... cont
the 1k spots were worth a lot of money: hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. people up there were very protective of the lobbies - simple ev rules didnt apply. the interview i posted with chadders0 contains a quote that perfectly illustrates how valuable the spots are, and also how brutally difficult they are to attain:
chadders0: I had set aside 2 years worth of expenses in the event of a worst case scenario so to even consider taking a shot you have to commit:
2 years living expenses from your bankroll
the roll to play 1ks v the very best
to be willing to war for months on end with the very best
to be willing to accept that you might lose 150k of that roll in taking your shot
now thats a tall order. remember colman, skaiwalkurrr et al can simply print money by still taking lobbies behind and grinding 1k whales. people shot taking effectively have no income. it's not just that you come up against skill: its a war off attrition where the biggest bankroll survives. colman and his fellow 1k regs had printed millions pre rake back and could simply swarm anyone trying to force thier arm. here's another UK shot taker, 1rake1[we'll meet him again later] on how difficult the process was:
You would be made to build up samples with each cartel member, when it suited the cartel member not yourself. If the cartel member was playing another shot taker you would have to wait your turn. If the cartel member was playing another shot taker and sitting lobbies behind to earn some extra money from fish (just to ensure this reg battling wasn't affecting his income too much) you would have to let him do this. If not this was called 'teaming' and that is NOT ALLOWED.
To survive your shot take you have to on average be beating everyone in the cartel for rake (after rakeback). If you managed to keep this rate up this means you will earn exactly zero money every day you're working. Whilst you're trying to build your samples with everyone putting in as much volume as you can every day, this volume is spread thin across everyone currently in the cartel and the daily / monthly income of each individual member in the cartel is minimally affected. There is no volume goal, or results based goal to gain your entry into the cartel. You just have to wait for them to collectively act fairly and decide to accept you as a member, which could be never.something was going to have to give. in 2014 something did give:
Click to see full-size image. |
dan colman wins the one drop and scoops $15m and then goes on one of the sickest heaters the high stake live scene has ever witnessed. and he does so largely on his own dime. sick life.
one of the biggest bankrolls in husng's gets disproportionately bigger... and quits.
he isn't the only one. two other 1k members, jossel and killuifiplay, also quit around the same time. 3 of the biggest bankrolls and significant barriers to the 1k lobbies decide to leave the format. and a bloodbath ensues. people from the 300's division and up try to take their spots, only the game is still rigged against them. the empty spots are worth as much empty to the people still up there as they are to the people trying to fill them. chadders0 estimated colman letting him in would cost colman 150k a year - no wonder he was so motivated to keep him out. and the system in place was rigged against people moving up. a different approach was needed.
piosolver became widely available around this time. and HUSNG solutions were being refined. as a study tool pio was and is the nuts. it allowed motivated players to study spots, become drilled in optimal play and so be able to exploit deviations from that play. a group of highly motived young grinders relocated to a grind / study house together. a collection of $200-$500 regs reclocated to bali and set about trying to take the 1k lobbies by force. heres 1rake1 again:
We looked at the previous shot takes of chadders at 1k and valuelol at 500s, and considered the amount of time and money that would need to be invested on the hope that we would get a fair treatment from a handful of individuals. At the same time spiritedreal had just played over 20k games at 300s and we saw first hand what the ‘power in numbers’ can do. It seemed too easy to keep triers out. Even if we beat the cartel by a good amount, the huge amount of money they could recoup off fish might still make it their most profitable move to keep us out indefinitely and not let us have a piece of their pie. Also in my opinion it scares people when 2/3/4 people who grind together try and move up. This alone would have made it a lot tougher than previous triers to get accepted. So for these reasons, we decided to go for a different approach, thought we were most likely to get accepted by stopping people fishing behind when they played us, and when we were all online, we could get lobbies ourselves.
We were also less sure of our ability at the start of the year and thought the extra lobbies behind could be good to offset the potentially very long and potentially very expensive shot take.
Due to a combination of the cartels putting in less volume, and some people avoiding us we actually ending up with the lobbies uncontested a lot of the time. At this stage, we got a bit ahead of ourselves and decided we could probably just lock down a set time period, deter other regs from playing that slot, and we would effectively be our own group. However, things didn’t quite go as expectedthese guys had all progressed through the divisions. they were well versed in reg battling and through the study methods of programs like piosolver had an incredibly solid reg game down pat. some of the 1k regs had relied on numbers, bankrolls and people like colman. they might not be mental ready, and the bali group decided that the time was right to strike.
they would battle the 1k regs but not allow them to take lobbies uncontested behind. they would take the lobbies themselves en masse. they werent going to play by the established cartels rules. but the cartel were going to up their game, also. here's another member of the rival bali-group, adam1988:
it was myself, the 1rake1, mavrickkk, majcy and Campbell-gee all living together in Bali. We had an incline that the 1k regs were going to be behind the times in reg battling as they hadn’t been tested for so long. But the system was rigged against anyone shooting, even if you crushed them in a reg battle they would make so much off the fish they wouldn’t have to let you in. So we decided to all shoot and take the lobbies behind. Our incline was right and most of the 1k regs were not even willing to battle, but what we didn’t predict was that they would add every $500 reg who would play us to $1ks so that they could regain the lobbies.thats right the established 1k members simply promoted any 500 reg who was willing to grind the bali-group. at the time they also stated that would allow other people in but the brothers mavvrick and 1rake1 would not be allowed in. politics pure and simple.
lets go back to skaiwalurrrs graph
that tail off represents that 8 month battle where the bali group swarm the 1k lobbies and take them by force. he quits the game at this point, 8 months of intense politics, reg warring and a 100k downswing ends it for actually one of the nice guys of poker. here is a chat log of when a recreational accidently sits his $2k lobby and you can sense his sense of panic straight out.
fSzkPob said, "guy? i thought this was playmoney... can we make a deal?
"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "u serious?"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "yes sit out"
fSzkPob said, "i feel so bad.. i have been great with bankroll management!!"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "sit out"
fSzkPob said, "THANK YOU!!!!"
fSzkPob said, "will do"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "ill send u back the equity in chips u have atm"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "1320 worth of chips ok"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "1310*"
fSzkPob said, "sure!!"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "k sit out"
fSzkPob said, "but how can I trust you?"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "i mean"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "if u cant trust me i dnno what i can do fo you"
fSzkPob said, "can you send it now and i promise ill sit out?"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "haha wait you want me to trust you over you trusting me?"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "cmon"
fSzkPob said, "ok i sit out
"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "k 1310 worth of chips"
fSzkPob said, "yep ty, i fold k10"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "how can u make such a mistake lol"
fSzkPob said, "i dont know..."
fSzkPob said, "you can take my rake"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "okok"
fSzkPob said, "ill cover your rake"
fSzkPob said, "obv"
fSzkPob said, "im so glad for your understanding"
fSzkPob said, "how much will I get?"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "trying to calc"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "(1310/3000)*3925"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "agreed?"
fSzkPob said, "will calc it"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "1714"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "heh"
fSzkPob said, "$1688?
"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "k i got 1714 heh"
fSzkPob said, "then i give you $25 extra for the rake"
fSzkPob said, "yeah i know"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "nah 1714"
fSzkPob said, "you decide, thank you! i will never forget you!!!"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "haha np"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "glad to help"
fSzkPob said, "seriously i thought i should puke.. fortunate i hadnt eaten"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "hahaha"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "i think im gonna take ur money and run it up at the highstakes firt what u think?"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "just kidding obv"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "haha"
fSzkPob said, "dont say that"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "im kidding man"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "ur getting 1714"
fSzkPob said, "thank you"
fSzkPob said, "<3"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "i might need your real name to make transfer go through"
fSzkPob said, "hmm, i see, but we can get mod here?"
fSzkPob said, "mail : ****@hotmail.com"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "ill pm you in case i need anything or else u canf ind me on here all day"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "oh ya"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "ok bro?"
fSzkPob said, "but i dont use my 2+2 dont know how to login etc"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "ah"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "ok ill twitter u if i need anything"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "or have someone tweet"
fSzkPob said, "ok great!"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "k?"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "alrighty"
fSzkPob said, "yep"
SkaiWalkurrr said, "good game well played"
fSzkPob said, "haha ty u2!"
gg skai. not all the bali group make it. cambell-gee lost a chunck of his role and a bunch of motivation, majcy was purposely not allowed in with some 1k regs feeling he was acting above his station trying to get in with the group. but a lot do make it in, and not just from the bali group
the guys that did get in post many $15 - 25k + weeks, and reap the rewards
some have since quit the game for good. others banned for using artificial assistance [none of the bali boys fwiw]
but politics, money and power.
who said poker was dull