Back story

Started playing poker when I was 16... Am now 27. Played a steady amount of online and live over the years, but mainly online.

First couple of years played 5-20 Multis until I binked a big Multi for an 8k score and then transitioned into HU Sng. Played as big as possible, but only won c30k over a couple of years.

When I was 20 I made the transition into short stack hunl cash. I made around 150k in my first year and then went to uni. Was pretty much break even at uni - as drunk poker on a laptop doesn't tend to end too well, but finished off with a first from Bristol uni in accounting and management.

After Bristol I started a full time job as an accountant at big four firm. In my first year there i made friends with some Euro crushers who taught me huge amounts about the game and I ended up winning c450k in my first year, followed by c150k in my second. Made a plo transition in my third year and made c100k.

Qualified as an accountant and decided to give pro a go. Could not sustain the lifestyle and after 2 months I started applying for jobs. Got a job 2 weeks in a deal advisory team, mainly working on gaming/gambling and real estate transactions, which I really enjoy (and still here!!!)

Over this period and even before then poker has been horrible for me. I didn't enjoyed it, felt it bypassed me, I had lost my drive as I will never play as big games again, and I had an ex girlfriend for 4 years up to 4 months ago, who lacked any form of drive and I think it passed onto me..I probably lost around 20k over this period.

Around a year ago, probably due to fear of squandering all my winnings, I bought a flat close to central London and have little amounts left liquid.

Since I dumped my ex - my life has taken a change way for the better and primarily I've had a real desire to study poker again and improve on my game. I've just started putting in decent volume again c40k hands a month at 0.5/1 zoom (4 tabling) and doing of a bit of advanced hand analysis. Also I have a new girlfriend who is super driven and this is having a great influence on me.

Previously I saw 2/4 - 3/6 online and 5/10 live as being low stakes, but I guess the aim of this thread is to get to that level again...where I can be a winner at these games!

Furthermore, I used to love blogging and hopefully I can feed my passion again.

Thanks

Rob

https://gyazo.com/b5f23da7f77b845fda725dfd1cec7a7d

April

Brain feels like mush and think I'm done for the month.

In recent years I've found it really hard to balance poker, girlfriend, job, gym and social life. Unfortunately I prioritise poker at the bottom of this list, as the long term prospects of it are the worst.

Notwithstanding this, been a good month back at the tables.

Rest of the month I'm going to study hands over the month and hopefully will be back in May for some more.

Off to do some yoga now -

Rob

Nice thread Rob,subbed and gl!

17/05/16

Finding it very hard to motivate myself again. I have clear tangible goals of what I want to achieve in poker/life, but it's really hard to achieve these kind of targets considering I used to play so much higher and poker used to be so much less of a struggle (rather enjoyment/fun).

A few things I want to note:

1. The bot situation on Ipoker is sick- Don't really want to state an alias and hopefully they don't read this, but there is a defunct bot, I've found recently, who insta folds after 5 seconds for a good 3/4 minutes and folds off c60/70bb over the period. Not sure what is up, but stuff like this needs to get sorted.

2. Where to play - I was enjoying the 0.5/1 zoom on ipoker due to the accessibility and reliable decent RB from a source I like. However, I feel like zoom is a real mugs game and long term everyone seems to just be grinding RB, therefore I feel I may multi-site again, but still not sure.

3. Goals - This is stated above, but I feel like including some real tangible goals here:

(A) Savings/mortgage: I have a mortgage of c£200k on my property. My mortgage is fixed at just over 2% until June 2017 and then I can repay as much as I like. I currently have £160k scattered in savings. I want to be able to get this to £200k by next year and fully repay my mortgage. c£35k after interest needed

(B) Shares: I want to max out my ISA allowance on my share portfolio. Currently need an extra £10k.

(C) Work: Not sure what I want in this direction. I have a very good role in the corporate finance team of a top accountancy firm. But stability is not healthy, I always like to challenge myself. Need to decide what I want to do with my life by June 2017...

(D) Pension: I am trying to contribute c£20k a year into my pension, including a top up of £5k by my employer. will see if I can continue this...

It's my birthday tomorrow and these are my four goals. I know all monetary, which is sick, but I guess the rest of my life I am happy with.

Will try and update with more poker related, but tbh my poker life is dry as hell, I mean who the hell wants to hear about 0.5/1 zoom, with daily swings of £200

Rob

29/10/2016

Little update...

Since this update, I carried on with Zoom in May and June and after winning c£4k, found it pretty mind numbing, so I moved to sit n go's instead (which is probably even more mind numbing), but I need variation.

Been drooling, making c£2k profit per month at the sit n go's, which is good, considering I'm in the 40% tax bracket, therefore it's effectively, £2.8k.

This month I resubscribed to my RIO membership and have spent the past week watching the RIO PLO videos. During the end of my high states stint, PLO was becoming my most favoured game and kinda confused why I never carried forward with it. Anyways, it's been a great re-education to the game and I'm happy to report I've had a c£10k week at 0.5/1, 1/2 and a tiny bit of 2/4.

(A) - turns out my mortgage will be c£220k in June next year. I have had massive outgoings in terms of holidays / weddings / car, therefore this is becoming a tougher goal. I've spent most of my earnings and so yeah, this will be hard...

(B) - Put in c£3k over the past 5 months, £7k to go!

(C) - I considered many alternatives. After looking at friends in different jobs and flexibility and complications of my job I have decided this is the best place for me to be long term. However, I am pushing for a secondment to move to NYC for a year, so let's see what happens.

(D) - Still going strong with this!

Rob

where do u play PLO at rob?

Hey man, your story is really inspiring to me because I'm currently studying accounting at a university here in the states! Can I ask which big 4 firm you worked for? Also, in general, did you enjoy your time working for the big 4? Glgl, keep crushing it

I play on micro and prima - mainly due to good rake back deals, heads up action and the fact I can't play on party as my current firm acts for them, and I can't play on stars as I asked for my full tilt account to be permanently closed 10 years ago - but that's a different story.

Should I be playing anywhere else???

I was at KPMG, I did your exact same route. In essence they are all the same and it's very good to get one of them on your cv.

I really didn't enjoy the big four environment was too corporate for me and I was doing audit, which was incredibly boring. I'm now at a slightly smaller firm (top 6 in uk) in the deal advisory team and enjoying it more. Also they specialise in gambling transactions and I work on all of them!

If I can offer any advice, try and decide what you want to do in the future:

- accountancy leading to vc / pe or m&a - if so join the m&a or deal advisory team at a big four and get your CA qualification

- accountancy leading to a CFO or partner role - audit

Hope this helps, but any more questions let me know!

Feels like an eternity since my last update...

I've had a bit of a turbulent time since my last update...

- lost 200 euros at hypers after my last post in the evening
- was near enough to break even yesterday
- today I was c400 dollars up. On one site I play on there is a stt leaderboard and you need to shot take to get up on it. So I always end up playing a few high stakes hypers.

Played a 100 euro, he had me slightly covered and lost kq vs a7 (He called pf, I jammed for c15bb in 15/30 level). Then I lost a 200 euro, lost k10 vs q8 in late stage (this time I had covered and called a jam). Then played a 500 and jammed a7 vs k8 (he called at 15/30 for c12bb) - I had him covered and then lost a10 vs a4.

So I ran pretty horribly... And ended up the day c300 dollars down after rakeback

Well the run good has continued and I'm still making good money (will post graph at end of the month). No matter how good it is, I always like to focus on drawbacks. When poker is going this well, its kinda all I want to do. I've realised certain things slipping in my life:

- GYM: Big time drop - I'm dropping muscle, putting on weight (not too much) and really have zero motivation to go.

- Social Life: to be honest, when I'm trying to balance 20 hours of poker, 50 hour a week job, gym, girlfriend - this is going to struggle and I'm prioritising everything else over this, which is definitely -EV

- Work: is actually going strong right now... don't want to jinx myself! Apart from the fact I'm pretty sleep deprived

- General mood: I find my self having a shorter fuse, being much more short tempered.

Generally I don't like myself when I'm playing, but I've made close to £15k over the last 3 weeks, so really can't complain...Let's just hope the run good continues. I'm moving up stakes too. Main game is 1/2 now - playing bits of 0.5/1, 2/4, 3/6 and 5/10 too.

Rob

December update

Well after my last post, I won a bit in the week after posting, then I dropped 1.5k euros in a 25/50 game... this has kinda mentally messed me up a bit, well let me explain.

Last week I ended making £2.5k, so the 1.5k euros and bit more. While this week, I've just haemorraged it all. Every day losing £500.

Overall I've still done pretty good at the end of this year and if I had to estimate my entire year, I'm about £30k/35k up this year, which I'm really happy about, considering next to nothing volume.

However, over the past 6 weeks the thing that got me here has suffered - studying! I've bought an annual RIO membership and will when I finish work for xmas break, I will go the library every day to study PLO.

I have closed my prima and ipoker accounts and will just play on unibet hu sng tourneys for the rest of the year, probably low stakes and study.

It's kinda crazy how much of a mind fk this game is. Sometimes you feel on top of the world and the next day you can't even beat 0.5/1....

CRAZY GAME

New year goals

Turns out the library was closed which destroyed my library goals, however for the past 2 weeks I've been off work and had no open poker accounts. It's given me an opportunity to think a bit more about what I want this year and set out my goals.

Work

I think it's quite difficult to set work goals at the moment as there is a possibility I could be going to New York for one year. If this is the case my only goal is to not cave in and make sure I see the year out. I'm very dependent on my friends and family and this will be a big test if it happens.

Otherwise I would like to get promoted to senior manager, manage client relationships and bring in at least one piece of work myself.

Poker

I want to make sure this RIO subscription is not neglected, I move back into live poker again. I take breaks when I can see that poker is getting too much and that I turn £40k profit up to September.

The rationale for the RIO is self explanatory as I have paid 1k for this. Live poker increase is for two reasons, being online poker consumes me and live is far more manageable and there is a lot more money in live poker these days.

£40k profit is the only nominal goal I'm setting. I have 220k left on mortgage and 180k in savings - the expiration is September, wish me luck!

General

In terms of the gym I've always focused on bodybuilding. I would like to now focus 1/3 my sessions on yoga, 1/3 on cardio and 1/3 on weightlifting. These are much better to make me feel better.

Life attitude

This is a kinda weird one. I've always been money and work focussed. The time I was making the most was when I was most unhappy. I would like to be more involved in mindful exercises such as meditation in the future.

In summary the only quantitative goal I've set is £40k by the end of September. I hope the rest can be achieved, but I will have to see. Wish me luck!

Robert

Where do you play live in London?

What levels do you play and which games?

Subbed

Hey Rob, no idea how I'm missed this over the last 12 months...

I'm currently doing my ACA at a Big 4 firm in London (10/15 done) and playing poker recreationally now.

Absolutely subbing to this, looks like the perfect thread for me!

UPDATE TIME!!!

Work: Turns out I got rejected for NYC!!! They never met me, interviewed me or saw a CV. Was something I had in the public space (eg LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram). All are now private apart from Instagram where I like to blog a bit about food.

However, I did get promoted to senior manager and I have been on a secondment at a private equity house since April so all is good. It's been an interesting time and heading back to my old job in a few weeks (after LA and Vegas), which is good.

Also my pension is now up to £50k.

So from a work front, I have succeeded.

Poker

FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL. Wow - what a rubbish year for poker. Was up £2k just before my secondment started. Then my computer at my flat stopped working and the internet at my mums got too slow, so I tilted off all the profit in about 3 minutes at my mums on push n fold and closed my accounts till August.

I have bought a new laptop, which is super good and started studying at the start of August. Fired up accounts on about 6 sites around 2 weeks ago and was up £2k until last night and lost virtually all of it at 2/4 losing about a dozen 70:30s.

I still really enjoy poker and going to soldier through until I either tilt/close all my accounts or dislike the game again.

General

Yoga has been a biweekly thing this year, however I'm super happy with how training has gone since March. My tennis, squash and golf are all good again. In addition, mixing in a lot of skipping with my weights training. I've dropped from 91kg at May-16 to 83kg now, virtually all fat loss - which is great.

My girlfriend moved into my flat in April and it's going very well. We're off to LA and Vegas for a couple of weeks next week, so no complaints.

Life attitude

Generally I'm very happy at the moment. The most important things in my life (family, girlfriend and work) are all going great. I have no complaints.

Meditation never took off. It required far too much patience and was way to hippified for me. However, something big did happen... My mum's best friend passed away around 3 weeks ago. She was c55, had 4 children and 6 grand children.

It's taught me something. Life is short, we need to make sure we enjoy it as much as possible and do what we truly love. Of course this doesn't mean going off the rails - but I certainly making a conscious effort to be a bit more selfish in the decisions I make. My family/girlfriend and my own happiness is the most important thing and I shouldn't prioritise things like poker or work above that.

I will update after LA / Vegas

Rob

Used to play at Vic and Palm.

I used to play 2/4 NL to 50/100 NL online and live £5/10 to £25/50. Always a short stacker and casino trips made sense as I was playing high enough.

Now I just play 0.5/1 PLO to 3/6 PLO online and non existent live, as it's kinda wasted on a short stacker at such low stakes, considering wait time and higher rake at lower stakes etc...

Solid week - Won a bit but just had a bit of a crazy episode.

Was down 150 dollars in a session and was chasing money at the end, so I decided to play 15/30 pnf vs an 888 reg.

First hand k6.... he jams i call. Turns over a8

Flop 768, turn j - river 6....

Then I thought I was going to get my sb but due to some dude joining I didn't, so then I had jj and he jams 10bb, I snap call and he has 66.... board bricked and I'm 450 dollars richer

I'm going to try to stop until I leave to USA (Thursday).

My last day until a 2 week holiday is Wednesday and a deal I've been working on for the
Last 6 months is due to complete on Wednesday. So fingers crossed -'it's a big one!

Rob

Not blogged here for ages but here goes....

Work: was doing a secondment at a property private equity firm last time I wrote here. Deal I was working on completed for £550m, good experience but glad to be back at my current job. Been working on some very high profile deals in the gaming industry and have a few in the pipeline now...so exciting times. Pretty hopeful of a promotion to director in the next few months but let’s see!

Gym: been really up and down, now is a down time but I want to step up to 2x a day for the next 6 weeks as I may be going to Serbia for work all October!

Life: well I got engaged, wedding is in April it’s been pretty hectic... but moving along. Also I’m managing a property development of 6 flats and doing all the tax planning and other mangement around it so its pretty fun. Will show pics of completed property once done!

Poker: best till last.... managed to win c£40k gbp in final few months of last year. This year has been horrible, constantly going on £10k upswings over a 2week period then losing it all at 50/100. I feel like I have no control. I’ve taken a 2week timeout, want to come back here and take ownership. Play 5/10 max and start to twitch and offer rewards to people if they catch me at above 5/10!!!

Any questions on any of the above give me a shout.

Rob