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We'll start with the easiest one.
"......I read the other day that a fantastic player from a little while ago has gone and got himself a job. I read that he maybe felt that the game had passed him by a bit. How and why do you think that this can happen?..."
Well that'll be young Thewy.
And yes, he now has a proper job, technical draughtsman (architectural) or somesuch. It was what he did before poker. He designed the extension to his own house 5 or 6 years ago, too. And that was some extension, almost a complete new house, we are talking £300,000+ worth. (Thanks to EPT Baden).
There were several factors in his decision.
First up, he was ahead of the curve for a long time. Of late, though, he started feeling that he could not boss tables any more, people were doing things he could not grasp, & he just lost that "buzz" poker gives us. The game has changed amazingly, & so quickly, too. To me, I was chuffed to bits that he grasped that nettle - so many don't or can't, & become all rather sad to see.
I'm convinced - just by reading their posts, & observing their general demeanour, that many full time MTT players don't actually enjoy the game, but that's a whole other topic.
I used to be able to play to what was then a tidy standard, but not any more, as I never worked on my game. Now I play small ball, have an hourly of about a quid - I kid you not - but am totally at peace with what I play & I've never enjoyed it more. Adapt or die, so to speak.
Another major factor for Jules is that he has 4 kids between 10 & 3 (roughly) & a lovely, caring wife, but she worries about the ability to pay the bills & get the kids the stuff they want, give them nice holidays etc. For those with a full time job that means a guaranteed income stream, the paycheck hits the bank every month. For a Pro MTT player, much as we all want to be that man, try to imagine having 4 kids & a wife, & not knowing when the next bink might be? He did VERY well indeed, but he often went 12 to 18 months without a significant bink. Him & Amanda must have worried themselves to bits.
Another very nasty nettle to grasp another day is the situation of a full time MTT player who has a wife & kids to support. Quite hard to square that equation in some respects. Not enough money to take the kids to Disneyland, but Dad plays poker every day. That must generate some awkward silences during a downswing.
On a quick Thewy side-note - all 4 kids were born between mid December & mid January, & Amanda's birthday is in January, too. Think one of the kids has a birthday on Xmas Eve, or Boxing Day. And they ALL expect a Birthday pressie AND the regular Xmas pressies. Try to imagine THAT.
CxE1 posted yesterday about his youngest Daughter, Shreya, who is 10 I think. She presented him with her Xmas wish-list - on 2 sides of a piece of A4 paper. He may have embellished the tale a little, but you get the drift.
And what would an average parent spend - per kid - on Xmas presssies? £10? £50? £100? So Jules has FIVE lots of Xmas pressies & 5 lots of Birthday pressies in a month.
The mind boggles.
We remain close friends, & always will. We were before, during, & after his time with Sky Poker. And in all his time here, despite the worry that he & I may find ourselves in awkward spots, as we sat on opposite sides of the table, we never had a fallout or any awkward moments.
There are very few guys in poker I respect more than Julian.
^^^^
Ha. Julian was really persistent with those WH Rakeback cards.
The guy that signed both Julian & myself - for different roles, obv - with Wm Hill back in 2005 or thenabouts was called Phil Quayle, who posts on another forum as "Bobby1", a very shrewd sports bettor & a smashing bloke. He manages the "in-running" Golf book for Bet365.
Quick sidestory whilst we are here. I went to Vegas with WH & Phil in around 2005, made a bunch of friends, & we all still keep in touch. One of our qualifiers finished 18th in the Main Event, which was quite something. (John McGrane).
Anyway, Phil got married, & have two lovely kids, aged 6 & 4 now, I think. The lad, Connor, then developed some learning difficulties, & so life changed suddenly & it was all a bot of a shock. In some ways, the saddest thing ever, & it knocked Phil for six, but now they have all adjusted to it, & it's fine, everything is perfect.
I'll reply to the others as & when, over the next few days I hope. Long day yesterday, with the Show & some stuff that needed sorting, da de da, so I'm a bit whacked at the mo.
Not doubting you, but how do you know they have been removed, & when did you first notice it?
He has a wonderfully descriptive & distinctive writing style - he writes EXACTLY as he speaks.
I try to do the same, but it's a bit of a fail.
I'd be extremely surprised if that were done by design, it's a fundamental here that a civil atmosphere is maintained, within reason.
Anyway, let's wait & see what they say.
Anyway, the Office have replied, & were unaware, nobody had reported it previously, so they ran a test. (They have "invisible" Test Accounts for this sort of thing). And you were correct.
No idea how long this has been, or why - but it was certainly not by design, or known.
So it WILL be restored soonest. I've no idea when "soonest" is, a ticket will be passed to the techie guys, & until they open the bonnet, there's no way of knowing if it's an instant fix, or needs a bit of work.
Sadly, that means until it is fixed, it'll be open season from Team Smartarse to say what they like. Except it remains the case, if players cross the line in the chatbox, & it gets reported, they may well lose their chat rights, whether the profanity filter works or not.
Anyway, thanks for the nudge.
I shall have to ensure I let you know what I think of you before the censorship is restored.
Week ending 20/12/15.
£3.30, P76, W43 = 57%
£5.50, P80, W42 = 53%
£11, P45, W27 = 60%
TOTAL P201, W 112 = 56%
Profit on the week = £109.33 (includes £20 Promo winnings, & £12.98 Rewards payment)
So that was a weird week - only won 56%, but had one of my biggest winning weeks ever.
That was due to a good week at the £11 games. 45 ran on the 6 nights I played, which must be a record in itself.
For balance, in the two previous weeks of December, my profit/loss was exactly.......nil. So all of December's profit came last week.
Monday I chased that Promo, & played 46 games. I often lose money when chasing promos, but I made £29 that night, plus the £20 bonus.
Wednesday was a whopper, £57 profit.
Thursday was another whopper - £37 LOSS.
Friday was flat, small loss.
Saturday was huge, £41.40 profit.
Sunday was around break-even.
Ain't variance a beaut?
I suppose with more games at £11, the swings & swongs will get bigger. Scary.
Anyway, the bankroll is ticking along nicely, tick tock, tick tock.
(PS - lost £29 last night, marv).
Remarkable session last night, winning the first 8 on the spin, & 14 of the first 15. The one I lost was the only £11er that ran in the first 15 games......
The next £11er went rather better. I was not watching it, as it was Level 1, so it was tucked away bottom right of my 6 tiled DYM's. Suddenly, up pops that white screen - "Congratulations, you finished 3rd for £20".
No idea what happened, Tuney came onto another table & asked "what happened there?".
Not sure, but I think eon was responsible for the carnage.
oioi.
My next 15 games never went quite so well, losing 5 of them, but a great night overall, with 24 wins from 30, & £64.30 profit. Few more nights like that would be nice, but variance will want revenge shortly, without a doubt.
^^^^
I was just nearing the end of my usual rambling reply to that when a "pop up" Message came, & as per usual, once that comes, you can't get rid of it, & the would-be post is completely lost.
And the pop up Message?
"MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY! HO HO HO!!!"
I mean, every single character, symbol & sentiment in that yanks my chain.
"Merry Christmas". What? WHAT? Can't we find a more original & meaningful way of sending a Christmas message?
"Ho ho ho"? Are you kidding me? I'm not 4 years old you know. Bah.
And then. AND THEN. Not one (which would be one too many), not two, but THREE chuffing exclamation marks. What is it with everyone & exclamation marks? I saw a e-Mail the other day - very interesting it was, too. But FIVE sentences & FIVE exclamation marks.
Sort it out, Sky.
The Business were not aware that the profanity filter had failed, it was certainly not deliberate, or "turned off".
Of course, they would have known if it had been reported to Customer Care.........
I have a "close-down" routine after every session.
1) Once my 30th game pops up, go to the Lobby & de-reg everything. I'll always be regged for every available game at the levels I frequent, so this is essential.
2) Check my Reward Points. This is updated in real time, or within a few seconds of the last game ending. Oddly, if I log off & back on (see point 3) below) The Reward points widget disappears, so I check it before logging off.
3) Log off & then insta log back on. My account balance does not auto refresh, it can be a very long way behind, so it's the only accurate way to check my balance when ending a session. I ALWAYS want to know my exact closing balance, without that I can't update my stats. I'm afraid I have stat OCD.
Have a grand Xmas Barny, & thanks for all the Community work you do, with pride of place to your WSOP work every year.
A quick "thank you" to all those who read, or Posted, in 2015 on this little challenge thread. It became, at on time, a focal point, a gathering station, for all the PLO8 crew, but now we have various other Challenge thread (LIKE), so that's good.
Think I have played my final DYM of 2015, though I may sneak an odd one or two more in, so I'll do my "Annual Report" later this week, & report on my 2015 numbers.
Normal service will resume on New Years Day, when I'll be back playing, & aiming to get 2015 off to a flyer.
Quick reminder - I can't help myself, I have to spam - that starting next Monday, January 4th, & for a whole week, it's DOUBLE REWARD POINTS on all SNG's. Num num num.
Happiness & health to you all in 2015. And please try to ENJOY your poker.
xx
A very odd & strangely uncomfortable day yesterday.
Gill was on her way down, (she lives in Stoke) & it generally takes 2.5 hours. So when she had not arrived after 4 hours, it started to stress me out a bit. She arrived eventually - traffic was terrible - but it sort of unsettled me a bit.
I had planned to just play the UKOPS PLO, but I realised I had 930 points, & if I reached 1,000, that'd be an extra £3. Three quid, lol, that's just a single £3.30 DYM win.
But no, Mr Greedy decided to add in enough DYM's (17 as it turned out) to reach the 1,000.
And I'm extremely "organised" normally. Have a shower first, make a cuppa & a decanter of iced water with fresh lemon, set up my A5 Pad to record results, da de da. Instead, Gill was fussing around - nicely fussing around - but it took me out of my zone a bit, as I'm used to being alone all the time.
And I NEVER mix PLO & PLO8, it's a recipe for disaster. Maybe a younger man has the mental dexterity, but I don't. I can play either to a reasonable degree of competence, but not at the same time.
Anyway, I saw there in the UKOPS PLO, with no decent starting hands, fold, fold, quick quick fold. Meanwhile, my PLO8 DYM focus was all over the shop, & I lost 8 of the first 10. Marv.
Suddenly, I need to get a wriggle on in the PLO, & decided it's move time, so I 3 bet someone with a nice double suited dangle-less rundown, & walk smack bang into Vespa's good Aces. And runner runner a remarkable outdraw to double up. Whoops.
Anyway, I then found good DS Aces myself, & a good flop, but my man, to my left, who was not inclined to fold much, had flopped top pair, but no draw. Until he hit his top pair again. So that was that.
With better focus on the DYM's, I pulled most of the deficit back, & ended up winning 8 from 17 for a small loss. The money is of no consequence in the long term of course. Over thousands of games, a single session is neither here nor there. But.....there was some bad blood at the Tables, & my judgement in someone was proven to be wide of the mark.
Ahh yes, 2016, not 2015. See, senility has crept up on me whilst I was not looking.
PLO? Yeah, I keep threatening to liven them up, & I might just do that. The PLO8 crew & their stunning success deffo has a downside, & that's that we killed the PLO DYM action.
Anyway, Alan (Lord Whingle) & Karen (Lady Twaddle), tyvm, it means a great deal to me. Yesterday really was not a nice day, but it should not have troubled me like it did. More on that in a bit.
Yes, I did feel a bit bad about that Mick, as you had been sitting nice & quiet all evening, & I knew you were only playing proper PLO hands.
I don't mind folks playing every hand - in fact I WANT that - but generally I was not in the zone last night.
I'm preparing my excuses for an early PLO8 exit right right now.
Think it might involve either a turkey basting implement, or some stuffing & a spare orifice.