Meet The Upswing Poker Pros
Nick Petrangelo -"caecilius"

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 Winning Poker Tournaments course.

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