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Author Topic: lucky_scrote's (b)log/diary  (Read 63918 times)
DMorgan
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« Reply #105 on: November 26, 2015, 08:02:26 PM »

Congrats Dan, keep crushing
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Oxford_HRV
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« Reply #106 on: November 26, 2015, 09:29:02 PM »

Great read, put a smile to my face (: gl in the future
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« Reply #107 on: November 28, 2015, 12:27:16 PM »

lucky scrote is back! 
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vegaslover
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« Reply #108 on: November 29, 2015, 12:21:23 AM »

Congrats Dan
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lucky_scrote
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« Reply #109 on: December 01, 2015, 09:15:48 PM »

Thanks to everyone who gave me the well wishes, including the people who sent pm's.

I'm playing tonight and I don't often play Tuesdays, however I am not playing because the games are softer, but because I barely played last month and the second half of December is often a write off.

I'm deciding not to strike along with quite a few regs and I have my own reasons for that. I DO believe that amaya gaming are a complete joke and that it seems they aren't as good at running the site as the previous owners. I feel that they have already set the tone on what we have to expect in the future and what a joke of a company they are. If they are a shit company (which they seem to be making us all agree on) then striking isn't going to do a lot. If people get angry further down the line and begin to vote with their feet (leave pokerstars) then players actions will have a consequence. I don't believe that the strike will do a thing.

Why is everyone so mad? Well, pokerstars used to be awesome! A lot of peoples living is being jeopardised because they used to squeeze what pennies they could out of weaker players. Some people are also worried about mtt's getting tougher because cash game players joining the field. Well tough titties! Pokerstars are offering a service and if you don't like it then it's just tough. Head down, grind on and get better at poker. Stop acting like you are privileged in some way.

What are my future predictions for pokerstars?

I think a few of the grinders that were making close to an acceptable amount will vanish if their games get tougher and the rake gets higher (Boo-hoo people can't make a living from hypers any more). I think this will be balanced out with a few cash game players joining the mtt player pool but given the high volume of recreational players this won't effect my bottom line much. I strongly believe Amaya will keep upsetting players who make money out of poker as that is not who they care about. I do think the flow of new sign ups and recreational players will keep rolling in, but the general enjoyment out of playing on pokerstars will go down. I don't think anything too dramatic is going to happen any time soon but I also expect some other poker sites such as party and 888 will enjoy a slight boost in customers. It would take a lot for recreational players to leave pokerstars for another site because they are light years ahead in games on offer, software, promotions, security and dare I say it customer service.
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« Reply #110 on: December 01, 2015, 09:26:55 PM »

Congrats on the turnaround. One for the good guys and those with work ethic!

Fair play to Pads for letting horses decide. I thought stables supporting the strike may try and police the horses into compliance.
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« Reply #111 on: December 02, 2015, 12:26:32 AM »

Thanks to everyone who gave me the well wishes, including the people who sent pm's.

I'm playing tonight and I don't often play Tuesdays, however I am not playing because the games are softer, but because I barely played last month and the second half of December is often a write off.

I'm deciding not to strike along with quite a few regs and I have my own reasons for that. I DO believe that amaya gaming are a complete joke and that it seems they aren't as good at running the site as the previous owners. I feel that they have already set the tone on what we have to expect in the future and what a joke of a company they are. If they are a shit company (which they seem to be making us all agree on) then striking isn't going to do a lot. If people get angry further down the line and begin to vote with their feet (leave pokerstars) then players actions will have a consequence. I don't believe that the strike will do a thing.

Why is everyone so mad? Well, pokerstars used to be awesome! A lot of peoples living is being jeopardised because they used to squeeze what pennies they could out of weaker players. Some people are also worried about mtt's getting tougher because cash game players joining the field. Well tough titties! Pokerstars are offering a service and if you don't like it then it's just tough. Head down, grind on and get better at poker. Stop acting like you are privileged in some way.

What are my future predictions for pokerstars?

I think a few of the grinders that were making close to an acceptable amount will vanish if their games get tougher and the rake gets higher (Boo-hoo people can't make a living from hypers any more). I think this will be balanced out with a few cash game players joining the mtt player pool but given the high volume of recreational players this won't effect my bottom line much. I strongly believe Amaya will keep upsetting players who make money out of poker as that is not who they care about. I do think the flow of new sign ups and recreational players will keep rolling in, but the general enjoyment out of playing on pokerstars will go down. I don't think anything too dramatic is going to happen any time soon but I also expect some other poker sites such as party and 888 will enjoy a slight boost in customers. It would take a lot for recreational players to leave pokerstars for another site because they are light years ahead in games on offer, software, promotions, security and dare I say it customer service.

Very good post.  That is the business reality of the changes.  Betfair (exchange - sports betting (not poker)) users had exactly the same years ago when they introduced the premium charge on big winners.  Survival of the fittest.  It makes no sense for stars to keep letting people make an easy living.  If you are not good enough then you will have to move on.  Stars realise they have been giving too many people a soft living for too long like betfair did and costing their shareholders a fortune in the process.  

I don't understand what the pro's think this strike is going to do.  Stars clearly want to get rid of 'pro' business from their business model otherwise they wouldn't have made the changes they have to their charges.  Why do you think going on strike is going to do anything?  They don't want you.  They have changed the charges to tell you that (whether they are right or wrong long term who knows but i imagine they have done the maths on it to a very detailed level - much more than the average grinder has).  Going on strike helps them make more money in the next 3 days because that is what they want for the ongoing future (according to their long term business plan).  I am confused why you think the strike will make any difference.  I think at stars they are probably sitting there rofl'ing around saying 'we priced them out in order to make us more money and they are doing us a favour and opting out themselves for 3 days - happy days'.
« Last Edit: December 02, 2015, 12:55:20 AM by arbboy » Logged
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« Reply #112 on: December 02, 2015, 02:57:11 PM »

Thanks to everyone who gave me the well wishes, including the people who sent pm's.

I'm playing tonight and I don't often play Tuesdays, however I am not playing because the games are softer, but because I barely played last month and the second half of December is often a write off.

I'm deciding not to strike along with quite a few regs and I have my own reasons for that. I DO believe that amaya gaming are a complete joke and that it seems they aren't as good at running the site as the previous owners. I feel that they have already set the tone on what we have to expect in the future and what a joke of a company they are. If they are a shit company (which they seem to be making us all agree on) then striking isn't going to do a lot. If people get angry further down the line and begin to vote with their feet (leave pokerstars) then players actions will have a consequence. I don't believe that the strike will do a thing.

Why is everyone so mad? Well, pokerstars used to be awesome! A lot of peoples living is being jeopardised because they used to squeeze what pennies they could out of weaker players. Some people are also worried about mtt's getting tougher because cash game players joining the field. Well tough titties! Pokerstars are offering a service and if you don't like it then it's just tough. Head down, grind on and get better at poker. Stop acting like you are privileged in some way.

What are my future predictions for pokerstars?

I think a few of the grinders that were making close to an acceptable amount will vanish if their games get tougher and the rake gets higher (Boo-hoo people can't make a living from hypers any more). I think this will be balanced out with a few cash game players joining the mtt player pool but given the high volume of recreational players this won't effect my bottom line much. I strongly believe Amaya will keep upsetting players who make money out of poker as that is not who they care about. I do think the flow of new sign ups and recreational players will keep rolling in, but the general enjoyment out of playing on pokerstars will go down. I don't think anything too dramatic is going to happen any time soon but I also expect some other poker sites such as party and 888 will enjoy a slight boost in customers. It would take a lot for recreational players to leave pokerstars for another site because they are light years ahead in games on offer, software, promotions, security and dare I say it customer service.

Whilst I totally acknowledge your point and can understand what a shareholder is. Do you have no grievance with the methods Amaya are using? Clearly it would be naive to expect to get the same level of player centric awesomeness that we got from Isai. But just out of the blue reducing the value of VPPs?!? waiting until the last minute to mention that actually their forward reaching bonus schemes will be scrapped and actually positioning yourself with a view to your grind for the next year has been sabotaged. Is that an acceptable way to treat your customers?

You state they still have good support, yet their support budget has clearly been absolutely slashed, they respond with utterly generic emails much slower than they previously managed. Their customer service now involves lying and misleading players, political style spin on their communications (claiming to be helping the 98%... when no one benefits from the higher rake and lower RB, chromestars being the only level to go up and only getting circa 10cents more essentially means every level loses). Is that something that we should just accept? the only reason we even found out about the RB changes was a leaked document....

none of these things can fill you with confidence, I really dislike even talking about it as 'pokerstars', everything we associated with pokerstars in a positive manner has been destroyed (have you noticed the scheduled lag on the servers, and the inability to handle sundays anymore, ie another department who has had their budget absolutely slashed beyond recognition). Do we really imagine they will bother investing in security when they don't benefit from stopping people playing in games paying rake?!?  imo we should be discussing things in terms of amayastars to give the job that Isai oversaw it's proper respect. The player base and software is the same the product is absolutely not.


I can totally see how a strike in and of itself is not necessarily going to achieve much, but at least if it gets some more focus on the matters, some more people discussing/looking for information then that can only be a good thing.
« Last Edit: December 02, 2015, 03:07:26 PM by titaniumbean » Logged
lucky_scrote
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« Reply #113 on: December 02, 2015, 03:57:41 PM »

I think I should have re-worded some things better. The support isn't good at all but it is probably the best compared to other sites. Can make exceptions for DTD as you will probably get looked after well there.

Stars is definitely a crock of shit compared to what it used to be, but they offer us a service and if they wanna shove it up our asses then just don't play there. I can see where everyone is coming from, there are a lot of unhappy people especially people that have been loyal in the past and shortly after betrayed.

I feel like Amaya are in too deep with this.
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« Reply #114 on: December 02, 2015, 07:11:38 PM »

Not to single you out, but i also think there's abit of naivety on some MTT'ers behalf. Just because rakeback isn't a major source of income the sheer influx of mid/high cash game and SNG players into mid buyin MTT's will probably be greater than the number of pro's who leave the game. Everyones bottom line is getting cut in a roundabout way and that includes pro's who play on alternative sites

A bit melodramatic but fairly apt  Cheesy

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me.


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« Reply #115 on: December 02, 2015, 07:35:07 PM »

Man standing on the sidelines mocks those for trying. It would be that tiny bit more effective if you'd have joined and whilst I think it's wrong to call out the regs who played, it's going to be incredibly boring watching those sat on the sidelines make comments on effectiveness.

I was ashamed to see so many UK grinders not involved.
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« Reply #116 on: December 02, 2015, 11:02:56 PM »

I think I should have re-worded some things better. The support isn't good at all but it is probably the best compared to other sites. Can make exceptions for DTD as you will probably get looked after well there.

Stars is definitely a crock of shit compared to what it used to be, but they offer us a service and if they wanna shove it up our asses then just don't play there. I can see where everyone is coming from, there are a lot of unhappy people especially people that have been loyal in the past and shortly after betrayed.

I feel like Amaya are in too deep with this.

they are still good yes. but that's only because everyone else is so dreadful, that's not a good thing lel.


if your bank announced they were reducing balances by 30% would you be saying man thank god they provide this service i'm so lucky.

much of what they have done is literally stealing, mis-advertising that other industries would get punished for. they really deserve all of this criticism, even If I agree with you about the limited impact a strike will have.
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lucky_scrote
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« Reply #117 on: December 03, 2015, 12:01:11 AM »

The run good just doesn't stop. On Monday I managed to ship the $55tko on stars for $2.3k and just now I won the croc on 888.

 Click to see full-size image.


 Click to see full-size image.


I have until this week to win a tournament on ipoker or partypoker with a 10k prizepool for the triple crown.
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« Reply #118 on: December 03, 2015, 10:47:02 AM »

Insert games must be soft joke here.....   
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lucky_scrote
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« Reply #119 on: December 07, 2015, 03:48:37 AM »



Unfortunately the problem with most people (including the old me) is that they only update their poker blogs when they are winning. It's easy to do, when you're crushing morale is high and you feel motivated to do so.

My year so far has exceeded all expectation, I knew it was possible, but everything had gone against me in 2011-2014 so that if things didn't go well, then I wouldn't be too surprised. Don't read into this that I had given up hope because I worked hard very often. August 2014 was obviously the big turning point for me being given diagnosed with depression. I know I bang on about it, but it really has been the turning point in my life. I seem to remember briefly having a little TLB side bet with mondatoo and Atkin in November 2014 and wiping the floor with them because I could play such long sessions day after day and morale would always be in place. Good morale and motivation is the most important attribute to being a succesful online poker player, of course you have to find motivation in the first place. My motivation most certainly comes from previous archaic times. I had a good run in my youth and from the age of 17 I was doing very well at poker and life, the biggest stress in my life up until the age of 21 must have been booking flights and hotels, I had it way too easy.

My motivation comes from the above because going from having it your own way to being extremely miserable and broke is not a good experience. If I had been conditioned like a normal person going through uni and learning how to deal and dealing with different types of people then I wouldn't have gone through such tough times after. At this point in my life though it has all worked well. I've learned a lot about myself in the past year and I am more focused than ever in being dominant in the online MTT "circuit".

This weekend (Friday and Sunday) I grinded really hard, a part of me wanted my triple crown but I also got into a great routine of putting in long hours. The more poker I play and the longer sessions I put in, the easier I find it to work harder thereafter.
 Click to see full-size image.



I set myself some goals in the middle of this year. I feel a bit daft because I made a document on my desktop but recently deleted it, but they were something like this:
  • Continue studying hard- check
  • Make top 10 on pocketfives in UK- currently and very likely unsuccessful
  • Continue ridiculous run of closing out tournaments- check

I thought it would be possible to make top 10 this year, but equally I have had huge gaps of not playing poker. I set these goals in July and in August I played UKIPT Bristol, then I spent almost 2 weeks in Rhodes- a fabulous place, I couldn't recommend it enough! Followed by a family emergency in which I missed some of WCOOP, a golf holiday to Portugal with John, Eames and Mat Frankland, another trip to England and then finally a week long poker festival in Amsterdam.

I'm going to set myself some high goals for next year. I want to be #1 in the UK on pocketfives next year. It will involve me playing higher stakes which I am capable of. My backers set the stakes I can play. If I maintain my current form and effort I will be there in no time. I think it's a pretty high bar to set, but equally I will satisfied with a top 3. Another goal of mine will to be to spend 3-4 weeks in Vegas this summer and have a professional approach to tournaments. I've not been to Vegas for a very long time and I used to frequent myself there. I never did very well over there because I was young, naive and got caught up in the place. Lastly, I would like to work on getting good routines. If anyone has recommendations I would gladly take them. I am a terrible procrastinator that spends far too much time behind my computer. The reality is, I would love to have a routine of working on my fitness or physique. Whenever I have tried in the past I end up slipping up and getting into a lazy routine of getting up late, having a small breakfast, lounging around, playing video games and then starting a session of poker. I'd like to stop that. My last goal for next year is to complete a meteorlogy course that I signed up to a few weeks ago with the open university. It is not a creditable course, but I have always had a fascination in meteorology since I spent a lot of my youth checking the BBC weather forecast before playing golf as a teen. It's a good start towards educating myself in something outside of poker, if I complete the course then it is a step towards getting creditable courses that I can eventually put down on my CV, because, poker isn't going to last forever.

-Dan "lucky_scrote" Carter
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