The Daily Grind... SnG Adventures

Jan Review & WBCOOP

2012-02-10T16:33:00.000Z

January has gone largely to plan. Behind schedule for my $50k target but was always expecting to be at the start of the year short of binking a nice big tourney... I've stuck largely to my plan of playing mainly 180 mans and turbo mtts but also added in a few Omaha hi/lo 18 man turbos and non turbos if i feel like a little change.
I ran fairly average most the month with my profits being helped out a lot by getting 2nd place in a $35 180 man. Should've won it, Got HU as chip leader & got it AI as a 70% favourite on the turn but the river wasn't kind. Also went deep in quite a few mtts but came up just short on countless occassions. Putting myself in good spots though and this will convert into $ in time. Stats for the month below:

Games: 809
ROI: 26.5%
Time: 88 Hours
Profit: +$2553.65
Hourly: +$29.02 p/hr

Mildly satisfied with those figures. Perhaps should've put a bit more time in at the tables but 20 hours+ a week is quite good me & my hourly isn't too bad. Would ideally like to be getting over $50 by end of the year though.

Made a few investments in Jan. Main thing was spending £560 on a new screen. Bought a Dell 27" Ultrasharp with the intention of tiling more tables although having tried it i've recently converted back to stacking/cascading as i find it easier to keep up. I then just pull the important tables to one side to give them more attention.

I also bought a back massager seeing as i spend a lot of time sat at the computer and often have a stiff back. I found it pretty nice to start with but think i overused it and ended up with a really bad back for a few days :( I'll use it more sparingly in future.

Today Pokerstars have just announced their annual WBCOOP schedule which looks bigger and better than ever. I'll be taking part in a few of the events as usual and hoping to ship a few SCOOP tickets and my share of the $5000 main event prize pool to help boost my bankroll for the year!

See you at the tables!

2012! THE PLAN.

2012-01-09T03:26:00.002Z

2.30am here now & I'm feeling pretty tired. Went to bed at midnight (very early for me) but couldn't sleep so got back up at 1am. I've not been well for the past few days. Its an odd illness as i feel OK in myself, still going out and doing my usual stuff but not feeling like food. Whenever i do eat, even small amounts, i feel sick & worse afterwards... Hoping it clears up soon as it's a nuisance.

I've been intending to go on a mini diet for ages now. I've never dieted in my life before and don't really need to - I'm hardly fat & reasonably active/healthy. Being a bit of a perfectionist, i wouldn't mind losing a bit of belly fat I've acquired over the past few years. Losing body fat is apparently 80% diet & 20% exercise so plan on cutting down my meal sizes and carb intake as well changing my gym program a bit to include more cardio & less weights (as it's currently near enough all weights!). Seeing as I'm off my food at the moment with this virus, ill probably start now seeing as it's probably going to be easier to eat less now rather than cutting down while I'm eating normally.

Anyway, not the best start to the year health wise but hopefully i'm getting the bad bits out of the way early on :)

On to the poker side of things.

2011 - I started the year with plans of making a decent income of the game - taking it more seriously & generally making a respectable income off it. I started off playing largely HU sngs for the first couple of months & did reasonably well at them! I had a sharkscope star in them.
By March I'd gotten a bit bored of HU, my volume had dropped considerably (it wasn't exactly great to start off!) so i switched to 18 mans. Again, i found them pretty decent to play, posted some good results and again posted a reasonable profit. I found my volume was far too low in the smaller field tourneys though to give a decent $/hr income.
By April I'd found myself back at the mtt tables at various sites & also mixing in plo & plo8 cash games with mixed success. Another profitable month but i was hardly making anything worth shouting about!
May through to July my volume was really down. Possibly a result of Black Friday, me cashing out & generally having no direction.
The rest of the year i picked my volume up a little although it wasn't exactly consistent.... I was playing mainly mtts & plo8 18 man sngs on Stars & continued posting reasonably solid results but nothing great.

I finished the year posting a profit of $11,564.50 - Hardly great for someone calling themselves a pro...

Good points i think were my ability to post winning results in a variety of games. The only area i struggled to be hugely profitable in were the cash games but i think that's largely down to my tournament mindset. I'm also pretty pleased with the consistent profit i was posting each month. Only had one losing month and that was during the summer when i hardly played - Was too preoccupied playing golf! lol

Pokerstars results during 2011
(exc. rakeback & results on other sites)

As you can see from my graph, my volume is just awful! A lot of pros could post those results from a month, not an entire year! Really got to work on that although being realistic, i don't see myself managing to break the 2000 game mark in a month, especially playing mainly mtts/180 mans (which where I'm going to focus my efforts - more on that shortly)

so... 2012 - Happy New Year! (a little late i know)

Planning some big things this year poker wise. A few months ago i stopped drawing a wage from my business on the side so even though I'm still a director of the company, i won't be taking any money from it or doing much work with it from now on. I'll remain a director but that's about as far as my involvement will be. As a result i really need to take poker more seriously.

As you can see from my 2011 graph, my best results came when i switched to playing mainly mtts & mtt sngs - This news isn't exactly new to me. I've always know they were my best games and that i could achieve my best$/hr playing them. I've just not liked committing the long hours in front of the computer, always choosing the more flexible sngs over more profit.

This year I'm setting myself a bit of a challenge. I never normally set myself public challenges as i'm awful at sticking at things & hate failing so i avoid them. I think i need to make it public though to give me that extra incentive to achieve it.

Inspired by 'Chilin_Dude' 2011 challenge ($300 to $100k - excellent 2+2 thread) I plan to take my current bankroll (about $5k) and turn it into over $50k by the end of the year.
Chilin_Dude successfully turned his $300 into $100k without putting it ridiculous volume and was playing exactly the types of games i will be focusing on & have always done best at so in theory, it should be a walk in the park for me to make $50k this year. We'll see... I definitely need a PMA (positive mental attitude) throughout!
I'm going to be focusing my attention on largely 180 man sngs & turbo mtts. I probably will play some reg speed mtts but focusing on turbos will both give me my best $/hr ($50/hr is my target) & also mean my sessions aren't stupidly long as even the big field turbo mtts only last a few hours.
Naturally, I'm going to encounter my biggest ever downswings but on the basis, I'm also going to have my biggest ever profitable days/weeks & months so bring it on! :)

So, with the scene set, we're already a week into 2012. I started brilliantly by not actually playing at all New Years day or today... Although so far this year i have logged 223 games, 21 hours of playing time & $262.07 in profit. I'm reasonably satisfied with my volume, not overly impressed with my week 1 profit but it is just that... 1 week. I think I've run a bit below EV in the higher buy ins although i have won a few 180 mans which has helped my claw back my losses and make a bit of profit. This is of course just variance though & of course I've not landed any mtt scores just yet.
Overall, I'm fairly satisfied with my start and feeling reasonably positive!

Going to try to keep everyone up to date here as much as possible but i don't seem to have the ability to write short blog entries so if you want to get in touch/keep up dated a bit more, give me a follow on twitter @The_Ivydrive

Cheers.

GL at the tables!

Sleep Schedule

2011-12-14T17:41:00.001Z

I've been slacking with my blogging lately! Not posted for a few months.
It's not that i haven't been playing - In fact, i have more than ever probably! I've just not had the inclination to blog. If anybody is really missing my blog posts (as if...) then give me a follow on twitter as i find that a lot more convenient to update fairly frequently :) I'm of course going to keep my blog going, Just not promising to update it every few days.

Pokers been going fairly well recently. I've been doing my usual style of not sticking to any 1 game in particular and just playing whatever i feel like at the time or whatever fits my schedule best. I've been playing a lot of PLO8 sngs on Pokerstars and even gone back to grinding 9 man sngs on Pokerstars.FR the past week - Mainly driven by the ability to make the BOP leaderboards with relative ease thanks to the lower volume of players. You don't have to run like god to get a decent enough score which is nice.

Been trying to fit in a few mtt sessions whenever i can which usually work out ok but i find that my random schedules make them quite difficult to commit to as i don't have big enough blocks of time free (Too many social activities clearly...)
When i do manange to squeeze some in i've been doing fairly well. Nothing life changing but managed to ship a few smaller tourneys for a reasonable payday. Still need to commit to playing some of the bigger buy in tourneys though which i still haven't got around to. Mainly because i always seem to have ice hockey matches on the weekends which i enjoy too much to sacrifice for 'work'.. lol The length of time the big mtts take to play out when you go deep is also something that puts me off them. That said, i am half planning to play the Sunday $10m Guaranteed on Stars this Sunday seeing as i have no ice hockey which takes away my usual excuse! My sleep pattern is shot again so can't blame needing to be in bed by 1am to keep that in line either this weekend...

That leads me on to my blog title... Sleep Schedules (If you're here to just follow poker updates then i suggest you stop reading now!)

I've noticed a lot of poker players having really messed up sleep schedules so it's clearly a hazard of the job but thought where better to seek some advice than off some fellow 'sufferers' :)
I've never been very good at sleeping since i was kid. Well... Not so much the sleeping part, just the going to bed bit.
I hate ending the day and going to sleep - It feels so unproductive & a waste of time. That said, once i'm in bed and asleep, i sleep well (clearly shattered) but then really struggle to get up the next day. I'm really unmotivated in the 'mornings' at the best of time and even more so if i haven't had 7 hours sleep.
I think its mainly a mental issue but am not convinced that my body clock doesn't think theres 24.5 hours in a day as i seem to get tired a little bit later every night. Once i get to the point where i'm sleeping 3am-11am i find it'll quickly implode and ill be sleeping stupid schedules like 8am-3pm within a few days. I usually struggle on with that for a few weeks before i get fed up and try to force myself to basically switch time zones which usually involves me feeling like death for about a week and quite often ended up feeling ill too. Not exactly ideal.

Does anyone else have these kind of issues and how do you feel best to deal with them? Be it advice for changing sleep patterns back effectively or even preventing myself getting into bad patterns in the first place? I've been to the doctors to ask for advice, kept sleep schedule records, tried herbal pills, non herbal pills, etc etc. Basically tried everything but with no success. I used to blame poker but i cant even do that anymore since Black Friday seeing as the best games are usually in the evenings in the UK. I would like to get it sorted or at least a bit more under control but am a bit lost with who to turn to seeing as my doctor was entirely useless and basically told me to just live with it. You speak to most people and they say go to the gym, work harder, get a proper job and you'll be tired. They don't seem to understand that even when i'm shattered i don't seem to want to go to bed though! Most people seem to grow out of it when they get older but if anything, i'm worse now than i was in my teens & i'm now 25...

Doubt anybody can help as even google can't but i thought i'd throw it out there :)

On a roll! Grindcore

2011-08-19T07:44:00.000+01:00

Its that time again... an update on my progress. I've continued to grind a mix of mtts and mtt sngs - concentrating on mainly hold'em turbos and plo8 - over the past few weeks. I'd set myself the target of playing at least 20 hours per week and have so far easily been achieving it.

Not only have been putting in the hours but I've been getting a few decent scores too in both the 180 mans and mtts. Came up frustratingly short in a $5.50 rebuy turbo cashing in 7th for just over $700 when my 9's couldn't hold against AK. I had a few other deep runs too and managed to take down a couple of mtts which is always nice (pics below). I'm actually quite enjoying the tournament grind at the moment too which makes for a nice change to struggling for motivation like i was just a few months back!

The only thing i'm still struggling with a little is volume. Not because i'm not putting the hours in but because i'm playing most my poker on my mac so can't run Tableninja software. I find it so much easier stacking (or even cascading) the tables but don't feel comfortable doing so on the mac (especially in turbos with the smaller time banks) as i find myself timing out unknowingly on some tables which is obviously quite -EV... I tend to tile up to 9 tables across the screen, starting my sessions with just mtts then mid way start adding 180 mans then filling it up with 18 mans as i get towards the end of my session. Life would be so much easier with tableninja though!

$27.50 freezeout win

$3.30 PLO8 win

Hopefully i can keep up the grind and keep my motivation over the coming months. Really need to start to look to satellite into some bigger tourneys & take some shots rather than being my usual conservative self when it comes to bankroll management. Thats the plan at least :)

Ice Hockey season starts up again next weekend with a warm up match before the season proper getting underway first weekend in September! Can't wait! Bring on the away trip carnage again!

Been getting into going to gigs again recently! I used to go to loads through my late teens but then lost a bit of interest. Getting back in to it now though - Saw Lost Prophets (in Solus which is quite a small venue for them) & Kids in Glass Houses (another local band who've made it pretty big), both in the last week. Also saw Funeral For a Friend just a couple weeks earlier - Another local band who I've followed since they were opening little shows for bands in all the small underground venues!
Got a draw full of tickets too for gigs over the next few months - Should be fun.

A few results to report.

2011-07-25T21:57:00.000+01:00

I've finally achieved my Sharkscope Star! Not quite a Diamond but will settle for gold. I've been pretty much guaranteed it for quite a while now but had stopped playing the 180 mans so took forever to get it!

I've been putting in quite a few hours at the tables the past week (almost 40 hours in the past 8 days!) playing mainly mtts. I've been putting myself in quite a lot of good spots but keep coming up short!
Managed to win a $22 PLO8 mtt but it was only 50 runners so not much to write home about.
Managed to go deep in a $5 rebuy today and pick up 4th/1225 for $1475 but as usual, just ran out of luck at the money end of the tourney! Went into the Final table as a big chip leader and was doing really well until we got 4 handed. A couple of lost 60/40's later i was super short and shipped my 6BB stack with AT only to walk into AQ which held. GG me!

Nice to be putting myself in good spots though and i'm sure a few nice results are only just around the corner if i keep putting the hours in!

Update

2011-07-22T12:52:00.000+01:00

A much overdue update.... Just haven't had the time or inclination to update here recently.
I seem to have hit a patch of run bad the last few months. Not losing much but not winning much either. Could really do with making some $ soon having spent so much on the house recently! I've been playing a load the last week - 27 hours of poker in the last 5 days! Thats A LOT of poker for me.... Only $53 of profit to show for it though!
I've been playing mainly mtt sngs and mtts the last week - looking for the big score i guess. Took down a $9.90 mtt yesterday but it only had 31 runners so hardly a great achievement! I've made quite a few final tables though and been putting myself in good spots - Just coming up short all the time - so despite not having much to show for my efforts, i still feel surprisingly positive about things! Can't change the way the cards fall so as long as i keep getting myself in those spots the $ will come!

I'll try and update my blog a bit more often again. Just keep the posts to a more sensible length so it doesn't take me forever to type or bore you to death.

Until next time....

Long overdue!

2011-03-19T05:58:00.002Z

I've been very poor with my blog updates recently! Just had loads of non poker stuff going on and not really had the inclination to update. As I've probably mentioned before, I've recently bought my first house and am in the process of doing a lot of work (well... paying people to come in and do it...).
Had a new boiler and heating installed throughout the house (there wasn't any upstairs before!), New double glazing fitted in every window, totally opened up the garden and laid a new private driveway, gate and parking area out the front. Now got the builders in building an extension for my new bathroom.
Nice to see it all starting to come together! The bank balance isn't so healthy anymore though, already quite over budget and only about halfway through the planned work... sigh.

In the poker world things haven't been going too badly. Just had the usual 'volume' problems - nothing new there!
I continued Feb where i left things in Jan - playing just HU sngs. After my profitable Jan I hit a bit of a break even stretch of 100+ games (which is quite a lot for me and my naff volume!) but finished the month reasonably strong. Started moving up stakes as well once I'd got out of my break even stretch moving up to the $23 and $34.50 games which actually went really well. I was table selecting my opponents quite a lot but even the profitable regs didn't seem too tough to beat, if anything they were easier to grind down with my hyper aggro mode employed than some of the uber calling station luck box fish were to beat. My HU stats for Jan and Feb are listed below:

Month   Games played ROI        Profit
Jan               357            26.9%     +$1042.92
Feb              176            10.4%     +$247.03

I have to admit I'm amazed at my stats! I started playing HU for fun, really not expecting to be any good at it but seem to have picked it up pretty quickly. Low volume i know but my overall roi's in the games seem reasonable enough.

March - New month and a new game. No real reason for me leaving HU other than fancying a change of scenery and i was struggling to make many VPPs due to not being able to multi table.
Having followed James Atkins blog for quite a while and seen his success in the 18 mans so far this year i decided to jump on the bandwagon. The change has gone pretty well so far!
Almost $800 profit from 164 games giving a 32.4% roi... Totally unsustainable i know but still - I shan't complain.

Been playing all my poker so far this year on my old laptop! I bought a brand new 27" Mac but the lack of table ninja software and Hold em Manager makes me feel like I'm giving up an edge and more to the point, not able to play as many tables comfortably. That said, I'm getting a little frustrated playing 18 mans on the laptop as it's overheating a lot and lagging once i get to about 10 tables which is frustrating as i could quite easily be playing twice as many with a bigger screen and a quick computer to play at. My 'old' desktop (a year old but basically brand new as I've had problems since i bought it so it's barely been used) is back at PC World getting its new hard drive tattooed so fingers crossed, once i get that back it may actually work properly for the first time ever and ill be able to play on a quick machine.

Anyway, got to be up in less than 6 hours as my girlfriends dads coming over to see the house (he's not seen it before) and I'm not sure he'll appreciate me still being in bed - Not so sure he approves of the idea of me playing poker for a living so will have to make half an effort to actually be semi awake by the time he turns up at midday :)

On a slightly sad note... A year ago today i was in Vegas on my West coast US tour! Another trip is long overdue i think!

Me with some Gorilla in one of the hotels...
I did most the photography so i struggled to find a pic of me in Vegas! lol

Bobby's Room, Bellagio

Jan review

2011-02-01T00:20:00.003Z

Jan has been a reasonable start to the year i guess. I've spent the majority of the month playing the $11.50 HU sngs on Pokerstars and currently have a Sharkscope star for making the the Top 20 for Profit in $5-$15 HU sngs in 2011. My first ever Sharkscope star! First of many though i assure you.

Jan profit: +$1051.91

Hours played: 67

I'm +$804 from the 301 HU sngs I've played and +$352 from the 25 180 mans I've played. I've only unlocked 1 Stella reward so far so that's +$10 from that. Other than that, I've clearly lost a little bit playing random other games. Most probably the plo8 games i was playing last night while tired. That said, i usually do well in the plo8 sngs but having only played a few, variance got the better of me!

I joined HUSNG.com and have watched a couple vids but as usual, don't think i get much out of them. They just help refocus me i find if I'm running or playing badly - Usually a combination.

I haven't played all that much the last few days of the month though and when i have, i dabbled in the 180 mans again. As you probably notice the sudden increased variance towards the end of my graph! Binked one of them but no results from any of the others worth mentioning.

Ignore the Red EV line - It shows me as running well above EV but its largely down to it not working properly in the 4 msn shootout HU sngs I've been playing. The guys at Hold'em Manager tell me the issue has now been fixed and the new release will be out shortly. I've been waiting a couple of weeks the new release though and there still no sign of it! Come on HM - You're usually pretty good! As a result of this though, I'm not running quite as hot as it would appear :)

Not too sure what Feb holds if I'm honest, as usual I'm feeling a little lost as to what games i should play. Think ill start off playing a combination of HU sngs and 180 mans depending on how i feel each day. May toss a few mtt days in too if i feel that way inclined. As usual, no insane plans for the coming month, just continue to grind and perhaps move up to the $20 HU sngs. The fact I've got a Sharkscope star for the $10 level though makes me want to keep hold of it which is inevitably not going to happen if i stop playing. I've missed 2 days of playing and have already slipped from 14th down to 18th place so I'm close to losing it already if i don't play a bit more...

Away from the poker tables, I've been putting a lot of work into clearing my garden. As I've mentioned before, I've just bought a nice house in the countryside but the garden was so overgrown it looked really small before. Ive stripped it right back and cleared all the hedges and bushes out with the intention of getting it all nicely done in time for summer. Also planning on putting some private parking and my own driveway in. May even build a double garage if funds allow. We'll see - Will try to get some pics up as i think it'd be cool to keep track of the progress as I've putting a lot of hours in and have no pics so far.

Going out to have a look at some kitchens and bathrooms tomorrow morning to get some ideas for what i want to get fitted over the coming months so gonna go get a bit of sleep so i can get up at a reasonable time!

Off to Belfast again for an Ice hockey game next weekend! Lets go Devils! We're currently top of the league but only by 1 point so theres a lot of big games coming up! Fingers crossed we can pick up some Silverware this year! Will update soon with pics provided i survive all the bomb threats, etc that seem to be kicking off over there recently!

Any tips for decent clubs while I'm there? Think of heading to Golden Mile after the game - Sounds like its the student part of town?

Pokerstars Home Games & WBCOOP time again!

2011-01-13T07:03:00.001Z

Pokerstars Home Games... Excellent idea and addition to Stars software. I think it's a great way to help people encourage their friends get involved in the online game without the worry of playing with loads of strangers/sharks who're going to take all their money (or at least this is probably how many newcomer to the online game think!). I'm certainly going to use this new feature as a way to encourage my home/pub game friends to sign up up and try out the online scene!

I may even start my own blog poker club in the near future... Watch this space :)

In other news... Its that time of year again... The WBCOOP is coming! Later this month bloggers from around the world will lock horns in battle to claim the crown of WBCOOP champ. I plan to show Daleroxxu the way to do it.

Anyone else planning on playing?

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.
Registration code: XXXXXX 616283

New Year... New Game...

2011-01-11T02:10:00.000Z

As the title suggests, I'm not playing my usual mtt sngs so far this year. I've played a few of them during the first few days of Jan but didn't really make much from them. In fact i think im a little down in those games this year. I did however somehow fall upon a new game... Heads Up.
Its never before appealed to me much as i've never liked the idea of playing to win such small amounts. I'd always imagined the possible roi would be tiny, variance big and that i'd be rubbish at it.
I think this opinion has come from my experience of HU which is usually at the end of a sng with big blinds where its pretty much shove every button, fold every BB until eventually someone gets bored, calls and then sucks out on the other person. Not really that fun... (slight exaggeration i know but you get the idea!)

Having played a few HU turbo sngs over the past few days, I've quickly learned this isn't the case. There's actually scope to get a fairly consistent win rate going and make a fairly healthy and consistent income from them while keeping the flexibility in my schedule that i seem to crave so much - Each game only takes about 20 mins max to play out and are usually much quicker. I don't like multi tabling and you can't really multi table HU so thats a good excuse for getting away from the grinding. I only play one or 2 games at a time at the moment and am really enjoying it. Its very interesting studying your opponents individual style and traits and gets away from the boring ABC sng strategy.

I imagine I'm probably just running well at the moment but from what i read and see, the variance in these should be relatively low so fingers crossed i can keep up a reasonable win rate. I've not actually had a losing day yet. Running a little above EV but not hugely. I started out playing the $6 games for a bit of fun but quite quickly moved up to the $11 games. I've been doing really well in the 4 man HU shoot outs too which has probably helped boost my roi somewhat but its a pleasant start all the same! Hold'em Manager graph with EV line below for just HU & 4 person HU shootout games since the start of the year.

I've signed up to HUsng.com so will watch a few of those videos over the coming month and hopefully improve my game, continue to plug away at them and hopefully continue to see some nice results.
The only downside I've seen so far is that they don't produce much rake and as a result it will be impossible to hit SuperNova playing these all year. If i keep winning at this rate though I'll be able to grind up through the stakes in no time. We'll see how it goes. I want to put in at least 1000 games at about the $11 level before i consider moving up just to prove to myself this isn't just a super hot run.

I'm not ruling out a return to the mtts and mtt sngs sometime soon but my immediate focus is improving my HU game.

On a separate note, i thinking of jumping on the bandwagon of coaching/staking. I've got a few small plans/ideas and am currently coaching a couple of friends to turn them from novices to online superstars. If that goes well, I'll look into taking on some new 'strangers' to coach and mentor and hopefully turn them in to profitable players. I've got a few ideas in my mind of how i can make it affordable and my kind of target market but will play it by ear while i get some feedback of my current 'students' and see how their games progress... If anyone is remotely interested in having a chat about coaching options feel free to get in touch.
If not, i should have something a bit more official in place in the coming months!

In other news... Isildur1 is Viktor Blom?! Who'd have ever thought!

2010 Review & 2011 Plans

2011-01-02T09:57:00.005Z

2010... It came and went pretty quick! I barely remember it!

Not my best year of poker but i think that's more down to my volume as opposed to results! As I've mentioned throughout this blog, i really struggle to motivate myself to put any real volume in. I simply don't enjoy poker when I'm playing more than 6 tables at a time. I think it gives me a better roi and lowers my variance somewhat but at the end of the day leads to me making less $ than the real grinders. Something i plan to work on in 2011 but I'm certainly not going to tie myself down to any targets just yet.

2010 monthly breakdown

Jan +$604.40

Feb +$2281.91

Mar +$263.33

Apr +$90.11

May +$1441.27

Jun +$2363.21

Jul +$346.75

Aug +$164.28

Sept +$45.64

Oct -$35.64

Nov +$26.75

Dec +$667.54

Total Profit +$8259.55

A bit embarrassing considering i call myself a pro but i bet my hourly rate is pretty damn good! lol

My year on Pokerstars: Bare in mind both my mtt wins were on Party and Full Tilt so aren't included above; hence the figures not tallying

Jan and Feb i played quite a lot and ran pretty well. Played mainly 45 man and 180 man sngs but also mixed in a few hyper turbo sats on stars which helped top up my T$. I played more than half my years volume at Stars during these first 2 months!

March i spend almost entirely touring around California, Nevada and Arizona. Drove over 2000miles over there and enjoyed every minute of it! Really wanting to go back now! As a result i played hardly any poker but still managed to luckbox my way to some mtt sng wins and show a reasonable profit.

April i spent in holiday mode still. Put very little volume in. Just played a bit of plo8 cash and some super turbos on Party. Ran pretty badly over at party and lost quite a bit of my profit from earlier in the month off stars but still scraped a small profit.

May was much of the same except i managed to bink a win in an $11 mtt on Party which made up most of my months profit.

June we got back to grinding the 180 mans and ran like god. I was winning them for fun. I remember one set i played where i final tabled 3 at the same time and won 2 of them and got 3rd in the other. Pretty good considering a set for me consists of about 12 games max... lol

After my previous 2 good months i went into anti poker mode and just totally lost the will to play much in July, August and most of September. Just playing bits and pieces at random sites.
I eventually decided i needed some $ as my bankroll was quickly evaporating. I decided to grind the Full Tilt Super turbos as they would give me some flexibility as they are so quick to play.
This didn't go to plan.
I was basically a microstakes rakeback grinder over a load of games. It was a real grind and i just felt like i was running well below EV but couldn't face playing anything longer plus the fact i wasn't winning when i felt like i was capable of crushing the games drove me to grind on. In the end, i decided i was wasting my time. Even if i could crush the games, the variance was being too harsh to justify my time when i could win standard turbos so much easily.
With a severely depleted bankroll, December saw me return to my home - mtts. I played quite a bit and put a load of hours in at the microstakes mtts. Eventually managed to take down a $5 turbo which saw me turn a reasonable profit. After I'd taken down the tourney though it cued an end to my grinding and i pretty much took most the rest of 2010 off as i was so busy with family functioned etc around Christmas.

2011... I have some loose plans but nothing set in stone. I'd like to make a bit more $ which i think is simply a case of putting in more volume! I'd also like to play a bit more live and perhaps take some more shots at bigger mtts as i never satellite into anything - well, if i do i usually take the T$ instead! I plan to perhaps keep a bit more structure to my year as 2010 was all over the place but I'm not going to commit myself to a certain game as it will just lead to me getting bored! I would also like to have a shot at Supernova. People have proved its easily achievable yet I'm not convinced ill get anywhere near it again. Will give it a shot though :)

I'm absolutely shattered so will leave the typing there for now. Apologies for the rambling (as usual) but really don't have the energy to reread and edit it now!

All the best for 2011 - See you at the tables!

Full Tilt Rant...

2010-12-22T16:51:00.000Z

Full Tilt suck!

I tried to transfer some of my tourney winnings out of my account the other day after winning that little $5 turbo but they wouldn't let me! They told me i needed to make a deposit on a bank card and then i could withdraw to that account. No worries i thought, tried to deposit - Unsuccessful. And into the bargain they then freeze my account until i send them proof of ID. I do this and then have to wait 2 days for a generic, copy/pasted reply informing me my photo IDs not valid and nor is my bank statement as its over 60 days old. No response to my comments/questions in my previous email to them!

I replied attaching a choice of 2 different bank statements/utility bills and further explanation as to why i'm not able to meet their photo ID requirements (my passports out of date). I also requested a prompt response seeing as time is dragging on with MY funds frozen in THEIR bank accounts making them money.

3 days later and i'm still waiting for a reply! When they eventually get around to it, no doubt i'll get another copy/pasted response which doesn't directly address any of my previous questions! All i want is my money - i don't care if i can never play there again! In fact, i may even choose not to if this drags on much longer!

sigh :(

I wish more sites had MAC compatible clients so i had more choice of sites!

Rant Over.

Highs & Lows

2010-12-16T02:38:00.000Z

After my earlier post talking of my good feelings about December things took a turn for the worse...
Eleven of the last thirteen days have been losing ones which obviously hasn't helped my micro bankroll much! I was getting quite a few deepish runs but kept coming up short all the time - Just the nature of playing MTTs. Despite this and my rapidly shrinking bankroll i still felt positive (ish) and kept on grinding away. I was playing well and knew a big score was just around the corner.

My Pokerstars Cashier was looking extremely unhealthy and i was forced to grind $1 tourneys but to no avail... My current bankroll on Stars stands at $0.04. I was subdued to the fact that i'd have redeposit on there but in an ironic twist, i entered a $5.50 turbo on Full Tilt this evening as it caught my eye during late registration. I like turbos... see myself as a lower volume and micro stakes version of MI_Turtle. haha
Not only did i have another deep run but somehow managed to take it down! Not once do i recall getting my $ in bad either (except against short stacks). Just managed to win my flips when it mattered and pick up the blinds when i got a chance. There was a monster stack at the Final table who did a good job of running hot and basically killed every pot he was in! He made life quite easy for me as i managed to win a few flips and grind my way to HU with him. A few minutes of chipping up a little and i got it in with 6's v his A9 and the 6 on the flop gave me a set and the chip lead, albeit by the equivalent of a SB or something stupid.
At this point he offered a chip EV deal which i happily accepted as the blinds were so big i was happy to take the $815 and the tourney win on paper.
I think i had the advantage over him but with such big blinds and a fragile bankroll i thought it best to just get the $ in the bank so to speak.

SO... Finally i'm back on form with a little MTT win. Not huge by any means but at least i have some $ to work with now and will be able to avoid the embarrassment of having to redeposit if i can find someone to do a Full Tilt to Stars transfer.

In other news, I went to the solicitors last week and signed the papers to my house so all going well i'll be a homeowner as of next week and be £20k richer... well kinda.
I'm buying the house off my parents so i'm getting a decent deal on the place and getting £20k back off them when the mortgage money comes through to spend on doing a load of work on the place. Looks like 2011 could be a busy year development wise.

I could really do with some run good indefinitely now i have a mortgage to cover!

Also... SNOW forecast for Friday and over the weekend... Result.

Bench Clearance

2010-12-05T12:48:00.004Z

Some footage from last nights Nottingham v Coventry hockey match - well worth a watch!
Neither are my team (Cardiff Devils) but they're both top teams in our league.

For anyone not a hockey regular who doesn't understand fighting in the game. Its a good explanation of how a poor refereeing decision is usually the cause of most fights.

Bench clearances are quite rare - maybe one or two per season across the whole league - but are always fun to watch and get the adrenaline flowing both on and off the ice.

One of the things i love about hockey is how it can be so physical on the ice yet the home and away fans all 'get on' reasonably well. You never get fighting or anything and can quite often have a chat in the bar and mingle both pre and post match whereas in football, on the pitch they fall over at the slightest touch and then all the fans try to kill each other after the match....

Hockey FTW imo...

Shattered now and got to be up in 4 hours to get to the rink for Cardiff v Dundee game! - Sleep zzz

EDIT: And there was a bit more of the same after they restarted the game... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmO_kbibz4s

Fallen at the Final Hurdle

2010-12-02T08:24:00.001Z

November... Kinda glad to see the back of it in poker terms.
I managed to avoid a second losing month but it equally was a struggle make a profit at all, eventually ending the month with just $26.75. Possibly my worst ever profitable month?!

Most of the damage was done at the start of the month with the sngs and i only just managed to rescue it by running above EV in the micro stakes PLO as you can see in the graph below.

On the topic of PLO... Although i'm in profit, even in EV terms, i'm quite frustrated that i'm not killing the game. I see loads of bad play (now i come to think of it... largely by myself! haha) yet am apparently struggling to beat micro stakes even. Not sure what to do with it - I've watched a fair few training videos which all seem to largely state the obvious to me. Why can't i beat $10 PLO? I know i have small volume but i would've thought i'd have seen a more positive graph even over low volume? I have no idea though as am a novice when it comes to cash game stats...

December... I had a good feeling about this month and it almost came true on the first night!

Having struggled with the PLO recently i decided to have a night of mtt grinding seeing as i had a load of free time overnight to kill. It was also inspired by a friends big score yesterday which i'll come onto later. Played a total of 17 mtts, all on Stars, cashed in 5 of them and came very close to a very healthy score in 2 only to fall at the final hurdle (hence my posts title)

Firstly, the $5 rebuy where i finished 18th/960 - Was in the top 10 for most the tourney but went a bit card dead once i was in the $$$. AK < 4s on a A64 flop (i had the nut flush draw too so was never getting away from it)

then... in the $11 Freezeout 11th/2883 Q's < KJ on a 9 high flop... He rivered a J high flush. Frustratingly in this one i was chipped up nicely too... ahh well. Next time :)

On a plus note, tonights results still managed to help increase my current micro bankroll by about 75% so that helps things a bit. I'm actually enjoying playing in general now too which is something i've lacked over the summer.

Winters officially here in UK and its been pretty cold the last few weeks. Night temperatures consistently well below freezing and day time temperatures barely getting over 0c... I LOVE it :)

Had 4 days of snow too which is brill for this time of year although only 1 of the 4 days gave any significant amounts. I live in the South West of the country which is one of the least badly effected areas. Long may this trend continue :) Sure beats the usual wind and rain and +9 degrees conditions we usually get at this point in early winter!

A few pics from my garden.

Taken on my iphone so not the best quality but you get the idea... The bottom pic is a horse even if it does look more like a donkey! lol

On a closing note - A HUGE congrats to my good friend Henry 'Swistoni' Griffiths on a huge night yesterday on Stars.

He final tabled 3 big mtts on Stars including beating the huge $3 rebuy field to win it outright making for a +$15,400 payday. All from low stakes mtts. He's always been an excellent player but started out as more of a live player (as i used to like winding him up about - his online record was far from great). He's gradually got better and better over the past couple years and although he's won events online before last nights big run, i think this proves he's eventually surpassed myself & mastered the online game too! :) If thats not going to motivate me to get some big scores in the coming months i don't know what will! haha

WP SIR!

Back to school

2010-11-22T04:31:00.001Z

Although i knew i was running well to start with i hadn't really planned on my graph turning ugly straight after blogging about my plans. Looks like i have plenty of learning left to do... I actually find it quite embarrassing to post my results as i'm running well above EV apparently.

The big difference in EV has come largely from two hands where i've ended up reluctantly getting overly involved pre flop and getting all in against 2 opponents both times. Then getting lucky! Once with 5678 and another pot with double suited K's. Neither pot was hugely -EV but in winning both i ran well above EV in them.

I seem to be mildly obsessed by my EV line. If i'm running below it i get frustrated but as soon as i'm running above EV i feel embarrassed about it! I'm not too sure where i'm going wrong in PLO. so far. I think i'm perhaps getting to the river and then folding too often and maybe not protecting my bigger hands well enough but i'm not too sure. Learning PLO cash is proving quite difficult as not only am i learning the intricacies of PLO but i'm learning to play cash when i'm used to sngs and mtts. I think the latter is the most difficult part to adapt to and possibly my biggest problem at the moment. Perhaps i'm approaching the games in the wrong way?

I would post my positional stats but can't figure out how to export them as an jpeg file on the mac... I really need to find a cheap coach though to offer some advice on where my leaks are as i get the feeling the videos aren't specific enough to help me in the cash games.

Perhaps i'm fussing about nothing and just need to put in more volume. I'm just finding it frustrating that i seemingly can't even beat micro stakes cash games so what hope do i have when i move up - something i want to do asap. I think i just need to get some sleep and i'll hopefully feel more positive again! Could do with winning at this game called poker 1 day soon as i'm fast heading for another losing month which is unheard of in my world of success! :)

The only real plus point of this is that i'm racking up fpps on Stars much quicker and easier in these cash games than the tourney grind and am actually enjoying myself while playing again.

On a slightly different note - I've just bought a small % of MI_Turtle in his USA COOP bid. I think he offers excellent value as he's one of the best players about at the moment in the online game and offer % at cost value and sometimes even less as he throws in extra promos and covers any additional rebuys in tourneys out his own pocket. Hopefully he can have a good series and make me some $$$ as i certainly can't make much myself recently! GL Nick!

PLO Learner

2010-11-18T14:57:00.000Z

The past week has been the final round of the World Rally Championship, conveniently based in my home town of Cardiff. This means i've spent many hours away from the computer in wet Welsh forests!
As a result, i've once again not put many hours in of online pokerz (another convenient excuse i know!)

I've been dabbling in a bit of PLO for a while now, have taken down the a few small tourneys, etc but have never been confident enough with my post flop play to play cash seriously. I've decided i'm going to set out to change that over the coming months!

I seem to be constantly on the look out for sngs which are over in no time at all so i can keep a flexible schedule as i struggle to keep concentration for much over an hour or 2 long sessions. The obvious thing to do would be to play cash games but i've never felt comfortable in them. I think its just as much that i like having a set goal with sngs and mtts (i.e. winning them) whereas cash games just seemed like an endless grind. I've played a few short sessions of micro PLO the past week though and have quite enjoyed the experience so it can't hurt too much to have a crack at them, especially considering how badly the sngs have been going recently. The first few sessions have actually been fairly positive as you can see from the graph below.

Before i get everyone telling me the results mean nothing as my sample size is so small - i'm fully aware of this. Got to start somewhere though and i'd rather be feeling positive with a nice enough looking graph. Only playing $10 plo at the moment but plan on moving up once i've won 30 or so buy ins. I basically want to take my time moving up and learn the game at the low stakes. I know i can be profitable at it but am also aware that i probably have a lot of big leaks in my game at the moment! Would rather lose the minimum while learning and prove to myself that i can beat each level before moving up.

I notice the great Scotsman, Mr Daleroxxu is also in the process of making the transition from sngs to PLO cash, albeit at higher stakes no doubt and probably with more success than myself! I look forward to following his progress. On the topic of Dale - I'd like to extend a big Congrats on getting signed up to Team Pokerstars: online. Best of luck with it Sir!

Knowing me i'll come running back to the sngs in a few weeks time with my tail between my legs but i could do with a change for the time being and if it works out then it'll be great. If it doesn't, it can only serve to improve my all round game! Im not planning on abandoning sngs and mtts altogether. I just want to achieve a healthier all round balance.

Please feel free to offer words of advice if you're familiar with the PLO cash scene and if anyone fancies sharing HH's or discussing the game online let me know. Alternatively, if anyone can suggest a good PLO coach with an affordable hourly rate please point me in their direction! :)

I'll keep everyone updated with progress.

October review, November Plans, etc

2010-11-09T14:14:00.001Z

As expected, October ended as only my 3rd losing month... Only -$35.64 though so hardly too damaging. Just frustrating more than anything as i seem to be treading water a lot recently. Roll on the upswing :)

November has continued with the same downward trend though. Currently down about $75. I've reverted back to the 45 man sngs on Stars so things can turn around quite quickly in these bigger fields so $75 down is nothing. Just wish i could hurry up and start making some forward progress and build up the bankroll so i can play some bigger stakes than the $6.50s!

I feel like my break even stretch the last couple of months has been largely down to variance and generally running bad however i have no doubt that my 6 months of playing very little has probably left me a bit out of practice. As a result i decided to rejoin a poker training site to rebuild my confidence and hammer home the basics and perhaps even learn a little more.

I've chosen to go with PokerXfactor. I've always been a fan of the site, am a big Johnnybax fan and they've always been very accomodating. I emailed them to ask about rejoining and they kindly waived the signup fee for me as i was an old member so that saved me a few $. Now i've just got to find the time to sit down and watch some videos! I always find them a good thing to watch when i feel too tired or just not feeling up to grinding. Got to spend money to make money!

I'm considering having a look into trying to play some cash PLO and see how that goes. I've been considering it for a while but never stick at it so i won't set any big goals just yet but i plan on having a dabble in some low stakes PLO, watch a few training videos and hopefully give myself a shot at being able to make some $ from cash games for a change. My main reason for this is that i want to have the most flexible schedule i can so cash obviously allows this. I think should help my all round game as well though so it cant hurt!

I'll leave you on a lighter note - Pokerstars banned TV advert. Its hardly surprising why it was banned but it still made me laugh as i didn't see where it was going until the end message

Bye bye bankroll :(

2010-10-31T14:34:00.001Z

The last couple days have been pretty vile. Im used to running bad and downswings in poker but this month has been super frustrating and rather depressing! Unless something turns around this afternoon, i look set to be heading for a losing month - only my 2nd or 3rd ever!

I decided to try to grind the Super Turbos on Full Tilt as they looked fun, were flexible which is what i wanted (i seem to suck at cash so this was the next best thing) and i think my short stack ninja play is one of the best parts of my game. They seemed ideal. I never played on Full Tilt really so just transferred $150 across and started out at the $5 level. They proved a bit of a grind and i didn't fly through them as quickly as id expected but i did make steady profit. Once i hit $300 i moved up to the $10 stakes. Equally as bad play everywhere you look yet frustratingly i was struggling to capitalise. I had the odd short upswing but that was regularly followed by a similar size downswing. Just couldn't get anything going but struggled on :) Got up to about $450 bankroll and was feeling semi happy about how things were progressing but then it all went wrong. In the space of about 50 games i barely cashed in any and simply couldn't win regardless how good i got it in. Endless beats and my graph and bankroll both quickly became a write off. Its not losing the $ that hurts - its the time and effort i put in to build it and then the speed and severity it got wiped out! Don't think i've experienced such a violent swing before since i started playing 4 years ago (in severity terms as opposed the $).

I guess i should've quickly moved back to the $5 games but i really couldn't face grinding them again. I was only playing them as i wanted the 'fun' and satisfaction of building my roll up from the bottom (well almost the bottom).

Not sure what to do now though. I don't want to stop playing these super turbos as i'm sure i can beat them for a decent roi (probably about 8% roi at lower limits) but equally don't really feel like it after the last couple days.

Im struggling a little as well with not having Table Ninja on the mac. Im really reluctant to run dual boot and play on windows as i think it defeats the point of having a mac but equally i could really do with having table ninja. I've also got to put up with PT3 which sucks compared to Hold'em Manager. And despite of all of this - i still maintain the macs better :)

Anyway - any words of sympathy and support are much appreciated at this difficult time for me... lol

Lets hope i can turn this around and quickly...

New Pc, Ireland, grind time.... Maybe

2010-10-15T14:55:00.001+01:00

G'day,

Apologies for my lack of recent updates - I've had nothing to report.
As i may have moaned about previously, My PC has been playing up for the last 3 months! I only bought it in Jan so its still under warranty but they're pretty useless. They tried to blame my dual monitors then blamed the graphics card (so i bought a new one), then blamed my PSU (so i bought a new one... still no success). Most recently they've come out and replaced the Hard drive... I'm waiting on them to send me out some recovery discs now to reboot it. I got fed up of waiting though so decided to go out and buy a new 27" iMac. I'm pretty surprised by how much i like it... It's annoying how programs like Hold'em Manager and Table Ninja aren't compatible but its general efficiency makes up for these not working.
Thanks to this purchase i'm now £1400 lighter and its £1400 i couldn't really afford to spend so now i've got to play some pokerz to make the money back!

This is where i hit my problem - i don't know what to play! I only have a small bankroll now so have to grind it back up again. Im not sure i can face the variance and drag of the mtt grind at the moment but i'm not sure theres enough $ in the super turbos on Full Tilt. They seem like a proper grind with only about 3% roi possible even at low stakes as well as the high variance? hmm. Feel free to offer advice. Im sure ill find my niche again soon though :)

Went to Ireland last weekend on a flat out weekend of Ice hockey and drinking with the lads. Flew out of Bristol at midday on Saturday, landed in Belfast an hour later, checked into the hotel, went for some lunch then walked over to the ice rink/bar and had already had 5 pints before the game and another 2 during (bare in mind i hardly ever drink! lol). Cardiff lost the match to Belfast 5-2 but i was expecting to lose - Id actually bet against Cardiff so made myself some £ while out there too... lol
Then headed into Belfast town for a night out - think we went to the wrong part of town though as it wasn't the best! Wasn't awful either though. Back in the hotel by 2.30am so watched the qualifying for the Japanese gp before catching a few hours sleep. Flew home Sunday at 2pm, back at home by 4 then had to leave an hour later to get down the Ice Rink for Cardiffs home game against Dundee! Flat out weekend, just the way i like it. A few pics below...
Planning on going back for the match in Feb i think.

Think its worth mentioning too - I got a parking ticket a few weeks ago for parking on a cycle path. Id parked in the same place every time i go to hockey for the past 2 years but the council decided to make a point of booking everyone one evening. I wasn't overly impressed so appealed claiming it wasn't clearly signposted (semi true) and requested a copy of the order used giving it legal status.
Got a letter back yesterday saying i was parked illegally but that they're going to let me off (they clearly don't have an order...) which feels like a nice victory. Similar to winning a mtt... :) Result!

WCOOP & quick August review.

2010-09-11T01:48:00.000+01:00

The WCOOP is underway at Stars as we speak. As much as I'd like to be taking part, the buy ins are a little large for my very depleted bankroll - Mainly through lack of play the last few months but continuing to dip into the roll to pay the bills! I'm hoping to satellite into some shortly though!

As far as August went, another very dry month. Finished the month +$164.28. I found myself playing $20 plo8 cash towards the end of the month just for fun. PLO8 seems to be the only form of poker i feel comfortable playing in cash format (except razz... Ive done quite well in the razz games on Full Tilt in the past!). I wont bother going into detail on my games as its not really worth it. Ive literally just had a table or two open while watching tv a few evenings...

So far in September I've played a bit more. Up until today it was just an hour or so each evening for fun. Ive been stuck at home all day today though as my cars having some work done on it so its off the road. I put in almost 6 hours of 'grinding' low stakes sngs/mtts on Pacific.
It went terribly! Ran awfully, unable to win regardless how well i get it in. I'll refrain from moaning too much though :)
Ended the day -$97.70, well below EV. Still up $32 for the month though! That'll buy me lots... lol

Pacific Poker?!

2010-08-26T01:30:00.002+01:00

Evening,

I've been continuing my long run of lack of motivation as you've probably guessed from my lack of blog posts. The only play I've been doing is on Pacific Poker building my roll up slowly just for fun. playing no more than 4 tables at a time... mainly 10 man turbo sngs and plo8 cash when it runs! I wish it ran a bit more often!

On that note... Any idea of the best site for plo8? I want somewhere that gets decent amount of games but still fishy. I'm thinking Party poker but the volumes not great there either...

I quite like the new pacific software but holdem manager had an error which meant i had no hud in mtts or sngs. Typically, the same day HM released an upgrade to fix the hud problem but Pacific released a software update which has been a nightmare! every 30 mins or so, usually when a hand shows down, the software suddenly freezes so i have to close it and restart it quickly so as not to time out/miss a hand! Very annoying.
I've emailed support but received no reply other than their automated rubbish.

I also witnessed what i class as obvious collusion against me in a 10 man turbo sng. 3 Argentinian players who i believe were working together. chip dumping and soft playing each other when 3 handed against me (well 2 or them - the other one had been knocked out earlier). I still managed to beat them but still its unacceptable! I emailed Pacific details of the Incident, have twice requested info on their outcome to the investigation without as much as a reply off them! I'm not sure they actually have any support staff!

How can poker sites treat their 'valued' customers this way?

To top it off...

3 card plo8 anyone?

Admittedly it was immediately after the software had crashed and been restarted but still. I was in the hand in time to have an option to raise, fold call etc yet with only 3 cards i feel my account is slightly rigged... lol

Cheers Pacific! Luckily for you I'm stupid enough to keep playing there for the time being although I'm not sure how long ill stick it out!

I'm dreading trying to cash out! They'll no doubt expect me to pass a university level exam paper on astro physic or something before they give me my funds!

At least there are plenty of fish there...

Newport (Ymerodraeth State of Mind)

2010-07-23T14:33:00.001+01:00

A remix of Alicia Keys' Empire State of Mind song about my home town - Quite amusing and seems to have caught on around the UK pretty quickly. Unless you're local theres probably bits you won't understand but its very true... lol Enjoy :)

Back due to popular demand

2010-07-18T14:11:00.001+01:00

Apologies for the lack of updating the last few weeks. I've had countless requests for me to update my blog (well... one request then :) Thanks Alex) so I've finally caved into the pressure :)

I've really not been in the zone for playing poker this month. Infact, its been my quietest month of the year by far! I've only played 2 days so far and only low volume then! Basically a few mtts and a few 180 mans on the side bringing my total games to a rather laughable 11 games for the month! Managed to continue my hot run even over that low volume with two 180 man FTs making me +$346.75 for the month.

So... time for the excuses i guess! I was ill at the start of the month which took me about a week to shake off and have spent most of the past week down in Cornwall on a mini holiday type trip. It was quite a enjoyable. Just a shame that the British weather had to play up as usual and give me a good drenching! The main reason for the trip was to go to the Minack theatre. I knew someone acting in the play there and it seemed like a novelty to go and see it in an outdoor setting. The pictures really dont do the place justice though. It's basically and old open air theatre build right on the cliffside overlooking the English Channel. Its pretty spectacular and mildly amusing watching the shows when the weather closes in with high winds and torrential rain! lol Pics to follow soon once i get around to uploading them off the iphone.

Ive been playing quite a lot of golf this past month. Had a couple of lessons which have gone well and i've definately felt improvements in my game. Infact... You often hear stories about the big boys of poker (Ivey & co) getting distracted from poker by golf - I can now see how. It does have a strange appeal!
I was meant to play when i went to Cornwall but the weather put a stop to that!

Not sure how much poker i'll play this month. No point in forcing myself to play when i dont really feel like it as it doesn't lead to me playing too well. I think i'll have quite a relaxed month then hopefully get back into it next month... I'll keep you up to date on any interesting developments though :)

Thanks for reading x

Busy

2010-06-25T04:46:00.004+01:00

I've not played for 6 days straight up until this evening. Just haven't been in the house to put any games in.
The next week is looking pretty congested too! Ice hockey (my teams playing in the summer cup), shows at the theatre, gym, tennis lesson, football (even if i do hate it i still watch the England games with my mates - and support whoever the opposition is!) and i have my first ever golf lesson with the local club pro on Tuesday. I'm sure there's plenty more that'll manage to crop up to prevent me playing much!
Despite my very busy social life, i managed to squeeze in a small session tonight which was going truly awfully until i spiked another 180 win! :) I played pretty well most the tourney and got a little help from picking up nice hands at the right time but also played a couple hands very strongly when i had air to win a couple nice pots which always feels nice when your soul read reship works! lol

I will admit i got super lucky HU. I felt like i was totally outplayed to be fair! The player in question was 'MakeMeMaster'. He was probably the best player at the final table but luckily i had position on him so was able to pick my spots well. He did run well HU mind - i got it in twice with weaker A's than him and twice i outdrew him! The second time was for stacks with my A5 suited flopping a flush draw against his AJ. I got there on the turn luckily.
Not to sure if i played badly or was just a bit cold decked once we were HU but i certainly felt like i didn't have any advantage which is quite unfamiliar to me! :)

Other than the win, i managed another 180 Final Table but got a bit unlucky and busted in 9th which was quite frustrating. Also min cashed in an $11 short handed MTT on Poker Idol.

Anyone know if 'MakeMeMaster' keeps a blog? I'd be interested in following his results if he did!
Sure i was going to say something else but I'm too tired to think straight so am going to make my way to bed now! Got an engagement party tomorrow evening. And NO... it's not mine! :) so not sure if I'll get any time to play. Hopefully i can squeeze some games in either before or after if i don't drink too much! I'm not planning on drinking much so it should be OK!

Ciao