Meet The Upswing Poker Pros
Nick Petrangelo - Lead Tournament Coach

Nick Petrangelo is the lead tournament and live cash game coach at Upswing Poker.

Nick was a top athlete at a Division III college in New York who was consumed with studying, hockey, and golf. But when he was sidelined and subsequently forced to retire from sports due to a serious concussion, Nick turned to poker to fill the void.

While in college, his roommate introduced him to well-respected poker pro Jonathan Jaffe, who mentored Nick and ignited his enduring passion for poker. After graduating in 2010 with a degree in economics and business, Nick began playing poker professionally.

You've likely seen Nick playing the biggest buy-in live tournaments in the world, but he started as and still is an online tournament beast. His results rank in the top 0.15% of all players on PokerStars 9 of the last 12 years. His online career highlights include:

• Winning the $215 Sunday Million for $209k in 2012
• Taking 2nd in a $1k SCOOP for $166,000 in 2012
• Winning the $25k WCOOP for $625k in 2017
• Taking 2nd in a $216 on Full Tilt for $70k in 2013

Making the leap to live tournaments came naturally to Nick and, as a bonus, the live grind satisfied his love for travel. He's earned nearly $27 million playing live tournaments, won two WSOP bracelets, and is currently 30th on the all-time money list.

He is a firm proponent of not psyching oneself out prior to a tournament. He says the increased selectivity -- aka bumhunting -- many pros have adopted in the era of super-high roller events sometimes makes them too cautious before taking the plunge. In other words, he says that if pros wait to see how many amateur players buy-in for super-high roller events before buying in themselves, they are subconsciously putting themselves at a mental disadvantage.

Instead, Nick says he doesn’t even think about the “what ifs” of a situation. This philosophy has, obviously, done him well.

You can learn Nick's strategies and tactics for crushing tournaments in his Road to Victory course which he made with his longtime friend and fellow top tournament pro Darren Elias.

Or, you can become a monster in live cash games with his course Smash Live Cash (ft. Brad Owen).