This is Sebastiaan aka Bas, a professional poker player from the Netherlands who plays under the name Steezy. He is also an NL 6-max Coaching for Profits (CFP) finisher and BPC Hall of Famer.
Steezy took nearly a year to finish his €60k contract, but when he finished it, he did it with style. In his last month, he made almost €30k, which is STILL the record month for winnings in the CFP NL 6-max Crusher program.
According to many players, the game of poker has become much more difficult to quickly grind your way up through the stakes. And to some degree they are correct.
See, just playing poker isn’t enough these days. You actually have to work at it and work hard if you want to be successful.
The problem is that most people are either too lazy or have no idea what to study or how to improve. Steezy was one of those people (minus the lazy part).
He had been playing poker for some time but then one day realized that his way wasn’t working. He needed to make a change if he wanted to become a better poker player.
So Steezy decided to join the NL 6-max Coaching for Profits program here at BPC. This is his story.
BEFORE COACHING FOR PROFITS
As mentioned before, Steezy had already been playing poker for some time, around 10 years actually, before joining Coaching for Profits. His results up until that point were the typical “win some, lose some”.
After graduating from university, Steezy moved from the Netherlands to Malta to work as a translator but ended up working in customer support typing emails for 40 hours per week.
He needed a change, so he started working on his poker game during his free time. Before leaving for Malta, Steezy often visited his friend Jonathan Rozema, a professional poker player who lived in Amsterdam.
“I’ve learned a lot from him,” Steezy said. “There was a world of difference between how I played poker and how Jonathan played,” he continued. “I just randomly played tournaments without any strategy, but he was already very disciplined. He analyzed every move of every player and was really serious about the game.”
Once in Malta, Steezy kept in touch with Jonathan, which is when he started focusing more on cash games instead of tournaments.
When summer hit, Steezy quit his job to start playing poker full time. This first month it went well, but the second month did not.
Then he got an email from Gordon introducing him to the NL 6-max Crusher program. After looking into it, Steezy decided it would be a good step for him to take.
STEEZY LEARNS TO BE A CRUSHER
Upon joining the program, Steezy admitted to being a little bit anxious about what lied ahead in the opening post of his BPC blog, Steezy is Ready for Poker School. He also has a blog on 2+2 titled, CRUSH 400NL before the end of the year and live happily ever after!
He compared the feeling to that of his first day in middle school, but he knew the old way wasn’t working and was ready for whatever came his way.
After his first live session with Gordon, Steezy realized how much he had to improve not just strategically, but also with his productivity. Because of this, he welcomed the structured nature of the program and got down to business.
He started off by re-learning the fundamentals and breaking some old habits by following the No Bullshit 6-max book while grinding NL100 6-max.
“I’ve read it like 10 times and it’s a real good fundamental start to your game,” said Steezy. “I will keep the No Bullshit book close to me during my sessions, so if you see me using some extra time at the tables, you know what i’m doing!”
Steezy ended his first month in CFP with a 3.41bb win rate over 50k hands at NL100. But he wanted more, as his goal was to start earning $10k per month playing the game he loved.
He knew to stay the course though and looked forward to the challenge.
“I’m in a group with several other poker players with the same ambition and it’s great to do this together with the other guys,” he said. “Next to that it’s a real improvement to have a serious coach in Gordon that gives whatever it takes to get me to the next level.”
A TYPICAL DAY IN THE CFP PROGRAM
Below, Steezy explains what his typical day was like as a CFP student. Pay close attention.
“I get up at 12, and then I enter the BPC forum of the NL 6-max program to analyze the different hands that other players have posted,” said Steezy. “Then I provide my own feedback.”
After some time in the forum, he’d then move on to his own specific tasks for the program.
“If, for example, the day before I had an hour of coaching, I will make a summary of everything I learned during that session,” said Steezy. “Or if my coach gave me any homework, I will do my assignments.”
He continued, “This week, for example, I had to do my equity exercises, but sometimes I also have to analyze something specific in my Hold’Em Manager database.”
This is where Steezy would record his screen while doing the homework so his coach could see and analyze what he’s done. This is a highly successful coaching technique and the feedback you receive here is typically worth it’s weight in gold.
This is what a pre-session routine looks like for crushers. Simply sitting down and loading up some tables will get you exactly what you have right now, and chances are it’s not good enough.
Once his “homework” was done, it was finally time to play some poker.
After a few hours of grinding, Steezy would post some hands on the forum from the session and take a break before coming back to the tables for his evening session.
“That’s what I do for six days a week because that’s how the program works,” said Steezy. “It’s true that my social life and my poker life are a little bit unbalanced, but I think it’s great,” he continued.
“If you want to achieve something, you’ll have to put in time and energy. It’s just a really nice experience. I spend most hours of my day playing poker, that’s true, but it is also my hobby so I really enjoy spending my day like that.”
STEEZY MAKES €30K IN ONE MONTH!
After a few months of grinding, following the program and getting better, Steezy finally hit his first $10k month.
Unfortunately, he followed it up with a few months of so-so results where he admitted to being overly stressed, running bad, and not always playing his best. Still, he came out a slight winner overall and still felt confident with his plays towards the end.
At this point, Steezy was halfway to completing the €60k contract. In July 2015, Steezy attended the BPC poker seminar event in Dubrovnik.
And then in August 2015, Steezy just went off, winning more than €25k at the tables (as well as another €5k in bonuses) to finish the CFP program in just under a year. This is still the record for most profit in a month, as highlighted in the image below.
Aside from his amazing €30k month, this also shows that progress in poker is not linear at all, as you’ll see from the graph below.
Playing poker is very often like banging your head against the wall. You keep doing it and sometimes nothing really happens. The difference between winners and losers, between quitters and DOERS, is that the winners don’t stop.
Steezy is definitely a Champion and the huge majority of the credit goes to him for making this happen. As a CFP student, Steezy also worked for BPC, where he did interviews and helped a lot to organize the BPC seminar in Dubrovnik.
At the same time, he must have paid a lot of attention to what was taught in Dubrovnik, because he certainly took action on it. Here’s a video of Steezy at the Dubrovnik seminar interviewing other members of BPC.
LIFE AFTER COACHING FOR PROFITS
Steezy is still playing poker professionally, currently playing at the 600NL and 1KNL online cash games but claims to have lived a quiet life since finishing CFP.
“I traveled a bit… USA, Canada, Brazil. I lived in Ljubljana, Slovenia near Ratko “whosyourdaddy” and Jan “Somebody” from BPC and still in good contact with them,” said Steezy.
At one point, Steezy started a coaching platform called HoldemTrainer with two other 6-max grinders. They enjoyed some success for about a year but in the end decided it was taking too much time away from playing poker.
It wasn’t all for nothing however, as one of their students made it as a professional poker player as well as other positive outcomes.
“Myself, I’m a way better poker player because of the coaching,” said Steezy. “Also, we all work closer together now as a 6-max team to improve our game. So all in all, some good things came out of the cooperation.”
FUTURE PLANS FOR POKER AND IN LIFE
In March 2017, Steezy signed up with a new coach to help him improve and earn even more. He’ll be getting coached by Chris “GoMukYaSelf” Sparks, a former high-stakes poker player turned productivity coach.
“My longterm poker goal is to become a poker millionaire and it’s nice to have a practical mentor in Sparks who has already done that,” said Steezy.
“It’s a great experience so far,” he continued. “Steven ‘Imachampion’ (from BPC) got me in contact with him and I’m glad he did! That’s the value of a good poker network.”
As mentioned previously, Steezy is currently playing NL600 and NL1K as his main games, but is also taking shots at higher stakes. Obviously, he’s hoping for a good run so he can stay there and we wish him all the luck in the world.
Outside of poker, Steezy has plans to go live in the UK for a while. He also wants to learn Portuguese, travel a bit more and find ways to invest his money. “Plenty to do and plenty to learn”, said Steezy.
THINK YOU COULD BE THE NEXT STEEZY?
As you know, the last word about Steezy’s run to the top has not been spoken. Now he’s his own boss, ready to reach even higher for the stars.
For those of you who’ve read this far, you KNOW for a fact that this here could have been you. Well, be angry, do better, but don’t use excuses.
Again, this can be you. Steezy will be the first to tell you that it is his work ethic and never giving up are what made him great. He had his moments of doubt and frustration but he never gave up and worked a LOT on himself.
When asked if he thought it was still possible for a player to grind up through the micros in 2017 and beyond, he had this to say:
“Of course. It’s very possible! But I think people underestimate the time it will cost you to improve your game. When you find a good balance between learning and grinding, you can make it. A coach or coaching program is a great solution for this, but in the end, it’s up to the player and their dedication.”
And this is very true. Our programs here at BPC are designed to teach you how to make money and become a crusher.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to have great success either. You just need to come in with an open mind and a willingness to work hard.
