blonde poker forum

Back From Business

Hi Guys, it's been a really long time since I'v seen or spoken to many of you, I took several years away from poker, pursuing a few different businesses in a few different countries but now I'm back! The short version is that I miss the freedom of both time, place of work and not having to listen to the constant bitching of customers expecting me to solve all their life problems with a day and an old transit van, so Iv packed it all in and am coming back to poker as my main source of income and mental challenges. I currently work as a class 1 lorry driver (because I need money and always wanted to try driving a massive lorry (it is rather good fun!)), I have a 10 week plan to reduce to part time to free up around 30 hours per week for poker and a 6-12 month(ish) plan to go completely full time again.

For those who have no idea who I am, my name is Matt and I was a full time professional gambler from 2007-2013(ish), I was a reg at DTD, as well as many other casinos around the uk, playing Dealers Choice when it was running, Omaha when it wasn't and Texas in and around that lot (I was a quiet part of the furniture in the legendary games involving Alex, Mitch, Stato, big American Mike etc...). Live tournaments were a regular part of my play too. I played online a lot as well, mainly sng's and mtt's. I have also been known to take part in a bookie promotion or two when it was +ev, but it was rare!

I was rather quiet and very private before but seeing as I have a fresh start I thought i'd try being more open and an active member of the community this time around! There are loads of blogs and posts around the topic of turning pro and the highs and lows that follow such a decision, and the voices of experience so often recommending against doing so, but I haven't seen one yet from someone who was already a successful pro coming back for a second round. Hopefully I can provide something interesting for people to read from a slightly different angle.

I'm happy to take questions about my poker past and present, my adventures between the two and try to share some interesting stories every so often as well as post updates about how my new/old career is developing.

Thanks in advance for the warm welcome back in to this crazy, high variance existence that I have deeply missed and I will be seeing a lot more of most of you in the near future!

Favourite game in Dealers' Choice?

Biggest pot won, biggest pot lost in cash?

Good luck with the diary.

Subscribed. Good luck Matt.

Hi Matt,

Good to see you posting, hope the Diary and the poker goes well.

Where are you planning to play, Online & Live?

What sort of lorry do you drive? Love lorries, & at one time I entertained the notion of marrying one, but it was just a physical attraction, & it would never have lasted.

Were you at Walsall junction 10 on Monday night and used to play at Stoke Genting circa 5 years ago?  Wondering if you are one and the same guy i saw at Walsall on Monday night who i hadn't seen for a while.  Pretty sure his name was Matt.

My favourite game at dc is superstud, I love the flow of the rounds of betting and the sweats, however I never choose it because it is inexcusable to give up position on your button so I usually chose Omaha hi/lo with as many cards as possible.

My biggest win in a cash pot is around £3.5k, don't remember the action clearly at all but shoved the turn with a combo draw and got there in a very active 2/5 at DTD.

My biggest loss in a cash pot was around £18k, I was playing 400/800/1600 (HKD (ex rate was around 12/1)) in Macau in a private room at Star World in 2008, Sat with 200k and was the shortest stack by miles in a loose game. Limped utg with AKo, mp raises to 5k, button 3bets to 12.5k, BB calls, I 4bet to 40k and all call. Flop KT8 with 2 hearts, Bb checks, I shove 160k, all call! Turn is an offsuit 2 and the 3 other players put the rest of the money in and the cards go on their backs, I'm up against T8, Jh9h, Ah2h.... River pairs the 2 and scoops the 2m pot!

I would add context to the hand that this was the only time iv ever  played  bigger than 5/10, I had taken 5k with me and had been there 3 weeks and done rather well at the 25/50 and 50/100 games so far. I got invited to the game (that I think was organised by John Duthie although he wasn't sat at the time) by an American I had got friendly with and was feeling pretty good about my game and taking a shot at some serious winnings. I only went home losing 3k at the end of the trip even after that disaster of a hand so it could have been worse! Still felt pretty sick for a couple of days after though!

Lol at marrying a lorry, at the end of a 15 hour shift that's how I feel! I drive for a popular, green company with trucks with ladies names, I am in a Volvo today with a 42t load of mixed groceries on a double decker trailer.

I will play online on stars for mtt's and an iPoker skin for sng's and cash cause the rb is a bit better and the competition softer. I can cope with the worse software, I won't be playing live for a while cause when I'm working 5 days a week I want to be at home with Mrs Tache on the weekends but when I have the time I will be at Nottingham Leicester, Coventry etc...

No, that wasn't me, have been to Walsall but not for a long time

Looking forward to the new diary Matt.  Good luck!

So, I haven't played any poker in the last few days cause Iv been getting 15 hour shifts most days and last night I went out in Derby dancing for one of my friends' birthday. I'm planning on playing some tonight and plenty on sat and sun so will post an update about my progress.
 I'm playing small at the moment purposefully. Firstly because I work a day job now the amounts of money are counted in 'how many hours I had to work to earn that' rather than 'how much can I expect to win if I invest that?' I need to ease back in gently like it's her first time! Secondly I want to start at the bottom and work up as I prove a win rate at each level to be sure I'm not overestimating my skill level. I am very rusty and the games have moved on a lot since I was last crushing souls! I will of course be satisfied with very small sample sizes and move up levels aggressively to get somewhere that the wins are meaningful.

On that note can someone give me their opinions on piosolver in relation to sng's because it's completely unknown to me.

Ty

I played 20 double or nothing sng's at the €5 level to get back in to the swing of it, Iv got a lot of learning to do to get my game anywhere close to optimal but most of those players are pretty bad, and I mean bad! A win rate will be really easy to achieve which is nice while I learn my way around icm again and making notes on some opposition so I can get an idea of their pushing and calling ranges. I had a small will after the games, I won 13/20. I also remember how frustrating hem2 is when it doesn't do what you want it to! 😡

Well, I had a lovely weekend, played plenty of poker online, won a little bit, studied quite a lot (I'm really rusty so it's a good job I'm playing small!) but now it's back to work... Had a broken kingpin yesterday so sat around waiting for mechanics to fix it so I could go home and today up at 5:40 to get to work in the heaving rain to find out most of my work is outside today. This switch back to poker can't come soon enough! The challenge is finding the time to play and study around everything else, time is such a luxury and the wage I'm on is only just worth it, let alone the millions of people who are busting their butts for the minimum just to give it to someone else each month for the convenience of doing it all again next month from a position of relative comfort and security. I guess that is one of my main gripes with working and one of the main reasons for going back to poker. Btw I live on a narrowboat so I'm not being completely hypocritical about the work for bills and rent thing, I'm working to get out of a hole that I dug in business and to provide security and stability for a while while we recover.

You live on a narrowboat? How fascinating.

Where is it moored?

What sort of money do they cost to rent or buy, & how much are mooring & service charges? I am assuming you have to pay some sort of Service Charge for utilities etc. Does it have - pardon the intrusion - a chemical toilet?

What are the arrangements for fresh water & 'leccy, or gas?

Always fancied living on a narrowboat, but think the novelty might wear off after a few days.

On the Thames near Hampton Court, they have a lot of House Boats, (plus 1 or 2 narrowboats passing through), which must cost a fortune to buy, but they are beautiful.

Think the lower end of prices on Tagg Island is around £600,000.

Some of those house boats are stunning! Mine is much more modest, it is a beautiful way to live, Iv been aboard 2 months and have never been so relaxed or happy in my life. I love focussing on simple things and reading or playing online by a fire in a cozy space is lovely. I feel a significant "decompression" when I get back home after a day out in the real world. It is cheaper than living in a house in most cases because you are lighting and heating a much smaller area and tend to focus more on spending time than money but it is really dependant on each person. It is possible to have all modern luxuries and spend more than you would on land and it is equally possible to live a very basic life and be significantly cheaper. Yes we have a cassette toilet that I empty when required but all marinas have toilet, shower etc facilities. Gas is bottled, electric is solar panels on the roof with leisure batteries and a hookup at marinas that is a prepay meter style. Water is free from water points every few miles. We have a large tank on board. Internet is 4g but the signal is usually good. Heat is from a multifuel burner that must be kept stoked up during winter at all costs. Standard narrowboats cost between 20k-70k although you can go far north of that with custom built designs. Mooring fees depend on the location greatly, Places like London and Bath are extortionate!

I tried to post a picture of my boat but couldn't, the file was too big, will try again later.

That was a great reply, I understand it much better now, thanks.

I can imagine it gets a little chilly in the winter though.

I once went on a date with a lady that lived on a boat. I was about to go travelling and I said I wanted to send her a postcard and she said that I couldn't as she didn't actually have an address.

Was she giving me the swerve or is it genuinely difficult to receive post if you live on the water and you don't have a permanent mooring?!?

Receiving post and having address proofs for stuff is difficult, a lot of people use a relative or friends house if they know someone trustworthy local to them.

Your lady friend was probably telling the truth, although if you never saw her again...

While the fire is going it's too warm if anything, we have windows thrown open, I shudder to think what it's like when the fire goes out, the water will bring the temp down very fast!

Everyone says that to me about living in a caravan. Is there any logic behind it?

Hi Tashy.

My dad used to have a little trailable canal boat. it was about the size of a caravan and he used to go off for a month or so at a time in it. He and my Mam did most of the canal network over the years.

I too have seriously considered living on a narrowboat. It wouldn't be much of a culture shock to me having lived in a caravan all my life.

Typical mooring costs?

What do you do with your car?

In a narrow boat, I would think there is, yes, as the water presumably affects the temperature to a considerable degree.

Oh I see what you mean. Easy to insulate against though.

As you already know but many others don't it's only cold if you are unprepared, it takes a little more thought than turning on a boiler but you get to enjoy the warmth rather than take it for granted. Also correct on the insulation, our boat is older so we have added plenty but new boats are insulated with a spray foam covering 100% of the steel from the inside before it is fitted. Moorings vary dramatically place to place, in the Midlands 150-200 per month + electric is normal. Our electric has been less than 10 per month so far because we have a couple of solar panels. This includes water, showers, sanitation, laundry (sometimes) and a parking space. People without a home mooring are often known as bridge hoppers because they park their car near a bridge over the canal close to their mooring point and then a fortnight later when they have to move they walk or cycle to move it to a bridge near their next mooring. When cruising is at a max speed of 4mph you can quite comfortably cycle as far as you would want to go in a day unless you are really travelling purposefully.

We also considered a caravan but thought that canals and marinas would be a bit nicer than lay-bys and caravan sites and we also think that boaters get treated a bit better, people who live in caravans get treated very poorly far too often.

Yes, boating is beautiful. My mam and dad loved it because the 4mph cruising speed reminded them of travelling country lanes with a horse and wagon when they were young.



(http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag66/plainreddog/relaxing%20mam%20dad%20boat_1445124567916_5_zpsnpt9oqdu.jpg) (http://s1299.photobucket.com/user/plainreddog/media/relaxing%20mam%20dad%20boat_1445124567916_5_zpsnpt9oqdu.jpg.html)

Wow what a picture!

Il say it again, Iv never been so happy or relaxed than living on a boat! It's the life!

I saw on the news today about the Ladbrokes and Coral merger, did someone say monopoly? I then read more and found out that this has been happening for a while but it concerned me anyway so I thought I'd share.

The Gaming industry as a whole has grown rapidly in the last decade, & has now entered a period of consolidation.

Betfair & Paddy Power got together last year, Ladbrokes, who have been desperately seeking a partner for some years, are now engaged to Coral. Coral themselves arose from a series of merged Gaming businesses.

BWin merged with Party Poker 4 or 5 years ago, Wm Hill tried to cut a deal, failed, & then the whole thing was sold to GVC earlier this year.

Wm Hill have been in search of a partner for some time, recently floated a really odd plan to merge with AMAYA (Pokerstars), but that idea, unsurprisingly, was a non-starter, so Wm Hill will carry on flirting until they find a partner.

888 are on the prowl, & might make a move for someone soon.

SB&G (the Sky Bet family of businesses) were previously wholly owned by Sky plc, who sold 80% to CVC Capital in March of last year. CVC is a venture capital & private equity business, who own, or owned, lumps of numerous businesses, such as RAC, & F1. In the nature of things, it's not unreasonable to assume that SB&G will be the subject of an IPO at some point in time, though it'll be a while yet I fancy, but that'll be another chapter in the industry saga.

365 remain independent, though I guess at some stage a deal will be cut with someone.

It's the nature of business really, nobody can stop it. Those that own High St betting shop chains or B & M Bingo halls are the subject of scrutiny from the Monopolies police, but I'm not really sure if that applies to digital businesses who are often domiciled outside the UK.

The sector has seen explosive growth in the last 10 years, & that generally leads to consolidation as the market matures. 

Cheers Tikay, that's good info, Iv got a lot to catch up on!

Turn your back for 4 or 5 years in poker, & the whole landscape changes.

5 or 6 years ago Pleno was playing tenner SNG's & telling us he'd soon be The Best in The Business, rofl. Now it's only a matter of time before he ends up with all the money in poker. And so the nature of Online Poker has & will continue to change, to keep them wheels turning. The next few years will see the whole thing be more recreational focused, & then it will change again.

Amazing how things move so far these days. Smartphones & Tables never existed 10 years (?) ago, now they are omnipresent & we can't live without them.

20 (roughly) years ago there was no internet to speak of, then along came something perfectly fantastic called Dial Up.

30 years ago mobile phones never existed, & 40 years so we never imagined there'd be such a thing as colour TV.

And if you want to see a real story about how the world changes, read up on the history of oil discovery, exploration & exploitation. And in particular, a man named St John Philby, a British Government official, who double crossed the British Government & cut a deal with the Yanks. Years later his son became more famous, who was Kim Philby, the spy. From St John's treachery, more wars started than you can begin to imagine. 

Sorry about all that waffle, it just arrived unexpectedly. But so much better than watching the kids squabble on Fred.

We live in truly amazing times.

I thought I'd post some ramblings about poker as a professional in general, why I stopped in 2013, why I will be back in 2017, what I think makes a good pro etc...

After the Americans were stopped from legally playing online (until the gov't started their own moneymaking sites) it affected the games badly for me in two ways, first there was much less traffic and less fish online, and second, a lot of the winning players moved to England, mainly London but that pushed other people further north to find good games and the live cash games became harder too. The recession was in full effect too so recreational players were playing smaller and less often. To find games I could comfortably beat I had to play for longer hours in smaller games to earn what I was making rather easily a year earlier. I now realise that I neglected my studying and spread myself too thin by stopping studying nlhe when I was beating it comfortably 3 years previously and moving on to what I thought were more interesting games and I slipped behind the curve. I was still winning but not enough to make progress or take a couple of months off to study and play in break even or losing games to improve my game so I felt stuck. (Feeling stuck is my least favourite place to be) Playing 12-14 hours per day in games that I felt stuck in was horrible. I had  I started to look for other careers and what I thought were more secure for my future. It was always my intention to be back in poker when the economy improved and my mindset had improved but that was going to take a few years so I was off to try other things. To be continued...

Very interesting diary. Good read looking forward to hearing more of your story

Finished 8th for €60k.

Played fine I think. Had 3 spots which were debatable, but apart from that happy with every decision and that's all hat counts.

Last HR's

7th
12th
7th
9th
8th

Doing something right just need to convert I guess.

Hand 1

David Jan opens UTG I defend bb
He checks back 745cc
I probe 7458 he calls
I check 74589 I check/taaaaaank call k9ss

I bet all 6x otr, bet sets otr, most likely bet flop/turned 2 pairs, check 94/95/97 ott so this feels like decent bluffcatcher now blocking clubs or ace highs that could not bluff. Was very unsure which hands exactly I should be calling here, but this felt like good one

Hand 2

Pure bubble, 46k min cash, fish2013 jams sb off 80bbs, I have 18bbs and KQhh I'm 10/10 and it's very very close but I took a bunch of FGS into account and finally decided to fold, very close though.

Hand 3

Final table, Oles had to play tight for last 2-3 hours which I know he won't like. Very crazy Russian opens hijac, Oles been speaking about how crazy he is with us for he last 3 hours watching him in every pot opening super wide etc. Russian opens 2.4x hijac, ole flats co and I have 8.7bbs and ATo on the button.

Good things
I do extremely well vs Russian
I do extremely well vs ole
Larger raise size means more dead money
I am in terrible seat and will get no spots to open jam and will very likely blind down to 5bbs if I fold and when blinds go up I'm fucked
If I win I go from 8.9 to 23bbs and great situation

Bad things
I
C
M

2nd shortest stack had like 250-300k.

Extremely tough spot and s usual very simple fold, I ranked a long time and still really like my reasoning. Both guys called and I lost vs AJ and KJ. Would have been a sick one to win :)

Anyway, I can't complain, decent cash, lots of new experiences, new player reads, new stuff to study, little bit of profit.

^^^^^

Unlucky Patrick.

PS - wrong diary, I think.

They both have business in, Iv nearly made the same mistake!

I played some mtts his weekend, <$20 cashed in a few and one ft but no significant results, the level of competition was soft, even softer than the sngs, I know it's going to get exponentially tougher as I move up the levels but I'm feeling positive. Looking forward to getting back to playing live too, might try to play a couple of £30-£100 tournaments and a couple of smaller cash games in the next month to dip my toes in, hopefully win some money too! I'm planning to be aggressive with shot taking and br management because I'm not reliant on making any money out of it. This will hopefully get me a useful working bankroll quickly, the higher it gets the more conservative I will be about risk until I get past a point where I'm fully rolled for games a level higher than I need for making a decent hourly rate and then will raise the shot taking and agro game selection again. I don't want to end up stuck in midstakes playing very tough opponents.

I just read tank's 4000 sngs in 4 months, great read and very well done! Makes me think 2 things about my own game, 1. Wouldn't it be nice to find a game where 15% roi is an achievable goal above the penny buyins. 2. If I had been reading blonde instead of 'Phil Helmuths pocket book of holdem' back in the day my goals and winnings may have been rather different. Moral of the story? Check your sources and don't miss the bus!

P.S. If I had won loads back then I probably would have gone off the rails and wouldn't have been where I am now, I don't regret one bit of it and am truly very happy!

I finished work early last night so had the chance to play for a couple of hours. I didn't win but enjoyed it and feel good about moving up soon. I have a little checklist I do and some affirmations I say before I start playing to help get me in a positive and focused frame of mind, il share them with you guys later on.

So this morning, as you do, I was sitting on my roof, watching the sunrise and got the urge to polish my mushroom. I'm the kind of person that listens to my urges so I got a flannel ready and started to go for it. It took a while and was hard work but it was pleasurable in a strange sort of way. I suddenly got the feeling that I was being watched so I looked over my shoulder and saw my neighbour standing there staring! "Morning" he says and walks off towards the shower block. Oh well... I finished the job, cleaned up with my flannel and went back inside. You must admit it looks rather nice now, much better than the dark,  tarnished brass colour it was before. If I could post a picture I would but they are too large for the file size for some reason. 😉

p.s. A mushroom is an air vent in the roof of a narrowboat, usually brass or chrome, so called because of their bulbous shape

Looking forward to this diary.

When you stop work completely are you planning to move around on the boat? Where are you moored currently? Do you have twitter/follow any of the boaters on there?

We will move around during the summer and stay put in the winter, cruising is lovely when the weather is nice but rather grim in the cold and rain. I'm in the midlands but would prefer not to post my exact address on an open forum, hopefully for obvious reasons. I don't use Twitter, I'm in a Facebook group for boaters but most boaters are quite old fashioned, social networking is a wave as you cruise past for most people. Very friendly and helpful people, a lovely community to be a part of.

There are a few key differences between pros and amateurs that I see and I thought I'd share my opinions and experiences.

The first point is that a pro doesn't have to be better than an amateur, there are some amateurs that are stunningly good, some of them even win consistently and just choose not to make a living from poker but most of them lose for some of the following reasons.

Game selection; this is key and very challenging for pros. A pro has to choose games that they can beat for the most money possible while keeping their chances of going busto acceptably low, this is often a balancing act. Usually smaller games are easier to beat but sometimes it isn't the case, and finding a good enough hourly rate with enough hours available is a challenge.

Bankroll management; a pros most useful tool is cash, running out of cash is a disaster but it is (999/1000) avoidable. Correctly analysing the risks involved in the games you play and correctly deciding how many buyins are needed to survive downswings is key, and something most people fail at. 100 buyins is the standard that was accepted for a long time but it is far too simplified, it has to be fluid depending on the games and stakes played. The ability to correctly move up and down stakes while still being able to take living expenses out each month (or whatever interval you choose) makes a working bankroll much more effective.

Living expenses; a pro is at such a large disadvantage by having to take living expenses out of their roll each month. It is the equivalent of starting each month with a 1k-5k loss depending on what you spend. The problem with this is most pros do it for the lifestyle and refuse to live a meagre existence equivalent to what they could earn in a day job with their skills and experience. And who can blame them? Surrounded by cash all the time, huge winning days and all their peers and rolemodels spending lavishly. I was one of them, I spent my money on eating out most days and a couple of years later it caught up to me. Correctly estimating your earnings and leaving room for bankroll growth is key, if this isn't achievable with your skill level and roll then maybe it isn't the job for you.

Discipline and self honesty; this is mainly around tilt and the reduction of tilt but is woven in to the fabric of all the other points, choosing the right games, resting well, staying healthy physically and mentally, playing as close to your best as much of the time as possible, not playing games you know are beyond you, checking you ego are all potential stumbling blocks.

Giving back; pros are parasites on the games and the community, removing money from people's bankrolls and spending it on their own living is their goal. This is particularly important in the live game because it is a smaller group and you are spending a lot of time together on a regular basis. Therefore they need to give back to the community in other ways, being pleasant at the table, arriving on time and staying for a while if leaving will break games, buying a round of drinks every now and then, giving a little advice to help very new players to lose slower, showering and brushing their teeth cause no one wants to sit next to a smelly hippo all night, playing honestly and not taking angles, not ever berating a recreational player for their play regardless of how irritating it was, not wasting time etc.. The list goes on, just be nice and considerate.

Hi Matt

Enjoying the read some interesting stuff!

All the best with your comeback to poker and hopefully see you at DTD sometime soon

Stato

Good post tashy.

Do I I know you btw? Have we shared a table?

Yes would be good to see you, Il be back, got to build a roll first, hoping to be back for the party millions in April, looks unmissable!

Yes we have shared many tables, usually at DTD, I remember one night in particular when the evenings conversation centred around apple pie and hoovers, not exactly the group of hardened gamblers many people think we are! Il come and reintroduce myself when I see you around.

Matt, are you a kid with red/ginger hair, far too young to be associated with narrow boats?

Indeed I am, although rather scarily I turn 30 in 6 weeks, doesn't time fly!

Ahh, I've got you now Matt. I would have got there sooner but your story and your lifestyle suggest someone much older.

You said you were open to questions about what you did in the years between poker, so tell us, what did you get up to?

Clearly spent most of it just frozen in time. He was at least 35 when he played at DTD.

Made me lol! No ones ever over estimated my age!

Here's the first part of the 'in between' story, unfortunately some parts of it are very unpleasant but il tell them as they happened and try to keep the overall tone positive as much as I can.

2013-2014 Brazil letdown

The reason I left poker the last time was I was offered an opportunity I really couldn't refuse, a job in a fast growing construction company, partly family owned, based on the coast of Brazil with accommodation and shares included as part of a generous remuneration package. The reason I was given for being chosen for this position was that I am smart and hard working, trusted as a family member and last but certainly not least, able to get Brazilian citizenship through marriage as my wife is from Brazil. One condition was I had to stop poker immediately and be available to work in London, and abroad, to learn the trade while my job was being sorted. After some discussion we decided to go for it even though we were very wary of being involved with my Dad, who is a truly awful man. (that is another story) I spent the next 9 months working for free, basically apprenticing, learning about steel and concrete construction and most of the aspects of management of the company, I travelled to London on a weekly basis and Brazil, Switzerland, Thailand and Uruguay monthly to get to know the teams in the different regions the company operates in. I sorted my visas and work permits for Brazil too which took many frustrating trips to the embassy. All the while my Dad was promising me that my pay would start next month, and then next month, and then next month... I nievely trusted him and was hungry for opportunities to impress him and develop a good career as well as the significant financial gains the shares would bring. Over this time I was living off my roll but with travel and living exes I had spent the best part of 40k and was very close to running out! I had been trying countless times over the months to finalise my contracts and sort out all the details of the job but was being put off and the details sent to me changed on a weekly basis. I explained the situation to my Dad and the other major shareholder in the company and told them that I needed to start being paid immediately because I couldn't afford to keep living without any income. I was met with the rather unpleasant answer of 'we won't pay you a penny cause there isn't a job for you at all, on your way'

In the middle of all this my wife got pregnant with our first baby girl, it wasn't meant to be though, she died before she ever took a breath. It completely broke our hearts and the coldness of my parents and the company I was working for and the lack of support was truly awful. My dad barely even acknowledged it when I told him we were expecting, he focused on how inconvenient it was and tried to push me in to moving permanently to Brazil and leave my wife in the UK have the baby and maybe join me later. My mother was equally destructive and played her part, lying to us and pretending to support us while using the situation for her own gains.

Looking back now I believe that the whole job offer was fabricated by my dad to try to gain financial control over me and to put distance between me and my wife to try to split us up. (there are lots of other things that happened too to support this) and make me lose my roll so I couldn't continue to play poker professionally.

To be continued...

I had a few issues with my father, but this all seems really dreadful.  It is astonishing the things that some people's family's do that they excuse by saying they are in the interests of their children.   

Christ!

I almost wish I hadn't asked.

Almost   ;popcorn;

Sounds  bit like a JR Ewing story. 

Jesus Christ I didnt even know that families like that existed. I hope karma kicks in and you get a well overdue upswing in life luck.....

Thanks mate, Iv already had the life luck upswing, 😉 I'm out of the bad situation now, Iv got a wonderful, beautiful, supportive wife, living the dream on a boat with very little stress, Iv spent the last year and a half driving massive trucks that Iv always wanted to try...
Iv never been so happy!

Great to hear that  ;danafish;

I had a long shift today, spent 6 hours on a sainsburys site waiting for a load to be tipped, 'piss up' and 'brewery' come to mind! Oh well, at least I get paid by the hour. Enjoying the evening drinking beer and watching from dusk till dawn, class! Taking the boat out tomorrow for the last time till the spring, going to be a fun weekend.

Good luck , sounds like you deserve it.

2014 the recovery

After the disappointments of the previous year we decided we were going to really focus on ourselves, doing stuff that makes us happy and being self sufficient as much as possible. I was doing casual work, some manual labour, some driving vans, some placing bets for sports betting/promo people that I know. We took up martial arts again and we started to dance salsa. Dancing is a wonderful hobby and I'd highly recommend anyone, single or in a couple, male or female take it up immediately! We decided we wanted to move out of Mansfield so renovated our house and put it on the market for sale. It took around 7 months for it to be completed and sold, we had considered doing this as a money making venture but it was hard and unsatisfying work for us so that idea got in the fucking sea. We didn't make a profit because id bought in 2007 at the height of the boom but released a decent chunk of equity to find our next adventure, we moved in to a friend's spare room and waited to see what was around the corner...

 ;popcorn;

2015 Uruguay
We decided to make decisions based on experiences so spent a month in Uruguay (Mrs tache is from South America) and a month in Hong Kong (where I'm from) to see what work and business options there were for us before comparing them to the UK and choosing how the next few years are going to look. We stayed at a farm around an hour outside Montevideo and it was amazing! Beautiful countryside, very safe, weather was top notch, people were friendly although almost no one spoke any English so I was in at the deep end with my Spanish. Wood fire for heating in the evenings and cooking so the first thing I did was learnt how to say 'I want to buy an axe please' and went to the local hardware store and got one! Several hours of sweating later I wished I'd learnt 'chainsaw' instead! 😉 We got to talking to a couple of people I had been introduced to and looked in to a few business options, vehicle rental, opening a gym, online estate agency, building and selling houses. They all seemed sort of viable but it would have taken so long to set up and would have needed a pa full time to help with translation issues that we would likely have ran out of money by the time we got started so it was kind of a no go. I played a little poker and won the $100 rebuy in the local casino much to the disgust of the locals so that paid for a few great nights out. The food, beer and wine  in Uruguay is second to none, and I have eaten and drank in some great places in my time. All locally produced, all organic (in fact they don't have a word for organic because no form of farming uses chemical fertiliser or pesticide because they just don't need it) to sum it up, beautiful amazing country and we will defo go back but it wasn't right for us to start the kind of business we want so we moved on...

Enjoying this more and more!

Just caught up with this diary , an excellent read.

Thanks for sharing your experiences on Blonde.  ;applause;

It's my pleasure to tell these stories!

Really loving this diary aswell.

Really gripped by your life tale.  Thanks for sharing this stuff (good and bad).

2015 part 2 Hongkong

We flew straight from Uruguay to Hongkong, well I say straight, we flew Montevideo-Sao Paulo-Chicago-Hongkong, one of the worst flights Iv ever done, and Iv been on some catastrophic flights! Transferring through Chicago they recommend that you give at least 5 hours to make your next flight and even then people often miss them. We did check and that is the least painful way to fly that far in that direction but I'd be hesitant to do it again unless it was really necessary. Much worse than London-Hongkong-Sydney and that is a notoriously bad journey. Anyway, we landed in HK exhausted after a month in the South American winter in the countryside in to the stinking heat and humidity of the city. I love this city as my original home but it was still rather a shock. Our small serviced apartment we rented for the month was right over a 24h busy main road and the noise and heat was relentless. Hadn't heard a siren for a month and then didn't go 10 mins without hearing one! I met up with some people I hadn't seen for ages and looked for work and business options. Business was a no go for us, there is just too much competition in every field I have any experience in. There is plenty of work but the ethic there requires very long hours and the reward isn't great because of how expensive rent is. 1500-2000 per month for a tiny studio in the worse areas of town, and lots more if you want deprecate bedrooms or a modern building with clubhouse or a central location. I went to Macau (obv) and had a great time, enjoyed the food more than the poker, the standard has got better since I was last there and the rake is still redic so it's not really a long term option either. Loved my time there but not for work at the moment. Next stop UK...

 ;popcorn;

Merry Christmas all, hope you had a good holiday and hope it's still ongoing! I'm back at work, unfortunately had a couple of unexpected expenses so have been putting in the hours at work and pokers on the back burner a bit until Feb, still got the same plans more or less but adding and removing bits as my plans and interests for the next few years develop. Poker is looking like it's going to play more of a support role as a second job or even maybe a hobby that happens to bring in some money, I'm wanting to invest my time and hard earned cash in something as future proof as possible and I'm trying to take in as many options as possible. If anyone has any ideas about growing markets and industries then post them up please. 👍

It's hard living on the boat in winter, have to have your wits about you to make sure we don't run out of water, all the outdoor taps get turned off to prevent damage when it gets below 0, keeping the fire going because when it goes out the temp drops really quickly and it's harder to restart due to cold air pressure coming down the chimney. One night I climbed on the roof with the Hoover and stuck it down the chimney to get a draw going because the boat was filling with smoke! Worked a treat but quite dangerous I suppose. It's very satisfying when it's all going well and after problems are solved and I love it, hard work though! I'm used to flicking a switch for all my needs and can't anymore...

What a life you have had, remarkable stuff, but the stand out headline is you mentioned you were in "reinforced concrete & construction".

Your readers need more detail on that. Rebar, shuttering, that sort of thing?

Fire lighting tip. Light a few loosely crumpled sheets of newspaper on top of your smoldering fire. It will draw in air from the bottom (and consequently through your kindling) and force hot air up the chimney creating a draw.

My time in construction was rather boring to me, I wasn't very heavily involved at ground level, I spent most of my time in offices learning about the marketing and plans for building cheap social housing for the future, we were working with 2 products, lite steel which starts off in 3mm sheets and a single machine shapes, stamps rivet holes and cuts it in to all the I bars required for a build and this can be done on site. Typically less than a tonne of steel is required for a 2 bed detached house. The finish was a concrete and expanded polystyrene mixture that is applied to the steel frame with huge spray guns and smoothed before it dries. Quick and cheap to build with and has good insulative properties. I would have much preferred the practical side of construction than sitting in an office with people who really shouldn't have been there and have them routinely ignore my suggestions and then watch the business struggle as a result. The majority of the successful projects were in disaster relief areas like Thailand, Haiti, St Lucia to rebuild whole villages after storms, earthquakes etc.. I would defo go to someone else if you require advice for building your own homes, my knowledge is rather limited. Although I would love to build my own house in the future I am much more likely to use straw bales and lime mortar, that's my idea of luxury!

Thanks! All advice is well appreciated! Usually Mrs Tache has a lovely warm fire waiting for me to warm my feet on when I get home from work so I'm really quite lucky!