Tsubi Joins Team PokerStrategy.com, Schnibl0r Leaves

Team PokerStrategy.com is undergoing some changes: We say goodbye to Simon 'Schnibl0r' Münz, who plans to focus more on playing online in the future, and we are happy to welcome Tsubasa 'Tsubi' Manabe as the latest addition to the team.

Welcome to the team, Tsubi!

Coming in: High stakes regular Tsubi

We are happy to announce a new member who will make our team even stronger and even more international than it already is. Black Member Tsubasa 'tsubi' Manabe is Japanese, but grew up in Germany and is a successful PLO and NL player even at the high limits. He is currently making plans to play more live tournaments, making it an easy decision for both him and PokerStrategy.com to get him on board as a team member.

"Once I have graduated university in March I will start attacking as a full time player", says Tsubi. "Four to six weeks in Las Vegas for the WSOP are already part of the plan." Find out more about Tsubi in the Interview at the end of this news.

Going out: Schnibl0r

No longer playing for Team PokerStrategy.com is Simon 'schnibl0r' Münz. Simon was part of our team for quite a while and successfully represented us at many tournaments. In the future, he is going to focus more on playing online and no longer wants to spend so much time on the road.

"I would like to thank PokerStrategy.com for all the opportunities I had when I was playing for the team", Schnibl0r said when asked about leaving Team PokerStrategy.com. "I had a lot of fun at the events, even though I never won the really big cash. I will still play events every now and then, but not so regularly that being part of the team would still benefit me or the team."

We wish Simon all the best for his poker career and are already looking forward to Tsubi's first performance for Team PokerStrategy.com. Good luck, Tsubi!

What's Team PokerStrategy.com?

Team PokerStrategy.com is a group of selected and ambitious poker players, who participate in tournaments around the globe under the banner of PokerStrategy.com. It started out with German players only, but quickly expanded through adding rising talents from Russia, Poland and the Netherlands.

"I'm not interested in gambling at all" - Interview with Tsubi

We want to introduce you to the latest addition to the team, so we sat down with Tsubi and talked about his career and his current plans.

PokerStrategy.com: Hello Tsubi. How did you actually start with poker?

tsubi: In my senior year in high school back in 2007, I saw an advertisement for PokerStrategy.com and was fascinated to think that poker is a strategy game. I'm not interested in gambling at all. I started out with PokerStrategy.com and already beat NL1000 within half a year.

PokerStrategy.com: Sounds great. So what was your main motivation when you first started out, was it all about money or more about the competition?

tsubi: I've played competitive sports ever since I was young so the competitive factor in poker was definitely something that appealed to me. The money was pretty much only a positive side effect. Back then, I had never expected that I would make it this far, but I've been motivated from the very start to test the limits.

PokerStrategy.com: How has your poker career developed so far?

tsubi: I started out with NL and made it up to NL2000. Over time, I decided to focus on NL heads-up, but by the end of 2008 I just couldn't take all the bum hunting anymore. Today I mainly play PLO, which simply has the most action.

Tsubi (left) in Las Vegas with fellow PokerStrategists

PokerStrategy.com: So what about live tournaments, why do you want to attack live now?

tsubi: I'm still quite young and I want to see much of the world. So live tournaments are a great opportunity to actually combine this plan with my hobby, poker.

I've only played three EPTs so far and three WSOP events in 2010, but I felt very comfortable there and think I have quite a big edge on the field. But we have yet to see how well I will run in the end. I guess it's an integral part of poker that the players overestimate themselves (smiles).

PokerStrategy.com: Which tournaments are first on the list?

tsubi: Unfortunately, I can't fully start until April because I want to finish university first. After that I will have a lot of time to play professionally, so to say. Four to six weeks in Las Vegas for the WSOP are already part of the plan.

PokerStrategy.com: How will you prepare for the upcoming tournaments?

tsubi: I will definitely spend some time focusing on SnGs and MTTs to internalise ICM calculations and how to adapt to payout structures. Other than that, I don't think cash game players have any disadvantages compared to players who only play tournaments.

PokerStrategy.com: You will be representing the PokerStrategy.com community at these tournaments and the users in the forum will rail you - how do you feel about this?

tsubi: I'm definitely happy to see users root for me. On the other hand it's also important for me personally to play my A game - in poker, you can't really draw reliable conclusions about the quality of the game merely by looking at the results.

PokerStrategy.com: We wish you a lot of success at the tables and for your final exams.

tsubi: Thank you! If anyone's interested, I'm always happy about new readers of my blog in the Japenese PokerStrategy.com community, or in English on my private website JMSpace.de.