Follow along with all of the action from Day 2 at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event on the PokerStars blog feed.
“How did I first come to poker? Well I got kicked out of the house when I was 15 and I was on the streets and I needed to make a living,” said Jonathan Jaffee with a laugh when he was asked how he got into the game. But all kidding aside, Jaffee has gone on a serious tear during the first two days of the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and he is among the chip leaders with 400,000 as play circled around the money bubble late on day 2 in the Bahamas, and by the end of play he had grown that total to more than 600,000.
Card Player: How did you really get into the game?
Jonathan Jaffee: Just like everyone else, the Moneymaker boom happened and I saw it on TV and then jumped into home games. I went to college for one semester and had a bad internet connection so I got out of there and got my own place.
CP: What progression of games and limits did you play while learning the game and working your way up to big live tournaments?
JJ: It was kind of silly, I started at $1-$2 limit, moved up to $2-$4 limit, $3-$6 limit, $5-$10 limit, and then I jumped to $30-$60 for the hell of it. Then I turned to no-limit heads-up sit-and-goes for $100 and $200.
CP: Did you find that your education process was more effective online or live?
JJ: Live you learn different stuff; it’s kind of a flashback years-wise where you get to see some different stuff. Online of course you get more hands and more in-depth learning.
CP: What are your goals and plans in poker?
JJ: I just want to be playing it always in terms of for the rest of my life in some capacity. I don’t have any yearly goals or a set plan for how much I want to play. Whether it is 50 days, 100 days, whatever, I just want it to be in my life when I’m 40.
CP: What are some of your other interests outside of poker?
JJ: It’s pretty much basketball, I have been boxing recently, tennis and table tennis, just sports pretty much.
CP: Boxing is a unique hobby that you don’t hear about every day. Do you do it to keep in shape for the most part?
JJ: Yeah that and I picked it up 10 months ago and I have been working on it, I like the one-on-one aspect of it. It is kind of like the same thing as a boxing video game, where you counter punch in order to look around and look for weaknesses. Trying to get them where they don’t expect and see how you match up against different people.
From my knowledge of it there is a lot of adjusting just like any high stakes heads-up will be. You can come in with a game plan but you have to be prepared to change it up based on the opponent and what he’s constantly adjusting should he be a good boxer as well.
CP: What advice would you give players who might be having trouble advancing up through the limits as someone who has successfully done it?
JJ: Stay in school [Laughs]. I don’t know, I would say whether you’re running bad or you’re running good stay on an even keel. It’s just a game in the end, and over thinking things is definitely a big problem because poker should, I think it should just be an aspect of life as opposed to dominate your life.
