(Just Like) Starting Over...

[Fella]

This is self-indulgent, bit of a ramble, but may be of moderate interest to the odd person & may hopefully give a little inspiration. Or may not!

Bit about me first. Spent about the first 10 years of my working life as your typical mug, betting & losing pretty much everything I earnt which thankfully wasn't much at all, on slots, greyhounds & horses. At around 26 I started earning a fair bit more, saw some sense & more or less gave up gambling completely except for the odd tenner here & there on big events.

FF 10 years or so to around Jan 2007 & I read (in a free magazine in the RP, which I still bought occasionally) about online poker. The mag (falsely) made poker sound like a licence to print money, so long as you played "correctly", so I bought a few books (didn't know how to play Holdem at the time) & learned to play. Very quickly I learnt two things:

1. For most people (& certainly for me) It's as good as impossible to beat the rake at online poker at low-ish limits, regardless of how well you play.

2. That didn't matter because there were plenny of bonuses out there that were quite ridiculously +EV. Even then, in 2007, when most of the poker-bonus-ship had sailed, you got $100 reloads from Party every month that you could clear in an hour or two playing micro-stakes. There were dozens of Boss Media sites that you could earn $100 bonus on in an hour or two (the clearance rules were 500RH & ANY RH counted so you could play 1c2c 7cs & clear a $100 bonus in almost no time. Then rinse & repeat on the other Boss sites. They were mostly PF too....

In addition there were kickback sites (I won't name them here since they are (kind of) competitors to TGT but suffice it to say you could earn a ton of (in my case) Amazon vouchers for doing very little in those days. And I did.

So.....after a year I'd earnt about $16,000 playing online poker. Not nearly as impressive as it might sound, I played ridiculous hours & probably earnt less than McMinimum wage, but at the time I didn't care, I was obsessed with online poker & also with the discovery you could actually make money PLAYING GAMES online.

I never actually withdrew/spent any of this money. Just let it accumulate in a "pot".

I'm going to paraphrase the next nearly 3 years, mainly because I'd probably struggle to get everything chronologically & numerically correct. Suffice to say that after that first year the following happened, more or less in order....

- For some reason (that I don't recall at all) I discovered the concept of "daily clicks" which in turn led me to a site called MSE. Once there, I discovered a lot of people talking about "match betting".

- A Monkey (ok it was pfpf who goes by another name here....) referred me to Virgin Casino & opened my eyes to a little of what advantage play was about.

- The US ban came in & poker bonuses turned into pants

- I gradually transitioned from 100% poker to (currently) <2% poker & about 98% MB & the odd casino


That's a substantial abbreviation, but still long enough


So to finally get to the point....

Total profits to date over that nearly 4 years, are about £55K + £2K in Amazon vouchers. Of that, £5K+£2K in Amazon vouchers is my g/f's. And £8K is my bros. I helped them with MB-ing etc. Leaving a pot of more or less £42K for me.

So....what to actually spend this wonga on? Too much to p*ss up the wall, too little to buy a house with. Plus it's taken pretty much all the free time I've had in the last 4 years. I did play around with shares for a year or two, but they proved to be too much like gambling (you've got to laugh....) so on the recent upturn I cashed out more or less where I started sharewise (having been horribly down at certain points in the last year).

Long story short (lol, long story long really): My sis had a mortgage etc of £42K & now she doesn't. And I rest easy, knowing for the first time in most of that 4 years that I haven't just been wasting my time doing this (because I have to admit it felt pretty pointless for long periods of that time....just trying to make money online with no purpose & no endgame to speak of).

This isn't meant to be any kind of brag & please don't take it that way. Those earnings in circa 4 years are small beer compared to some. And I still do most things wrong & leave a ton of +EV lying on the ground. But the opportunity to make excellent use of a MB pot earnt with no real goal in mind was far too tempting.

As for the future MB-ing: Actually it's quite a nice feeling. Suddenly I don't really care what I make from this 'cos I'm already pretty content that if I never made another penny I'd still consider it a game well played. And suddenly, with a lifetime profit of zero, those fiver & tenner offers are even more appealing & motivation is that much less hard to find.

In truth I consider myself pretty flakey & I don't really have any idea whether I'll continue to do this for years or days. (truthfully). I intend to just try to have fun with it for now, maybe I'll spend whatever I may earn from now on & see how that feels.

But for now, back to scratch & it feels good



cheers
Fella

[Andy]

A very interesting read.

I have never made any money from online Poker, I completely missed that ship, I tried for a bit, lost close to $1k over about a month and thought "balls to this" and stopped. With hindsight I went about it all wrong, but at the time I was making £X amount from Casinos pretty much full time and there is only so much time in the day, im not sure I missed out as much as made the same money a different way.

I agree about when I actually look back at the amount made its pretty good, but when you also see the hours spent I wonder was it worth it? I enjoy it though, so even though I think I could be making a similar amount elsewhere I wouldnt be having half as much fun. As soon as it stops being fun though I really hope I have the sense to call it a day.

[LFC81Eoin]

Very interesting read , i can see where your coming from about feeling good about getting rid of all your money , i wonder everyday "is it worth it " i sometimes force myself to do offers and i shouldn't really i should sit back and relax .

I felt lazy cause i did no betting this week so stuck Avalon on autoplay this morning 10 euro a spin , lost 400 then felt worse , then kinda sat back and looked at what i made and said f**k it , i went to the pub with the lads from work today as i always do and we went to the bookies next door to place bets (as we always do ) and its not the same , i cant enjoy the betting as i used to , its just different i cant explain how its different , its just i suppose i see it as wasted money i expect to be placing a bet to win , something somewhere . One of the lads had a 10/1 shot and he only had 20 quid on it , but he bought the next couple of rounds , i taught to myself i could make that and wouldn't enjoy it like he did . I do wish i never knew about match betting because it does change your attitude to money / life /spending , the problem is when you know about it its hard to stop .

[slim]

I'm in a funk right now myself, I'm finding it hard to get up any enthusiasm towards matched betting right now. I should have updated my diary twice since the last one and maybe even a third time now. I just can't seem to find the energy or really seem to care enough to do any of it.

It's not that I don't appreciate the money I've made, I really do, even though 90%+ is still in my float. We look at it as extra pension money really, like a deep-deep savings that can be plumbed if need be (like soon we're going to need a new car likely). It's just that I get into this sort of 'screw it, I can't be assed' funk every now and then.

When I first started this lark, I thought I could make 2 or 3 thousand from it and that it would be AWESOME to make that much. I had made about £5k when the first funk set in, about 6 months after starting. I stopped entirely for about 3 months. Strangely it was Bwin sending me a £14 birthday bonus that got me started up again. Soon I was making more than I ever had before and was hard at it for about 9 months before funk number 2 came along. I was going on holiday for 2 weeks anyway and when I got back I just couldn't be assed to start up again. This break was about 6 weeks, then slowly getting back into it again. Once again, soon I was making more than ever before. It's been about 14 months since that funk and here is funk number 3. Partly this has been brought on by a major downturn in profits, but mostly it's just that same 'can't be assed' funky feeling.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll get back into things and really, this time I'm not 'out' of things, just lazy and not motivated. Still hoping to make a grand a month, but it's looking less and less likely right now.

[s0095063]

Cheers for the interesting posts.

I too am in one of my lulls where i seem to be spending a lot of time reading here and MSE but very little time either betting or posting anything useful.

If you want evidence of that all you need to do is look at the interwetten arbs thread where i proudly sit at £0.00 in earnings.

I missed out on the casinos and the poker, and found out about this through MSE pretty much by accident - it's been great for me though.

[Super_Dash]

Can definitely relate to the sentiments in this thread. When I was at uni with a heap of spare time, I was at this constantly, made alot of money in a short time and went very hard day in day out. Unlike Fella, my money trickled out as I earnt it, slowly accumulating up but being spent too, I have wasted alot, have a "few" nice things to show for it; but most of my money was spent on those around me. My girl/mum nephews etc. Come time to work 9 to 5 i'm looking back like .. wow I wasted away my last summer holidays where I truely had nothing to do and could relax .. inside making money lol.

Don't know how you all have worked and done all this, I think had I not had a bad start to this month my activity would have been minimal. Still, I'm planning on using my matched betting money as my survival income so that my wages can accumulate in a bank account so I "can't" stop for the moment so long as the offers continue; make hay while the sun is ... and all that.

So while I am infinitely greatful for the way matched betting / advantage play made money no object for me, I still find the motivation a struggle, my hourly rate has never been an issue, but the money is so much harder to make when you don't feel like you "need" it.

Good read Fella, glad your money went to a better cause than most of mine has lol

[blowingbubbles]

Respect to you fella for helping your sister like that! I can honestly say I'm too greedy to ever give my money away! Even to close ones.

I'm yet to have a major blip but I have big motivations and this is what drives me on, within 5 years I want to be mortgage free. After the mortgage is paid I have other bigger ideas.

My big dream is to retire at 40, I hate working and really enjoy my free time so I have just over 14 years to make enough money so me and my wife can enjoy the rest of our life, this motivation alone keeps me focused each day.

[munk]

I'm in a funk right now myself, I'm finding it hard to get up any enthusiasm towards matched betting right now. I should have updated my diary twice since the last one and maybe even a third time now. I just can't seem to find the energy or really seem to care enough to do any of it.

If it's any consolation I remember thinking to myself 'how the hell does slim manage to keep going at it month after month'... around that time (maybe 3 months ago) I was in a bit of a funk as well and just couldn't get motivated to go at it full on. Then I think I had a second wind and got stuck in a bit more and things are a bit better now.

I suppose you know this anyway you've done it a while, but it goes around and comes around mostly... hopefully you'll be back to speed soon.

Fella that's fantastic to reveal that much info, I think musicbox has given you a star post award for that and I know a few of us would have done if he hadn't already, so brilliant mate thanks for that.

I still don't really know much about online poker apart from the little I've played on the TGT league... I keep meaning to actually read up on it but never do... if you've got any good pointers where to start reading that'd be great, I know you said you bought books, would that be something you'd recommend in hindsight or are there any decent links online? Massive subject though I guess.

[anglo123]

So, Fella, you`re just sitting there watching the wheels go round and round. I`m just a jealous guy!
Good thread , Fella. Lots of empathy from a fellow MB`er who sometimes hits the wall.
I guesstimate that the £55k may be the payback for the losses in the mug punting days and the 10 years to FF.
In my mug days I found that when I recorded my bets in my diary,I could make a profit, but when I just bet for fun , God knows what the results were.
So the mega positive is that your are generating profits and avoiding losses.

Great work on helping your sister out . I presume your mortgage is paid off !

I use MB profits to get stuff for the kids who have flown the nest,but still need Bose decks for the iPods they got from Betfair .

One thing that might get me going again is the email gubbing from Willhill this morning.
Banned from sportsbook but ok for casino etc.
Finally time to look to casinos and US books?

[southernscouser]

What? You paid of your sisters debt of £42k.

And mine is only £2.5k and I didn't see a penny.