Bob s.l. halperTaylor (pictured) out of Garwood, New Jersey has had much success in online poker before and after the launch of regulated poker in the Garden State. He has close to $200,000 in recorded cashes online. He finished in third place in the WSOP.comMini Fest Main Event $25,000 Guarantee for $2,250, won the WSOP $5,000 Guarantee for $1,452, and finished in second place in the 888 PokerBig Sunday $10,000 Guarantee for $1,800, among other scores. Visit PocketFives’ New Jersey poker community for the latest.

PocketFives: What are your favorite New Jersey online poker sitesto play and why?

Bob Taylor: I currently play most of my games on WSOP.com and 888 Poker. I like the software and structure of the tournaments on both sites. I also like Betfair and enjoyed grinding out the small guarantee tournaments on that site just after the launch.

PocketFives: What got you started playing poker? How long have you been playing?

Bob Taylor: I have been playing poker since I was very young. Growing up, poker was the social activity in my family. Saturday nights often involved my extended family members sitting around a kitchen table playing poker for fun and small profits. Poker games were always going on among my friends; poker keeps me connected to my friends even as our lives have gone in different directions.

I still play in regular games with my high school friends and our holiday party is the Festivus Invitational, an all-night poker game that is the highlight of the year. The only disappointment in my poker career is that I am not yet a Festivus champion and my friends always remind me of that fact.

My friends began playing online poker in the early 2000s. After watching their success, I started playing in December 2006 in freerolls and soon switched to real money tourneys. I won the first MTT I played on PokerStars and have been part of the online poker community ever since. I got to play regularly against the world’s most successful players in MTTs and SNGs until Black Friday sent me back full-time to my career. I am so happy to have the opportunity to play online poker again in New Jersey.

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

Bob Taylor: Once I decided I wanted to improve my game, I studied the game. I reviewed my hand histories and watched training videos. After busting out of my own games, I would pull up a top player’s tables and follow their play. I would watch JohnnyBax(pictured) and Annette_15in MTTs or Stevie444or Jorg95 in SNGs to try to understand why they were making certain plays in certain circumstances. After a while, I would try to fit some of these plays into my own game and some of them stuck.

PocketFives was a great place to develop my game. Once I gained the courage to start posting hands, I became a better player. The responses within threads would force me to focus on why I made a certain play rather than if I won or lost a hand. I love discussing poker strategy and was glad to find a community on PocketFives that felt the same way. Also, online poker is a solitary experience. It helps to have the support and competition of a community of like-minded people to get through the grind.

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