Part I

How did you get into poker?

Back in the day I played with a bunch of my friends from back home, and we had house games with $20 buy-ins, just sit and gos. My brother was always big on poker for whatever reason. That’s how I first started playing, but then I stopped playing and started playing again, and again I stopped playing and started playing. Then, after awhile, I had a good month playing online, and I just never looked back from there.

How long ago did you start playing poker?

It must have been about 12 or 13 years ago that I started playing those sit and gos with my friends.

So you’ve been playing poker for a while now. When did you start playing online? Probably when I was around 18 or 19 years old. I played for a little while, lost some money, stopped playing, lost more money, stopped playing again. I started playing seriously, professionally—let me see, well I’m 28 now, so when I was 22, I think, or 21.

You said you grew up in New York?

Yeah. Now I live in Canada. After New York I went to Toronto, Montreal, Mexico, Costa Rica, Montreal, and now Toronto again.

So you’ve travelled all over for the last few years.

Everywhere besides Europe.

Where’s your favorite place that you’ve been?

I liked Tamarindo in Costa Rica, but I guess Toronto would be up there as well.

Costa Rica is probably a more agreeable climate.

Yeah, and it’s just so relaxed over there. Mexico was cool too. But Tamarindo was good because everyone was just laid-back; it’s just a really good grinding environment to play poker and not really worry. In Mexico, Playa del Carmen, you play poker and there are so many distractions: everyone’s partying and drinking, etc. But Tamarindo is just relaxed, and it’s amazing, and you can focus.

Is it hard to focus in Toronto then?

No, during the winter there’s nothing to do. I don’t step out of the house myself. I don’t know if anybody else does, but during the winter I’m just basically playing poker all the time. During the summer there’s stuff to do.

Why did you choose HUSNGs specifically?

That’s a good question. I used to play 6-max sit-and-gos. So I was playing 6-max sit-and-gos, and I noticed on the Sharkscope leaderboards (this was before Black Friday) on Full Tilt, that all the guys on the tops of the leaderboards, making all the money, were playing HUSNGs. I thought, hmmm. I said I’d probably get into these games. And in the first month I made $25K, and I was hooked. I was playing $50 and $100 games.

Do you ever play spin-and-gos, or do you plan to?

I played about 20 spin-and-gos. I’m not really a fan of them, especially now that they’re $60 games. They’re way too low. Some people tell me there’s a lot of money to be made, but my heart is with HU hypers. I don’t have any plans to switch, and I make money at HUSNGs.

You always seem to be at the top of the leaderboards and winning the high stakes rail. Why and how do you always win consistently? What’s your secret?
This year I’m just running well. But I’m trying to be really consistent with my studying. Last year was probably the worst year of my life, as far as poker goes. That said, it was still an amazing year. I realized I have to catch up to the curve. I’ve always been really hungry to learn more about poker, and I think that’s basically key, just continuous studying.

Do you have a particular grinding and studying routine?

Not a specific studying routine, but for my grinding routine I meditate for five to ten minutes every day before I start grinding. That helps me unwind and get focused. As far as studying goes, I do it after my sessions, not before. At nighttime I just go over hands that I played that day versus a specific opponent, or I go through my PT4 and find random leaks and things like that.

Do you have any lifestyle tricks that help you?

Exercising works for me. I exercise four days a week, just like 30 minutes or so. It helps to clear my mind. My roommate Jason and I have these paleo meals delivered to us. Every single day we have a couple of those. We do mix it up with some random pizza and butter chicken and all the fun stuff. We eat a lot of that. I also eat some superfoods, like goji berries and cacao nibs and stuff.

Do those things make a big difference?

Usually, yes. Before I start my reg battles I’ll have some cacao nibs and some water. And I find that it helps me focus, I think. But what do I know?

Why did you choose your screen name, jackstack99?

I used to work as a server at a TGI Friday’s. I was a server for three years, and I was just wondering what my username should be. I was aisixer3jk on Stars, so my friends said I should do something different. We were all basically fish at the time, and jackstack99 is a really fishy kind of username. It sounds like just a random amateur player would make that username. So it just made sense to me at the time because I was a fish. If I could go back I would probably make something different. Now I’m happy that it’s jackstack99. I would keep it that way.

Does the number 99 have any significance?

Not really, I just thought 99 was kind of cool. I used to play hockey and I wore the number 96, but I don’t know where I got 99 from.

What do you think about the future of online poker, HUSNGs in particular?

It’s really tough to say because the reg battles have been infinite this year and everyone’s playing between 60-80% reg games. I don’t know. I’m optimistic about it but I know a lot of people have found it tough this year, haven’t been making much money or losing money. It’s just really hard to say. But it’s definitely going downhill, it seems.

Do you think there’s more money to be made in the future?

I think there’s money to be made for the people who care a lot and have to get themselves into the game and who care about getting better and learning, but if you don’t care enough you’ll just fall behind. That can be bad. There are a lot of players this year who have done that, and last year and the years before. They just stop caring enough; they just let themselves slip and fall behind the curve. They’re run out of the cartels and that’s it for them. I’m trying to make sure that doesn’t happen.

It seems like that’s happening a lot more lately.

Yeah, especially this year, people melt down with all the reg games and are running bad. Their hearts are just not in it anymore. They’re used to making $400,000 to $700,000 a year and this year and last year they probably didn’t make that much, and they lose focus and dedication.