Yeah this is true.

Dont really have any reasons to go to Cincy aside from PLOz... Rather spend time elsewhere so as long as bovada is paying / somewhat soft.


Back in the USAs. Got my car. Yoga mat. Electric razor. Lifestyle change on the horizon.

Hoping I get some of that grind-ethic back. I'm at 25 hours on the month thus far.

Tampa soon for the 300k guarantee!!

Took a $1k shot at $25/25 and left with a nice $7460 profit. Good timing-- helps soften the downswing. Still down low mid-figs on the month, horses down a few thousand too. I'm just starting to grasp the type of variance I'm dealing with in poker these days.. +-$5-10k weeks is the norm.

Did yoga for the first time in almost 3 weeks today. 3 weeks really made a difference. My flexibility was much worse. Balance was poor. Less strength. I've put yoga in the daily wake-up routine, so that will make sticking to it much easier... I also vow to start travelling with my mat everywhere.

I met with some of my friends Finnish friends yesterday. One of them re-sold me on meditation. I also got some good book/podcast recommendations from him.

I still need to get around to writing up my staking scam experience. Ugh, how depressing. I should have lots of time when I'm back in Ottawa.

$5-10 PLO today.. Capitals v panthers tonight, $20. Ha.

Nice work
Surprised the min buy in was that low.

Thanks.

I always min-buy unless big fish is sitting deep... 40bb or 20bb anytime straddle is in play. Lots of the regs sit 200-500b deep as an ego thing.

heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat

$20 hockey tickets is a great deal. In Toronto you cant even get nosebleed seats for less then $100 per ticket.

Congrats on that awesome session!

Stay the entire shoutout?

tyty

Yeah, it was great. I witnessed the world record for longest NHL shootout. Old record was 15, new record is 20.


Heading to tampa in an hour. 5-5 PLOz in order. $1650 300k tomorrow.

nice shot take. ima firm believer in shots. you just have to have self control to drop back down if it doesn't work.

Thx

Yeah taking shots is good.

I'm in a bit of a non-standard spot where I have horses that are in makeup. So If I'm I have mid-5 figures of makeup outstanding, if I go bust I lose most of that money (would have to sell the makeup, or take loans of some sort). So I need to keep my risk of ruin very very low when my stable is deep in makeup. This is assuming my horses are +EV players and not scammers/sociopaths etc. In the case of scammers/sociopaths I'm best off dropping.

I made day2 of the $300k guarantee. I suspect I will have around 1.5x average.

[ ] non-standard spot

I'm going to share my experience with one of my first horses. Hopefully this post will gather enough attention to link his name + sn on google.

I got a PM from Eifersuchtig aka Richard Gayler in response to my writings on being interested in staking. He was interested in getting a stake. Okay, cool. I decided to do some screening. I checked results, interviewed him on skype, and spoke with 2 people whom had met him to try and get more info on him.

Richard came off as a highly intelligent, competent poker player. His analysis of hand histories was impressive. He was able to think of the game on a deep level. He came off as a good guy. Had a gf, close relationships, showed empathy. I had a general good feeling about dealing with him. After my 'screening' was completed, we decided to enter a conservative staking agreement due to the nature of our relationship (I don't know him well, and don't have that much trust in him).

I entered into a staking agreement with Richard Gayler aka Eifersuchtig on September 30th 2014. We agreed that playing low and building trust was the way to go. I sent him $1000 and initially he played low stakes plo on bovada and lost several buyins playing quite poorly(this was not expected). We agreed to switch over to nl50 where he is more comfortable, and eventually move up to nl100.

He played nl50, and started doing well. At around this time Richard disappeared for 4-5 days with no warning. I tried contacting him through various methods and did not receive any response. Eventually he messaged me saying his phone was broken. This was worrisome, but not against any agreement.

He continued winning at nl50 and started taking nl100 shots. He was winning, seemed to have high confidence, and had almost cleared his makeup. Things were looking good.

I got this message on November 20th:

"i've been putting this off for a few days mostly out of frustration and embarassment. I was putting in a bunch of hours (~55 by halfway through the month) and I reached the limit of what I could handle, swings wise. After a pretty long session that was ~-1000 I cracked and tilted. Then in the next few hours of cyclically taking a break, thinking things through, making a plan, and getting back to it, instead of contacting you I tried to get back even. Played c game and ran average to poor, lost more. The tilt was different to what i'd had in my first year of playing. It was a combination of what i'd call responsibility tilt (because i'd played over 100pl which goes against what we'd agreed -> didn't want to contact you till unstuck) and looking at the spreadsheet and seeing 115 hours of time invested that I just lit on fire, not including the $ loss."

He had lost the remaining portion of our bankroll playing plo200 and plo400. This was clearly not something we agreed on him being able to play at that point in time. Total I was stuck $2500. I didn't request HH or cashier history, so I'm not sure exactly how much was lost at NL within our agreement or at PLO outside our agreement. If I had to guess, I would guess a majority of the losses were at PLO200/400.

I thought it was fair that Richard should pay back the amount he was stuck on the stake. Obviously only some of the money lost was tilted away in games outside our arrangement, and some was within. The way I saw it is that the makeup from allowed games I could no longer realize/recover because he had violated trust by playing in games outside of our agreement. I asked a friend new to staking about the situation and he agreed. I asked someone who has been running a stable for a long time and he also thought this was reasonable.

Initially Richard responded:

I.e. If what you say as your perspective on what ought to be owed is consistently applicable outside of this instance, then it puts me in a bad spot every other time whether the stake is up or down. What if I tilt call once in a session in an allowed game? But it isn't identified as a tilt call and it isnt noticed by you. Just my calling range was slightly wider than normal. Do I owe that money from a game that was allowed? What % of the money? I don't think the logic applies across the board so I don't see how it can be applied in this instance. But all that can be irrelevant because ultimately we have to do what's obligated and our contract has 0 wording on repayment if /you/ decide to end the stake when I'm in makeup (even if breach of contract occurred). So even if we decide it's fair for me to pay back $X then it's still not obligated."

I lol'd and realized that law was a smart career choice for Mr. Gayler. The above paragraph reads like this to me: Why would I have to pay back tilted money in allowed games? That doesn't seem fair. Hold on, actually, I don't even owe you money that I tilted off in disallowed games: Our agreement does not state that stolen money needs to be repaid and is not even legally binding.

Richard wanted a few days to think about what should be done about the situation. After a couple days Richard would not respond to my messages and had deleted me from facebook (and probably other modes of communication).

Given he won't talk to me, I'm not really sure what his stance is on the situation. I'm not actually sure if he thinks hes doing something wrong or right. Obviously its not black and white and I'm sure a few readers will think Richard is doing nothing wrong and this is just "the way staking works". The way I think he sees it is that ruining his 2+2 rep + living with himself being a scumbag is better than paying me back any $.

^ Glad to get that off my chest. Has been one of the few negative things in my life over the past few weeks.

I busted the 300k yesterday. No cash. Most fun hand was the following:

TAGish player (80bb) who has not opened many pots in the last few orbits opens 2.2x in MP, rec mtt player (Or so I assumed) snap flat calls HJ with 32bb, hero pauses and raises to 4.1x in CO with K5o, folds to TAG who snap folds, rec mtt player snap ships in his remaining 30bb giving me 2.3:1 on a call. Hero goes into the tank. In retrospect, I think against most villains this is a fold, as we have 30-33% equity versus most ranges and need ~31.5% for 35% of our stack. However, against spazzy players we have ~33-35%. Hero calls. Villain shows 44.

This hand was fun because I typically would squeeze AK, AQs, JJ-AA{100%} and A2-A5/KQo, TT{~50%} here, but had that gut feeling and had to go with it. Didn't work though.

Don't forget to crosspost in negative feedback. Sorry that this guy ended up being a scumbag, hopefully he ends up regretting this action in the future when it inevitably comes back to bite him in the ass. Also would make one of those _____isathief sites, apparently it's pretty easy.

When you stake someone online don't they give you their username/password for that site? I thought I had read that way back around 2009 when I briefly looked into being staked.

Some require that but it doesn't prevent anything. Obviously if they decide they want to steal from you they can just change their password and then you no longer can get in the account.

I don't have very much experience with staking online, but here are my thoughts. I would have tried to determine the amount lost at 200, 400 pl which was not agreed to be allowed. That would be the amount I think he owes you. Money tilted off at agreed upon stakes 50 and 100 pl should just count as make up, impossible to determine what qualifies at money lost due to tilt anyhow. I'm not sure what your deal was regarding make up and what happens if either of you decide to terminate the staking arrangement.

Him not responding to communication is probably an indication he has no plans to pay anything. It's unfortunate but situations like this are inevitable in the staking business. There are many dishonest people in the world. Sorry it happened to you but I would chalk it up as a lesson learned and move on.

I would recommend writing up contacts for all of your horses covering these bases in the future so that nothing is ambiguous.

When you steal you force the backer to drop you which is why it's standard to owe the makeup if you steal. Because the makeup is only unrecoverable through continued staking because of the theft.

Why not ask him to repay the losses at 200/400 first? Seems way less likely he'll scam you in that spot and you can still ask for the makeup after he repays the stolen funds.

I know a few good Russian mafia who can take care of this the right way...

Seriously just never lend or stake $ to anyone that you don't know in real life. Not worth it. You have zero recourse for getting your $ or makeup back if things go wrong. And there's no binding written contract that's enforceable in a court of law.

what, you're gonna sue him?

I'd just avoid it at all. Some of the things poker players do with $ make my head spin, they have got to be some of the worst with financial savvy.

Thanks for the input guys, I'm a bit too busy atm to respond to everything. I will say that there has to be trust for a staking relationship like this to work. It doesn't matter if you have a username/pw, HHs, and/or a written contract.

Unfortunately, there are many untrustworthy, intelligent, manipulative people in the poker world. This makes staking a dangerous venture.

I'm spending the next few months focusing on playing poker, coaching horses/chasing makeup, and learning spanish.

Cunningham's Law: The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question, it's to post the wrong answer.

related to?

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Nothing in particular.

Ty

Christmas was awesome. My parents are doing really well. My mom had some serious issues a couple years ago and she has made a complete turn-around over the last 1.5 years. My dad has been going to the gym daily and started eating healthier. My sister is employeed and is moving in with her bf. Family life is gooooooood.

I got a pair of bose headphones and a battery pack, along with a slew of other presents. Got about $1k worth of stuff from 4 people. I keep trying to get the house gift exchange under $100/person but everyone is too generous.

I made a marketplace thread where I am selling 50% of the $3m guarantee in Florida.. I was planning to post the link in here, but it sold out within a couple hours.

I just booked Florida for Feb5th-Feb15th and Peru from Feb15th-May19th.