How I started my poker career
Road to 500s – a poker blog about reaching the highest limits. We give you the story of Aurimas, one of our best high stakes Spin & Go format poker pros.
Mar 15, 2020. “Hello, I am Aurimas, better known as “Pulsas” in the virtual world. I am 22 years old. Currently, I am playing 25-euro limit spin & go tournaments, and so far, in the past few months, I have played 2770 spins with 70 chip EV. My current goal is to reach the 50-euro limit, which requires either 70 chip EV and 7,500 games, or 75 chip EV and 6,000 games, or 80 chip EV and 4,500 games.”
As we can see, back in 2020 Aurimas already had set out goals, that even today some of us struggle to wrap our minds around. He was already playing 25-euro games but most importantly had the hunger for more.
A brief story about how the journey started. Since childhood, Aurimas was talented in activities that require logical thinking. In 9th grade, he managed to achieve 3rd place in the Lithuanian Mathematics Olympiad, and in the 12th grade, he ranked second in the Kaunas City Programming Olympiad. He has also been in the top 50 of the “Kengūra” contest (one of the most popular mathematics competitions in Lithuania) four times (#9, #13, #26, #48). He’s won first place in the “Eruditus” logic thinking competition and has placed in prize-winning positions multiple times in the popular computer science/mathematics contest “Bebras” After finishing school, Aurimas decided to pursue programming because it seemed like the most promising field at the time. In 2017, he got admitted to a free programming program at Kaunas University of Technology, but after working as an intern in a company, he realized that working as a programmer for the rest of his life was not something he enjoyed.
During his second year of programming, Aurimas had a very high rating in the popular competitive strategy game “League of Legends.” He was ranked #72 in Europe among millions of players and received an offer to play in France for 2,000 euros per month as part of the “Gamers Origin” team. He decided to take advantage of that offer and in the winter of 2018, he quit his studies and flew to Paris to professionally play his favorite game. He really liked Paris; the whole team lived together in a house called the “Gaming House,” and we had our own maid, masseur, and psychologist. He had a strict schedule which consisted of playing around 12 hours a day for 6 days a week, spending 1 hour on sports and 1 hour on eating meals. He had about 2 hours of free time each day. Once a week, together with his team he would go to the city center, often visiting nightclubs.
At that time Aurimas managed to defeat all the teams in France, came first in the French league, and qualified for the European Championship. He reminisces about his time in the esports field: “In the spring of 2018, we achieved 3rd-4th place in the European Championship and won a prize of 12,500 euros. It was a significant accomplishment, but it didn’t satisfy our multi-millionaire CEO, who wanted us to win everything. He decided to change the team’s composition and buy more expensive players. Ironically, the team that achieved that 3rd-4th place in Europe has been unable to repeat or improve that result so far. After Gamers Origin, I received many offers to play “League of Legends,” but they were all worse than what I had. So, I chose the best one and played “League of Legends” from home for 1,000 euros per month.”
In November 2018, with nothing else to do, Aurimas decided to try his skills at poker. He had very minimal experience in poker, practically only knowing the rules. However, a friend named Karolis, who was studying at a poker school at that time, taught him the basics of Spin and Go and showed him how ranges work. After learning a little bit from another friend, “Pulsas” was given a software program called „PokerTracker”, downloaded the stats from Karolis to track his chip EV, and started playing 1-euro tournaments. He was amazed at how easy it was to win 1-euro tournaments knowing just the basics. At that time, curiosity settled in about how much professional poker players earn, and upon finding out the numbers, he realized that making money from poker is much easier than playing “League of Legends” for a living. In “League of Legends,” one had to compete against the best players in the world every day. “As for poker – all that had to be done was to win against recreational French players who only play for gambling and entertainment purposes at the same time managing equal competition with other professionals.” – says Aurimas.
Therefore, in December 2018, he decided to become a professional poker player. At first, he planned to climb the limits on his own, but after a month of being stuck in the 5-euro limit, he realized that moving up to the highest stakes without proper knowledge and lessons was close to imposible. In January 2019, he joined our Spin & Go school.
In about 9 months, Aurimas moved up to the 25-euro stakes. In November 2019, he was promoted and became a Junior Coach. However, at that point in time Aurimas admitted that not everything was going perfectly: “I slacked off a bit and didn’t grind much, so I’m still at the 25-euro limit, but now I’m getting back on track and will try to aim for the 50 euro limit. I’m writing this blog post as a motivation for myself to dedicate more time to grinding and not be embarrassed by my low volume. So far, that’s it, and I’m planning to update this blog approximately every week.” We are glad he did not give up on this plan after all.
Where I am in poker now
Aurimas has embarked on a beautiful but immensely difficult journey to crush 250s and 500s games. At this point in time is battling it out with players at the highest stakes spin and go tournaments. And even though 2023 started off on a bumpy road, with new structural changes at the Winamax poker room introduced and new field tendencies appearing, he is determined to triumph: “However, I promise from this day onwards to put in more effort to improve, evolve, and adapt to the new field tendencies, so I can regain my ability to crush high stakes once again ⚔️.” In the field of high stakes online poker, the edge of skill over other players can be incredibly small and every wrong decision or action greatly impacts the results. Aurimas has proven time and time again that with hard work and care, success at the poker tables can be achievable. You must be determined and focused to improve. One thing is for sure – his alias on Pokerstars reflects his mindset.
Sharing how I did it
As the days went by, the poker prodigy kept on his promise to share results of his journey. His first blog update appears to be about the positives of everybody staying in-doors at the time. He shares a graph with results that were quite impressive.
