Among the more scrutinized transitions in poker is carrying over success from the online world into the live arena. While the game is still effectively the same, the surrounding elements are different when playing live and there are players who struggle figuring out how to reconnect all the pieces.

If there is a face that represents the young and talented crop of young players that have grown from the seed planted by New Jersey’s online poker regulation, Dan ‘redsoxnets5’ Sewnig might be it. The 25-year-old has been profiled in numerous publications as he has honed his craft in the online streets for the last few years. He may always be an online grinder at heart, but 2016 marks Sewnig’s highest grossing year playing live tournament poker.

Sewnig’s career year includes cashes in the Borgata Summer Poker Open and Parx Big Stax XVII main events but the one score that stands above the rest is his final table run in the Borgata Poker Open Six Max event. In one of the toughest fields assembled at the Borgata all year, Sewnig put together two stellar days of poker to finish fourth and notch a career-high score of over $27,000. The Six Max final table was live streamed and Sewnig exuded a cool demeanor that he says gives him an edge when playing live.

“I almost always feel calm in live tourneys and enjoy talking to the people at my tables, mainly because I like the social interaction. I really enjoy live poker and that final table was one of the more exciting experiences I’ve had yet. I thought I might feel nervous on that stage but when I sat down it was just another tournament. I didn’t really even fear making mistakes; if people disagreed with something I did then I figured I would just chalk it up to a learning experience and use it to improve.”

Sewnig has learned a lot about what it means to be a professional in his couple of years of playing for a living and realizes even if you put yourself in a position to succeed, the cards may not cooperate but there is always another day.

“You simply cannot control your results in a game like poker. Hoping to achieve a certain level of profit is a bit ridiculous; you can’t will yourself into winning a flip with seven left in the biggest MTT you play all year. But you can will yourself into making sure you play as much as possible to get yourself back into that position later on.”

There is a lot that Sewnig says he has learned in 2016, including better bankroll management skills and when to take some time away from the game. As he has started to expand his horizons in live tournaments, Sewnig has also developed a keen eye for game selection as to which formats best suit his style of play.

“I’ve played more tournaments, put myself out there and sold off a bunch to bigger, better structured events. I often play on the nitty side, which lends itself quite nicely to the championship structures of the bigger buy-in events. This year is the first time I’ve played anything bigger than a $1K and having those tournaments with 90-minute levels really allows players to go card dead for a few hours and not be in desperate shape.”

As the calendar nears the start of the new year, Sewnig says his only goals at this point are volume-based for both live and online. There are plenty of live tournament series that will be at Sewnig’s disposal in the coming months and we may soon see him step into the winner’s circle during that time.