Road to being a pro

[KingPush]

Haven't written anything on here for a while but wanted to make a little bit of accountability for myself so I decided to start it back up again. After an expensive but enjoyable holiday period I was back on the grind in Jan and ended up making a bit of money after a poor start. I'm not playing on Sky any more and can't see myself doing it in the foreseeable future due to the rakeback changes they did over there, I wonder if they had a similar player pool to Stars if there would have been more uproar about it it when it happened, not saying it is comparable, Stars straight up lied to it's supernova players but I'm sure there are people who are worse off without the same rakeback system. I've tried playing a bit of HU and I enjoy it more than any other form, however I'm still just trying to spin it up at the moment and the variance of playing it is way too high for my bankroll for the foreseeable future. worked a fuck load on my game recently so now it is just a question of getting in good volume in terms of quantity and quality.

Highly recommend watching this, probably the best thing I've ever seen on mental performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt1xZ540Q7s

[Magic817]

Haven't written anything on here for a while but wanted to make a little bit of accountability for myself so I decided to start it back up again. After an expensive but enjoyable holiday period I was back on the grind in Jan and ended up making a bit of money after a poor start. I'm not playing on Sky any more and can't see myself doing it in the foreseeable future due to the rakeback changes they did over there, I wonder if they had a similar player pool to Stars if there would have been more uproar about it it when it happened, not saying it is comparable, Stars straight up lied to it's supernova players but I'm sure there are people who are worse off without the same rakeback system. I've tried playing a bit of HU and I enjoy it more than any other form, however I'm still just trying to spin it up at the moment and the variance of playing it is way too high for my bankroll for the foreseeable future. worked a fuck load on my game recently so now it is just a question of getting in good volume in terms of quantity and quality.

Highly recommend watching this, probably the best thing I've ever seen on mental performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt1xZ540Q7s

What rakeback changes on sky?
Surely you dont play on sky for rakeback?

[KingPush]

What rakeback changes on sky?
Surely you dont play on sky for rakeback?
[/quote]

I don't play on Sky any more. I didn't primarily but it obviously affects how much you win in general. They basically removed any affiliate deals and removed a lot of money for rakeback and replaced it with freerolls and stuff.

[KingPush]

Can't really remember a lot of what has happened since my last update. Nearly went broke but a member on here put me in the sunday milly with 25% of myself and cashed for a decent amount there which I then spun up pretty hard and got myself in a few 1000lira games. Since then expenses and losses have put me back to playing lower to midstakes. Have thought about sacking poker in recently but I think that is honestly just cos I hate losing so much, if I want to progress to anything I want to be in poker then I need to lose a lot of my ego and I'm actively working on my mental game 4/5 times a week now, which is a massive improvement compared to the pretty much zero I was doing before, I also think most of the material specifically for poker players on this topic is pretty shit. My goal is to get to 10k lira at the end of the month incl. rakeback, (so not the actual end of the month but on the 4th of April, as I get rakeback sundays) even though my roll is only at 3200 I think I am more than capable of doing it and I have done before. Even if it takes another deep and fortuitous run in a donkament.

Also if anyone wonders where the name is from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DawrlSwHUiM

[muckthenuts]

Do you have any longer term goals? For example would you like to be still playing in 5-10 years or just taking it step by step for now?

Also thoughts on Pusha T's latest album? Was looking forward to that for a while and definitely wasn't let down when it came out.

[KingPush]

Do you have any longer term goals? For example would you like to be still playing in 5-10 years or just taking it step by step for now?

Also thoughts on Pusha T's latest album? Was looking forward to that for a while and definitely wasn't let down when it came out.

My long term goals is to become the best poker player I possibly can be and to have enough money to do what I want when I want, where this leads me I am not sure. Yeah I think it is a 7/10 on 3/4 listens, it's no "my name is my name" but I still like it. I don't think I have hyped up an album and it has met my expectations for a long time though, Kanye West's latest is a case in point for this.  Also I'm back on Sky Poker after a hiatus and all the players are the same, there are even some of the same fun players.

[KingPush]

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.

[Marky147]

My head hurts after working my way through that, almost as much as I anticipate yours will tomorrow

I'd get a job, save some money, and try to build your bankroll up in the spare time, but there are plenty of people more qualified than myself to give advice.

[Rexas]

Honestly, imo, get yourself a job. Poker is way, way harder than most people appreciate and can be totally soul destroying. Getting a job gives you the freedom to do what you want to do and play in your spare time, it doesn't mean you have to give up. When I was struggling pretty badly a while back, I got myself a job, and not only found that it did wonders for my play but also found that I was actually enjoying playing again. The job might feel boring and it might feel like giving up, but actually there's a lot of good life ev there. You get to help build a CV, you get a steady income, you potentially get to learn some new skills, you have the potential to start working your way up through a company that could lead to a really bright future. Grinding it up hoping for a heater or a tournament bink just won't happen, can easily go for a really long time being breakeven/losing even if you're the bitb, an the more pressure mounts up with regards to money/proving yourself and the more you chase it, the worse you'll play and that accumulated tilt will make it way less likely you'll actually get there.

[nirvana]

You sound young so I'll be sensitive - get a job.. you already have one but the pay is shit and it doesn't sound like a lot of fun.

For every pro making a genuinely decent living and enjoying a decent lifestyle there are hundreds of nihilistic punks with nothing sitting in front of a screen thinking at least I don't have to do a job..oh wait

[Rexas]

Nirvana in mincing his words shocker

[muckthenuts]

You've worked really hard by the sounds of it and definitely became a half decent player. Unfortunately it's just too tough to grind up a roll these days. Don't know if you read John Blacks blog a while back but he poured his heart and soul into the game and it wasn't enough for him to break through either. Rake is too high and regs are too many for your hard work to pay off. Poker isn't an enviable profession anymore, it's hard and stressful. The longer you leave your CV empty the tougher it gets, and it doesn't look like things will end any other way atm sadly. But you sound like a smart guy so I'm sure you'll adapt to the 9-5 world absolutely fine. GL

[arbboy]

You've worked really hard by the sounds of it and definitely became a half decent player. Unfortunately it's just too tough to grind up a roll these days. Don't know if you read John Blacks blog a while back but he poured his heart and soul into the game and it wasn't enough for him to break through either. Rake is too high and regs are too many for your hard work to pay off. Poker isn't an enviable profession anymore, it's hard and stressful. The longer you leave your CV empty the tougher it gets, and it doesn't look like things will end any other way atm sadly. But you sound like a smart guy so I'm sure you'll adapt to the 9-5 world absolutely fine. GL

Agree.  Ten years too late for poker.  Just consider it unlucky just like being 15 years too late for the house price boom as well.  Just because you missed the golden years doesn't mean it is smart to invest time and money into something you are 99.5% likely to not beat sufficiently enough to make a living from it.

I used to crush £500 stts 10 years ago. (camel will probably personally agree with this point as well if he reads this post as he was the same just on a different site and format)   I wouldn't have an edge now in a £20 stt.    Does that make me a shit poker player?  Who knows probably.  Was i a shit poker player when i was crushing £500 stts?  Well i know i was worse then than i am now but i can't win now because other pros put in much more work than i ever did.  Equally all the mugs i used to live off who were even worse than i was went skint and stopped playing.

Like Muck says it's all about rec/reg ratios and the rake.  These are the things that kill you unless you are super good because there are very few proper 'mugs' around anymore and far too many people looking to feed off them.

[EvilPie]

Some cracking advice in the last 4 or 5 posts. Arbboy makes a great point about comparing poker to the property market. It's too late to make a mint, you've missed the boat for the easy money. Sure in poker and property there will be a few who can still make a killing but most will either tick along just about breaking even or lose.

Get yourself a job and use poker as a hobby. You'll have just as good a chance of that bink you want but without the pressure of having to win to meet your basic needs. Your job pays for your day to day stuff and poker is your hobby. How nice that with a bit of luck your hobby could get you that elusive bink...

[arbboy]

Some cracking advice in the last 4 or 5 posts. Arbboy makes a great point about comparing poker to the property market. It's too late to make a mint, you've missed the boat for the easy money. Sure in poker and property there will be a few who can still make a killing but most will either tick along just about breaking even or lose.

Get yourself a job and use poker as a hobby. You'll have just as good a chance of that bink you want but without the pressure of having to win to meet your basic needs. Your job pays for your day to day stuff and poker is your hobby. How nice that with a bit of luck your hobby could get you that elusive bink...

The key thing is going in last whether its poker or property is the guys who are still surviving and making money have crushed all the guys (like me who used to make money).  They are the best of the best.  They have every edge going that you don't.  Bankroll, experience of coping with the swings, technical expertise, economies of scale when it comes to buying in bulk/rake back deals, industry contacts etc etc.

You literally have none of these.  You have to improve at a rate of knots to probably still be further behind these guys because the edges they have will mean they will still improve at a quicker rate than you do so you are effectively falling further behind even if you are winning long term.

It doesn't mean you can't make it.  It just means you are far far less likely than someone in your position 10 years ago.  Which probably makes it a bad career choice.  Good luck whatever you decide.