Paul Wasicka Bio

Poker Player Bio

Paul 'Kwickfish' Wasicka

Paul Wasicka

Stats:
-turned pro in march of 2006
-sponsored by full tilt poker
-tournament winnings: $7,507,925
-7th on the list of all-time money winners
-final tabled the largest wsop event ever
-final tabled the largest wpt event ever
-2007 nbc national heads up champion

Tournament Finishes:

1. 2nd, wsop main event (2006): $6,102,499
2. 1st, nbc national heads up championship (2007): $500,000
3. 4th, la poker classic (2007): $455,615
4. 15th, wpt championships (2006): $146,460
5. 12th, aussie millions (2007): $94,461
6. 24th, wpt championships (2007) $92,820
7. 12th, wsop no-limit short handed (2006): $38,126
8. 14th, wsop 5k no-limit (2006): $26,311
9. 9th, wsop championship heads-up nl (2006): $23,030

Personal Bio From kwickfish.com

bio
From as early as I can remember, I’ve thrived on competition. I’m the youngest of three, so perhaps that explains it. As a child growing up in Dallas, I played soccer in the afternoons and learned chess and backgammon from my parents at night. My family moved to Boulder, CO when I was seven and that’s where my competitive drive kicked into high gear. I immediately started skiing and bowling. In middle school, I joined the chess team, but I quickly headed up to play the high school kids because junior high chess was incredibly dull.
While in high school, I played five sports a year. I ran track and cross-country, skied, wrestled, and played volleyball. I loved the physical intensity of wrestling and the mental games necessary for distance running.
I have an extremely short attention span. I crave constant stimulation and when the stakes are high, I’m able to focus a huge amount of energy on one activity. For that reason, I’ve always loved video games, driving, movies, strategy games and sports. On a ski trip through Vancouver, my friend and I stopped in at a nearby casino. I put $10 down at a blackjack table and walked away a short time later with $100. The ski trip turned into a blackjack trip and at the end of 5 weeks, I had $17,000. I kept playing blackjack, but there wasn’t enough action and the odds were always slightly against me. Having whetted my appetite for “gambling,” it was only a matter of time until I discovered poker.
Several accounts have been written about this, but in short, when a friend named Thomas Fuller told me he was headed to an underground poker tournament in Denver, I asked to go along. I knew which hands beat which, and on the drive down, he gave me a 15 minute lesson. Out of 100 people, I got ninth. That night he showed me online poker. I started playing $10 sit n gos and by dawn, I was up $110. I couldn’t believe it was possible to make money and play games.
I gradually investigated the online cash games and quickly found myself at the highest stakes on the site - $2/$4 no limit with a $200 buy-in. My bankroll couldn’t afford it, In fact, I only had $300 on the site. However, I couldn’t help myself, as I’ve always been heavily involved with gambling. I decided to draw $5,000 on my credit card to feed the obsession. I really didn’t know much, but I was playing pretty tight and went through a very rough run. I was down $4,500 and promised myself I would not reload the account if I went bust (this was probably a lie). I’ve always been notorious for my tilt issues and I realized it was affecting my play so I took a week off to cool down. Rested and refreshed, I came back with a vengeance.
I had a game plan, very simple. I would play until I made $1,000 and then stop for the day and continue the following day. This worked well for me, as shorter sessions tend to be better for emotional players. After eight consecutive $1,000 days I recovered my losses and was even in the black $4,000! However, my streaky ways caught up with me and less than two days later I was back where I started, ground zero.
Around this time Thomas came back from studying abroad and I had an idea. I thought we could help each other out by pulling what I referred to as a “joint session” (as described in an earlier post). We would play on my account and make the decisions together. He could help me stay off tilt, and I could provide the roll and the player notes that I’d gathered thus far. That summer we crushed the tables, making well over a few thousand each. He went back to school in the fall, and I was very nervous about going back to playing on my own.
I decided to try turning pro at this point, fall of 2004. I quit my job and played full time. I remained pretty stagnant for the next six months or so, with the same pattern repeating itself. I’d consistently win over time, but then blow it all off in a matter of minutes when I’d take a bad beat, get a cooler, or make a bad play. Eventually, the stress of not having a job to pay the bills caught up with me, and I got a job and decided to take some time off from poker. I didn’t know for how long, but I had to change my life. I had become a complete degenerate, not leaving the apartment for days at a time and the scores of pizza boxes in my room were making it hard to even see my desk.
Thomas was annihilating the game during this time, amassing a roll of over $40,000. He was up to $10/$20 no limit with a $2,000 buy-in. We played a few more joint sessions to get me “back on the horse.” I regained my confidence, but decided to keep my job to pay the bills.
Thomas let me play on his account with a roll of $5,000. Not surprising to anyone I took this and played on two of the $2,000 tables. Four hours and $16,000 richer I finally had a decent roll and the game to back it up. My friends were pissed that I took such a dumb chance, but that’s just me, I’m a risk taker, and I knew I could beat that game. Not to sound arrogant, but this is where I differ from most people. I’ve always been good at competitive events, especially games. I believe there is natural talent when it comes to everything and when it comes to poker, I’ve got it. Most people would have lost that $5,000.
By November of 2005, I came to terms with my problems and was able to drastically improve on them. I was making anywhere between $1,000 and $3,000 / day on average. However, I had bad money management skills and was spending everything I was winning. My roll was still only at $20,000, which isn’t nearly enough to sustain a losing streak at those stakes. I wanted to quit my job but I’d promised my employer that I’d manage his restaurant for the year and I honored this. It was pretty ridiculous to go from making $2,000 in an hour and a half to standing behind a bar managing a bunch of college kids for $12 an hour but a promise is a promise. March came and it was time for me to turn pro.
I focused on building my bankroll over the course of the next couple months. I built it up to $50,000 and decided to take a shot at scoring big in a WPT event. I entered the $5,000 Reno Hilton World Poker Challenge. I was second in chips after day one, playing with supreme confidence. However, I took a couple beats on day two and fell apart, mainly due to lack of experience. I didn’t even cash and was completely devastated. I swore off tournament poker because being eliminated was so devastating.
A month later Thomas convinced me to go with him to Vegas to play in a super satellite to get into the WPT Championships. I was eliminated after a few hours of play and wasn’t going to play the second satellite. However, again he convinced me to play and I ended up winning a seat. The buy-in to the tournament was $25,000 and I took 15th place after five grueling days. I was both euphoric and depressed at the same time. This score added $146,000 to my roll and I was now able to go to Vegas for the World Series of Poker. First I decided to take a month off from poker completely and travel Europe with my sister. I wanted to make sure that the desire would still be there, and I knew it would be a long summer.
I ended up cashing in two preliminary events, 12th in the $5,000 short handed no limit and 14th in the $5,000 no limit. I entered the main event with very high hopes, which were obviously fulfilled. After the World Series, I lost the desire that drove me in the past. I was so motivated to become on of the best players that once I felt I had attained the status, I temporarily lost that fire. 2007 rekindled my desire and I began hitting the circuit hard. I followed up my 12th place finish at the Aussie Millions by taking 4th in the largest WPT event ever. Three days later, I won the the NBC National Heads Up Tournament. It’s going to be a great year.