Former Microsoftie studies his way to world-ranked poker player
By Tricia Manning-Smith
Published: May 28, 2012 at 3:56 PM PDT Last Updated: May 28, 2012 at 4:36 PM PDT
BELLEVUE, Wash. -- The stakes have spiked at Sean Jazayeri's monthly poker game.
The local man's recent world ranking has upped the ante at his amateur at-home event. His buddies gathered around his dining table on a recent evening. They sipped on champagne and relished the chance at beating their homegrown champ.
Jazayeri is currently ranked as the eighth best poker player in the world. Earlier this year, he beat more than 500 of the best poker players in the world to win the World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic Main Event tournament.
Before his big win, Jazayeri was virtually unknown in the poker world. And perhaps no one is more surprised by his new fame than Jazayeri himself.
Just a few years ago, he barely knew a flush from a full house. He was a bored international Microsoft businessman who took up online poker to fend off travel boredom.
"I thought, you know, I'm pretty good. So I decided to go to Las Vegas and take advantage of my skills," said Jazayeri. But his gutsy bet backfired and he went bust. "I had no idea what I was doing compared to the other people there, and it really frustrated me."
So the high-tech executive started back at the basics. He began home-schooling himself, investing in more than 20 poker tutorials.
"I did a bunch of research on poker," he said. "I understood the math. I understood the strategy. I understood the psychology."
And he still kept losing, but less frequently. So he signed up for a series of classes in Vegas. He admits, poker has become an obsession, one that finally paid off in a royal way.
According to Card Player TV: "The lone amateur at a table of young pros, Sean Jazayeri used his experience and some luck to overcome the tough final table and win the 2012 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic Main Event. For his victory Jazayeri earned the prestigious title and the first place prize of $1,370,240."
That was last February. Now back home in Bellevue, around his dining table on this recent night, bragging rights were at stake.
Everybody wanted to beat the champ. Most of them had done just that previously.
"When I beat him, he was not yet a WPT champion. Now it will be much more challenging and much more rewarding to take down the tournament," said poker player Brad Cummings.
Amidst an evening of good natured ribbing and bluffing, luck was not on Jazayeri's side. A different player took the evening's title. But the humble champ knows this is, after all, just a game.
"I also know enough about the game to know that I'm not the best, but I'm good enough. That with some luck, I can do well," said Jazayeri.
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