Justin ‘Boosted J’ Smith

The story of top poker pro Justin Smith is a true rags to riches story.

Justin was born January 8^th, 1988, in Connecticut but grew up in Florida. His life changing moment was at age 17 when he was involved in a motorcycle accident which left him confined to a wheelchair with a badly broken ankle. This forced Justin to quit his job in a grocery store, and with no income.

It was a friend of Justin’s who introduced him to poker, boasting that he was a successful mid-stakes LHE player. The thought of earning money playing poker from the convenience of his home fascinated Justin and he deposited $50 on PokerStars and started playing the lowest stake limit games ($0.01/$0.02). His $50 deposit quickly grew into a reasonable bankroll and he was able to move into his own apartment and pay the bills by grinding $2/$4 Limit-Hold’em games earning around $1000 per month. Despite wanting to move up in stakes, he couldn’t because he was withdrawing his winnings monthly to cover the bills.

However, when Justin switched to No-Limit Hold’em cash games his bankroll quickly ballooned and he found himself playing $10/$20 games, even moving up to the $25/$50 games when they were introduced at Full Tilt Poker. At this point he decided to learn other games such as Omaha, Stud etc due to Full Tilt having so much game variety. It was at this point which Justin decided he would play full-time, and he soon found himself playing stakes as high as $200/$400. Despite so much success in cash games, Justin decided to enter the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS III) in 2007, and found himself earning the accolade ‘FTOPS Player of the Series’ and he had the whole poker community talking about him and watching him play.

In August 2007, Justin married his girlfriend Anita and they set off on honeymoon to Europe. Their honeymoon became an extended holiday with Justin stopping at various European Poker Tour events to compete, however he didn’t cash in any of them. In 2008, Justin cashed in two WSOPE events (14^th in the £5,000 PLO event, and 16^th in the £10,000 Main Event).

Justin continued dominating tournaments both online and offline, and at the 2009 WSOP he cashed five times in five different poker disciplines (Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em, Stud 8 or better, Pot-Limit Omaha, Limit 2-7 Draw, and No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw). Despite cashing five times, Justin didn’t enter as many tournaments as other pros. Instead he opted to play in the cash games at Bobby’s Room against some of the richest players in the world, and reportedly left with a healthy profit. On his way home from the WSOP he decided to play one more tournament, the $15,000 buy-in WPT Bellagio Cup V, and what a good decision that was. The final table was televised and Justin busted in 3^rd place for a whopping $464,870.

You can find Justin playing at Full Tilt Poker where you will receive a 100% up to $600 bonus using bonus code PSR100. You can also get 27% Full Tilt Poker rakeback and have your own rakeback poker account.