The nosebleed world of the high roller and super high roller poker poker events are, to many, the stuff of legend. For others, they are their everyday place of work. Comfortable at seemingly any stakes, PokerStake’s Justin Saliba is one of those poker players. Crushing at No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha, Justin has won over $10 million in his poker career, placing him comfortably inside the top 200 live poker players of all time.

We caught up with Justin while he was in Barcelona, playing – and cashing in – EPT events to find out what has driven him to success and how he maintains his level at the top table of the game.

Hitting the Straps

⁠“If you’re not prepared to play your best, you’re going to get crushed out there.”

Justin has enjoyed a great year in 2025 so far, including his biggest-ever win in Jeju, South Korea, where he took home $675,000 after coming fourth behind the winner, Anatoly Filatov, in the $25,000 WPT Global Slam event. With so many events now taking place in the Far East, Justin’s ability to win big on his travels is vital to his success.

“Getting fourth in Jeju was an awesome experience, but definitely bittersweet,” he smiles. “I have a second, third, and now fourth at Triton, but I don’t think I can ever be satisfied until I put myself in position enough times that I get some marquee wins. With so many events in the Far East, I think it’s very important to be able to travel well as a poker pro. The time difference is massive, and the pressure and stakes are incredibly high. If you’re not prepared to play your best, you’re going to get crushed out there.”

Triton events have been very profitable for Justin in recent years, and he’s been impressed with their development of the Super High Roller scene.

“It’s been awesome to see Triton’s growth over the recent years, culminating in Jeju where they broke tons of records for running the biggest $100k+ event that has ever been run,” he says. “I think that the prestige of the series is important, and for me, it’s the most important series of the year to play my best. The stakes are so high every day, and the pressure to perform is amplified by all of the attention and all of the legends of the game that you’re playing against. Everything about Triton is top class and the playing experience at those stops is amazing.”

Crushing High Rollers and Playing PLO

High Rollers are a big part of Justin’s game and so many of them take place in Las Vegas inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA. Unsurprisingly, these are some of his favorites.

“In Vegas, I love the PokerGO Events and the World Series of Poker (WSOP),” says Justin. “PokerGO do everything right and they are always working hard to try and provide an amazing experience and iterate on their product and tournament offerings, which we all appreciate. I’m excited to spend some more time in Vegas between now and the end of the year with the upcoming Poker Masters series followed by the NAPT and the WPT World Championship at the Wynn.”

⁠In recent years, the growth of Pot Limit Omaha has come to the fore. Justin first took on the ‘four card game’ just three years ago but his passion for PLO has grown ever since.

“PLO is booming which is cool to see,” Justin tells us. “I started playing PLO cash in 2022 online, really trying to dive into the game as a bit of a new challenge. I really enjoyed that and if you look at the numbers that PLO tournaments are getting, it’s clear that moving forward, each year I’ll be spending more and more time studying and playing PLO. I’m hopeful that within the next few years, I’ll have a bit more confidence in my short-stack PLO game and play more high stakes.”

Winning Big on PokerStake

“NOTHING MAKES ME HAPPIER THAN WINNING POKER TOURNAMENTS AND GETTING TO SHARE THAT EXPERIENCE WITH OTHERS.”

It’s not only Justin who has won big when he plays, with PokerStake backers having enjoyed massive profits if they’ve backed him in most of his events. His biggest win on the site was for $690,000 in a $63,000 buy-in event but Justin has racked up well over $1.7m in results on the site alone. In the opening events at Barcelona this week, he has come 19^th and 42^nd in two events for results worth a combined $45,000 in cashes compared to the $5,000 they cost to enter. Winning for others on PokerStake is a huge motivator for Justin.

“I’m very proud of that, and it’s really important to me that anytime I’m selling action to really help use that as fuel to focus and play to the best of my ability. I want to play an exciting brand of poker constantly, that is fun to watch and follow along and nothing makes me happier than winning a bunch of money and getting to share that experience with friends, loved ones, and others that believe in me.”

With Justin very proud to have won so often for others, he has received some fantastic feedback from backers over the years.  ⁠For someone so successful, he sells at a relatively low markup.

“I’m not a big fan of high markup,” Justin says. “Early in my career, I always felt that if I wasn’t properly bankrolled for an event such that I had to sell, I would always sell at face value because the value I’m getting is liquidity to gamble in something above my bankroll. This was very helpful for me because I ended up getting access to a ton of capital because of the edges I was giving investors, and I think that that pays off more in the long run than looking to maximize markup and pocket more short-term dollars.”

Justin focuses on chips, not buy-ins and it’s clear from his attitude that making money on its own is not a driver for the success he’s had in the game.

“I just don’t care that much about money. I want to play and compete at the highest level constantly, and I want to reward the people that believe in me with hopefully a much larger edge than other players are willing to give up.”

Keeping An Edge

“The swings and the lifestyle [of poker] aren’t always the most compatible with relationships.”

When he’s not at the felt, looking after his body and mind is of paramount importance to Justin. His girlfriend Maila is an incredible pastry chef – Check out her food via Justin’s X page so his battle is to stay in shape in real life as well as in the next poker hand.

“Luckily, in addition to Maila being an incredible pastry chef, she’s also very into health and fitness!” laughs Justin. “So even though I’m very happy that I get to be a part-time taste-tester for all sorts of cakes and cream puffs, she does an amazing job making sure that she cooks plenty of good, healthy food for us as well.”

The value of someone being by his side as a constant support system is never lost of Justin and it’s clear that he sees his life partner as his ultimate edge.

“In poker, it’s really important to have an amazing partner,” he admits. “The swings and the lifestyle aren’t always the most compatible with relationships, so I’m very happy and lucky that Maila is such a great support system for me and always pushes me to be better in every facet of life.”

Justin recently spoke with Jared Alderman about his mental edge, self-improvement and even his success in Jeju here.

Player Turned Coach Aims for Big End to 2025

“I feel very well rested and hungrier than ever to get it done at the highest stakes.”

In recent months, Justin has done some work with PokerCoaching.com and is passing on some of the secrets he’s picked up in his professional career. It’s a challenge he’s enjoying and learning in all the time.

“I really enjoy coaching at PokerCoaching.com. The team there is amazing and Jonathan [Little] really is committed to trying to teach poker to everyone from a beginner up to high-level professionals,” says Justin. “For myself, I’ve always been enamored with the theoretical complexity of poker, so the biggest challenge I face as a coach is really trying to break complex topics down into digestible heuristics that students can relatively easily execute at the table. It’s a fun challenge that I really enjoy.”

With four full months of the year to go, Justin still has his sights on big success to come in 2025.

“This year has been a bit unique; it’s the first year that I’ve missed some key stops to spend a bit more time with loved ones and enjoy some key life events,” Justin says. “At this point in the year, I feel very well rested and hungrier than ever to get it done at the highest stakes.”

Justin says that his focus for the next four months is on finishing strongly at EPT Barcelona before he heads to Jeju for their inaugural Triton ONE festival. After that, he’ll be returning to Las Vegas to play in the PGT Poker Masters series, before he makes marginal decisions about which events to fill the remainder of his calendar with.

“With so many amazing series running, EPT Malta and WSOP Cyprus are high on my list, so I might get to those before the end of year tournaments in Vegas with the NAPT, WPT Championship, and the PGT Last Chance Series. I will definitely be posting some sweats on PokerStake wherever I end up going the rest of the year!”

With all of his action on offer via his official PokerStake staking page, you can invest in Justin Saliba’s next events exclusively on PokerStake. Don’t sleep on it.