Kyle Julius

Kyle Julius is a professional poker player from Illinois with over $7 million in tournament cashes.

Kyle Julius grew up in Naperville, Illinois, where he was an avid sports fan, and played on his schools’ basketball teams. During his junior year of high school, though, his brother taught him how to play poker. His interest in poker never went beyond a fascination when he was playing basketball, although when his hoop dreams slowed poker began to take over. Once he dropped out of college, he discovered that he could make good money playing poker instead of pursuing another career. After a couple of tournament wins online, he decided that he would take a shot at going pro.

The competitive nature that fueled his basketball play transferred into poker. Unfortunately, that also led to poor bankroll management. He was never scared of taking a shot at higher stakes, where he wanted to prove himself, even though he sometimes came close to busting. Throughout the ups and downs of his bankroll, he kept the attitude that poker is not a sport where perfection is possible. That perspective is what has kept Kyle Julius working hard on his game and always striving to improve.

While most of his original play was online, he has also proven himself as a successful live tournament player. In 2010, he entered his first recorded live tournament, where he cashed for just $801. It didn’t take long, however, for him to take home larger cashes. Just one year later, he finished 14th in a $1.5k Holdem event at the WSOP, where he made $27k.

His first six figure score came in 2012 at the EPT PCA in The Bahamas, where he took 2nd place for $1.5 million, his largest live cash to date. Despite never reaching that high again, he has consistently made the money in tournament after tournament. Before this cash, he was debating ending his professional career in poker. He was low on funds and had failed to make it in several tournaments after making what he saw as terrible decisions. Upon scoring a six figure win, however, he decided that he did have a future in the game after all.

Black Friday hit him especially hard. He says he had just begun to see real success in higher stakes games when his account was seized and online poker was forced out of the United States. Today, Julius still plays on PokerStars from Canada, where he plays in a variety of tournaments on a daily basis. His most recent win was during their WCOOP, where he won $36k in a $1,050 FLHE event. In total, his online cashes total over $4 million as a result of over 2,000 cashes.

In the future, he says that he will be working to ensure that he never runs the risk of busting again. The new, more conservative, Kyle Julius is on the road playing live tournaments and working hard to top his previous cashes, whatever it takes.