Looking for affiliates and staking. Hmu

Been playing super inconsistent recently. All results this year been at husng. Think it's pretty easy to rise up the ranks on sky as most regs bumhunt as rake is high. Only battles you'll get is at hypers and turbos and just avoid benc haha

Stars is very good for game ecology and there frequent player/rakeback system is the best out there but if you're not playing enough volume at sufficient stakes then you wont feel the benefits - perhaps consider going to an ipoker skin where you can get a decent RB deal - that way even playing B/E poker you will be able to make a few hundred a month relatively risk free.


David

How times change

looollll

Any updates? Enjoyed reading this from the start, what's happened the past year or 2?

haha cheers mate, mental to think people have read this from the start. I'd like to think I've sorted my life out a fair bit since then but realistically if I look back at my 2018 self in 2021 and don't think I was a mug I'm probably doing something wrong

Any updates? Enjoyed reading this from the start, what's happened the past year or 2?

KingPush it would be good to get an update, if you could give some advice to 2104 you. What would it be?

Jesus, the reality is that I probably wouldn't listen to it. If you've ever tried to help someone when the solutions seem really obvious to you but not to them then you realise how hard it is to change anyone's view on anything but I tell myself that nothing external is permanent and to drop all the shite you're still carrying around and that it's really not that serious.

sick graph g. How's the rake in HU PLO or our edges so big no one decent cares?

Jesus, what a shit show. Way too embarrassed to read back through this


https://gyazo.com/65831fd6a3f245bbf8aa2a04471fba22

Still got it though #ijustwantobebillybob12 #aq101runslikeagod

Cheers for all the replies and interest.

Realised that playing poker and your ability to do so at any decent level really does just come down to what you are thinking at that time, which can be super hard to accept especially with variance involved. I would guess that I have done far more work off the table theory wise than most mid stakes players and yet I am not at those stakes due to my inability to concentrate during sessions and my issues with tilt, especially in creating my own downswings, and volume. Think knowing what to work on is half the battle in a lot of ways. But yeah haven't been playing much and doubt I will for a while with uni stuff and the inevitable boozing that comes this time of year.

I'd bet/call flop. Unlucky

Great question, I'm not really sure how to answer this but I'll give it a shot. I think the answer to this is that the work you do off the table should lead you to making easier decisions and having a more "simplistic" thought process during actually playing. Ranges are huge in plo, board texture shifts are often and knowing how the value of your hand will change, how often we will have a top 99-90 percentile hand, 70/50 etc on all the run outs is important when constructing your action decisions. Knowing how ranges interact with diff boards, how ranges interact vs each other on diff boards and how actual hand value interacts with our overall range, then how that interacts with opponents range leads you being able to kinda autopilot decisions. Thinking about all this in game in going to cause (for me anyway) some absurd decision tree where I'm just going to be making mistakes and expending huge amounts of brain effort. This is where the off the table work is so key.

So my basic thought process would be:
What is our range?
What does our range look like?
what is our opponents range?
How do preflop actions define both sets of ranges?
What is the texture of the flop? (static/dynamic/heavy/light etc)
How does our range interact with it? (our value and blockers)
What are the possible runouts for this board, and how should this help define our flop strategy?
Same for the turn as previous 3
How have the actions on previous streets helped to define both sets of ranges?
What do all these mean for our opponents range and how he plays it?

A lot of these are intuitive (you may think of them differently but pretty much everyone thinks of them in some way or another).

Good stuff mate, cheers. While we're on the big picture stuff, what mental challenges do you think you've faced when playing poker or has it always been fairly plain sailing in terms of emotional responses, going with flow of game etc?

Nice results buddy. As you were saying impossible to actually tell what win rate is as the sample size will never be big enough and by the time it is you and the rest of the pool will have fluctuated in abilities a tonne without even regarding the mental state you are in. I was just wondering when you get into a hand what is your thought process like? Do you take your time and think through a lot of things or just gut? I've tried a few different things but none of them seem to have stuck. Because the one I have used most recently is just simple: my range, their range and then think of who has the ev advantage and then make decisions off that with reads added in if I have any. What does yours look like? if you don't mind answering obviously.

[I will follow it up if you don't mind]

Have followed the diary for a while. Should of posted more before but haven't so apologies...unless what I say is rubbish and if so, you are welcome for me not posting more!

You need to think seriously about what you want. You seem to think of extremes. A 9-5 job means you dread it from day to day and cant wait to get out the door. That is bollocks, that means you have the wrong job/are in the wrong industry. You can be just as passionate about the right job as you are about poker. However if you think the path to get where you want is easy you are kidding yourself whether that be in poker or in a job. You are young and with whatever you do you are the bottom of the ladder. There isn't a magic formula apart from be passionate in what you want to succeed in and work hard at it. You seem quite driven in one post then in another you talk of working hard and doing 60hrs a week. 60hrs a week if you are passionate about a future in something is the kind of commitment you need I would say. Gone are the days were you can do very little and make a chunk from poker. Winning mirrion aside from an MTT, the only way to make a go of poker is to grind your arse off and constantly increase your roll and slowly play bigger and increase the amount you make. There isn't a sensible quick fix.

Yeah I honestly think this post is what I was trying to communicate. When I say fuck the 9-5 I do not mean, every job where you work for someone else etc it is just my way of saying to myself do not do something you hate. I saw ny Dad get up at 5.30 in the morning and coming hope at 8 doing something he hated for over ten years until he finally quit after an emotional battering. I do not mean fuck every "real job". And yeah the posts probably do change a lot when theres a 9 month gap haha

We're both in a similar situation I think.

As mentioned, we are both 10 years too late but are far too stubborn to give up something we've sunk so much time and effort into. It's frustrating to think about how you could have got on in poker if you know what you do but it was 2005 again. Like you watch old EPTs or WSOP on Youtube and think "Jesus I would be printing money if I could go back in time".

We probably both have days where we think this is going to work out after all, and then we get cruelly reminded that poker is a massive soul crushing grind a lot of the time unless you're one of the super-elites.

I stopped having an interest in become a 'pro' a long time ago. You don't need to be the piss bottling, hoodie wearer with 3 monitors on the go to enjoy poker and make a few quid out of it.

If your BR is £500 per month, and it never increases much even if you win because you dip into it to pay for living expenses - then you need to find another source of income for a while. If only to keep you sane when someone gets there in a big pot against you and you don't feel you need to cash your remaining money off so you can eat more than instant noodles that month. Get away from poker for a couple of months, save a bit up, go out and explore. You might find that you prefer it this way.

When I got back into poker about 4 years ago, I was jobless with no real direction. Just split up with my girlfriend I was living with, and freshly moved to Bedford because I had nowhere to stay back in Cornwall and my family moved up here. I got ~£110 in jobseekers each fortnight. Saved up £300 of it and put it online, and then LOLpunted it because I hadn't played poker for 3 years and the 10NL crowd owned my soul $3 at a time. I developed an obsession with it as a way to get my mind of my shitty situation in general, and after getting a job a couple of months later I had a nice floating bankroll that I could replenish if I had a bad month. Because there was no real financial burden on me, I could experiment with different things in poker and not stress if it went badly.

About 3 months into that, I really wanted to do it for a living. Until I actually tried to. I had decent results, but it felt no more liberating or free than working a normal job. I used to see people on the tube in London with their suits and briefcases all miserable because they have to spend their lives in the corporate office bubble. I used to really look at them and think they were stupid, and that I've found the greatest life hack in the world in poker. 21 year old me thought he'd never be a suit with his head buried in paperwork from 9-5, and that it was the nut worst situation in life for anyone. I thought that until the 'grind' became a grind. Instead of being buried in paperwork, I'd be buried in hand histories all day. I'd go days without speaking to anyone, living off cheap energy drinks and Dominos pizza. Stuck deep for a fortnight before getting out of it and back to even. If those people on the tube saw me they'd be the ones laughing I reckon. I was free in the sense I didn't have to clock in and report to an overbearing, micromanaging boss, but the reality of it is I was stressed, not sleeping and neglecting myself so much for the poker dream that I was slowly going mad.

---

There are always going to be mutants in poker that show up on the EPT having just turned 18 and seem to win the world within 6 months, and it's tough not to compare yourself to them and get a bit down about it because you've been at it for a while with bugger all to show for it except GoldStar and 15000 Starscoins.

It's easy to tell you to get a job and take some time off, but if you're anything like me in 2012 then taking time off would make you feel like you're drifting further and further away from what you want. I think it might be what you need though. Some steady income, something else to focus on for a few hours a day.

If you're as like minded as me as I think you are, then I think it could be just what you need.

Superb post. I will follow it up if you don't mind

Serious slowroll going on!

for real, this better be aces

Been a while. Back into full time education now as the qualifications I did have were in no way good enough for me to do anything I wanted or was capable of. Poker wise I've still been playing and studying a fair amount but only microstakes on N8 and a little bit on sky and just churning a little bit of money but nothing life changing. So yeah nothing has really changed although I guess I am no longer on the road to be a pro. I'd still like to get as good as i can possibly be at the game though whilst getting good at other stuff. I still enjoy the challenge and the learning of it extremely enjoyable and also I don't think there are many other things in life where you need to be top 10% in your pool to make any money, if not you lose money. Because of this I think poker forces you to try to get better whereas doing your average 9 to 5 I think you are generally encouraged to stay the same. I still can't see myself doing that in the future, working a 9 to 5 for someone else. It just doesn't appeal to me, I know I have been called a nihilist in this thread before but I don't really care, and that's probably coming from a place where you also had those thoughts as well until you bottled it or realised it was never really what you wanted anyway.

On the other hand, I can definitely see how poker is and can be a pretty damaging thing. It provides a great escape for people who are just running away from other issues and i definitely think this was one of the reasons I started. As Ransom said you feel like its a life hack but in reality you are just running away from actual life. As with all things I think poker can be part of an abundant life and it can also be a terrible method for people not to really live a life at all for whatever reason, eventually though you are going to have to shit. And yeah being a poker pro really isn't what it is cracked up to be for most people and i don't think i'd recommend it to anyone unless they genuinely loved it but i wouldn't recommend anything to anyone unless they generally felt like it was something they wanted to do and were inspired to do, rather than something they needed. I won't lie though I still see myself playing high stakes one day online and live but I'll be happy if I don't as well.

https://youtu.be/wzdrAU8q0fk?t=12m50s

Hand History #1088096525 (21:16 13/10/2016)
Player   Action   Cards   Amount   Pot   Balance
Jrubis25    Small blind       £0.10    £0.10    £12.41
KingPush    Big blind       £0.20    £0.30    £58.68
     Your hole cards   
Q
Q
          
kidwiz10    Fold            
walks2311    Raise       £0.60    £0.90    £65.59
stingerbil    Fold            
Jrubis25    Fold            
KingPush    Raise       £2.20    £3.10    £56.48
walks2311    Call       £1.80    £4.90    £63.79
Flop
         
3
Q
10
          
KingPush    Bet       £1.18    £6.08    £55.30
walks2311    Call       £1.18    £7.26    £62.61
Turn
         
5
          
KingPush    Check            
walks2311    Bet       £5.00    £12.26    £57.61
KingPush    Raise       £13.63    £25.89    £41.67
walks2311    Call       £8.63    £34.52    £48.98
River
         
7
          
KingPush    Check            
walks2311    Bet       £24.60    £59.12    £24.38
KingPush    All-in       £41.67    £100.79    £0.00
walks2311    Call       £17.07    £117.86    £7.31
KingPush    Show   
Q
Q
walks2311    Show   
6
4
walks2311    Win    Straight to the 7    £116.06       £123.37

Accept the risk

Agree with the 'get a job' advice. Not thought about potentially getting staked?

I've spoken to people about it and they've normally told me not to. I haven't looked into it that much myself though. I also have kind of unprovable results since I play on a load of untracked sites.

Hey Kp

If you are still staying at home, why not get a part time job whilst playing poker also?

Did do this before when I pretty much went busto and couldn't pay bills. Actually worked ok so I'll def have a look.

What games/stakes are you playing?

6max nl, have played from £10 nl to £250nl in the last 2 months, would say I am confident in beating anything below 100nl on shittier sites and have a pretty good winrate at those stakes for a long time.

I appreciate all of the advice and I'm going to reread all of it before I respond, I'm just replying to the direct questions at the minute but it seems fairly unanimous.

I have essentially been in the same loop ever since I started this and even though I haven't really gone anywhere, I still roughly have the same net worth, I still haven't moved out, I still feel the same way about a lot of the same people, I don't regret doing it and I don't regard it as wasted time at all. I'm glad I didn't get a job from Monday to Friday and then take drugs legal and illegal to keep me awake on the week days and keep me awake on weekend nights and have to keep this job to keep the whole thing up. I've been reading about this living wage thing that people are talking about and it makes a lot of sense to me. People do a lot of shit they don't enjoy either because they need the money or feel they do. This is no way to live. Although I have enjoyed everything I learnt along the journey so far it is time for me to move on from it. I need to move out and I need to be able to take care of myself financially without any outside help.

I've just realised I came on here to say what would people do in the situation I am in. My monthly living costs are roughly 500 quid and my bankroll is often not much more than this. The way I see it I have a few options. One is the legit way, get a job build bankroll using that then keep building it. I am worried with this one that once I get said job, which will be fairly low paying I'd guess as my cv has nothing on it, I'd be stuck in it. This is probably irrational and whether it is my ego or what but I know I do not want a job. The second one is go on a massive fucking heater. I have done this before and run it up to a couple of k a couple of times. 1/2 regs are a lot better at no limit hold em than .10/.25p. The third is bink something. Definitely one of the more tried and tested routes out of the slums for poker players. For every jmo and Cambridge Alex I'm sure there are a few Brad booths though. The fourth is punt. Probably not the smartest thing to do but they give you an overdraft for something and I'm almost certain it is to 3b bet bet bet for 25% of it. Also one of the most used by poker players. The last is to just work doubly as hard. I've definitely been working way harder than before and seeing some results. I've never really had to work hard at much in my life as I've been fairly fortunate girls, friends, school all required fairly little actual effort from me to be in my eyes successful at. Although I was not the best at getting girls, the most social or the best at school I never really struggled at any of it. Something did happen to me though which definitely changed me for the worse and has taken years to undo some of the effects but that definitely made all of these things more of a struggle but I also would have been on the path we discussed before so swings and roundabouts. Also any time I faced any adversity I'd just stop doing it. My life was a piece of piss looking back on it. If I had continued this path I think I could have been fairly happy but I'd never be actually good at anything and I'd probably be stunted and completely unconscious in a lot of ways. Anyway poker is the first thing in my life I have properly tried at apart from maybe pro evolution back in the day but that was definitely more for fun. I am not saying I have worked hard at poker over the past however fucking long i think by most peoples definitions i definitely haven't but I have put more hours into it than anything I've done before which is weird as I have put less effort into other stuff and seen much more immediate rewards. I don't really know why I've stuck with it so long I do love it but I think it is completely stupid in some ways and some times I think I enjoy learning something knew about it and then implementing this into my game plan rather than actually playing the game with all the noise that goes on with it.

So yeah I think I'm just going to work 60 hours a week next month and see what happens. If this is not good enough then I'll do a rethink.

GET IN THERE. Cheers to the bloke who put up his draft king picks