Meet Poker Player June Cuervo!
1. What is your name? June Cuervo
2. Where are you from? Oakland, California
3. How did you get introduced to the game of poker? A friend I met through board gaming who suggested poker to me, saying “I think you might have a knack for it.” Turns out, they were right!
4. Tell us about an unusual or unique experience that you’ve had while playing poker. In my first five or six months playing poker, when I was still very much a beginner, I won a local $250 daily tournament in Oakland, cashing for $5,000. I took the advice of a friend and didn’t play anymore tournaments for quite some time, instead using the money to continue playing cash games and grow my bankroll.
5. How would you describe your poker style/play? Any specific poker experience you are most proud of? What is your favorite poker game to play and why? I’m a very theory based player. I use Piosolver very often as my main form of study, and care a lot about playing good theoretically sound poker, especially when playing online. In the live poker arena I play a hyper exploitative style mainly focused on getting big value out of strong hands and making big folds to aggression. The more I perceive my opponent to be someone who studies theory and GTO poker, I shift more into that playstyle against that opponent.
6. What were some of the unexpected hurdles that you have experienced in poker? How are you overcoming those? Mental game is something that I really struggled with early in my professional career that I thought I would have no problem with. I used to think that being stoic and disengaged from the outcome of playing was the correct approach, but overtime I realized that only caused emotions to build up inside of me. These days, I use a combination of healthy expressions of my feelings to friends alongside mild journaling and breaks during sessions to self reflect.
7. Who is the most difficult player that you have ever competed against? How was that experience? Cash game regulars can be among the toughest players in the world. They don’t play tournaments often so most people have never heard of them despite many being massively winning cash game professionals. I play with some of these players day in and day out, but Chris Konvalinka from Solve For Why and I played four handed for around five hours at the Wynn with a couple recreational players and I got absolutely smoked by him the entire session. He is fun and disarming, while also putting me in tough spots hand after hand.
8. Looking back at where you were when you started your poker journey; how has your game evolved and what are your poker goals going forward? One thing I think I’ve always had in poker is a beginner’s mindset. When I was only a year into learning poker, I thought I was a fish. Now, as a full time professional, I still see myself as a fish, albeit a slightly stronger one. Poker is immensely complicated with near endless things to learn and improve in, and there are players who I’m confident have me crushed in every element of poker strategy. While I’m a much better player now, I think I share the same mindset as my earlier self with poker. My goals for the future are to play bigger and bigger games. I’ve taken a few shots at 5/10 but haven’t gotten it to stick, I’m hoping next year I move up to playing it more often.
9. What is your favorite hobby or passion outside of poker? I love skating and video games. My wife and I spend a lot of time out at restaurants and bars in Vegas and are urban explorers.
10. What are your plans for poker in the future, if any at all? I’d like to keep growing my instagram and creating fun content that shows other perspectives in poker other than cis men. Lots of people have reached out to me saying they are part of the broader queer and LGBT community and that they really feel encouraged seeing me play full time and make poker content. I’d like to continue making poker the best game it can be for anyone who wants to play it.