Vegas, but no Aftermath - Diary

[The Camel]

I'll tell you what was interesting - we put a huge tray of chips in the oven for tea.

On offering them to 11 kids, only one had some!

In contrast, we put a big bowl of fruit out - bananas, apples, oranges and stuff. And it was all hoovered up in seconds!

The kids of today huh? With all their healthy eating and stuff.

[pleno1]

Going to be around the EPT this month tikay? Any PLO/plo8 tournies you fancy?

[AlunB]

Going to be around the EPT this month tikay? Any PLO/plo8 tournies you fancy?

 

[pleno1]

haha ok, same applies to keith then! around ept?

[tikay]

Going to be around the EPT this month tikay? Any PLO/plo8 tournies you fancy?

I'll answer that on my Diary, to avoid messing up Keith's Diary, which is more of a family affair these days.

As a quick aside, though....

A while back, Keith was going through something of a crisis of confidence in his NLH game, (misplaced, imo) & was wondering if the game had moved on & was starting to pass him by.

So I wrote to Keith, at some length, & suggested he take up Omaha.

I don't know if he gave it much thought, but I'm convinced Keith could be a decent winner @ PLO. It takes a certain sort of person to play PLO, & Keith, it seems to me, has all the attributes, including, & most especially, advanced age.

One thing he could NOT do is play PLO8 - the lower variance & chops would do his head in, I suspect. But PLO, yes, I'm pretty sure he'd be very good.     

[The Camel]

I just logged onto to Pokerstars for the first time in a couple of weeks.

I checked my VPP balance.

Lifetime VPPs 2,883,086.95

Yearly VPPs 8,124.65

Monthly VPPs 7.20

I have played the grand total of 5 tournaments on Pokerstars in 2015.

I think you can safely call me a "former poker player"

[arbboy]

I just logged onto to Pokerstars for the first time in a couple of weeks.

I checked my VPP balance.

Lifetime VPPs 2,883,086.95

Yearly VPPs 8,124.65

Monthly VPPs 7.20

I have played the grand total of 5 tournaments on Pokerstars in 2015.

I think you can safely call me a "former poker player"

My lifetime pokerstars vpp's are zero.  I never had an account even when i was a poker player. Nice to know your money is safe and not to deal with firms who break the law.

Keith did you ever play heads up stt's on any site seriously other than stars back in the day?

[engy]

arb who was the player on betfair you used to play a lot of h/u stts? he used to have a blog and complain about getting cheated in 1k stts. was it lee something?

[The Camel]

I just logged onto to Pokerstars for the first time in a couple of weeks.

I checked my VPP balance.

Lifetime VPPs 2,883,086.95

Yearly VPPs 8,124.65

Monthly VPPs 7.20

I have played the grand total of 5 tournaments on Pokerstars in 2015.

I think you can safely call me a "former poker player"

My lifetime pokerstars vpp's are zero.  I never had an account even when i was a poker player. Nice to know your money is safe and not to deal with firms who break the law.

Keith did you ever play heads up stt's on any site seriously other than stars back in the day?

Not really. Played a few hundred on FTP and even less on IPoker.

But I always loved the Stars software and support.

Then I got tangled up in the chase for Super Nova Elite one year. I still needed 13,000 VPPs on New Years Eve and I was flying to Oz for the Aussie Millions at about 9pm. So I was playing in the hotel til I checked out and in the airport lounge before flying. Made it with 45 minutes to spare.

Fuck knows what would have happened if the internet had gone down at either place.

But the way the rewards system is structured I couldn't really play anywhere else. It would have cost me so much money in rakeback and missing VPPs.

But playing so much that year really buggered me as a player. I was playing for points rather than to win, and I've never really been as good as I was before I started going for for SNE.

So stupid.

[arbboy]

arb who was the player on betfair you used to play a lot of h/u stts? he used to have a blog and complain about getting cheated in 1k stts. was it lee something?

Kangaroo?  He had several other names as well.  he is totally busto now after winning the world playing stts for years per my sources

[arbboy]

I just logged onto to Pokerstars for the first time in a couple of weeks.

I checked my VPP balance.

Lifetime VPPs 2,883,086.95

Yearly VPPs 8,124.65

Monthly VPPs 7.20

I have played the grand total of 5 tournaments on Pokerstars in 2015.

I think you can safely call me a "former poker player"

My lifetime pokerstars vpp's are zero.  I never had an account even when i was a poker player. Nice to know your money is safe and not to deal with firms who break the law.

Keith did you ever play heads up stt's on any site seriously other than stars back in the day?

Not really. Played a few hundred on FTP and even less on IPoker.

But I always loved the Stars software and support.

Then I got tangled up in the chase for Super Nova Elite one year. I still needed 13,000 VPPs on New Years Eve and I was flying to Oz for the Aussie Millions at about 9pm. So I was playing in the hotel til I checked out and in the airport lounge before flying. Made it with 45 minutes to spare.

Fuck knows what would have happened if the internet had gone down at either place.

But the way the rewards system is structured I couldn't really play anywhere else. It would have cost me so much money in rakeback and missing VPPs.

But playing so much that year really buggered me as a player. I was playing for points rather than to win, and I've never really been as good as I was before I started going for for SNE.

So stupid.

What was ur effective rakeback you were locked into at that time?  I feel the same as you.  I don't think i would ever have been top class at poker but i never really give it a shot as i was a proper volume over margin rakeback pro like you for 5 years between 2006-2011 and never actually took any lessons how to play the game i just made the incredible easy money that was available for 5 years from knowing nothing about the game and just playing huge volumes of stts.  Looking back i think it might have been a bit short term but the volume over margin edge was huge in the early days with the RB bonuses.

I have logged into bf poker tonight to see what stts run now (i haven't played stts seriously online for 4 years) and there are literally 3 $30 6 max stts running at 10pm.  In 2008 there would have been at least 30 stts (mostly 6/10 handed) running at that time for £200-£500 buyins.  It is amazing how the game has died.  Sports betting volumes on betfair in the markets i operate in have hardly changed at all in those years.  The day to day race by race BAGS dog volumes are virtually identical to 2008.

[The Camel]

I just logged onto to Pokerstars for the first time in a couple of weeks.

I checked my VPP balance.

Lifetime VPPs 2,883,086.95

Yearly VPPs 8,124.65

Monthly VPPs 7.20

I have played the grand total of 5 tournaments on Pokerstars in 2015.

I think you can safely call me a "former poker player"

My lifetime pokerstars vpp's are zero.  I never had an account even when i was a poker player. Nice to know your money is safe and not to deal with firms who break the law.

Keith did you ever play heads up stt's on any site seriously other than stars back in the day?

Not really. Played a few hundred on FTP and even less on IPoker.

But I always loved the Stars software and support.

Then I got tangled up in the chase for Super Nova Elite one year. I still needed 13,000 VPPs on New Years Eve and I was flying to Oz for the Aussie Millions at about 9pm. So I was playing in the hotel til I checked out and in the airport lounge before flying. Made it with 45 minutes to spare.

Fuck knows what would have happened if the internet had gone down at either place.

But the way the rewards system is structured I couldn't really play anywhere else. It would have cost me so much money in rakeback and missing VPPs.

But playing so much that year really buggered me as a player. I was playing for points rather than to win, and I've never really been as good as I was before I started going for for SNE.

So stupid.

What was ur effective rakeback you were locked into at that time?  I feel the same as you.  I don't think i would ever have been top class at poker but i never really give it a shot as i was a proper volume over margin rakeback pro like you for 5 years between 2006-2011 and never actually took any lessons how to play the game i just made the incredible easy money that was available for 5 years .

It was like 45% rakeback at its peak.

Plus I was killing the games and all the good players would avoid sitting v me, so for 2 or 3 years I was making a great deal.

Then the SNE year attempt happened and I lost a bit playing - I always one tabled hu before that run, but in order to make enough VPPs I two or even three tabled - but made about 80k in rakeback.

But from the next year onwards, my edge had gone. Not sure if my play had got worse or the games had got tougher. It was probably a combination of the two.

I went from big winner to barely break even. Pretty sure I'd be a big loser if I got back to playing 500 and 1k hu now.

[tikay]

About time this Diary re-started.

I have a question for you.

You do a lot of Sports Betting - I've no idea of the volume, but it seems to me you place a goodly number of bets, both day to day & ante-post.

How do you keep track of them?

Spreadsheet, a notebook, or little bits of paper?

And how do you accurately measure (if you do) your profit & Loss - do you keep an accurate tally, or do you just look at your bank balance to see if it is heading north or south?

There is something I envy about guys like you, Methuselah, Tom & Argue, who have rarely had a 9 to 5 job, & just, somehow, duck & dive using their wits to get by. One day I'm gonna try that, but it's not something I want to do too soon. Can't be too careful, like.

PS - Same set of questions for Argue.

[tikay]

Keith,

By chance, I alighted on this earlier today, when I was researching something.


http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/event.php?a=r&n=1150

What a line up of likeable rogues that was.

Any particular memories of that Final?

This must hold some memories, too.....


http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/event.php?a=r&n=1558

[arbboy]

About time this Diary re-started.

I have a question for you.

You do a lot of Sports Betting - I've no idea of the volume, but it seems to me you place a goodly number of bets, both day to day & ante-post.

How do you keep track of them?

Spreadsheet, a notebook, or little bits of paper?

And how do you accurately measure (if you do) your profit & Loss - do you keep an accurate tally, or do you just look at your bank balance to see if it is heading north or south?

There is something I envy about guys like you, Methuselah, Tom & Argue, who have rarely had a 9 to 5 job, & just, somehow, duck & dive using their wits to get by. One day I'm gonna try that, but it's not something I want to do too soon. Can't be too careful, like.

PS - Same set of questions for Argue.

No idea how other people operate but i personally run my gambling like a business because it is my business. I don't have to provide audited financial statements legally for Companies House or the taxman but i could easily provide accounts which could easily be audited if required.  Sure a lot of people will find the following quite amusing and i am already getting ready for the abuse.

In my previous life I training as a Chartered accountant out of university so doing this on a simple tiny scale compared to the businesses i used to audit is a piece of cake.   I have monthly management accounts which i use like any business to review performance and areas requiring improvement (detailed P+L/balance sheet is done - cash flow forecast not really required so not done) which i produce at the end of every month.  

My P+L is very detailed and broken down for my major product (greyhounds) into track by track profits, then split down BAGS/RPGTV/Sky sports/live at track cash betting profit centres as they are different products imo on betfair as they attract different client bases at different times of the day/days of the week.  TV dogs the volumes are higher and you are playing against more recs than the daytime bags were you are accommodating more serious punters betting on the 11:03am at Hall Green on a Weds morning.  Therefore when reviewing i expect my margins to be higher for the tv dogs over a decent sample than the BAGS dogs in the day.  Obviously there are useless over a few weeks as variance is just too big but over 12 months they give me a lot of info.  You know naturally which tracks you tend to win more at etc but it is always nice to have the numbers/data to back up your thoughts as they are not always right.

Obviously on betfair you can download your P+L to excel and use the data from there for your own needs which is a great tool.  Then i account for other profit center's in less detail like ante post betting, other sports outside of greyhounds on betfair on a sport by sport basis, live cash betting at horse/dog tracks (which i am doing more and more of because it is much easier getting on at the track than in shops/online), poker live and online (rakeback seperate) has a section in the P+L as well but is hardly used any more in the past 2 years.  Then a couple of misc sections for occassional table games spin ups and misc income outside of gambling.

Expenses wise i record everything i spend on a daily basis (living expenses) on a spreadsheet which i found is a great way to control your spending outside of gambling and makes you realise where your money is spent every month.

Balance sheet wise i just have a simple balance sheet with all my assets listed.  I have no debts (outside of misc short term balances owed to people who put on for me) so it is basically an asset sheet which at the end of any given month adds up to my net worth which i consider my bankroll for bet staking purposes.  Without knowing your exact net worth it is tougher to know to what levels you should be betting as a % of your net worth in order to maximise profits and take the maximum risk you can comfortably given your current net worth.  If you are under staking because you are not betting to a big enough % of your net worth at any time then you are costing yourself profit effectively.

Obviously compared to most businesses this is relatively simple as the vast majority of assets are cash, debtors (amounts owed to me short term by close friends who have put bets on), balances with bookmakers online and my ante post EV spreadsheet which calculates the current EV of all my ante post bets based on their current price rather than the price i bet them at.  

This gives a more accurate access of my current roll rather than just using the stake amounts of the bets placed but not settled for ante post bets.  So in every monthly P+L i have an 'EV profit/loss adjustment' figure for the gained/lost ev in that month based on whether the value of my ante post bets has increased/fallen otherwise my balance sheet wouldn't balance at the end of the month.  Not sure this is prudent from an accountancy point of view but i use it because it gives me a better guide of my net worth at any given point in time for bet staking purposes.

At the end of every month i take my opening net worth, add all the profits from the month deduct all expenses and then my net worth on the balance sheet at the end of the month should balance to these adjustments.  It is a great way of ensuring if there are any errors that you can go hunting for them and work out where the missing money is.  

Once the spreadsheets were set up it really doesn't take much time at all to do this work every month and it is highly beneficial imo to my work and the benefits far outweigh the time costs even though i don't have to legally provide any of this information from a management accounting point of view i find it really useful to have.