Sung Joo Hyun has only recorded 16 places in his name in tournaments. However, what Hyun's resume may be lacking in terms of quantity is more than offset by quality.
The 30-year-old Korean from South Korea put together an impressive list of achievements, including winning World Series of Poker gold bracelet and accumulating more than seven figures in tournaments with some big titles won along the way.
Hyun was born and raised in Seoul, and after graduating from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, he completed the compulsory military service required of South Korean young men, serving for two years.
In recent years, he has become serious about poker, reaching major tournaments around the world. His first registered cash appeared in 2015 WSOP . Just three years later, the $ 1 111 buy-in table made it to the finals Little One For One Drop in the summer series, finishing fourth with his first six-digit live score of $, 098.
During last year's live hiatus, Hyun beat a field of 2,307 entries in WSOP Online $ 500 no-limit hold'em tournament with buy-in to earn the dream of winning a bracelet. He took home the $ 161,898 as a champion and became only the third South Korean player to ever win a bracelet, joining Sejin Park to win the 2019 Colossus and Jiyoung Kim, who won the Ladies Event title that same year.
After the live tournament, poker returned, Hyun made a long trip to Las Vegas to play in some major events. He walked away with two titles and earnings over half a million dollars.
However, this personal record only lasted about six weeks. In mid-March, Hyun completed a field of 614 entries and won in Wynn Spring Classic $ 3, 500 Main Event with buy-in. Hyun entered into a heads-up deal to secure the title and the highest payout of $ 323,409. His best-ever career pushed his lifetime earnings to $ 1, 033, 602.
Hyun received a total of 2,172 Card player The Player of the Year points for these two titles was enough to see him climb to second place for 2021 POY race scoreboard. We recently got together with Hyun to talk about how he found this game, the South Korean poker scene and his hot start to 2021 POY race.
Card player: Can you talk about how you found poker?
Sung Joo Hyun: My first encounter with poker was at a high school festival. The English championship was doing something to represent Las Vegas and that was where I first saw the game and tried it out myself. It was done with counterfeit money, but I really fell into it.
CP: What do you find interesting about this game?
SJH : It felt like a small version of the world that forces us to make decisions on each hand and choose our destiny for ourselves.
CP: Do you think you have any special skills or personality traits that have helped you succeed in poker?
SJH : I'm interested in how people think psychologically about certain things. It tires me sometimes, but in the past this habit has helped me with my game. Currently, however, I am focusing more on the theoretical approach.
CP: Do you have experience in other strategy games or sports?
SJH : Yes. I loved playing soccer and Starcraft. I was quite competitive and after losing I couldn't focus on anything.
CP: How did you get from playing for fun to taking it more seriously? Was the decision to play the bigger events supported by your family or was it difficult for them to understand?
SJH : Watching videos from tournaments such as World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour ) always makes me want to go to Vegas. I kept it a secret until my first trip to the US to play. I won money in my first tournament and was able to explain every detail about how fun and special poker is to me. Fortunately, my parents were helpful.
CP: What is the perception of poker and poker players in Korea?
As we know, poker is a game of skill. The fact that people can lose money in poker does not justify banning Koreans from playing. There are many legal ways for people to burn money if they are irresponsible.
CP: What's the poker community like in Korea?
SJH : It is certainly growing with some online tournament applications and live tournaments as well as some YouTube content such as my "ArtePokerTV" channel. There are communities that enjoy poker and rooting for players who take up a lot of space in big tournaments. But from a research point of view, I'd say the community is pretty weak.
CP: How do you hope the Korean poker scene will flourish?
SJH : Allowing The main hope would be for the people of the country to play casino tournaments, but I would also like our people to know more about the game in general.
CP: How did you move up the ranking?
SJH : I mostly played live games, from 500 to $ 10,000 tournaments, moving up and down repeatedly. I started taking online more seriously in 2020, playing mid to high stakes with buy-ins ranging from $ 100 to $ 1,000,000.
I played mostly on WSOP events because my first goal was to get WSOP title . But I don't think anything is happening. I got this bracelet after I started crushing medium-stakes tournaments. Now I want to prepare and play for higher stakes. I'm sure I need more improvements.
CP: Are there any complications on your way to improvement?
SJH : Yes. I did well in both the live cash games and the tournaments until 2018. When I started taking the poker courses that were 2019, I struggled in both. I guess I needed more time to adjust to what I learned.
PK: Can you tell me about winning WSOP Online bracelet in 2020? Was it exciting to win a bracelet, even if it wasn't in Rio with the fans and the splint and all that?
SJH : This was my second time to go to WSOP at the final table, and I knew this opportunity didn't come often. I kept telling myself that I had to win this. My people watched the game and cheered on me via messaging. I think winning live would be more exciting, but I don't want to ask too much. I was happy enough.
CP: I heard you are streaming, you will play a tournament and start creating an online vlog.
SJH : I started in 2020 which was a turning point in online tournaments for me. I started out because it was very difficult to find winning players from my city who would like to help each other and have a good time. Doing vlogs wasn't my plan initially, but winning two trophies definitely made me change my mind. Overall, I wish this game would become more popular in Korea.
CP: What do you attribute to your success in the live tournament scene so far in 2021?
SJH : First of all, loving this game leads to everything. When I'm not playing, I watch poker courses and content from coaches such as bencb (online tournament star Benjamin Rolle) and Pokercode (Fedor Holz training site). I believe that every second I spend learning poker helps me in some way. Yes, I am a better player than before, but we still have a long way to go. Playing online changed my game a lot and watching good poker content was what really made my breakthrough.
CP: Your two big victories in the first months of this year were in Las Vegas. What prompted you to travel to the United States for these live events?
SJH : I was just tired of the online grind and just wanted to fly to a safe place. Heard they have tournaments so why not Vegas?
CP: What do these victories mean to you? Will you keep playing more live events?
SJH : I think these results are a bit like vitamins throughout my entire poker journey; Just getting started. I will keep playing whenever I can safely do so.
CP: Do you have any goals for the coming years?
SJH : I would like to make this great game more popular for everyone and at the same time I try to take my game to the highest possible level. 
