In recent years, Asian players have been making their presence felt at live events in the region and beyond, but Shanghai-born Tao Jin has taken a very different route.

Preferring to wreak havoc from behind his computer screens instead of glitzy casino card rooms, he has been absolutely killing the online tournament scene, and is now aiming to make a splash at this year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas. Jin has won in excess of US$185,000 in the past three months from playing Multi Table Tournaments (MTT) on PokerStars and Full Tilt, and feels that the online environment allows him to reduce the variance in his game.

“I prefer online play because I can play so many more MTTs in a single day as opposed to live. In general, I play between 30-35 MTTs in a full session, and I simply can’t think of any way I’d be able to clock that sort of volume playing live. Volume is very important to me because it allows me to lower the variance in my results, the ability to deal with the downside of variance is the key to profitability in MTTs. I’ve played in some big live events with buy-ins ranging from $1,000 to $2,000, but for me, these are shot-takes more than anything. I’m not counting on winning any of them when I play,” he explains.

Jin is also philosophical when asked to weigh in on the perennial live versus online debate, and doesn’t think it’s fair to say that online players are technically stronger than live players.

“I don’t think it’s fair [to say that]. What is definitely true is that if you play 6 tables at a time, you are probably getting 480 hands an hour, as opposed to 20-30 hands an hour playing live. As such, players who have a solid grounding in online poker will naturally be good at hand reading, constructing ranges for their opponents, and generally processing information very quickly.”

Seeing as he is young, talented and loaded, Jin is enjoying being a full-time poker pro, and does not regret dropping out of college to pursue his dreams. But how does indulge himself after a big win?

“I’ve tried to be wise about it. I’ve invested a lot of my winnings,” he says. But with a grin on his face, he adds, “I have a weakness for designer stuff though. And I just bought a Porsche Cayenne for my girlfriend not too long ago.”