Long overdue update!

Hey guys, long time since the last update so I thought I would check in! Since the last post I have been incredibly busy with courseworks and other stuff. I had a bunch of courseworks in for early this week and then had a massively important interview on Wednesday for a sponsorship offer. Unfortunately I underperformed and I was pretty downbeat about that.

Yesterday I had a 'Viva' for my group project. This was a 45 minute one-on-one meeting with my group advisor where he assessed my technical understanding of the project (A kayak course) and how I affect the group dynamics etc. I was pleased with how mine went and apparently he told another group member he was impressed with me. Sweet. It holds a large chunk of my mark this year so this helped erase Wednesdays disapointment.

Last Friday I got v.drunk on a boat for my mates bday, and after we got back onto land, had a good time at Oceana, and had my kebab, I fancied a trip to Alea to see if my good run could continue. I got off to a bad start on roulette but the 50/£1 cash game they had running may be the softest thing I've ever played and I came out a big winner. Good times.

Unfortunately online hasn't been going too well for me. I have played two large sessions since the last update and neither has been profitable. I managed a final table last night but ran QQ into KK for an 8th place finish and a measly €105. A few other small cashes have kept the losses to a minimum but it is still frustrating to be so break-even for 2010. I fully anticipate a heater around the corner though, and I will keep working towards this.

I have decided I am going to spend my roulette winnings on subscribing to a training site as I hear many good things about them and I am sure it would be a worthwhile investment if I found the right site, but I guess thats the hardest part, finding the right one. I will begin research tomorrow.

This weekend I have nothing to do, so I plan a big poker weekend. Tonight I am going to DTD to play the £25, and if I bust early I will play the £10r to the £300 tomorrow, which if I won a seat to I would sell off most of my action. If the night ends pretty quickly then I won't sit down to play a cash game, well not at DTD anyway, as I will jump in a taxi to Alea and play those idiots again.

Tomorrow and Sunday however, are dedicated to online. I find the weekend games a lot softer so I plan to put in a good amount of volume and see if I can bink big.

Hope everyone is running well etc

C ya!

WTF AK?

Hey guys, just finished another frustrating session. I finished January like £500 up but seem to have gone on a £400 downswing in February which is slightly annoying.

Tonight it is pretty funny how many tournaments I busted with AK. Honestly, 5 or 6 of them were with AK losing to pocket pairs or to AJ. I guess I could shrug this off and say it is just variance biting me, but I am just going to check and go over a few of these AK hands and make sure that I'm not being overly-aggro with the hand.

I did manage a cash for $89 in the $11r on bwin but I actually bought in for my highest amount ($71) as I was getting pretty cold decked in the first hour, so it is a rather meaningless result!

On the brighter side, Ben kindly offered me a stake for the $215 Sunday 4Million tonight and I jumped at the chance. I felt I played pretty solid poker and I was making as many notes as I could on my table-mates. Unfortunately I lost half my stack with AK (lol) and then when I was down to ~12BBs I woke up with KQ in the small blind, only to run into AT in the big blind. GG. I am going to go over the AK hand from this tournament also as I believe I may have made an incorrect play somewhere. Anyway, I loved the tournament, so ty Ben!

So it seems I am on a downswing in poker, but on roulette I am on a severe upswing. I have ended up in the casino a few times the past week for various reasons (nearly always drunk) and have found myself winning time and time again. I am going to put this money towards a holiday, but I have also put $60 towards a 1% share in Ben in his massive Sunday session tonight. Currently it looks like he could go deep in the $55 on stars, among other things. GL!

Went to Manchester last night for a mates birthday and although I am not a massive fan of the city, I did manage to have a pretty fun night. TY Jack!

Currently planning when to have my next session this week. Will post again then! C ya!

Frustrating times..

Played sessions for 3 days on the bounce now and I have gone nowhere but backwards. It is really frustrating me because I am working hard on my game on 2+2 and have been putting in all my concentration in all my sessions. Last night I got coolered deep in a $11 on bwin to come 14th and got another min cash, whereas tonight I booted up a bunch of tournaments and honestly believe I didn't win a hand where it was all in pre flop. Brutal. Didn't cash in any.

I am still in profit for Jan+Feb combined for £216, but I feel the level of volume and effort I am putting in may deserve a bit more. But hey, we all know how poker works, and we all go through these tough times!

I keep wanting to play and work hard at my game because I KNOW that there is a sick heater for me round the corner somewhere and possibly my first 1st place finish? We shall see. Just got to keep working at it.

Goodnight!

21st Birthday.

Hey all, since my last post I have played a number of sessions. Unfortunately they haven't been going too great, with a fair bit of run bad being chucked in there. Infact, ten minutes ago I just busted my last tournament of the night in 51st with AA losing to 56 on a 952 flop when 50 cashed. Oh well, standard?

So that has kind of summed of February for me so far. I did make one final table in the early hours of my birthday but only managed to get a 7th for €150 or something, I can't quite remember. Then it was the day of my 21st (vegas?!) which was a nice day, although the real celebrations were last night as a bunch of my mates from home came up and we had a pretty sick day and night out. Good times.

As is standard for these situations, we found ourselves stumbling into a casino at 3am and I sat down with £20 on the roulette table. After 10 minutes of chucking chips around I find myself walking out with £206. That was the bday run good I was waiting for!

I actually have a really expensive month coming up with many birthdays and nights out planned so this money will be pretty useful..

Poker-wise I feel my game is pretty sharp at the moment, I just havent been able to hit that huge score this month. Still, there is a while yet to go of February and I hope to make the most of it. My next session will be tomorrow (Sunday) night and I can feel a big 4 figure score coming in. One time!

Off to watch a film now. see ya..

January Review

Hey all! Not posted for some time now, my last post highlighted how my exams had finished and how I was planning to get some volume in for January. Unfortunately life went even more mental after exams with me having a lot on my plate with househunting and a flooded room. On Friday the room was finally sorted which made me pretty happy because I now have a desk/bed/carpet etc. And we signed for a contract for our new house on Friday also. That meant I could grind on Saturday and Sunday for a big push to get some volume in for January.

Saturday started off really poorly, I think I made a couple of poor decisions initially and this could be down to the break from the game. I got a $200ish cash towards the end of the night to make it only a £40 loss. Sunday also got off to a bad start, and I found myself one-tabling sooner than I would have liked. Fortunately I was nicely placed in the €22 deepstack and I managed to convert it into a 2nd place and €810.

Still though, I was annoyed. If you don't like reading bad beat stuff then you can just stop the next bit..

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I came 2nd once again after a brutal bit of run bad! I now have sooo many final table finishes and not one 1st. I havent won a heads up battle for so long and maybe this will explain it..

Heads up:
Hero (BB) - 450,000
Villain - 600,000

Villain raises. Hero 3bets AQs. Villain Shoves. Hero Calls.

Villain shows AJ. Board Jxxxx. GG.

Also earlier on, with 6 left, I raise AA, get shoved over, I call, he shows 66, board = xxxx6. Fun times. Luckily the structure was good so I could get back in it by winning loads without showdown.

It is really pissing me off that I can't actually win a tournament. If I converted just a couple of my 4ths/3rds/2nds into 1sts then I would be £1000s richer. fml.

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Anyway, January was a terrible month for volume but not a bad month for results:

Tournaments Played - 23
Profit - £504.24

Total Results:
Total Profit - £1803.73
ROI - 40.44%

I won't be seeing that profit for now as me and Ben have decided to merge January and February together as a 'single month' as January had such little volume.

I am hoping to put a fair bit of volume in for February so wish me luck!

Congrats to Breesy who got his biggest ever cash last night for about £1100. He is crushing atm and he fully deserves it. I reckon you should check out his blog which you can find on the right -->

Bye all!!

Update..

Hey all! Been a long time since I posted so thought I would keep you all up to speed with whats been going on. Unfortunately, I haven't played a single hand of poker since my last post because of the hell that is exams. I once again had four exams to contend with so this meant a fair bit of revision. It was going fairly well, until the day I arrived back to Nottingham, opened my bedroom door, and saw that it was flooded. Oops. I could go on and on about the problems this has caused, but I won't moan! The exams went pretty well until the last one which I am pretty confident will be my lowest exam result to date. My incredibly selective revision technique is always a bit of a gamble that does seem to come back and fuck me over from time to time, which is understandable.

Anyway, I am now finished! Sweet. I am going to try and play as much poker as I can the next fortnight or so, but with no desk space because of the flood, and some social stuff to catch up on, the poker may not start fully until February, which I hope to be a month of really good volume.

GL to anybody still doing exams.

Bye all!

2009 Review + 2010 Goals

Hey all! Not blogged for a while as I have been super busy with family stuff. Had an awesome Xmas Eve night out, a fun Xmas Day, and lots of cool days since with various family members and family friends. I did squeeze in a tiny session but it was a losing one unfortunately. That leaves my December results as:

Tournaments Played: 66
December Profit: £565.27

However, I started December with make-up of £479.44 so my profit over November and December is £85.83. Obviously this isn't too great for two months grinding, but it was looking very bleak indeed a couple of weeks ago, so I am pleased to pull it around and net myself £40ish.

I started this staking deal with Ben in September and in those four months I have achieved a profit of £1300.32. My ROI in this period is 30.82%. I believe I can at least double this ROI in the next few months so that is an immediate goal of mine!

2009 started off really well for me on the poker front. I achieved a $1950 score on Stars in Feburary and notched up a few $100 scores in other tournaments in the coming months. Unfortunately, I withdrew over £1000 for a holiday and a laptop, and the rest was often blown on cash tables, nights out, takeaways etc. I am really grateful to Ben for the opportunity he offered me, and it has really helped me on the discipline front especially.

The three sites I have played poker on in 2009 predominantly are Stars/DTD/Bwin. OPR tells me that on Stars tournaments (45man+) in 2009 alone (using the filter), I have earnt a total of $1378. That equates to £853 profit.

My excel spreadsheets tell me I earnt £1042 on DTD and £258 on bwin. Therefore, my total profit in online poker tournaments in 2009 is approximately £2150. Obviously Ben will have taken some of this, as did the cash tables, but it is still a statistic I am proud of.

The above brings me to my first 2010 goal: DO NOT PLAY CASH GAMES.

Unless I am rolled for cash games, I am going to steer clear of them completely, all they have ever done is hurt my profits from the game and it must be time for me to realise I am -EV in them.

Infact, here are my 2010 Poker Goals in full:

- Do not play one session of live cash until I have at least 20 buyins put away for it.

- Play the UK Student Poker Championship.

- Other than the above, do not play a tournament with a buyin above £25 unless I have at least 50 buyins for it or have sold action. More than £25 is no longer ‘entertainment’.

- Continue to be active on the 2+2 forums and continue to blog.

- Profit £7,500.



I believe I can reach all these goals and I look forward to blogging about them in one years time. In some respects it is harder for me to plan ahead than for other players who are not backed, for example Ben will decide when I move up stakes. This makes monetary goals harder to set, so the final goal of £7,500 profit may be inaccurate.

I have set other goals in my life, such as academic ones and fitness ones, but I won't bore you with the details of those!

I am going to send myself a delayed email now. It has all the 2010 goals on it, and it will arrive in my inbox in exactly one years time.

Good luck to all, and happy new year!