Last weekend he won a tournament at Sky City's Deepstack Series in the Pot Limit Omaha tournament. The $2850 first prize pales in comparison to the "four or five" tournament cashes he has had for around $50,000, but it is his first live cash in this form of the game and perhaps the beginning of a new chapter.
After playing poker for five years (professionally for two) Zheng is at the heart of the NZ poker scene. His time is divided between casino cash games, online play, coaching at www.pokerstrategy.com and studying civil engineering.
Asked how many poker pro's like him there are in New Zealand, Zheng, as always, was thoughtful in his response.
"It depends how you define professional," he said. "If you were to say how many do it as their sole source of income I would say 100, if you were to define it by who makes more than 50k a year, I would say 50 or 60."
A self described 'poker allrounder' Zheng made headlines in 2011 when he won the NZ poker open for $50,615, defending his title from the previous year when he won it for $37,000.
But his meat and drink is the cash game tables, where Zheng spends upwards of 50 hours a week during a tournament series.
He recounted to me how he went to the casino at noon one day to play some tournaments, busted them, then played cash games till 10am, in a 22-hour stint.
For Zheng, this lifestyle works. The thought of going into 'work' each day and winning or losing thousands of dollars is something he has become comfortable with and accustomed too.
For many, the life of a high-stakes grinder sounds like a fairy tale. The reality is that it takes exceptional mental discipline and can be incredibly gruelling. The good times are great, but the bad times will make or break you. Winning players can go weeks, months and sometimes years without making money, and it's how they respond to these bad run's that help determine whether the game is for them.
Do you thump the table, chuck the mouse or scream at your opponents when things are going wrong? Behaviour like this in the long term is doomed for failure. Seasoned pros learn to remove emotion from the game, however hard it can be. And when your whole life revolves around the turn of the card, it can be very hard.
In the end, the allure of a consistent, reliable, career-inspired pay-cheque overcame my desire for a life at the tables. Could I have made a career from poker? Possibly. Could I handle the mental stress of a bad few months with a mortgage and family to support? Probably not.
I don't have a family to support, or a mortgage, but was thinking about the future. And so is Zheng. He sees a future as a Civil Engineer, working fulltime and playing poker on the side.
Like me, he is looking for a more balanced life.
