New Jersey online poker grinder Tommy ThePimpOfPokerSchenck (pictured) was one of many US players who relocated outside of the country in order to continue playing online poker after Black Friday. He plays in New Jersey under ShankU4Chipson WSOP.comand 888 Pokerand under Pot4Jack0ffon Borgata Poker.

Schenck has over $500,000 in tracked online cashes, with his biggest coming in 2011 when he finished sixth in the UBOC $750,000 Guarantee High Roller for $40,635. He has a win in the WSOP.com $10,000 Guarantee on April 22 for $2,880 and a win in the WSOP.com $5,000 Guarantee on March 21 for $1,350. Visit PocketFives’ New Jersey poker community for the latest news and discussion from New Jersey players.

PocketFives: Tell us how you got started in poker and why it was appealing.

Tommy Schenck: While I have played poker my whole life, it didn’t become appealing until sometime in early 2006. I was working at a restaurant and had been offered a manager position. I knew instantly that I would not accept it, but it got me thinking about what I really wanted to do.

Fifteen minutes later, an employee came in late and as I started to give him shit for being late, he said something about winning $40 in a hand of poker on PokerStars as his excuse. I’m forever grateful to him for helping me see the path that I really wanted to go on.

PocketFives: What are your favorite New Jersey online poker sites to play and why?

Tommy Schenck: I love regulation of online poker in New Jersey and pray that every other state follows, but I have been playing on these exact same poker clients for years. After Black Friday, I was forced to relocate to Mexico in order to even play online poker at all. Once I got to Mexico, I was quite astonished by the lack of customer support and the software and server problems.

I think PokerStars should be allowed into the New Jersey market as soon as possible since apparently the land-based casinos are too lazy to build or hire their own software development. I don’t think we are anywhere close to performing at our potential and we are not setting the bar high enough for other states to become interested. If a company like PokerStars were allowed in, traffic would be 200% to 300% higher in New Jersey alone. I’d bet anything on it.

PocketFives: What has been your most memorable cashon the New Jersey websites?

Tommy Schenck: I won a seat to the Borgata Spring Poker Open and ended up making a deep run in it. I would like to see more satellites to live events from Borgata.

PocketFives: To what do you attribute your success playing online poker?

Tommy Schenck: Just from being a longtime student of the game, there are likely not too many people from New Jersey who have played at the level I have for as long as I have. I can count on one hand the players I know who actually relocated to another country from New Jersey after Black Friday.

That being said, anybody can learn this silly game and I encourage anybody from New Jersey reading this to reach out to me if your serious about improving. One of my favorite things to do is live grind sessions. There are so many things you can learn from just bouncing ideas off each other during a live session and it’s definitely one of the best ways to stay ahead of the curve in my opinion. Contact me here on PocketFives.

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