This is one super tough game we are in, to be honest only us the backers will ever be able to understand that. The highs can be massive (not sure I have seen them yet though, lol) but that lows can be very low and very dark.

I would be interested to know the percentage of who fail vs who is successful.If I had to guess, back in the day it was maybe around 70% success vs 30% fail. In recent years I would say 80% fail vs 20% success.

What is success and fail? I think you have to look at sample via years in the game and players backed. Very hard to put a figure on both, but being in the game for 1-2 years backing 5-10 players I would not call a success as a backer. But anything over 50+ players and 3+ years I think you can call yourself a success.

Of course the above can only be called a success if you are in profit over the years. Some may disagree here and say a happy stable is a success. But happy don't pay the bills I am sorry to say. In an ideal world you want a stable winning and a stable happy, but just turn on the tv and watch the news, we are far from living in a ideal world. Any backer that tells you all of their players are in profit and all of their players are happy they are just lying or just have no true sample yet.

Without mentioning any names I have seen some great poker players fail at this, players that are super intelligent and super hard working.

The stories I could tell over the last 8 years I reckon i could write very entertaining book. Full of humor/horror/sadness/joy I would like to say I have seen it all, but you are always learning and even now new stuff will pop up.

I was always taught there is no such thing as easy money, in this game this is very true to say the least. Any day I turn on my computer/laptop I class that as a working day. Of course some days it could be for a few hours only, but I have had many 24 hour days through the years. I do recall one day going over 36 hours straight. So I can honestly say in 8 years of backing I have not taken one day off! (pretty sure everyone I back can vouch for that)

Anyway, just my 2 pence worth on how tough this game really is. I would love to elaborate more as I have the most insane stories that have come up through the years, but this is not my thread. (I will save that for my book )

From what I can see Pads is doing everything as well as one could, when it comes to running a stable and working for Party (always aim for perfection, but you will never get there). He's a pretty good footballer as well I have seen that first hand!

Wow insane thread! You are a money printing machine

Good/Frustrating day at felt today.

This week had been amazing

8th in London Grand finale for around $20k (£200k ftw)
4th in 2k for $42k, heaps for first
7th in $10k for $55k heaps for first
3rd in daily $530 for $11k

I had had so many runs and just feeling great about game, decided to play only 4 tables.

2k 6max, I was chiplead for most of the tournament but then bubbled for huge pot J9s vs A9s on A989x
7th in Daily 530 for $4k
5th in $1k rebuy for $22k

Not really tilted at all or thrilled, feel amazing about how I'm playing, in tournaments thats kinda how it is though, you can have a $100k week or whatever and still be sad not to have gotten a gold medal.

Will take tomorrow off (maybe last minute flick in the $5k) and then be ready for big Sunday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhFH5KJOv7A

[ ] Card dead

+1. Great post by BBZ.

Hi Patrick How you doin'? I see you're finishing 2017 super strong
I'd send you a PM, but i think i don't have enough posts to send one, so i'm contacting you here instead.

I would be really happy to help you with the things listed above.
I have a lot of experience with all sorts of traveling - high end holidays (Maldives etc.), on budget travel (Thailand etc.) and everything in between.
I'm also about to travel around the world in 2018/2019. So i think i'm qualified for most of the things you are looking for in Pre 2018 section.

As i'm about to continue funding my travel addiction by playing MTTs, we can discuss "P-files" more in detail,
as i would, for sure, benefit from it too on so many levels.

We can discuss "bitB Italy" a bit more through PMs too, as i live near Italy, speak Italian and play live with Italians occasionally,
so i could, maybe, offer some help expanding there + some other regions i think can be kind of interesting.

I hope you'll take some time to read through my post and PM me when time allows you to.

Regards,
Tilen

Jesus mental day today, buy ins were SO high haha, fired ridiculous amount of buy ins, but was good fun.

Currently 1 tabling Party 5k, made day 2 of Stars $5k, guaranteed $15k and will be a looooooot for first. 6/21, vamos tomorrow!

very insightful posts indeed. gl with the grind!

gg field so so so good left, sad way to bust for the dream.

What does the different labels mean?

Some players good while others not that good.

Bump? Would really like to understand what goes thru ur head limp/calling 23bb w TJs in CO in 10k. I'm sure it's not a tilt thing so curious if u could get into it a bit

Labels: prob more like some players exceptional other players not quite as exceptional if its a table full of high rollers. Not too many complete fish played in those

Why not?

There's like 27bbs in the pot, even if I give him a really harsh range against myself including QTs, KTs, ATs, AJo, AKo, AQo, KJs, QJs, etc I'm going to be around 45%, even if he somehow jams aa/kk/qq/jj/tt I'm going to be 42.5% or something.

In very tough tournament with a guy like this on my left, taking these spots is fine.

Ok, so decided to go to Prague in the end, flying private for first time ever going there which will be an experience and most likely flying ryanair back haha.

Friday/Saturday I will be chilling out completely. Sunday is the stars 50k which I'm really looking forward to, and then the next day is Party 25k which I'm looking forward to aswell.

I'll most likely stay and play the main event, but depending how I'm feeling may just come back home after the 2 highrollers.

Christmas will be great, biggest one I've had probably, both sides of the family coming to stay for a few days. My birthday is on the 30th and then afer New Year's eve will hopefully be ready for big 2018!

I'll update my goals to show where I'm at now.

These goals are kind of more long term but will see where they are at atm.

I've been questioning my position in poker a lot recently. Like do I want to be so much in the limelight, have a huge stable, be an ambassador for a site. I have no idea really. The poker community really is quite toxic at times, theres so much **** that goes around and I remember being exactly like this previously. I was so so so negative, I wanted to see the worst in everybody, I loved that Daniel Negreanu was getting a lot of ****, I loved seeing Jason Mo calling people bad regs or idiots on Joe Ingram podcast. I probably woke up and went to NVG looking/hoping for controversy and to see people fail, and thinking back to that its 1) Really sad I was ever like that but 2) Its really good that I've been able to learn from it.

I actually like to see the positives in people, theres a few examples in bitB a lot of people may think somebody is really bad and in the past I would 100% of jumped on the bandwagon, but I actually try and think the opposite now, even when it might sometimes be wrong that actually these guys could be very good at other things that justifies for some technical flaws and thus rois are the same which is all that matters at the end of the day.

There is lots of reasons why I'd like to just end everything, have no stable, have no ambassador role, no blog, just quietly learning and playing series and some live tournaments, it would make things a lot less stressful (I actually just found a grey hair in my beard, the night after the whole twittergate/party thing WTF?! HAHA) but there is actually lots of good ways and reasons to stay.

1- I think that I can have a positive influence in terms of how poker progresses over the next years, I think I can help with party and encourage everybody in every tournament to run
- Button ante
- 100bb maximum start stacks
- Shot clocks

This would help amateurs so much, they would have lower loss rates (their avg all in equity at 250bb stacks is 0-10% vs say 50bb stacks where its like 35-45 or whatever) and it would make poker a lot more fun again. I used to ****ing love poker, I couldn sleep the night before the tournament, I would be ther 30 minutes early and wait for the screen to see the table draw and get excited etc, now most people are still fast asleep in bed by the time the 2nd level has started. People come late, show up, try and spin up a stack and if it doesn't go well nvm, they cba playing 300bb no ante poker 1st level in a tournament where pots mean nothing, that needs to change I think. Online I want to keep helping to ensure there won't be a monopoly never gets created and that other sites battle with party for clear number 2 spot over next 12 months which will make everything really healthy and positive

2- With staking, I really, really love seeing people develop/learn under our guidance and become richer both in terms of money but in terms of happiness and experiences. I'm going to partner and maybe create a poker travelling/helping grinders out company that I won't look to profit from at all that helps low/mid stakes grinders move abroad and get experiences whilst grinding. Being 23 and living in Costa Rica or Budapest or wherever else is so so cool and no job/university etc will compensate for the stuff I want to see my players experience. From this month I am changing completely how I do all of my coaching with the guys, I have a brand new system that others are not using and I think is way more beneficial, it lets me build more of a relationship with the guy and have a better understanding of where hes at and where he wants to be at moving forward. I like that a lot.

Alright will do an update from Prague from the $50k and $25k. Anything else people would want me to write about? I will have bunch of off time relaxing.

<3

great post!

I have a couple thoughts on the starting stack, especially live.

1- Are you sure their all in equity is so low? A lot of amateurs in mid-big size live events pride themselves on being super conservative in the early levels and I would imagine fairly regularly get it in ahead vs some pros and also just fold loads of early spots.

2- Are you sure you understand what recreational players want in a tournament structure? I agree that 100bb starting stacks and a good structure throughout might be better for their ROI but I think a lot of people want to make sure they feel like they got their moneys worth in terms of play- they don't want the first two levels to be significant straight away because people don't want to spend 5000 euros on a tournament only to get knocked out within an hour. I might be over simplifying things here and possibly being patronising but I think a lot of players enjoy making it through three hours of a tournament without being at risk much. I would definitely prefer your option but I'm not completely convinced it would be popular with a large contingent of amateurs who want a reasonable playing 'experience'. I think pros are much more comfortable getting knocked out in the first levels of a tournament due to starting levels being immediately important than amateurs would be and you might lose people to that.

I definitely think a 300bb no ante starting level is just too painful to play and I would hope that most amateurs agree but I think something like 200bb ante then 150bb ante might be a better way to ensure that you don't find too many amateurs complaining about structures that are getting them knocked out an hour and a half into their holiday to barcelona.

If a solid pro and an amateur get 250BB stacks in preflop, which of them is more likely to be doing it with QQ, AK or other hands they know are "all-in hands" without regard for stack depth?

He said 0-10%, not 20-30. I agree that their equity will be lower when they get it in and I agree that in terms of 'having a fair chance' 100bb starting stacks would be more favourable to amateurs but I was suggesting that despite it being better for them in terms of ROI/edge it might not be what most recreational players would enjoy.

These are very good points. I think having antes/100bb stacks from the start online makes a lot of sense, but I'd be concerned about it affecting field sizes for live events.

Starting 250 deep with an ante makes sense though as a sort of compromise.

Pads has there been any market research done on this question?

I suspect that some recs would definitely be less inclined to play if they could easily be knocked out in the first level, but then again maybe they would just be the nittier old guys and a structure change would bring in some other players from elsewhere.

agreed, im from costa rica and out of my poker friends im almost the only one playing poker for a living... as a plo cash game pro whenever i play a holdem mtt the first few levels are miserable for me BUT my friends that only get to play a few big tournaments a year ( in the 2k up range) love the deep structure, the possibility of making a mistake and not being left with 40bbs, etc etc. why do you think the monster stack at the WSOP has always been such a huge success ?its the feeling for a recreational of starting with lots of chips and getting a lot of value for their money ( in their eyes lots of value its not necessarily the EV per se but the ability to play longer) .

I do believe that we have to look at that part from the recreational player that only plays a few events a year perspective, they want to ENJOY the experience and if they loose a few pots in the first few levels , medium size pots means being down to 30-bbs thats not enjoyable ...

What you think about escalator structure (deep in the beginning but shorter levels, the later on the longer blind levels will be), seems like a solid compromis for both sides

Pads, saw your last tweet about the Stars event structure sucking. Can you elaborate on what aspects you don't like and why? I don't know a huge amount about live event structures and why certain structures are better for certain players so interested to know your thoughts.

Excellent post from bbz. Very classy response.

Loving all the old stories from your early days pads. Really good stuff.

Noticed some changes in party poker schedule.
Phases are missing and i think gtds are down