888poker has relaunched its popular 888Ride YouTube feature where David Tuchman invites prominent poker players and figureheads for a drive around Las Vegas, all whule quizzing them about anything and everything. There series proved popular in 2022 and looks set to follow the same trend during the 2023 WSOP, especially when you see the host of stars lined up for the 888Ride experience.
Colorado’s Chance Kornuth was one of the first poker superstars 888Ride has featured this summer. In the ten-minute video, Kornuth discusses the struggles of balancing family life with being a professional poker player, his love of poker coaching, an incredible call down in the $25,000 High Roller, and much more besides.
Kornuth has live poker tournament cashes dating back to 2008, but it is the first sixth months of 2023 that stand out from the crowd. Having won an impressive $2,734,893 during 2022, Kornuth has already amassed an additional $3,608,907 through the first six months of 2023.
His runner-up finish in 2023 WSOP Event #2: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller came with $751,463, while a fourth-place exit from Event #29: $100,000 High Roller awarded $833,854. A couple of days later, Kornuth finished fifth in the $250,000 Super High Roller for $1,202,318, then won a $2,200 event at the Wynn – on his birthday – for $537,322, then banked $108,443 and $161,585 scores at the WSOP! It is not surprising that 888Ride wanted to bend Kornuth’s ear.
Kornuth on Being Away From His Family While Grinding
Many people tend to forget that top-level professional poker players are people away from the felt. Those seemingly unflappable pros often have wives, husbands, partners, and children to consider when they are not concentrating on building chip stacks. Kornuth has a wife and a daughter, who he misses while playing.
“Whenever I’m getting ready to go on a poker trip, whether it’s to Florida for a WPT or out here for the World Series, I’m always super excited like we’re going to summer camp, but then after a few days, I start to miss the family, the daughter starts to do things she wasn’t doing before, and you start to feel like you’re missing them,” Kornuth revealed.
Kornuth is in the fortunate position of being able to fly his beloved family out to join him on long poker trips, but he also has to find a balance between family and poker life, something that he says he’s always struggled with. Instead of trying to strike a balance on a day-to-day basis, which is difficult if you are grinding 10-12 hours per day for a week or more, Kornuth prefers to balance things out over the course of a week or month. Thankfully, for Kornuth, the popular pro has a supportive and understanding wife.
Kornuth on That King-High Hero Call
At the final table of the $25,000 High Roller event, Kornuth made a superb call on all-three streets with only king-high against Ren “Tony” Lin, and was correct all the way. Tuchman quizzed him about his thought process in the hand.
With the board reading 2♦2♥5♥7♣J♦ and having called a third-pot bet on the flop, a half-pot bet on the turn, Kornuth faced a two-thirds-pot bet on the river.
“When you land on the river, he is literally never betting a five or a seven here for this size. He doesn’t have a lot of JxXx that he bets the flop and turn, so it is either a bluff or a deuce, and so it is quite a simple spot.”
Kornuth on Being a Poker Coach
Kornuth is the founder and lead instructor of Chip Leader Coaching. You could say training others is a passion for Kornuth because he told Tuchman that he once wanted to teach math to students.
What quickly becomes apparent when Kornuth talks to Tuchman about his poker coaching business is that he enjoys a great deal of pride when he sees one of his poker students take their game to the next level and reaps the financial rewards, describing it as “incredible.”
Kornuth can count Alex Foxen as one of his old students, and we all know the ridiculous success Foxen has enjoyed over the years.
Kornuth on His Struggles With Alcohol
Tuchman passed Kornuth a postcard and asked him to write a letter to a younger version of himself; what would advice would he give?
Kornuth, candidly revealed he would advise his 18-year-old self to be more careful with alcohol, stating that he had an addiction to alcohol.
“I would tell myself to be really careful with alcohol and my addiction. I actually started getting sober over the past two-and-a-half years, and I’ve been completely sober for a while now, and that has been one of the biggest changes in my life.”
The birth of Kornuth’s daughter was the epiphany moment Kornuth needed to battle and overcome his demons. He wanted to lead by example and be the father his daughter deserves but did not think he could be that person while he continued to consume alcohol. Well done, that man.
Upcoming Episodes of 888Ride
PokerNews has it is on good authority that Kornuth is only the first in a long line of superstars that 888Ride will chat to during the 2023 World Series of Poker. Make sure that you subscribe to the awesome 888poker YouTube channel so that you do no miss any future 888Ride episodes, or any of the other fantastic content the online poker site’s team is piecing together.