He says that playing poker full time would be a dream “if financially viable”, but enjoys his day job too and is happy to progress with that.

His skills have earned him a fourth-place finish in the mini Sunday Million for around $4,000, plus a couple of $2K pick-ups in local poker rooms. But he is committed still to learning more about poker, studying GTO approaches (if only to find deviations), and switching between bounty and regular tournaments, as well as satellites to enter larger events. Poker remains a hobby while Neate continues his career in the logistics team of a major beer importer. This year is the first year I have been tracking my progress and trying to play regularly and profiting.” “Since then I’ve been playing more and more and increasing my knowledge via YouTube, some poker courses and 1 coaching session. “Through speaking to him he opened my eyes to poker terminology, ranges, variance etc and I was on my journey to learn more,” Neate says. The pair continued to develop their skills together.

I won the seat into a $700 comp and min cashed it for $1400. “That night I logged back onto PokerStars not knowing the software and entered a $5 satellite thinking it was a $5 tournament. On returning to the UK, a friend at work re-introduced him to poker and got him thinking about the game again. “That was a lot at the time for a traveler,” he says, adding, “Carrying around most of my net worth in cash isn’t ideal!”

The experience stood him in good stead when he hit the backpacker trail after graduation, and he returned to the cash tables while in Sydney, Australia, building a bank-roll of around $1,500. “I used to regularly play a 25/50p cash game at the local casino with little experience and knowledge, but managed to earn a little extra money,” Neate says. Lee Neate, 32 – Ashford, Middlesex, UKĪfter learning the game from his family, and playing freerolls on PokerStars in his earliest poker-playing days, Lee Neate then really found an affinity for poker at university in Bristol. Here, we meet some of the EPT Prague qualifiers, including a Brit playing the biggest tournament of his career, and two Eastern European pros with solid online results ready to make a name for themselves in the live arena. As always, the field will be boosted by a number of players who have won online satellites and who will be joining the Main Event field for a fraction of the advertised buy-in. The European Poker Tour (EPT) heads to Prague this month for its annual pre-Christmas shindig in the Czech Republic.

Online poker staking for cash games