PocketFives had the opportunity to catch up with Jermz(pictured, ranked # 7 in New Jersey), who started playing poker around the fourth grade with his older brother in home games. When not playing poker, he spends time adding content to his blog. With close to $100,000 in recorded online cashes, his accomplishments include two wins in the WSOP.com $25,000 Guarantee Sunday Major for over $7,000 each and a win in the PartyPoker/Borgata Poker Garden State Super Series $20,000 Guaranteed PLO Six-Max for $3,650.

Visit PocketFives’ New Jersey poker community for the latest news and discussion from New Jersey players.

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

Jermz: Regulated online poker in New Jersey has been amazing and terrible at the same time. It’s way better than playing on the unregulated sites after Black Friday. The action on the tables has been pretty solid. It is pretty loose and it’s often pretty fun to be playing.

The reason I say it’s terrible at the same time is because the sites are either clueless or putting forth partial effort. There is so much room for things to improve and grow, but the proper actions just aren’t taken. It makes things pretty frustrating, especially lately with good MTTs being cut away and not being replaced.

The promos the sites are running are misguided or are run pretty poorly, not to mention that MTT players get the shaft in the promo department, as there are no promos run for MTTs. Do the sites really expect growth when they don’t even try to get people to play? Every week there are leaderboards for sit and gos and very often there are cash game leaderboards, but what about us MTT grinders?

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

Jermz: This is a pretty hard question, but I would have to say 888. It might be surprising, but that’s the site where I’ve made the most money this year. Also, I really like the diversity in their MTT schedule. If they can get their guarantees higher, I think they could become the premier MTT site in New Jersey. However, their cash game action is pretty slow right now and it seems to be in a decline for a while.

I have to mention that I am extremely disappointed in WSOP. For a site whose brand throws the biggest tournament series every summer in Las Vegas, they should feel embarrassed about having the worst daily tournament schedule. I am down to playing one tournament a night on there and they continually refuse to improve things.

A couple of months ago, they cut my favorite small buy-in tournament from their schedule, the $1,500 Bounty, and last month they increased the nightly $10,000 buy-in. I now spend on average $7 more per night. This change came out of nowhere. There was no warning and no reason behind it. They should treat their regulars better than that.

PocketFives: How many hours do you dedicate to poker a week?

Jermz: I play roughly 35 to 40 hours a week. On top of that, I’ve been studying more lately. Also, I do a bunch of other random poker-related activities like blogging, making poker videos, checking out new promos, and boo- keeping. It’s a lot of computer time.

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

Jermz: I started playing poker in fourth grade. My older brother would play with his friends all the time and eventually I started joining in. It was always random home games and I don’t think we ever played No Limit Hold’em. Instead, there were games like Acey Duecey, 7-27, Midnight Baseball, Five Card Draw, and many others. It appealed to me because it was exciting. You played games for money. Gambling is awesome. Also, poker involves a ton of strategy and I’ve always loved strategy games.

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

Jermz: Determination and support from friends and family. You’re going to fail and get kicked around a lot in poker, but you have to take your beatings. Use it to motivate yourself to learn even more about the game.

Also, get your friends and family behind you. I only have one friend who truly has a deep understanding of poker and he has been a giant help with me becoming a winning player. All of my other friends and family might not understand the game at the level I do, but their support helps so much.