Episode 156: T.J. Jurkiewicz

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T.J. Jurkiewicz may have come from humble buildings, but it took the former security guard less than a year (and the help of Chad Power) to break into some of the biggest no-limit games on the east coast. Find out how he motivated himself to work harder every day at getting into peak mental and physical shape, and how he’s fared since striking out on his own bankroll.

Timestamps
0:30 – hello & welcome
4:48 – strategy
30:28 – TJ

Reading List

The 2+2 Thread That Started It All

Managing Oneself by Peter Drucker

The One Thing by Gary Keller

The Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler

Elements of Poker by Tommy Angelo

Thinking Tournament Poker by Nate Meyvis & Friends

11 thoughts on “Episode 156: T.J. Jurkiewicz”

  1. I was listening to this podcast with guest TJ aka RandalGravedNL, and i was impressed by his epic journey chronicled in his epic 2p2 thread from $10/hour security guard in fall 2013 to crushing 25/50/100 NL by Christmas 2014. out of curiosity, I also looked up the podcast that he did with Chad Power on Limon’s show. In that podcast with Limon, TJ commented that he was winning over $150+/hour at 5/10 NL.

    So my question is this. If TJ was winning more than $150+/hour at 5/10 NL and was crushing much higher stakes like 10/25 NL and 25/50 NL and 25/50/100 NL by XMAS 2014…why did TJ only have a combined poker roll and life roll of $20k when he ended his stake with Chad Power to go off on his own on April 2015?

    Given his impressive win-rate and success at the higher stakes games, TJ must have won a large 6 figure amount between fall 2013 and April 2015. Even if he split some of those winnings with his backer, shouldn’t TJ have had a much larger poker+life bankroll of $60k+ in April 2015 instead of just 20k? Or am I missing something here?

  2. My advice is to figure out how much it’s gonna cost you to live for six months. Be super liberal with this figure because sh*t happens that you don’t plan for. Set this money aside from your bankroll which should be roughly 20 buy ins for the game you plan on playing.

  3. Do you tip dealers? I was recently told by a former Maryland live dealer that Chad does not tip dealers. Since they specifically work for tips that seems indefensible. My respect for him was definitely lowered after hearing that.

    • I tip and probably more generously than I should. Buck a hand minimum and I’ve tipped $50 for hitting $500 promos if I like the dealer and they do their job well.

      Everyone has their own policies.

  4. Thinking about the strategy hand. It’s mentioned that we have a blocker to the nut flush. Because it’s a blocker to the nut flush, wouldn’t it feature heavily in his bluffing range – therefore it’s also a blocker to his bluffing range?

    I don’t just mean in this particular hand, generally how do people assess if these classic blockers block more of the value range or the bluff range? (obviously with plenty of players at my micro level we don’t assume they are building their bluff range with reference to blockers, but I’m interested in the theory side too).

  5. Thanks, T.J. for sharing your story. Before I move on to the new episode, I need to share something that’s been bothering me about the strategy segment. Nate is thinking out loud and spitballing about the river action when he says, “what’s the SPR?”. James Sweeney teaches SPR as a flop metric only, calculated after the pre-flop betting and prior to the flop action. He explicitly warns his students against re-calculating SPR on future betting rounds, making them feel incorrectly pot-committed. So did Nate mean to say, “what was the SPR on the flop?”, or does this concept in fact have river applications?

    • I think it’s still a useful concept for considering turn and river situations. I imagine the danger that James is warning about is applying some set of guidelines related to SPR that you may have learned for flop play to future streets. It’s true that although you will often stack off with an overpair when you have an SPR of 2 on the flop, this is far less often true on the river. That doesn’t mean that thinking in terms of SPR on the river has no merit, just that the same “rules” don’t apply.

    • I just mean “SPR” as an acronym for “stack-to-pot ratio.” If there’s a stack and a pot, you can take the quotient of the two numbers. I am sure that Mr. Sweeney has some wise warnings about misinterpreting this number; perhaps he intended it primarily as a flop metric. But it’s very generally useful to know how deep you are relative to the pot. On the river, it’s good to know whether you open yourself up to a big raise by betting, whether conditions are favorable for a blocking bet, whether a CRAI is likely to be an underbet, a big overbet, or somewhere in between, and so on.

      Thanks for the question and for possibly clearing up a point of terminological confusion!

  6. Can you guys break down the Bovada allegations math/programming wise? Or just link what Nate was referencing?

  7. Pingback: Thinking Poker: Jonathan Gill | One Sick Hunt

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