Brazil’s Michel Golfe; Legend of the Week Leaderboard 4 Champion

Michel Golfe woke up to a welcomed surprise last week. Golfe logged into his partypoker account and found more than $1,500 worth of Daily Legends tickets waiting for him. The Brazilian had topped the Legend of the Week Leaderboard 4 without even knowing it!

“I was surprised to see those tickets in my account. I had won a tournament for almost $4,000, and I received two tickets worth $520 and three worth $150, I was very happy.”

Golfe, who plays at partypoker under the alias “rowlei”, triumphed in the $22 Predator and secured the $3,949 top prize. The points leaderboard points earned from this impressive victory helped him top Leaderboard 4 and get his hands on the following tickets:

1x The Tuesday 500 ticket ($530)

1x The Thursday 500 ticket ($530)

3x $150 Daily Legends tickets

The 35-year-old lives in the coastal town of Itapema and it’s from here he’s been a professional poker player for the past five years.

“I ran a business specialising in creating websites for about five years until around 2015. I started playing poker then and my focus ended up shifting to poker.”

Juggling Work and Poker

Golfe juggled playing poker with running his business until he felt comfortable enough to rely on poker for his main source of income. He has fellow Brazilian Alencar Funini to thank for introducing him to the crazy world of professional poker.

“Poker player Alencar Funini is also from Itapema and he was the one who introduced me to poker. At first, I played for play money for around a month and then progressed to freerolls. I used to play after finishing my daily work in the office.”

Golfe’s first foray into tournament poker went well. One freeroll saw him win $6 and he used that to buy into some micro-stakes tournaments, winning one for $340. By the end of his first month playing real money tournaments, Golfe had turned a $1,600 profit.

“That was the first time I realised I could be a pro and make a living out of poker.”

Keeping His Skills Razor Sharp

Most of Golfe’s time is spent grinding $11 to $55 buy-in tournaments, with him stepping up to $109 tournaments during our festivals. He grinds eight tables at a time to “keep completely focused on all the tournaments” he’s playing. Plenty of studying away from the table helps keep Golfe’s game sharp.

He studies with the DR Poker Team, which is led by Dennys Ramos and Allan Justino.

“I study a few times per week. I review my tournaments and also my teammates’. It has been a very productive year. My game has evolved a lot compared to last year. The more I study, the more I see things clearly and I can find more solutions for all the different spots poker provides.”

2020 was a good year for Golfe because he also won the $22 WPT Mini Mix-Max for more than $3,800. This continued success has given Golfe a thirst for more glory, something he is hopeful of finding in our Daily Legend tournaments.

“I really like the partypoker tournaments and I play all the Daily Legends within my buy-in range. The structures are really good and I have been enjoying playing them a lot.”