Brilliant27's Heads Up Poker Player Profile
Welcome to Brilliant27's page. Here you can find information about the Atlantic City deep stack heads up specialist.
Quick Stats
Started Playing HUSNGs: Late 2008
Poker Handle: Brilliant27 (PokerStars, Full Tilt, Merge)
Birth Year: 1985
Birthplace: Philadelphia, PA
Went Broke on the Way Up: No
Secrets to Success: Consistency, patience, good bankroll management
Brilliant27’s Strengths: Setting strict weekly schedule, constantly studying the game, discipline, patience
Brilliant27s’ Weaknesses: Not moving up in stakes quickly enough
Boom Days
Brilliant27 started playing poker with a group of friends in the weeks and months following Chris MoneyMaker's 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event victory. "We used to play small $10 tournaments with first place getting $40 and second place getting $20," says Brilliant27. "I went on to win about 20 of the 32 tournaments we played and I was hooked," he says. "I bought over a dozen poker books, read as much as I could and deposited $50 on Party Poker, grinding $5 Full Ring SNGs and $25NL cash games," he continues. He ended up building that initial $50 into $200 and his poker roots were firmly in place.
Successful Makeup
Brilliant27 credits his initial success with his reading of poker books. "I achieved some success with the fundamentals in those books. I played a nitty style when I started and learned from there," he says. "I always felt that the best way to learn was to make mistakes, and to learn from those mistakes," he adds.
He continued to have success into 2004, weathering downswings and enjoying upswings, but seeing a constant uptick in his cashier balance over the long term. "At this point [in 2004], I had no idea what twoplustwo was and it is one of my biggest regrets not getting on there sooner," says Brilliant27.
"I also had no idea that coaching was available back then," he says with a laugh. "Like I said, I had no associated with twoplustwo and I didn't even know people coached poker players. If I could do it all over again, I would have gotten coaching to speed up the learning curve," he says.
(above) Lifetime Graph - Brilliant27 on Full Tilt (filtered for heads up sng)
Heads Up Sit and Go Poker
Up until 2008, Brilliant27 had played less than 50 heads up sit and gos in his entire poker life. "I pretty much sucked at them," he says. "I was breaking even at the $5 level and had no intention of getting into them. Then my friend Fil, who I played some home games with in 2004-2006, would always tilt away a buyin at cash, sit a $50 HUSNG and win his cash losses back. One day I thought to myself, if he can do this with HUSNGs, maybe I can try them full time, playing them exclusively," Brilliant27 recollects.
Brilliant27 then took his fundamental skills built up over the years and started playing heads up sit and go poker exclusively. He moved to the $10s and $20 buyin levels pretty fast on Full Tilt Poker. Brilliant27 would eventually become a winner at levels as high as $200, and played these games for a living for over two years. His Full Tilt HUSNG stats display less than 12,000 games and over $75,000 in profit in those games, pre rakeback/bonus.
HUSNG Deep Videos
In October of 2009, Brilliant27 debuted with a guest video on HUSNG.com. The video was a 2 part, 155 hand match highlighting his "small ball" approach to heads up sit and go poker. The two part video received glowing reviews and Brilliant27 became one of the most anticipated video producers in the future. His third video came in January of 2009, and this time it was a deep stack heads up sit and go video. The reviews were just as strong, and Brilliant followed with two more videos, back in the regular speed heads up structure.
Black Friday
Once Black Friday hit, playing from the USA was no longer an option for Brilliant27. So he became a live cash game professional on April 15th. He has since played mostly at the Borgota in Atlantic City, five days a week for 5 to 6 hours a day. "So far I have an hourly rate at 500NL of $41," says Brilliant in 2011. Brilliant27 is considered one of the top few, if not the best regular in those games at the Borgota. He plans to continue to play live cash games until online poker is fully regulated in the USA.