Meet The Upswing Poker Pros
James McConnon - JASON.MAC100
Whilst working as a poker dealer at University and seeing many dubious hands, I always knew that it could be something worthwhile pursuing.
After depositing $55 for a tournament on Stars and somehow winning it for around $5k, I decided to start battling my good friend Daniel "danmerrr" Merrilees in the 200nl Zoom heads-up streets back in 2015, which I quickly learned was not a wise idea. After harassing him with questions about hands and strategy he decided to take me under his wing, and this is where my poker career started.
After grinding mainly 200-500nl for 18 months or so, I was fortunate enough to go to Vegas during WSOP time. I was still pretty broke due to mediocre results online and was hoping for some run good in the live streets.
After a successful grind in the 5/10 live games, it was time for the Main Event. I was like a kid at Christmas and couldn’t wait to get seated. I managed to make it to day 6, where there was some controversy about me taking some charts or “cheat sheets” to the feature table. I busted in the first hand of day 6 for around $80k and, after getting over the disappointment of busting and seeing that I had a very successful summer all things considered, I was eager to get back and work harder than ever on my game.
With university about to be over I had to decide which path to go down and, to be honest, it was a no brainer. Once I had fully decided poker was what I was going to dedicate all my time to and started to take everything a whole lot more seriously my game improved dramatically.
After another successful summer in Vegas and a second place finish in the 10k WSOP HU event I decided to concentrate a lot more on my 6-max game. Heads-up action wasn’t so good and I felt, for the longevity of my career, becoming a much better 6-max player was paramount.
I’m now playing the highest stakes 6-max games online ranging from $5/$10 to $100/$200 across a few different sites. I also still occasionally battle in the high stakes heads-up streets when the action is good.
Jason's PokerStars graph from January 2018 to present
The reason I decided to take up the role as a coach in the Upswing Lab was to challenge myself in a new area and give some knowledge that I’ve gained back to the poker community. I look forward to the exciting future here at upswing and hope we can all learn some new things!
