Transition from a Struggling Pro to A High Stakes Endboss
01-01-2021
, 07:30 AM
01-01-2021
, 09:09 AM
01-01-2021
, 12:01 PM
Quote:
Before I get into the 2020 recap, I thought I'd recap my career for the casual reader; I was also feeling nostalgic as I just had my 5 year anniversary of pursuing poker full time.
So let's go back to....
2015
It was May of 2015, I had just graduated from Salisbury University and was looking forward to moving on with my life. The one issue was...I really had no idea what the hell I wanted to do with my life. I went to school and majored in media productions but my passion for that really eroded around halfway through college.
Coming out of college I didn't have a job set up. I was nervous/anxious regarding this so I scooped up one of the first offers I got. I was tasked to work as a sales recruiter for a small company. Day to day tasks mostly led to tiresome cold calls and a lot of faux excitement.
I hated it. Getting up, going to work, coming back home miserable. It was just not a positive environment for me. So, where does poker come into this?
My last semester of college I picked it up (I had a very light schedule). And very soon, I got completely obsessed w the game. I remember fondly bringing my laptop to my geography lecture and 4 tabling 10NL while I half-heartedly took notes. Besides that, I would watch countless youtube clips, PAD, WSOP main event episodes...the list goes on.
Through all burgeoning love for the game, I really didn't consider poker as a profession at first. Poker Professional seems like such an exotic job I really didn't consider it until those 8 hour days working a job I hated really began to drag me down.
My days turned from working 8 hours a day; to immediately playing 4 hours of poker until bed.
That's when the idea of going professional really dawned on me. I was 23. What the hell do I have to lose? I told my parents of my choice. I got complete support from them and my closest friends, although I ofc got some skeptics.
I quit my job late December of 2015 with a $8,000 bankroll ready to make my dream a reality.
2016: Year 1
Transitioning from a 9-5 job to a do it yourself poker pro was a big adjustment. I went from being told what to do to having complete say and ownership to what I could do.
Naturally, I handled it horribly.
Growing up, procrastination and laziness were things I drastically struggled with and it continued my inaugural year of poker.
Instead of studying, I watched Youtube. Instead of grinding an extra hour of poker, I socialized too much. I did not have the discipline (yet) to have success with the game.
At the end of 2016, I had profited a little over 10k for the year (not really liveable in my state) and had gone into some credit card debt (18k) as my roll now diminished to about $6,800.
Despite being fairly broke, (I mean I legitimately had a negative net worth!) I was ready to leave my parents and start my own life.
I moved out, moved in with one of my best friends to Hoboken,NJ. A fun, social hub for a single guy like me; however, also a fairly expensive city as now I had a $1,250 rent per month with a roll of $6,800.
There are very few decisions in my life that really stick with me. But the one I made at the end of 2016 was the biggest of my poker career. With a pressure cooker of financial trouble staring me down, I had to ask myself, "Am I good enough to make poker work?"
2017: Year 2
I wasn't. And it's probably the best answer I gave myself. One of the beautiful things about this game is you can't lie to poker, the results told the story.
Throughout it all, I knew I had the capability to be a great player I just needed guidance. So, in 2017, I applied and was accepted as a student for BTS. The deal was for a year and 50% of my income for the entire year.
I think a lot of people would of balked at the 50% in my shoes; especially with my precarious financial position. But as always, I bet on myself; I knew if I had guidance into improvement I had the natural skill to be a dominant player.
As a result of the 50% cut, I humbled myself and began dog walking to pick up some extra $. Through it all, I wasn't really worried about going broke; I was worried about not being able to play poker as my profession.
Thankfully, the coaching worked out great. I worked with MMA for the majority of the year (and got great advice from Svansva as well) that my technical game improved a lot.
Socially, I was a young guy really focused on poker not really looking forward to anything serious. So naturally I ended up meeting my wife, Victoria, 2 weeks into moving to Hoboken.
By the end of 2017, I had gotten a loving girlfriend and had my first tangible success as a professional.
*2017 graph
2018: Year 3
I came into 2018 brimming with confidence. I had ended my contract with BTS and even got offered to start coaching with them, I developed a really strong friendship w MMA and began networking well within the poker world.
Unfortunately, I became my own worst enemy. I could sum that all up again, but I think these 3 posts do the trick.
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...&postcount=690
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...&postcount=701
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...&postcount=722
So yeah 2018 wasn't a great year. My worst qualities as a person (laziness/procrastination) took over and led to a very disappointing year. I did improve my game, but poor game selection/ game quality hurt me.
*2018 graph
2019: Year 4
2019 felt like a complete redemption tour. I really focused heavily on improving my overall process when it came to poker and reprogram my bad habits. There was plenty of failures; but I kept at it and kept plugging away.
I got engaged and felt on top of the world; especially as my poker results jumped to another level. I continued to improve and lessen my shortcomings; it was a tedious process but I really began to make slow baby steps of progress.
I made meditation a process; I really improved my studying efficiency and I played decent volume.
I ended up having my first six figure year in 2019 and even bought a house. Life was (and still is!) really coming together for me.
But with anything, adversity will hit. My fiancee had to go through open heart surgery and we found out she wasn't able to carry her children on her own. We decided on surrogacy, but with the average $ of that process being 100-150k I was again facing a bit of a financial crunch.
Which, finally brings us to 2020.
*2019 tracked results
2020: Year 5
Poker
Despite a successful 2019, after putting 20% on my house down I only had $32,000 in my poker accounts. Not bad at all especially with money outside of it, but with last minute wedding costs and surrogacy in the future there was some pressure.
The pressure didn't last long. I ran well to begin the year, but I came in thinking my skill set was well above my roll. I won, and won, and kept on winning. In early January, I was still mixing in 200NL. By April, I was shot taking a rare 10k game.
By mid spring, I had fully broken through into highstakes. Most importantly, my game has completely exploded. I've always been fairly self aware that I have issues with my game (as does everyone tbh). But this year was the first time, I could be honest with myself and say, "Hey, there's still a lot to improve on, but if you're locked in you're one of the best players in the country."
Around late June, I suffered my worst day of my career losing 60k in a HU battle vs a reg. In honesty, it was probably naive to play a format I hadn't put in work in despite being proficient in 6 max.
I then decided I wanted to hold the lobbies going forward, and I had to get better. So I messaged a former PGC'er that can help me.
HU
After the 60k loss, I stewed for around 20 minutes and realized I don't know really anyone who's great at HU. I thought a bit longer and wrote to Clanty that I was looking to learn HU. We quickly came to an agreement and began working together.
This was another one of my great poker decisions. The attention to detail and thoroughness Clanty gave me during our sessions was unprecedented. He was really a great teacher and he really helped not only my HU game, but also my 6m game. I think it was really a beneficial arrangement for both of us; but really have a lot of respect for his approach to the game. I also definitely stole some of his teaching methods for my own coachings
So yes, had to give friend one shoutout here!
Elliot Roe
With the excess of winnings, I knew I had made significant progress in my technical/theoretical knowledge of the game; but the biggest edge to be gained for me going forward was performance.
I've had people ask me quite a bit how his sessions have been, and it was deep consideration for me as well. I ended up paying $20,000 for a 10 session package. I've had 4 sessions and I have absolutely 0 regret; his sessions have been so beneficial to me. I wish I could go into more detail, but for my privacy sake I'll keep it to myself. However, he has been great in making me cognizant of some really big blind spots in my life.
I'm very much looking forward to working with him going into 2021.
As far as results, I play about half my volume untracked but since my results will be on BTS page I may as post them here. I was one of the bigger winners in the country and my NLH game is quickly progressing to a top level. I'm very much looking forward to pushing myself further in 2021.
*2020 tracked
Surrogacy
Through all the success of poker, the other big storyline of this year for me (besides getting married!) has been surrogacy. In June, me and my wife got one of the biggest shocks of our lives when my cousin offered to be our surrogate. By far, one of the most emotional moments of my life.
Unfortunately, we've had to have quite a few delays and a few medical issues that have delayed the process to February now. I have been able to deal w it ok; but it's been tough on my wife. For those curious, the bill is around $37,000 so far with no result so far so it's an expensive process but it's a huge relief to know I'm financially covered with this going forward.
I'm hoping that in the future I can do something for prospective parents going through this; maybe a grant? I could not imagine going through this on a regular 9-5 income.
Going forward
The development of my game the last 8 months has been huge; but I know I can still improve a lot more. I still feel really passionate about the game and best of all I've put me and my family in a solid financial position going forward.
I want to continue improving my work ethic and continue to put in more solver work. As far as this blog, I am going to continue writing in it. I enjoy it and it's something I've done since I started this journey over 5 years ago. I couldn't imagine just never writing in it.
However, I am far too boring to write in this thing every week. So I'll be making this a monthly blog post, this will allow a little bit more fleshed out writing going forward.
I hope everyone has a great 2021. I had a great 2020, but I know it's been tough on a ton of people so sending thoughts out to everyone.
As always, good luck on the felt.
So let's go back to....
2015
It was May of 2015, I had just graduated from Salisbury University and was looking forward to moving on with my life. The one issue was...I really had no idea what the hell I wanted to do with my life. I went to school and majored in media productions but my passion for that really eroded around halfway through college.
Coming out of college I didn't have a job set up. I was nervous/anxious regarding this so I scooped up one of the first offers I got. I was tasked to work as a sales recruiter for a small company. Day to day tasks mostly led to tiresome cold calls and a lot of faux excitement.
I hated it. Getting up, going to work, coming back home miserable. It was just not a positive environment for me. So, where does poker come into this?
My last semester of college I picked it up (I had a very light schedule). And very soon, I got completely obsessed w the game. I remember fondly bringing my laptop to my geography lecture and 4 tabling 10NL while I half-heartedly took notes. Besides that, I would watch countless youtube clips, PAD, WSOP main event episodes...the list goes on.
Through all burgeoning love for the game, I really didn't consider poker as a profession at first. Poker Professional seems like such an exotic job I really didn't consider it until those 8 hour days working a job I hated really began to drag me down.
My days turned from working 8 hours a day; to immediately playing 4 hours of poker until bed.
That's when the idea of going professional really dawned on me. I was 23. What the hell do I have to lose? I told my parents of my choice. I got complete support from them and my closest friends, although I ofc got some skeptics.
I quit my job late December of 2015 with a $8,000 bankroll ready to make my dream a reality.
2016: Year 1
Transitioning from a 9-5 job to a do it yourself poker pro was a big adjustment. I went from being told what to do to having complete say and ownership to what I could do.
Naturally, I handled it horribly.
Growing up, procrastination and laziness were things I drastically struggled with and it continued my inaugural year of poker.
Instead of studying, I watched Youtube. Instead of grinding an extra hour of poker, I socialized too much. I did not have the discipline (yet) to have success with the game.
At the end of 2016, I had profited a little over 10k for the year (not really liveable in my state) and had gone into some credit card debt (18k) as my roll now diminished to about $6,800.
Despite being fairly broke, (I mean I legitimately had a negative net worth!) I was ready to leave my parents and start my own life.
I moved out, moved in with one of my best friends to Hoboken,NJ. A fun, social hub for a single guy like me; however, also a fairly expensive city as now I had a $1,250 rent per month with a roll of $6,800.
There are very few decisions in my life that really stick with me. But the one I made at the end of 2016 was the biggest of my poker career. With a pressure cooker of financial trouble staring me down, I had to ask myself, "Am I good enough to make poker work?"
2017: Year 2
I wasn't. And it's probably the best answer I gave myself. One of the beautiful things about this game is you can't lie to poker, the results told the story.
Throughout it all, I knew I had the capability to be a great player I just needed guidance. So, in 2017, I applied and was accepted as a student for BTS. The deal was for a year and 50% of my income for the entire year.
I think a lot of people would of balked at the 50% in my shoes; especially with my precarious financial position. But as always, I bet on myself; I knew if I had guidance into improvement I had the natural skill to be a dominant player.
As a result of the 50% cut, I humbled myself and began dog walking to pick up some extra $. Through it all, I wasn't really worried about going broke; I was worried about not being able to play poker as my profession.
Thankfully, the coaching worked out great. I worked with MMA for the majority of the year (and got great advice from Svansva as well) that my technical game improved a lot.
Socially, I was a young guy really focused on poker not really looking forward to anything serious. So naturally I ended up meeting my wife, Victoria, 2 weeks into moving to Hoboken.
By the end of 2017, I had gotten a loving girlfriend and had my first tangible success as a professional.
*2017 graph
2018: Year 3
I came into 2018 brimming with confidence. I had ended my contract with BTS and even got offered to start coaching with them, I developed a really strong friendship w MMA and began networking well within the poker world.
Unfortunately, I became my own worst enemy. I could sum that all up again, but I think these 3 posts do the trick.
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...&postcount=690
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...&postcount=701
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...&postcount=722
So yeah 2018 wasn't a great year. My worst qualities as a person (laziness/procrastination) took over and led to a very disappointing year. I did improve my game, but poor game selection/ game quality hurt me.
*2018 graph
2019: Year 4
2019 felt like a complete redemption tour. I really focused heavily on improving my overall process when it came to poker and reprogram my bad habits. There was plenty of failures; but I kept at it and kept plugging away.
I got engaged and felt on top of the world; especially as my poker results jumped to another level. I continued to improve and lessen my shortcomings; it was a tedious process but I really began to make slow baby steps of progress.
I made meditation a process; I really improved my studying efficiency and I played decent volume.
I ended up having my first six figure year in 2019 and even bought a house. Life was (and still is!) really coming together for me.
But with anything, adversity will hit. My fiancee had to go through open heart surgery and we found out she wasn't able to carry her children on her own. We decided on surrogacy, but with the average $ of that process being 100-150k I was again facing a bit of a financial crunch.
Which, finally brings us to 2020.
*2019 tracked results
2020: Year 5
Poker
Despite a successful 2019, after putting 20% on my house down I only had $32,000 in my poker accounts. Not bad at all especially with money outside of it, but with last minute wedding costs and surrogacy in the future there was some pressure.
The pressure didn't last long. I ran well to begin the year, but I came in thinking my skill set was well above my roll. I won, and won, and kept on winning. In early January, I was still mixing in 200NL. By April, I was shot taking a rare 10k game.
By mid spring, I had fully broken through into highstakes. Most importantly, my game has completely exploded. I've always been fairly self aware that I have issues with my game (as does everyone tbh). But this year was the first time, I could be honest with myself and say, "Hey, there's still a lot to improve on, but if you're locked in you're one of the best players in the country."
Around late June, I suffered my worst day of my career losing 60k in a HU battle vs a reg. In honesty, it was probably naive to play a format I hadn't put in work in despite being proficient in 6 max.
I then decided I wanted to hold the lobbies going forward, and I had to get better. So I messaged a former PGC'er that can help me.
HU
After the 60k loss, I stewed for around 20 minutes and realized I don't know really anyone who's great at HU. I thought a bit longer and wrote to Clanty that I was looking to learn HU. We quickly came to an agreement and began working together.
This was another one of my great poker decisions. The attention to detail and thoroughness Clanty gave me during our sessions was unprecedented. He was really a great teacher and he really helped not only my HU game, but also my 6m game. I think it was really a beneficial arrangement for both of us; but really have a lot of respect for his approach to the game. I also definitely stole some of his teaching methods for my own coachings
So yes, had to give friend one shoutout here!
Elliot Roe
With the excess of winnings, I knew I had made significant progress in my technical/theoretical knowledge of the game; but the biggest edge to be gained for me going forward was performance.
I've had people ask me quite a bit how his sessions have been, and it was deep consideration for me as well. I ended up paying $20,000 for a 10 session package. I've had 4 sessions and I have absolutely 0 regret; his sessions have been so beneficial to me. I wish I could go into more detail, but for my privacy sake I'll keep it to myself. However, he has been great in making me cognizant of some really big blind spots in my life.
I'm very much looking forward to working with him going into 2021.
As far as results, I play about half my volume untracked but since my results will be on BTS page I may as post them here. I was one of the bigger winners in the country and my NLH game is quickly progressing to a top level. I'm very much looking forward to pushing myself further in 2021.
*2020 tracked
Surrogacy
Through all the success of poker, the other big storyline of this year for me (besides getting married!) has been surrogacy. In June, me and my wife got one of the biggest shocks of our lives when my cousin offered to be our surrogate. By far, one of the most emotional moments of my life.
Unfortunately, we've had to have quite a few delays and a few medical issues that have delayed the process to February now. I have been able to deal w it ok; but it's been tough on my wife. For those curious, the bill is around $37,000 so far with no result so far so it's an expensive process but it's a huge relief to know I'm financially covered with this going forward.
I'm hoping that in the future I can do something for prospective parents going through this; maybe a grant? I could not imagine going through this on a regular 9-5 income.
Going forward
The development of my game the last 8 months has been huge; but I know I can still improve a lot more. I still feel really passionate about the game and best of all I've put me and my family in a solid financial position going forward.
I want to continue improving my work ethic and continue to put in more solver work. As far as this blog, I am going to continue writing in it. I enjoy it and it's something I've done since I started this journey over 5 years ago. I couldn't imagine just never writing in it.
However, I am far too boring to write in this thing every week. So I'll be making this a monthly blog post, this will allow a little bit more fleshed out writing going forward.
I hope everyone has a great 2021. I had a great 2020, but I know it's been tough on a ton of people so sending thoughts out to everyone.
As always, good luck on the felt.
01-01-2021
, 02:36 PM
01-01-2021
, 04:55 PM
01-01-2021
, 10:41 PM
01-03-2021
, 02:00 AM
Nice write up and congrats on the success Jerrad! Looking forward to seeing it all a little more up close and personal in 2021 
01-05-2021
, 01:52 PM
Glad you enjoyed it!
Quote:
Congrats man, nice yr
But seriously dude - 20k on Elliott Roe is such a colossal waste of $, I’m absolutely blown away you are doing this and strongly suggest you think hard about it & then hit the eject button before you drop the whole 20.
You could easily invest in getting cognitive behavioral therapy, or regular therapy with a licensed professional, instead you pay 20x for someone with no medical background who practices alternative medicine/pseudoscience with no proven benefit.
I would totally expect someone like Fedor Holz or TJ Dillashaw (both clients of his) to us him as they obviously lack common sense and intelligence respectively, but you’re seemingly rational/smart - unless we are talking wedding flowers (jkjk)
Anyways if working on your mental game helped you find success then it’s obv worth something, this was just the nuttest lowest approach
These mindset/life coach/social psych ppl that infest society are the biggest scam of the 21st century, outside of religion obv and maybe CBD. It’s an unfortunate result of what was originally good intention. Now it’s just ppl looking to make easy $ (a LOT of it, for someone like Aubrey Marcus)
/rant, sry for derail, happy for you with everything but this
But seriously dude - 20k on Elliott Roe is such a colossal waste of $, I’m absolutely blown away you are doing this and strongly suggest you think hard about it & then hit the eject button before you drop the whole 20.
You could easily invest in getting cognitive behavioral therapy, or regular therapy with a licensed professional, instead you pay 20x for someone with no medical background who practices alternative medicine/pseudoscience with no proven benefit.
I would totally expect someone like Fedor Holz or TJ Dillashaw (both clients of his) to us him as they obviously lack common sense and intelligence respectively, but you’re seemingly rational/smart - unless we are talking wedding flowers (jkjk)
Anyways if working on your mental game helped you find success then it’s obv worth something, this was just the nuttest lowest approach
These mindset/life coach/social psych ppl that infest society are the biggest scam of the 21st century, outside of religion obv and maybe CBD. It’s an unfortunate result of what was originally good intention. Now it’s just ppl looking to make easy $ (a LOT of it, for someone like Aubrey Marcus)
/rant, sry for derail, happy for you with everything but this
Quote:
I’ve worked with both Elliot and Dan Heskett. I think that the large majority of poker players who achieve the type of success that would allow them to spend this type of money most likely don’t have the type of mental game leaks that would warrant such an expense.
If I could make a suggestion to anyone working with Elliot currently it would be to steer convo away from specific poker topics that he cannot help you with(he is not and has never been a poker pro) and spend as much of the sessions as possible focused on his area of expertise(which he is extremely good at).
If I could make a suggestion to anyone working with Elliot currently it would be to steer convo away from specific poker topics that he cannot help you with(he is not and has never been a poker pro) and spend as much of the sessions as possible focused on his area of expertise(which he is extremely good at).
But really it comes to this: is this 20k investment making money? Yes, without a doubt in my mind, because no one knows me better than myself; it's been a big help through this **** 3 month run as well.
Thanks Jason, going to try to lessen the gap between our volume this year
For private reasons, I don't want to give out the exact profit for the year.
------------------------------------------------------------------
2021 is not off to a great start. I am playing well, but I am just in a horrible stretch at my highest stake games. It's not going to matter how many buyins I win at 500nl if that happens.
I am being as professional as one can be during this stretch; more study hours, way less bs, lot more meditation, hitting the gym hard, getting my sleep in. I just have to keep this standard going and keep the negative thoughts out but I won't lie it's wearing on me.
In other news, because of COVID I had to cancel both my honeymoon and a trip to Mexico; but I am taking a 3 day trip away in some solitude with my wife for our anniversary. I think the lockdown has been wearing a bit on both of us so will be nice to get away!