Interview With Justin Smith, aka “Boosted J”

May 10, 2007

Justin Smith talks about online poker, tv donkaments, donating to charity, and players getting “booosted.”

Photo courtesy boostedj.com.

Let me say, when I first heard of this guy, Boosted J, I was skeptical. When I heard more about him, I was more skeptical. But when I watched him play, I knew he was special. And after spending an hour on the phone with him, I was even more impressed. He’s a soft spoken, well mannered, poker guru, mature far beyond his 19 years. He’s got all the confidence in the world, but backs it up at the tables. I was really pleased with what he had to say, and pleasantly surprised at his high maturity level.

A little background, courtesy of Boostedj.com:

Justin Smith was born in Hartford, Connecticut on January 8, 1988. Although he lived in New York for two years, he did most of his growing up in Kissimmee/Poinciana, Florida. During his senior year of high school, he was involved in a near-fatal motorcycle crash that left him handicapped in a wheel chair for the remaining four months of his senior year. As a “bagger/clerk” at a grocery store, he was forced to quit his job and find a way to make money elsewhere. After talking to a long-time friend on the Internet, it was decided he would learn micro-limit online poker to start making a few bucks here and there.

Besides becoming one of the most feared high stakes short handed cash game players on the Internet, Boosted J has made himself seen in the tournament world. He chopped 1’st place in the Full Tilt Poker FTOPS III Main Event for $232,000. Although just a couple days before that, he final tabled FTOPS III Event #6 $216 Omaha Hi/Lo for a 5′th place finish. With these two strong finishes he was awarded the FTOPS III Player of the Year Award for most points collected throughout the series.

I started watching boosted j a few weeks ago, and he really impressed me. He has played at the highest levels, including the “big game” on fulltilt, the $1k/2k horse mixed game.

Click below for full interview

JP: Ok, you’re only 19. Have you considered moving to another country like the Bahamas, where you can play legally in a casino?

Boosted J: No. There really isn’t much poker in the Bahamas, so Europe would probably be the only option, and I don’t see myself going there.

JP: Are you just DYING TO turn 21? I mean, for most people here that means being able to have a drink legally, which is no big deal. For you, it means being able to go to WORK at Bellagio, Borgata, Wynn, etc.

Boosted J: Laug♥♠. Yeah, pretty much. (He’s cool about the whole thing.)

JP: I did a little research about you, and read about your accident. Let’s talk briefly about your injuries. Are you feeling ok physically these days?

Boosted J: I still have scars and may need some surgery, but I’m recovering well.

JP: I read on your website that you are selling shirts and donating to charity, which I think is awesome. What inspired you to donate your hard earned money?

Boosted J: It doesn’t take a lot of time, effort or money to do this.

JP: Do you play with the shipithollaballas?

Boosted J: I’m friends with some of those guys, I have played against them. My 50,000 hand match vs. Gman will be detailed in the big upcoming issue of Bluff magazine.

JP: How did you become friends with Mike Matusow?

Boosted J: I played tons of hands with Mike online, a lot of 25-50 no limit, which was high for me back then, and one of the highest limits online. We played heads up a lot and talked a lot of trash. Now we are friends and don’t really play each other any more.

JP: Do you read a lot of poker books?

Boosted J: I read some Sklansky and Harrington books, but there are no books out there on no limit cash games. I think reading books can make you a winner at the lower limits, but not at the higher limits.

JP: How did you develop your style of play?

Boosted J: I kind of developed my own style. I’m one of the loosest players online, probably the loosest player pre flop. I call pretty much everything before the flop, and in a six handed game, I can see 40% of the flops. My style is aggressive, a lot of continuation bets I will bet the pot on the flop and maybe 75% of the pot on the turn and river.

JP: What do you think of the poker legislation?

Boosted J: Obviously I am biased, but if you can bet on horses and sports, and everything else, why not poker. And it is a skill game.

JP: Who is your favorite player to watch on tv, and why?

Boosted J: I don’t think most of the guys on tv are that great. A lot of online players are better than most of the guys on tv. I think if most of the guys who play online were to play in the live games, it would be totally different.

JP: Do you think tv poker is still good, and what about the future?

Boosted J: I do like High Stakes Poker, not tournaments on tv. If they put more cash games and mixed games on tv, it would be much better.

JP: What are the major differences between playing live, and online?

Boosted J: When playing live, I can think about the hands a lot more. I try to listen a lot, and I am a good reader of players. Online, I could be playing twelve tables heads up, so there’s not as much time to think about the hands. Playing live gives me the chance to think, and that is nice.

I think a lot of guys make some big mistakes playing online at the highest level. There are guys playing five or six tables of mixed games, holdem, and omaha, and I have seen hands being timed out where the guy raised, and got re raised, and it was a thousand back to him, and his hand was mucked. That’s just an awful mistake, and I’ve seen it happen a lot.

JP: If you see guys playing too many tables, will you try to jump in and take advantage?

Boosted J: Oh yeah!

JP: Do you really say “you got boosted?”

Boosted J: Yeah, it’s kind of a joke though.

Keep your eyes out for this player, for more information read boostedj.com. Good luck Justin, hope to see you in the casino soon!

Article courtesy of http://joepro.livejournal.com

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Posted by admin | Filed Under Poker Player Interviews

Comments

One Response to “Interview With Justin Smith, aka “Boosted J””

Nick on May 11th, 2007 5:22 am

Nice interview about a great young player. Defenitly hear about him a lot in the future. His Cardrunners vid about the 1-2 SH really improved my game so im thankfull about that.

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Interview With Justin Smith, aka “Boosted J”

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