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1921  Poker Forums / Diaries and Blogs / Re: From Drinking to Binking (Diaries of a Pub Poker Player riding his one time) on: February 16, 2013, 11:04:46 PM
As an english student, and a bit of a wanker, I can confidently say Dave has used the term appropriately Cheesy
1922  Poker Forums / Diaries and Blogs / Re: From Drinking to Binking (Diaries of a Pub Poker Player riding his one time) on: February 12, 2013, 05:25:20 PM
I suppose what I'm trying to say is that I have a bit of a problem with the connotations of the word "gambling". When you say that someone is a Gambler, you conjure up all these images of roulette tables and crazy adrenaline sports and all that, but many people seem to struggle with seeing that there can be a skill edge. I don't see myself as fitting the negativity that many people seem to connect with the word, more that I gamble with a view to achieving the highest adge possible, and that's what makes it profitable.
1923  Poker Forums / Diaries and Blogs / Re: From Drinking to Binking (Diaries of a Pub Poker Player riding his one time) on: February 12, 2013, 04:54:23 PM
GPS Leg One and the poker stigma.

So, after a days sleep, I feel ready to write my second proper blog entry. Over the weekend, I played my first ever tour event in Star City, Birmingham. Before I get on to the tournaments, I feel I have to talk about the place. The casino itself is wonderful, the service was mostly good and the staff/dealers did a fantastic job. I felt more at home than I ever thought I would, and found it pretty easy to settle into a rhythm and feel comfortable at the tables. Big thumbs up to Genting Smiley

The tournament itself went really well. I had a little ego problem at one point (Which Simon Deadman was on the receiving end of, sorry matey :p) where I made a play and showed the bluff, and spent the next half hour being annoyed with myself for letting my ego get the better of me. Thankfully, it was close to the end of the day, and we had a break just after, so it didn't have too much of an effect. I made day 2 with somewhere around double the average stack, and played really well all day (barring a play where my bet sizing on the river was embarassingly bad, put the guy on pretty much his exact hand and just levelled myself into a bad bet). That aside, I felt very comfortable, played some hands that I was very happy with, and overall feel encouraged that I could make a decent impact at some future events. I ended up running into someone who picked up AA two hands in a row, then made a BB squeeze with all of my remaining chips with A6, succumbing to KQ after a Q on the flop. I finished 28th for £1020, which I can't really be disappointed with as an entrance to the tour, although I guess we always hope for more.

The big story of the weekend, however, was Adiman, a member of the loughborough crew who took down the side event for a tidy £6.8k, his biggest tournament win to date. Made some great decisions all weekend, finally starting to get some of the results that his standard of play deserves, well played matey!

I want to talk about an issue that I'm sure everyone here has come across at various points in their poker career. Some members of my family insist that poker is never a viable career option, that it is gambling and a game where luck prevails. I don't even think of myself as a gambler. I have never played roulette, I have very little understanding of blackjack, have never played a slot machine, and only occasionally play back at a three bet with  three diamonds Wink. I have tried many times to explain the concepts of E.V., of bankroll management, and of the sheer amount of skill that is involved in the decision making process that makes us long term winning players. I am constantly amazed by the amount that people claim to know about a game they have never played, and how they feel they can judge my life decisions as confidently as they seem to.

This subject has come to my mind after a recent experience with a tutor at my university, when I was trying to explain that I wanted to switch a module to give me the freedom to travel to three day events and play the friday session. After explaining this, I was met with the following response. "First of all, I would like you to understand that poker is not a career, it is just gambling." As I was readying a response, I was struck by the notion that I didn't need to get involved in this conversation. People very rarely seem to leave arguments with a different view point, or indeed in a positive frame of mind. All I could think was that trying to combat this statement would not achieve anything. I would leave feeling frustrated, and the tutor would leave with exactly the same opinion, and a rather more negative one of me. The stigma is something that I have come to accept as a player, and I would much rather let my bank balance defend my stance.
1924  Poker Forums / Diaries and Blogs / Re: From Drinking to Binking (Diaries of a Pub Poker Player riding his one time) on: February 09, 2013, 03:00:45 AM
Played the first day of my first GPS today in Birmingham today, up to 163.4k where the average is in the high 60's. Played good, run good, pulled off a very sexy OOP float that I just know Dave woulda loved Wink
1925  Poker Forums / Diaries and Blogs / Re: From Drinking to Binking (Diaries of a Pub Poker Player riding his one time) on: February 07, 2013, 04:54:17 PM
I lost HU in the deepstack over the weekend to Lil dave, but still came second, which got my bankroll up from like 4k to 25k.
1926  Poker Forums / Diaries and Blogs / There and Back Again: A Punter's Tale by Matthew Harris on: February 07, 2013, 04:04:42 PM
I figure, for my first proper entry into the forums and my first diary/blog/whatever, I should start with a bit of personal background. I might move on to talking about the odd strategy point that has helped me develop as a poker player, but I certainly intend to keep this as a diary with weekly entries. If anyone has any comments or suggestions for future entries, please feel free to post! This one may be a little boring, but its a start I guess. I hope you guys like it!

I first started playing poker when I was 14, in Austria, on a school skiing trip. Everyone seemed to be playing, so I figured I'd sit down and try to learn. I started playing heads up with a friend, with another friend dealing, and for about an hour I won nearly every pot (little did I know, the dealer was fixing the cards for me basically every hand, if I'd know what a flush was I'd have won every hand!). From there, I went home, set up an account on Zynga Facebook poker, and played pretty avidly every day for a good few years, grinding up a good $5mil roll playing mostly sit n gos. By the time I hit my GCSE study time, I was regularly playing for my bus fare home, and consistently beating the game. This continued for quite some time, before A levels started to come along and poker took a back seat in my life for the next few years. Towards the end of this time, I managed to get a job as a technician at my local bowling alley. I kept this job for about 7/8 months, before ending up on massive life tilt with my boss over my hairstyle (I was, unfortunately, a grammar school boy. We were told we couldn't have hair below the collar, I was/am a bit of a rebel/wanker so I grew my fringe down to my chin) and handing in my notice.

In the meantime, I had discovered that a couple of local pubs ran a pub poker league, registered, and sat down to give it a go. I still play that league whenever I can, I owe the Champions Poker League an awful lot. The top however many percent of players at the end of this league go through to a finals day, which i achieved three out of three attempts, bubbling twice. Through this, I started to feel like I could see the skill edge in this game, and became pretty obsessed with finding winning strategies. My style developed fairly quickly, I started working out common tells and betting lines which correlated to hole cards, betting lines and board textures etc. that left me captured. Beating the luck became a priority. By the time I'd lost my job, I had played my first big live tournament. I won a seat to a satellite in a raffle, bubbled the satellite getting silly happy with 4's, and then used the overlay money to play a side event that was running that day. After busting the very first hand and re-entering, I played probably the most solid game I have ever played and final tabled. This would lead up to one hand that would define my poker over the coming months. Utg +1, who was tired and just about had me covered (I was about average stacked) raised, and it folded round to me in the BB. I looked down at QQ, and shoved it in, getting a somewhat loose call from 77 given how tight I was playing, but obviously I don't mind. Winning this hand was giving me very nearly the chip lead, and as I was busy checking the payout sheet, the guy spiked a 7 on the turn to take me out. Obviously, this is just one of those wonderful variance things that we all know and love, and obviously now that I've played a lot more, it's fairly easy to take and just move on. At the time, however, this was crushing, and very nearly ended my career before I even thought it was possible to have one.

After some time staying on the pub scene, and gaining a reputation for my pretty fiery temperament, I took another shot at a local poker festival. I bust out early from a side event, during which I layed down AKs preflop and got shown AA and felt like God for all of another 10 hands, I then sat down in their main event, made day two, and bubbled. I was starting to see a bit of a trend here, but over time my view had changed. I felt like I could recognise a few mistakes I had made during the tournament, and developed a real sense of "you aren't a champion, until you've earned it". Whilst still frustrating, I felt that I had now made some decent runs in some decent tournaments, and could see myself improving every time I played. I started to play the odd cash game and tournament at these places, and found myself having some success. I felt like I'd got a taste of the life of a professional poker player, and was hooked on that lifestyle. I will also point out that I have never read a book on poker, preferring instead to develop my own game and be influenced only by what I've seen work instead of falling into the common trends. Now, I am starting to look at some poker literature, but I feel like I've defined my own style and am now looking to understand how other people think a little better, as well as making a few adjustments to my game as I now have a roll to experiment with new lines and lose for a little while.

I didn't make enough to avoid coming to University, so I decided to apply and enroll at Loughborough, which is a short drive from Dusk till Dawn (what a shocking coincidence...). Up until this point, I had always viewed professional poker as more of a dream than am actual possibility. Then, I joined the poker society, and started to play regularly at DTD. The group that has come together really is incredible, the standard of player that I get to play with and learn from at this university is truly stunning. The core group are all proven winning players, and the discussions that we have about poker theory and spots on a daily basis are helping us all to improve to a level where we can all see ourselves spending a long time in this game. Grinding the 50/1 game at dtd to pay through university has shown us what it really feels like to play for a living, and I can only hope that I can live up to the standard that I expect from myself and make it in this business.

Right now, I have just come away from placing second to "lil" Dave Nicholson at the dusk till dawn £300 deepstack event, for £21,000. Not only do I feel like this is my shot at my dream, but I also feel like the group I'm with will make it with me. We can all feel a big year, and now that I'm sitting on a £25k roll, I feel like I can start hitting the UK circuit. I'm currently preparing for the GPS Star City, and having a bit of a sentimental moment, reflecting on how my attitudes to the game have changed, and how much our group have improved as players over the last few months. I know I haven't made it yet, but if this is my one time, I intend to take it.
 
1927  Poker Forums / Live Tournament Updates / Re: DTD February £150,000 Deepstack: Day2 and Final on: February 05, 2013, 12:05:26 AM
The pub raffle thing was my first ever live tournament a few years back in a side event to a poker festival in brighton (literally the worst feeling ever, QQ into 77 at the final table and he spikes a seven, not that i remember at all.... Wink). I won my seat to this event through a satellite and a beautiful folding performance Smiley (I'm such a nit...)
1928  Poker Forums / Live Tournament Updates / Re: DTD February £150,000 Deepstack: Day2 and Final on: February 04, 2013, 05:59:20 AM
Thanks Smiley I think it's clear where I need a little more work and a little more experience, but prior to heads up I'm happy with how I played. BIG bankroll boost Smiley
1929  Poker Forums / Live Tournament Updates / Re: DTD February £150,000 Deepstack: Day2 and Final on: February 04, 2013, 05:51:35 AM
Hey guys, makes sense that my first post comes on this thread! Glad so many people watched my biggest ever tournament cash by some margin, fantastic to play with so many great players. I think my inexperienced showed through heads up, where I quite rightly got crushed (sounds like a popular result though!). Hope I didn't embarass myself too much overall, fantastic atmosphere, hope to make a more serious run at the national circuit sometime soon. Full credit to Dave, one of the nicest guys I've ever met and showed true class, both through his poker and his grace in victory. A worthy winner! (WHERE THE FUCK WAS MY SPADE!)
Matt
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