Masato Yokosawa is a Japanese poker player and YouTuber with over $1.8 million in tournament winnings and almost a million subscribers on YouTube.
What were some of your poker highlights in 2024?
I played high-stakes cash with Garrett Adelstein on Bally Live Poker at the Commerce Casino. That was fun. I played in a Triton event. I also played with Phil Ivey, Jungleman, and Tom Dwan. From those experiences, I believe I grew as a person and a poker player. I became something else that I cannot put into words at the moment. I’m growing up. I feel like I’m rising in the game.
What was the toughest part of 2024 for you?
I haven’t been doing that well in tournaments. I didn’t do that well at the WSOP last summer or the Triton event I played in. I enjoyed playing in the WPT Wynn events this December. But overall, it’s not been very profitable.
How do you recommend players deal with the variance of tournament play?
That’s a good question. It really depends on whether you are a professional or a recreational player. As professional players, we have to keep our mental game positive. That means we must love the variance and understand it’s part of the game. We can’t view it as we get lucky sometimes, and sometimes, we don’t. We have to pay attention to our statistics and the like.
Recreational players should not care about the variance as much. I think that’s better for their mental approach to the game. Calculating the variance and mathematics, I believe, can make the game very boring.
You have one of the biggest YouTube channels in Japan. What do you love most about producing content for it?
First of all, I love attention [laughs]. I enjoy sharing my emotions with everyone; that’s the most important part. If I win big, I can share that emotion, and everybody will be happy. And even if I lose big, I can share my feelings. I enjoy the whole process of creating content.
What are you looking forward to most in 2025?
Actually, I have no idea [laughs]. I will mainly keep doing the same things I’ve enjoyed this year. I’ll play big tournaments, high-stakes cash games, travel, and see what comes.
You can keep up with Masato Yokosawa's journey in 2025 on his YouTube channel.
Feature image courtesy of PokerStars.
