Marriage?

He lives in Brisbane Australia. And he is traveling through Europe atm.....

I played a bit of poker after that but pulled the plug early 2011. I had always jumped around different types of games trying to find value, and by then I couldn't find anything that I thought I could win much in. I had no desire to allow my opponents and rake the opportunity to hunt me down.

I live a pretty normal life now, apart from the fact that I spend my 9-5 hours walking my dog, playing golf and listening to podcasts, reading books etc.

And, I'm going to play my first live event in 5 years next month in Melbourne for a bit of nostalgia.

Mark boss

Mark,

Welcome back and good luck.

So you made enough money to retire in 2011?

Great stuff. Poker was so fun back then . I remember watching you and the other red pros and you were legitimately the best players on the site. I'd just watch and try to learn as much as possible.

Fast forward 5 years and poker sucks now. Teams, ghosting, cartels,bots,collusion, unreliable poker sites and everyone knows their icm,balancing ranges, etc...

I owe you a shot of cinnamon whiskey or whatever its called from Sydney several years ago. Feel free to collect at AM.

Did you use your winnings to invest in something? If you dont mind me asking how do you support yourself financially?

He won millions...

The smart ones always know when to get out.

Good to hear you are going well and living in Brisvegas all the best

#24 That post

She got married

I bought a home, invested in my superannuation (Australian retirement fund system with low tax rate, that you can't touch till your 60's), and put the rest into stock market / fixed interest investments. It's enough if I'm sensible.

I happily accept. I'll be playing the 24th, 26th and 27th... but also at Crown watching NFL the 25th from 7am, which really is my drinking day.

Collusion, dodgy sites, etc was always a concern, the biggest change is icm/balancing ranges/easy access to information and learning material.

The average skill level is higher (and always getting higher), the rake is higher (and weirdly getting higher too)... it's getting exponentially worse in the cash games.

I was fortunate to start at the right time, and I think also wise to end at the "right" time.

So you crushed poker playing full time for a few years then one day just stopped playing completely? don't you miss the challenge/competition/money etc? would love to hear the reasons behind your decision.

Roughly yes. I grinded hard for a number of years starting in 2003 from the very smallest stakes and onwards, till I was able to move my focus to bigger edges in higher variance spots. I had a few things break my way, and did really well when it mattered.

Then a bunch of external things changed, America getting kicked off online poker being a big one. I decided to take a break in 2011, emptied everything online, organised my offline finances and lived a more "normal" life for a while.

A year or two later I gave poker another run for about 6 months on Stars in midstakes PLO, overall it was profitable but without question my opponents were adjusting more swiftly and better than I was. I didn't enjoy winning, and losing frustrated me. Yet I had no motivation, and no desire to improve.

That was pretty much the end of it, I knew wasn't going to put in the work anymore, and thus I was never going to be ahead of the curve again. So, I packed up, and moved on.

Hey Mark, awesome you've found this thread and are giving updates. You seem to be living the life. I'm super jealous.

I heard a rumor from a long time ago that when you got your deal with FTP you negotiated for 200% rakeback instead of any other compensation. Any chance you can reveal if that's true?

Mark, thanks for posting. Great to hear about someone who exited poker because they wanted to and were able to rather than they went busto and had to.

No negotiation of that nature ever took place. I happily accepted what they offered initially. Which was the stock standard.


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9 hi like a Vos

Can you shed some light on the Patrick incident...

If I remember correctly I was playing short stacked in a high stakes game, an account that was meant to be Patrick Antonius was berating me in a tone that sounded unlike him. Someone on two plus two posted the chat log framed as Patrick insulting me. I said that I was pretty sure it wasn't Patrick and someone else was using his account.

Then a couple months later an article came out about how Patrick wanted to fight me.

My presumption is my suggestion in that post on two plus two found it's way to Full Tilt management who were paying him lots of money at the time. I can only assume that there was a stern talking to with a "Mark Vos said..." included.

In retrospect I probably shouldn't have said anything, but on the other hand Patrick probably shouldn't allow people to insult his opponents when he lets them use his account, as it makes it obvious plus incentivises someone to say something.

Really good story. Takes real self awareness to walk away like that Always assumed that other Aussie hero SEABEAST did a similar thing. Well played Mark


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