Poker Semi Pro
Former poker player and now quiz showchampion Alex Jacob has shown his abilities on the quiz show Jeopardy! Ona couple of occasions. He is the 2015 Tournament of Champions victor – in whichhe took down a cool $250,000 (along with his $151,802 for originally winning onthe show) – and was one of the leaders of the Team Tournament this year on theshow. It seems that Jacob likes to keep his skills honed as, most recently, hetargeted another online trivia show and came out a big winner.
- Semi Pro Poker Game Scene
- Poker Semi Pro Poker
- Poker Semi Pro Golf
- Semi Professional Poker Player
- Joueur De Poker Semi Professionnel
In the trailer for Semi-Pro, an interviewer asks Jackie how he learned to play basketball. His response is “I saw it on TV a couple times and I thought, I can do that.” This is exactly how I, and many like me, got into poker. In hindsight, poker has not been as easy as the guys on TV make it look. 'Semi-professionals' enjoy poker as a side income and hobby without relying on it as a stable source of income. They also avoid the anti-social, monotonous nature of professional poker playing. Some semi-pros make a very significant income from playing cards, even more than many professionals! A semi-professional player who makes a living out of playing poker. An inside straight draw. An example of a gutshot straight draw (also known as belly buster straight draw) is to have 4578, in an attempt to draw a 6. To enter the pot cheaply by just calling the blind rather than raising. Also called limp. So I play as my bankroll combined is 1500€ together. Anyway I have never been more than€20 net negative in poker overall at the beginning. My goal is reaching NL100 in 6-12 months investing 4-6 hours a day. 50% time invested in studying (right now watching video courses in poker and studying my HUD database).
Taking Down the HQ Jackpot
For a little over a year, the onlinetrivia game HQ has been growing its audience by leaps and bounds. With thisgrowth has come an increase in the prizes that the site gives away, loads ofcash and sometimes even other prizes for their competitors. Literally hundredsof thousands of people come together online daily and battle it out for theseprizes.
Of late, HQ has been awarding some of thebiggest prizes in its existence. Called “Jackpot” games, the players have theoption to resign from the game at a certain point – and are awarded a smallcash prize for their efforts – or they can continue onward to reach a bigger prize.The prize on Monday night was $125,000 and the players had to answer 25straight questions to be able to grab a piece of the pie.
At the end of the questions on Monday night, six players remained in the game and were awarded prizes of just over $20,000. While this wasn’t the largest prize ever given to a single player on the site (earlier this year a singular player earned a $100,000 payday), the $20K was a pretty nice chunk of change. But, since everyone in HQ uses on-screen nicknames, the winners weren’t known…unless you happened on a Twitter conversation later that evening.
Fellow Jeopardy Champion Outs Jacob
Jacob was asked over his Twitter feed by afellow Jeopardy! Champion, Jackie Fuchs (also known to many as JackieFox, the former bassist for the groundbreaking 70s all-female band TheRunaways), whether he was the one who had earned the prize on HQ. As you cansee, Jacob was coy about the answer but then almost all but confirmed it:
Jacob has been very open about how his formerlife as a poker professional prepared him for the travails of Jeopardy! and,perhaps, dealing with the rapid-fire questions on HQ. “Themost challenging aspect was probably just dealing mentally with the high stakesand the knowledge that I could win the tournament if I played well,” he statedto Variety after winning the Tournament of Champions in 2015. “The onething I had going for me is that I’ve played for a lot of money on national TVbefore. The thing that makes ‘Jeopardy’ different than poker, though, is thatthere’s always another poker tournament, but you only get one Tournament ofChampions.”
While Jacob has been notable for his performances in the trivia arena, his achievements arguably paled in comparison to another Jeopardy! alum and a Las Vegas denizen, sports bettor James Holzhauer. Holzhauer went on a 33-game run this summer on the popular syndicated show, earning $2,464,216. It was Holzhauer’s aggressive approach to the game that has had many people reexamining the strategies and philosophies of Jeopardy! and whether players with a little less concern for risk have an advantage on the program.
While many might not think $20,000 is all that much, in the world of HQ it is a sizeable chunk of money. Jacob has also shown that he’s still got the skills that carried him to the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions victory. How long might it be until Jacob takes on Holzhauer – and, of course, other champions – in a solo match?
by Suzanne Yeagley
Q: You make money playing poker. How did it start?
A: In a way, I was part of the wave that started in 2003. That’s considered the beginning of the modern poker boom, because someone named Chris Moneymaker, who was an amateur, won the World Series of Poker after starting from an online game that he paid like 86 bucks for. He won millions of dollars, and people saw that and were like, “Wait a second, I have 86 bucks, I could do this…”
I wasn’t directly affected by that, but in 2004 or 2005, I got a free ticket for a charity poker event for my work. It was like a $300 entry fee, but I got in for free.
I thought, “Oh no, I’m completely unprepared to do this.” So I bought a poker book and I read it. Then, over the years, I got progressively more serious.
Q: How did you do at the charity game?
A: Not very well. But it’s funny now that I was so serious. It was completely unnecessary. Some people showed up and they literally didn’t even know how to play.
Q: How did you go from that to a semi-professional player?
A: I continued to play home games, to watch poker on TV. It made me want to learn a bit more. I read a few more books. I tried to change the way I played.
For years I didn’t think there was strategy. It seemed like random chance. But I did some studying, and I would go to a circuit of local home games, and I started playing quite a bit. Then I slowly transitioned to playing at casinos here in L.A.
Q: Are home games legal?
A: A lot of things about poker are best left to the legal experts. It’s a bit of a grey area.
Q: What’s the difference between pro and semi-pro?
A: Poker players span a continuum of recreational players, who are clearly just doing it for fun, and elite professionals, who make millions a year. In between are semi-pros.
It’s not like you get officially promoted or demoted. I always considered myself a serious recreational player until last year. It was the second year in a row I made more from poker than my day job, and I started thinking of myself as semi-pro. However, I am a notorious stickler, so that is probably an excessively high bar.
Also, this year I am down several thousand dollars because of COVID and am playing nothing but cheapo online games, and if I end up in the red, technically anyone who doesn’t play poker at all has made more money at poker than I have.
Q: What’s your biggest win and biggest loss?
A: Well, every time you don’t come in first, it’s a loss, so it’s hard to categorize.
But last year I got second at the World Series of Poker Ladies’ Event.
Q: Wow! How many people were in that event?
A: About 1000.
Q: And how long did it last?
A: I think it was three days. It’s 12 hours a day.
Q: Amazing. What was it like?
A: It’s really stressful. The final table was on CBS All-Access. You’re thinking, “This is a chance for me to make a lot of money. But I could also do something really stupid and walk home with $15,000 instead of $150,000. And everyone’s going to see me do it!”
And people are commentating on you while you’re going through it.
Q: Can you hear them?
A: No, BUT I KNOW IT’S HAPPENING! It’s hard not to hear it in your head, like, “I’m not sure why she’s opening this hand…”
I’m used to my shame being my own personal shame.
I told myself, “It doesn’t matter, no one’s watching this,” but for months afterward people would come out of the woodwork to tell me they watched the game.
Q: Can I ask about the money?
A: For poker that’s never a personal question, it’s just part of the story. I made $103,000.
Q: And how much did you put in?
A: It was a $1,000 entry fee.
It was by far the most I’ve ever won. It was my first six-figure cash. The winner got about $167,000.
Semi Pro Poker Game Scene
It felt very surreal. I was thrilled, but it’s also hard not to feel disappointed. For World Series of Poker events, that was likely to be the only final table I ever make.
And you want the win — you want the bracelet. For the rest of my career, people would say “She’s a bracelet winner. There’s bracelet-winner Nancy Matson.”
Q: Do you remember how you lost?
A: No, I really don’t. Anyone who plays serious poker kind of laughs at how it’s presented in a movie. There’s never really the same level of drama.
Q: Do you have nerves of steel?
A: I would say I’m a lot less bothered by things than a lot of people are.
Q: Can you make a living doing this?
A: That’s where people go wrong. I’m not going to say it can’t be done, but even the really good players will have incredibly brutal downswings.
Some people have some ability at poker, but you really have to have the personality for it. You do nothing but lose. Lose lose lose all the time. It’s just not for everyone.
Q: Do you have any “tells”?
A: I hope not, I don’t know. I think if you play for a while you tend to work them out of your game.
Physical tells are really overstated and not really that much of a part of poker. Like, “Oh, you’re pulling at your earlobe?” That doesn’t really happen.
There was an era where people were obsessively trying not to give out tells. Everyone wore sunglasses and maybe a scarf to cover their neck so you couldn’t see the little vein throb. I’m not saying nobody does it, but it’s much less common now.
Poker Semi Pro Poker
Q: What do you like most about it?
A: You get a chance to outwit people. It’s a weird chance to be really aggressive in a situation that’s completely socially acceptable.
The most fun thing for me — I’m a bit older — is when some 24-year-old puts in a massive bet and I get him to fold. I find it so fun!
For me it’s like a puzzle. Like, “Wait a second I know what you have!” When I figure something out it’s fun.
Poker Semi Pro Golf
A lot of people are in it for the rush of trying to win, but for me it’s super-satisfying to learn and see myself improve. If you’re just looking to win, you’ll always be disappointed.
Q: How long do you think you’ll continue playing?
A: Tournament poker is kind of grueling. But I’ll play as long as it’s fun and I can afford it.
Semi Professional Poker Player
Whenever anyone quits poker, I never think, “What a bad decision.” You have to invest a lot of time to get anywhere near decent at it.