Diamond Interview Series: Dippy19

We are back with our Diamond Interview Series and this week we got a hold of Dippy19. In this interview he talks about his road to Diamond, his fear of bankruptcy and his connections to lawyers.

dippy19 can be compared to a cured alcoholic: he started out by burning money like crazy (even notorious gamblers were shouting "Sloooow dooown!"), but then he suddenly decided that he will change his life for the better.

The first thing was obviously reaching Diamond status, so I decided to find out more about this member. I asked him what he would do if he wins a million bucks and his answer was "Pay my debts". I then asked him "What about the rest?" and he said "The rest can wait until I make some more money". I might be exaggerating.

This interview was conducted by vhallee

PokerStrategy.com: Hello dippy19 and welcome to my Diamond Interview Series. How are you and why?

dippy19: Bad, mostly because of poker. I'm in the
middle of the worst downswing of my life and it kind of expanded from
the poker world to my personal life.

PokerStrategy.com: Yeah I'm really happy for you and I'm gonna let you finish, but the people in Africa have it much worse. You know, I usually ask this to all people with numbers in their username: were there 18 more users who chose "Dippy"?

dippy19: Well, yeah of course, didn't you see Dippy1, Dippy13 and Dippy17 running around the forums, they are the most active. Seriously, it was my age when I signed up with Pokerstrategy and besides, most people have numbers in their nicknames and I thought it would be cool if I had them as well.

PokerStrategy.com: I won't give you my opinion on numbers in usernames - you already are going through some hard times. So tell me, how did you find poker and PokerStrategy.com? Or we found you? Or we met half-way in time or something?

dippy19: Well, like a lot of people my age I was a student that was broke pretty much all the time(read: bum), so poker seemed very lucrative and also a friend of a friends brother(I'm not sure if I got this right) made a lot of money with it. Naturally I started looking in to it, deposited some money, lost it, deposited some more, lost it, repeat. Then I found out that some sites give out 50$ for free!!! Wow! So I used pretty much all of them and PokerStrategy.com was the last one. Btw, I lost the 50$ you guys gave me too 🙂

I lost all the starting capitals I ever got

Thank you Dippy19, but our princess is in another castle!

PokerStrategy.com: I'm not sure I want to know how many starting capitals + deposits you lost. Nevertheless, you're a god damn Diamond now, so congratulations! Overall, how long have you been playing and which type(s) of poker do you currently play?

dippy19: Well actually all of my deposits amount to only 200EUR so it's not that bad;) The free capitals, well... I don't really care. Thank you, but it really isn't that hard to get diamond imo. I've been playing seriously (read: through PokerStrategy.com) for a year and a half I think and honestly I have came further than I ever thought I would at the beginning, but I'm still disappointed with my progress, since now I have the feeling I should be further by now. Before I came back from the BM party I was playing mostly SnGs and tournaments up to around 100$, but now my bad downer made me move one step back, so up to 60$. Before that I played fixed limit holdem and that is actually what I built my roll with, but 5/10 was too hard to crack and I was sick of going up and down like a ping pong ball.

PokerStrategy.com: And you stayed with tournaments. It's not that bad, come on. And speaking of the Black Member Party: how was it? Tell me (almost) everything about your experience there.

dippy19: Well, the warm up party was great, had a little too much vodka dough:/ So basically from some point on I don't really remember what was going on... Earpy showed me a picture that clearly shows why... btw Earp, please don't post that on the forum. The BM party itself was nice, good food, good drinks (juice vodka was awesome), good music, but I kind of feel I left to early although it was 2 am, but I didn't go home so it was fine and the rest of the night was interesting to say the least, but I'll keep that part to myself if you don't mind:)

Broke, under a bridge, talking to a dog called Sparkles

Dippy19 going fishing. To do: Insert poker-related joke.

PokerStrategy.com: I do mind and I was expecting semi-embarrassing details. It's alright, I'll call erptech. One thing people might be curious about (myself included) is about your playing routine: how much do you play each day? Do you split your play time into sessions - if so, how many? Do you have superstitions? Was Michael Jackson actually killed?

dippy19: I don't really have a routine, I just play when I feel like it and when I have time, but it amounts to quite a lot imo. I also play pretty much every day which might be a mistake, since I get bored with it quite often. And no, I don't have superstitions anymore, just clear reason or strategy or whatever you want to call it... but I do have a lucky donkey next to my screen:). And as far as Michael Jackson is concerned, I think he just fell apart... enough time passed to joke about it?

PokerStrategy.com: There's never enough time past when it comes to Michael Jackson! Also, you mixed 'clear reason' with 'lucky donkey' - good job. Since you said you took up poker as a means of generating income, do you have some long term goals with it? Where do you see yourself in 5 years, for example?

dippy19: Right now? Broke under a bridge^^ But in general I see myself as a professional poker player owning anyone on any stakes and generating millions along the way. I still plan on finishing school, but my main goal is to be a poker player.

College drop-out into poker pro - the Slovenian Negreanu

Dippy19 in London, the capital of Tea Kwon Do

PokerStrategy.com: Looking forward to make fun of your (probably) poor  BRM when you end up under a bridge, having talks with your new-found trusty dog Sparkles. And since you mentioned school: what are you studying and how does it get along with poker?

dippy19: Don't make fun of Sparkles!!! I'm studying law, it's interesting, but it takes up a lot of time. I did have a year mostly free now, since I repeated the first year, and that's why I'm disappointed with my poker progress, since I won't have that much time for it this year... but who knows, I might (read: probably will) flunk again^^ but now I have to actually make something out of poker or I'm going to be f***** next year:/

PokerStrategy.com: Oh, so you're gonna become a slithery, boneless and cold creature if you finish university (read: lawyer). Hey, don't worry. After all, Daniel Negreanu is a college drop-out as far as I know, so... you know... that should put things into perspective. But still, don't quit. And speaking of Negreanu, which poker pros do you either love or hate and why?

dippy19: Now I won't represent you when you get a lawsuit after some bad remark in one of your future interviews, so there you go, ha. And Daniel is more or less an old school player and thus not as good as ppl think. I don't really have any pros I like or dislike especially, but Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari are really funny and their show I Bet You is great... Also Phil Helmuth is an arogant ass. That's it:)

PokerStrategy.com: Damn, so far the only person that likes Hellmuth is swissmoumout - ironic, eh? But since you still want to make poker a means of profit, what if you actually win a million bucks? What are you gonna do with (some of) that money? Maybe share some with your favourite interviewer?

dippy19: I don't like beggars... so go away... ok I'll give you a buck, cool? And if I win a million all at once I would probably buy a nice apartment, a car, put some aside and leave 20k as my bankroll. Other than that stuff wouldn't change much, I would continue playing... after all 1M isn't all that much and you can't really say you'd just live happily for the rest of your life or something like that. Also I don't really like investing, too much work... maybe I'd get a broker, who knows 🙂

Dude, I know Tea Kwon Do

Pictured: The UK national sport

PokerStrategy.com: Did I mention I have a brokerage background? Because I totally do. You know, since you got to Diamond, you should have accumulated some experience so far. Why don't you share a bit of that experience with our beginners and give them some starting advices?

dippy19: If you don't mind I'll keep this one short. I'll just say the same thing I said in another interview: KNOWLEDGE IS THE KEY! Study, study, study, you can never know too much. + BRM helps too I guess, but I wouldn't know much about it, you know, since I'll end up under a bridge with Sparkles soon...

PokerStrategy.com: It's alright man, no need to think about the bridge or trailer park (yet). Besides, you can also be a "How NOT to" example for the beginners, right? But let's leave poker for now. We get it: you play, you study, you're afraid of bankruptcy. What else do you do in general? Any hobbies or something? How does a normal day in your life look like?

dippy19: I wake up and play poker, duh! Or from now on it will be more like; I wake up and study, duh! But I do have some hobbies, I practice teakwon-do, not really good at it dough, since I kept neglecting it due to my studies. I also enjoy going out with friend, travelling is nice and I like it, but that takes time, which I won't have now and money and, well, you know, I'm almost bankrupt. Another thing I do is make little plastic models of aeroplanes and stuff, but again, time management is not my strong suit, so didn't do that for quite a while. Computer games I like too, but I prefer to use that time for poker right now 😛

PokerStrategy.com: Dude, tea-kwon-do is... it's something else. But maybe you're actually talking about martial arts involving tea pots or something (in which case, you're Awesome!). And I would expect British people to do tea-kwon-do (Get it? Brits? Tea and crumpets? Yeah you got it.) Wow, most of the stuff you said here deserves its own space, but I have none anymore. Do you have anything you want to add before we end this interview? Maybe greeting favourite members, asking me any question or shoutouts to friends? Whatever you want, now is the time.

dippy19: I'd like to thank Opal for driving all the way from Brno to Berlin and back... and then still grind for 3 hours... dude you are a machine! And also thank you erptech for taking pictures at the party, since I was disappointed that I wasn't on any of the official ones (my fault). Otherwise I'm in a bit of a hurry, so I'll just end it here with a wish of good luck in poker and life to the entire community.

PokerStrategy.com: Ok then thanks for your time and best of luck in avoiding bankruptcy and the bridge/Sparkles combo.

dippy19: Thank you.