100%+ 'staked'  is a good example of Ego > Intelligence

Who would you fancy for the last longer from that Brits list?

Several players who are consistently there or thereabouts, but I think I'd go for Carrel.

Hey Pads, hope you're well.

From the wsop reports it seems you've built a decent stack for day 2, any chance of an update?

Wishing you run good etc 🤗

What are the main Euro sites that UK players can play, out of interest?

I second Doobs remarks on Polk - he's clearly a bit spoilt and up his own arse, but if you can see beyond that he's very entertaining and clearly intelligent. I think Pads said something recently along the lines he'd been surpassed and wouldn't be in the top 1000 or something players online. I just find that difficult to reconcile/agree with, given his continued success live and online.

Wow, that's a couple of huge sites who are essentially free rolling their business via player funds, if they wish - for example, investors are more likely to invest if it's 'basic' protection, with a higher chance of some return in the event of the company going into administration

It is when grandma folds all boards she misses / has a suspect three bet shove range ☺️

Hey All,

Are any of you planning to play this tournament over the weekend at Aspers, Stratford?

I'm gonna play either tonight (6pm) or tomorrow (2pm), still undecided but would be nice to put a face to those who are playing

Need to be very careful in London with renting, I was shown a flat which looked ideal, the guy showed me this garden but then gave me this look and honestly felt like a shark/fox was sizing me up, lol

He then gave me a 'contract' and asked me to transfer £300 to his personal bank account that night, and before signing the contract, to 'hold' the property from further marketing.

The school boy error he made was giving me his correct name, which upon googling showed up a history of scamming would-be tenants out of £'000s ... tried to let a property behind the true owners backs, as an example. Be careful and cautious is all I'd say!

Just wow, what an incredible woman.

[20% of the prizepool is taken out in seats as usual]

£100k gtd £200 weekly comp.  Amazing stuff to be running a comp like this weekly in Nottingham at an affordable buy in.  Good luck to everyone involved running it.  Shame 20% of the prizepool is taken out in seats as usual though to play an event i have no interest in playing.  Suppose that is the catch.

Unless I'm missing something, 20 x £550 is significantly < 20% of the prize pool - looks like 11% to me?

$500 is not to be sniffed at, a change of fortune perhaps?

Assuming you are going to stick at it, I really feel you need to take on board some of the advice on previous pages; number 1 is having the right mentality, approaching the game positively. Stop finding stats illustrating how badly you've ran - think about it, what does that actually achieve, asides from making you feel like crap? If you are going to analyse your game, focus on finding your weaknesses and strengths, then do less of one and more of the other. It has to be constructive, not 'I'm running 75% less than expected value' etc etc

Good luck 🙂

I'm at the early stages of my career in tax, three years in (having just sat what are hopefully my last two CTA exams!)

I agree there's obviously significant money to be had by coming out of a practice and working in the City for a big bank, etc., and likewise traders/bankers have obscene earnings potential.

I hope in 17 years I'm earning well in excess of £500k, RPI adjusted ofc 😂

[I would probably be earning well in excess of £500k a year now if i had never left that business.]

Interesting read Pads.  I can relate to both sides of the coin as i did 5 years 'corporate' straight out of uni training on a big 5 firm ACA programme then left for bet365 worked 5 years 'corporate' in the gambling world and 11 years punting/arbing/poker for myself since.   I think you underestimate a lot of the downside of leaving the rat race, the huge potential earnings back weighted towards the end of your career when your earning potential is huge if you are that talented but you have to suffer in your 20s being underpaid.  No one with real talent (which you will need to win at the rates you quote at poker in 2016) will be reaching peak earnings anywhere before mid 30s at their earliest.  However these earnings can easily be a 'risk free' £500k+ for 20+ years after that period.  There is no risk free in poker.

I don't regret any part of my career and i certainly would have regretted leaving uni to gamble full time in 1996 (it wasn't possible then in reality like it is now).  I hated most of my 5 years doing ACA but it taught me so much about the reality of the business world and provides THE greatest business education going bar none imo and makes me appreciate the lifestyle i lead now.   Without doing that i would never have got the opportunity to sail into a job at 365 which, in turn, allowed me to work easily for other firms after before i gained sufficient skills and knowledge to go it alone.

I appreciate poker in 2016 is slightly different to my story but i think you massively over estimate the work ethic and drive 99% of graduates have.  You are a bit of a freak when it comes to being single minded and driven.  Because you surround yourself with similar types from all over the world i think you think you unique skill set is more common than it is.  99% of guys in their 20's want to play sport, drink loads and shag loads of birds (as well as act like a total degen for a few years gambling with your new found pay packet which i managed to do as well!).   I know i did and if i was 21 again i would do exactly the same things as i choose to do back in 1996.

The vast majority of high level graduates also have no interest in taking real risk with their life/career either.  They have no interest in taking risk and just want a cosy middle England lifestyle which they grew up in and think it totally achievable.  For every Rutter and posh boy there are literally thousands of people like them with identical backgrounds who just wouldn't even consider a poker lifestyle/career even if there was a potential to make £10m a year at the end of the rainbow.

I left the corporate world to gamble as a lifestyle choice mainly and i am sure i would be financially much better off at 42 if i had stayed as an ACA.  I would probably be earning well in excess of £500k a year now if i had never left that business.  I hated it though and left to work in an industry that i was passionate about not for financial gain ultimately.

I call.... 🙂

I admire your confidence Arbs, but what proportion of ACAs in London with, say 20 years experience (lets add 15 to your 5 years experience), do you think are taking home £500k/annum now, let alone 'well in excess of'?

To give some perspective, partners at the Big Four were paid an average of £750k, £722k, £715k and £727k respectively in 2015... so basically your expected salary is at around that level?

Of course you might be managing partner at a top 20 firm by now, or set up your own practice which had become ridiculously successful (massively unlikely due to the glut of competitors, hence all the mergers of practices you see nowadays to enable growth)...  but my point is, only at the highest echelons is £500k+ salaries realistic.

I'd suggest an average, successful ACA with 15-20 years experience might be earning in the region of £80k-£150k, varying based on the size of firm.

Doobs - assuming Pads lived in the U.K. for three years continuously at some point prior to living abroad he can make voluntary Class 3 NIC contributions now and one day draw on his future UK state pension from Uruguay if he so wished...

Class 3 contributions I believe are currently £14/week, state pension is currently c £120/week - seems a no brainer to me, but I'd welcome your views.

Evilpie - I take your point, I guess my overriding theme is having some form of future savings scheme in place, particularly with a poker career...which I would suggest has similarities to that of a professional footballer in terms of peak years, and a likely tail off as mental faculties and drive diminish. I would suggest the drop off in income (or loss!) for poker players at that stage is incomparable to that of your average middle aged employee.