JackTheShipper Discusses Making $50,000 in 50 Days
June 13th, 2011 - Belgian heads up sng player Jan "JackTheShipper" has made $50,000 in the last 50 days. HUSNG.com sat down with Jan for a quick Q and A about his recent success.
Q: $50,000 in 50 days is quite impressive, how are you handling this type of success and the emotions that presumably go with the success?
A: I'm very excited about the success, and the future can go either way, I hope I'm not just on a long heater but I've had some good success over a significant amount of games, so I feel pretty confident right now.
Q: What do you attribute this success to? How did you climb the ladder?
A: Poker has taught me so much. I used to be worse with saving money for example. My money management, including bankroll management, has improved a lot. When I couldn't beat the $10 level, I was recommended to RyPac's coaching and started thinking better and feeling more confident. I started beating $11s, I worked with some guys like borg and aggsyb and rbj, but really talked a ton of strategy with Barewire, who I have a lot of respect for. He played some $50 deep stacks with me and he really opened my eyes to a lot of deeper stacked concepts. But the deep stack action was really bad for the higher levels, so I stopped playing them after getting to the $200-300 level.
Q: It's surprising that you found any deeps stack action at all that high. What happens next?
A: The volume was a lot worse than it sounds, I only got the action that I did because I was literally at the computer 14 hours a day registered for action.
At about that time I started talking to serkules, and I had been talking with wowkaa, he got me into poker in the first place, and both of these heads up professionals were moving into super turbos. I saw the success they and others were having and decided that if I wanted to make big money in husngs, I would need to learn super turbos.
So at this point (January 2011), inspired by wowkaa, serkules and primordialAA, I took up super turbos. I had a $10,000 bankroll and had just paid a year of rent in advance so that I wouldn't have to worry about where my living expenses came from, I could just focus on playing. I started a little lower, at the $30 level, just to build a basic foundation. I had quick success, moving up to the $50 level.
Then Mersenneary launched his FastTrack program, and I was really excited about this. Mersenneary is a great teacher, compared to other poker coaches he ranks very high. I learn really well by being actively quizzed during coach sessions and that is something that Mersenneary does. So I instantly joined the program, it's such a great value, I moved into the $100s and started taking shots at the $200 level. Then black friday came and I kind of went into a panic and cashed out my entire bankroll. I requested a stake because I didn't really feel comfortable having a lot of money online. I took a few private coaching sessions with Mersenneary at this point and mjw006 was a tremendous help, giving me really valuable (and free!) advice.
The graph (above) is pretty much from that point until today.
Q: Why did you react so strongly to black friday? Many would consider that a United States issue and you're in Belgium.
A: Well at the time I didn't really understand what was happening and I'm not really good at guessing with this stuff. I was also surrounded by a lot of anti-poker people, people that just didn't really understand what was happening either. And while I had my rent paid for 9 more months, money aside for bills and normal everyday money, I just felt that I would be hurt pretty badly if I couldn't access my online money, I would have no spare money and no bankroll.
Q: How did you adapt to playing on a stake?
A: About two weeks after black friday, I realized the situation wouldn't really impact EU players too much, so I ended the staking deal. I'd made about $15,000 in those two weeks, so about $10,000 of that was mine and that was plenty to play a mixture of $100-200 level super turbos. I have about $30,000 online now and I honestly don't feel too happy about it, it's probably too much to keep online and a bit of overkill for my games.
Q: You did a "Well" on twoplustwo's heads up sng forum last month. The reaction wasn't too positive and it turned into a group questions type thread. What's the story behind that?
A: I'm a bit embarrassed about that! I've always loved twoplustwo, the community and players I've met there. And I was talking to a few poker guys that post regularly there and one of them told me I should do a well. I was so excited about my success so I just instantly said "sure, great idea." I didn't really think too much about it and probably should've, but I had no bad intentions about it.
Q: You didn't know about the Well Rule: You have to have $300,000 in total profit before you start one.
A: Oh, wow, really?
Q: No, but the community probably just wanted more sustained success and/or regular participation on the forums to not riot when you post a Well. It can be tense in these dark times.
Q: And finally, what's in store for JackTheShipper in the future? Where do you see yourself in 2012?
A: Glad you asked that. My most recent plan, inspired by everybody doing boot camps, is to just get together with some other $200 level super turbo regulars this summer. We're looking for a house to rent for a month and just really learn from each other. Archiethegreed, betterways, pagergo and guysg are some of the guys I've been talking to about it with possibly serkules, wowkaa, niceiq25 and even mersenneary visiting.
Long term, I've contemplated dropping university, though I've done well there. I'm just so busy between uni and poker, and I think that doing both will hurt me in the long term. So I might "shot take" at being a professional for a year or so. I've also thought about moving to Newcastle (UK) with my friend jambeyang, who is a long time friend and high stakes mtt regular.
But I'm really just going to play some more games and re evaluate my long term decisions after the summer. There's no rush, and given how poker is in America right now, I'm not entirely sure about the future. I do really feel like my attention will be focused on either poker or university though, I hope I make the right choice. I do feel inspired to become better at poker, every time I play people like h2olga or i just lol'd, who just completely crush my soul, I'm reminded of this. That also kind of demotivates me to move up as well, so who knows.
Q: Thanks for taking the time to sit down with us, and we wish you well on your future success.
A: Thank you for everything!
Nicely done Jack! Seems like you've got an amazing group. Serkules esp. has a mindblowing graph/ % for the ST's.All the best.
Jack is the man!!!! I expect 200k total profits from you in 2011. Anything less will be unacceptable! Gogogo
thx for nice comments, fwiw ive had someone tell me graph is bit unclear, its 6217 games (i avg 5K games/month in sts) and 2.0% roi w/o rb and bonusses, if i leave out 1Ks its 2.7% roi so seems to be the norm kind off, just alot of volume.
yeah... great job sir ;) because of that we can't team 180s anymore... pffff xD
yeah... great job sir ;) because of that we can't team 180s anymore... pffff xD
i think its great to hear success stories about people who have really worked hard to hone their skills. it shows what you can achieve in this game with hard work and it really inspires me to keep working on my own game. well done JTS. keep working at it to get better and better and make sure u make good life choices with your monies. GL
Whar poker site ? and what youe nickname !!
fulltilt jacktheshipper
Nice work man. I still remember you struggling to beat 2nl 2years back !Epic how things change and how far you have brought !Keep it up sir ! (and ffs get your ass over here this summer atleast 1 time ;)
Congrats! It's always motivating to see such success stories stemming from hard work. Although, I do want to finish university so can't focus on poker as much as I'd like sometimes - not that I have many options as a US player.BTW: What makes STs so much more profitable? Is action too slow at turbos or reg speeds?
Coaching page + Blog
hi,congratz, very nice results, i think Well was great idea, but haters are everywhere. your progress is motivating. so good luck in the future
Congrats! How many tables do you play?
Wow,Great results, keep them comming.I have to say that I am really impressed by the 5k average volume in a month.Do you want to share how you plan a day?Do you want to share how you actually succeed in playing so many games?
Wow, hope you the best ;) gg
"What makes STs so much more profitable? Is action too slow at turbos or reg speeds?" i think the main thing is, the increase in action, esp on fulltiltpoker, or at 200/300$ stakes, near no waiting time if u sit some regs, is awesome compared to any other speed. less ROI, but more hourly, and hourly is all that really matters also its pretty awesome for "bonuswhoring" since u pay soooo much rake, u also get the sickest vip stuff going, and quickly make a nice amount of coin in bonusses / rb "Congrats! How many tables do you play?" 1-8 it depends, i usually reg 350 and 200$ stl obby and wait, then i rematch the guys i think are weak, and reg new lobbys in meantime, or rematch the guys i think i can learn from, and stop regging obv and pay superclose attention :)sometimes i add in 500/100$ st depending on how sharp/how bored im feeling sometimes, when i just feel like playing mass tables i just sit almost everyone sitting 100s for fun mainly. "Do you want to share how you plan a day? Do you want to share how you actually succeed in playing so many games?" i dont, i usually just roll out of bed, and put in some food in oven, start up comp, start checking 2p2 and load up some tables, for fun if i have plans for the day, like meeting up with gf, or friends, i play a lil before it and after it.when i dont have plans for the day, i dont quit when im down mainly, as long as theres action and im feeling good, i most likely will continue playing, some days i have 50 games, sometimes near 350+ games, when im running really good, i just play a ton, when im running really bad, i just play a ton to fight to get back to breakeven, and when i run mediocre, i just play some, and then go follow my social plans.However, i have to actually say, ive never ever missed a social appointment to play poker. neither did i ever miss any real life stuff for poker. i do often play when im not feeling supersharp tho, like when i dont have plans, and i figure, meh ill play some poker to pass the time, and i think it is a big leak. to play out of boredom.but to answer ur question, i dont have any pre-made schedule or formula, im just superhungry for money, and i consider doing anything else with an hourly of 180$/hour that is not essential for my life ( watching series, movies, sleeping extra long, etc) is just burning money to me. but i think the main key to doing something like this, is just getting used to it.Also for me, i feel like i play best between 3 and 8 hours in my session, and the other hours i am probably B-game, so it makes sense to put in 7 hour sessions for me. hope thats the answer u were looking for and TY everyone for the positive comments :)sorry i took so long to get around to it, currently having finals at university :) Run good all JTS
Oh man,I thought your interview and success was really inspirational, and I hope you didn't lose all that $30k in FTP with the current events (assuming it's really as bleak with FTP as it seems).
im not gonna post an exact number but im near broke at the moment :) however, i feel ok with it i guess, i mean, MAYBE we will get the money back, and i got a pretty sweet staking deal to grind stars atm, so hopefully ill recover from it :) gotta keep on putting on volume and working hard
good job for you and thanks for the interview!its so sad that ftp does these illegal things and loses their license...