Jack Wilcox

By

Jack Wilcox Holding A Duckling And Smiling

About Jack (quick intro).

Jack Wilcox was a professional poker player from Reading, UK. He was a successful $400NL and $600NL 6max NLHE player. He took shots at $1,000NL (mostly when the fish were around), as well as occasionally playing PLO.

Jack moved to Thailand with a group of other online poker players to for an extended holiday in early 2012. He died in a motorcycle accident on the 6th of February 2012, less than 3 weeks after arriving. He was 22 years old.

However, since he started playing poker in 2009, Jack has helped a lot of people to become better at poker. He was active on the 2+2 forums, and also spent time chatting with and coaching players via instant messenger. He started his own training site aimed at micro-stakes players, and created multiple strategy articles and training videos to help beginners.

This page is here as a resource for links to all of his selflessly helpful work. We'll never know what great work he would have gone on to create, so we'll just have to settle for the amazing stuff he did leave us with.

Even though Jack is no longer with us, his work will continue to make a difference. His talent for teaching deserves to be benefited from for years to come, so here you go.

Higher Level Poker

HigherLevelPoker.com Logo

In 2011 Jack started work on Higher Level Poker — a training site for small/micro stakes players. In the year before he died he created 30 videos and 15 articles for the site, in addition to building a lively forum and attracting other micro stakes coaches to contribute.

The site was promising, and I can only imagine how successful it would have been had it continued on its path. Here are some screenshots of what it looked like:

HigherLevelPoker.com Homepage Screenshot Thumbnail HigherLevelPoker.com Video Coaches Screenshot Thumbnail HigherLevelPoker.com Homepage Screenshot Thumbnail HigherLevelPoker.com About Page Screenshot Thumbnail

Work on the website stopped when Jack died in February 2012, and I stopped hosting the site (as it was) in August 2020. However, all of the videos and articles from the original site can be found below.

Videos.

This is a selection of the best training videos from Higher Level Poker. It includes all of Jack’s, and some of the better videos from other coaches.

Video Coach Type Stakes Tables Length Date
1-jackwilcox-and-john-part-1.mp4 Jack Wilcox Live Small 2 00:48:09 14 Jul, 2011
2-jackwilcox-check-raising-as-a-bluff.mp4 Jack Wilcox Concept Micro 0 00:20:03 18 Jul, 2011
3-jackwilcox-and-john-part-2.mp4 Jonathan Chan Live Small 2 00:50:40 18 Jul, 2011
5-daniel-vid1.mp4 Daniel Haase Review Micro 2 00:56:52 25 Jul, 2011
6-jackwilcox-floating.mp4 Jack Wilcox Concept Micro 0 00:18:38 1 Aug, 2011
7-johnathanchan-25nl-6max.mp4 Jonathan Chan Live Micro 4 00:58:05 1 Aug, 2011
9-johnathanchan-how-to-value-bet.mp4 Jonathan Chan Review Micro 1 00:46:22 7 Aug, 2011
10-jackwilcox-nl5-rush.mp4 Jack Wilcox Review Micro 2 00:48:13 11 Aug, 2011
13-jackwilcox-pot-control.mp4 Jack Wilcox Concept Micro 0 00:36:00 20 Aug, 2011
14-jonathanchan-nl10.mp4 Jonathan Chan Review Micro 4 00:52:11 21 Aug, 2011
16-jackwilcox-review-mideng-1.mp4 Jack Wilcox Review Micro 6 00:52:33 21 Aug, 2011
18-jackwilcox-3betting-oop.mp4 Jack Wilcox Concept Micro 0 00:29:18 29 Aug, 2011
19-jackwilcox-review-mideng-2.mp4 Jack Wilcox Review Micro 6 00:39:20 30 Aug, 2011
20-johnathanchan-200nl-rush-review.mp4 Jonathan Chan Review Small 1 00:52:59 3 Sep, 2011
23-jackwilcox-nl100-live.mp4 Jack Wilcox Live Micro 4 00:53:06 8 Sep, 2011
24-jackwilcox-handhistory-review.mp4 Jack Wilcox Discussion Micro 0 00:29:07 10 Sep, 2011
25-johnathanchan-member-review.mp4 Jonathan Chan Review Micro 4 00:54:28 11 Sep, 2011
30-jackwilcox-fr-leakfinder-1.mp4 Jack Wilcox Review Small 4 00:49:04 16 Sep, 2011
31-johnathanchan-200nl.mp4 Jonathan Chan Live Small 4 00:50:41 18 Sep, 2011
33-jackwilcox-fr-leakfinder-2.mp4 Jack Wilcox Review Small 4 00:34:36 23 Sep, 2011
34-johnathanchan-200nl-no-hud.mp4 Jonathan Chan Live Small 4 00:50:30 25 Sep, 2011
35-jackwilcox-4betting.mp4 Jack Wilcox Concept Micro 0 00:22:53 26 Sep, 2011
41-jackwilcox-nl100-4tables-1.mp4 Jack Wilcox Review Small 4 00:51:36 13 Oct, 2011
42-jackwilcox-nl100-4tables-2.mp4 Jack Wilcox Review Small 4 00:46:47 15 Oct, 2011
44-johnathanchan-value-betting.mp4 Jonathan Chan Review Micro 1 00:24:22 20 Oct, 2011
47-danielhaase-hem-guide-1.mp4 Daniel Haase Guide Small 0 01:09:12 29 Oct, 2011
48-jackwilcox-maximizing-ev.mp4 Jack Wilcox Discussion Micro 0 00:26:40 3 Nov, 2011
49-jackwilcox-position.mp4 Jack Wilcox Concept Micro 0 00:14:41 4 Nov, 2011
50-jackwilcox-adrian-review-1.mp4 Jack Wilcox Review Small 12 00:59:57 6 Nov, 2011
53-johnathanchan-live-nl100.mp4 Jonathan Chan Live Small 4 00:31:31 16 Nov, 2011
54-jackwilcox-adrian-review-2.mp4 Jack Wilcox Review Small 12 00:38:35 21 Nov, 2011
55-jackwilcox-adrian-review-3.mp4 Jack Wilcox Review Small 12 00:40:39 28 Nov, 2011
56-johnathanchan-nl200-review.mp4 Jonathan Chan Review Small 1 00:55:29 5 Dec, 2011
57-jackwilcox-nl50-review-1.mp4 Jack Wilcox Review Micro 1 00:33:50 15 Dec, 2011
58-jackwilcox-nl50-review-2.mp4 Jack Wilcox Review Micro 1 00:35:47 18 Dec, 2011
59-jackwilcox-nl50-review-3.mp4 Jack Wilcox Review Micro 1 00:39:21 19 Dec, 2011
60-danielhaase-hem-guide-2.mp4 Daniel Haase Guide Small 0 00:56:57 28 Dec, 2011
61-jackwilcox-3bet-pots-1.mp4 Jack Wilcox Discussion Small 0 00:37:07 4 Feb, 2012

These are direct links to the video files. They should play in your browser, or you can Right Click > Save As.

Full list.

This is a complete list of the videos posted on Higher Level Poker in chronological order:

Articles.

Title Author Category Level Date
Calling From Blinds vs. A Steal Jack Wilcox General Intermediate 26 Feb, 2011
Semi-Bluffing By Raising All In Jack Wilcox Plays Advanced 26 Feb, 2011
3Betting Preflop In The Micro Stakes Jack Wilcox Plays Intermediate 27 Feb, 2011
The Real Objective Of Poker Jack Wilcox Psychology Beginner 27 Feb, 2011
Continuation Betting Jack Wilcox Plays Beginner 26 Mar, 2011
4Betting Mathematics Jack Wilcox Mathematics Advanced 28 Mar, 2011
Check-Raising As A Bluff Jack Wilcox Plays Intermediate 1 Apr, 2011
Attacking 3Bettors Jack Wilcox General Advanced 3 Apr, 2011
Preflop Opening Ranges Kyle Garner General Beginner 14 Apr, 2011
Floating The Flop Jack Wilcox Plays Beginner 14 Apr, 2011
Breaking Down Your Winrate Jack Wilcox General Intermediate 9 May, 2011
Winning Money From Bad Players Jack Wilcox General Intermediate 22 Oct, 2011
Playing Blind vs. Blind Jack Wilcox General Advanced 25 Oct, 2011
The Importance Of Position Jack Wilcox General Beginner 6 Nov, 2011
Relative Hand Strength Jack Wilcox Concepts Beginner 6 Nov, 2011
5 Tips To Improve Your Game Jack Wilcox General Beginner 29 Nov, 2011
Objectivity In Poker Kyle Garner Psychology Intermediate 5 Dec, 2011
Optimal Bet Sizing Johnathan Chan Concepts Beginner 20 Jan, 2012

Jack's other work.

Here's links to Jack's work that I've been able to find on the Internet.

ThePokerBank articles.

Title Author Level Date
The Red Line Jack Wilcox Intermediate 16 Nov 2011

ThePokerBank videos.

Video Type Level Stakes Game Length Date
Jack Wilcox 1 Session Replay Beginner $25NL 6max 62 mins 12 Mar 10
Jack Wilcox 2 Hand Replayer Intermediate $100NL+ 6max 42 mins 12 Mar 10
Jack Wilcox 3 Hand Replayer Advanced $400NL+ 6max 27 mins 12 Mar 10
Jack Wilcox 4 Hand Replayer Advanced $400NL+ 6max 49 mins 19 Apr 10
Jack Wilcox 5 Hand Replayer Advanced $200NL 6max 33 mins 16 Sep 10
Holdem Manager Guide Tutorial Intermediate - - 34 mins 23 Sep 10
Rush Poker (Part 1/2) Session Replay Beginner $25NL Rush 61 mins 24 Sep 10
Rush Poker (Part 2/2) Session Replay Beginner $25NL Rush 36 mins 03 Nov 10
Holdem Manager HUD Tutorial Intermediate - - 23 mins 22 Nov 10
Jack Wilcox 7 (Part 1/2) Session Replay Beginner $10NL 6max 59 mins 21 Mar 11
Jack Wilcox 7 (Part 2/2) Session Replay Beginner $10NL 6max 68 mins 22 Mar 11

Other videos.

Jack was also a coach at the pokervip.com website for a short while. They used to have a paid-subscription section that his videos were behind, but they are now freely available on YouTube.

Video Type Stakes Game Length
Bitesize Concept: 4-Bet Bluffing Concept - 6max 16 mins
Bitesize Concept: Fold Equity Concept - 6max 16 mins
Bitesize Concept: Value Betting the River Concept - 6max 18 mins
Bitesize Concept: Implied Odds Concept - 6max 15 mins
Concepts to Crush SSNL (Part 1) Concept - 6max 39 mins
Concepts to Crush SSNL (Part 2) Concept - 6max 31 mins
Concepts to Crush SSNL (Part 3) Concept - 6max 26 mins
Concepts to Crush SSNL (Part 4) Concept - 6max 25 mins
Concepts to Crush SSNL (Part 5) Concept - 6max 31 mins

2+2 Forum Threads.

Title Description
NL10 - NL 200 Experiment Jack's plan was to move from $10NL to $200NL and document his progress. But he basically ended up giving advice for 57 pages.
Math Post: How to calculate the EV of a play How to calculate expected value, Jack Wilcox style. Posted in the beginners forum, but quite a complex example using a preflop 4bet/call spot with JJ in the CO.
Should a beginner play SNGs or cash games? Self-explanatory. Jack weighs up the two games and analyses the profit potential of both.
Understanding relative hand strength Explanation and example of relative hand strength.

jackwilcox1 2+2 Member Profile

Is Jack's strategy and advice any good?

I guess it worked:

Jack Wilcox Holdem Manager Earnings Graph
Jack Wilcox earnings graph for $200NL and $400NL over 450,000 hands.
Jack Wilcox Hoodlincs PokerTableRatings Results
Jack Wilcox ("Hoodlincs" at Full Tilt Poker) results according to PokerTableRatings.com.

And you know how some people are good at explaining stuff? That's Jack as well.

More about Jack.

Jack Wilcox Travelling Photo

Jack Wilcox – By Greg Walker

I'm Greg, the guy behind this site.

I was genuinely fortunate enough to know Jack in person. That's a cliché, but I don't care. It's true.

It annoys me that everyone speaks so highly of people when they pass away, because it it takes weight away from what I'm going to say about Jack. Jack was awesome, and it's not his death that makes him that way.

How I knew Jack.

We weren't bestest buddies or anything. We just did some work together, lived nearby, and chatted every time we saw each other. But that was enough. That was enough to know the kind of man Jack was.

It was always enjoyable to bump in to him – you never had to think of anything to say because he had that covered for you. He always had something interesting for both of us to talk about. As hard as I may have tried, I couldn't have an awkward conversation with him.

I regret not getting to know him more than I did, because he would have made a damn good friend. I missed out there.

Jack's Flat
We were kinda neighbours for a while. I'm sure he saw me walking around my flat naked – on more than one occasion. Sorry about that, Jack.

We both started at Swansea University in 2007. We weren't on the same course (Jack = Business, Me = Physics), but I came to meet him through my girlfriend who was also on the same course as him.

I heard he was the president of the poker society, but I just assumed he was just an average live player with limited skill. Didn't take long to do a quick browse around his posts at 2+2 to learn that he was actually much better than I was/am. So impressive in fact I felt a little inferior. His grammar in forum posts is atrocious though, so that made me feel a bit better. Still, he always knew what he was talking about when it came to strategy.

Anyway, where I had dropped out after just 1 year, Jack went on to juggle both online poker and University, earning a 2:2 Bsc Business Management in 2010. My girlfriend was graduating at the same time as him, so it was cool to be there to see him pick up his degree.

So what was Jack really like?

  • Suave. Very suave.
  • I'll admit, good looking. He was as good looking in real life as he is in photos.
  • Tall as well. So yeah, overall genetically attractive. I think I'll have to leave it there though as my girlfriend will be reading this.
  • He did what he liked. Not in an obnoxious way though. He just put his ideas in to motion without worrying about what other people may think. One of those people.

That's about as much as I know. Again, I didn't know him amazingly well, but I knew him well enough to know all that. I'm an excellent judge of character, and I could judge that Jack's character was excellent.

The more I think about Jack the more I realise what a loss to the human race he is. He had selfless ideas and goals, and it hurts to think about what we'll be missing out on. The last big plan of his that I remember involved setting up a hostel for young people travelling to Swansea.

Jack and ThePokerBank.

I noticed he started dabbling in making poker training videos for the 2+2 community in mid 2009 (in his NL 10 - NL 200 Experiment thread), so I took advantage of this by asking if he'd like to make some training videos for ThePokerBank. Being Jack and loving the idea to help even more people, he obliged.

He asked for so little in return for videos he was essentially making them for free. It must have worked out to less than minimum wage. As I keep saying, Jack really just loved to teach, and he loved to help.

Jack's First Video: I can't find a copy of the first video Jack made for 2+2. Here's the post on 2+2 about it, but it was uploaded to MegaUpload so I can't re-download it. If you've got it, can you let me know at greg [at] thepokerbank.com? That would be amazing to find.

Jack Wilcox 1 was the first video he made for this site. I was happy that he charged so little, as the audio wasn't great (just technical teething problems) and needing some fixing. But as expected, the content was (and always will be) typical Jack Wilcox quality. Easy to follow and easy to learn from. He was a natural teacher.

I wish I could have squeezed more videos and articles out of him, but he had plans of his own.

Closing thoughts.

I've not written anything like this before, so I'm not sure how this part goes. I think I'm supposed to finish with a lingering sad thought or memory.

Whatever. I can do better than that. Instead, click this link (not yet, in a sec).

That link will take you back to the top of this page, back to Jack's anthology. Watch, listen to and read all the great advice, and use it to become a better poker player. That's why Jack made it all, and that's what it will do if you take his advice onboard.

Thanks for the tips Jack!

Another insight in to how cool Jack was.

It's easy to find kind words about someone when they're no longer with us. For Jack, however, this makes no difference. Here are a few things posted about him on his PokerTableRatings.com player profile before he passed away:

Jack Wilcox Poker Table Ratings Screenshot
The comments other players left about Jack on PokerTableRatings before he died.

If you're not familiar with the world of online poker, you won't grasp the gravity of these 5 simple comments. Poker involves trying to win money from other people, and understandably not everyone enjoys being on the losing end of this process. As a result, abusive comments about other players are standard.

It's kinda like trying to make friends in the comments section of a video about religion on YouTube.

So to see such comments like Came to my table, asked to 3-4 table and when I wasn't up to it, replied very polite. Seems solid isn't just a pleasant surprise, it's incredible.

And no, no comments have been removed or edited since his death to make the page look better. I know this because I checked up on Jack's stats myself from time to time, and nothing has altered.

Jack Wilcox – By James Andrews

On the 6th February 2012, Jack Wilcox tragically died in a motorbike accident in Phuket, Thailand where he had been living for the past month in a poker fraternity.

Jack Wilcox was a co-founder of Higher Level Poker – his idea and passion was to help others improve their poker skills. He contacted me in 2010 to build a website that would become the "Facebook of poker", aimed at small to mid stakes poker players. For many of us who knew him, you could clearly see this was his goal.

He put many hours of his time into this website at the expense of actually playing poker, and at the time of his passing, he was working on an eBook packed with strategy and tips to help our members improve. You can see the effort he put into this website by the number of videos he has produced. And all of this effort came from his desire to offer his value to the world.

Jack was well respected among the online poker community. The poker thread on the 2+2 forums (https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/39/small-stakes-pl-nl/jack-wilcox-1163278/) has over 15 pages of tribute messages for Jack. Some quotes from various people:

Chatted a lot of strategy on Skype with him, great guy :'(
He was a really nice guy and really friendly, RIP such a shame.
We only began speaking recently but you were a great guy and left a profound impact in our lives. Thank you.
I once had the pleasure of sitting next to Jack in a live game when he was just finishing up university and he told me all about his hopes, fears and thoughts of 'going pro'. I spoke to him for a couple of hours and he's definitely the most genuine and likeable guy I've ever met (and am likely to ever meet) at a poker table.
He was a fantastic guy and nothing was ever too much trouble.
We need more people like Jack to set as good of an example as he did.
I only talked to him on Skype (quite a bit) but Jack was one of the nicest guys I met through poker.
RIP Hoodlincs, you were my favourite coach and one of my favourite people to Skype with.
Guys like this are hard to come by, that's for sure.
Jack was a great guy and quite instrumental in helping me get my business started in this industry.
I used to talk to Jack all the time on Skype about just about anything from poker to life. He always struck me as a kind hearted individual with no ill intentions towards anyone.
Jack was an inspiration to me and many others in the community, that with hard work and passion you can achieve whatever you set out to do in life.

Jack was a truly awesome, genuine, kind, loving person. His energy and charisma filled the room. I had the pleasure of working with Jack and more importantly being his friend. The times I shared with him were good ones. He was possibly the nicest person I ever met.

The videos and his work will remain on this site indefinitely. However I would like to stress that no more content will be added, this website will remain as a tribute to Jack.

RIP Jack.

You will be greatly missed.

James Andrews (Higher Level Poker co-founder, website developer)

Want to add something here? greg [at] thepokerbank.com

Other.

Blog posts.

More tributes to Jack Wilcox.

Have I missed anything? Send me an email at greg [at] thepokerbank.com and I'll add it to this page.

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