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Jeff ‘Jeff Boski’ Sluzinski fell in love with poker during the Moneymaker boom, beginning his poker journey online, eventually graduating to the micro stakes while pulling in $10 per hour. It was a great way for the University of Michigan student to stay home between classes and earn some extra spending cash.
Sluzinski was working towards a business degree, but failed a required calculus course three times. Soon thereafter, he made the tough decision that would change his life path, dropping out to play poker full-time.
“I would watch the pros on the WPT and at the WSOP turn $10,000 into millions,” shared Sluzinski. “I figured one day maybe I’d have a chance to do something like that, by just riding my way up through the stakes online.”
The former call-center supervisor opted to dive in head first, pulling up stakes to go head-to head against the very players he had been admiring on TV for years.
“I decided to move to Las Vegas to take my shot in 2008,” said Sluzinski. “I had been in Michigan for 25 years, so it was time for a change. I had about $10,000 to my name at that point. I packed up all my belongings, and took a leap of faith.”
Rising Through The Ranks
When he wasn’t battling online or playing in Las Vegas daily tournaments, Sluzinski was soaking up as much poker content as humanly possible. He was a subscriber to many of the top training sites and read every poker book imaginable. He was obsessed with the game for good reason.
“I was very motivated to do well since my livelihood was now on the line,” confessed Sluzinski. “I was a member of [two different training sites]. I watched YouTube videos night and day from the WPT and WSOP. I even won a seat in the WSOP main event, back when you started with 10,000 in chips. I was knocked out by Chris Ferguson. That’s right. Jesus took me out.”
It wasn’t too hard for Sluzinski to keep up with the volume that some of the top players, such as Chris Moorman and Shaun Deeb were putting in online. It was never an issue, mainly because he loved the game so much.
“I remember seeing how many MTTs Moorman was playing back in the day. I was like, holy crap. That’s crazy. But at that time, the best grinders were incentivized by tournament leaderboards, bonuses, etc. When I was back in Michigan, my friends were worried that I had a problem, maybe I’m playing too much. But then I realized, it’s only a problem if you’re losing. But if you’re winning, it’s a solution. It was my only source of income, my job. And it was fun.”
While living in Las Vegas, Boski was offered an online backing deal so he could slowly take his growing skillset and move up in stakes.
“I got backed by a big stable in 2008. They started me off with maximum of $33 buy-ins. The more success I had the more they trusted me. I moved up to $50, $109, and $215 buy-in events. I killed it. I just ran super-hot and played well. I made probably about $400,000 in 2008 and 2009.”
It was after those few years of success that he cut ties with the backers and went out on his own. He had built up enough of a bankroll to sustain the ongoing buy-ins, both live and online. The biggest learning curve was going from a full-time online crusher to dabbling in the local live events and a few on the circuit.
“The main difference between online and live was that I had to develop more patience,” he admitted. “You see so many fewer hands. It’s just so tedious to drive to the casino, register, and get to your table. You have to adjust to all of that and still not get tilted by your opponents, such as stupid people smoking cigarettes in your face, etc. Basically, I learned to be acutely aware of my surroundings and just made the best of it.”
Americas Cardroom’s First Team Pro
Thanks to his growing profile as a poker content creator, Sluzinski was the first ambassador that Americas Cardroom brought into the company to promote the site. He’s very proud of the fact that he’s the OG Team Pro at one of the most popular poker sites in the world.
“ACR has a great selection of tournaments with good structures for an MTT player. They also listen to the Team Pros and feedback from players. With that information, they’ve made a ton of improvements over the last five years. The most important improvements from my perspective as a tournament player are the interface, the smoothness of the software, and the customizable tables. But most importantly, the tournament selection.”
The site has continued to add to the team, which now consists of Chris Moneymaker, Chris Moorman, Ana Marquez, Jose Ignacio “Nacho” Barbero, Katie Lindsay, Jon Van Fleet, Monica Zukowicz, Michael Loncar, Rob Kuhn, Ryan Depaulo, John Pardy, Drew Gonzalez, and Ebony Kennedy.
The impressive lineup of ACR Team Pros is notable because Sluzinksi ended up as one of three on the team to take down a recent challenge from ACR CEO, Phil Nagy.
“Phil had a meeting with all of us a few months ago. He said he wanted us to go out there and make a bigger name for ourselves. He decided to give away a $100,000 package plus first-class travel and accommodations to two of the ACR Team Pros to the Triton High-Roller Series that just went down in Vietnam.”
To determine the winners of the challenge, Nagy created a point system that included a series of MTTs and heads-up matches on ACR and an evaluation of their total social media engagements across all platforms. It was no surprise that Sluzinski came out on top of the field by far in all social media interactions. Sluzinski’s social channels are engaging and fun to watch, with more than 50,000 subscribers and over 15 million views on YouTube (Jeff Boski Poker).
“I wanted to show the mentality and amount of work it takes to be a successful tournament pro. I also wanted to share what it’s really like to play live daily events in Vegas. The reality of disappointment after disappointment, brick after brick. You’re going to see the good and the bad of every tournament I play. The bad endings are going to be more common than the good. That can really suck, because people like happy endings. But I invite everyone to tune in if you want to see a real poker TV reality show.”
Nagy eventually added a third package to the challenge, giving Sluzinski and ACR Team Pros Monica Zukowicz and Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet a trip to Vietnam to compete against some of the best high rollers in the game.
Boski Scores Big In Vietnam
Believe it or not, the long trip from Vegas to Vietnam was Sluzinski’s first time traveling overseas. Once arriving he would be competing against some of the best players in the world for huge paydays, including the likes of Jason Koon, Mikita Badziakouski, Justin Bonomo, Fedor Holz, and Ike Haxton.
Sluzinski had many of these tournament crushers seated to his right and left at every event, but never felt intimidated or out of place despite the buy-ins and new venue.
“I understood how they would perceive me. I based much of my approach to the events upon that assumption. I knew they would probably see me as a weaker player, you know, the ACR qualifier. They would assume that I’m going to play tight and scared. So, I did just the opposite.”
The no-fear approach paid off in the $25,000 no-limit hold’em turbo event of the series. He finished in seventh place and cashed for $121,000. Overall, he was very happy with this performance throughout the series, especially one hand he played against the red-hot Ike Haxton.
“I was sitting on about 16 big blinds on the button holding pocket tens when Haxton (the table chip leader) shoved all in from the cutoff. There were 16 players left, and 15 got paid. I could have folded to pretty much be assured of a minimum cash for $44,000. But I ended up using seven of my nine time extensions before making the call.”
It was a scary spot for the long-time pro. If he had been knocked out, he would have bricked all of the events and finished the trip empty-handed. Sluzinski would eventually tweet about the hand to get some feedback from the poker community. It ended up one of the most popular and engaging tweets he’d ever posted, with almost 400,000 views.
“He’s got me covered,” shared Boski. “If I call and lose, I get zero, right? Or if I call and win, I double up. The ACR video team actually caught me in the moment of racking my brain figuring out what to do. Luckily, I dodged his K-Q to get the much-needed double.”
HAND OF THE YEAR
$25,000 USD Triton 8 Max Turbo
104 entries
16 remain
15 get paid
$44,200 min cash
$670,000
60k BB @ikepoker is table chip leader and open shoves (2.4M) cutoffI am button (960k) with TT
All in or fold? pic.twitter.com/eXKLxA7ZUN
— Jeff Boski (@ICuRaRook) March 12, 2023
Sluzinski said that the overall trip was one of the best experiences he’s ever had. He felt right at home amongst the best in the world and looks forward to more events in the future.
“I had envisioned the top high-stakes pros, kind of interrogating me, pumping me for info [about how or why I was there]. But they didn’t do anything of the sort. They were very courteous and never said anything intrusive to me. It was a very professional and respectful environment.”
No Remorse, No Regrets
Sluzinski has no regrets about the life path he’s chosen for the last 20 years. He’s ridden the waves of variance more than once and withstood the test of time in an industry where many players crash and burn or simply fade into the background. He’s been a consummate professional, both live and online, and his earnings reveal the proof. Sluzinski has cashed for over $10 million online and has more than $1 million in live cashes.
But at the moment, he is entirely focused on the next challenge that ACR CEO Phil Nagy has thrown at the Team Pros, this time with a trip to Cyprus on the line.
“I’m motivated to come out on top for the next ACR Team Pro challenge. It’s for a trip to Cyprus for the next Triton series in May and also comes with six figures worth of buy-ins. I’m looking forward to winning a chance to compete for a seven-figure score, effectively for free. That’s exciting.”
You can follow Sluzinski on Twitter @ICuRaRook to get updates on the challenge and play with him at Americas Cardroom. You can also find him on Twitch, YouTube, and Instagram @jeffboski.
*Some photos courtesy of World Poker Tour and Triton Poker credit to Joe Giron.
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