Grammy Winner Alex Tumay Lives His Poker Dream

Grammy winner Alex Tumay loves poker and today he’s living his WSOP Main Event dream. Tumay has recorded and mixed songs for hip hop giants such as Young Thug, Travis Scott, Future, Kanye West, Drake, and 21 Savage, but while he’s a giant in the music world, today he’s just another guy living his poker dream in the WSOP Main Event.

Sneaking into casinos in South Florida since the age of 16 after watching Chris Moneymaker win the WSOP Main Event a year prior, Alex Tumay has carried a love for poker around for many years.

Without illegal Poker games I wouldn’t have made it thru interning. Even with family helping me get through college and 100 hour work weeks.

— Alex Tumay (@alextumay) October 16, 2017

Tumay was involved in starting the Poker Association at the University of Florida where $20 games slowly but surely turned into $500 games, he dealt home games to make some money while he was doing internships at music studios before being able to turn that into his full-time career.

But for someone in his position, work never stops. Sometimes on breaks, Tumay runs back up to his hotel room where he has a setup to mix, edit, and make quick changes to ongoing projects.

“My job is a 24/7 kind of deal and I know it’s the same for these poker players. I watch them, I really like the Vlogs and videos from guys like Brad Owen, Andrew Neeme, and freaking Doug Polk.”

Now, highly sought after for his ability to mix songs and his skills as an audio engineer, Tumay has gathered the means to live out one of the dreams he’s carried around for a very long time.

I really don't get excited about much but I'm legit geeked about playing in the WSOP. Not nearly enough bread to play in the main event (the real dream), but I started playing poker at 15 sneaking into casinos and watching the @WSOP on TV to learn, so this is a bucket list thing.

— Alex Tumay (@alextumay) June 26, 2018

After playing his first ever WSOP event last year, finishing 22nd in the $1,000 Super Turbo Bounty, he’s back to play the event of events for the very first time: The Main Event.

“I had the money last year after that cash and I really wanted to play but I had a session to go to in L.A. so I couldn’t make this. This year I made sure to clear my schedule, I did extra jobs to make money on the side to save up some extra money for my roll,” Tumay said with a big smile on the third break of the day.

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So today I almost chickened out, but a few friends reminded me this has been a dream of mine for over 15 years and set me straight. I saved up every physical dollar I worked for all year to play this tournament guilt free. Wish me luck in the @wsop main event! (Also if you wanna buy a % cuz this is way too much money for me lemme know.

A post shared by Alex Tumay (@alextumay) on Jul 3, 2019 at 5:18pm PDT

Despite busting on the stone bubble in one of the mega satellites last night, Tumay pulled the trigger and dropped down the buy-in this morning, fully embracing the emotional adrenaline-filled roller coaster that is the biggest poker tournament on the planet.

“It’s crazy and scary,” Tumay said with a smile, “Technically I’m playing way above my roll and that’s scary. I recognize pros everywhere and that’s scary. Every hand is scary. Every bet might get raised and you never know when you’re gonna have to decide for your tournament life.”

When asked about players he’s played with and has been impressed by, Tumay immediately talks about Joe Cada and John Cynn, who both made last year’s Main Event final table. Last year, at his WSOP debut, he played against former Main Event winner Greg Raymer and Chris Moneymaker, as Tumay rattled off the names like a true poker fan. The biggest difference this year? The poker fan is on the felt, mixing it up with the big names for the big money as this year’s Main Event is projected to award at least $8,000,000 for the winner.

“Winning this event would mean everything to me, but obviously just cashing would also be the coolest thing ever! Let’s just make Day 4 and once I get there I’m sure I can say that Day 7 is then the dream!”

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