partypoker US Network Online Series (August 16-23)

In Level 5 with blinds of 400/800 and an ante of 100, "njpokeraa" jammed for 16,100 in the cutoff and Michael “IIIIIIIIIIIII” Haberman came over the top, re-shoving for 22,900. The players in the blinds folded and the two were off to the races.

"njpokeraa":
Michael “IIIIIIIIIIIII” Haberman:

It was a classic coin flip situation and Haberman quickly pulled out in front as the flop came . He found himself needing to fade the two remaining sixes in the deck and did so as the turn and the river completed the runout, leaving his opponent dry on chips as the pot was shipped his way.

Player	Chips	Progress
Michael “IIIIIIIIIIIII” Haberman	40,893 10,953	10,953
njpokeraa	Busted

Eric “alwaysliquid” Vanauken has recently entered that field. If you don't know that name, you should as he's become on of the most accomplished players in these series.

In the last two series, Vanauken accomplished the incredible feat of capturing back-to-back titles not once, but twice.

In the July 6-12 series, he topped a 134-entry field to win Event #4: $15,000 GTD NLH for nearly $7,500, and then the next night bested 144 runners to win Event #5: $,7500 GTD Green Chip Bounty for $3,145. Then, at the end of July, he won the $320 buy-in Event #3: $15,000 GTD PKO Bounty for $6,393 and a day later emerged victorious in the $215 buy-in Event #4: $12,000 GTD PKO Bounty Boost for $5.691.

PokerNews recently had the chance to chat with Vanauken about his recent successes.

Money Never Sleeps

For the 43-year-old Vanauken, who is married with three kids ages 7, 10, and 19, he’s never really had a nine-to-five job. Instead, he fancies himself a real estate broker engaging in flips and investments while playing poker on the side of course.

“I first learned playing $4/$8 limit at Foxwoods in early 2000 and now play now $20/$40 and $30/$60 when I can find a game, or settle on $1/$2 or $2/$5 NLH," he said. "I have played the WSOP Main Event two times with no luck busting on Day 2 both times.”

Additionally, Vanauken grinds a decent amount on the virtual tables under the screen name “alwaysliquid,” which stems from the movie Wall Street when Gordon Gekko tells Bud Fox about how money never sleeps and you need to always be liquid.

“Since New Jersey went legal I play on Borgata and WSOP. I used to play PokerStars but had an issue with them over a year ago and have since boycotted them. I do very well on Borgata. I even shipped the Mega Thursday [not long ago] on my phone from an Applebee’s parking lot as I had no WiFi at home due to power outage.”

As for his recent successes on partypoker US, Vanauken was pleased but wanted to remain humble.

“I am humbled to be able to compete with all of the great players in New Jersey,” he said. “I’m proud that all of my studying and grinding has been producing favorable results in the past few years, taking me from an average breakeven player to a profitable one. At the same time, I try to maintain being humble with this great game and what it has provided for me and my family.”

Proudest Poker Accomplishments

For Vanauken, the scores rank up there among his proudest poker accomplishments, which includes beating a poker legend.

“In 2013, I beat Joe McKeehen for the Borgata Limit Championship,” Vanauken said. “I think that was the last limit event held at Borgata.”

Other highlights on his poker résumé include finishing sixth in the 2018 WSOP Circuit at Canada’s Playground Poker Club and finishing runner-up in a pair of WSOP Circuit online events back in March.

“So close to a ring but the two cashes of $35k and $20k within a few days definitely eased the quarantine pain,” Vanauken said.

With the latest partypoker US Network Online Series happening now, only time will tell if Vanauken can keep his streak of winning back-to-back events alive.

Click here to sign up for Nj.partypoker.com!

Wednesday night sees the partypoker US Network Online Series continue with another high-stakes No-Limit Hold'em tournament in the $215 buy-in Event #5: $15,000 GTD NLH, which starts at 7:30 p.m. ET.

All within the state of New Jersey may compete across any of the three platforms of partypoker US, Borgata Poker and BetMGM Poker.

Players receive starting stacks of 30,000 with unlimited entries and re-entries available for the first two hours of play. Levels will last 10 minutes in length for the duration of the tournament, with the late registration period closing at the end of Level 12 (1,600/3,200/400) at approximately 9:40 p.m. ET. A full structure of the tournament has been provided below.

Betting Structure

Remaining partypoker US Network Online Series Schedule

Tonight's official event schedule kicks off at 6:30 p.m. with the $10 buy-in Event #4: $2,500 GTD NLH, and also features the fourth flight of the Phased $50,000 GTD NLH Main Event, featuring a buy-in of $25.