Blog: How to be really good at being average..

[MoreTBC]

I'm such a part-timer these days :( This poor blog, a once bastion of hope that you don't need to be wired into a PIO matrix or spend a fortune on courses to make a little money playing cards on the Internet, has become a desolate wasteland. It's the Windows XP of blogs on the community, fondly remembered but never updated.

I've been a busy bee though and have a box of excuses for you.

The first, and most time consuming, of those excuses was moving flat in December. The flat, when we got the keys in November, was basically a shell. Bare walls/remains of previous tenants decorating and floorboards. This meant for about 6 week I was doing 9am-5pm at my job and then 6pm-10/11pm doing DIY. I also had to learn on the fly as I've spent my adult life living in furnished and rented properties and have never really had to do any kind of decorating or renovations before. I now have been to parts of Youtube I've never seen before :D. Luckily I had a few friends with much more knowledge of these things than me help out when they could and we got the place in a livable state a week before the end of the lease on our now old flat.

The last week before moving was a whirlwind of carpets being laid, deliveries of furniture and white goods and actually packing and moving. It went pretty smoothly as far as I was concerned and by the Sunday night everything important was out the old place and had a home in the new flat. There was a couple of days left the following week that were used to clean the old place and grab any last bits but basically it was a smooth transition.. except for the Internet.

There was a telephone socket on the wall when we got the keys for the flat but we quickly realised that after taking it off the wall to decorate there wasn't actually a cable attached to it, nor a hole in the wall where a cable may have previously been. Initially this didn't appear to be a problem as outside the living room window was a coiled up cable that had been run by a company that is installing full fibre connectivity to the whole of Aberdeen. I'd checked with the provider (Vodafone) and my postcode was confirmed as having the full fibre option and an order could be placed. Placed order, didn't hear anything, phoned them, order has been cancelled because full fibre isn't ready. :(. They suggest I can get a copper line installed for £60, I say no. They're planning to phase out copper lines in the next 5+ years so that seemed like a pointless route to go down. 

A week later, place another order again. Same sequence of events happens again, although this time I go direct to the complaints line and magically they'll do the copper line install for free. Sounds good, engineer will arrive the Wednesday after we move in so only a few days without Internet. During my call with Vodafone I specifically mentioned that there was no telephone cable in the property and that a new cable would need to be run from the distribution point. "No problem" they said. 

Engineer number one turns up on the 18th of December with no notes of the requirement and leaves. After a fairly abrasive call to Vodafone a second engineer turns up a few days before Christmas. Same things happens again. Another angry call and they say the next engineer will be the 10th of January and they can provide temporary Internet via 4g in the meantime. At this point I had to go to the shops and get a Pay as you Go SIM card and put it in an old phone to use as a hotspot for the devices in the flat. The most data they can add to a PAYG sim is 50gb so I had to contact them every 2-3 days via live chat or phone call to get them to top it up again. I'm still doing it now.

There appears to be light at the end of the tunnel though. An engineer did turn up on the 10th and ran a brand new cable into the flat and got the phone line up and running. Unfortunately they hadn't actually applied the Internet service to the line ahead of time so while I can make phone calls on it I still can't use the Internet. A forth engineer is supposed to be working on it today (13th) to do the last part so hopefully the red light on the router will change to whatever colour it's supposed to be at some point and things can get back to normal.

All of the above has meant I've not had the time or means to play a lot of poker. I started slacking on results tracking too so I don't even have any proper results for December. What I can say is that I started January 2020 with €10.97 in my Unibet account. I can also tell you January has been going well as the bankroll as it stands today is €36.18 according to my results sheet (There may be some EX changes that swing that a cent or two). I've also not had a losing session on Unibet this month which sounds amazing but the sessions have all been really small and basically just to complete missions. I've added a screengrab of my glorious winnings to fully gloat about the situation.

Once the internet finally gets sorted I'll put in some full proper Unibet only sessions and see if we can't get this thing moving in the right direction again. 

Off brand I had my first FT of 2020 on Stars in a Hot $7.50. Couldn't get the trophy but finished 5th or 6th for just under $200. I've also had a number of deepish runs in Winter Series events but nothing major in terms of return. Had some issues with the Run It Once training website, which I reported, and they thanked me with an Elite subscription for a month so I've been doing some study with that. I also won a twitter comp so have another month waiting to be activated.

Looking forward to getting involved with mod duties for the Galfond challenges where Phil Galfond is battling HU in PLO against a bunch of end bosses for silly sums of money with even sillier sums of money on the line in side bets. Should be really fun to rail when it kicks off later in the month.

See you in February!

[MoreTBC]

I'm still here. 

Played one more session in January after my last update and ended the month just under €36. 

Had one more FT on Stars, getting 3rd in the Hotter $1.10 for $150, to round off a pretty successful January.

February

I've played some UOS events, 13 to be exact, and it's been going rather well. I've made 3 FTs so far with a 6th and two 4ths to show for it. The first FT came in E11 which was a €2 something that I've forgotten about already format. €41 of profit is the part that really matter for that one. The other two both actually came last night, one in the €2 PLO re-entry and the other in the €25 PKO. Now I know what you're thinking and yes, I shouldn't have played the €25 when it was about 50% of my BR at the time. It was a terrible decision and I would not recommend it to anyone. Having said that, BRM is not sexy. Firing a big tourney, going deep and picking up chunks of bounties is 🆒. 

9 bounties in total for around €140 plus the cash of €250 (and €90 from the PLO) meant a BR boost of about 1200%. Not a bad day in the office. Now I know I shouldn't complain after winning so much but I wouldn't be a poker player without sharing this..

This is how I busted on the FT :waterfall:. Everyone was all in pre-flop so RNGesus just decided it wasn't my time.I've had this silly goal to try and win a UOS event while using a UOS winners avatar and I think if I'd have won this hand I would have been in with a great chance.

I think I'll have two more sessions before the end of the UOS to complete my silly goal so I don't expect it to happen, I'm top 100 in the Low league just now so the focus is on trying to get some good results in the remaining ones I can play and get a little leaderboard money.

BR sits at €270.07 (I took £200 out) so it's the healthiest it's been since August 2018. I'll probably dust most of it off in the remaining UOS events screaming YOLO as I register but if you come back at the end of the month there is a small chance I haven't :D

I'll hopefully also have some exciting news to share..

 

[MoreTBC]

The time has come.

3 and half years (roughly) this little thread has been going for and it's been quite the ride. Engagements, babies, new clients, MTT schedules, UO packages without playing poker, slots degeneracy.. it's had it all but there was always going to be a day when it would have to stop. With a heavy heart I have to announce that today is that day. 

For anyone actually still keeping track of the BR I did as expected and torched the majority of the remaining funds at the end of the UOS. Couldn't get a run together and bricked the remaining session I had. Normally I'd be sad about this sort of thing but this time I actually expected it to happen and didn't really mind if it did. There is a very good reason for this lack of respect for my BR and money and that's because..

I'M JOINING UNIBET!!

Not as a poker soul crushing ambassador and pro but as a '3rd Line Poker Product Expert'. This is the job that Patric used to do (He's moved on to another department I believe). Now you might be asking yourself "What does a Poker Product expert actually do?". This is a question many of my friends and family has also asked me and I don't have a short or clean answer for you, or them, so I just show them (and now you) this screenshot from the vacancy post on the Kindred careers website :)

Exactly what all that means, I'll find out later this month :)

Obviously I won't be able to play on the site anymore so continuing the blog seems a little pointless. Don't worry though, we have some plans to make sure you can still keep up with my averageness, it just won't involve me punting off on Unibet :) 

If you've ever read, liked or commented on the rambling mess I want to say thank you. You've helped me stay accountable while playing and kept this blog going for as long as it has.

This is your 2016 blogger of the year, signing out :Cool:

 

 

[Petit_pertotal]

GLGL! :)

this is a job most of the bloggers on the community would love i think haha.. xD

i am happy for you :) (but immediately i think i would loooove that aswell :p )

 

[Sparrow473]

@MoreTBC wrote:

I'M JOINING UNIBET!!

This is your 2016 blogger of the year, signing out 🆒

---

This is the fkin coolest and happiest end of a blog i've ever read!😀

Good luck, mate! Make your dream come true.

[RayL]

Welcome to the gang @MoreTBC, ♥️ I'll contact the team and organize your initiation 😏

 

[SkilfulPoker]

That's great news! Really pleased for you. Sure the years of experience you have on the other side of the desk will be really valuable for you too in your new role. Very awesome. Good luck in your new career!

[theMachine]

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR MANY DOCUMENTED ACCOMPLISHMENTS. MAY YOU CONTINUE TO LEVEL UP: EVEN IF NOT IN THE WAYS YOU INITIALLY SET OUT TO COMPLETE.

YOUR BLOG HAS ALWAYS BEEN PREFERRED READING THROUGH IT'S MANY STAGES. theMachine WOULD BE EMOTING IF IT WERE SUBJECT TO SUCH THINGS.

[MoreTBC]

[SShcherbyna]

[Livertool]

Thou i don't often agree with you nice to see you back and willing to read your blog, just keep them slightly shorter, imo 🙂

Ffs, we have been here apparently for ages if this was really from 2020 and you started 3,5 years earlier 😄

[MoreTBC]

Yeah, first post was 2016 and I joined Unibet Mar 2020

[MoreTBC]

The elephant in the room

Seems like the best place to reboot this award winning (😎) blog would be to answer the question literally nobody is asking... "Why are you not working for Unibet anymore?"

To answer this, we really have to go all the way back to the last blog post, when I joined Unibet.

It was an incredibly exciting time for me personally, but it was also the start of a pretty miserable time for planet earth. We landed in Malta one or two days before they closed the airport in Malta and went into the first full Covid lockdown. Whisked off to the company apartment in the early hours, we were not allowed to set foot outside the door for 14 days. This caused a number of problems as Malta really wasn't ready for online shopping so getting fresh food and other items was a nightmare. My first face to face meeting with my boss, the head of poker, was at the apartment door with him handing me my laptop and 2 cartons of milk to feed my 18 month old. 

It was a rough two weeks locked up with an inquisitive toddler in an apartment with a glass dining table at her head height and multiple other dangers and breakables and a very limited number of food options and didn't really start the mediterranean adventure the way I hoped.

Even after restrictions were lifted, we got an apartment, and settled in a bit, it was still a very isolating experience for my partner. I had the ability to go to the office now and again and mingle with the handful of people that were on the floor but for her it was very tough to find her place. Before we moved we had always said if she started getting homesick she could just hop on a cheap Ryanair flight and come back to the UK for a week but Covid also ruined that as flight prices soared and direct flights to my hometown stopped, adding extra expense to a return to the homeland. Our daughter also turned 2 which means she was now an "adult" in the eyes of airlines which also added to the cost.

Fast forward to the start of 2022 and with our second child due in a couple of months, we made the decision that we wanted to return to the UK to be closer to family and friends and a better support system. I raised this in a meeting with the boss and was told there should be no issues so we started making arrangements.

Around September 2022 there was a restructure of the gaming team (Poker, Bingo and Casino) so that the roles were aligned between the products. I moved from 3rd Line Product Expert to Operations Manager as a title, but almost nothing changed in my day to day. The big change came from the fact that they decided they want the whole gaming team (or at least everyone that had not already relocated) to be located in Malta, which obvious created a big problem for me. There wasn't really much of a decision for me to make, I was going to put my family and their happiness first so I informed the boss that I'd still be moving back to the UK in March 2023.

To his credit, Kris did try everything he could to get them to make an exception for me and allow me to work from the UK  but to no avail. The official line I was given was that it was a tax related issue (which I'm sceptical about given Kindred has an office in London and HMRC covers the whole of the UK, not just England) but there was no point dwelling on it and I continued prep to leave Malta.

Luckily I hit a bit of a temporary one-outer when I was given the opportunity to continue working for the team in a reduced role by working for Relax and them hiring me through an agency in the UK that they've used previously. It was a 6 month contract and would mean I'd be able to train a replacement for the Operations Manager role. At this point, I was Content Manager (which is just a dumb name for poker room manager, basically looking after the tournament schedule and other "content" in the client (cash/SNG stakes etc)) so I could continue to do the tournament schedule but I just wouldn't have access to anything on the Unibet side (customer info to help with support queries and things like that).

Replacing me took longer than expected and they extended my contract until Mar 2024 to ensure there would be someone that could take over the tournament scheduling and all the associated tasks and now that the contract is up, I'm a free agent. I'd be lying if I said the last year was fun because I actually hated it. I hated the job, I hated having nothing to do (after all the hard work of redesigning the schedule and making a years worth of series the day to day does not take long at all), I hated not having the ability to help or get involved with things outside of tournaments and I just felt like I was wasting my time. Relax made little effort to integrate me into any of their side of the product so I had almost nothing to do day-to-day. I was completely mentally checked out of the job about half way through the UOS last year and I almost didn't take the contract extension in Sept 2023 because I was so unhappy. Being able to say I created and ran the biggest series in Unibets history was the only thing that made me sign tbh. A completely useless personal goal but it was my goal and I was going to complete it.

I don't want this all to be doom and gloom though, the time I spent in the poker product team was without doubt the best time I've had in any job I've done. I flippin' loved my job and it never ever felt like work. I'll be forever grateful to Kris for taking a chance on me and to Stubbe for campaigning so hard to get me on the other side of the wall. I might never find another job I enjoyed as much as the Unibet one.

We must move on though...

What about the poker I hear you ask! Well, I rambled on too long in this post to get into that so we'll save it for another day. I can say I've played some hands on Unibet now and I didn't like it :o. 

Tune in next time for some hot takes.

 

[Stubbe-Unibet]

I absolutely suck at goodbyes, and I never really got to say a proper goodbye, due to the geographical distance. I just wanted to say it’s been a pleasure working with you, and you’ve probably opened the door for other community members that’d want to become a part of team Unibet, by setting a great example!

I knew you weren’t having a blast the last months, but I didn’t realize you felt quite that bad so really sad to read that!

As for the last part of your post, I can’t wait to read about how terrible the Unibet MTT schedule is and how you just don’t enjoy it at all 😄 

Hope to see you again at a live event in the future!

[marlini2]

3 hours ago, MoreTBC said:

The elephant in the room

Seems like the best place to reboot this award winning (😎) blog would be to answer the question literally nobody is asking... "Why are you not working for Unibet anymore?"

 

 

Literally nobody you say ... ?!😡

[MoreTBC]

3 hours ago, Stubbe-Unibet said:

I absolutely suck at goodbyes, and I never really got to say a proper goodbye, due to the geographical distance. I just wanted to say it’s been a pleasure working with you, and you’ve probably opened the door for other community members that’d want to become a part of team Unibet, by setting a great example!

I knew you weren’t having a blast the last months, but I didn’t realize you felt quite that bad so really sad to read that!

Definitely wasn't related to the team, just felt like I was wasting my time not doing anything and found it incredibly frustrating not being able to help with various things that came up especially when, realistically, the work can be done from anywhere in the world and I was pretty good at it 😎.

You're doing the job of 3 or 4 people just now so I'll let you off for not throwing me a farewell party. I'll just bink a DSO package or two and the Long Islands can flow again.

3 hours ago, marlini2 said:

Literally nobody you say ... ?!😡

Ok, population didn't ask, just my top fans 😋

[Livertool]

1 hour ago, MoreTBC said:

just felt like I was wasting my time not doing anything and found it incredibly frustrating not being able to help with various things that came up especially when, realistically, the work can be done from anywhere in the worl

Consolation, you are not first or last good employee that didn't get respect (just have to take your word on it), been there, done that. Weldone as you wouldn't jump like monkey for them, better things shall come 👍 

After all, we as workers are there to put our work effort not that company owns us. What i heard from my previous jobs, things didn't work out so well after i left. Am i sad, nope. More like happy that i left and sure you'll feel same after some time when things work out. In the meantime community league needs more players for pricepool not reduced so come get diaper money 😄

 

[MoreTBC]

Why I'll probably not play on Unibet

Look at that clickbait title, perfect for a YouTube video or affiliate article... but luckily this post is neither of them, and not nearly as dramatic as it sounds either. It's also not going to be some bitter rant about my ex employer. The product is multiple times better than it was 4 years ago before I joined Unibet and I liked it back then, so a scathing demolition of the client this is not. 

What it will be about is how my profile as a player, and how I go about playing sessions has changed a lot in the last 4 years and that rather minor and 1st world issues are the only difference between one site or another getting my rake.

Issue 1 - The missions

I used to complete the missions pretty religiously back in the day, completely unaware of just how valuable they were compared to the rake I paid completing them. Having been on the other side of the wall I now know how much value I, and everyone else was getting, and understand that it needed to reduced and I have no problem with that. Infact, I think the reward for the 1st step in this months missions is way too high and the requirements for each step are in a wonky order relative to the time/rake required to complete them, but that's a tangent I'm not going to go down today. Needless to say, the reduction in rewards is not my issue.

When I got access to my account, the first thing I did was try to complete the 1st mission step and instantly started regretting it. The banzai mission was a time and money sink and I did not enjoy it at all. Time management is something that I've prioritised in the last few years given that, with two kids and one of them liking to wake up early, I don't have nearly as much of it now to spend on poker so when I do get the chance to play, I'm not looking to play formats that I don't like. I'm also way more sensitive to how playing formats I'm not likely to win in has a negative impact on my BR for things I have a much better chance in. It's the same reason I rarely complete spins/cash promos on other sites. Now I could get over it if the rewards felt like good value but the much bigger issue for me now is that I can't access a much bigger part of the mission rewards. 

If you're a regular reader to the blog, you'll know that I dusted a massive chunk of my BR back in the day drunkenly playing slots one night, and as a result, requested that casino (and bingo, just out of spite because it's rubbish:D) be permanently blocked on my account. That block still stands today and means that I can't utilise the free spins that make up a much bigger portion of the missions rewards than they did previously and in turn makes the missions much less appealing to me personally. The tickets to multi-stack a freeroll also seem like they provide no additional value either so they just don't seem like a good time investment anymore. Given my lack of interest in cash/Hex promos there isn't really any promo Unibet has the functionality to run I think would appeal to me anymore. I don't have the time for LBs so MTT promos are out and I don't rake enough for the loyalty system to be relevant either. 

Now that's not to say I won't/wouldn't play purely on the idea that the games are good and I could win money the good ol' fashioned way but there are obviously other places I can put volume in where the games are similar and I'll get better promotional incentives on top.

Issue 2 - Custom bet buttons

I'm at a point now where I can comfortably have 8-12 tables on screen during a session. Part of the reason I can do that is because I have all the clients configured with my most frequent bet sizes so I can bet quickly and move onto the next decision. It took me seeing 50% pot as the min bet option post-flop one time for me to instantly dislike playing tournaments on Unibet. It's a 1st world problem, I know, but I'm lazy and I like my comforts. I like being able to open my laptop, load up HM3, Jurojin and then the clients and then just know I'll never have to worry about moving tables or tweaking anything during a session. Having Unibet in the rotation is only going to slow my sessions down and I don't really need or want to do that.

Getting volume in has been another variable I've been focusing on over the last year or two and I've bounced around sites trying to find the right balance of number of games to play and games that'll finish at a reasonable time so I can play them, sleep, and still feel like a human at 6am the next morning. Now I know the Unibet schedule was designed to fit that exact plan but I can't get over not having custom bet buttons and I've found a mix of sites and games I like now.

It might be one of those things I get over over time but right now I just don't see a reason to move any volume from the other sites I play on when I have everything configured the way I like it and everything is being tracked in HM so I can review it once every never and moan about the orange line being higher than the green on in my bb/100 graph.

There is definitely a part of me that wants to play the schedule just to see what it's like. I built the thing, would be nice to know if it's as good as I think it is :D. I'm also aware that I'm playing in tougher games by putting volume on a site like Stars and I know there is lots of overlay value to be had but I'm not sure if any extra possible ROI would balance out sessions feeling "harder" with all the manual typing.

So, yeah... that's it really. Some really minor things that make me want to stay where I play and not move back. I'm focusing on building my online BR just now but I do still want to experience a DSO so I'll likely play some live qualifiers at some point and it would be nice to say I've played the Supermoon or some of the daily majors but for the time being, the streets are safe!

Next time, I'll actually do an update on poker and what I've been up to... Promise!

 

 

 

[Farseer]

6 hours ago, MoreTBC said:

There is definitely a part of me that wants to play the schedule just to see what it's like. I built the thing, would be nice to know if it's as good as I think it is 😄

No, it isn't. It's horrible, you pretty much destroyed Unibet MTT schedule single-handledly.

Well done!

[WuDu]

1 hour ago, Farseer said:

No, it isn't. It's horrible, you pretty much destroyed Unibet MTT schedule single-handledly.

Well done!

[MoreTBC]

9 hours ago, Farseer said:

No, it isn't. It's horrible, you pretty much destroyed Unibet MTT schedule single-handledly.

Well done!

You're right, I did.

For over the hill relics that can't beat Hold'em anymore, rely on the highest variance formats and only like buyin types that give an edge purely on time of registration, yes I've ruined it.

For everyone else...

[Samba]

I love the schedule and the way it is structured to help people ladder through the stakes. Same with the UOS schedule, nothing predatory about it and great for the overall ecosystem.

I think playing poker on Unibet is completely different to the tracked sites. Definitely lets you create a higher edge if you put the work in to create exploits vs tendencies. Also lets you farm reads on the ego regs that keep the same name.

Fair enough you don't have software to format the tables and betting and save notes. Good! Just another way to create edge vs the lazy ppl by finding ways to DIY.

IMO you're only gonna get the same value on stars/party/gg by playing exclusively sattys and hunting overlay. The edge is swallowed up by tracking software and higher rake. That is a testament to Unibet's player focused ethos.

 

Cliffs: Unibet the GOAT

[Livertool]

21 minutes ago, Samba said:

I love the schedule and the way it is structured to help people ladder through the stakes. Same with the UOS schedule, nothing predatory about it and great for the overall ecosystem.

I think playing poker on Unibet is completely different to the tracked sites. Definitely lets you create a higher edge if you put the work in to create exploits vs tendencies. Also lets you farm reads on the ego regs that keep the same name.

Fair enough you don't have software to format the tables and betting and save notes. Good! Just another way to create edge vs the lazy ppl by finding ways to DIY.

IMO you're only gonna get the same value on stars/party/gg by playing exclusively sattys and hunting overlay. The edge is swallowed up by tracking software and higher rake. That is a testament to Unibet's player focused ethos.

 

Cliffs: Unibet the GOAT

Well said.

Like the fact that compared to other sites everyone is on the same line without huds, tactics when to reg etc and it feels more like oldschool poker for those reasons. Also, as far as i know, unibet is only app that offers split tables playing with tablet, huge thing when playing on mobile.

Sure unibet is missing some poker variants and huge quarantees for understandable reasons but if i feel like those once or twice a year i can play them elsewhere. On the other hand you don't have to play against (tens of) thousands players here and tourny sizes very reasonable. Maybe bit too much pkos but always found something to play.

What i ain't fan of is the sprinkled rb system, i would even take lower rb if it would be paid on straight cash or if it has to be points then at least i would rather get it on weekly basis or something so it would be easier to keep track on what you are getting instead few points now and then. Who wouldn't want some balance booster for example every monday to kick off new week?

But i guess can't have them all so as whole i think this is the best place for me to play and while others keep on whining about cons, i just keep on winning despite them 😄