My name is Aaron and I live in Kansas City, MO. I’m 30 years old and I’ve been playing poker semi-seriously for about 7 years. Like many, I first caught the bug by watching the endless reruns of the 2003 WSOP on ESPN and I was introduced to a micro stakes home game from a coworker of mine. I was instantly hooked. Having the obsessive personality that I do, I immediately went out to Barnes and Noble to take a look at their selection of poker books. I ended up purchasing my first book: Ken Warren Teaches Texas Hold’em . My oh my how ignorant I was. This book is truly awful, but it was all I knew and it taught me how to play weak-tight. This, at least, kept me from massively leaking chips by playing too many hands, but I was missing out on tons of value.

So after a couple weeks of playing weaker and tighter than my home game competition and generally not winning much, my friend decided it was time for us to hit the casino. Enter the $3-$6 kill game at Ameristar KC . This was my first real experience with a casino and I had no idea what to do, but at least my buddy was at my table. About 1/2 hour into folding most hands, the table erupted. People were cheering and giving high fives. A guy across from us pulled out his cell phone and told his wife he just won $500. I was confused… I only saw a few stacks of white chips in front of him. What happened? You may have guessed…we hit the bad beat jackpot. Everyone at the table got paid $550. Instant bankroll for the poker n00b. With about $13 in profit from the $3-$6 game, I netted a cool $563 in “poker profit” my first night. There was no turning back.

I managed to use that bankroll to buy a couple more books and play a lot more $3-$6. Somewhere around the 9 month mark after reading 3-4 other poker books, I discovered 2+2 . After hours of reading posts and figuring out the terminology, I vastly improved my game. I bought many of the 2+2 titles including HEPFAP, Theory of Poker, The Psychology of Poker, Inside the Poker Mind, and Small Stakes Hold’em. I basically read everything I could get my hands on. I started playing online, losing at first, and then starting pulling down some decent wins. Variance was on my side and over the course of my first year I made about $5k from poker.

Sometime in 2005, I began dabbling in No Limit. I started at Party Poker $25NL tables, and began working my way up as well as playing live $200 buyin games. When I started this blog in Jan 06, I was playing $1/$2nl full ring with a total online/live bankroll of about 20k. Since then I’ve increased my bankroll over 25x and I’m currently playing heads up NLHE at the  5/10nl to 50/100nl levels . Since January ’06 I created this blog and really focused on making poker a real priority, I’ve experienced a lot of growth in my game. During the spring of 06 I enlisted KRANTZ’s coaching services which was instrumental in my progress as a player.

When I created this blog there were many out there absolutely killing these online games for serious money…I wanted to be one of these people. I had made a few beans, but that’s over the course of a couple years learning. My goal was to be a big winner in games such as $5/$10nl and $10/$20nl and maybe even “go pro”.

As 2006 progressed I kept coaching with KRANTZ and built up a real solid network of poker buddies to discuss hands with. We all moved up through the ranks more or less at the same time. I was still working as a Java programmer/consultant through ’06 but towards the end of the year I made a solid move up to $5/$10nl and with a 100buyin bankroll and a programming contract that was ending, I decided Jan 1, 2007 would be my first day as a professional poker player. With the support of my then-fiance Missy, I took the plunge.

2007 was an interesting year as a poker player. I grew a lot as a person and as a player. There were times where I moved up to $10/$20nl and felt good and other times where I moved back down to $2/$4nl to keep my sanity. I survived an extremely long 225,000 hand break even stretch that really tested my will as a person and a poker player, but I got through it and I’m certain I’m a better player because of it. 2007 also marked my first year of going to Vegas during the WSOP.

During the fall of 2007 I started developing an interest to teach others to play poker. With a long history of KRANTZ’s teachings and the better part of a year as a professional player myself, I joined up with then 3-bet.net (now DeucesCracked.com ) and took my first students. I really enjoy helping people bridge the gap from small stakes to medium and high stakes. It’s an awesome challenge and very rewarding to enlighten people to all the things they aren’t considering during a poker hand. The feeling I get when I tell them to make a bet or raise they wouldn’t normally have done and hearing their “Wow” reaction when the money is shipped their way is one of the best feelings in poker.

Now at the time of this writing (May 2011) I’ve coached well over 100 people from all across the globe and I’m in my 5th year as a professional poker player and coach. I’ve also been an Executive Producer for DeucesCracked.com since it’s inception January 1, 2008, where I’ve made poker videos and strategy posts. My first videos were comprised of an 8 part series on the Mathematics of NL Hold’em .  Since then, I’ve done stand alone cash game videos (6max and HU), 2 series of videos taking a micro stakes grinder into small stakes (Real Life: Micro NL Grinder 1 & 2), and 3 heads up strategy series with KRANTZ called “Pr1nnyraiding” as well as having guest coach appearances in many other videos. I’m very excited to expand my experience in poker education to video creation and open the doors to more students who want personalized poker training.

In 2010 I made some of my best videos to date.  I recommend all of my videos to perspective students and aspiring poker players, but I’d like to especially highlight “Where the Buffalo Roam” and “Showdown at Buffalo Ridge” which include 16 videos of me teaming up with fellow DeucesCracked.com coach Jared ‘jk3a’ Kenworthy where we focus on hand history reviews where we cover up the hole cards and focus completely on hand range analysis.  I also created a video series called “Pokersense: A WiltOnTilt Philosphy” that detailed many common logical pitfalls that hold poker players back and my philosophy on how to be more objective and self aware by avoiding biases, fallacies, and keeping your eyes open for mind games that can bring poker players down.

If you’d like to learn more about me and my coaching, see my Coaching Profile at DeucesCracked.com or click the Coaching link above.

So as of now I’m still planning to play, teach, and coach poker for a living. I’m playing primarily $5/$10 to $25/$50nl heads up as  my “main” games, but with slowing HU action I’ve been playing more 6max games at those stakes as well.  I’ve also taken several shots at 50/100nl HU when good spots arise.  I’d still like to gain experience playing as high as my physical and psychological bankroll can withstand in hopes to make it to the highest stakes available.  In 2011, I’ve also been focusing on adding HU and 6max PLO to my skillset, but at the time of this writing, I’m not yet comfortable to coach or make videos on PLO.

I hope you follow my journey by reading my blog and/or contacting me via email or twitter @WiltOnTilt

Updated: 5/26/2011