Advice for getting out of the rutt

[Karabiner]

So you won't play online because you believe it is not a level playing field but have been playing live at Notts Gala!

Obviously a "glass half-full" man like tikay

[AlexMartin]

stop treating the missus imo.

[redarmi]

I have been playing similar level live as you and my biggest piece of advice would be to watch what you are spending.  You may be a better player than me but 5k seems a lot unless you are putting in a lot of hours and even then it is only 20k a year.  That isn't going to cover more than your bills and the odd night out and if you have run pretty good you will need something in reserve for the bad runs that will come and if you have only played for a living for 3 months you probably have no idea how bad those runs can be.  A 2-4k bankroll is really not that much and to be able to take advantage of your skills and the good runs you have to be able to manage your bankroll.  i have been gambling for a living in some form for 10 of the last 15 years and all of my biggest mistakes have revolved around bankroll management and in that time all of the gamblers and poker players I have come across that have made significant amounts of money have been superb at BR management yet some of the most talented poker players and sports bettors I have known have consistently gone broke by being bad at managing rolls and have spent unwisely after big wins.

[RED-DOG]

I have been playing similar level live as you and my biggest piece of advice would be to watch what you are spending.  You may be a better player than me but 5k seems a lot unless you are putting in a lot of hours and even then it is only 20k a year.  That isn't going to cover more than your bills and the odd night out and if you have run pretty good you will need something in reserve for the bad runs that will come and if you have only played for a living for 3 months you probably have no idea how bad those runs can be.  A 2-4k bankroll is really not that much and to be able to take advantage of your skills and the good runs you have to be able to manage your bankroll.  i have been gambling for a living in some form for 10 of the last 15 years and all of my biggest mistakes have revolved around bankroll management and in that time all of the gamblers and poker players I have come across that have made significant amounts of money have been superb at BR management yet some of the most talented poker players and sports bettors I have known have consistently gone broke by being bad at managing rolls and have spent unwisely after big wins.

Great post.

[pleno1]

I like you Alex. You are a nice lad and you think about the game in good depth, I'm sure you will sbe successful no matter which route you go. For someone who comes across so intelligent your view on online poker really does confuse me. I think you should grind online if you really do want to move up the levels.

[SuuPRlim]

Whenever me and you talk about poker Alex I always get all nostalgic as its how I started kind of, so I feel like the story of how i built and lost my bankroll/started playing full time might be slightly useful for you.

When i was 19 I had a decent job and a nice amount of money behind me, I was always playing lots of poker but was so bored i decided I was going to live in cyprus (random lol) so 3 days after deciding this Id handed my notice in at my job, booked flights and paid for 6 months accommodation I had a bunch of money on full tilt and was gonna grind pokers out there to support myself. Unfortunately my interest in poker faded and my interest in getting drunk eating massive meals and trying (REALLY TRYING) to seduce the holidaying girls took over 8 incred months later there is no-one about any more I have 5 days left before I dont have a house anymore and most of my friends have gone home...I had $0 on full tilt, -£1000 in my bank account and -£2500 on my credit card and less than 40euros to my name, the cheapest flight home being about 140euro's. SO I worked on the harbour for three days striaght made enough for a flight home and got back to england. I couldn't tell my mum and dad i was broke because they knew how much money i had when i went to Cyprus and Id been lying whilst i was over there saying i was working (lol)

So I rang my old buddy Jamie Sykes up and asked him if he could lend me £150, which he said he couldn't cos he was skint as well, so i went to see Ray Illey who ran the card club i used to play at and asked him if i could borrow £150 to gamble with (lol) and he gladly handed me £150 - I  got in my car drove straight to leeds to play .50/1 and sat with the lot, won that night, played the next 15 nights consecutively and had about £3.4k (although i cant really remember) I paid Ray his £150 back (and bought him a bottle of magners to say thanks lol) and went to napoleons to play the £2/£5 game (lol) things go terribly and im in for the whole lot sat with about £1.3k when i get into this hand with Laurence Gosney. I 3bet JT and th board comes JT8, we get it in and he has Q9 and I bink a J, we then  go on an insane run and by the end of the month I have about £11k...I then put some money on full tilt and a couple of Euro sites, grinded the 1/2 game at gala and the Naps game when it ran and went from there.....

Now this might sound like an epic story, and it kind of is to a certain extent, but the problem with spin ups is you need to snap realise 1) when to stop spinning up! and 2) When you're loosing momentum, I never grasped either of these concepts and after my great success online at .50/1 and 1/2 I took to the 5/10 and 10/20 arena with the same reckless abandon that I employed during my live spin up, I never really looked back at that month and realised JUST HOW LUCKY I GOT. so that lesson cost me abut $60k and spiralled me back into busto-ness. I spent a bit of time staked, playing smaller etc but never really got back because I felt like my one time magical spin up had gone and the only way to actually get a roll was to go on a run like that, then this year i figured out Its not about the stupid shots, or seeming l;ike a bit of a balla payign high stakes stuff, its about working on your game all the time, good money management and putting lots of hours in...

So the point of the poitnless story is this....grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind, squirrel money away and use it to take shots, when your doing well in your game, say your up £250 and have £400 in front of you, persaude everyone to play £1/£2, and get people straddling etc, speshly if there are a few guys loosing, stuff like this can turn good nights intpo mega nights (I remember one night this year at gala I started outplaying 1/2 and get everyone to agree to unlimited srtraddles etc, made it 2/4 and ended up running like jesus and winning about £4k lol) try limit ur spending obv, just like any other business and set monthly targets, but the MOST IMPORTANT PART OF these small stakes live games in game selection - DO NOT PLAY IN BAD GAMES!!! I try to get there abiut midnight when generally there is more money about and some people are tilting/ loosing - if the game looks shit dont play in it.

and ffs get urself learnign the 4carded game and start grinding along, stick $1k online after a decent week (euro site entraction or iPoker ftw imo) and grind the low stakes games hard during the day, cos man they are SO FKIN EASY! also try and play FTOPS/WCOOP etc cos u just need to one time. I firmly believe people who just play live will always be slightly behind the curve of the guys who play online, as there is so less motivation to improve and work on ur game.

spin ups are all well and good but you need to not get carried away in the heater, sell %'s for bigger games and look after your money, it might seem like there is a rutt, but at the end of the day ur paying ur bills so it's not a rut, this year i've grinded and its been a much better experience than the first time around + I wont make the same mistakes this time round. you tlk/think on a high level imo so you obv have the ability, just apply urself as you are are the heater will come.

More senseless drivel from me I know, but I wish you much much good luck and have every faith we will be both 3betting durrrr and ivey on high stakes poker season 7

[SuuPRlim]

I have been playing similar level live as you and my biggest piece of advice would be to watch what you are spending.  You may be a better player than me but 5k seems a lot unless you are putting in a lot of hours and even then it is only 20k a year.  That isn't going to cover more than your bills and the odd night out and if you have run pretty good you will need something in reserve for the bad runs that will come and if you have only played for a living for 3 months you probably have no idea how bad those runs can be.  A 2-4k bankroll is really not that much and to be able to take advantage of your skills and the good runs you have to be able to manage your bankroll.  i have been gambling for a living in some form for 10 of the last 15 years and all of my biggest mistakes have revolved around bankroll management and in that time all of the gamblers and poker players I have come across that have made significant amounts of money have been superb at BR management yet some of the most talented poker players and sports bettors I have known have consistently gone broke by being bad at managing rolls and have spent unwisely after big wins.

Great post.

yes, very good. If only Id met you 3 years and you'd have told me this Id prolly have about $100k additional monies to my name.

burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrn strip clubs

[pleno1]

<3 Suprrrrr

[titaniumbean]

Massive Dave are you basically saying that the best way to be a pro is to gamble hard and run good?

Why did no one ever tell me that and how they hell do you do the 'run good' bit !?

You also fail to mention that sitting on my right and losing to me also elevated your game whilst also explaining the reason you moved to 4 cards :p

[titaniumbean]

Also Alex realise that live games just have stupid amounts of variance, that you'll never get to the learn term really so you have to accept the stupid swings.

Also stop spending money on anything all monay spent is -ev innit. Take shots with good discipline but you'll also need to start improving your game by playing online and really step up the work you do away from the table.  You could try playing some of the smaller MTT's online but you need to know how to play them + run good + put in a decent sample + be able to afford it etc.

[RED-DOG]

Whenever me and you talk about poker Alex I always get all nostalgic as its how I started kind of, so I feel like the story of how i built and lost my bankroll/started playing full time might be slightly useful for you.

When i was 19 I had a decent job and a nice amount of money behind me, I was always playing lots of poker but was so bored i decided I was going to live in cyprus (random lol) so 3 days after deciding this Id handed my notice in at my job, booked flights and paid for 6 months accommodation I had a bunch of money on full tilt and was gonna grind pokers out there to support myself. Unfortunately my interest in poker faded and my interest in getting drunk eating massive meals and trying (REALLY TRYING) to seduce the holidaying girls took over 8 incred months later there is no-one about any more I have 5 days left before I dont have a house anymore and most of my friends have gone home...I had $0 on full tilt, -£1000 in my bank account and -£2500 on my credit card and less than 40euros to my name, the cheapest flight home being about 140euro's. SO I worked on the harbour for three days striaght made enough for a flight home and got back to england. I couldn't tell my mum and dad i was broke because they knew how much money i had when i went to Cyprus and Id been lying whilst i was over there saying i was working (lol)

So I rang my old buddy Jamie Sykes up and asked him if he could lend me £150, which he said he couldn't cos he was skint as well, so i went to see Ray Illey who ran the card club i used to play at and asked him if i could borrow £150 to gamble with (lol) and he gladly handed me £150 - I  got in my car drove straight to leeds to play .50/1 and sat with the lot, won that night, played the next 15 nights consecutively and had about £3.4k (although i cant really remember) I paid Ray his £150 back (and bought him a bottle of magners to say thanks lol) and went to napoleons to play the £2/£5 game (lol) things go terribly and im in for the whole lot sat with about £1.3k when i get into this hand with Laurence Gosney. I 3bet JT and th board comes JT8, we get it in and he has Q9 and I bink a J, we then  go on an insane run and by the end of the month I have about £11k...I then put some money on full tilt and a couple of Euro sites, grinded the 1/2 game at gala and the Naps game when it ran and went from there.....

Now this might sound like an epic story, and it kind of is to a certain extent, but the problem with spin ups is you need to snap realise 1) when to stop spinning up! and 2) When you're loosing momentum, I never grasped either of these concepts and after my great success online at .50/1 and 1/2 I took to the 5/10 and 10/20 arena with the same reckless abandon that I employed during my live spin up, I never really looked back at that month and realised JUST HOW LUCKY I GOT. so that lesson cost me abut $60k and spiralled me back into busto-ness. I spent a bit of time staked, playing smaller etc but never really got back because I felt like my one time magical spin up had gone and the only way to actually get a roll was to go on a run like that, then this year i figured out Its not about the stupid shots, or seeming l;ike a bit of a balla payign high stakes stuff, its about working on your game all the time, good money management and putting lots of hours in...

So the point of the poitnless story is this....grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind, squirrel money away and use it to take shots, when your doing well in your game, say your up £250 and have £400 in front of you, persaude everyone to play £1/£2, and get people straddling etc, speshly if there are a few guys loosing, stuff like this can turn good nights intpo mega nights (I remember one night this year at gala I started outplaying 1/2 and get everyone to agree to unlimited srtraddles etc, made it 2/4 and ended up running like jesus and winning about £4k lol) try limit ur spending obv, just like any other business and set monthly targets, but the MOST IMPORTANT PART OF these small stakes live games in game selection - DO NOT PLAY IN BAD GAMES!!! I try to get there abiut midnight when generally there is more money about and some people are tilting/ loosing - if the game looks shit dont play in it.

and ffs get urself learnign the 4carded game and start grinding along, stick $1k online after a decent week (euro site entraction or iPoker ftw imo) and grind the low stakes games hard during the day, cos man they are SO FKIN EASY! also try and play FTOPS/WCOOP etc cos u just need to one time. I firmly believe people who just play live will always be slightly behind the curve of the guys who play online, as there is so less motivation to improve and work on ur game.

spin ups are all well and good but you need to not get carried away in the heater, sell %'s for bigger games and look after your money, it might seem like there is a rutt, but at the end of the day ur paying ur bills so it's not a rut, this year i've grinded and its been a much better experience than the first time around + I wont make the same mistakes this time round. you tlk/think on a high level imo so you obv have the ability, just apply urself as you are are the heater will come.

More senseless drivel from me I know, but I wish you much much good luck and have every faith we will be both 3betting durrrr and ivey on high stakes poker season 7

Another great post.

[SuuPRlim]

Massive Dave are you basically saying that the best way to be a pro is to gamble hard and run good?

Why did no one ever tell me that and how they hell do you do the 'run good' bit !?

You also fail to mention that sitting on my right and losing to me also elevated your game whilst also explaining the reason you moved to 4 cards :p

yep. horrible, was impossible to make a pair and peole kept betting more than the pot, was madness

[titaniumbean]

I taught the kid everything he knows lmao.


Live is so com. hahahaha  Tennis ball keyrings ftw

[SuuPRlim]

I taught the kid everything he knows lmao.


Live is so com. hahahaha  Tennis ball keyrings ftw

truuuuuuuuuuue dis
Of my current £3.21 fortune, your responsible for over £2 of it.

[titaniumbean]

I taught the kid everything he knows lmao.


Live is so com. hahahaha  Tennis ball keyrings ftw

truuuuuuuuuuue dis
Of my current £3.21 fortune, your responsible for over £2 of it.