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.

Expanding on Tikay's point, I'd note that annual pension contributions are restricted to a max of:

- £3,600; and
- 100% of 'relevant earnings'

Relevant earnings does not (currently!) include poker profit or investment income (such as dividends and rental income), but does include self employment/partnership income and of course employment income (if you have non-poker sources of income). There's also a max 'annual allowance' for personal pension contribs (currently £40k), but I won't go into that too much per the above restriction. The key point is your ability to pay into a registered pension scheme is restricted if your source of income is 'non qualifying'.

I think most people would agree that paying into an approved pension scheme, either through your employment (deduction at source) or via personal pension contributions, would seem prudent for future income planning - compound interest, etc.

I think making voluntary NIC contributions should also be considered for someone in your fairly unique position, if you expect to stay out of the standard NIC contribution system (i.e. Employment and self employment) - to preserve certain entitlements you may one day need (full state pension, etc); we of course don't know what the state benefit system will be like in thirty years but the risk-reward (v small yearly contribution compared to full state pension you'd currently get) seems a no brainer...


One other point I'd note is you're at the peak of your powers currently, but when you're 55+,  it quite as able at 12-tabling, and Pleno version 12 is winning the lot, you might regret some of the decisions you made now if you haven't planned wisely.

Disliked Moss's role in the whole malarkey, particularly his remark regarding Will 'uploading a picture with a £500 stack in front of him a few days ago on Twitter' - such a nobbish / cheap comment. The fact he was sharing this with Bleznick, who comes across as abhorrent, didn't help.

Ah, ok, your chip stack / position etc. changing obviously alters everything completely... although I would disagree, there certainly is such a thing as a guaranteed satty seat... you just have to teach yourself to fold Aces/Kings etc. when you're effectively locked up! 😆

That Aces / AJ hand is brutal 😡

Mate, seriously consider if doing this full time is good for your wellbeing - you might be pleasantly surprised at the relief / release from stress you get by getting back into a 9-5 with guaranteed wages. Dave it for the weekends and maybe you'll bink the Sunday million ... 🤗

Good luck either way, and just remember there's much more to life than poker.

Having watched episodes 5 & 6  tonight I think WK came across much, much better - the fact they based both shows primarily around him showed his entertainment value. He comes across as annoying in a harmless way on a bad day, and someone who can make a table worthwhile on a good day.

Definitely agree with the above point re opponent not being given an opportunity to think, which to me seems to be the tactic - overwhelming the opponent with chat in the hope they'll make the wrong decision.

He also comes across  as a complete tool -'9 high like a boss' - is he 15 years old? Then repeating it to his 'mates'

Reviewing the other hands, the 6-8 diamonds jam against 10 BB effective bvb? I prefer a raise-fold to jam. Yes it'll work a lot but you don't need to take the risk with your stack, the BBs lost there could have snook you into a seat.

A5 hand - check from the turn? depending on his bet sizing on the turn-river re-assessing if to fold on river. When you shove, what's the purpose? Lots of hands we lose to and a few Ace high hands that will call (opponent dependent) basically.

Kinda curious as to how you were 1/24, had 2.5 x his stack and came out with four big blinds... but anyways....

I'm not loving calling A5 in a normal tourney depending on the small blind's stack to ours, but in a satellite where we have a seat locked this is the snappiest of snappy folds - timebank every hand (particularly if it's very short stacked as your 'left with 4 big blinds' indicates!) - we're playing for 16th or better, not to win. I'd suggest either an element or ego or an automatic process of calling such spots in normal tournies was involved here.

I'm no expert on ICM, but folding everything here is likely +EV considering you've bought in for $27 with a circa 75 x prize at stake.

I'm a United fan, but I think most people would agree United's 'relatively' good goals against record (35 goals conceded isn't exceptional by any means, look at their record in the Fergie post-93 era) last season was largely a product of LVG's no risk style - pass-pass-pass, side to side, keep the ball, suddenly it's half time and 0-0 again.

However, to say they have 'no defence' is ridiculous - you don't think the likes of Shaw, Blind, Smalling would be snapped up by the top four? Having one of the world's top three goalies usually improves a defence too.

United will improve hugely this season - Mkhitarayan (German player's player of the year), Zlatan (best player in France last year), Bailly (wonderkid defender) and Pogba (deal is done for arguably best player in Italy last year) - add in Jose and I can definitely see us competiting for the PL.

Re tax rates, national insurance is a regressive tax... it reduces from 12% (for employees, 9% if self employed) to 2 % once the Upper Earnings Limit (circa £43k gross income) is exceeded; so it's more like 42% for higher rate taxpayers (£43-150k) and 47% for additional rate taxpayers (earnings > £150k).

Well perhaps not, tanking your hand down each time rather than being auto-mucked might be worth a spot or two...

But who am I to argue, Arbboy, you always know best!

I agree with Doobs that any criticism looks results-orientated on first glance, but I suppose my query is, given his stack pre both big hands, at what point do we just shut down and fold our way to the FT in a satellite-type 'we've a seat locked' mode? The guy in 9th has circa 6 million chips for comparison, and is now guaranteed a milly + free shot at a multi-milly spin up. If Will folds every hand, Aces included, he's a lock for FT given the speed players went out afterwards?

I guess it depends on Will's finances too, if he can afford to go for the lot then can't really fault those hands too much.

From an ICM viewpoint, I found the way in which Kassouf exited interesting. He had something like 26m before first Aces hand, and from how the reports read effectively turned his Aces into a bluff, losing 10-11million ; then gets 15 million in with Kings pre.

If he 'small balls' both hands, checks back on a street, etc, he's probably final tabling.

Clearly it's never bad to get Kings in pre, but in the specific circumstances of the main event, when you're in final 18, and the pay jumps are huge, who plays his hands out differently?

moved post.....

Will take opportunity to say thanks Mere and Tighty!

110 points for me, how apt.