NJ college kid's attempt to make it to high stakes
I'm a 19yo college student at Rutgers, who loves poker. I'm a math and computer science double major and just transferred from Fordham. I learned about journaling in my second semester and the positive mental health effects it has, so I started doing it for the gym and it helped me, so now I want to do it for poker. I'm a sophomore in college right now, but a semester ahead because of college credit obtained in high school. I mainly started playing poker at the end of my senior year of high school with my friends. In my stats class, we would play on Pokernow for play money, and eventually played home games. After AP tests were done, our teacher had to be absent for 2 weeks so we started playing for real money in class too lol. Basically that whole summer I spent playing home games every other day, and into the start of college, I would come back home every few weekends for more home games.
Eventually, my mom got me a poker table, and that whole winter break I spent playing poker 4-6 hours a day with my friends. Around that time I started playing online poker at school, mostly on ACR since in NY that's where the most volume is. I remember Jlittle did a thing where he made his site free and I binged his cash game course and learned a lot from where I was. I basically never bluffed until I learned from that course, and I think it serves as a pretty good starting point for cash games. My bankroll started from literally zero, the first home game I played I didn't even have the money with me, and basically spun it up from there. It sits at around $1,200, and that's with being stiffed for around ~400, but the people that I'm playing with are so bad that I really didn't care that much. If they paid me 50% of what they owed I was still printing.
For online I depo'd 200 into Acr around February of this year after playing a decent amount of 2nl first. I went from 5nl - 25nl in around 2-3 months and turned the 200 into 1k online. So technically at that point, my br was around 2k. However, I ran into some bad variance at 25nl Zoom where I ran around ~25 buy-ins below all in ev, and that basically sent me back down to $200. At that point, it was near the end of the school year in May, so I took out the $200 because I knew I was transferring schools, and no longer would have a NY address, even though I really didn't in the first place. ACR I know asks for verification if you withdraw too much so I figured I'd play it safe.
This summer, I didn't play that much poker. I had a little MTT arc where I was break even ish, and ran into some bad variance there because the one tournament where I ran deep, which was like a 4.40 1k, ACR had to do some server maintenance so I had to take an icm chop on the ft with like a 2-1 chip lead. The score didn't even register in my tracker or shark scope, which was like $120. I played a pretty decent amount on coin poker, which I already played on previously, and that was the only actual site that was available to me in NJ. However, I don't really like the ante format and don't want to pay the money required to learn it. Especially since coinpoker traffic isn't high and even though there was an ad campaign recently, still is really reg heavy. Basically, 2-3 people would play every table from 10nl - 200nl and win the leaderboard. Shout out S0nofFinches.
That leads me to today and my plan for my future of poker. Right now in NJ the next best option is either risk it with ACR, which I probably can't do now making this thread lmao, pay like 200 ish dollars to buy ranges and solves to learn ante cash games and play on coin poker, or go even less unregulated into app and clubgg games. I am choosing the last part, since like it seems like the only way for me right now. I already am good enough at 6max and 9max to comfortably beat these games at my stakes. Which is 20nl and 40nl. Also at Rutgers, I've been making friends for home games. I know already of 2 but they are running super small stakes like .10/.20, which for a home game is super small. My roommate is rushing a frat, and they run games, but I think they only allow brothers to play in them. So maybe he can get me into some, but he also asked if I can teach home to play, so maybe ill do a cfp thing with him. Also the day I turn 21 I'm playing on wsop and stars but that's a given.
When it comes to bankroll, I usually did 20bi to take a shot at the next stake-up. I might be more nitty with that right now online because getting money in and out of these apps is pretty annoying. I am using poker bros and clubgg. Still deciding if playing in the emulator games is worth it, or if I should just play Pokerbros only on my phone. I am staying at 4-6 tables, even though 12 tabling has worked for me pretty well in the past. I want to play my A game because there will be less variance that way.
Some of you may recognize me because I used to be in swerbs22 study group. If that is still open to join, I recommend for you guys to, I just never got anything out of it. Mostly because of the hours I'm awake and don't enjoy collaborating that much. A lot of people there were Euros, shout out DeeKayBee(really nice guy), so I would never be awake for study sessions because I would play poker till 6am est. Also onepunchpanda(don't know if he is on 2+2) was always open to helping which was cool since he was at like 100nl-200nl on ACR which is a pretty tough pool.
Another reason I'm making this post is to accurately track my bankroll because sometimes I get lazy with that. I'm probably going to do Sunday night posts, and see how to track my Pokerbros hands, and see if I can get them into hand2note. If I can I will post that graph, and if I can't then I will post an excel sheet. I mostly use GTO+, and do my own MDA with math that I find to study. Also, I watch Ceegee Poker (who plays the highest stakes 6max on twitch?), and he has a very educational style which means I learn a lot from matching him. Basically, him and Weazel_1991 taught me how to play bomb pots correctly which is a mainstay on these app games. Hope to able to play a lot since the only hard classes I'm taking is physics 2 and Linear Algebra. I basically have to find out in this next year if I can climb stakes since I might(fingers crossed) have an internship with a pretty good quant firm this summer. From everyone that I've heard aka makepokersimple and just other people's stories, if I don't rise up far in stakes within 2 years, I would just be better off working a regular job.
Like this week in poker wise? bet check bet lines and sizing on the river.
Save hands where I don't have a good idea of what bluffs I should have and what sizing. Then after sessions, I usually will run the spot and then look at the aggregated report for that line in general to attempt to come to a conclusion. If I still can't, I start asking around in a couple discords I'm in.
Since September I've played 162 hours, its pretty hard to get an average weekly since my schedule is constantly changing, but its usually 15-20 hours. For US facing sites that I play one i.e. coin, clubs, and global you can't really track exact hands very well, so I usually just estimate 400 hands per hour which means I've been winning 5.2 bb/100 including rakeback online.
why pushing this now? why not just enjoy your time in college? poker is long dead, there's no golden era to take advantage of right now with access to easy money - it's going to be more or less the same ecosystem now as when you graduate - just take it easy and enjoy your youth while you can
Because I know if I'm still stuck at at low stakes by this summer then I will give up since by then I've been playing long enough to know if I can actually succeed. Poker is me having fun, tbh I never get people hating poker and being so miserable that when they see someone else playing they think they hate it. In my first year at college I had a really bad time and now after I've transferred I've met a lot of people through poker and its been great, probably what I look forward to the most.
poker is long dead, there's no golden era to take advantage of right now with access to easy money - it's going to be more or less the same ecosystem now as when you graduate - just take it easy and enjoy your youth while you can
I guess I just straight-up disagree. It might be a generational gap but I think people don't understand the influence of poker vlogs and private clubs on my age group. I literally have friends coming to me asking what clubs I play, who I watch to get good, and stuff like that. And most of them are friends that are going to ivy's or top 20 schools in the world so there is definitely a new ecosystem coming up. Also, from what I've seen people have said the same thing every year since 2003 before I was even born. When I first found 2p2 and found people in the bbv best posts thread complain that poker used to be so easy, and the post is dated from 2009. Finally, who cares if it is easy or not? I'd rather poker be harder but more rewarding than just an internet atm. I don't really play poker for money, I play because its a game that I find enjoyable. I've always been interested in competitive games, traveling to lans in middle and high school for Fortnite and Valorant, and poker gives me that same feeling. And this is me enjoying my youth. I don't think I will be able to play 20 hours of poker a week if I follow the career path I'm currently on so this is kinda it. This turned into a ramble, but I just flat out disagree because I just have a different mindset than just easy money.
watch some tuff fish videos, bear in mind he was easily in the top 20% of the field in terms of knowledge and skill
then you'll understand what i mean by saying the golden era is over
You will make immense money in poker. I recommend you switch to plo if you are committed to this career path. you have the drive. Best of luck.
NLH is profitable but plo is true cash cow.
I won't be playing poker until the end of finals, which is Friday the 20th. So this is my last update until then.
You will make immense money in poker. I recommend you switch to plo if you are committed to this career path. you have the drive. Best of luck.
NLH is profitable but plo is true cash cow.
I don't think you are wrong tbh. I think I'm just at too low of stakes to find good enough plo volume atm. But I think once I'm, assuming I get there, at like 200nl-500nl online and like 5-10 live, plo is a better game to play. However, there isn't a lot of 25nl-50nl plo in American facing poker sites, and most live plo games play like 5/10 even though they are only 1/3, they are like 1/3/5/10. But yeah watching hsnl regs have to battle each other in order to get games running when almost every weekend omaha4rollz and venivedi have a new businessman they can take 150k from makes it very enticing to start playing lol.
I think I'll have more to say after the finals end since my mind will be clearer.
Finals went ok. Playing a combination of a private club and global poker. I started using spreadsheets in my studying for aggregated reports. Right now, I am focusing on sb v BTN 3bet pots since from the sb I sometimes am lost on what sizing and what hands want to bet. Next I think I'm going to look at BTN v H J srp which in theory shouldn't happen below 500nl, but I find people calling enough that I should learn how to play it with 500nl ranges. Not knowing those two are kind of indicative of my weakness right now which is playing oop with the range advantage. Playing oop without the range advantage is so much easier because its mostly just a check, but sb v BTN 3bet and HJ v BTN the sizing get weird, and frequency gets weird.
Kinda sad I basically missed most of the cash game world championship, but it seems like coverage wasn't even that good outside of a couple kakitee streams. But overall right now I feel like I am the best I've ever been and still getting better. Hoping these next couple of months are really my breakthrough where I go from 50nl to like 200 and the broll goes from around 3k to like 10.
broll at ~2800
i thought he was trolling you but he's not, he's just delusional and thinks everyone is going to crush it
The golden era is over like many have said it before. There is nothing wrong with pursueing poker if it makes you happy and gives you purpose. But at the end of the day you need to look at these 3 things my friend once told me from the UK.
Who are you now?
Where are you now?
Where are you going in life?
Do you want to commit to grinding out this game and not having the time to spend working out, being with a girl, working on other meaningful projects?
I see the desire to pursue poker as someone who was depressed not knowing what i wanted to do or having any friends, but at the same time i see the desire to pursue poker if you have everything under control (job, emotional intelligence, good relationship, being in good shape overall).
There is no middle ground anymore, poker is just a ruthless battleground for content creators and people who have already been in the game for a while.
i thought he was trolling you but he's not, he's just delusional and thinks everyone is going to crush it
Not everyone crushes it in life. Most people fall in the middle. Theres nothing wrong with being in the middle, you just need to learn how to block out all the unimportant and unnecessary thoughts that get in your way in life.
i thought he was trolling you but he's not, he's just delusional and thinks everyone is going to crush it
I was more responding to the sentiment that long term plo > nlh not that Im for sure going to be a pro lol
ah that's fair and yes i agree, you're better off learning plo - i'm in the same situation as you as most of my poker is played where they have sportsbooks and i'm playing in between making wagers
while i'm studied up a bit, i'm now at a point where i need to start grinding and when they do have plo, it's often a 2/5/10 type game which is not where i want to be dipping my toes for first live play- been meaning to transition but like you said, they don't often run it nor run it at the kind of stakes where you want to be learning it
found a 1-3 plo game last week but alas as it was starting i had to go meet some friends for dinner
but for real, as someone who has been a professional gambler for over a decade, i can't emphasize enough how much the schedule and financial uncertainty sucks balls
it's far better in life to pursue regular friends/lovers/careers and have poker in your backpocket as a profitable hobby - you will be living more normal hours and when you have a 30k upswing you can actually spend that money and enjoy it instead of hoarding it in the event that you'll face an upcoming downswing or extended break even stretch
this winter i've been driving around the country hitting various casinos - i've been playing with a bankroll of 6 figures, but i've been doing it driving a car from 2007 with over 200k miles on it because i don't view that as real money
furthermore, when i do pull out of the bankroll not to meet regular life expenses, it's to put into a roth ira for retirement because i'm not getting much in the way of social security nor company provided retirement accounts - which is something i have a ton of anxiety about because i'm basically on the hook for covering everything myself
i also have shitty insurance, the kind which is just a hedge against cancer/getting hit by a bus because of course paying for your own insurance is crazy expensive - so i'm missing out on a lot of things my friends treat as routine screenings etc
a friend of mine asked me about this, on a night i was staying with him, i made over 20k, when he learned this just went into the pile of dry powder and i would in fact not be buying a new car he asked me at what point i'd feel comfortable buying a new car
after long thought, i told him 500k (after paying all debt and max ira contributions) is where i'd feel comfortable buying a new car
he then asked at what point i'd feel good retiring - this i wasn't sure about either, but probably guessed around 8 million
i also want to live in a big city in a nice apartment, but none of the landlords want to rent to me, they have 30 options each time a listing goes up and they'll choose the people with steady employment instead every time
i want to rejoin society with a 9-5 job again as i know i could make 20-40k a year passively doing this stuff part time and then have my job provide the insurance/retirement/peace of mind etc and that's been a massive uphill battle because i'm just viewed as a degenerate loser by most employers
uhhhh... hit some pretty bad variance, back to 25nl till I get some confidence back. Feel like I lose every 3bet pot rn. Going to try and get my srp game better, I think I'm 1. not c betting enough, and 2. not check raising enough which I guess is common at low stakes. I want to focus on having a better redline. I'm also going to try and be less of a station, which will hurt my redline, but it feels like I'm stacking off a bit too light right now.
Overall, still motivated, but losing 10 buyins in one day isn't fun lol.
Did get my grades back, got a 3.5 gpa so poker in't effecting my grades too much, would have liked to do better in linear algebra, but its whatever, I'm more excited to take statistics and game theory classes than more abstract math classes that are proof heavy. Also on the side learn numpy and pandas, and working on some fansay sports algos for fun just to have a project for the summer if I do get any interviews for an internship. I am going to Montreal on the third to play at the playground with a friend from school, selling some action to friends so that I'm rolled to go. Last time I had a downswing this bad was last spring around late may where I had a 20 buy in downswing, but this time around I think my headspace is better, so some improvement on that end. Also, using Drivehud 2 now, so I'll post some graphs of that when I get a decent sample.
Good luck bro. DM me if you got any questions or want to go over some hands some time. I went to Rutgers as well and graduated in 2023. I was at a similar spot at your age and managed to run it up a bit. I don't usually scroll through 2+2 but your thread caught my eye.
uhhhh... hit some pretty bad variance, back to 25nl till I get some confidence back. Feel like I lose every 3bet pot rn. Going to try and get my srp game better, I think I'm 1. not c betting enough, and 2. not check raising enough which I guess is common at low stakes. I want to focus on having a better redline. I'm also going to try and be less of a station, which will hurt my redline, but it feels like I'm stacking off a bit too light right now.
Overall, still motivated, but losing 10 buyins
ah that's fair and yes i agree, you're better off learning plo - i'm in the same situation as you as most of my poker is played where they have sportsbooks and i'm playing in between making wagers
while i'm studied up a bit, i'm now at a point where i need to start grinding and when they do have plo, it's often a 2/5/10 type game which is not where i want to be dipping my toes for first live play- been meaning to transition but like you said, they don't often run it nor run it at the kind of stak
This is the kind of post that should be stickied at the top of the forum.
Also i don't think that the NJ college kid knows that poker is a bloodbath on and off the tables. Unless you plan to start a YT channel and become the next corey eyring theres no "attempt to make it to high stakes" without a team effort/solid commitment (know what you are doing/have a checklist), just like real life you have to know someone... there are too many variables at play here that you aren't considering which affects your decision or "EV".
Poker in the gen z era?
Got a cfp deal so probably won't be posting too often since the only reason why I wanted to do this thread was for the benefits of journaling like getting your thoughts out to help your mental health. But now that I have someone to talk about poker with and the goals that I'm after there is less of a reason to, so my posts will be infrequent.
Some photos from playing up at the Playground with mt friend from school which was good fun. He blasted through like 2k and the trip home was pretty silent, but kinda funny to me, pretty stereotypical poker trip. I was down a little but it was a really good experience, kinda learned that I don't like casino poker that much so either online, or private games which is what I planned on doing anyway since I'm not allowed in a casino within 4 hours, but got rid of the itch to go drive up and play.
Also people telling me I should quit, I'm not putting things off to become a poker pro lmfao. I mean I'm not dropping out of school, I'm still a double major math and comp sci on the deans list, but whatever tbh. I get that being a pro doesn't go well for everyone, I know there are a lot of midstakes grinders that would be better off doing something else, but I don't really plan on being a mistakes grinder. If I'm not making a considerable amount of money by the end of college I'm not going to fully pursue being a poker pro, because at that point I will have played long enough to either realize the potential that I have.
To wrap this up for my future plans, just going to grind the club games, and get better. Having someone point out lines that I'm not taking, especially oop, I basically never check raised the river in 3bet pots which is pretty bad I'm learning. Still on a bit of a downswing but that is mostly from all in variance and my redline is really improving going from negative to break even or positive which is where I see a lot of winning's players at. I know it's not necessarily indicative of winning, but before I was definitely not bluffing enough on later streets oop and getting a fold on the river really helps the winrate.
if you really enjoy it it's all good mate
thing to keep in mind though is I think if you are driven enough nowadays to go from basically zero to like NL2k then you're likely smart enough to make millions doing something else
If I'm not making a considerable amount of money by the end of college I'm not going to fully pursue being a poker pro
it usually starts that way, edges erode
i know many who got into a venture because at the time it paid 5x what it pays them today but now they are stuck in it because during the time that they pursued that full time, it severely hurt their old career
this happened to me as well, i'm not struggling, but i originally quit my job to pursue dfs full time in 2016 and for a while i was one of the best in the world at it, one of just 2-3 dozen who were able to make a decent living off of it and by now dfs is such a small portion of my income that i'm seriously considering dropping the endeavor completely
this is also why i got out of poker after a very brief stint as a pro despite that it meant a severe reduction of income, because i'd seen how miserable any pro over the age of 35 was and everyone had stories about the "good ole days"
i ended up back on that path many years later but not exactly out of choice, had a bunch of extenuating circumstances which made traditional employment impossible for a few years so leaned into what i knew i could do
i haven't gotten worse at dfs nor poker, i'm actually better at it now than during my prime earnings years
just the ecosystem has changed, in 2006 i could sleepwalk through a 50/100 game and just crush it whereas now i wouldn't dare sit at that table despite that today i genuinely know 10x what i knew back then
same with dfs - with sportsbetting now legal, a lot of the dumb money has migrated away to that and there's thus far fewer donkies so it's a lot tougher to make a good living off of it because you need a massive edge to survive the insanely high rake structure
when i worked in tech i was an in demand person, regularly asked to speak at events, called for blurbs by journalists and regularly approached by headhunters with offers from other firms
i've taken the stage at google i/o and mobile world congress, there's several dozen tech articles featuring the work i've done where i'm mentioned by name - but none of that overcomes the fact that i've been out of the industry since 2016 and doing what most hiring managers consider something at worst immoral and degenerate and even if they are ok with that, why hire the guy who's done something else for nearly a decade when you can hire someone who's been at google or facebook during that same timespan?
i'm just saying that this stuff will always be available to you as a hobby, a profitable one even, but you have a short time window where companies are willing to accept you as unmolded clay, once you reach a certain age, that will cease, they are looking for someone who checks specific boxes in terms of experience and you'll never have that
just take advantage of the opportunity of choice you'll have when you graduate, because if you forgo that, it won't ever come back if you decide to began a career at 28 where you'll find yourself caught in a trap of "too old for the entry level positions and too inexperienced for anything else"
a 22 year old fresh graduate version of me who knows nothing about anything has far greater choice in career than the current middle aged version of myself ever will
