Jeff Gross Poker
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Jeff Gross has proved himself as a poker player over many years in live tournaments, cash games, and on the high roller circuit. Recently, he became part of partypoker’s Team Online roster. But from childhood to college, Jeff Gross had very different ambitions than playing poker for a living. Who was Jeff Gross... Before the Game?
Jeff Gross Bio Started playing poker when when a friend brought a plastic poker chip set to our soccer team camp at the University of Michigan. Here in between training sessions we would play $5 tournaments or.25/.50 buy in cash games. I loved this instantly.
“I played soccer since I was four years old,” says Gross, looking back at his formative memories, “It was one of those games that everyone played where they were young.”
Gross grew up in Ann Arbor, one of Michigan’s busier towns. It was a place where little league soccer was very popular, he could always find a competitive soccer game to play in. When Gross was eight years old, something happened that had never taken place in the history of soccer ever before. The FIFA World Cup came to America.
'My Dad said 'It’s not about what happens, it’s about how you react to what happens.'
“I was eight years old and I went to games in Detroit at the Silverdome. I saw Sweden vs Russia [which finished 3-1 to Sweden]. That was the one I remember - it was very cool to go to a World Cup game right in my back yard.”
Being one of 71,528 in a Silverdome crowd watching a Swedish team packed with superstars such as Henrik Larsson, Tomas Brolin, and Martin Dahlin, the young Gross was inspired.
“I was just getting into the game seriously and it definitely helped to see it first-hand.”
Advice for football turned out to be highly applicable to poker, as Gross would later discover. Most of the advice he took came from his father.
“The strategy behind soccer and the gaming aspect definitely [apply]; having to deal with mental ups and downs and the competitive nature... and being balanced.
“I’m an only child. My Dad, in particular, said ‘It’s not about what happens, it’s about how you react to what happens.’”
Gross stuck with soccer and found it the perfect environment in which to test his mental and physical skills. Gross, a midfield maestro, made the team tick in the ‘quarterback’ role.
'For a while, I expected to turn professional. I was captain of my teams all the way through.'
“For a while, I expected to turn professional. I was captain of my teams all the way through. I was a point man, more of a skill player.”
Having excelled in his local team, he became captain of Michigan Wolves, and would win a state championship with Gross central to the team’s success.
“We had a strong programme, we were one of the elite academies. I saw a couple of guys who were two or three years older who were doing really well in MLS. I thought that could be cool.”
Gross loved playing and traveling with the team who were ranked number four in the country. The competition was everything to him, and he loved the feeling of winning.
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“I stuck with it, went to college and got to Division One. I got to team up with really good individuals from the whole state.”
Gross was flying. But he was about to crash land. When he arrived at college, his dreams of soccer stardom didn’t match up with some of the realities attached. But by then, he had a bigger problem: his coach.
“My coach and I didn’t really get along. It was South Carolina, very Bible Belt and we just didn’t mesh well. I started to realize the financial implications of playing professionally, even if I could get to MLS.”
Having longed to push himself to a professional standard, Gross discovered he might not carry on down the linear path he had been on since the day he first kicked a ball. He also discovered something else: poker.
'when I worked out you could win money playing a game, it was a blast.'
“I’d found my new passion of poker. Going to college, I really thought there’d be a chance of playing soccer professionally until that sophomore year when it became a little less fun. It wasn’t feasible or physically realistic for me to go pro.”
Gross picked up poker over a plastic chipset. It was the summer of 2003, and in Las Vegas, Nevada, a certain Chris Moneymaker was about to change the future of the game.
“It was right around the Moneymaker World Series on ESPN. I always loved board games and video games and when I worked out you could win money playing a game, it was a blast.”
From learning the game, Gross moved pretty fast. There were $30 tournaments at his house with friends, 20 players sitting down to play. Cash games at the house started with blinds of $0.25/$0.50.
“I went to some University games and did well, it was a unique experience and a lot of fun. This was before I knew position or starting hands, any of the technical stuff, but really, no-one did. It was the very beginning.”
It was only the beginning for Jeff Gross, too. Both in poker and life, he was about to climb the ranks. Poker was going to be his future, and he was about to meet a person who would change his life...
Find out who in Before the Game: Jeff Gross (Part Two).
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Jeff Gross
Jeff Gross is a 24-year-old poker pro with a lot going for him. Before Black Friday, he was a successful online tournament grinder playing under the name “kidwhowon.” Post Black Friday, he’s a budding live tournament star with 14-time Olympic gold medal winner Michael Phelps in his corner.
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The two are friends and roommates, and both are masters of their particular craft. So far, with two World Series of Poker final tables and over $1,000,000 in winnings on his poker resume, Gross is proving that he can excel at the tables.
Gross recently returned from a trip to China where he spent his time rooting for Phelps in the World Championships in Shanghai and fellow pro McLean Karr in the APKT High Roller Event in Macau.
Gross has also appeared in a music video for Steve Aoki and Afrojack for the song, No Beef. In the video, Gross is playing a sit-n-go with fellow pros Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, Dan Fleyshman and the Mizrachi brothers.
Card Player recently caught up with Gross to discuss his recent live tournament success and what it is like sharing a home with in Baltimore, Maryland with Phelps, the most decorated Olympian ever.
Card Player: When did you first begin to play poker?
Jeff Gross: I started playing poker when I was 15 years old in high school during our team’s soccer camp. It was right around the Moneymaker boom and one my teammates had seen it and brought out some of those old plastic poker chips. We were playing for loose change, but I always did pretty well. I was able to get a $50 transfer from a friend on PartyPoker and then started to run that up.
I kept playing while I was in college at the University of South Carolina. I was there on a scholarship to play soccer, so I had very little free time to work. Poker filled that void pretty easily, since I could grind cash games for an hour or so at a time, here and there around my schedule.
I wound up graduating with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and management with a minor in entrepreneurship, but because of my lifestyle at the time, I really wasn’t up for getting a real job right away. I decided that I would try and play poker professionally, knowing that I always had a degree to fall back on if things got rough.
CP: How did you meet your roommate, Michael Phelps?
JG: He was going to school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where I’m from and we found that we had very similar interests. We were both athletes, we both loved video games and we both loved to play poker, even if it was just for fun, so it was a no brainer when he asked me to be his roommate. He wound up buying a place in Baltimore so that he could train in his hometown and be near his family. Since I didn’t really have any location requirements for my profession, I moved in with him.
CP: Phelps made the final table of a Caesars Palace Classic event. How would you assess his poker game?
JG: Mike is easily one of the best celebrity poker players around. Overall, I’d say he treats the game seriously and loves the competition, but it’s just a hobby. Once he finishes up his career at the 2012 Olympics in London, I think you’ll be seeing him competing more in live tournaments.
CP: How do you guys push each other in your respective careers?
JG: Mike is one of the competitive people I have ever met. Actually, he’s the most competitive person I have ever met and he knows how to achieve his goals. That is something that I have really learned from him over the years, having that drive to get the job done. Whether it’s playing FIFA on Xbox, playing words with friends, on the golf course or a friendly game of Rummy, we are always trying to win and figure out what strategy works best to beat each other.'
CP: Most of the major competitions in swimming take place during the summer, so Phelps can’t participate at the WSOP, but you can.
JG: Definitely. I’ve been in Las Vegas full time for the WSOP each summer for the last three years. I made two final tables in the last two years, but Mike couldn’t come out and support me because he was busy training. By backing me in these events, he at least gets a nice sweat with the updates I send each day. I guess it’s his way of getting some action without actually having to play.
CP: Can you talk about those two final table appearances and your experiences at each?
JG: In 2010, I made the final table of a $1,000 event. They were pretty much crap-shoots early on, but I somehow found a way to get deep without any chips whatsoever. My stack didn’t really allow for much other than survival. This year, it was a $5,000 shootout event, so I was able to start the final table on even ground. Luckily for me, two very close friends of mine, Matt Seidman and David Silverman offered me some great sit-n-go strategy beforehand. Dave and I were actually the last two at our round 1 table and played heads-up to advance. I wound up finishing second on a bit of a bad beat when my A-J lost to K-10, but I ran well throughout the entire tournament and can’t complain about that.
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CP: What’s next for you now that online poker has been shut down in the United States?
JG: Post Black Friday, my poker playing has gone down considerably. I wasn’t playing a ton of live events before, but now that’s pretty much all I can do, other than a few live cash game sessions every once in a while.
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I’m currently working on a documentary that will chronicle Mike’s last year as a professional swimmer and I’m hoping that turns into something pretty cool, but I’m not sure yet. I’m pretty happy playing cards at the moment, but I’m definitely keeping my eyes open for a big picture idea. Feel free to follow me on twitter @Jgross5.