After nearly 20 years of continual losses, poker's biggest underdog has done it.
"Paisting" is an online veteran who began his grind sometime around 2007. On the 2+2 forums, he's been posting graphs and updates about his perpetual losing streak since 2019. To almost every soul that watched, the future looked bleak and profitless for Paisting.
Little did we know, the downswing was on a 20-year timer.
A Positive Month After Nearly Two Decades
Say what you will about Paisting's poker skill – he doesn't lack determination. After nearly 20 years of depressing graphs, 2+2 readers finally got to see a profitable month. It wasn't a huge sum, only $121.69, but this could be a step in the right direction.
THE FIRST WINNING MONTH IS HERE!
After nearly 20 years of playing Paisting is punishing the whales and making a first winning month and profit of $121.69 with his own style of play! Many didn’t believe it could happen. Many have quit poker entirely over the past 20 years even after making tens of thousands at some point. The old saying came true: when you drive hard, crap tends to fall off the wagon. Paisting is still here! Many have said that I have a gambling problem and would never succeed in making a profit. But I believed all these years that one day it would happen.
And the best part is I did this entirely with my own strategy. A strategy that many said could never be profitable. I opened 4bb from every position. If there was a minraise ahead I always hit them with 12bb or more. If a whale bet 20% on the flop I shoved all in or raised massively. I pushed whales out of the pot with big raises and forced them to call with worse hands. Even Eastyy experienced this making a foolish call in his last NL10 challenge video. At least he respects me enough to feature me in his video.
I’ve said many times give me a fair RNG and I’ll show you a profitable month. This month I ran above EV, but look at how few suckouts I confronted. Only 6x 70-90% equity suckouts. An absolutely absurd month. I’ve never experienced so few suckouts before. This looks like normal working rng all around. And what happened when rng is not favouring whales? The whales lost their money. Once again why would the site cheat? Because the whales I now busted completely broke will come back to play again. Now those whales are gone. But new ones will surely take their place.
The feeling is incredible. 20 years is a long time to grind these games every month day after day hour after hour. Now I’ve proven to all of you that I was right all along and you were wrong. This weekend I’ll be heading to a restaurant with these winnings.
On to the next profitable month!
Many of Paisting's followers never thought this day would come. Some very deserved congratulations flooded in, plus some sarcasm.
– "Holy, he did it!"
– "Congrats on your first winning month, Paisting! 20 years spent well, I guess."
– "Wow. You should be the one coaching here instead of all these losers that offered you coaching."
– "Are you going to quit now? You proved everything you wanted, time to retire."
Some people are wondering, where will Paisting go from here? It's difficult to imagine that anything will change. Paisting will continue playing micro-stakes, using this new strategy of opening 4bb from every position and shoving over the whale's 20% flop bets, for as long as his EV line supports it.
Paisting is apparently from Finland, but not much else is confirmed about him. Despite being offered free coaching from professionals and graphs that endlessly trend downwards, he believes that RNG and variance are his main enemies.
"I’ve said many times give me a fair RNG and I’ll show you a profitable month."
Paisting is also highly suspicious of the poker sites he plays on (mainly ACR, 888poker, and partypoker). His stubbornness and delusion have probably cost him around six figures at this point, while playing at some of the lowest online stakes available.
This winning month will bolster Paisting's resolve, confirm his suspicions, and keep him in the game longer. He also won a crucial hand against Nick "Eastyyy22" Eastwood during his $1,000 10NL challenge, and this will have the same reassuring effect. Only dollars away from completing a three-year-long ordeal, Nick lost to Paisting's turned set of fours.
By being so public about his insane losing streak, Paisting has reached an interesting level of poker celebrity. Even though he's likely down six figures, ignores coaching opportunities, and takes no responsibility, it's hard not to root for such an underdog. It's also important to remember that Paisting's financial status is a mystery. He may have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but for all we know, he could be a multi-millionaire. What seems like an unfathomable and senseless downswing to us, may just be a wealthy man's hobby.
The next month's graph from Paisting will be highly anticipated. We'll update this article with his results.
If you want to read about some parts of Paisting's journey, check the article below, or head to the 2+2 thread to read for yourself.
In poker, success stories are the most popular. Players often talk about how they rise from the bottom and win a lot of money through perseverance and hard work. But there are exceptions.
Original 2+2 post: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69/online-no-limit-holdem-cash/biggest-loser-online-poker-history-wants-try-last-time-1734709/?highlight=
