While many 20-year-olds spend their time just trying to stay awake through their college classes, Zhuang Ruan is busy moving from one high-stakes tournament series to the next. And despite the fact that he isn’t even old enough to gamble in most U.S. casinos, Ruan has managed to stay busy, racking up $2.3 million in earnings in locations where he is allowed to play. Luckily for the Pennsylvania native, Florida’s minimum age for poker players is 18, as is much of Europe.
Jumping Right In With The Sharks
Ruan made a huge splash in the poker world in August, winning the $50,000 Super High Roller event at the Hard Rock Poker Open at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida. He bested an elite, 29-entry field, and battled high roller regular Dan Smith heads-up to earn $562,600.
At the outset of the heads-up match, it seemed like a real David vs. Goliath type of match. A relative unknown that won’t even be old enough to play the World Series of Poker this fall, against a seasoned pro with $37.5 million in live tournament earnings sitting fifth on the all-time money list.
After discussions of a chop went nowhere, Smith jumped out to an early lead looking like he was primed to add another victory to his already lengthy resume. But Ruan battled back and eventually bested Smith, earning the title and likely some respect from the regulars at those stakes.
Despite it being his first-ever $50,000 buy-in event and pocketing a mid-six-figure victory, there was no celebration. In fact, there was barely a peep out of Ruan. He took the winner’s photo with some of his friends and calmly walked over to the cashier to collect his money.
“It was just like a heads-up sit n’ go,” he told tournament reporters after the match. “I used to play those back in the day, so I’m familiar with the swingy-ness of heads-up.”
It was his first high stakes win, but Ruan was already acting like he belonged there. Because in his mind he did. Ruan was already playing high-stakes cash games and tournaments online […]
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