When it comes to determination and pushing through the obstacles with a strong desire to win, there’s no better example than Aleks’ journey to crushing poker. Let’s have a look at his story…
We all heard it before
We see it many times in movies and tv shows. And most of the time our parents and friends tell us it’s impossible to win in this game, and only casinos make money. That’s also how Aleks understood poker as he grew up.
Luckily, he got to travel to the USA and that’s when his first serious encounter with poker happened.
Aleks is a 35 years old engineer and poker player from Dniprovske, Ukraine. He was born there but moved to Ternopil with his wife.
Outside poker, he has a regular hobby of running and working out. He does that 5-6 times per week. Probably, this determination and consistency also helped him overcome the challenges he faced later.
After graduating from the National Mining University, he entered the “Work and Travel” program which got him to the USA. His view on poker changed there as he also tells us:
“I was super skeptical on poker till I get to the USA and met one guy, who constantly made money in live poker”
Getting “hooked”
Coming back from the USA, Aleks met another person who was making good money playing online poker. He started working with him to learn more about poker and was introduced to PokerStrategy website.
He started learning and playing 9-max and then 6-max hold ’em. In a couple of years he was making the same money from poker as he did from his job.
“I was making the same money in poker, playing 4-5hours/day, as in my regular job”
During that time, he was watching at least once per month Gordon’s video series called “Champions Stand Up One More Time”. When Gordon left PokerStrategy, Aleks searched for him and found BestPokerCoaching.
Joining BPC’s Coaching For Profits
It didn’t take long for Aleks to realize that BPC’s Coaching For Profits is a great opportunity so he joined the CFP 6-max program.
“After he left Pokerstrategy, I was looking for his activity outside for a long time and found a link in some forum. I decided to change it (referring to PokerStrategy materials) and joined the CFP 6-max program”
Only 1 year passed in this program, his results improved but it was not exactly what he wanted. It felt that something was missing…
He made the decision to switch to the Heads-Up format after hearing about another student who did the same and his results improved drastically.
The CFP Heads-Up program was structured with small groups lead by a coach. He entered Scott’s HU group and now, in retrospect, he is very glad that it happened like this.
“I can say that 50% of my success belongs to my coach or better say team”
Aleks mentions that coach Daniel and Lauri helped him a lot at the beginning of his HU journey. And from Gordon’s sessions, he got big motivation and confidence.
“…But the biggest impact to my progress belongs to Scott”, he says.
He had a lot of coaching sessions and Scott helped him not only with poker strategy but management and other areas as well.
“He also helped me a lot in management and overall I changed my attitude to business”
Finishing the €60k Coaching For Profits Heads-Up program
It took him about 3 years to reach €60k in total profits because he started with 6-max and also had a regular job. Of course, Aleks admits that he did a lot of mistakes and that also slowed his progress.
The hardest obstacle was to get to NL200. It was so tough that he thought about quitting:
“I had couple tough moments, when I hit 2 long down streaks and felt down from NL200 to NL10-25 twice, that was the time when I was thinking about quitting BPC”
Fortunately, he pushed through and made it.
One of the biggest improvements during the program, his most important “aha” moment, was when a click in his mindset happened and he stopped caring what happens in the short term and only focused on playing the best he can.
” doesn’t matter what is going on now, just play according to strategy and everything will be fine” he was saying to himself while playing.
This switch in the way of dealing with bad beats allowed him to play longer sessions more easily and reach 200+ hours/month. Not only this but he constantly had 2k+ winning months.
After finishing the program, we asked him:
How has your life and lifestyle changed since starting and completing your BPC contract?
“I think I started to work and rest more effectively. Before and at the beginning of the program I was playing like 95% of the time and studying only 5%.
Now, I can open the best one-two sites and study a couple of days, improving my skills in different situations. Also I do recordings of interesting villains for analysis. This and many other good pieces of advice I got from Scott.
So, now my working day starts and finishes with 30-60mins of studying. I play a lot on weekends and study more on weekdays. And for me, it seems the best way for fast progress.”
Now, Aleks is more confident in his game and is free to have more fun with family and friends.
“Overall, I think that I can do more things that I like compared to what I did 3 years ago” he tells us.
Looking forward
Aleks doesn’t stop learning and improving his game. He says that there will always be good games with weaker opponents so in the near and medium future he sees himself playing HU NL.
The next step in his poker career, he says, is to grow a big enough bankroll for NL5k so he can have enough funds to play on all good sites. He also wants to tackle more advanced topics like how to beat the regs.
“It will be great to study how to beat regulars and make money from them, I think it is possible”
In a year from now, we will see him crushing regs at NL5k… “or at least bumhunting NL5k :)”
As with most of our finishers, traveling is included in Aleks’s lifestyle now. Egypt and Viena are the next destinations he plans to visit.
“Yes, we had plans with my wife, Egypt, and Vienna for this year, but unfortunately it would be hard to make it during the pandemic. Maybe next Spring”
He says there are 3 very important things that all beginners and starting poker players must do:
- Study standard lines and know them by heart
- Do the best table selection, “don’t waste your time battling regs or semi regs”
- Keep your focus on the things that you CAN manage and change for better ( “such as: the best possible play you can play at the table, health care, don’t waste your mental energy thinking about bad beats/variance, etc”)
These things are also what BPC and all our coaches tell every student. He now gets it.
It was a tough decision to join CFP he says. The security deposit was around his monthly salary. And it was a long way to finish the program. But he made it and now he can set more ambitious targets.
He did it once, so he knows that he can do it again.
“Looking back, I can say that joining BPC was one of the best decisions in my life. So if somebody reading this post thinks about joining CFP, I’d recommend doing it. It could be the best investment for you.”
For sure it can be Aleks. As it was for you too.
Congratulations to him for his patience and dedication! Becoming a pro poker player is no easy task, but he did! Now all the profits he makes moving forward are 100% his.
