blonde poker forum

There tends to be a pivotal moment in a poker players career where they bink a win/big score to set them up for the future.

Unfortunately this is yet to happen to me, with my biggest win being around £1.5k.

I'm a low stakes online MTT part time grinder, and have been having a lot more success on the smaller euro sites instead of stars, where binks arrive lot less frequently.

Like everybody else in the poker world, I'm looking for that one big score to set me up and thinking about taking a few shots this weekend.

To all the heroes out there on this forum, what was your pivotal moment, and how did you decide to take your shot?

was it a big gamble or a percentage play of your BR?

Took A LOT of shots. Close once or twice. Yet to have that pivotal moment.

Think grinding is the answer tbh, instead of hoping for that one mega bink

Depends if poker is your sole income.

if it isnt  take as many shots possible


if it is dont take many shots. Sell slices of yourself might be a good idea also

If you're a low stakes MTT player looking to take a shot, I'd recommend taking it by satelliting into a Sunday Major or FTOPS type event, or even one of the big $55s etc on a Sunday. The field will be comparatively weaker than events of similar buy-ins on a different day due to the number of satellite qualifiers. Obviously the down side is the field size is bigger, but after all you're shot taking.

To pick a suitable event look for events that have lots of satellites running to them in the lobby, this is easily done on PokerStars and Full Tilt by going to the target event e.g Sunday Kick Off as it displays the sattelites to it on that page. As for Ipoker/Ongame/Party etc they'll obviously run sattelites to their Sunday Majors but no idea about their other mid/high buy-in mtts as haven't played on those sites for ages, if ever.

I'd advise binking the first live MTT you ever play :D

Ironically, that's probably a bad thing for most people.

imo you should use money in your bankroll with minima utility to value to shot-take, so sposing you play $10 abi tourneys and you have a $3,000 bankroll and you can happily grind off that $3k, all of a sudden a couple of gd days now you have $4600 br and you don't particulally need the money for real life (obviously punting with money that you have real use for in life is a bad idea) then the way id see it is $1600 to take some shots, if you lose it then you're back as you were no harm done, and if you cop a gd score you've got a great chance to power on.

Wrong. Play as if you have a $4600 bankroll. Shot-taking (betting above Kelly Criterion) is ruinous to your chances of long term success, if you take this attitude you will very likely have a $3000 bankroll forever.

Yeah what Keys says.  Compounding is key to increasing your bankroll.  If you take a shot with the $1600 then you might never be able to increase stakes properly.

I've never really taken any shots to be honest. I've gone against BRM rules reasonably frequenting for live comps. E.g. Not selling for the odd tournament thats higher than BRM allows me to play or not selling strictly enough for x comp etc, but I think that's fine when it's infrequent enough that it's not going to damage your bankroll long term.

I've never been much of a punter/gambler, part of me has always wanted to punt 1/4 of my roll on one comp or cash game, but I know I wouldn't play properly, I'd grind out a mincash because the money would mean so much (adding 50% to my roll etc) or turn down so many +EV spots in the cash game, that I wouldn't feel like I was playing a good game.

I play my best when I'm comfortably rolled for the game, but not so overrolled that the money doesn't mean enough.

Well there was this one tournament in July last year....

A few days before I wasn't going to play it, then Ryan Brodsky told me I should play it, I said I couldn't afford it (was a £1k and I had about £3k to my name!) he said sell for it etc. I wasn't convinced, then Keys texted me saying that him and Keith had come to an agreement to stake me, starting with this tournament. I had to sell 20% though, I sold 10% on here, and bought 10% myself for £100 (so that was a shot in itself lol).

Anyway, the tournament went pretty well and I have never looked back :)

You win it? ;)

Nah think some Jamaican dude with sick tekkers school-tarped him.

Oh wait... that was the second final table in said £1k event.


What a life it must be...

I wish I had taken more shots throughout my gambling career, because I would likely have learned a lot and be a stronger player than I am now. However, in my circumstances I have never been able to take regular shots since I have too many responsibilities with a wife and kids.

If it is any consolation, you don't need to have that 'pivotal moment' in order to build a roll and make a living from poker. It never happened to me. I have never binked a big tournament, or even a medium-sized one for that matter. And whenever I have taken shots in big games I have never had a good run that gave my roll a sudden boost. Yet despite this, I have still been able to build up a comfortable bankroll which allows me to play in fairly big games (usually £5/£10 blinds) in relative safety. It has taken many, many years to build this roll. And it has been very tough, frustrating and stressful at times - with many setbacks along the way. But there is at least a certain satisfaction and self-belief that comes from knowing that I have done so without 'getting lucky' in a tournament or booking a big score when having a shot in a cash game that I was not fully rolled for.

If I had won a £1k event five years ago I might be twice as good a player as I am now because I would have been able to expand my play, take more risky lines, experiment, and challenge myself more. I might also have a HUGE roll by now, through the compounding effect. But it didn't happen. Which is a pity of course... but it is not the end of the world. I have become a fairly decent player regardless, and I have built up a fairly comfortable bankroll regardless. And who knows, perhaps I have learned some important things from building up a bankroll 'the proper way' rather than binking something early on in my career.

I just read this back through and realise that it comes across as a combination of a thinly-veiled moan and a rather smug-sounding brag. I ended up just writing about myself, which was not the intention. But I am going to post it anyway, because the reason I wrote it was to reassure you that you don't need to have a big bink or a golden run at some stage in order to build a bankroll and make it in poker. It is no doubt easier if you bink a 1k event early on, or if you put 20% of your roll on the table in a high stakes game and run hot. But it is quite possible to do it without this, just through working hard and not giving up.

taking shots is fun tho! depends why you play, if its for fun and you earn money in other ways then there's nothing wrong with the odd dart at the big dimes.

pretty hard to answer OPs question Stu without talking about yourself! I felt my post might come across a little braggy but decided to post it anyway cos OP asked for our personal experiences (and its fun to brag :P)

Stuart a lot of what you had posted is exactly how I feel about my poker career over the last 15 years an I have as you have in my opinion did it the hard way an to be honest to myself I am proud of the life I've achieved for myself an my wife an 2 kids. Although I might have had more live tournament cashes I feel we have a lot in common in grinding a steady income to build are bankrolls up over the years an in honesty if I didn't have the responsibilities of family life I would of taken more shots. Do I regret not taking more chances in my poker career well having 2 beautiful daughters surely answer that question.

More respect needs to be given to guys like you two who GIQ for years and years and provide for families without being on telly or binking EPTs.

who you talking about  matey as is really deep for this time of night ! X

Thanks Alex... but lol at you, all loved up and basking in the afterglow, bestowing compliments ;)

when i first watched rounders (i knew nothing about poker), i thought knish was an idiot. now it's pretty hard to watch it without thinking how dumb mike is.

yeh don't know what's come over me, especially being nice to charra!

Sobered up now. Thanks Alex xxx ;thankyou;

great replies, thanks..

to clarify..

I don't 100% rely on my poker winning for life expenses, however I am self employed so I haven't got a stable monthly income either.

My business is in the starting stages, so money is tight and more or less breaking even each month.

I play poker on a part time basis, mainly every sunday, and some evenings mid week.

I did play for a living around 2 years ago, but couldn't handle the swings etc, so thought I'd take a less stressful approach to life and go self employed and pay taxes instead.

Anyway..

@dino1980

I do take quite a few shots at the sats into the bigger events.
I've won seats into the sunday million in the past, but had no joy in the actual event..

binked a cheap feeder tonight, into the 55 euro sat for DTD 500 deep-stack, which plays tomorrow night, so hopefully win a seat for that!

@kinboshi

tried & failed lol

@suuPRlim

When ever I've had a decent bankroll (£1.5k) abi £5-7 - i've always been really good with it, and managed it well.. generally getting really close to doubling the roll if I had laddered a few more spot on final tables etc..

However sometimes the roll just flat lines, and eventually starts going south.
When it gets down to the £750 mark, I start to gamble it up a little and start taking shots, which is obviously a bad idea, and should be doing the opposite and start playing smaller.

So I do like your idea of using the extra amount on top of the initial BR to take shots.

But then @skolsuper makes a good point too!


@cambridgealex

I've been a regular reader of your diary, and your progress has been so sick! maybe one day I'll win a big live tounrey too... better get binking the seats first!

I really thought the last DTD 500 was my time like all of the other day two returning players, but only managed the min cash! :(


@honeybadger

great post, and great story.
Sounds like you have great work ethic and have solid discipline to get to where you are now, hats off.


Overall I need to think about what I want from poker...

and making a big score is always on my mind as I don't have the hours to grind any more, but can't really afford to take multiple shots all the time too..

I have a roll of around £1.5k, so could grind 200 tounreys, ABI £7.5 games
or take a few higher shots first, then start grinding if it doesn't work out.. humm