Gambling

Bankroll

I track my poker games on a spreadsheet.

In poker, money is how you keep score. You need to be able to keep track of how well you’re doing. I’ve been keeping track of my gambling since around 2018. I have most of it recorded and accessible for public viewing on a Google Sheet.

You can track my gambling live using the button.

Google Sheets

Poker Results so far as of 09/03/2025

Online Poker Stream

When I play online poker, I typically stream it on Kick. I’m just doing it for myself mostly, I don’t really have any ideas of being a poker streamer. I want to catch a nice big win one day on the stream, and I feel like I play better when the cameras are on.

Mostly I play one of two types of game: Home Games, where I play a group that all know each other, and Satellites, which are poker tournaments where the prize is a ticket to a big live tournament.

In playing satellites, so far I’ve won 2 x £1,100 UKIPT Main Event tickets plus expenses, for Blackpool 2023 and Brighton 2023. Playing those satellites was an enormously rewarding experience, where I got to play and chat with famous poker faces such as James Hartigan, Dominik Nitsche, Benjamin ‘Spraggy’ Spragg, and many more.

Here’s a clip from one of my games. Click below to see the channel.

View Stream

YouTube

I used to stream on YouTube, but stopped because they kept censoring the music. I very periodically upload results videos to it.

YouTube Channel

PokerStars

If you want to play online poker, I highly recommend playing on PokerStars. I’m a big advocate of their site personally for a wide variety of reasons.

PokerStars is one of a bunch of poker sites that started in the early years of internet poker. Most of the other really big names from back then are gone because they’d either cheated their players or stolen from them. UltimateBet was stealing from players. Full Tilt Poker spent all of the players funds. AbsolutePoker also cheated players. PokerStars since 2001 has been a shining star in the poker space, and the true ‘good guys’ of the industry.

PokerStars even bailed out Full Tilt Poker players when they bought them – paying hundreds of millions of dollars out of their own pockets to players in the process, despite having absolutely no obligation or expectation to do so.

Their security and their cashout are second to none: in 24 years of operating they’ve never even had a scandal, nor an accusation, that something was wrong.

Finally, not to mention, their UI, the features, and their games are the industry gold standard. If you’re looking for some fantastic online poker games, I highly recommend using this site and no other.

When I qualified for UKIPT Blackpool, one of PokerStars’ writers interviewed me.

Also, Greg Pierson was one of the UltimateBet executives that stole tens of millions from poker players and then covered it up. I messaged him on LinkedIn asking if he had anymore of those cheating accounts and he blocked me LMFAO. I encourage you to do the same. A bunch of those execs now work for Tether, the USD pegged cryptocurrency, and one of them went to work for FTX. You just can’t make this shit up.

Hendon Mob

All big poker festivals and tournaments connect feed player winnings information to a website called the Hendon Mob, named after a famous English poker group that came to prominence in the 80s and 90s.

When poker players cash a tournament, the results are uploaded to Hendon Mob and posted for all to see. However, most smaller regular poker tournaments (such as the Cromwell Mint and Victoria Casino now) don’t bother to do this, so nearly all of my results aren’t here. But anything major will show up, so watch this space?

See my profile

Civil Service Poker League

From about 2017 to 2023 I ran the Civil Service Poker League. It was a small regular game between civil servants in a club in London. We had access to a social club for civil servants in Westminster where I could book rooms to play. This was all under the umbrella of the Civil Service Sports Council or CSSC, that was supposed to support sports and activities for civil servants.

The game was really popular, and I was able to grow it from a monthly game to 3 monthly games with dozens more new players joining. Covid lockdown didn’t stop the action; I moved our games online and we began to play more regularly. However, as the lockdown lifted, the club we used to play in decided they didn’t want poker anymore, and despite extensive and widespread lobbying of the CSSC through every channel I could find, I was never able to get a replacement venue or any support from them.

CSSC closed down their venues long before the lockdown, abandoning their mandate to provide facilities for clubs, and it wiped out dozens of clubs that relied upon having a venue to partake. They are a shoddy and pathetic organisation that have no purpose for existing, a shadow of their former selves. Every single one of them should be embarrassed. It’s a complete waste of tax money.

Look at their “Strategic Plan” for 2023-2028.

A strategic joke. Their objective is to nothing. They have dozens of full time staff and are an absolute nothing of an organisation. I volunteered for half a decade to bring their customers value and when I needed support the most, the best I got was “good luck”. Fuck the CSSC and fuck Andy Burdett.

The Cromwell Mint Casino

This section is just in honour of the Cromwell Mint, a classy and brilliant casino in South Kensington, London, where I’d play very regularly. I like to think I could call many of the staff and players there friends and I still keep in touch with many of them today.

I enormously miss the regular games we had here. It was truly a dream poker room for me. It was so easy to reach, all of the staff were so welcoming and warm, the players were chatty and fun, the stakes weren’t massive, the food was amazing, and it was here I’d really start to hone my tournament expertise.

Here's a few pics from some games:)

Stupid questions

Tap the box to get an answer. Or don’t, I don’t give a fuck.

Hover your mouse over the box to get an answer. Or don’t, I don’t give a fuck.

How much have you lost gambling?

Nothing.

I’m in profit. That means that through the medium of gambling, I have earned a positive return on investment.

I understand this confuses some people because gambling is primarily associated with losing money. The association is correct, but the assumption in this case is not.

Is poker really gambling?

Yes.

Some people seem to think it’s a sport, or akin to investing. They’re wrong. Gambling isn’t defined by whether you can win or lose long term. It’s defined by how outcomes are realised. In investing, outcomes are realised through the millions of decisions made by billions of people every day. In gambling, outcomes are decided by chance. This is why it is gambling.

Also, you’re in a casino shouting for a spade on the river. This is not investing.

Why don't you gamble full time?

Because it's a shit life.

Gambling for a living involves sitting in a dark casino for thousands of hours with miserable men. You gain no life skills, you’ll get less sociable, you’ll let the swings affect your mood, and at the end of the day, it’s gambling: you can lose fifty coinflips in a row. This is the nature of the beast. There’s few jobs out there where you can work 12 hours and come home with thousands less than you went out with.

Are you a good poker player?

Kind of.

The longer answer is, I’m a better poker player than most of the people I play with. The saying goes; “in poker, if you’re the 9th best player on the planet and you’re sitting on a table with the other 8, you’re the sucker.” Finding good games where you have a skill edge is a big part of the game. I’ve managed to accomplish this so far to some degree. So I guess I’m good enough for my needs.

Why do they call you Dory?

It's my poker nom de guerre.

It was a nickname coined for me by players at the Civil Service Poker League after I called someone Nemo. It seemed to stick. I was only ever known as Dory. I miss that club. Fuck the Civil Service Sports Council.