looking forward to reading this SR23. which poker mag did you write for?
Cheers Engy - I wrote "An Idiot's Guide to Poker" for Unibet (roughly 90 columns) and another 60 or so columns for NordicBet. Lots of the mags were folding/scaling back just as I began my poker writing "career" and I didn't get to write for any actual print publications. Sad times.
There's money to be made online too. I used to be a freelance writer and many of the online sites will pay you £50 or so for a good pitch. It's not much but if you can pump them out it adds up. Some of the more prestigious places pay more. Can think of at least a few that would be interested in stuff about poker. Colson Whitehead wrote a really great series about his time at the WSOP on Grantland 10-odd years ago. They had a great oral history of the Moneymaker WSOP too. I think places like Deadspin, Daily Dot, Buzzfeed, etc would all go for poker stuff too depending on the pitch.
I wanted to shop a write-up of the Galfond challenge around recently but I've forgotten how to write non-academic stuff.
Far out. Freelancing is tough and got a lot tougher towards the dog-end of my days writing for magazines and newspapers and rates got slashed or had stagnated for decades - The Telegraph, for example paid the same in 2010 per word as they did in 1980, according to a journalist friend who sometimes worked for them. I did a piece for the Guardian in, I think, 2016, and the per word rate was under half of what I had been paid a decade earlier. Perhaps I was half as good as I used to be, though. The Unibet gig was a joy and my editor was the effective nuts: I was paid £100 for 650-700 words but they were such a pleasure to write, required zero research and I'd normally get a column done in 30-40 mins.
Funny you should mention Colson Whitehead - I've just finished reading the Underground Railroad. Will definitely check out some of his poker stuff.
Funny you should mention academic writing, too. I've been doing a fair bit of report writing over the last couple of years and have gone from staring at academic papers in bewilderment to really digging them. Especially love some of the tauter, muscular, more colourful (and arch) stuff in Science/Nature - those dudes have talent coming out of ... their everywheres, really. Sorry, blathering on a bit and I (perhaps) should know this, but presumably you're an academic, then ... ?
Any diary that has a reference to the Manics in the title will have my attention for at least the meantime.
I completely forgot that you turned up to Milton Keynes a week early. Of all the places in the world to arrive too soon, I'd say MK has to be about the nut worst.
Memories to last a lifetime.
Genuinely had you (somewhat) in mind when I named this thing. Milton Keynes was ... emotional.
"earning £500 a day working in Holland'. Please expand.
With pleasure. I was doing some talks and workshops on interview technique/coding interviews/report writing as part of a broader course for the military over there. Lovely place. Lovely military, too.
This diary is one in which I will definitely follow with interest, and wish you the very best of luck in your endeavours.
As for the MK story, that reminds me of a time my parents were going to be in the audience for a recording of one of the game shows Dale Winton was presenting for the Lottery, and they turned up to the studios a week early and was turned away with their tales between their legs
looking forward to reading this SR23. which poker mag did you write for?
Cheers Engy - I wrote "An Idiot's Guide to Poker" for Unibet (roughly 90 columns) and another 60 or so columns for NordicBet. Lots of the mags were folding/scaling back just as I began my poker writing "career" and I didn't get to write for any actual print publications. Sad times.
There's money to be made online too. I used to be a freelance writer and many of the online sites will pay you £50 or so for a good pitch. It's not much but if you can pump them out it adds up. Some of the more prestigious places pay more. Can think of at least a few that would be interested in stuff about poker. Colson Whitehead wrote a really great series about his time at the WSOP on Grantland 10-odd years ago. They had a great oral history of the Moneymaker WSOP too. I think places like Deadspin, Daily Dot, Buzzfeed, etc would all go for poker stuff too depending on the pitch.
I wanted to shop a write-up of the Galfond challenge around recently but I've forgotten how to write non-academic stuff.
Funny you should mention Colson Whitehead - I've just finished reading the Underground Railroad. Will definitely check out some of his poker stuff.
Funny you should mention academic writing, too. I've been doing a fair bit of report writing over the last couple of years and have gone from staring at academic papers in bewilderment to really digging them. Especially love some of the tauter, muscular, more colourful (and arch) stuff in Science/Nature - those dudes have talent coming out of ... their everywheres, really. Sorry, blathering on a bit and I (perhaps) should know this, but presumably you're an academic, then ... ?
Have been meaning to read Underground Railroad literally since it came out. I barely read books anymore unfortunately. He's a fantastic writer though, I've been reading his articles for years.
I'm getting a degree in Education at the moment and previously studied Linguistics. Totally agree about the quality of writing in academic work; there's a lot more room for freedom of expression than many people seem to think. I read one research article on representation in children's TV recently that was downright funny.
#subscribed as the cool kids used to say until old f@rts like me started saying it.
Had my share of anxiety and depression, not sure I have tried all of your methods of escape. Not sure I will either. I am trying to emerge from the nut worst spell of it. Definitely improving but not fully functioning. Writing a diary helps me, reading yours helps me too.
Have you tried comedy writing? An old friend of mine has joined a group that submit pieces to shows for money but also do commissioned corporate work.
Best of luck in poker and other endeavours. You are a tough opponent at the old 10nl streets.
I too suffer from anxiety awfully and found that drinking, even a couple of social ones with friends, can cause havoc for me emotionally with depression and anxiety for a few days.
Its very rare I drink now just to save me from myself the days after.
Great to see you back with another forum diary, although I'm truly sorry to hear you're not in the best of places right now.
Pouring the contents of my mind into the written word has worked wonders for me during darker times and I've no doubt you'll find positives from once again doing the same. There's a lot of love for you on this site and I, along with many others, am more than happy to offer a sympathetic ear or anything else you may need at anytime - even if it's just a second opinion on one of those tricky turn spots!
I hope you hit a nice little upswing both on and off the tables but, whatever happens, be kind to yourself. I also think you might need to get a little creative when it comes to getting laid whilst maintaining the current social distancing guidelines, but it's a rather fun conundrum to ponder over too .
This diary is one in which I will definitely follow with interest, and wish you the very best of luck in your endeavours.
As for the MK story, that reminds me of a time my parents were going to be in the audience for a recording of one of the game shows Dale Winton was presenting for the Lottery, and they turned up to the studios a week early and was turned away with their tales between their legs
Appreciate you saying so dude - the good wishes and the following with interest bit. And the Dale Winton bit. Once I missed a flight by a whole day with my ex-girlfriend. Her parents had taken us to the airport and saw the whole thing unfold in front of them. They obviously thought I was awesome and just the right person to be taking their daughter away to Mallorca for a month.
looking forward to reading this SR23. which poker mag did you write for?
Cheers Engy - I wrote "An Idiot's Guide to Poker" for Unibet (roughly 90 columns) and another 60 or so columns for NordicBet. Lots of the mags were folding/scaling back just as I began my poker writing "career" and I didn't get to write for any actual print publications. Sad times.
There's money to be made online too. I used to be a freelance writer and many of the online sites will pay you £50 or so for a good pitch. It's not much but if you can pump them out it adds up. Some of the more prestigious places pay more. Can think of at least a few that would be interested in stuff about poker. Colson Whitehead wrote a really great series about his time at the WSOP on Grantland 10-odd years ago. They had a great oral history of the Moneymaker WSOP too. I think places like Deadspin, Daily Dot, Buzzfeed, etc would all go for poker stuff too depending on the pitch.
I wanted to shop a write-up of the Galfond challenge around recently but I've forgotten how to write non-academic stuff.
Funny you should mention Colson Whitehead - I've just finished reading the Underground Railroad. Will definitely check out some of his poker stuff.
Funny you should mention academic writing, too. I've been doing a fair bit of report writing over the last couple of years and have gone from staring at academic papers in bewilderment to really digging them. Especially love some of the tauter, muscular, more colourful (and arch) stuff in Science/Nature - those dudes have talent coming out of ... their everywheres, really. Sorry, blathering on a bit and I (perhaps) should know this, but presumably you're an academic, then ... ?
Have been meaning to read Underground Railroad literally since it came out. I barely read books anymore unfortunately. He's a fantastic writer though, I've been reading his articles for years.
I'm getting a degree in Education at the moment and previously studied Linguistics. Totally agree about the quality of writing in academic work; there's a lot more room for freedom of expression than many people seem to think. I read one research article on representation in children's TV recently that was downright funny.
Studying linguistics sounds the nuts. Was it?
Totally hear what you're saying about how a lot of academic literature is not as rigid and dry (and sometimes funny) as it might seem.
#subscribed as the cool kids used to say until old f@rts like me started saying it.
Had my share of anxiety and depression, not sure I have tried all of your methods of escape. Not sure I will either. I am trying to emerge from the nut worst spell of it. Definitely improving but not fully functioning. Writing a diary helps me, reading yours helps me too.
Have you tried comedy writing? An old friend of mine has joined a group that submit pieces to shows for money but also do commissioned corporate work.
Lovely to have you here Phantom and I'm truly touched by the bolded part, thanks.
I've written a couple of comedy scripts but faded all of my outs. Had loads of meeting with people over one particular short that I had written that the (potential) director/producer seemed to love and George Harrison's Handmade Films were going to fund it apparently, and a helicopter was going to swoop over and film this scene, apparently, and after this short was done we were going to do this feature and, well, it just kind of all evaporated in the end. Definitely haven't given up though (I've just been pretending to have given up for the last 10 years) and will check out those links, thanks.
Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. John Lennon
Indeed, dude. You inspired to look up a bunch of other John Lennon quotes. "Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted" topped my list. Thanks for the good luck.
Best of luck in poker and other endeavours. You are a tough opponent at the old 10nl streets.
I too suffer from anxiety awfully and found that drinking, even a couple of social ones with friends, can cause havoc for me emotionally with depression and anxiety for a few days.
Its very rare I drink now just to save me from myself the days after.
Again best of luck and run that roll up.
MO
Many thanks for dropping by, Mo, and for the good wishes. You're pretty tough yourself and we seem to have had one or two tussles hanging out on the 10nl streets. Haven't seen you in a while out there though ... ?
Booze is a weird one. For me it's been brilliant in curbing anxiety etc in the short-term but you're often just borrowing future happiness and that has to be paid back. Or something. Crikey, it's late. But yes, it's definitely not a viable long-term solution or anything and the relationship between heavy drinking and mental health is a not very sweet one.
Great to see you back with another forum diary, although I'm truly sorry to hear you're not in the best of places right now.
Pouring the contents of my mind into the written word has worked wonders for me during darker times and I've no doubt you'll find positives from once again doing the same. There's a lot of love for you on this site and I, along with many others, am more than happy to offer a sympathetic ear or anything else you may need at anytime - even if it's just a second opinion on one of those tricky turn spots!
I hope you hit a nice little upswing both on and off the tables but, whatever happens, be kind to yourself. I also think you might need to get a little creative when it comes to getting laid whilst maintaining the current social distancing guidelines, but it's a rather fun conundrum to ponder over too .
Really appreciate this message Dues and the love in general, thank you. I may well drop you a dm at some point for a sympathetic turn-spot-life-spot ear.
I'll let you (and you all) know how I get on with my other creative endeavours.
Really digging your stream, by the way. I've missed the last couple of weeks so it might seem that I'm not really digging it at all, but I am. See you Monday.
Got knocked about a bit tonight. The two biggest pots I played I lost. Had 70% and 85% equity respectively when all the dough went in. Ooh, I also got massively slowrolled - and I mean massively, at the very last second - for 100 bigs by AA after I 5b jammed AK. Some other cool stuff happened. This was all at 20nl. Plenty of good stuff happened though and I played quite well in spots and quite badly in others. I know: insightful.
Perhaps it's not the wisest of ideas to be playing 5/6 tables of 20nl with a starting bankroll of £150 but (a) I genuinely can't think of anything to put here in my defence and (b) nope, nothing to put here, either. I can always reload, I suppose, and this was never going to be a brm ftw diary anyway.
Sorry to hear about your health problems the mind is a very powerful foe when it's working against you, I have a few demons but keep them in check usually by screaming obscenities at the top of my voice in the car I'm sure people seeing me must think I'm mad they may well be right. Do not do this when your five year old son is sat in the back who you forgot about, what I have found is you can be happy if only one person in the world loves you and that person is yourself. Took me about twenty five years and a lot of alcohol to work that one out and now and again we fall out but we make up. Don't look at what you haven't got look at what you do have and appreciate that a bit more, well that's my therapy for the day over look after yourself easy said but don't get to down on yourself. PS not that it bothers me but a couple of years ago you called my aces with a bag of spanners and hit and cleaned me out, not that it bothers me it doesn't really it doesn't lol. PPS you are a good player if you stick within your bankroll you will make money and good luck at the tables just not against me with a bag of spanners.
looking forward to reading this SR23. which poker mag did you write for?
Cheers Engy - I wrote "An Idiot's Guide to Poker" for Unibet (roughly 90 columns) and another 60 or so columns for NordicBet. Lots of the mags were folding/scaling back just as I began my poker writing "career" and I didn't get to write for any actual print publications. Sad times.
There's money to be made online too. I used to be a freelance writer and many of the online sites will pay you £50 or so for a good pitch. It's not much but if you can pump them out it adds up. Some of the more prestigious places pay more. Can think of at least a few that would be interested in stuff about poker. Colson Whitehead wrote a really great series about his time at the WSOP on Grantland 10-odd years ago. They had a great oral history of the Moneymaker WSOP too. I think places like Deadspin, Daily Dot, Buzzfeed, etc would all go for poker stuff too depending on the pitch.
I wanted to shop a write-up of the Galfond challenge around recently but I've forgotten how to write non-academic stuff.
Funny you should mention Colson Whitehead - I've just finished reading the Underground Railroad. Will definitely check out some of his poker stuff.
Funny you should mention academic writing, too. I've been doing a fair bit of report writing over the last couple of years and have gone from staring at academic papers in bewilderment to really digging them. Especially love some of the tauter, muscular, more colourful (and arch) stuff in Science/Nature - those dudes have talent coming out of ... their everywheres, really. Sorry, blathering on a bit and I (perhaps) should know this, but presumably you're an academic, then ... ?
Have been meaning to read Underground Railroad literally since it came out. I barely read books anymore unfortunately. He's a fantastic writer though, I've been reading his articles for years.
I'm getting a degree in Education at the moment and previously studied Linguistics. Totally agree about the quality of writing in academic work; there's a lot more room for freedom of expression than many people seem to think. I read one research article on representation in children's TV recently that was downright funny.
Studying linguistics sounds the nuts. Was it?
I loved studying Linguistics. I've been fascinated with language ever since I read this article in the New Yorker in my early 20s about an Amazonian tribe with a very unique language. It has only eleven phonemes and mostly relies on tone and stress to create meaning. It also has no numbers, no grammatical recursion, no words for colours and loads of other weird features that escape me right now. I was absolutely hooked by that and decided to go and study it for no reason other than I wanted to.
It turned out to be a bit of a wasted effort as I dropped out in the first year so I could move to the U.S. with a woman I had met but it was still a worthwhile experience.
Comments
Funny you should mention Colson Whitehead - I've just finished reading the Underground Railroad. Will definitely check out some of his poker stuff.
Funny you should mention academic writing, too. I've been doing a fair bit of report writing over the last couple of years and have gone from staring at academic papers in bewilderment to really digging them. Especially love some of the tauter, muscular, more colourful (and arch) stuff in Science/Nature - those dudes have talent coming out of ... their everywheres, really. Sorry, blathering on a bit and I (perhaps) should know this, but presumably you're an academic, then ... ?
As for the MK story, that reminds me of a time my parents were going to be in the audience for a recording of one of the game shows Dale Winton was presenting for the Lottery, and they turned up to the studios a week early and was turned away with their tales between their legs
I'm getting a degree in Education at the moment and previously studied Linguistics. Totally agree about the quality of writing in academic work; there's a lot more room for freedom of expression than many people seem to think. I read one research article on representation in children's TV recently that was downright funny.
#subscribed as the cool kids used to say until old f@rts like me started saying it.
Had my share of anxiety and depression, not sure I have tried all of your methods of escape. Not sure I will either. I am trying to emerge from the nut worst spell of it. Definitely improving but not fully functioning. Writing a diary helps me, reading yours helps me too.
Have you tried comedy writing? An old friend of mine has joined a group that submit pieces to shows for money but also do commissioned corporate work.
https://thenewsdump.co.uk/white-label-comedy
https://whitelabelcomedy.com/
Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.
John Lennon
I too suffer from anxiety awfully and found that drinking, even a couple of social ones with friends, can cause havoc for me emotionally with depression and anxiety for a few days.
Its very rare I drink now just to save me from myself the days after.
Again best of luck and run that roll up.
MO
Pouring the contents of my mind into the written word has worked wonders for me during darker times and I've no doubt you'll find positives from once again doing the same. There's a lot of love for you on this site and I, along with many others, am more than happy to offer a sympathetic ear or anything else you may need at anytime - even if it's just a second opinion on one of those tricky turn spots!
I hope you hit a nice little upswing both on and off the tables but, whatever happens, be kind to yourself. I also think you might need to get a little creative when it comes to getting laid whilst maintaining the current social distancing guidelines, but it's a rather fun conundrum to ponder over too
Totally hear what you're saying about how a lot of academic literature is not as rigid and dry (and sometimes funny) as it might seem.
I've written a couple of comedy scripts but faded all of my outs. Had loads of meeting with people over one particular short that I had written that the (potential) director/producer seemed to love and George Harrison's Handmade Films were going to fund it apparently, and a helicopter was going to swoop over and film this scene, apparently, and after this short was done we were going to do this feature and, well, it just kind of all evaporated in the end. Definitely haven't given up though (I've just been pretending to have given up for the last 10 years) and will check out those links, thanks.
Booze is a weird one. For me it's been brilliant in curbing anxiety etc in the short-term but you're often just borrowing future happiness and that has to be paid back. Or something. Crikey, it's late. But yes, it's definitely not a viable long-term solution or anything and the relationship between heavy drinking and mental health is a not very sweet one.
I'll let you (and you all) know how I get on with my other creative endeavours.
Really digging your stream, by the way. I've missed the last couple of weeks so it might seem that I'm not really digging it at all, but I am. See you Monday.
Perhaps it's not the wisest of ideas to be playing 5/6 tables of 20nl with a starting bankroll of £150 but (a) I genuinely can't think of anything to put here in my defence and (b) nope, nothing to put here, either. I can always reload, I suppose, and this was never going to be a brm ftw diary anyway.
This hand was a humdinger.
Roll: £136
John Lennon quotes - there are so many, he had such a wonderful way with words.
That line in Strawberry Fields Forever takes some beating.
"Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see"
There are so many others too.
Those of us who were part of the Beatles generation were so fortunate, we had something no other generation ever had or will have.
PS not that it bothers me but a couple of years ago you called my aces with a bag of spanners and hit and cleaned me out, not that it bothers me it doesn't really it doesn't lol.
PPS you are a good player if you stick within your bankroll you will make money and good luck at the tables just not against me with a bag of spanners.
It turned out to be a bit of a wasted effort as I dropped out in the first year so I could move to the U.S. with a woman I had met but it was still a worthwhile experience.