Since New Jersey first welcomed fully regulated online poker to its borders in November 2013, the player pool has produced prominent talents who have seen their tournament earnings grow over the years.

Fred ‘BiggDaddy’ Ferrell has made a new career out of playing online poker in the Garden State and is in the midst of climbing the New Jersey Rankings and sits second only to Jeremy ‘Jermz’ Danger.

Only a month after online poker became available in New Jersey, Ferrell left his job in a glass-manufacturing warehouse to pursue online poker full-time. Ferrell says he achieved a few quality results that gave him the initial inclination to leave his job and noted that if poker didn’t work out, he felt comfortable being able to find other work if he needed to.

“I made good money (at the warehouse) but definitely prefer this luxury,” Ferrell said about his career change.

Safe to say, with over $550,000 in earnings to his name, Ferrell will not be looking for alternative employment anytime soon.

It takes a lot of confidence and an innate talent to make great decisions in a short time span to leave a job to pursue a full-time poker career, and it is exactly those skills that separate Ferrell from his competitors.

When asked what sets him apart from his opponents he is constantly battling against, Ferrell credits his sharp memory and multitasking capability that gives him an edge. Using his 50-inch monitor, Ferrell says he can play “30 tables on autopilot as good as someone who is playing nine tables.”

Ferrell says that quick wit and a sharp rapid-fire decision making process are what allow him to make great decisions late in tournaments when he is solely focusing on one or two tables as a result of not succumbing to cognitive burnout. Someone who has that many tables running at once might use a HUD (Heads Up Display) to track a player’s tendencies to help make those fast decisions but Ferrell claims he doesn’t use one.

“I don’t really see a need for it since I have a pretty good idea of what people are going to do anyway,” Ferrell said.

The competency to ratchet up the focus when it matters most that Ferrell speaks of is backed up on a few occasions with the highlight coming when Ferrell notched two of the largest scores of his career over the course of a single day on WSOP.com in August. Ferrell took home the bronze medal in the “Big Deal” for about $4,900 and then eclipsed that finish with a runner-up effort in the “Ultimate Warrior” for nearly $8,500 more.

The ability to move from one task to the next that Ferrell demonstrates allows for him to shake off and absorb the inevitable bad beats and downswings that come with tournament poker. According to Ferrell, “the beats are going to come, [but] eventually the variance is going to work in your favor.”

As the end of the year nears, the race for number one on the New Jersey leaderboard is competitive but Ferrell isn’t setting any long-term goals for himself just yet. Despite having a prop bet with Daniel ‘Centerfieldr’ Lupo (currently ranked number three in New Jersey) over who finishes the year higher on the rankings list, Ferrell is more focused on his daily goal of netting at least $300 a day and being able to provide for his three daughters.

Despite having a few quality results in live tournaments including a recent cash in September’s Borgata Poker Open WPT Championship, Ferrell doesn’t plan to participate in many more live events before in the near future noting they are “too time consuming.” Ferrell has already qualified for the PokerStars Festival New Jersey Main Event to be held at Resorts in November but says that will likely be the last live event he plays for the rest of this year.

With the Borgata Garden State Super Series and the PokerStars NJCOOP currently in full swing, expect to see Ferrell mixing it up in as many events as possible.

As Ferrell puts it, “I’m going to grind everyday and crush souls.”