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sandforddd embarks on a life funded by clicking buttons
sandforddd
Member Posts: 20
Warm greetings to one and all!
If I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you at SPT Manc or RTM then please do make yourselves known. I've decided to start a diary due to my love of writing and poker, so it only makes sense to combine the two for your amusement (hopefully!) and bemusement (the shrewd bet).
A bit about myself then, I'm a 24 yo lad from Reading and a walking contradiction in almost every way possible - I drink like a fish and smoke like a chimney but lift weights 5 times a week and am regularly spotted in the meat section of my local Tescos anxiously scrutinising the salt and saturated fat content of all options available. If I'm honest I thrive off of the looks of pure distain I receive whilst lighting up a crafty cig the second I leave Nuffield.
Poker fits into my anti-establishment and wholeheartedly liberal outlook on life...why bust a gut pretending to look busy at my desk or interested in Martin from accounts' kids' bouncy castle party when I can be genuinely stimulated making decisions and earning money at something that is basically impossible to master. Being a bit of a jack of all trades and master of sod all I've taken up, obsessed over and ultimately quit when I lost interest or reached a high level of numerous sports or hobbies. Poker seems to never tire in my mind and I'm grateful for it's existence!
Before embarking on the 'going pro' step in life I have a 6 year backlog of terrible decisions/entitlement tilt/BRM disasters that would leave Barry Greenstein hyperventilating and hiding in bed for 2 weeks. Some examples include the dutch courage of chatting absolute b0llocks to girls in the student union smoking area all night about playing poker for a living then getting back empty handed (shock) to take a 4 BI shot at whoever was sitting the $200 Heads-Up Hyper lobby on Stars. That always ended in either a prolonged bender or a few quick tears and an hour accompanied by only Coldplay, James Blunt and the warm, previously opened Stella that had been on top of the fridge for 3 weeks. The day after I'd be welcomed back to the Big $1.10 like Paul Gascoigne at his local AA meeting and 6 weeks of building the roll would result in the same - rinse, lather, repeat.
So, what's changed? Well realising that should I choose to continue to do the bare minimum in the corporate setting whilst slowly having my soul excavated from within me that I would be set up for a life of mediocrity. I'd do anything to avoid being the sort of bloke down the pub in his 50s eulogising to non poker people about how Phil Ivey rivered me on the FT bubble of the Main Event and that I'd been in and out of consciousness ever since. Until last November it was a similar story with spinning up £50 to £800ish on Sky and losing it during intoxicated Spin Up sessions or random punts.
I decided to sit down and map out short term achievable goals based on VOLUME only - since then it's gone rather well. A £100 deposit in February is now over £4,000 and I've moved from £2 SUs to £20-30 SUs with game dependent shots at the £40 level alongside being able to play all of the MTTs that run (selling 50% for the £110s). I've also started to play in some of the 100bb 50nl/100nl games, where admittedly I do feel a little exposed against some of the stronger players, in order to progress. I also like to keep an eye on the £11/16.50/22 DYMs and have found them to be a nice low variance addition for hitting volume targets. I quit my job in Sports Trading in early March and alongside the poker will be commentating on Twitch for The Cash Game Festival & doing some coaching to losing micro/low stakes MTT regs (if that's of interest to you let me know!).
Right then, enough waffle.
APRIL 2018 SCHEDULE
27th March-1st: Golfing Holiday in Algarve
2nd: UKOPS
3rd-9th: CGF Bratislava (Slovakia)
10th-23rd: Full SU/MTT/cash grind
24th-29th: CGF Tallinn (Estonia)
30-31st: Full SU/MTT/cash grind
TARGET = 20k PTS
I like volume targets as opposed to profit targets. Easy to run like god (hey Railtard) and win a chunk on SUs in a very short timeframe. I find myself then sitting around twiddling my thumbs for ages without progressing or working hard. So volume will be the defining factor for me. As you can see it's setting up to be a busy month but hopefully I can stay professional in my approach and continue to improve. Will be going to Bratislava with 2 v good regs on the site (Sharki0 & Tedson) so hoping to learn a lot from them.
Hope you enjoyed the opener - anything you want to hear or if there's anything you're interested in pls let me know. The thing I love most about Sky is how great the community is. I've been super impressed with a lot of the top regs and how approachable and fun they are to be around. Long may it continue.
If I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you at SPT Manc or RTM then please do make yourselves known. I've decided to start a diary due to my love of writing and poker, so it only makes sense to combine the two for your amusement (hopefully!) and bemusement (the shrewd bet).
A bit about myself then, I'm a 24 yo lad from Reading and a walking contradiction in almost every way possible - I drink like a fish and smoke like a chimney but lift weights 5 times a week and am regularly spotted in the meat section of my local Tescos anxiously scrutinising the salt and saturated fat content of all options available. If I'm honest I thrive off of the looks of pure distain I receive whilst lighting up a crafty cig the second I leave Nuffield.
Poker fits into my anti-establishment and wholeheartedly liberal outlook on life...why bust a gut pretending to look busy at my desk or interested in Martin from accounts' kids' bouncy castle party when I can be genuinely stimulated making decisions and earning money at something that is basically impossible to master. Being a bit of a jack of all trades and master of sod all I've taken up, obsessed over and ultimately quit when I lost interest or reached a high level of numerous sports or hobbies. Poker seems to never tire in my mind and I'm grateful for it's existence!
Before embarking on the 'going pro' step in life I have a 6 year backlog of terrible decisions/entitlement tilt/BRM disasters that would leave Barry Greenstein hyperventilating and hiding in bed for 2 weeks. Some examples include the dutch courage of chatting absolute b0llocks to girls in the student union smoking area all night about playing poker for a living then getting back empty handed (shock) to take a 4 BI shot at whoever was sitting the $200 Heads-Up Hyper lobby on Stars. That always ended in either a prolonged bender or a few quick tears and an hour accompanied by only Coldplay, James Blunt and the warm, previously opened Stella that had been on top of the fridge for 3 weeks. The day after I'd be welcomed back to the Big $1.10 like Paul Gascoigne at his local AA meeting and 6 weeks of building the roll would result in the same - rinse, lather, repeat.
So, what's changed? Well realising that should I choose to continue to do the bare minimum in the corporate setting whilst slowly having my soul excavated from within me that I would be set up for a life of mediocrity. I'd do anything to avoid being the sort of bloke down the pub in his 50s eulogising to non poker people about how Phil Ivey rivered me on the FT bubble of the Main Event and that I'd been in and out of consciousness ever since. Until last November it was a similar story with spinning up £50 to £800ish on Sky and losing it during intoxicated Spin Up sessions or random punts.
I decided to sit down and map out short term achievable goals based on VOLUME only - since then it's gone rather well. A £100 deposit in February is now over £4,000 and I've moved from £2 SUs to £20-30 SUs with game dependent shots at the £40 level alongside being able to play all of the MTTs that run (selling 50% for the £110s). I've also started to play in some of the 100bb 50nl/100nl games, where admittedly I do feel a little exposed against some of the stronger players, in order to progress. I also like to keep an eye on the £11/16.50/22 DYMs and have found them to be a nice low variance addition for hitting volume targets. I quit my job in Sports Trading in early March and alongside the poker will be commentating on Twitch for The Cash Game Festival & doing some coaching to losing micro/low stakes MTT regs (if that's of interest to you let me know!).
Right then, enough waffle.
APRIL 2018 SCHEDULE
27th March-1st: Golfing Holiday in Algarve
2nd: UKOPS
3rd-9th: CGF Bratislava (Slovakia)
10th-23rd: Full SU/MTT/cash grind
24th-29th: CGF Tallinn (Estonia)
30-31st: Full SU/MTT/cash grind
TARGET = 20k PTS
I like volume targets as opposed to profit targets. Easy to run like god (hey Railtard) and win a chunk on SUs in a very short timeframe. I find myself then sitting around twiddling my thumbs for ages without progressing or working hard. So volume will be the defining factor for me. As you can see it's setting up to be a busy month but hopefully I can stay professional in my approach and continue to improve. Will be going to Bratislava with 2 v good regs on the site (Sharki0 & Tedson) so hoping to learn a lot from them.
Hope you enjoyed the opener - anything you want to hear or if there's anything you're interested in pls let me know. The thing I love most about Sky is how great the community is. I've been super impressed with a lot of the top regs and how approachable and fun they are to be around. Long may it continue.
Comments
excellent post. glgl
Really enjoyed reading that, & also meeting you in Manchester on Saturday.
GL GL
What kind of stakes do you play them at, and are they beatable to a reasoable degree?
Wouldn't bother with Dym's thou there proper boring
best of luck, looking forward to reading your updates.
Also I drink like a fish and i'm personal trainer at a Nuffield gym
Top lad, knows the game. I wish you all the best, looking forward to tales of c-rushhhing!!
@LARSON7 - SUs are my main game & not for everybody. If you can find some sadistic pleasure from the poker equivalent of being fisted by a fully fresh Mike Tyson day in day out then by all means hop in the pool! I'm a bit ADD (don't really enjoy studying videos or powerpoints on poker) so the fast paced action and highs and lows is far more captivating for me than let's say the 8 table 100bb grind. You've got to adjust to who you are and how well you can take the variance. From time to time you'll run like Usain Bolt on meth and it feels like you're simply picking the fruit off of a money tree. A good friend of mine who plays mid stakes Spin & Gos on PS said the variance on those is tame in comparison to SUs, which says it all really.
@SJspanky1 - I don't recall but bravo nonetheless, most of the first bullet I was semi conscious and handing them over at any opportunity no doubt!
@Ironpump1 - you sound like my kinda guy! If you're ever at the SPTs find me, I'll either be passed out in the disabled toilet or at the bar loudly enquiring as to why they don't offer the low calorie tonic for my G&T.
@tikay1 - the pleasure was all mine! Used to flick between Babestation and SkyPokerTV late at night in my teenage years (I wasn't doing anything weird whilst you were on the screen don't worry) and have always wanted to meet in person. Fantastic job you do on the forum sir long may it continue!
Once again I'm humbled by the time that the higher stakes guys have taken in aiding me and offering advice, both here and on FB messenger over the last couple of weeks. I've heard the top level regs on other sites aren't quite as hospitable to people looking to break onto the scene - cheers chaps beers on me this weekend, that is if Curt hasn't busted my roll by then.
@sandforddd
Ha, thank you.
You are either;
a) Too kind
Or...
b) A creep.
Keep the Diary entries coming please, we are a bit short of Diary-ists right now.
27th March-1st: Golfing Holiday in Algarve
Stonking time with two of my oldest pals, the all inclusive bar took a pounding pre and post golfing. I've found playing 3 beers deep to actually be a help not a hindrance to my game, loosens you up a little bit and removes any of the classic golfing inhibitions like 'holy **** that hazard on the left is in play' - instead your swing thoughts are more like 'right let's send this one down the fairway so I can light up the next cig ASAP'. On that note I'd love to see a PGA Tour stop where it's imperative to have chugged a 6-pack in the 15 mins preceding the 1st tee shot, although I guess that was every event ever for big Jon Daly back in the day. Paul Casey would be an absolute mess, comes across like the kind of guy that chats about swing mechanics theory at the players parties whilst sipping on a Becks Blue.
The standard routine was wake up for the back end of breakfast around 10.30am, smash 2 plates and 2 beers, feel sorry for ourselves by the pool with another beer then drag ourselves to the hire car and off out to the course. 18 holes, club sandwich and another couple of beers then back to the room for some resistance bands work, smash 2 plates at dinner and then park myself by the bar until the taxi arrives for the strip. The strip was a touch underwhelming this year to put it mildly - for starters I felt ancient at the age of just 24 but moreover it was another case study for my rapidly declining faith in the direction of humanity.
My friend and I got chatting to a group of 3 girls from Bristol, lovely looking but maintaining a conversation proved difficult when the focal point of their night was simply to refresh their Instagram feed to see how the like count on their pre-night out selfie was progressing. One of them seemed heart broken that she'd stagnated at 97 likes and even asked me if I would hop on my phone to bump it towards the elusive 3 figure mark. When I said that I didn't have a phone with me because I didn't really agree with the way in which communication and general decency in social situations is being relinquished by them they all stopped and looked at me as though I'd fingerbanged their cat. Ridiculous but yet another eye opener as to the way in which people overvalue the way they are perceived online as opposed to the way they actually impact people's lives in the flesh, all due to the toxicity of social media.
3rd-9th: CGF Bratislava (Slovakia)
A superb experience at CGF Bratislava and yet another great opportunity to try my arm at poker commentary. The Cash Game Festival and the events they run seem to have a magnetic force for like-minded and passionate poker enthusiasts. I met so many interesting characters and learned a lot through the interactions. We did 6hrs/day of commentary and seemed to generate some fun in the chat, furthermore the feedback I received from people tuning into the stream was overwhelmingly positive - I did an interview with PokerNews that was streamed live on Facebook which is here if you fancy a gander: https://www.facebook.com/pokernewsdotcom/videos/10156311979652265/?hc_ref=ARRE0g9CrFr6yRXu0p1tRvu1KKfhNN3pB-IV2WhAkhJmZo80YXoTK8wO7l8Fn_zkEwQ
I really think there's a market for grass roots level live poker (£/€ 1/1, 1/2, 2/5) as people watching can generally relate a lot more to some of the strategies or moves the players are implementing and also can learn from some of the common mistakes like limp/calling pre-flop, underbluffing post-flop and overplaying hands like AA/KK despite woeful board textures. It might be an idea for Sky to have a go at live streaming some of the SPT action on Twitch - a great platform for enticing new players to join the site and also free advertising at very little cost. I'd be more than happy to throw my name in the hat if this is of interest to you @tikay1. People were genuinely amped up at the fact that they could link their friends on FB to watch them play live on stream and that also creates a snowball effect in social media sharing.
As for the commentary it's something I really enjoy, growing up as a kid I used to call into BBC Berkshire at the age of 10-12 to give my thoughts on how Reading had played and which players performed well or below expectation. I think the show encouraged it so much as it was a bit of a novelty to have someone with such a high pitched tone speak in such a passionate and opinionated manner. Ever since that I've always wanted to get into commentary or punditry in some form and thus will be scanning the pokersphere for opportunities in the near future.