Hey guys,
Jack here, also known as Jackstack99.
I've made over $5 million in net profit playing poker throughout my career. Over $4 million came from HU hypers and over $1 million from cash games.
The cash game profits have come over the last 4 years, generally playing just 1 or 2 days per week.
These days I mainly focus on high stakes cash games and also run Team651, where we stake and coach Spin and Go players and cash game players.
Happy to answer questions about cash game strategy, moving up in stakes, bankroll management, downswings, game selection, HU hypers, staking, or anything else poker related.
Ask me anything!
— Same Jackstack99 from 2012s? Where are these hypers run?
— Haha ya, same old Jackstack from back in the day. HU hyper action was mostly on PokerStars, some Full Tilt, party, and 888poker too. They aren’t nearly as good as they were back in the day.
— We always hear "study study study", but what EXACTLY does that mean? Other than math and pre flop ranges, what does studying actually look like?
— Studying looks like buying a subscription to a solver. GTO Wizard, Lucid Poker, or whichever one you choose. Set up drills in that solver for the poker format that you play. Set up preflop drills and postflop drills, play as much as you can, and learn from your mistakes. If you run into a spot where you’re surprised you made a mistake, click on that spot and go into the solution and study it. How do IP and OOP play in that spot? Try and figure out why they’re playing that way. Go back into drills and continue.
The more you do this, the deeper you train your intuition for how GTO would approach different kinds of spots, and the more obvious it becomes where your opponents are leaking. What are they doing too much or too little of, and how can you take advantage of that?
This is what I mean when I say study. People study in all kinds of different ways, and you have to learn what works best for you personally. A GTO solver is a must, though, if you’re taking poker seriously.
— I appreciate solvers for what they do, but I've taken so many coaching courses that just teach from solver outputs and I'm just like "but what about the why"
— This is the tricky part in poker, trying to find out why solvers do what they do. It takes some guesswork. The way I like to look at it is this: The solver is like having full access to all the hand histories of the two most unexploitable players on earth. You can see how they're playing every single spot, and it's your job to try and guess why they are playing that way.
There isn't a simple answer, and even the best players will sometimes guess wrong, but you're trying to get into the minds of these two unexploitable poker players while also keeping in mind how you think the population of poker players is playing differently and what you can do to exploit them.
There are no shortcuts here, no elevators. You have to take the stairs and put in a brutal amount of hours in solvers to get very sharp with this kind of stuff.
Those training courses you speak of are flawed if they're only teaching solver outputs and nothing more. You need to be WAYYY better than the solver to make money in poker these days. You need to go beyond solvers.
Remember that these two unexploitable players, aka IP and OOP in solvers, are playing a breakeven strategy. In real games, you need to beat the rake and actually turn enough of a consistent profit to play poker for a living.
Never just copy a solver's outputs. You would be unexploitable but not playing optimally, and you will leave a horse load of money behind if you do.
Read Read— Are you playing live cash or online? Is it mostly private cash volume?
— All Online cash on WPT Global and WPT Gold.
— How many times have you busted your bankroll, and how did you come back each time?
— I busted my bankroll maybe once when I started playing poker like 17 years ago or something. I was playing recreationally at the time and playing way too high stakes but was aspiring to be a pro. I remember playing a $100 HU SNG and losing, then $200, then $500, and then finally $1k. I remember the moment. My heart was beating out of my chest with my bankroll on the line, and I lost.
It was a horrific feeling at the time. I then went on to have an extremely long conversation on AIM, which only some of the old dinosaurs in here would remember, with one of my poker friends. We talked for many hours about how we both needed to have bankroll management in order to ever play poker for a living and how much these big losing days were crushing our souls and making us not want to go out with friends.
It was a life altering conversation for me, as I took bankroll management extremely seriously after that and vowed to never play above the stakes I set out to play. Eventually, I became a pro and carried that with me, so I never went broke again and did everything systematically instead of playing on emotion.
— What is one non intuitive heuristic that has served you well in cash games?
— Great question. Most heuristics are intuitive, but one I would say is to turn more pairs into bluffs than you feel comfortable doing, whether that be river XR bluffing or triple barrel bluffing, as long as it’s a spot your range is strong in and you don’t have many natural bluffs. I think people check down too wide for showdown in spots that they should be bluffing more often, especially being that most players don’t balance their checking ranges very well and end up having too weak a range in lots of different spots and then end up folding more hands than they’re supposed to as well.
— Can anyone become as good as you with careful solver study or are you also naturally more talented than others?
— I certainly would not tell you that anyone can be as good as me just by careful solver study, and this isn't to toot my own horn. I'm just answering the question honestly. I think, just like with anything, genetics and your natural ability for pattern recognition have something to do with it.
I've worked with many poker players over the years, and some are just not able to turn a corner. I think to become an excellent poker player, it's a combination of genetics, pattern recognition, curiosity about solvers, work ethic, commitment, the ability to handle hard emotions and keep marching forward, and a ton of other things. Lots of players will lack multiple things it takes to make it to the top of the mountain.
Thinking of myself, for example, if I had somehow played basketball for my entire childhood, would I ever be as good as some of the best basketball players? Probably no chance.
For all the soccer fans out there, do you think Ronaldo and Messi just practice a million times harder than all their teammates? Or is some of that just natural ability that they have, and they made the absolute best of it? If their teammates start carefully practicing soccer and putting in way more hours than Messi and Ronaldo, will they become just as good, or is it not going to happen?
With this said, I think many players can maximize their own potential with careful solver study and doing their best to level up in all the different areas required for success in poker. Almost everyone can earn more income from poker by putting in the hard work, but everyone has a different ceiling when it comes to these types of things.
— My question is: If you had to fight a duck sized horse, or 100 horse sized ducks, which would you pick?
— Might be the best question yet, haha. I have to go with the duck sized horse, of course. I played HU for a living for so many years, so it's gotta be a 1v1 battle.
— Are HU Hypers beatable in modern era with the rakes that sites currently charge?
— They are beatable but there are cartels everywhere so it’s very difficult to get in unless you battle regs for ages and even then there is no guarantee. It’s not what it once was
I don’t think it’s necessary.
— What are cartels?
— Cartels are just a pool of regs that group up and decide to protect the lobbies of the games so that no other regs can sit. They all agree to battle anyone who tries to play those stakes.
So if you're outside of a cartel, for example, and you try to sit a $100 HU hyper to play a rec, then one of the regs in the cartel will sit you and play you endlessly to ensure you make no money.
There are cartels all over the SNG world these days in HU games and even in spins on some sites at some stakes, where a small group of players decide to basically hold down the lobby and keep outsiders away.
The only way to get into a cartel is to battle all the members and have them agree to let you in, which can be very costly. Many have tried and failed, losing tens of thousands and even $100k+ in some cases.
— what were the toughest battles you ever had?
— I would say VBV1990 and Rams because they were savages and also very strong players
— What is a normal downswing in terms of buy ins as a winning player?
— Hmm, for HU Hypers, I would say a normal downswing can be like 100 buy-ins, and for cash games, a normal downswing can be 30 to 40 buy-ins.
— Do you think your success in poker was due to the era in which you played? What success do you think you find if you were placed in the modern era as a beginner.
— I don’t think my success comes down to the era I played in. I’m still successful today, and I’ve been successful through every era of poker. I think it comes down to the work I’ve put in over the years. I’ve spent over 10,000 hours studying solvers, coached students for thousands of hours, and put in a ton of volume. Coaching in particular has been incredibly valuable because when you’re teaching someone else, you’re also reinforcing your own understanding and sharpening your skills in the process.
I also think there may be some genetic component to it. I’ve worked with many poker players over the years, and for some, it just never fully clicks. They struggle to turn that corner and reach the next level. Poker certainly isn’t for everyone.
— I'm stuck at micro-stakes and don't know how to improve. I play TAG, and I manage to make some money, but overall, it feels like I'm doing something pointless. It's clear that GTO doesn't work at these limits, so I don't even know how to work on my game.
— Strong question. GTO is relevant at EVERY level, I want to make that clear. Unless you have zero plans on improving your poker game and/or moving up in stakes at some point. If you study GTO, you will more clearly see where the population of players that you're playing against is making mistakes. That's very important to know so that you can exploit them. You're basically just playing on intuition right now, and you can win slightly like that if you play against a field of bad enough players, but it certainly is not optimal and you will fall further behind if you don't start using the tools at your disposal.
The first thing I would tell you to do is make an investment in a solver like Lucid Poker. From there, you should be setting up drills and playing cash games there to find out your biggest leaks. In turn, you will start to realize where most players are leaking in the games that you're playing and slowly but surely start seeing spots where you can exploit them, whether it be overfolding to triple barrels, calling down too wide with top pair, not bluffing enough, etc.
Sometimes when you implement new things into your game, there will be a regression because you may be slightly misfiring on the new knowledge that you've gained, but you have to trust the process and keep on with it as opposed to reverting back to your comfort zone of playing a value heavy TAG strategy. Do this for 6 months and see where it gets you.
— In your most honest opinion, is there any part of you that attributes at least 50% (or more) of your success to running extremely well or do you think that it is 100% skill that got you that 5 mil?
— I get why you're curious about this, and I like this question. Over the course of so many years, it's 100 percent skill to make that amount of money and 0 percent luck or running well, especially being that the games I've played are HU and cash games.
Running extremely well can help someone make a significant amount of money in MTTs, for example. Let's say you win a huge tournament and got lucky multiple times to win some massive tournaments that you should have never won, and that inflates overall profits.
But when talking about my career, for example, where the range of HU games I've played was mostly $200 to $1k, with a handful of 2ks and 5ks, and the cash games I've played are mostly in the $10/$20 to $25/$50 range, luck plays 0 factor.
Read Read— When I lose a bullet at 1/3 it feels devastating and I can’t imagine a major downswing losing 80/20s back to back to back and would think that sort of thing could destroy a professional.
— Ya, losing money is not fun. It feels terrible, and this is part of poker. If you have the type of mindset that just can't handle it and it's gonna affect your life too much if you lose a lot of money, then don't play as high of stakes.
Mindset is one of the key things in becoming a successful poker player, and if you're struggling a lot with losing a buyin at 1/3 and you feel it's negatively impacting your life, then def don't move higher until you feel more comfortable.
Remember that every time you lose, it's going to be emotionally painful and never easy, but it just depends on whether you're able to take it on the chin and feel somewhat OK about it or if it's destroying you so badly that maybe you shouldn't play poker for a living, or just play at those stakes until you feel that you've desensitized yourself to the swings at least a little bit.
— How much in taxes are you reporting, since you can't really prove anything why report?
— I’m a US citizen and pay multiple six figures in taxes every year. No way around taxes, unfortunately.
— Have you ever been audited?
— Nope.
— How viable is making a living w spins in 2026 (assuming 50abi/1500 games/month)
— Very viable to make a great living from spins at 50 ABI. The problem with what you said is 1,500 games. That's not nearly gonna cut it, IMO. You really need to be able to put in more hours than that if you want to make a good living, unless you live in a third world country, then you might be able to get by.
— What was your biggest spin hit?
— I've never really played spins. I played HU games for many years, and currently I play some HU and 8max cash games.
— What is a common mistake spins regs make?
— One of the most common mistakes I see a lot of spin regs making is underbluffing in lots of common spots, missing a lot of no equity bluffs on turns specifically, which then leads to underbluffing on rivers.
— If I win 36.1% of my spins over a 35k game sample at 25s, but down money actually. Am I even winning? (6.5evbb/100). Any advice?
— If you're down money, then you're def not winning, unless you've won in EV and you're down in real money, which is extremely common. I never look at winnings in spins. It's all about how much EV you're making. This depends on which site you're playing on and what the rake is. Remember that you have to beat the games while paying significant rake, again depending on which site you're playing on and how much rakeback you get.
— Is Mariano stronger than you?
— Absolutely not.
— Do you think AI will destroy online poker?
— I feel like if AI was gonna destroy it, it would have done so already. I think it's kind of neutral because the poker sites are gonna be using all types of AI to try and keep cheaters off their platforms and potentially catch them faster. I think playing on big, reputable sites is fairly safe, but I would be very cautious of smaller, lesser known sites or any club apps. I strongly advise people to stay away from those because security can't be that great, and there can be a lot of things going on behind the scenes that we're unaware of. Moral of the story, just stick to well known, reputable sites.
— Is it possible to be profitable in $1.10 online MTTs?
— Sure it is, but why play so low? You can't make any decent money there to even pay bills. Maybe you can earn some side income if you play poker recreationally, but I don't recommend anyone taking poker seriously to play stakes like that
— how much do you think you have paid in rake? before rakeback?
— This would be a wild guess. It's for sure in the millions, I just don't know how many. I made SNE five years on Stars, and on WPT Global and WPT Gold, the rake is absurd, so I'm paying a boatload of rake. With all the games I've played on different sites, it's impossible to say.
— What limits did you return to after you lost your first bankroll?
— I played 6-max SNGs for $50 and MTTs for $20-$100 on Ultimate Bet. Then I switched to HU hypers on Full Tilt, starting with $100.
— How much did you lose in the pits and sports gambling?
— Haha, I don't gamble much at all other than playing poker. I've made some bets on the playoffs here and there, but probably only about twice a year on average. I'm not really a betting kind of guy, and I keep it small, never betting more than a few thousand. I think my biggest bet was during these recent playoffs when I put like $5k on the Spurs to win the Finals against the Knicks and got dusted
— What do you think about the state of online poker?
— I think it’s better than what most people think. Sites have done a great job getting rid of bots and colluding players. I’ve seen many players come and go over the years, and it’s made room for those who stick around and are actually committed to studying and getting great at this game.
These days, you really have to be on the ball with studying solvers and playing extremely well to make a big income. It’s not as easy as it used to be 10 to 15 years ago, and most players make just enough to get by. If you want to do better than that these days, then you’ve gotta be willing to put in the time and effort. You can’t just be winging it with intuition
— Did Robbi cheat?
— Probably. It's possible that she misread her cards or something.........
— No – this is been thoroughly debunked. She changed her story about this multiple times, and video footage shows her extensively looking back at her cards multiple times before she called.
— I was being sarcastic haha
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