Steve Madara captured his first major live title in September following years of dedication to his craft.

At the tender age of 24, Steve ‘7douche’ Madara has endured a lifetime of accomplishment and hardship from poker. Only three months ago, Madara won the Almighty Stack event at the Borgata Poker Open for a $169,000 score that despite Madara’s young age, was years in the making.

For as long as he can remember, Madara has been surrounded by the world of gambling. Madara accompanied his family on trips to Atlantic City and says he always felt like he would eventually work or do something similar in a casino. Prior to becoming a teenager, Madara witnessed Chris Moneymaker winning the World Series of Poker Main Event on television and his interest in the game only grew.

Madara himself admits he made the firm decision to make poker his current full-time career path at the worst possible time but has found success despite the adversity he has faced.

“My main issue was that I couldn’t even put in the work, since online wasn’t an option and I was only 20-years-old with a [limited] net worth,” said Madara.

Madara says he ran up $500 to $7,500 on Lock Poker, only to have the website shut down and his funds incinerated along with it. From there, Madara rebuilt his bankroll by taking on landscaping jobs and playing in small home games. In one of these home games, Madara noticed a player winning at what he thought was an unsustainable rate. As it turns out, the player in question was cheating but Madara says the drive to win in this game made him work harder than ever to become better.

“I’ve always [been] naturally lazy so there’s a good chance that losing [during] that summer made me study more than if I was winning,” said Madara.

Upon turning 21, Madara received backing and coaching to play online, after the completion of two years of college, in order to pursue poker on a more serious basis. During that time, Madara claims to have been deceived by his backer at the time for a few tournament buy-ins that were never fully reimbursed. Deciding that was the breaking point, Madara deposited $1,000 online on New Jersey sites and built his own bankroll. A few months later, Madara hit his first major five-figure online score and hasn’t looked back on his way to over $300,000 in career online earnings.

Madara has remained a consistent face among the New Jersey online player pool since starting play in the state with the many lessons he has learned over the years culminating in his September victory.

While still in the relatively early stages of his poker career, Madara already has plans laid out to grow the game and bring more newcomers in. He is set to launch the website, PokerOnSlot, within the next few months with the intention of the site being to “grow the game of poker to its full potential.”

“It’s absurd to me how many people you see go to casinos but rarely will ever step into the poker room. My vision is to change the games in the poker room to bring more gamblers over to our tables. Live poker has gotten far too boring and slow for anyone to find it interesting anymore.”

In order to promote his new venture, Madara says he will begin streaming on YouTube and Twitch at the start of the new year.

Madara has learned plenty about the game of poker in his time as a professional and how to navigate the sometimes seedy nature that lies on the underbelly of it. With his unique perspective, Madara’s ambition to expand the game makes him an intriguing figure to keep an eye on as 2017 arrives.