PocketFives had the opportunity to catch up with Patrick my2chisShelley (pictured, ranked #75 in New Jersey), who calls Pompton Lakes home and started playing poker around the Moneymaker Boom. Shelley qualified for the WPT Fallsview Poker Classic on PartyPoker and managed to eliminate one of the top poker pros around, Vanessa Selbst.

With over $34,000 in tracked online cashes, some of his accomplishments include a win in the WSOP.com $25,000 Sunday Major for $7,250, a win in the PartyPoker/Borgata Poker$20,000 High Roller for $8,250, and a win in the PartyPoker/Borgata Poker $10,000 for $2,365. Visit PocketFives’ New Jersey poker community for the latest news and discussion from New Jersey players.

PocketFives: How did you get started in poker originally? Why was it appealing?

Patrick Shelley: I got started right around the Moneymaker Boom in 2003. I took an extreme passion for the mental toughness required to be a good poker player as well as the mind stimulation that playing the game brings. Poker is evolving every single day; people are getting better and better every day and it’s not the same game it was years ago. That is part of the reason why I love the game so much: if you stay stagnant, you will get left behind. The constant strive to get better drives my passion.

PocketFives: Give us your thoughts and experiences of regulated online poker in New Jersey.

Patrick Shelley: I must admit that when it first came out, I was extremely happy and thought back to the days where I would grind on PokerStars for hours upon hours. I quickly came to the realization that this was not the same thing, not even close. I am used to playing bigger buy-in MTTs with nice-sized prize pools and, even until this day, all of the New Jersey sites lack this.

I have gripes with the schedule and payout structures, as I don’t think they cater to the professional and semi-professional players at all, only to recreational players. While I decided recently that I am still going to play some select online tournaments, I am going to switch to more of a live game schedule because of the prize pools and guarantees.

In New Jersey and Pennsylvania, live games have become quite appealing. On a positive note, I joined PocketFives because of the reopening of online poker in New Jersey, have met some great people, and have sprouted great friendships because of it.

PocketFives: What are your favorite New Jersey online poker sites to play on and why?

Patrick Shelley: For some reason, I really like the interface of PartyPoker more than any other site in New Jersey, but I feel like each site has its pros and cons. I hate PartyPoker’s payout structure, but like its schedule and blind structure better than the others. I like WSOP.com’s payout structure and its blind structures usually aren’t bad, but the software has major bugs that need to be fixed and there could be some schedule tuning done.

PocketFives: Since the launch of regulated online poker in New Jersey, what has been your most memorable cash or win?

Patrick Shelley: When I first started playing, I remember seeing satellites to a $5,000 buy-in WPT event at Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls on PartyPoker with $1,000 in spending cash. They were running weekly for five weeks and this was Week #3. So, I played and won the $6,000 package, played Week #4, and won as well. Week #5 came around, and I said, “Why not” and played and won that as well. In a matter of three weeks, I won my $5,000 WPT seat, $1,000 in spending money, and $12,000 in tournament dollars.

I ended up going to Canada with my wife to play the WPT event and, as I sat down, I saw someone walk in with cameras following them and people asking for autographs left and right. It was Vanessa Selbst and, of course, she sat directly next to me. It wasn’t a big deal to me, as I have watched a lot of her training videos, have seen a ton of her hand histories, and have watched several hours of her playing, so I was actually more confident against her than anyone at the table and within three hours, knocked her out with a pretty sick river call.

Winning the $25,000 Sunday Major on WSOP and the High Roller events on Borgata were cool as well.

PocketFives: To what do you attribute your current online success?

Patrick Shelley: As I said earlier, I think the game is evolving every single day and if you stay stagnant, you will get blown by. I spend a lot of time studying, reading, and going over hand histories and I think it has been key to my success as a poker player. One of the things my students ask me quite often is what should my studying time be compared to my playing time. I say about 33% of the time you spend on poker should be the studying aspect at first and then drop over time to a 15% to 20% range.

PocketFives: What’s your favorite local poker room to play live?

Patrick Shelley: I play in a local league that tours weekly closer to my house called BM&F, which I love, but as far as an actual casino poker room, it’s Borgata for sure. I have been playing there since I was 21 and have always thought of it as my “home casino.” They have come out with some great schedules and prize pools over the years that only strengthen my bias toward it.