Ren Lin won over $11 million in under three years, has traveled the globe playing in high rollers and is the number one ranked GPI player in the world. A far cry from his life just eight years ago as a frozen yogurt store owner in Augusta, GA and playing $235 Daily Deepstacks at the Rio.
“I’m running good and have been lucky for the past six months,” Lin said. “It’s not easy, it’s never easy. I’m just lucky.”
Lin is seated in Day 1A of the $3,800 World Poker Tour Choctaw Championship, looking to fill a gap on his resume. He has high roller titles from Alpha8 and WPT festivals but his best finish on the WPT main tour is 8th place at the 2022 Five Diamond World Poker Classic.
Lin tested himself against the best in the world at Triton and PokerGO Studio events for the last two years and been coming out on top. Part of his success he attributes to preparing the same way.
“The low buy-ins and high buy-ins are the same to me,” said Lin. “I do my best at every tournament. I love poker so much; I play the same I would here as a high roller.”
For someone living at the top of the game, Lin has humble beginnings in the game and his career really didn’t take off until the Covid pandemic. He said he spent two years at home playing online and that’s what helped his game.
In fact, Lin didn’t know he moved to the top spot in the GPI until the interview. We watched the full weight of the impact hit him. “I’m number one? Oh, I didn’t know. Thanks for letting me know,” he said.
He searched for words during a pause where his English failed him. “For me, it’s so exciting to be number one but I still feel the same. It’s hard for me to say in English.”
Lin most recently won the PGT Texas Poker Open for $400,000 and a belt buckle trophy. It earned him 486.52 GPI points to edge out 2023 WPT Player of the Year Bin Weng for the top spot.
With so much going his way, Lin will be firing at events all summer. “The next month or so is the World Series of Poker and I just hope I can run as lucky as I have been,” he said. “I want to do well in the WSOP because I want to win a bracelet.”
Lin is planning to move to Las Vegas from New York this summer and will be closer to one of his favorite places to play. “I like PokerGo Studio but there are a lot of professionals that play,” he said with a smile. “In Triton events there are a lot of businesspeople. So, Triton is (starting to become) my favorite.”
If Lin makes a final table run it will add to his already busy May schedule with the WPT Choctaw Championship final table playing down at the HyperX Arena at Luxor Las Vegas on May 30th.
All photos courtesy of World Poker Tour.
