Katie: If you had to, how would define your style at the table?

JC: I can play solid I can play aggressive; I play like a donkey sometimes too. I like to play solid and when I get a chance change it up. When I get the chips that I need I feel like the leader and I can run over the table, I kick it up and play more aggressive. Sometimes it backfires but usually then I feel comfortable and I feel like things are working I keep doing it.

Katie: You are friends with a lot of great players, does this help your game?

JC: Being surrounded by great players like Nam Le and The Grinder [Michael Mizrachi], they give me a lot of good poker advice. Their view on a hand, you don’t have to agree but seeing their side of it you get a different angle on the hand. There are a lot of times when they are right and you elaborate off of it and adjust your game. It is vice versa too, Grinder is one of the best tournament players in the world and so is Nam, and they are never afraid to talk to me about a hand and get my opinion. Our ego and pride isn’t there so we aren’t ashamed of asking an opinion on a hand.

Katie: How do you prepare to play in tournaments?

JC: I’d rather not play poker, I’d rather relax, hang out. I don’t like to play live cash games the day before; I want to be well rested. When I am not rested I don’t play that well.

KL: What are your goals in the next few years?

JC: My goal in the next few years is to settle down and not travel so much because I am getting burned out. I want to play like half of the majors mostly on the west coast. I am still playing all of them now because my motivation is still there now, it is still a challenge. I played a tournament yesterday and I didn’t even know what first was. I didn’t care what 1st was, I just wanted to win. Before it was like ‘oh first is $300,000 it would be nice to finish top 3, make $100,000,’ but now it is just like buy in and try to win. When I first came into poker I had no money, no bankroll. I’ve done well, had a couple million dollar years, but million dollar years don’t mean you have a million dollars in your pocket. You could have spent $300,000 on expenses and maybe another $100,000 or $200,000 in gambling. I kind of cut down on the gambling and spending a lot of money.

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