Bodog Beat

Against a legion of poker pros, Zubs1aa took down the BPO II Main Event, the biggest buy-in he's ever played and the biggest prize pool Bodog has ever guaranteed. (Bodog Beat Image)

Arik Marks (screen name: Zubs1aa) of Massachusetts took down Bodog’s biggest guaranteed tournament ever last Sunday when he won the Bodog Poker Open II $500 buy-in Main Event cashing for $75,000.

It took 9.5 hours of play but after a little back and forth while heads-up against El Rubio, Zubs1aa was dealt pocket 8s and got all his chips in for the win.

We had a chance to speak to Zubs1aa and ask him a few questions about this historic win.

Congratulations on your big win Arik. This was a pretty exciting event to take down. Have you won anything like this before?

Prior to the BPO II tournament series my biggest cash would’ve been $3,750 for winning the $15K a couple months ago.

So this must’ve been a pretty exciting win for you.

Definitely.

Was there a point in the tournament, prior to making the final table, when you thought to yourself, “Wow, I might actually have a shot at winning this thing.”

Yeah, there were about three tables left and my stack was a little bit above the average and I won a 650,000 pot against SCTrojans08, where I had been literally waiting for that situation to work out. I had reraised him a couple times and he’d folded. I knew eventually he wouldn’t. I waited for a good hand and the stars aligned and I got popped up to around second or third biggest stack. Then later, when it was down to around 16 players left, I doubled up through the chip leader when after I bet on the flop of 4-2-10 and he pushed all-in. I had K-10 and had to think about it for a minute but his bet didn’t seem to make sense so I made the call and he only caught the four. That bumped me up 1.2 million chips. I ended up going into the final table with around 1.4 millions and there were only 4.7 in play.

Bodog poker pro Justin Bonomo was at the final table too. Did you get involved in any hands with him?

I believe he was short-stacked and out early so I didn’t get involved with him there. He had been at one of my previous tables earlier though. I’d been cautious with him though and the only interaction we had was a stole his blinds a couple times. But I kept being shocked at the players at my tables.

One of the first tables I was at had Mormon, who is rate number one in a bunch of places, Muckanut who is also highly rated. Later I was moved to a table with Bonomo, BodogAri and ThatsNice who I guess is Matt Larsh and they are all really good. I basically just tried to stay out of their way.

Sounds like the field was pretty thick with pros. Was that intimidating?

I’ve got to give credit to a friend of mine who said, “You can be wary, but they’re just playing cards too.” And I’ve played enough that I was aware but not scared.

So you took down the BPO II Main Event. Did you cash in any of the other BPO events?

I actually cashed in two other BPO events which gave me the confidence to take a shot at the Main Event. Because believe me, I’ve never played a $500 buy-in before. I also won three different $100 satellites last Saturday which earned me T$1,000 plus the $500 needed for the Main Event.

That’s a great week. And how long have you been playing poker?

I started playing about 3- years ago but only got serious about in around March of this year. I didn’t like cash games so I tried some small tournaments and made a little money playing low stakes. Then some friends of mine told me about Bodog and how they always have huge overlays so I played a few of those. So I started playing some satellites and won a couple. So I put a couple hundred more bucks in and ended up turning it into… whatever the hell is in the account now.

And now you’ve had one hell of a week.

Yeah, I’m not going to complain. I had been running bad for a little while but my friend Birtie who has really helped me look at my game and reinforced that I knew what I was doing.

Your friends recommended playing at Bodog, but what was it that kept you coming back?

It’s really the community. I love the size of the poker tournaments. Smaller fields with tournament structures that really let you play is great. And not only are there always overlays and fields that I could realistically make the final table in, but you really get to know the players here. I have friends through Bodog that I’ve never met in person. You see the same players over and over again. I tell everybody this. There’s a subset of people who just love playing on Bodog. It’s not only a great place to make money but it’s a great group of people. There’s a real sense of community there.

So what did you do after you won the Main Event?

It was 1:30 in the morning and all I remember was screaming at the top of my lungs in that final hand, because I’d already lost one hand to him where he was all-in with K-J and I had A-10. So I was screaming, “Hold, hold, hold!” And then after I won… I’m going to get totally tooled on for saying this but I will… I wept. I couldn’t believe it but I just started crying. I think it was just the release of, after focusing for that many hours. It wasn’t even the money it was just the relief.

Afterward I couldn’t sleep so I went on a small buy-in sit-n-go and railed it. I told them I had just won the $300,000 BPO Main Event. And they all asked at the same time, “Then what the hell are you doing here?” But I just wanted to share it with the other small stakes players. You know I’ve been like a micro donkey playing $5 tables and now I could tell these guys that I’d gone the distance in a big tournament.

Well you lived the dream. I think a lot of people are trying to do what you’ve done, which is start at the small stakes and move up and eventually hit a big score. And you did that in a pretty short period of time. That’s probably pretty inspirational to a lot of players out there.

I think it probably is. You know, I made a few cashes here and there and my bankroll went up and down and then this.

So now that you’ve added $75,000 to your bankroll, what are you going to do with the money?

I’m putting it all in the bank or invest it or something. I’ll play a few high-stakes tournaments but I still like my $10 buy-ins too. But, you see, I work in corporate finance and my job ended this year in June. So I decided to job hunt during the day and play poker by night. And that’s when my game has gone through the roof. I even called my old boss on Monday morning and said, “Thanks for running out of budget.” And he asked me what I meant and I said, “I just won $75,000.”

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