How I’m up 1.7 mil playing poker in an 18 year span & still win today as a side hustle!

Taking the day off work to play poker & hike with my family.

Felt inspired to write a quick thread on my long journey & success at poker

Have the greatest day ever!!!

I always loved games & loved competing!

As a kid my family was always having game nights & it was competitive!

I recall bloodbeing shed in a fierce game of SPOONS one night!!

My parents nearly divorced over my dad taunting my mom in monopoly:)

I played every sport growing up


After high school I played one summer of D-3 basketball, but decided at the time I liked drinking & girls more

Then, one night at college a few buddies & I watched the movie Rounders,

We decided to play poker after!!

There were four of us, we all threw in $5 passed out poker chips & played.

I won that first game & $15 & couldn’t sleep that night :)

I was missing competition at the time with no sports & felt empty.

Poker, focusing & learning this game made me feel alive again!!

We played many more games & I was winning most of them.
I loved data as well & started keeping a log of my winnings!

After a couple weeks I was up $60 & decided to invest that $60 into an online piker site called PokerStars

I started small playing for pennies & learning.

I studied & took notes on what the guys in the biggest games were doing & how I could apply that to my own game.

-I would track how much they raised, what spots they checked & what spots they bet.
-I bought books on odds & memorized them.
-I would study hours & quiz myself.

After two months of this I had turned that $60 into about $300.

I decided to take a few shots at bigger games & tournaments & a week later I got 1st in a $10 tournament for $1,200!
(Or 120 cases of keystone light at that time :)

Then it was on!!

I cashed out $160 so it was a free role!

With $1,000 bankroll I hired a high stakes player for 2 hours of coaching where I could see his cards and talk strategy with him!

$500 for a poker coach, you’re an idiot my friends told me!
(It was 50 cases of keystone light!)

This turned out to be the best money ever spent!

Even after that coaching session we would talk strategy & he became a mentor!

I quickly turned that $500 into 5k then 10k then 25k then one year later was up 60k & college was done!

Pre poker GPA 3.7
Post poker GPA 1.3

I would sit in the back & play poker on my IF I went to class.

I turned 21 & was failing out of school but winning $180/hour.

I recall showing up to class one day & getting a test.
I looked it over, knew 0 & wrote
“I QUIT IM GOING TO VEGAS”
after 5 minutes & walked out.

I called my friend Dave & we booked a suite at the Wynn where we lived the next 5-6 weeks playing poker all night & going to pool parties & chasing girls all day :)
(If you read this Annie I caught none, you were my first! :)

We had some legendary stories during that time :)

My days were filled playing poker & my nights were filled studying hands & talking strategy with my buddies.

At 23, I was playing some of the bigger stakes games online & was a very respected player.

I had back to back 300k plus years.
9 years as a pro I had 1 losing month!

Every summer a bunch of us guys would rent a mansion in Vegas & play the World Series of poker.

We would talk strategy, break down hands, & of course rage in night clubs & at pool parties when not playing.
(Man I wish I knew money Twitter & @DecadeInvestor back then!!)

I logged nearly 12 million hands of poker over that next 8 years playing 24 games at a time on two huge monitors.

-I kept meticulous stats
-I ran this like my business

Up at 9am & play 2,000 hands
Gym or run
4,000 hands
study & nap
2-4K hands at night

I also traveled the world playing poker from my computer.
One year I took 14 vacations.
I went to Greece, Hawaii, Venice, Croatia, Ireland... anywhere I had ever wanted to go I took friends & I went.

I was living the dream & my hard work had payed off :)

Then, Black Friday hit.

I had 65k on PokerStars as well as money on other sites but when I went to login it said,
“Restricted by the US DOJ”

Just like that it was illegal to play online poker in the US.

I was devastated.
My whole world turned upside down in an instant.

The next year I played live poker living out of a suitcase.

The money was good, but I was miserable.
I went from playing 24 games at a time from home to having to stay in hotels & casinos to play one game.
It was an unhealthy lifestyle in a lot of ways.

I met my now wife & decided to go back to school.

I continued to play online poker.

It was illegal, but I was playing using a VPN to appear as though I was logged in from Canada (sorry mom)

I flew to to scoop up or met my buddy in Vegas!

Thanks @BrianDawydiuk ;)

Once we had a child I knew the juice of illegal activities wasn’t worth the squeeze so I stopped playing online.

I flew to Vegas 1-2x a year to play.

This was a crossroads.

I could tell everyone was getting better.

Like anything else if you don’t work at it, you fall behind.

I am so proud of this next part :)

I couldn’t play but I knew I loved poker.
I knew I wasn’t going to work an office job 40 years & the side income of poker could help buy my freedom!

Each night I would study, read, watch @Joeingram1 content of poker to stay in the game!

We moved to NV a little over a year ago & now that hard work is still paying off as I made over 22k last year off poker!

17 years later I still love the game.
biggest winning day + 72k
biggest losing day - 15k
met some awesome people all over the world!

I am forever grateful for poker.

I wish I had invested more (I did a decent bit & have never touched it!)
of the winnings in my 20s, but am grateful for all the experiences & places it took me.

Truthfully, I wouldn’t change a thing as it’s all led me to where I am today.

Takeaways:
Hire coaches to level up!
Focus on 1 skill you love & there’s no limit how good you can be!
Like anything in life, if you want to be great, you have to put in the work! Show up CONSISTENTLY & get 1% better each day!
Surround yourself with like minded friends!!