The November Nine: Kelly Kim

News / nono / 05 August 2008 / Leave a comment

Kelly Kim is a 31 year old professional player from Whittier, California. He is a former businessman who started playing poker back in 1995 where he played mixed cash games, before turning his attention to NLHE Tournaments in 2003. With over $300,000 already in tournament earnings he is one of the most experienced players left in the November Nine.

In his first tracked tournament result, back in July 2003, he claimed the first place in a $300 event in Gardena winning almost $22,000. In 2005 at the $2,000 NLHE WPT Five Diamond preliminary event he came 4th for $28,850. His biggest cash game in 2006 when he came 3rd in the $2,425 NLHE preliminary event at the WPT LA Poker Classic winning $62,201. He also cashed in the Main event winning $46,502.

At last years WSOP he had two cashes, one coming in the $2,500 NLHE for $12,348 and one coming in the $1,000 NLHE event for $8,067. He comes into the Main Event as the smallest stack with only 2.2m in chips which is around 10 Big Blinds but is not phased by this. 'It doesn't really matter, I have chance, you can't count me out completely.'

He was short stacked for most of the final day, but that didn't matter as his tight play meant he sat back while other people were knocking each other out. By the time the players were down to 13 handed he was seriously short and said the pressure was unbearable but he used his experience to survive. At 10 handed most were certain he was going to be the bubble, which meant the most pressure for him the entire tournament. This meant a change in strategy, instead of trying to win he focused on making the final 9.

Asked about what he feel his chances are for winning the event he said: 'I have no expectation given my chip stack, but poker is a game of luck too and I can get lucky.'