Poker Stories: Jared Jaffee

Jared Jaffee has been grinding the tournament circuit for the better part of the last decade. The Staten Island, New York-native initially set out to be a lawyer, passing the bar exam and even scoring his first job, before his friends convinced him to quit. His real passion was for poker, and although he's seen the downside of variance more than a couple times in his career, he's never been afraid to put up the rest of his bankroll when his back was against the wall.

In addition to a World Series of Poker Circuit ring, Jaffee has a World Poker Tour title. In 2013, he took down the bestbet Fall Poker Scramble for $252,749. He also owns a World Series of Poker bracelet, having earned $405,428 in a 2014 $1,500 mixed-max no-limit hold'em event. In the last few months, the 37-year-old has even successfully dabbled in the $25,000 buy-in high rollers, cashing for $640,000. In total, Jaffee has banked more than $4.1 million in live events over the course of his career.

Highlights from this interview include beeper codes for poker, accidentally winning a cruise, playing the wrong game in a $10k tournament, Hellmuth buys all the bottles of Dom, delivering pizzas to avoid law school, making a joke of the Socratic method, the underground New York poker scene, A-Rod at the tables, his very own 'Worm', self-sabotaging his law career, getting a stake from mom and dad, the one time he celebrated a win, sympathizing with the complainers, a nice run in the high rollers, being unafraid to gamble, picking off bluffs from Antonio Esfandiari in six-figure pots, a Hawaii swap courtesy of Jake Bazeley, stopping the angle shooters, the clown show of sunglasses at the table, and the sabermetrics of flirting.