Victory Poker Signs Australian Whizz Kid James ‘Andy McLEOD’ Obst

Victory Poker has continued to gain ground since it was first launched on February 1st 2009 and has now added top tournament pro James ‘Andy McLEOD’ Obst to boost its nineteen member strong Team Victory.
Despite being 20 years-old, Obst is already a seasoned pro having first started playing poker when he was just 14 years old. Having signed up for a poker account while claiming to be 18 years old, Obst then immediately started building up his 20c bankroll and at 15 won a $10 “rebuy” tournament, netting him $17,000.
Unfortunately for Obst, by the time he reached 17 he was reported for being under aged by a rival at the poker site and was subsequently banned. After a brief sabbatical he then returned back to the game and has since notched up over $1.5 million in online tournament cashes including a 1st place finish at the 2009 PokerStars WCOOP $3,150 Mixed Hold-em event for $184,000.
Speaking about his poker career so far, the former Australian chess champion said: “It’s not nearly as glamorous as it might seem. It’s harder to think of a more stressful job.”
Obst also admits to having lost $200,000 in a single day and continued; “I play pretty much the biggest stakes available, or I try to anyway, and the swings are very extreme… So I’ve been broke a tonne of times. I always take big shots…You can just get unlucky over the short term, but I’m still confident enough if that happens I will just be able to play lower and get the money back and take another shot.”
The Australian poker whizz will now join a team of poker pros at the site which includes Antonio Esfandiari, Lee Markholt, Paul Wasicka, Andrew ‘good2cu’ Robl, Brian ‘tsarrast’ Rast, Alec ‘traheho’ Torelli, David ‘The Maven’ Chicotsky and Jonathan ‘FieryJustice’ Little.