He might not yet consider his poker career to be a success, but with $4.7 million in online cashes, $730K won in brick and mortar cardrooms, and now two World Championship of Online Poker titles under his belt, Canada’s Alex “dynoalot” Difelice seems to be doing pretty well to us.
Having won his first title in a $1,050 PLO 6-Max event back in 2017 (good for $107K), Difelice picked up his second WCOOP win earlier this week with a victory in #20-M: $109 PKO for $42K.
We caught up with Difelice in between grind sessions to talk his decade in the game, how he came up, and why he he still thinks he has a “ways to go”.
PokerStars Blog: Hi Alex. You’ve had so much success over the years, with a WCOOP title and lots of Sunday Major results. Where does this second WCOOP title rank for you?
Alex “dynoalot” Difelice: I can’t say I rank my success in poker in terms of titles or tournament wins, as anyone can win a tournament. I rank my success in poker in terms of how I feel I have improved as a player.
WCOOP keeps players very busy. How do you prepare for a series like that?
I tend to have a pretty full schedule when it comes to poker so I don’t feel I need to do much prep, but when I feel burnt out I just don’t play regardless of there being a series or not.
Difelice: “This photo was taken just before the 2008 Sunday Million when I was starting to play full time.”
You final tabled the Sunday Million back in 2008 (and did it again in 2012). What was life like for you back then, and how did that score impact your career?
Wow that was so long ago. I was just starting out with playing full time around then so it had a pretty big impact. I went from Rock Climbing almost everyday to playing online poker everyday. A big change but I loved it.
Could you tell me a bit about how you discovered poker, and when you realised you could do it for a living?
I went to college in Colorado and started playing with my brother and roommate and a couple of friends. It was small — .25/.50 cent I believe — but I always ended up winning in our games and just kept the money aside to see how much I could make. I eventually found online poker and deposited the money I made from our games online and proceeded to lose it all!
After that I went and bought all the books I could find on poker as I realized I had no idea what I was doing but I wanted to make my money back and be able to win. After a little reading and studying I saw the potential there was in poker so I kept at it.
What would you say have been the most important factors to having a successful poker career?
That is a good question and I am still figuring that out. I feel I have a ways to go before I will consider my career a success, but so far I feel that having relentless work ethic and never settling has kept me moving in the right direction.
Difelice on the live feltYou seem to regularly play all the limits, even down to $2.20 hypers, despite playing the high stakes. Do you think it’s important to keep this up, and what adjustments do you need to make for such different buy-ins?
I wouldn’t say I regularly play many small buy-ins these days, but from time to time I just get the urge to fire up everything in the lobby.
What goals do you hope to achieve in poker?
I don’t have any specific goals for poker other than continually improve my game. The achievements will always come as a result of that.