Catherine Young is a popular figure amongst the Australian poker community, well-known for her infectious energy both as a dealer and as a player.

Her beginnings in the poker world encapsulate her nature as a go-getter, taking chances and making the most of any opportunity presented to her.

On her eighteenth birthday, a celebratory family dinner at Canterbury-Hurlestone Park RSL in Sydney was cut short when Catherine noticed a poster on the wall:

“PLAY POKER HERE”, it read. 

The Christmas Day afternoons spent playing poker with her Nan and Pop - along with bluffing lessons from her uncle - had prepared her for this moment.

She seized the opportunity, became an APL member and played her first tournament, a freeroll. She finished in second place and that was enough for Catherine to return.

“I had the high from the beginning,” she laughed. 

The next few months consisted of a balance of playing poker alongside her studies at the University of Technology Sydney. 

“I mainly played freerolls, a $30 game was a high roller for me.”

As well as the fun of the game itself, it was the social aspect that meant the most. 

“I made lots of friends, and just because of that I kept getting drawn to play more and more.”

The pandemic brought a halt to her routine, but the boom of poker tours, particularly the APLPT,  granted new possibilities for Catherine. She found a passion as a poker dealer, and from dealing the tours, she in turn began to play bigger buy-ins. 

“On my days off (during a series), I would see what games were good to play. I went from $30 being a big buy-in, to $100 or $200 games being normal,” she explained. 

At the time, she worked only her local Sydney series, exclaiming “I didn’t even realise traveling to work in poker was even a thing!”

“I thought, this is cool, I get to travel and deal with heaps of brands.”

“APL is the biggest provider of tours, I got to go to places like Tasmania because of APL, and Townsville.”

The balance of work and play is the best part for Catherine. At the recent APL Million series, she showed her skills to earn a trophy of her own. 

“I saw an event on the schedule called the ‘Young Guns’ (restricted to players 25 years of age or younger). I said to myself, I’m under 25, cool,” she explained. “I played a tourney earlier that day but I didn’t care too much about it ‘cause I was telling everyone I was gonna win the Young Guns, cause it had my name in it!”

“I went in, I had a great rail, and that’s how I got myself an Invitational seat!”

In recent times, Catherine has been in a relationship with Gold Coast-based poker player, Shem Goltz. 

Having known him over the past few years throughout many of the poker series, they came to realise they shared much in common. 

“Having a partner who’s a poker player is really cool. I’ll hand it to him, I will admit. He’s a very very good poker player. He gives me great advice about my game, and we’re always asking each other about spots.”

“We like to travel to series together, and he was with me at the APL Million. And it was really great cause he was in a tourney while I was in the Young Guns, and he got to be on the rail and watch me win. A win is even better when you get to share it with someone.”

“At an APT series where he was winning the Mystery Bounty and he pulled every single one of the bounties, and I’m playing my event. I’m seeing him do this and I’m like ‘nup!’ and there’s a little bit of competitiveness in me. I was like, I can’t let him win this Mystery Bounty while I’ve only got four big blinds over here!” 

“So I won the NLH Deep Stack on the same day that he won the Mystery Bounty. So it’s been a really great partnership, where we get to experience the highs and lows of poker.”

Catherine continues to expand her horizons, teaming up with Craig Abernethy and Troy McLean in producing the Poker Pulse Podcast. Part of their goal is to highlight the fun side of the game, “I do take it (poker) seriously, but I also like to have fun.”

Looking back, a decision on a whim to play her local APL game has taken Catherine on an incredible journey. She has found a dream job where she gets to travel, work, and play. This has resulted in her not only going from freerolls to winning a trophy at the largest poker tournament in the country, but has seen Catherine make friends for life.

 

Introducing our second player - Shem Goltz

Shem Goltz has been a regular on the Australian poker circuit for the best part of the last three years, having amassed over USD $200,000 in tournament earnings. 

It took until the 2024 APL Million for Shem to claim his first APL title, winning the Big Bounty for a score of more than $15,000.

His journey began in a different fashion compared to many of our other players. At the age of ten, whilst living in his home country of Israel, Shem’s middle school class became obsessed with the Zynga Poker game on Facebook.

“We all thought we were the best,” he laughed. 

His parents were initially apprehensive about Shem’s new favourite app, but took solace in the fact there was no real money involved

The phase passed, and it wasn’t until years later where Shem was browsing Twitch for video game streams and stumbled across a Jaime Staples video on the home page.

It reminded Shem of his old pastime, and he began to watch Staples’ content regularly and learn the game through there.

Living in Canada at the time, Shem was able to set up a Pokerstars account, and entered a freeroll. He placed in the top 70 out of over 10,000 entrants and claimed his first ever cash, $2.70.

He then jumped onto every virtual table he could find: cash games, PLO, Badugi, sit n’ go’s and anything else on offer.

In the space of a day, he had turned $0 into USD $500. He needed his parent’s assistance with the withdrawal process but explained his nervousness in approaching them, “Gambling for us was considered very negative, it had very bad connotations.”

To his surprise, Shem’s parents appreciated the honesty and were intrigued by Shem’s success. His dad suggested not withdrawing the entire amount, and instead to leave $100 to continue to work with.

Fast forward to 2023 when Shem was playing in Las Vegas at the World Series of Poker, Jason Koon was sat at the same table and shared that he began his poker journey in the same way as Shem, only that Jason’s sister was the one assisting with the withdrawal process, requesting half the profits in exchange for her help.

“I’m very grateful that my parents didn’t ask me for that!” Shem chuckled.

Shem’s advice to newer players is based on building good habits and solid fundamentals, about not being results oriented, and not playing to try and get rich. “I don’t play poker for the money,” he stressed.

Shem only played online poker until he moved to the Gold Coast in December of 2021. 

“I went to the casino and I played there,” he began, “that was the first time I’d ever played live.”

It was quickly apparent that Shem was suited to live poker, with his GTO-based, online background. He won the second live tournament he’d ever played, and has regularly travelled to play both domestically and overseas.

Speaking on the influence of poker on the rest of his life, Shem referenced the beginnings of his relationship with Catherine Young, “All I would talk about is poker. I’m obsessed with the game, I consume so much content everyday.”

“If I can’t make a decision about what I want to eat, or whether to do one thing or the other, I just randomise it!”

He was there to support Catherine Young for her victory in the Young Guns at the APL Million this year, and she retuned the favour when he came away with the Big Bounty title.

“It’s kind of insane, we both won a tournament back-to-back, like within a day apart at APL, and then we won on the same day at APT as well. Something is working there for the both of us, we make each other better players.”

“Even though Catherine doesn’t have the pure GTO background like myself, she’s very smart. Her intelligence allows her to play like a tricky style, and she just knows how to play against people really well.”

Going forward, we’ll see the duo around the circuit, as Shem looks to continue to add to his trophy collection whilst Catherine juggles both playing and dealing.

 

Introducing our third player - Florence Ho

Sydney’s Florence Ho is a relative newcomer to the world of poker, largely influenced by her partner’s existing passion for the game. 

“My partner Rex (Ly) played a big part in encouraging me to play,” she began, “even though it was quite male dominant. He frequented APL pub poker games and I would sometimes play for fun.”

“Poker came naturally to me, since I played a card game back in my childhood days called Big Two.”

Florence spoke of the normal mistakes beginners often make, and how she struggled initially, but what drew her to the game was the adrenaline rush of moments like hitting a flush draw, or raking in a winning pot.

“What kept me coming back to poker was purely the mix of strategy and psychology involved. I was just drawn to the idea that it wasn’t just about luck but also about people and probabilities."

“I would play freerolls with Rex. Just for fun. I was super inspired by Rex’s collection of trophies, and wondered to myself if I could ever get one too, we have a really nice trophy case!”

She describes Rex as her biggest supporter and inspiration, “And I know that’s super corny, but he would always encourage me to get out of freerolls and get into smaller buy-ins like $10 or $20.”

The step up in stakes came as a challenge for Florence, so she worked on becoming better at the game.

“I focussed on improving my fundamentals and my strategy through studies and mentorship. Which is still super critical for me to this day. Shout to Rex and the Yellow Bucket Hat crew!”

Florence attended the APL Million in 2023, but admitted she wasn’t playing seriously at the time and only played in one event, The Big 80. However, the experience gave her something to work towards in 2024.

She went again this year, as part of the ‘Yellow Bucket Hat Crew’ and was selected in the Fantasy Draft for team Premium Economy.

Florence was arguably one of the best buys, with a total of six finishes in the money, two final tables and a title! Propelling her to the top 10 on the Tier 3 leaderboard, but just missing out on the top five for a spot in the cash.

More importantly to her, Florence’s contribution to team Premium Economy helped earn them victory in the Fantasy Draft.

When asked about her favourite moments in her poker journey thus far, Florence replied.

“Winning my first APL Million tournament, the whole experience. Travelling with my mates, hustling and playing tournaments every day, being in the same fantasy team, and winning POTS points. Just amazing!”

“I’m super proud to have won the fantasy team and be part of that.”

She also spoke about the impact poker has made on other areas of her life.

“Poker has taught me a lot about patience, and adaptability and making informed decisions. It’s also developed my mental fortitude, you sometimes have to be buying into the same game three to five times, and that can take a mental toll.”

“Poker has increased my resilience, which has also helped me in my career and personal life.”

Despite the recent success, she still admits there’s much improvement to be made but has loved the ride so far.

“I still have a lot to learn, I’m still somewhat of a beginner.”

Florence will be using the nightly $40 and $55 games around the APL Hills District of Sydney in preparations for the 2025 APL Million.

 

Introducing our fourth player - Rex Ly

Rex Ly is yet another member of the Yellow Bucket Hat crew that found success at the 2024 APL Million.

Travelling with both his mates, and partner Florence Ho, the group came away with more than half a dozen trophies between them all.

For Rex, his poker journey began as a kid where he played many card games.

“Magic the Gathering, Hearthstone,” he listed. “I think at some point in like 2017, my YouTube algorithm started recommending me poker highlight videos, although I’d never really played before.”

He watched a few of the videos, and became interested in the game. So much so, that he sought out his local games and started playing local APL freerolls.

“I was like so s***,” he confessed. “I went back and checked, and it took me 55 tournaments before I cashed my first freeroll, and 67 before I won my first freeroll.”

“I think at the time, I was just grinding all these APL events to qualify for the State Champs and the Pro Open that APL was running. At my first State Champs, I ran super hot and came 10th, and bubbled an APL Million Main Event ticket.”

“In NSW, in the Ryde region at the time. They had this ‘Sponsored Pro’ promotion where if you’re at the top of the weekly leaderboard, they pay all your buy-ins and add-ons for the next week. So around June, mid-2018, I won this through just grinding the freerolls and used the opportunity to just try out some of the $20 to $50 games they run weekly.”

Rex described those games as being similar to freerolls, which gave him the confidence to play them more frequently. 

From 2019 to 2021, Rex decided to take a break from poker. He moved to Melbourne to play video games professionally. “Teamfight Tactics, which is another strategic game,” he explained.

In 2022, Rex returned to Sydney and started playing poker again, but he faced an interested situation.

“All the friends that I had before had now moved up in stakes. They were playing $200-$600 buy-in range.”

“I think George (Zhang) and Rob (Liu) were flying up to Queensland to play like a $2,000 WPT Main there. I’d obviously fallen behind a bit, so I asked Rob to coach me and I did a lot of study to try to catch up to them.”

In 2023, Rex began playing the APLPT events whenever they took place in Sydney, where the biggest buy-in he played was the $350 Monster Stack.

He came 12th in one of the APLPT Main Events at CHPRSL, but found himself disappointed to not make the very most of a deep run in a huge event. He told himself he would run better at the next one.

By the time the following series in Sydney came around at West HQ in May 2023, Rex had fired three bullets into the APLPT Main Event, and busted each one of them, “Which was a lot for me at the time,” He reflected.

“I was contemplating like, should I just call it a day and just quit and go home?”

It took an extra push from an Aussie Millions champion in Shurane Vijayaram, telling Rex “Trust me bro, nah bro, just go for it. Fourth time’s the charm bro. Trust.”

“So I just fired a fourth bullet,” he continued. “And then somehow for Day 1 and Day 2, I just ran so pure. I was getting paid for all my value, my bluffs were getting through. I’d just blast off a flush draw and get there. I won every flip, every time I was at risk. Insane. And I eventually won that tournament for like $25,000 and an APL Million Main Event ticket.”

Now that he’d won the seat to the biggest tournament of the year, he knew he had to head up to the Gold Coast in August.

Rex found success during the series, finding a min-cash in the Main Event and enjoying a great run in the Jackstar where he finished in fifth place for more than $40,000. 

“It was really good for the bankroll, and that let me move up again to more regularly fire the $1k’s now.”

“It’s pretty crazy how APL provides a pathway that lets you qualify all the way from the freerolls to the APL Million Main Event.”

“I’ve pretty much just done this through APL, played APL the whole time. I’ve been here and there with other providers, but it’s been APL for the most part.”

At the recent APL Million series, both Rex and his partner Florence Ho were drafted into the fantasy team Premium Economy, with both of them collecting a trophy each.

In other areas of his life, poker’s power to enable new friendships has been a huge positive for Rex.

“Some of the closest friends I have now, I met at an APL freeroll.”

In the same way Rex turned to his friend Rob Liu for assistance in improving his game. He’s now the biggest supporter for his own partner Florence. 

“I’m super proud of how far she’s come,” he smiled, “and can see the work that she’s put in is paying off.”

He inspired her to begin playing, and has encouraged Florence on her own poker journey as she works her way to follow Rex’s trajectory from freerolls to multiple five-figure cashes thanks to the APL pathways.