An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro
Hi TwoPlusTwo
My name is Dan and I have decided to begin a blog about my experiences attempting to be a professional poker player. There are a couple reasons I think this blog will be interesting enough to publish, and even if it isn’t entertaining I know it will be very therapeutic for me to summarize some of my sessions when they are finished. The two reasons I think this blog can be quite entertaining are:
1) I am attempting to be a professional poker player. I’ve always enjoyed following the ups and downs of others who try this as a career path, especially when I was thinking of trying it myself. Hopefully some people will get something out of seeing the highs and the lows of playing poker for your income.
2) The bulk of my play will be coming on regulated online poker sites in the United States. I live in New Jersey and primarily play tournaments under the screennames RedsoxNets5 and mj23style. The player pool is small but I think it is just big enough to grind out a living but I’m not really sure that there is a way to tell if I can do it without just trying it on my own, so here I am.
Some facts about me. I am 24 years old, I live in the Trenton area, I used to be an avid runner and am currently getting back into running shape (I participated in the River to Sea relay yesterday, a 92 mile running relay consisting of teams of 7 and 14 stages. It starts on the Delaware River and ends at the beach in Manasquan.). I am tall and used to play a lot of basketball but it has been limited recently. I have a girlfriend I’ve been with for over 2 years who lives about 80 miles away from me. The distance makes it a bit difficult and also sometimes limits how much I can play poker, but I wouldn’t trade her for the world, and she is unbelievably supportive of my pursuit of playing this game professionally.
I went to Europe for 3 weeks starting at the end of June and got back on July 18. I have not had a winning day of poker since returning and am approaching my biggest downswing ever. However, my mental game has been better than it ever was and I have complained about this downswing to almost no one, other than letting my girlfriend know just how deflating it can be. The good thing is that I am properly rolled for the games I play so the only thing I really have to overcome is the dreadful feeling one can get when starting up a new session. Every day is a new day and it’s important to focus on playing your best and ignore how your luck is going.
I say I am attempting to be a professional poker player because since I still live at home, I don’t yet consider myself an actual professional. I pay a lot of my own bills (car insurance, phone bill, student loans, gas money, spending money, etc) but I do not yet pay rent and my parents occasionally help me with other expenses (my car needed some repairs recently that totaled $500 and they spotted the bill for me). My parents are also unbelievably supportive and have told me I can stay here for as long as I want, but as much as I love them, I do want to move out soon and get started with my own life. Because of their hospitality though, I’ll be able to really build up a “life roll” before moving out so that I will not have to worry much when I downswing when living on my own. The support system I have is unbelievable and is really making me feel like I can thrive at this profession.
I’ll wrap up this first post with some of my past results and a little bit more detail of my poker life. Black Friday hit when I was 19, but I had been having success before then. I got close to 6 figure scores a couple times (12th in the turbo takedown for $8000 with $100K up top, and 17th in the Sunday Warmup for $2500ish with $150Kish up top), and then recently came 20th in the Parx $550 Big Stax event (for $3500ish with $100Kish up top), but still have not even cashed a tournament for 5 figures. I do think I will earn a 5 figure score in the near future though if I continue to put in the volume.
So anyway that’s a long enough post for my first entry. I will try to update this somewhat regularly. If you have any questions for me feel free to ask and I will try to answer them ASAP. Also, if you think there is anything more I should include/things I am talking about that I should exclude, let me know and I will take those ideas into consideration. I look forward to writing this and hope I do not spiral out and go dormant like so many other blogs seem to do. This first post was quite long and I'll try to keep future posts shorter so as to keep them from being TLDR.
Cliffs:
--24 year old attempting to become a professional poker player primarily using regulated online sites in New Jersey
--Will try to keep this blog updated regularly to help demonstrate the highs and lows of a professional poker player
Shoot me a DM if you decide to sell to the public for the main.
Not positive I'd do it but I think I'd love a sweat
If I end up selling I will!
I think I land on the side that a lot of the markups people sell at for the main don't leave much room for investors to have a worthwhile return (and many are -ev for the investor). But if you can get a super high markup nothing wrong with taking it as long as being honest when selling. Vast majority of people buying pieces are clearly doing it just to have an enjoyable sweat in the case of a deep run as entertainment. Firing all on your own seems like a way worse option imo but I also much p
I agree that right now it might not make the most sense for me to fire all on own dime. A big part of me is tempted to skip this year, grind my ass off the next 12 months, and reevaluate the bankroll then with the potential of going out for a normal summer next year. I have specific numbers defined now for how much of a liferoll I want at all times, and the rest I can put into my bankroll. From there I have bankroll guidelines on what % I can put into MTTs I play. I have a number in mind of how much I'd want of each bullet live to make it feel like the trip to Vegas in 2025 would be worth it to play a full schedule (and would sell for anything over that number to buy ins bigger than it). This is all a tentative long term plan so we'll see what happens!
2024 Week 23
Falling a bit behind on these updates as I've really been utilizing all my work time towards studying or playing, then allowing myself time to rest when it's planned.
Week 23 was 6/3-6/9 and the extremely hot streak continued. I got 10,059 hands in, just eclipsing the 10k goal. I ran absurdly hot and won more in this week than I was hoping to make each month. I had a nice winning day Monday then followed that up by winning 10x that much on Tuesday and Wednesday combined.
After getting 2k+ hands in each of those days, I got a 1k+ hand session in early on Thursday (once again winning 2x what I won Monday). I tried to get something in later that day but realized I did not have the time to put in a proper session. Amy was taking me out to dinner for my birthday so we went to a nice restaurant near us and she treated me to a nice steak and some drinks.
Friday 6/7 was my birthday and I put in my first losing day I'd had in the last 8 days I'd played (and only the 2nd in the last 12), losing less than what I'd won on Monday so it was more break even than losing tbh. That night I went to a beerfest they were having in Jersey City on the water at Liberty State Park. A bunch of my friends showed up and it was a really great time. A few of them were aware of my situation and were offering condolences and telling me they'd help me if I ever needed it and stuff like that. Meanwhile I'd been making more than I could've possibly hoped for and was doing it without any of the stress that MTTs had gotten me used to. It was this really cool reminder that I have a lot of people in my corner and I'm extremely lucky in that regard. It was also a funny reminder of how panicked I was just a month earlier about my new situation, and how incredible it'd been to run hot to kick it off. I'd put a ton of effort and hours and work in over the course of May but that doesn't always mean big results would occur. Luckily for me they did this time.
Saturday 6/8 I took off, then Sunday 6/9 (nice) I won over 2x what I did on Monday once again. Just an insane week overall and I realized now more than ever it was going to be vital to buckle down and continue getting hands in. I was in a strange place; I felt a little burned out from how much I'd been playing and studying (I had now eclipsed 60k hands in the 40 days since the deal had ended) but I was also riding high on the insane win streak I was on. In the past I'd sometimes rested on my laurels when things were going well. I was determined not to do that this time. A downswing could always be right around the corner and hammering through hands and staying sharp no matter what variance threw at me was going to be the best way to handle things.
Weekly Results
Meditation 7, Walk 7, Soda 0
Studied 9, Played 28.25, Coached 1.25, Total 38.5
2024 Week 24
The week of 6/10-6/16 was the week the hot streak would finally cool off and I'd find my first losing week on my own. Fortunately I felt very okay with it and almost welcomed the adversity after things had been coming so easily to me for a while. It's been a lot of fun to watch how trends play out over large chunks of hands. In tournaments it's obvious that you need to win the flips in the huge spots in order to have success. In cash it's more vague but the variance is still noticeable. Sure, there are preflop all ins and sometimes you'll get dealt KK to AA way more than the other way around, but the more interesting ones to me are the 3b+ pots and who's winning those. I noticed that during the hot streak when I 4b AK and got peeled, I flopped top pair a ton. When I 4b JJ btn vs sb and they peeled and flop came AK3, I'd cb and they'd fold. When I had AK, they'd call 2 streets and tank call river with AQ,AJ,AT, whatever. Oh, look at that, I've flopped a set of 4s YET AGAIN vs SB 3b on a K high board.
This week, however, the JJ cbet did not get through because I did not have the best hand. I found myself getting the T98 flop with AK a lot in 3b+ pots. Very often my decision in week 23 was "how do I get the most with this very strong hand?" In week 24 the decision was often "does this hand make sense to bluff with?" The more of these different types of stretches I go through, the better I'll be at taking what I'm given and literally playing the hand I'm dealt. Something's really been clicking with me in the last few days where I recognize that there are going to be some sessions where I'm dealt a lot of spots where my job is to lose the minimum. Some sessions the job is to make the maximum. Some sessions the job is to 3b SB vs BTN and xf flop, over and over and over again, and to not get an ego just because I WANT to win a hand since I've lost a bunch in a row.
I've had quite a few sessions now where it feels like every time I 3b SB vs BTN with KQo I get peeled and the flop comes 876dd and it's just like wtf man. Do I REALLY need to xf AGAIN? And the answer is yes lol. If you want to be a great poker player, you sure do need to xf again! Because it doesn't matter what's happened recently. The strategy here is still to xf KQo, even to that frustrating little 25% float where you want to convince yourself that you've got the Qd so this bdfd is something you could get after it with and your opponent maybe floats flop too often so you should be punishing him with some weaker stuff with a backdoor once in a while...as soon as I start thinking like this, it's clear I'm not playing my A game anymore.
And I think one of my favorite things I'm noticing with all this data is when I notice someone ELSE is going through it. Why the hell did this normally very tight guy absolutely lose his mind in this spot where this hand never bluffs turn, let alone shoves river?? Well, probably because he's tired of losing and is trying to make something happen. I'm determined not to fall into that kind of trap where I play worse because of what's happened recently.
But it's very fortunate that this tough stretch has come immediately after a stretch that I imagine happens something like once a year?? I ran SO hot for two weeks and while I want to give myself some credit (and I certainly deserve some), this mini downswing has done well to humble me and remind me that there's still a ton of variance in cash, even if it's nothing compared to MTTs. However, I'm determined to never let variance be the thing I blame losing on the most, so the more I lose the hungrier I get to improve and make sure I really am doing everything in my power to produce good results.
I only got 1700 hands in Monday after starting playing earlier than I'd planned since I logged on and saw some great games. That first session went well profit-wise but I didn't get enough hands in. I tried to make up for that later and lost all the profit back, probably not playing my A game. At that point I decided I was going to play 2 x 2.5 hour sessions per day going forward. Hopefully that would be enough to get those 2k hands in, but if I missed the 2k hands that was okay so long as the quality of my hands was high. Playing too many tables and forcing in 1/2 to fill out the screen just doesn't make sense when I can be more focused on my 2/5 and 5/10s when those other games aren't in there.
Tuesday I broke even in just over 2k hands. Wednesday I more or less broke even again in 2.1k hands, before Thursday I had a losing session in 1.8k hands. I was at 7.6k hands through 4 days, when pace was 8k hands, and on Friday I played my half day session. I played 2.5 hours, had a nice session, got 1k hands in, and shoulda taken it easy that night. Amy was going to the city with friends so I could just lay on the couch and relax after working hard all week. Instead, I fired up some more cash at 8pm, and by 9pm I tossed my mouse over my shoulder in frustration and realized I'd made a pretty big mistake in trying to play again. I wanted to push through the downswing, which makes it clear that my mind was not on the right things. I should have been focused on having achieved my goals for playing for the week and realized it was important to relax and recharge sometimes. Instead I played bad for an hour chasing another 500 hands and lost a bunch.
Outside of studying for an hour on Saturday, I took the entire day off, determined to learn from my mistake the day before. Sunday was Fathers Day and my family came to Hoboken where I took them out to lunch and spent the day with them. It was a really great time and I got back to my apartment around 5pm and full of booze and sugar. I decided to take the whole day off and really recharge my batteries. I'd often feel bad about taking an unplanned day like this but I think this was the best decision for me. I could've forced myself to play 846 hands to get to an even 10k on the week, but if I had a losing session I think I would have been very frustrated and discouraged about playing the next week. So I relaxed the rest of the day, watched the new season of The Boys, got out my Oculus (VR headset) for the first time in a long time and played some games on there, and really felt refreshed when I woke up the next day.
Weekly Results
Meditation 7, Walk 7, Soda 0
Studied 13.25, Played 23.25, Coached 0, Total 36.5
I'm very happy with how I've felt during this small losing stretch and am excited to keep working hard. It's like I've got a goal and motivation now. As insane as it sounds, I was almost losing motivation because of how easy it felt while I was on the upswing 😃. Hitting a downswing will make the next upswing feel that much better and remind me how important it is to keep grinding when things are going well!
2024 Week 25
I played 6461 hands from 6/17-6/23 which was to be expected. After a solid 3 days of grinding Monday-Wednesday I woke up at 4am Thursday with Amy, took an Uber to Newark, and hopped on a 6:30 flight to Florida. Amy's brother-in-law very kindly invited us to spend some time at a home his family owns near Jupiter, Florida, so Amy and I joined he and Amy's sister there for the weekend. It was absolutely beautiful and I forgot how much I love spending time at the beach. The water was incredibly warm and felt amazing, the house was lovely, and I got to spend a lot of quality time with people I consider family at this point. We wanted to fly back Sunday but pretty much all flights got cancelled so we stayed another day to come home Monday night. I didn't take many pics but this one was from Blue Pointe Bar and Grill, overlooking the Indian River. The ocean is on the other side of those trees in the distance.
As far as poker goes, I got my 5 hours of play and a couple hours of study in each of the 3 days I was home. I was worried about getting out of rhythm due to being away. After a couple days in Florida I was so glad I went. It felt great getting in the ocean again and getting exercise that didn't remind me my legs are achy. I'm never in any real agony when it comes to running but there's always a little reminder that I'm getting older each day. When I was in the ocean I felt exactly like I did when I was a kid and it was rejuvenating. As Sunday rolled around I started to think about poker again and it didn't make me anxious at all. I'd had my time off and I was excited to get back to work. After the flight got cancelled I realized I could take one more day to enjoy myself and then the grind would begin again on Tuesday. This upcoming week will be shortened once again as I have to leave early on Friday to go to my friend's bachelor party. I feel differently about this upcoming trip now that I experienced the Florida trip. It'll be a lot of fun to celebrate my friend who's getting married next month and I'll be fully in the moment all weekend. But I'm not worried at all about struggling to get back into rhythm once the trip is over.
Weekly Results
Meditation 7, Walk 7, Soda 0
Studied 8.75, Played 15.25, Coached 0, Total 24
I write this 7-7-0 line down each week and it's easy to take it for granted, but there are times where I forget to meditate or I haven't hit 5k steps by nighttime and I have to squeeze it in. I'm proud of how I've made this such a consistent part of my daily life for nearly 6 months now. It's great that I can book a win every day by simply making sure I hit these daily goals.
Haven't seen an update in a while hope you're doing okay
Hey Dan just checking in. Haven't talked in awhile, hope things are good with you.
He was playing 3 days ago. I assume everything is fine, he just hasn't updated here for whatever reason.
Hey thanks guys, yeah I've just been busy and struggling to keep up with the thread. Probably gonna nix the weekly updates for more longterm stuff.
I’m deeply saddened to share the news that Dan Sewnig passed away earlier this week. He was a tremendous part of the NJ poker community since its inception and will be profoundly missed.
I also want to add: Dan loved posting updates and reading all of your comments. He truly appreciated every person who took the time to read his thoughts and share theirs.
Oh my god that is terrible - RIP
RIP.
What happened, if I may ask?
Googled his name and found an obituary:
Daniel J. Sewnig, 33, of the Yardville section of Hamilton Township, passed away on Tuesday, August 13, 2024.
Born in Langhorne, PA, he resided most of his life in Hamilton Township, NJ. During his recent adult years, Daniel proudly resided in Hoboken, NJ.
A 2009 graduate of Notre Dame High School in Lawrenceville, NJ, Daniel earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Ramapo College in 2015.
He also obtained a teaching certificate in secondary mathematics and served as a student teacher at Notre Dame High School.
Daniel found success as a self-employed professional in the poker world.
A passionate fan of the Brooklyn Nets and Boston Red Sox, Daniel also excelled in athletics. He was a dedicated track and field participant and cross-country runner in both high school and college.
Outside of sports, he loved playing all types of games, as well as running, hiking, nature walks, and both playing and watching basketball.
Daniel was known for his kindness and consideration, always making those around him feel comfortable. He had a wonderful sense of humor and took great joy in making others laugh.
Above all, he cherished spending time with his family and friends, and his girlfriend.
Very sad news. Seemed like a very kind person and greatly enjoyed reading his updates about his life and career over the years. RIP Dan and condolences to his gf and family.
Wow insane was following this thread/reading all his updates. This felt very personal
This is beyond sad, I'm lost for words. RIP Dan and my condolences to family and friends.
Terrible news. RIP
Shocked to see the news. I enjoyed following his thread - it was exciting to see a fellow NJ player having success at Poker and he seemed like a nice guy. RIP Dan.
Am I reading the news right he was stuck by two different train at different time?
RIP Dan
A tragic loss to the community
Was so excited to see new notifications for this thread, thought it was Dan's monthly update. Very sad and shocked, my condolences to the family
RIP.
Didn't know him, but followed the thread on here a little bit over the past year+.
Seemed like a thoughtful, decent guy.
Rest in Peace. Sad to see, seemed like a great dude from the thread and the few times we spoke outside this forum (not in person). Be easy brother.
This is really tough to hear. Dan coached me a couple years ago... he was a great guy. Rest in peace Dan.
