Storyyy time

So i guess this is a good place to start. Let me preface this by sayign I will be deliberately vague about some details for fairly obvius reasons - but I will sprinkle in the odd £200k pot to make up for it.

I started off playing live in a weird staking arrangement:

I was being staked by person A
2 others were being staked by person B

an the 3 of us were swapping equally.

Also my brother was staying with me and he wasn't beign staked or swapping with anyone, he had about £140k net worth and was playing mainly £2knl

The swap was weird as there were no real rules put in place, I couldn't really say no to swapping as I would be playign £6k buy in games, with the occassional straddle.

Also side note, I was in about a £100k hole before agreeing to this from app games.

January I won about £100k, was fairly steady wth no swings, but the other guys dusted and broke even. This was pretty frustrating for me, I saw a fair few mistakes from the guys i was swapping with, but that isn;t to say I wasn;t makign any myself. Person B who was way more experienced with the games we were playign kept chalkign it up to variance and highlighting my personal mistakes. My brother proceeded to dust and also play like a whale imo, shot takign games that were too high and started to play PLO which he claimed he thought he was winnign at, but really has no idea if he is winning or losing.

So, this was super frustrating and was about to get even more so...

February, a couple whales turned up and all of a sudden i was playing a £20knl game that was straddled with a £400 straddle. Obviouslt the higher I played the less ation I had as the backers would buy larger peices off stake.

I proceeded to dust about £60k an then spin up to have about £100k in front of me, so at this point I'm up £40k, but dont forget my peice would be like 40% or even less if I remeber correctly and then swapped 3 ways, and then my peice will come off my £100k make up, so I wasn't super fussed about the money, I was just trying to play well.

HH: whale (1) opens to £1k, reg 3 bets to £3k, whale (2) cold calls otb, I cold 4 bet AKo to £10k (awkward stacks behind me) and it folds around to whale (2) who peels, both of us £120k deep pre.

Pot is £24kish, flop is 723rb, I c bet £8k, he calls, turn 2h brings bdfd, I bet £30k he calls, river 2x complets trips and I jam £80k into £84k. He folded relatively fast, but it was probably the longest 15 seconds of my life. I lift my cards up, kinda to show the reg next to me, followed by another reg shouting 'Show one show all!' So I look at Whale (1) and ask him if he wants me to show, 'yes show, show!' I show... Whale (2) is furious, which is great fr the game as he isn't leaving. But person B is also furious, not happy with my aggro style of poker... more on this is my next post.

...Continued to play the odd big game in February, but the stress of afew things was piling up. My brother was super dusting, down about £60k and basically refusing to listen to the fact that he shouldn;t be playing in these game, even jumping into PLO and doing £2k flips. We were living together and things were gettign pretty heated betwen us.

Person B then see's me butcher a hand at £20knl with a £400 straddle, which essentially means I am now dropped down to the £6knl game. Obvs this is still a huge game, but the problem was I was still swapping with a guy that proceeds to dust in the £20k game and a guy that was dusting in the £6k game that got moved down to £2k... So I had soem decent £30k sessions, that were essentially pointless.

I spoke to Person A about the situation, my personal backer, but he weight Persons Bs judgment over mine... Eventually this all came to a head and I just left.

I flew to Pattaya start of March and began to grind onlien again for myself. My brother went back to the Uk and we weren't talking that much either.

Pattaya is one of the best place on the plannet. Plenty of restuarants, plenty of people, plenty of girls, gyms and 24 hour nightlife. Plus it's cheap, I had a nice room and spent about £500 a month, you can get one way way cheaper.

My net worth at this time was about £60k, I started focusing on 200z on stars, ran super pure and was up about $12k or so in just over a week. I spoke to my backer and he was willing to let me try the live games again without having to swap - he kind of had to, I had a pretty decent track record in the games, despite playing a fe whands baly I was up a fair chunk of money, it just happened to be swapped out...

I started to focus more on my horses and I bought some action in a friend selling for WSOPE. I ran super pure this month and spun like £30k, so net worth was up to £90k.

Felt like I was super rich, my net worth had been slowly creeping up the lst few years and this was th ebiggest jump I' ever had. I don;t really spend money tho, I splash on food, and the occassional flight upgrade but thats it really.

I dropped one of my horses and had one left, he was abotu to take a career break form being a detective and join me in thailand. His focus was gonna be poker, but he didn;t want to waste his year off, so for April a bunch of us went on an adventure around Thailand.

There was 6 of us in total including the thai girl I brought with me. First we went to koh samui for songkran (a big ass water festival) This is where we found out the thai girl was bat **** crazy (turns out im **** at vettign them) so we sent her home and carried on to koh phagnan where they have th efull moon party.

After this we had to do a visa run, so we went to Phnom Penh and I flew my parents out for my moms birthday. It's pretty cheap in cambodia and we played a bunch of live poker. We travelled to Kampot, which is really nice, then on to shianouville which is a complete shithole. We got pretty bored in snooki so we headed to pattaya from there.

Spent most of May in pattaya with friends havign a great time, but eventually it was time to try these bi live games again. Flew into Hong Kong, which my friends joined me for for a few days before they headed to vegas.

I was in a £100k hole and it was time to focus and get out of it... But there was literally no games as everyone had gone to vegas, so super lst minute I changed my mind and off to vegas I went!

So last minute I turned up at Hong Kong arport and I hadn;t done my ESTA, had a huge sweat in the airport waiting for it to come through, but luckily it did and off we go!

Day after I arrived was the $5k 6 max, had a pretty insane table throughout, OTb redbaron, andras nemeth, nick shulman, joa veiera, olivier busquets. At one point we were 5 handed, and we would just sweating that we got an american in the 6th seat that would bust fairly quickly and then we'd be sweating the next guy they brought. I ran dee and managed to cash for $30k, nice chunk out of make up. Busted the main event though and that was all my tournies for the series.

Now for the live cash, honestly I hated the bellagio, I couldn;t get use to how you have to bribe the florr for a seat... just doesn;t make sense in my uk non tipping brain. I don't mind paying to sit, but how much do you pay? Does it depend on the stakes? Plus they had like no waiting area and then read the list ******edly, I stood behind them as they read my name 'Richard' as 'patrick' in a dleiberate attempt for my to sleep my seat to give it to th eguy that bribed them properly.

Anyways... first big game i play is $40/80 with peopel like masherdog, and a bunch of othe ronlien wizards so I left and headed to the encore/wynn

This was fun! Ended up in a 4 handed game where I nearly won $100k playing 50/100/200, only didn;t because of this hand...

I open BTN J8, sb and bb call. Flop is T97fd, I bet big, Art Papayzian raises, I 3 bet, he jams I call... He finds a J on the second run out in a $80k pot.

But im up like $45k in this game and do another nice chunk of make up...

spoek too soon tho as next think I know I'm playing 100/200 in bobbies room in the bellagio.

I limp call QTo in sb vs one of the $100k american regs, Jake schindler i think. Flop is QT2, all th emoney goes in and he has T2... and the 2 otr makes me feel a little sick tbh. dusted abotu $45k in that game.

After vegas, headed to LA to set up y horse to play live in Commerce and I headed back to asia to play live poker.

End of July i was back in asia playing highstakes live. I won about £20k in this period with nothign much happenign in the games.

My birthdsy was in August and I flew my mom over to asia to come visit, wich was great morale, but i didnt get to spend much time wth her as a whale had turned up to play, she understood and I manged to win £170k in August! I was finally out of it and time to spin!

September i won £210k and was started to negiotate my deal.

Ocotber I went back to pattaya, which was an absolute mistake financially as the games started popping, but I now ha more money that ever before and was out of make up, I just wanted to enjoy in and celebrate.

I headed back in November... I won £191k

December £176k

Obviously this is all in unacessable private games and I'm super an dlucky and thankful for th eopportunities I've had. But yeah this has been my journey over the last year. I'll add in some hand histories and photos below.

So I'd been bluffing my ass off all day in one particular session, gettign caught a lot, but also super playign up the table talk to make myself look like a maniac.

Eventually spin my £20k upto £100k, I'm playing little redic and people are adding on to cover me...

Eventually this hand happens:

I open TT, bad older reg from vietnam 3 bets me, I call.

Flop is T77, i xr big, he calls, turn 9, I make a small ob, river brick i jam about £65k into £65k

He tanks and tanks and tanks... eventually all i hear is 'for ****s sake' and i just know he is calling... he's more bothered about being bluffed than losing the pot... he called and then a £200k pot is scrapped to me... I think that wa swhen i headed to Pattaya to celebrate.

This next hand is vs Limitless:

I had actually recently done a video for my horses reviewing a lot of limitlesses hands so I think that really helped me in this hand...

Limitless opens the btn, i 3 bet 88 in the sb (balls deep) he calls.

pot is like £4600, 997hhx board i have 8h, i cbet £2300, he rasies to £6500, I call

turn is 6h, pot is £17600, i check he bets £6700 I call

river 9x completes trips, pot is £31k, I lead £12k, he jams £60k effective

I tanked the longest I have ever tanked in my life... I called and he had AxKh

I ended up giving it all back to him later in that session being a whale... then quitting with a whale in the game because i was tilted. Live poker doe mess with your head soemties lol.

Brought my horse over in December to okay some £2knl - he was in Bali playign online and it was going well.

He smashed up the £2k games and we both headed back to the UK for Xmas.

Don't really feel at home in the Uk anymore much much prefer asia tbh.

Headed back to Bangkok with him and another friend for new years and then heading to australia for the aussie millions.

I dusted about $100kaud in tournies... cashing for literally 0.

Corona started to be mentioned at the end of the aussie millions, I headed pattaya after aussie mill finished with my horse.

This is where we did a lot of onlien work and I can honestly say I think he is now the best player at 200z, SN: Morris2790 (come at me anyone that wants a win rate bet vs him)

Spenting end of jan and then feb helping him and going to the gym - I hired a nutrionist that i saw in the charlie carrel podcast and I'm down 18kg since workign with him (had a lot to lose tho)

did a quick border run to cambodia before they closed the borders, and introduced a new guy into our 2sm to grind online.

Once thins started to go into full lockdown we headed over to Koh Samui, seemed like th ebest place in Thailand to be right now. Also since beign here they have banned people comming into the island without a health certificate. Also because of that, we've manged to negotiate with soem pretty sick airbnbs, manged to get a £12k permonth place down to £3.75k. It has a gym, 5 bedrooms, a games room, a pool, 2 living rooms all the goodies lol.

So plan for the rest of quarantine is to chill out, grind and not go too crazy

Also flew my parents out to the aussie millions, paid for their flights, accomodations and gave them £5k of spending money for tournies and that...

My dad ends up comign second in the $500 PLO for $45k so great trip for them! (I did not have a peice)

I always take my brother with me when I travel...




Escape island on koh tan near koh samui (I'm in the back)



Cambodia pool with my dad



Thailand bar with my mom and friends



Cant do vegas without a cowboy hat



Escaping to Samui with the boys

So fkn epic!

Appreciate how you find time to visit us in lowly Cambodia. And your parents are pretty legit! First time I've gone to girlie bars with a friend and his mom and dad .

so what % did you end up getting from this staking deal? Or are the wins already your share?

nice updates and sick run - obviously i am here seeking the ev, will take $1k on youseffahmed or seta beni vs your boy w/r with an escrow, just skype me if you wanna book

up

Cheers Mike, and cheers for your incredible hospitallity any time i show up!

The %'s are fairly complicated and changed a fair bit. But combined with my Investments in Tesla, my horses and a few things, my net worth is about £0.5m

Yeah I'm absolutely in for this, I'll message you on skype and post the bet details here once we've sorted them

Rooting for Richard and team for that bet. Gl (to both sides)

Great suitcase

Those month numbers are insane! Congrats mate, come along way since we playing £10 rebuys at the cricket club.

Nice results, are you willing to give away any odds for the bet? I could do a bit larger bet than PE if so.

Great stories boys

in 4 the stories. did you actively try getting into the private games or was it more random opportunities?

Haha me too - and thanks for the support!

Wow that seems like such a long time ago haha! The emerald club iirc. Hope things ares going well mate.

Just ironing out the details of the bet, we need a reg that is willing to share hands, that's the main stumbling block atm, then to determine sample size etc. Some of the good regs people want to bet on do low volume and general play higher stakes, a drawn out bet allows for better pool selection. But if all things go ahead I'm happy to bet more.

We need to play less poker next aussie millions and do more drinking!

I have some good contacts and then ran well with the opportunities that arose. I think I come across as fairly action giving at the tables which helps.

Very cool stories Richard, best of luck when things restart in asia! I am thinking of going to thailand in a few months when things settle down, would love to hear more about pataya/pics!

Living the dream good luck in the future great thread