The 2024 World Series of Poker concluded earlier this month with Humble, Texas’s Jonathan Tamayo winning the record-setting 10,112-entry Main Event. Tamayo’s victory earned him $10 million.
Tamayo is no stranger to the bright lights, having amassed WSOP scores across three decades. His WSOP highlights include a 10th-place finish in 2007, a 21st-place finish in the 2009 Main Event, and four WSOP Circuit rings.
He has been involved in the game since online poker thrived nationwide. Today, The best option Texans have for playing online poker is through Texas sweepstakes casinos as online poker remains illegal.
Earlier this year, Tamayo spoke about Texas’s unregulated poker scene. Now, he’s touched base with PlayTexas once more for an exclusive interview about his Main Event win.
“I won the tournament that’s impossible to win,” Tamayo said.
Thoughts on the Main Event run
When asked to look back on the event, Tamayo said:
“When I went in on Day 1, it was, ‘you will bust the Main eventually, it’s going to suck. Everyone busts the Main. I don’t need to be emo about it; everyone will bust at some point, whether it’s Day 1, 4, 5, whatever.’ You just kind of play the spots and go from there. And that was kind of how I went along every day.”
Tamayo added that he felt even calmer when he reached the live-streamed table. He said other tables were much closer to the rail, causing a lot of chatter and chaos among friends after folding hands. The featured tables had a different element that isolated the players from the rail.
He was also completely fine with his cards being visible to all (on a streamed delay). “It’s the same for everybody. I don’t care,” he said.
- Related: Recapping Tamayo’s Main Event Win
A close shave on Day 4
As for the tournament itself, he had one major hand that could have spelled the end of his run on Day 4. In that hand, he went all in with ace-queen and saw another player go all in behind him. A third player elected to fold ace-king for their tournament life behind that.
That left Tamayo’s ace-queen up against pocket jacks, and he hit an ace on the turn to make the best hand and double. However, he would have been eliminated if the third player went with their ace-king.
“If the ace-king does what he’s supposed to and is not afraid to see five cards for his ‘tournament life,’ then I get $15,000 and go along with my life,” Tamayo said.
Preparation for a 10-day event
Having finished 21st in the Main Event in 2009, Tamayo said he had a lot of experiences to draw upon during the 2024 run. However, his largest lesson from 2009 was not to punt off a huge stack.
Even 15 years later, that event stayed at the forefront of his mind.
That said, the 10-day event is a marathon that will wear on just about everybody. Tamayo said that he slept fewer than six hours every night from Day 5 until the end of the tournament.
“You just have to deal with it,” said Tamayo. He added that everybody was going crazy at that point and that he had to stay mindful of not letting that affect his decisions when involved in hands.
Not overthinking decisions (including pocket queens)
All tournament long, Tamayo emphasized not overthinking his decisions. Once he acted, he put the decision into the rearview mirror.
With 10 players remaining and the field on one table, Tamayo folded pocket queens preflop to a single raise. He later admitted it was a mistake, but he owned the action and said that he was done with the decision once he made it.
He stressed the importance of playing to his strengths and minimizing his weaknesses, especially as other players would also make mistakes in the long run.
“I might play too tight in those ICM situations, but I am very raw in ICM.”
Additionally, he understood the very real likelihood that he would finish somewhere between sixth and ninth place. This was simply because he entered the final table seventh on the leaderboard.
Final table adjustments
Tamayo and the other eight players at the final table earned a day off. During that day off, he spent about five hours studying with friends and coaches Dominik Nitsche and Joe McKeehen, conducted a media interview, and got a new Under Armour hoodie.
The study sessions touched on a few topics but nothing too dramatic. Tamayo was still exhausted after playing eight full days of poker.
“Dom [Nitsche] wasn’t going to reinvent the wheel,” said Tamayo. “I got what I got. What you do is plug the biggest leaks, and then what happens happens. You don’t worry about plugging the small leaks. The big leaks are the ones that are going to cost you the most money.”
Tamayo said the most important thing to do was have realistic expectations. Of course, he would love to win, but he had to focus on making the right decisions to put himself in a position to win.
Beyond that, he couldn’t concern himself with the outcome. If he lost early in the final table, he would collect a seven-figure payday and continue with life.
Staying in mid-stakes
Before his Main Event score, Tamayo had earned more than $2.3 million in live tournament earnings. His Hendon Mob database dates back to 2006 and includes recent six-figure scores at PokerGO Tour Houston in April 2024 and at a Wynn summer event in 2021.
Most of his winnings come from buy-ins ranging between $600 and $1,500, with the occasional $3,000 buy-in event. (He also plays the Main Event every year and has cashed it seven times since 2008.)
Looking ahead, he plans to stay on the same streets where he’s played for years.
“I can’t beat a high roller field, and I have no interest in playing them. I am going to play a $25K in Florida because I was told it’s a soft $25K. I’m only going to play it once. The first thing I play might be a $600 prelim 6-max at (Seminole) Hard Rock in two weeks.”
“I’m forever in mid-stakes. The barrier to entry is quite high in the high rollers. I don’t have to do that if I don’t want to, and I’m not beating a $10K 6-max at the Series.
“If I wanted to punt my money off, I have a lot more fun ways to do it, like playing Ultimate Texas Hold’em. Me and Dom did that the final night I was in Vegas for $100 a hand. I don’t need to play $500 a hand. It doesn’t get me up in the morning.”
After-victory celebrations: just ask Joe
During Tamayo’s run, McKeehen went onto a quick sideline interview from the rail and joked that Tamayo would celebrate with a trip to the strip club and a night of extracurricular activities.
“Joe was clearly kidding,” said Tamayo. “But some people took him literally, including members of my own family who don’t know Joe’s humor. They thought I actually went out and did that.”
What celebrations did entail, then?
“The Horseshoe gave me a suite for a couple nights after I won, and people thought it would have gotten all crazy and stuff like that. No, people had some drinks, and there was a 30-person game of Werewolf going on in the suite.
“I know, everybody’s idea of a very good time. There were no strippers.”
The closest they got to a strip club? Tamayo said his friends (and parents) discussed taking a ride to Spearmint Rhino as a troll to take a picture outside the establishment.
They had no plans to go inside, but it proved too much to coordinate, so Werewolf was the play.
What changes now?
Tamayo has sported the same golf-ready attire since I met him 17 years ago. He’s never considered himself a flashy person or big spender, and he doesn’t plan to change a thing about himself or his lifestyle after the win.
“My car works perfectly,” said Tamayo. “I don’t need to buy a house. I’m fine with what I have.” He doesn’t need new golf clubs, either.
“Somebody made fun of me on Twitter for my $40 dress shoes, which I take offense to,” he joked. “They were like $70. A couple of the golf shirts I still have I got at Kohl’s off the clearance rack without a price tag. When they rang them up, they charged me $1 each. I don’t know what they’re worth. They’re IZOD shirts, and they’re on the clearance rack.”
Tamayo shared another story about not spending money since his Main Event win.
The recent Microsoft outage kept Tamayo in town for a couple of extra days, and he chose to sleep on his friend’s couch rather than deal with checking out of one reservation and into another.
Upcoming challenges, plans for the champ
Despite his comfort and familiarity with poker’s largest stage, Tamayo isn’t looking forward to the notoriety that comes with being poker’s world champion. McKeehen, the 2015 Main Event champion, told him to expect every player and dealer to recognize him whenever he sits at a table.
But it’s something that comes with the territory. Poker provides challenges of all sorts, and this is a new one for Tamayo.
He doesn’t plan to play many events in the second half of 2024, either.
Tamayo will chase the PokerGO Tour Championship, a $1 million freeroll at the end of the year open to the top 40 finishers on the leaderboard. He is currently second and has two cashes, needing three to qualify.
Furthermore, PGT has an upcoming Houston stop (his home city), meaning he might not even need to travel to Las Vegas to participate in events before the PGT Championship.
Otherwise, Tamayo says he values his time more and looks forward to how he will spend it in the coming days.
“I never conceptualized this two weeks ago. You think about it, kind of half-assed, but you don’t really plan for it.”
Now, he gets to plan for it.
Image Credits: Steve Schult
