back about $15,000, but only had about $1,000 in my bankroll on a trip to Turning Stone. Derek and I drove up the night before for the $130 satellite into the $570 buy-in, $100,000 [guaranteed main event.] We were actually two of the three people who won a seat, and spent the night sleeping in the car in freezing upstate New York.

[The next day,] I played awful and busted the tournament [quick.] I go to play the $2-$5 game, but the list was too long. That’s when I noticed that I could still get into the tournament with 30 bigs. I figured, ‘You know what? I’m already here. Screw it!’

Right after I sit back down in the tournament, they [open up] another $2-$5 game. So if I had waited just a little longer, I would have just skipped the tournament. Instead, I ended up winning [$33,000.] It’s crazy how things work out. Sometimes just being in the right place at the right moment can change your career.

My parents were thrilled, but not with my choice to get it all in cash. They wanted to have security walk me back.

JR: You made a big final table at the Borgata in 2018 at the Winter Poker Open for $138,254. Were you happy with the score or were you thinking about the $650,000 left up top?

SS: I was chip leading with nine left with about 35 percent of the chips in play, but I ended up getting sixth. That felt like the biggest punt in the biggest spot of my life at the time. You don’t think about the money until you’re out.

Maybe like three months prior, I was feeling really distraught because I was something like $65,000 in makeup. I had [worked it down] to about $20,000 before Borgata. During the tournament I was texting my backer the whole time, giving him updates.

Around day 4, he stopped [responding,] which I thought was odd. Then on the day of the final table, I found out that he had actually passed away in his sleep. It was really unfortunate, but I was able to clear the make up just in time and send his family the money for their profit split.

JR: What did it feel like to win the bracelet? This was back in 2019 in a $1,000 event with a huge field for a life-changing $341,854.

SS: That was super sick because the week before, I got 12th in the $600 buy-in event that had like 6,000 entries. I was devastated, and I actually had the thought that I might never have that kind of chance [to run deep in a big field] ever again. Then the bracelet came literally a week later.

My dad, unbeknownst to me, flew out that morning and was able to get over. I hadn’t seen him in months because I was traveling all the time, so for him to watch me win the bracelet was unreal.

The bracelet was always a goal, but once you play enough poker, you come to the realization that there’s a ton of variance and it’s hard to win tournaments, so if it didn’t happen, so be it. But the money was financial freedom. I wanted to be stress free.

JR: Your 2022 run was particularly impressive, with 43 live cashes and another eight in online series events. There are some players who have trouble playing 43 tournaments each year, let alone cashing that many times.

SS: I was actually looking at [my records] and it turns out I fired 238 bullets last year.

JR: That’s a cash rate of a little over 21 percent.

SS: My cash rate was definitely above EV.

JR: When you look at your numbers for the year, what do you tell yourself? Do the numbers say you are that much better than the average player, or do you expect to win less in the future? I imagine as a professional poker player, you are always trying to balance having confidence with realistic expectations.

SS: After I won at EPT Barcelona, I actually went on a pretty sizable downswing. My confidence was sky high, and then I went on the biggest downswing of my life, something like $150,000 to $200,000 of my own money. So obviously that didn’t feel good, but it kind of set some expectation for this super heater that I’ve had.

It doesn’t just stay this easy. That’s how poker works. You’re going to have to lose some back, that’s just how variance is. I know I can’t be an idiot and just start firing irresponsibly because I think I’m the sickest ever.

Sometimes you feel like poker’s the easiest game in the world and you can’t lose, and sometimes you’re just on the other end where you keep getting dealt the second-best hand. Instead of a scenario where you’re running good and you’re thinking, ‘How can I value [bet] this river?’ as opposed to when you’re running bad and thinking, ‘Oh god, I’m going to have to fold this.’

JR: You capped off last year at the Wynn in Las Vegas by beating a field of 5,430 in the WPT Prime Championship for $712,000.

SS: That was cool because my mom ended up flying in for that one, and it was the first time she had seen me play poker. The WPT had it set up great and all jazzed out with reserved seating for my guests and a pre-final table show. To be able to watch the stream back was just the coolest thing ever.

JR: You do have a couple high roller cashes as well in events with a $25,000 buy-in. Is that the next step in your poker career?

SS: I think I’ll be playing more, but I’m pretty selective with the high rollers I play. I like to pick good value. I’m not a glory hunter or a dick swinger. If I think it’s a good spot, then I’ll take it. ♠

Song’s Top Tournament Scores