Great reading the poker stories of @Jac35 and @Mayhem357. Since i joined sky poker about 10 months ago these two have by far been the most profitable players in the regular speed dym games so credit to them for sharing their stories and some insight into the game. Seeing how well these two players were doing inspired me to start grinding online again after a very long break.
Sorry to hear you have been going through some dark times Jac. Hope things pick up for you.
So anyway I do feel like I am rambling a bit but to continue my nostalgia driven story. After I returned from Vegas (my wife was very happy that I had returned with money - more spending power for the honeymoon in her eyes). We even played poker at my wedding two full tables of 9 ring but I was too drunk and soon busted.
I started to wonder about trying on-line poker, by this stage I was watching poker on TV (the big game hosted by Amanda Leatherman, World Poker Tour, World Series of Poker and others). I was travelling with work a lot and the American guys I got to know were mad on poker and how easy the game was on-line. I remember being concerned that it was gambling and it could become addictive, not what I would need with a new family (we just had our baby daughter). My wife who also enjoys the game was playing 888 (I think) and also Stars, she was a losing rec who understood the game but wasn't really beating it, she was only a slight loser I guess and was only depositing small amounts each month (£10-20). She convinced me to play on her account (ssshhhh nobody tell Stars please), so I gave standard Sngs a go. To my surprise I was instantly beating them and had spun her account up to a few hundred very quickly, I was enjoying myself. One day the shock news came that she had tried to play higher stakes and lost almost everything. She was so annoyed with herself that she closed her accounts and withdrew what little she had left - she had to send ID at the time to make the withdrawl and was unhappy about that. I then decided to give the games ago, I was going to register with Stars as I was familiar with the software but for some reason choose Sky. I think it was an advert or the Sky Poker channel (I miss you Anna, Tikay and the rest). Either way I placed £10 on my account - to this day it's the only time I've deposited. In the first few days I played some £2, £3 MTTs, normal SnGs weren't running frequently (even back then when it was the big poker boom) so I gave DYMs a go. The traffic was good and I was instantly winning. It felt like a free cash machine at the time, I started on £3DYMs, soon moved to £5 DYMs, my bankroll was up to around £100 and I jumped in £15 DYMs. I was single tabling and the players were just bad. I rang my friend (one from my stag do) to tell him that it's just so easy, you sit there fold everything but premiums and within a few minutes you are down to four players. I look back now with amusement but literally very few people understood the format and would bust themselves on level one or two with a pair. You would get four way all ins frequently. This was happening at all stakes I played. I started planning how much money I could make whilst single tabling, I expected my bankroll to only go one way. Then out of nowhere, players started to get lucky against me, I would pick up a big hand and they'd have bigger, I lost a few £15s, £11s and I was down to the bare bones. I remember even playing 50p DYMs to stop myself going bust. I rang my friend again contemplating whether on-line poker was rigged and whether my winning streak was just a ruse to get me addicted. He explained variance to me and this was a harsh lesson but one I was lucky again (luck was a reoccurrent theme in my early poker years) not to go completely broke. Now I was going to play with a bankroll and set targets tied to the stakes I would play (I'm still only single tabling at this stage). I remember certain names at the time 121285, JohnConnor, these guys were almost always cashing. During one game players were making comments about how much the other was losing, I asked how they knew this and they referenced Sharkscope. What was this magic tool I wondered. I gave it a go, three searches per today without cost. I was now tracking my results and searching for the players I was seeing regularly at the tables. I realised how much JohnConnor and 121285 were making on these and my heart was set
Around this time the games started to change. I was regularly finding myself at the same tables as Patwalssh (the name always reminded me of EastEnders) and Jac35 on £5 DYMs (I had settled here due to my bankroll management and withdrawals to buy video games). The earlier crushers like JohnConnor, 121285 and others now felt like targets, they were playing in a way which was exploitable to more observant opponents. I could relentlessly attack their blinds (they would eventually respond but I could tell they hated it). I was aggressive and so were the other two guys. I never felt any resentment towards them (or anyone at the tables) but I wanted to compete with them. I remember Pat telling me he thought I was better than Jac (yes honestly) and it fed my ego. I remember out playing Pat (I looked up to both him and Jac at the time) and thinking it was some sort of result not factoring in he was multi-tabling and I was playing only 1-2 tables at a time and focused only on those. I remember talking with Jac at the time and he recommended a tool called PokerStove, it was free and you could work out poker odds with it. This would be very handy to help me understand some of those bad beats I would take (I mean I had AK villain had QJ I should win almost always right?!) and again help me on my improvement journey. I talked to Pat a fair bit at the tables, there was a lot of mutual respect. He went out of his way to get me multi-tabling, giving me advise on how to set-up dual monitors and how to learn more about ICM, targeted blind stealing etc. I recall regularly checking out Sharkscope results, we were all around the 6-7% ROI on £5s this was good - especially as we were often on the same tables (at least it felt that way to me). Then over time, I can't recall when, Jac decided to take shots at the higher stakes games, Pat got more interested in partying, girls and MTTs, the games changed and my interest faded somewhat the competition wasn't there to push me, at least it felt that way - no disrespect at all other regs as there were some good regs. I didn't have any real poker ambitions at this time, I just played because it was easy moey but had enjoyed the competitive side when others like Jac and Pat were at my tables and we were all of relative similar ability.
Looking back now in hindsight I wasn't as good as either Pat or Jac (probably a few others too) but my ego wasn't in check. I was convinced I was a top player and didn't need to work or listen to others in order to get better. If I knew a fraction of what I know now I would have been studying a lot, putting in a ton of volume and pushing myself to move up the stakes. I'm probably not alone in that regard and suspect other regs will think the same looking back how easy the games were then. Finally going back in time I was returning back to Vegas for a friends stag do, only this time I wanted to play more poker and make decent money, this is where my poker journey really started. To be continued...
That’s a really fascinating post Pat was a very good player We got on well for a long time and then sadly we bickered for a while.
Matt (JohnConnor) doesn’t play a great deal now but I’m sure he would adjust if he was playing regularly again. I’ve got a lot of time for Matt. He’s a nice guy and was very generous in sharing his ideas on here. I know a lot of people learned plenty from reading his Dym guide
I must admit with 121285 I was shocked when I first scoped him. To be honest I didn’t rate him very highly and I enjoyed having him in my games. He does still play a little and I chatted to him a while back. Seemed a nice bloke and I think he was still making a profit so fair play to him
By the way just to stress I wasn't trying to be disrespectful to JohnConnor, 121285 or any other players I mentioned. When I first joined Sky these were the players I looked up too, they were well ahead of everyone else. My point was more highlighting how the game changed and seemed to pass them by (through my eyes), DYMs evolved a lot from simply needing to play tight to needing controlled aggression, blind stealing and ICM understanding. I felt at the time that @Jac35 Pat and I were the ones who benefited most from it. You can still play the style from all those years ago and be successful at low stakes DYM £2/£3 stakes, tight is still right because they are full of aggressive recreational players who play and bet too many hands and cannot fold. You'd wouldn't win much at £5s/£11s though.
Anyway for me at least the biggest change to DYMs occurred in 2013-2017. This was probably the pinnacle in terms of traffic and they were shark infested waters. I remember Jacquelyn, came on the scene with her(his?) stereotypical chat flaming after a bad beat, I was dismissive at first but Jacq could play, she would shove her stack in a lot against the regs and was even more aggressive than we were. TimmyRara (probably the best ever DYM player on Sky) was someone back then that I liked having at the table, he was generally making only a small profit and I recall I had him marked as tight passive. Little did I know that he was learning the game and about to become really good at it. I know Timmy still plays the higher stakes so I won't comment too much on his style but you just knew he was going to make very few mistakes. Then came Dialbi, in my mind probably my toughest ever opponent. I always got on well with Dial, again there was a lot of mutual respect. We would talk strategy and he had come from another site, was super aggressive, had learnt his push/fold charts and really knew ICM. Unlike Timmy and Jacq I found he would put regs in a lot more tougher spots. Another player who stood out was GFKJLL, again another hyper aggressive blind stealer, who hated folding and really applied ICM pressure. I remember Dialbi once complaining to me like mad about him/her because they would go toe to toe and it was high variance. Shout out also Shanxta who I always felt was in the Timmy mold, calm collected and rarely made mistakes. Back around this time I was six tabling mostly £11 DYMs, they ran frequently but they were full of regs. I can distinctly remember one session where Jacquelyn, Timmy, TommyD, Dialbi and I think SJSpanky were on almost all of my six tables. On one of those tables Jacquelyn was winding up Miraj (a fine post flop DYM player) how he was the fish at the table. Crazy to think in hindsight that none of us considered table selection as we were all very good players. Whilst there were a lot of regs the volume was great with recreational players (many of which now just play £3s, and £5s. There were also some big "whale" type players who would chase rake. I won't name them but anyone who put in decent volume at this time will know who I mean. They would put in a lot of volume but were making five figure losses, I think one may have reached six figures before they disappeared. I would see them on £55s sometimes too and wish I could jump in but at the time I used to keep a bankroll of around £400 and withdraw the rest each month so it was not feasible. I do wonder over time what happened to these players and how the size of the losses must have impacted their lives. I know one was working off shore as a contractor and could easily afford it, he was a nice guy and just loved the gamble.
Anyway around this time I made my second ever trip to Vegas, I expected to win given that I was winning online and was bossing the home and pub games I played. Only it didn't really end up like that. I was there a week played 6-7 tournaments, cashed three but found the games much tougher this time and only broke even for the trip. Oddly it was the lowest stake game I played - $60 at Excalibur - that stays in my mind. The field was not huge 50-60 players I think. The blinds were moving up much faster than MGM/Mandalay/Monte Carlo where I'd played most of my poker but I found myself at the final table second in chips and eyeing first prize. I remember the hand distinctly because I had Q-Q in the SB the button who just had me covered shoved, I snapped (I was playing much more aggressively then and had learnt more about MTTs), BB also called. If I win this hand then I have a massive chip lead and looking a lock to win my very first proper MTT. Button had 9-9, BB over called with K-J off but was short so I wasn't worried about her. The flop came with low cards then BOOM a nine on the turn. I felt physically sick. I was in disbelief, from being in a position to cheerfully tell the wife how I won a tournament in Vegas to collecting a min cash, I walked out the door into the heat and just wanted to keel over and vomit. The funny thing is the money/stakes didn't really matter it was the expectation, ego and hope that got me. I mention this here because it was the moment that I decided I needed to learn more about the mental game and that I was going to change my view and approach to the game I was growing to love. To be continued in the final instalment...
Looks like I was a health nutcase back then too. And Lala! I miss Lala.
There was one brilliant moment just before bankroll supply the big nosed annoying player left. He got into a hand with an elderly Asian gentleman known as, La La. La La will always sit with the minimum and fold every hand until he gets aces, kings or queens. Sometimes he will blind down to 4 or 5 quid before he gets his hand and then will kick off a bit when everyone passes to his raise.
This time though he got his hand early and was sitting with about £25. Good player raised and La La called. Flop came and good player checked. La La went all in. Good player laughed, passed and asked to see La La's aces. La La flung down his 72 triumphantly and did a kind of weird sitting down dance.
Apologies, this one is likely to be even longer than normal! Cliffs at the bottom for the majority who will have better things to do than get through all of this.
Played last night in live comp. Didn't win anything but had a great time nonetheless and really happy with how i played. Played for around 4 1/2 hours and was a bit unlucky when with 12 left couldn't get top 2 on flop to hold up for chip lead. Shoved soon after and just missed the money.
Nevermind that though. Had some really good company. Dave Nisbet, who always has as few good tales to tell was on my table for most of the night. La La treated us to the sitting down dance thing again. Not sure if that is actually going to start to grate a bit but we'll see how it goes.
A first for me at the poker table was when after just sitting back down to resume after a break, i realised i was starting a nose bleed. Ran to the toilets and got there before dripping blood all over the place. One of the more petty dealers was on the table at the time and was a little concerned when i went back that they would try and give me a penalty for folding out of turn! Had a few of these over the last couple of months and although everyone keeps telling me that theres nothing to worry about, being me, i do.
Not sure whether to play the GPS sat for Stoke on Wednesday. Venue obviously leading me towards entering as Stoke is just behind Moscow and Cape Town on the list of places i most want to travel to.
Decided i am fat. Stopped playing football and squash a while ago after doing my ACL on right and cruciate on left knee. With the weather meaning golf has been impossible, i am not getting much exercise.
Going to get in shape as i'm making my debut at the Shrovetide football this year. Never really been bothered but my wifes family are all from Ashbourne and they make a real day of it each year. Father-in-law has big balls. Two, in fact. He has 'scored' the winning goals twice which i think he is the only person to achieve this. I think the years were 1967 and 1969 and the balls have pride of place in their home. They really are fantastic with wonderfully detailed design on them.
Mayhems Vegas post inspired me to find my trip to Vegas Shock news is that I posted all about it at the time 😊
Morning
Just woken up after my first day in Vegas Travelling here went really well. Plane arrived an hour early and was out of Mccarran within an hour. As a first timer here the heat is incredible. No matter how much you're made aware of it before you arrive, nothing can prepare you for it.
I managed to check in early at the Palazzo and the suite is fantastic. Against all advice I had a nap when I got here but fortunately still managed 5 hours last night as well. Need to try and get into a normal sleep routine now.
There was a Sky welcome party last night and I met up with everyone else. Did a cringey interview with Tikay where I don't think I was particularly coherent. Was tempted half way through it to just say "Fxxkk" really loudly so they'd have to bin it Going over to the Rio today to reg for tomorrow. It will see weird for a low stakes player like me to hand over $1111 to enter a poker competition
Met up with a few people I already know and met some new people. Everyone seems really friendly. Dtm, Liam and Timmy have already been here a few days and seem to be having a great time. Think they're going to look after me a bit. From what I can gather Dtm is getting confused with this one tabling lark and has taken to having 16 tabs open on his phone, getting massages and eating and drinking at the table to stay in his comfort zone. Timmy is winning a bit and Liam is drinking a lot.
I decided against drinking much last night as I was absolutely knackered. Couldn't resist playing a bit of cash though. I really wanted to sample the atmosphere. The Sands room is pretty good. Had a fun table and had some interesting chats. Accused of being really aggro pre flop (I raised 6 limpers with AK twice in a couple of orbits). Nice old timer said I was just playing the 'European way' Guy next to me said I was inflating the pot with less than a premium hand A few hands later he limped along in a hand and then lost a $400 pot when he jammed the flop on A 9 3 and he was up against 9 3. He had AK
Was up around €140 but ended up standing with $45 profit. That'll do me for my first game
Got a bit of sleep and walked up and down the strip this morning. The Aria is pretty special. Was a huge buzz going over to the Rio and regging for a WSOP event. I'm playing the afternoon flight. Railed the one drop for a bit when there were around 20 left. Felt a bit surreal to watch Helmuth, Coleman, Seidel etc. Apparently Helmuth had a rant just after we left. Pity, would have been fun to witness that.
Hung around the pool for a bit and then went for a nice meal with Timmy and then... I played some cash.
Worst session of the year unfortunately. I'm normally quite critical of myself but I was actually happy with how I played tonight. Last hand stung a bit but it was nothing that we haven't all seen before a million times.
I was down $440 and was thinking of leaving after having just lost another decent sized pot. I found QQ utg and made it $10 to go. Got 4 callers and saw a Q 6 2 flop with 2 hearts. BB led out for 30 and I decided to flat. Guy on my left raised to $80 and after the BB passed I put the rest in. Heart on turn and again on the river which gave me some hope as I had the Q of hearts. He flicked over AK hearts and that was that. I started the hand with $240 so I'd have pretty much got out of it if I'd won that one.
A few things here are different to back home. Action folds round to the blinds and generally they just take their blinds back and we move on to the next hand. Also players are pretty slow at turning over the best hand. There was a hand I wasn't involved in where on the river the first player showed his hand which was top pair. The other player did a bit of sighing and then showed 2 pair. It just seems to be standard practise here and no one seems to mind too much. If I did that in my local casino I'm sure that someone would have a word with me. Take my last hand. The other guy turned the nuts. I always flick my cards over immediately when I do that. No need to give the other player an unnecessary sweat. I'm sure there's no malice in it but it can be a little annoying. Dealers don't seem to have the control of tables here as much as at home. A player on my left tonight was just throwing his cards and his chips in haphazardly all the time. A number of times one of his cards turned and also his chips were actually hitting the dealer. Nothing was said.
Sounds like I'm moaning. Not really, just observations. Obviously not overjoyed at doing a couple of buyins tonight but still loving every minute of this. I happily trade in the beats tonight for a bit of rungood tomorrow.
Started with a fun wander round about 100 shops looking for some perfume for Penny that she isn't able to get in England anymore. The last place told me it had been discontinued
Then I got ready for the tournament. Was quite meticulous as I didn't want to forget anything. We got to the Rio nicely in time and then I saw someone had their passport. "Don't need that do we?" 'Err, yes Paul, you do"
Sam was apologetic for not mentioning it before we got in the coach. Not his fault at all. Hard to legislate for someone being that stupid. Got back to the Rio just in time for start and we were off.
I had a really nice table. Quite chatty and the players weren't very good in truth. The guy on my right was an instant hero for me. He announced when he sat down that he was a donkey but a lucky donkey. He played pretty much every hand and bemoaned his luck each time when his massive draw missed. His massive draws were mostly gutshots and he was calling sizeable bets on the turn to try and hit them. After every hand he was saying in his fabulous Texan drawl "just not getting no luck, I knew where I was at. Hope I run better in the main event. That's $10k to enter ya'll know?"
He was my hero due to his outfit. Huge Stetson, sunglasses, shirt tucked into his jeans, an incredible pair of boots and the biggest tattoo that I've ever seen on his arm, which was the American flag.
Sadly he wasn't with us for too long.
I ran pretty good for most of the day. I made a huge mistake in playing the afternoon flight. We started at 4pm and finished at 4.25 in the morning. The last 2 levels were really hard work and I was pretty card dead. Was really pleased with myself that I didn't lose my patience and spew for once, the structure was so good that there was no need to do anything rash.
I didn't get to play with any big name players which was a bit of a shame. I did nearly knock Barry Greenstein over coming out of the toilet though. He gave me the same contemptuous look that I've seen a million times before on high stakes poker.
Got to the end of the day and had 30100, which was 30 bigs going back. Bagging up felt great.
Day 2 of the poker. I only slept for about 4 hours and so felt pretty rubbish when we left for the Rio. Had my passport with me this time. Didn't need it.
Got to my table and things were instantly noticeable as different from the previous day. Very serious. Very first hand and some pleb with the sunglasses, headphones and many pimples look, got arsey with the player who won the hand. Another guy made a comment to which "knob" as I'd already christened him in my mind, told him to shut his mouth and then followed it by "I got me a table of dipshits" Ilene the dealer who seemed very nice and competent to me was getting grief every hand about nothing at all. I got a 3bet shove through and then the table broke. Was very happy about this
I couldn't really play much poker (sure many of you will agree with that) as I was so short stacked. I managed to get a few shoves through and then was moved to table Carlos Mortensen. Plus there was a Jonny Chan impersonator on there as well. He was exactly as I'd always thought he was, a really nice guy. He also had a stack and was playing pretty much every hand.
We'd started the day with over a 1000 left but the numbers were dropping incredibly quickly. Utg who was only playing 10bigs raised and I looked down at Kings and shoved. He's gotta call right? Nope, he passed. Mortensen raised and I looked down at Kings and shoved. He's got a monster stack and it's a 10bigs shove from me. He's gotta call right? Nope, he flashes an Ace and mucks. Although I hadn't got the calls my stack had increased into a bit of a safer position. I had around 16 about 30 off the money. Nice guy on my left who I'd played day one with had folded 99% go his hands. It's folded round to me in the small and I shove. He finds Ace Jack and calls. Oops. A few hands later and we go on the break.
I chat with Neil and Tikay. I've got 16k and we're going back at 1000/2000 and 400 ante. I'm also in the bb first hand back. The screen is showing that we're 23 off the money. Can I fold to the money? Neil doesn't think so and I tend to agree. We go back and it's actually 20 from the cash.
I fold in the blind and look at the screen. We lost 5 first hand. This could be close. It's not exactly my normal strategy but I couldn't care one bit. This was likely to be my one and only WSOP event ever and it would mean everything to me to cash. The money obviously would be nice but just cashing was the main thing on my mind. It would be heart breaking to get so close and miss out,
I fold the small blind. Another couple of players have gone. I have around 12 hands before I'm blinded out. Tikay and Sam are railing me. Tikay tells me Deadman has just knocked out 2 players in one hand. I've always loved Simon
We're maybe 4 hands from my bb and the TD tells the dealers to stand up at the end of the hand they're dealing. Stone Bubble time. 469 left and 468 paid.
It seems to go on forever. They start to break a table near me. Surely that means someone has gone yeah? A few more minutes pass and then... "Congratulation everyone, you're all in the money"
Was quite happy
Carlos raises and I try and bully him by shoving. He's not scared unfortunately and calls the extra 200 chips or so. He wins. It was kind of a perfect end for me. It took an ex World Champion to knock me out!
Woke up shattered but happy. I normally sleep really well but have really struggled all week. Got around 4 hours.
Eggs benedict in a great cafe right outside the Palazzo helped. Then seeing as I now had some cash I went shopping. Bought some sunglasses and some tat for Penny. Found a great Ralph Lauren tshirt and shorts outfit for Harry. Will get told by her but sod it.
Booked a Grand Canyon trip. It's likely that this will be my one and only time here and I thought I'd regret it if I didn't go. Sounds good. Pick up from hotel in a couple of hours and taken to Boulder CIty airstrip to start the helicopter tour. It's a 4 hour trip and so that will give me plenty of time to get ready for beers tonight.
Was just about go over to the Rio to rail Timmy when I heard he'd been knocked out. What a fantastic run he had though.
We met up at 7pm and went over to Blondies for a few beers before seeing a hypnotist. Met up with Alex Spencer and Bolly for the first time. Really nice guys. I've never been a believer but the show was good. One of the lads was the star of the show.
We went back to Blondies after the show for a few more. I'm getting pretty old and so decided to come away around 1am and walked back to the Palazzo. Plan was to go straight to bed but the poker room drew me in. For a 1/2 there were some massive pots being played every orbit. A couple of real punters at the table and generally it seemed that top pair was good enough to beat them. Couldn't find any hands and was down around a $100. Was thinking of leaving the game when the blinds came round. Just before they did I found AJ and flopped Broadway. Sadly the punters weren't in the pot for once but I still made a nice amount. Hung around a bit longer and then stood with a small profit.
Plan was to go straight to bed but then the bar drew me in. Had a few more drinks and got chatting to a couple of fun people either side of me. Finally did actually get to bed around 5. Was delighted to be wide awake by 9.00
I really need to get some proper sleep but looking forward to today.
Did the Canyon trip which was really good. Not sure that I love helicopters though. Got back just in time to meet up with everyone for a meal. Sam chose really well. Vegas is a bit short of good restaurants and so to find that little gem was outstanding work. Probably just a coincidence but Timmy who had been up for a big cash session felt a bit rough afterwards and had to leave us. We did get through a few beers though to help wash it all down.
I think most of us were then up for a bit of cash. Af few went off in different directions and I again went to play at the Venetian. Should really have tried some of the other rooms over the week. I guess a factor may have been that I've been very impressed with the classy valet outfits at the Venetian.
Won around $80 with no dramas. It was a really good table. I'd had a beer and so was quite chatty and everyone joined in. Had fun but when I looked at my watch and it was 5am I thought it may be time to go.
Then miraculously I slept for 9 hours. Just got up. Typical I finally feel good the day before I come home. Gonna pack now so that I can relax. Might spend a bit of time by the pool today. No ones going to believe that I've been here otherwise. Sky party after that.
Edit: just had a look and no surprise to see ActionJack has been credited with the flag from Wednesday. All of my cashes (prob only about 6/7) have been attributed to different Paul Jacksons. I've contacted them before and the they changed it only for them to give them back to the other guys a couple of weeks later. I'm not too bothered although this time I'd have quite enjoyed seeing the flag.
Did some shopping. Had a great meal. Went out with the Sky people. Got thrown out of nightclub. Ask Liam why. Woke up after 3 hours sleep feeling horrendous. Some of the others looked worse. Everything pretty smooth with flights except one thing. I made it to Manchester but unfortunately my suitcase didn't. Same for Liam. Bit of a crapppy way to end it all but no point worrying too much. Hopefully it'll get sorted. Luckily I had my car keys in my hand luggage.
Comments
Sorry to hear you have been going through some dark times Jac. Hope things pick up for you.
Pat was a very good player
We got on well for a long time and then sadly we bickered for a while.
Matt (JohnConnor) doesn’t play a great deal now but I’m sure he would adjust if he was playing regularly again. I’ve got a lot of time for Matt. He’s a nice guy and was very generous in sharing his ideas on here. I know a lot of people learned plenty from reading his Dym guide
I must admit with 121285 I was shocked when I first scoped him.
To be honest I didn’t rate him very highly and I enjoyed having him in my games.
He does still play a little and I chatted to him a while back. Seemed a nice bloke and I think he was still making a profit so fair play to him
Anyway for me at least the biggest change to DYMs occurred in 2013-2017. This was probably the pinnacle in terms of traffic and they were shark infested waters. I remember Jacquelyn, came on the scene with her(his?) stereotypical chat flaming after a bad beat, I was dismissive at first but Jacq could play, she would shove her stack in a lot against the regs and was even more aggressive than we were. TimmyRara (probably the best ever DYM player on Sky) was someone back then that I liked having at the table, he was generally making only a small profit and I recall I had him marked as tight passive. Little did I know that he was learning the game and about to become really good at it. I know Timmy still plays the higher stakes so I won't comment too much on his style but you just knew he was going to make very few mistakes. Then came Dialbi, in my mind probably my toughest ever opponent. I always got on well with Dial, again there was a lot of mutual respect. We would talk strategy and he had come from another site, was super aggressive, had learnt his push/fold charts and really knew ICM. Unlike Timmy and Jacq I found he would put regs in a lot more tougher spots. Another player who stood out was GFKJLL, again another hyper aggressive blind stealer, who hated folding and really applied ICM pressure. I remember Dialbi once complaining to me like mad about him/her because they would go toe to toe and it was high variance. Shout out also Shanxta who I always felt was in the Timmy mold, calm collected and rarely made mistakes. Back around this time I was six tabling mostly £11 DYMs, they ran frequently but they were full of regs. I can distinctly remember one session where Jacquelyn, Timmy, TommyD, Dialbi and I think SJSpanky were on almost all of my six tables. On one of those tables Jacquelyn was winding up Miraj (a fine post flop DYM player) how he was the fish at the table. Crazy to think in hindsight that none of us considered table selection as we were all very good players. Whilst there were a lot of regs the volume was great with recreational players (many of which now just play £3s, and £5s. There were also some big "whale" type players who would chase rake. I won't name them but anyone who put in decent volume at this time will know who I mean. They would put in a lot of volume but were making five figure losses, I think one may have reached six figures before they disappeared. I would see them on £55s sometimes too and wish I could jump in but at the time I used to keep a bankroll of around £400 and withdraw the rest each month so it was not feasible. I do wonder over time what happened to these players and how the size of the losses must have impacted their lives. I know one was working off shore as a contractor and could easily afford it, he was a nice guy and just loved the gamble.
Anyway around this time I made my second ever trip to Vegas, I expected to win given that I was winning online and was bossing the home and pub games I played. Only it didn't really end up like that. I was there a week played 6-7 tournaments, cashed three but found the games much tougher this time and only broke even for the trip. Oddly it was the lowest stake game I played - $60 at Excalibur - that stays in my mind. The field was not huge 50-60 players I think. The blinds were moving up much faster than MGM/Mandalay/Monte Carlo where I'd played most of my poker but I found myself at the final table second in chips and eyeing first prize. I remember the hand distinctly because I had Q-Q in the SB the button who just had me covered shoved, I snapped (I was playing much more aggressively then and had learnt more about MTTs), BB also called. If I win this hand then I have a massive chip lead and looking a lock to win my very first proper MTT. Button had 9-9, BB over called with K-J off but was short so I wasn't worried about her. The flop came with low cards then BOOM a nine on the turn. I felt physically sick. I was in disbelief, from being in a position to cheerfully tell the wife how I won a tournament in Vegas to collecting a min cash, I walked out the door into the heat and just wanted to keel over and vomit. The funny thing is the money/stakes didn't really matter it was the expectation, ego and hope that got me. I mention this here because it was the moment that I decided I needed to learn more about the mental game and that I was going to change my view and approach to the game I was growing to love. To be continued in the final instalment...
Great stories from both yourself and @Mayhem357 , thanks for sharing them.
Looks like I was a health nutcase back then too.
And
Lala! I miss Lala.
There was one brilliant moment just before bankroll supply the big nosed annoying player left.
He got into a hand with an elderly Asian gentleman known as, La La.
La La will always sit with the minimum and fold every hand until he gets aces, kings or queens.
Sometimes he will blind down to 4 or 5 quid before he gets his hand and then will kick off a bit when everyone passes to his raise.
This time though he got his hand early and was sitting with about £25.
Good player raised and La La called.
Flop came and good player checked. La La went all in. Good player laughed, passed and asked to see La La's aces.
La La flung down his 72 triumphantly and did a kind of weird sitting down dance.
Apologies, this one is likely to be even longer than normal!
Cliffs at the bottom for the majority who will have better things to do than get through all of this.
Played last night in live comp.
Didn't win anything but had a great time nonetheless and really happy with how i played. Played for around 4 1/2 hours and was a bit unlucky when with 12 left couldn't get top 2 on flop to hold up for chip lead. Shoved soon after and just missed the money.
Nevermind that though. Had some really good company. Dave Nisbet, who always has as few good tales to tell was on my table for most of the night. La La treated us to the sitting down dance thing again. Not sure if that is actually going to start to grate a bit but we'll see how it goes.
A first for me at the poker table was when after just sitting back down to resume after a break, i realised i was starting a nose bleed. Ran to the toilets and got there before dripping blood all over the place. One of the more petty dealers was on the table at the time and was a little concerned when i went back that they would try and give me a penalty for folding out of turn!
Had a few of these over the last couple of months and although everyone keeps telling me that theres nothing to worry about, being me, i do.
Not sure whether to play the GPS sat for Stoke on Wednesday. Venue obviously leading me towards entering as Stoke is just behind Moscow and Cape Town on the list of places i most want to travel to.
Decided i am fat.
Stopped playing football and squash a while ago after doing my ACL on right and cruciate on left knee. With the weather meaning golf has been impossible, i am not getting much exercise.
Going to get in shape as i'm making my debut at the Shrovetide football this year.
Never really been bothered but my wifes family are all from Ashbourne and they make a real day of it each year.
Father-in-law has big balls.
Two, in fact. He has 'scored' the winning goals twice which i think he is the only person to achieve this. I think the years were 1967 and 1969 and the balls have pride of place in their home.
They really are fantastic with wonderfully detailed design on them.
Not quite as long as i thought!
Cliffs
I lost, I am fat, had nosebleed
What is shrovetide football?
Great yarns from @Mayhem357 & @Jac35.
More please.
Marvelous contribution by Mayhem.
But I’m not so sure
I think I should stick to the a Harry and the Magic Flying Saucer stories that I make up 😉
Shock news is that I posted all about it at the time 😊
Morning
Just woken up after my first day in Vegas
Travelling here went really well. Plane arrived an hour early and was out of Mccarran within an hour. As a first timer here the heat is incredible. No matter how much you're made aware of it before you arrive, nothing can prepare you for it.
I managed to check in early at the Palazzo and the suite is fantastic. Against all advice I had a nap when I got here but fortunately still managed 5 hours last night as well. Need to try and get into a normal sleep routine now.
There was a Sky welcome party last night and I met up with everyone else. Did a cringey interview with Tikay where I don't think I was particularly coherent. Was tempted half way through it to just say "Fxxkk" really loudly so they'd have to bin it
Going over to the Rio today to reg for tomorrow. It will see weird for a low stakes player like me to hand over $1111 to enter a poker competition
Met up with a few people I already know and met some new people. Everyone seems really friendly. Dtm, Liam and Timmy have already been here a few days and seem to be having a great time. Think they're going to look after me a bit.
From what I can gather Dtm is getting confused with this one tabling lark and has taken to having 16 tabs open on his phone, getting massages and eating and drinking at the table to stay in his comfort zone.
Timmy is winning a bit and Liam is drinking a lot.
I decided against drinking much last night as I was absolutely knackered. Couldn't resist playing a bit of cash though. I really wanted to sample the atmosphere. The Sands room is pretty good. Had a fun table and had some interesting chats. Accused of being really aggro pre flop (I raised 6 limpers with AK twice in a couple of orbits). Nice old timer said I was just playing the 'European way'
Guy next to me said I was inflating the pot with less than a premium hand
A few hands later he limped along in a hand and then lost a $400 pot when he jammed the flop on A 9 3 and he was up against 9 3. He had AK
Was up around €140 but ended up standing with $45 profit. That'll do me for my first game
Off for breakfast
Day 2
Well today was mostly awesome.
Got a bit of sleep and walked up and down the strip this morning. The Aria is pretty special.
Was a huge buzz going over to the Rio and regging for a WSOP event. I'm playing the afternoon flight. Railed the one drop for a bit when there were around 20 left. Felt a bit surreal to watch Helmuth, Coleman, Seidel etc. Apparently Helmuth had a rant just after we left. Pity, would have been fun to witness that.
Hung around the pool for a bit and then went for a nice meal with Timmy and then... I played some cash.
Worst session of the year unfortunately. I'm normally quite critical of myself but I was actually happy with how I played tonight. Last hand stung a bit but it was nothing that we haven't all seen before a million times.
I was down $440 and was thinking of leaving after having just lost another decent sized pot. I found QQ utg and made it $10 to go. Got 4 callers and saw a Q 6 2 flop with 2 hearts. BB led out for 30 and I decided to flat. Guy on my left raised to $80 and after the BB passed I put the rest in. Heart on turn and again on the river which gave me some hope as I had the Q of hearts. He flicked over AK hearts and that was that.
I started the hand with $240 so I'd have pretty much got out of it if I'd won that one.
A few things here are different to back home. Action folds round to the blinds and generally they just take their blinds back and we move on to the next hand.
Also players are pretty slow at turning over the best hand. There was a hand I wasn't involved in where on the river the first player showed his hand which was top pair. The other player did a bit of sighing and then showed 2 pair. It just seems to be standard practise here and no one seems to mind too much. If I did that in my local casino I'm sure that someone would have a word with me. Take my last hand. The other guy turned the nuts. I always flick my cards over immediately when I do that. No need to give the other player an unnecessary sweat. I'm sure there's no malice in it but it can be a little annoying. Dealers don't seem to have the control of tables here as much as at home. A player on my left tonight was just throwing his cards and his chips in haphazardly all the time. A number of times one of his cards turned and also his chips were actually hitting the dealer. Nothing was said.
Sounds like I'm moaning. Not really, just observations. Obviously not overjoyed at doing a couple of buyins tonight but still loving every minute of this. I happily trade in the beats tonight for a bit of rungood tomorrow.
It starts at 16.00 for me. Let's go!!
Day 3
Made Day 2 (too tired to write any more)
Started with a fun wander round about 100 shops looking for some perfume for Penny that she isn't able to get in England anymore. The last place told me it had been discontinued
Then I got ready for the tournament. Was quite meticulous as I didn't want to forget anything. We got to the Rio nicely in time and then I saw someone had their passport.
"Don't need that do we?"
'Err, yes Paul, you do"
Sam was apologetic for not mentioning it before we got in the coach. Not his fault at all. Hard to legislate for someone being that stupid. Got back to the Rio just in time for start and we were off.
I had a really nice table. Quite chatty and the players weren't very good in truth. The guy on my right was an instant hero for me. He announced when he sat down that he was a donkey but a lucky donkey. He played pretty much every hand and bemoaned his luck each time when his massive draw missed. His massive draws were mostly gutshots and he was calling sizeable bets on the turn to try and hit them. After every hand he was saying in his fabulous Texan drawl "just not getting no luck, I knew where I was at. Hope I run better in the main event. That's $10k to enter ya'll know?"
He was my hero due to his outfit. Huge Stetson, sunglasses, shirt tucked into his jeans, an incredible pair of boots and the biggest tattoo that I've ever seen on his arm, which was the American flag.
Sadly he wasn't with us for too long.
I ran pretty good for most of the day. I made a huge mistake in playing the afternoon flight. We started at 4pm and finished at 4.25 in the morning. The last 2 levels were really hard work and I was pretty card dead. Was really pleased with myself that I didn't lose my patience and spew for once, the structure was so good that there was no need to do anything rash.
I didn't get to play with any big name players which was a bit of a shame. I did nearly knock Barry Greenstein over coming out of the toilet though. He gave me the same contemptuous look that I've seen a million times before on high stakes poker.
Got to the end of the day and had 30100, which was 30 bigs going back.
Bagging up felt great.
Day 2 of the poker.
I only slept for about 4 hours and so felt pretty rubbish when we left for the Rio. Had my passport with me this time. Didn't need it.
Got to my table and things were instantly noticeable as different from the previous day. Very serious. Very first hand and some pleb with the sunglasses, headphones and many pimples look, got arsey with the player who won the hand. Another guy made a comment to which "knob" as I'd already christened him in my mind, told him to shut his mouth and then followed it by "I got me a table of dipshits"
Ilene the dealer who seemed very nice and competent to me was getting grief every hand about nothing at all. I got a 3bet shove through and then the table broke.
Was very happy about this
I couldn't really play much poker (sure many of you will agree with that) as I was so short stacked. I managed to get a few shoves through and then was moved to table Carlos Mortensen. Plus there was a Jonny Chan impersonator on there as well.
He was exactly as I'd always thought he was, a really nice guy. He also had a stack and was playing pretty much every hand.
We'd started the day with over a 1000 left but the numbers were dropping incredibly quickly. Utg who was only playing 10bigs raised and I looked down at Kings and shoved. He's gotta call right? Nope, he passed. Mortensen raised and I looked down at Kings and shoved. He's got a monster stack and it's a 10bigs shove from me. He's gotta call right? Nope, he flashes an Ace and mucks. Although I hadn't got the calls my stack had increased into a bit of a safer position. I had around 16 about 30 off the money. Nice guy on my left who I'd played day one with had folded 99% go his hands. It's folded round to me in the small and I shove. He finds Ace Jack and calls. Oops. A few hands later and we go on the break.
I chat with Neil and Tikay. I've got 16k and we're going back at 1000/2000 and 400 ante. I'm also in the bb first hand back. The screen is showing that we're 23 off the money. Can I fold to the money? Neil doesn't think so and I tend to agree. We go back and it's actually 20 from the cash.
I fold in the blind and look at the screen. We lost 5 first hand. This could be close. It's not exactly my normal strategy but I couldn't care one bit. This was likely to be my one and only WSOP event ever and it would mean everything to me to cash. The money obviously would be nice but just cashing was the main thing on my mind. It would be heart breaking to get so close and miss out,
I fold the small blind. Another couple of players have gone. I have around 12 hands before I'm blinded out. Tikay and Sam are railing me. Tikay tells me Deadman has just knocked out 2 players in one hand. I've always loved Simon
We're maybe 4 hands from my bb and the TD tells the dealers to stand up at the end of the hand they're dealing. Stone Bubble time. 469 left and 468 paid.
It seems to go on forever. They start to break a table near me. Surely that means someone has gone yeah? A few more minutes pass and then...
"Congratulation everyone, you're all in the money"
Was quite happy
Carlos raises and I try and bully him by shoving. He's not scared unfortunately and calls the extra 200 chips or so. He wins.
It was kind of a perfect end for me. It took an ex World Champion to knock me out!
Day 5
Woke up shattered but happy. I normally sleep really well but have really struggled all week. Got around 4 hours.
Eggs benedict in a great cafe right outside the Palazzo helped. Then seeing as I now had some cash I went shopping. Bought some sunglasses and some tat for Penny. Found a great Ralph Lauren tshirt and shorts outfit for Harry. Will get told by her but sod it.
Booked a Grand Canyon trip. It's likely that this will be my one and only time here and I thought I'd regret it if I didn't go. Sounds good. Pick up from hotel in a couple of hours and taken to Boulder CIty airstrip to start the helicopter tour. It's a 4 hour trip and so that will give me plenty of time to get ready for beers tonight.
Was just about go over to the Rio to rail Timmy when I heard he'd been knocked out. What a fantastic run he had though.
We met up at 7pm and went over to Blondies for a few beers before seeing a hypnotist. Met up with Alex Spencer and Bolly for the first time. Really nice guys. I've never been a believer but the show was good. One of the lads was the star of the show.
We went back to Blondies after the show for a few more. I'm getting pretty old and so decided to come away around 1am and walked back to the Palazzo. Plan was to go straight to bed but the poker room drew me in. For a 1/2 there were some massive pots being played every orbit. A couple of real punters at the table and generally it seemed that top pair was good enough to beat them. Couldn't find any hands and was down around a $100. Was thinking of leaving the game when the blinds came round. Just before they did I found AJ and flopped Broadway. Sadly the punters weren't in the pot for once but I still made a nice amount. Hung around a bit longer and then stood with a small profit.
Plan was to go straight to bed but then the bar drew me in. Had a few more drinks and got chatting to a couple of fun people either side of me. Finally did actually get to bed around 5. Was delighted to be wide awake by 9.00
I really need to get some proper sleep but looking forward to today.
Day 6
Did the Canyon trip which was really good. Not sure that I love helicopters though.
Got back just in time to meet up with everyone for a meal. Sam chose really well. Vegas is a bit short of good restaurants and so to find that little gem was outstanding work.
Probably just a coincidence but Timmy who had been up for a big cash session felt a bit rough afterwards and had to leave us. We did get through a few beers though to help wash it all down.
I think most of us were then up for a bit of cash. Af few went off in different directions and I again went to play at the Venetian. Should really have tried some of the other rooms over the week. I guess a factor may have been that I've been very impressed with the classy valet outfits at the Venetian.
Won around $80 with no dramas. It was a really good table. I'd had a beer and so was quite chatty and everyone joined in. Had fun but when I looked at my watch and it was 5am I thought it may be time to go.
Then miraculously I slept for 9 hours. Just got up. Typical I finally feel good the day before I come home.
Gonna pack now so that I can relax. Might spend a bit of time by the pool today. No ones going to believe that I've been here otherwise. Sky party after that.
Edit: just had a look and no surprise to see ActionJack has been credited with the flag from Wednesday. All of my cashes (prob only about 6/7) have been attributed to different Paul Jacksons.
I've contacted them before and the they changed it only for them to give them back to the other guys a couple of weeks later.
I'm not too bothered although this time I'd have quite enjoyed seeing the flag.
Did some shopping. Had a great meal. Went out with the Sky people. Got thrown out of nightclub. Ask Liam why.
Woke up after 3 hours sleep feeling horrendous. Some of the others looked worse. Everything pretty smooth with flights except one thing.
I made it to Manchester but unfortunately my suitcase didn't. Same for Liam.
Bit of a crapppy way to end it all but no point worrying too much. Hopefully it'll get sorted. Luckily I had my car keys in my hand luggage.