Prose from a Poshboy

[cambridgealex]

I hope this will be an interesting read and that it’ll offer something different to the already buoyant market for diaries as I don’t think there’s many entirely live players on here so that might provide something different. It'll be about a poshboy from cambridge trying to make it as a live pro living in the heart of gangsta nottingham
 
No-one is bothered too much about peoples past, but I think mine is fairly intrinsic to my future (in an invisible way, mostly) and I'm only 22 so there isn't much of it to wade through!

I grew up just outside of Cambridge, eldest of 3 boys. I have an extremely good relationship with my brothers and a generally OK relationship with my parents. My Dad went to Eton, studied at Merton, Oxford and has worked in the city ever since and is very successful. He paid for us all to go to a very good school in which I did pretty good. I was massively into music during my childhood, played in Orchestras, sung in choirs all my life up until 18. It was absolutely my passion during all this time and it was what “put me on the map” at school.

I left with 3 As in Economics, Maths and Music and decided to study Economics at Nottingham Uni with the intention of keeping my Music up as a serious hobby. I felt my life path had been set out for me ever since I was born and there had never been any question of me deviating from it. University was, I thought, just the next step, assumed. 49% of my year achieved 3As or more at A Level, half of these going to Oxbridge universities.

So 3 and a half years ago I left school, and took a Gap year before University. It was during this year that I, firstly, discovered Poker and secondly, branched out of the bubble I had unconsciously been living in for my whole life. My very best friends at school rode horses, played croquet, studied Greek poetry, subscribed to the economist and sang Schubert songs together. I learnt that these were rather peculiar hobbies for 18 year olds. People drank alcohol to get drunk apparently. People had sex.

Strangely it wasn’t my trip to Kenya where I discovered about this bubble. Despite being the only white man in a 50 mile radius and being completely out of my comfort zone for three months witnessing severe poverty first hand, I had sort of expected this and whilst being the experience of a lifetime, it wasn’t here that influenced me the most. It was my time in South America travelling and volunteering with other English and European travellers where I learnt just how fortunate I had been in my upbringing. I was instantly singled out among 15 or 20 volunteers as being the posh one; my accent stuck out, I had a cocky way of walking around apparently, I was arrogant, opinionated, even sexist and bigoted. I had no idea how to relate or communicate with some of the people I was forced to interact with. Let’s just say I could ascribe pretty strongly to some of the ideas behind the famous youtube video “Gap Yah”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKFjWR7X5dU

I met people from much less fortunate backgrounds who had excelled at their schools, got into excellent Universities and seemed very rounded and balanced people. I began to resent the way I had been brought up and when I got back, resented a lot of my school friends for their unawareness of the things I had discovered.

[Tractor]

Nice introduction, looking forward to this, especially the live cash.
Good Luck.

[leethefish]

interesting start ......
i am totally and utterly completely from a differant walk of life so this looks like could be good for someone like me!!!

[cambridgealex]

interesting start ......
i am totally and utterly completely from a differant walk of life so this looks like could be good for someone like me!!!

we humans can learn a lot from one another i believe...!

[cambridgealex]

University was a bit of a letdown. Like a parasite, my interest in poker grew and although I ended the year with a 2.1 a few weeks into the 2nd year I decided to change course (thinking that the course was the problem). I was too late to switch straight away so had to take another year out. I worked at DTD as a dealer for 8months, fulltime then parttime. I called myself a semipro player as well, playing HUSNGs online where I was a winner and splashed about in some live cash where I was a loser. The combination of my HU game and my love of watching high stakes poker meant adjusting to full ring live cash took a long time. But it's always been my favourite form of poker and I've worked hard at it. I love the social aspect of live poker, the psychology behind it, interacting with a huge range of society. And I always preferred cash to tournaments because of the deeper stacks made for much more interesting and complex situations. And of course you could play cash all night, whereas I was often asked to leave the tournament area after a few levels.

It didn’t take long to become fully immersed in the poker world. I slept during the day, I worked and played at night. After a shift, a bunch of the dealers and I would go back to mine for some 3-6handed 5p5p home games, that lasted until 10am and beyond sometimes and inevitably got at least 1000bbs deep after a few hours of mad dealers choice games, triple board 8 card Omaha etc etc. I got on far better with these guys than I did my housemates from Uni.

I loved dealing sometimes. The buzz of my first deepstack, walking in thinking I was going to be dealing to some of the best players in the country (lol). But most of the time my job entailed dealing the nightly comps, a lot of 0.50 1 cash and I became incredibly tilted by how bad everyone was, knowing I could do so much better. I hated dealing final tables of the Super 50 for example where more often than not, there was 9 absolute chumps sitting round a table playing for 15k prizepools. From February 2010 I worked 2 nights a week and played the rest of the time, and from June, I stopped altogether. My mate from DTD, Steve, also quit, and we did the pro thing together for a month or so. Absolutely loved it, came top 4 in 3 DTD comps in a row for about 1.5k (which at the time was 2months fulltime wages), went out loads, just generally had a great time.

I’d saved up enough from DTD / poker to go travelling in the summer (My third excursion, this time Central America). Had a pretty sick time over there, Guatemala was absolutely stunning, Mexico a bit meh. I had 5 days to kill at the end and about £1000 left over so decided to fly to Vegas and finish off with a bang. I had about 5buyins to my name and lost 4 within the first 24 hours. I span my last $100 into $1k in 3 hours one morning and then lost it all being a complete prick. I carried on playing all day and all night without eating or sleeping, no idea what came over me, I was chasing, tilting, completely out of it. Never ever been like that before – it was always a strength – bankroll management, discipline. My friends always commented that I didn’t have a gamblers mentality. I suppose that is the danger of Vegas.

[Longy]

Good opening post.

I will go for the obv question. What do you parents think about what you are doing?

[boldie]

excellent opening post.

[david3103]

And I always preferred cash to tournaments because of the deeper stacks made for much more interesting and complex situations. And of course you could play cash all night, whereas I was often asked to leave the tournament area after a few levels.

Fabulous turn of phrase - more please

[outragous76]

great start to your diary

i enjoyed this too

I hated dealing final tables of the Super 50 for example where more often than not, there was 9 absolute chumps sitting round a table playing for 15k prizepools.

[cambridgealex]

Good opening post.

I will go for the obv question. What do you parents think about what you are doing?

They pretty much hate it. They no longer think of it as mindless gambling, which is progress. They realise it's a skill game and that it is possible to make a living from it. They like that I play live rather than online where social interaction is minimal. Other than that they hate everything to do with it. Sigh. They like seeing me happy though and don't try to talk me out of it anymore which is good. I think they're waiting for me to give it up of my own accord.

[RED-DOG]

Good stuff Alex.

Do I know you btw? Can you post a pic or something?

[AndrewT]

Good stuff Alex.

Do I know you btw? Can you post a pic or something?

He's only 22 - I doubt he was at Eton the same time as you.

[cambridgealex]

Good stuff Alex.

Do I know you btw? Can you post a pic or something?

I know you lol, you may recognise me from DTD, I dealt to you a lot. I'll put a few pics up over the next few days.

[GreekStein]

This should be a good read Alex - I can draw a lot of parrallel's with you.

Private education, excellent results in school all my life. Then screwed off Notts uni playing and dealing at gala (just before DTD opened).

[leethefish]

Good stuff Alex.

Do I know you btw? Can you post a pic or something?

+1