Downswing Confirmed.

Its fair to say things could be going no worse. I play every day, and lose every day. I really don't understand what more I could be doing. I analyse hands, I watch videos, I read 2+2, and most importantly I put in volume. Unfortunately the results have been diabolical. It stuns me some of the beats I am taking on final table bubbles. Anyway, I got to keep grinding through it, however hard it is.

My parents gave me a bit of grief about how much time I spend playing, and how unsuccessful I am this Easter break, and I find it hard to respond to. They don't understand variance. They just think a winning player has the ability to cash in every tournament they play in. No.

I am starting to get pretty deep in make-up, which is never fun. But I have crawled out of it numerous times before and I will definately do it again. The question is when?

Revision will start soon (I hope), meaning that volume will decrease. That blows. Will keep grinding though and the results HAVE to come in.

C ya

(still grinding a $5.50r btw. 205/505. maybe in 4 hours I can completely edit this blog post)

Volume Volume Volume

So I have been going a bit mad with poker atm. I am playing a load like I said I would as I really want to make the most of the time available. Unfortunately, the results continue to be negative ones. I have had a couple of scores around the $300-$400 mark but the volume I am putting in means this is not enough to result in profit.

Every day I watch training videos and go through my hand histories. I really want to improve and I feel that I am. But the results never seem to reflect my effort levels.

Being quite a mathematical person, I enjoy statistics and I understand probabilities and variance quite well. I am fully aware of the fact that you need a large sample size before you get your true ROI%, and even then it still wont be 100% accurate. I am also aware of all the downswings that occur for all the top grinders. Unfortunately this doesn't quite make things feel better for me at the moment.

Tonight I hit the final table of the €27.50 and came in 8/10. I won a bunch without showdown and got to 5/7, but then I got QQ in against A9s and the A binked the flop. €175.

I hope situations like this turn around, and I expect them to this Easter. I still have a lot of volume planned and I know there are more final tables to come. I will continue to work on my game (got a bunch of hand histories to look over tomorrow), and you should expect a happy winning post from me soon :)

Bye all!

Easter Holidays

Hey guys, been a long time since I checked in. Seems a long time ago now, but the session at Ben's went pretty terribly in terms of results with it being my biggest ever losing night, oops. However, I learnt a bunch of stuff there, so it was really beneficial. TY Ben.

Following that session I had a really tough fortnight fighting to complete my group project at uni so no poker was played as the project really had to consume my life for this period. Fortunately though, I jumped on a plane about 36 hours after the deadline to Gran Canaria with various family members and just chilled for a week, which was really sweet.

Landed back in Manchester last night and chilled out today, before booting up the first session of what I intend on being a poker-filled Easter. I have three weeks before going back to uni and while I need to spend some time revising, I am going to have a load of time to put some volume in and I want to make the absolute most of it. I really want to ship a tournament as well, it's starting to annoy me how I havent previously.

Anyway, onto tonights session. It started quite poorly but I found myself deep in two tournaments. The €22 deepstack on dtd, and the $11 on bwin. Fortunately I hit both final tables, but the luck was to end there as I proceeded to lose all the significant all ins and bust 6th and 9th respectively. That made for a break-even night, lovely :/

I will admit that I am becoming really frustrated at my lack of run good on final tables atm, and I just hope so much that it will turn around this Easter. I have a bunch of hands to go through from tonight anyway, so hopefully I can start plugging some leaks.

Goals before going back to uni:

- Win a tournament.
- Profit £1000.
- Play whenever I can.
- Keep on top of revision.

Not hitting profit for this holiday really isn't an option for me right now, I feel like I am really +EV in these fields and I work hard at my game, so it is time for some big results to come my way.

Congrats to breesy1 who made it two stars final tables in two nights and continues a nice run. And congrats to ben who hit the UKIPT FT.

Goodnight.

Another 2nd?!

Hey all! Put in two sessions and a home game since the last update. The home games I am playing are starting to get a bit better in quality now and they are making for really good games and a lot of good banter, unfortunately though I couldn't make it three wins in a row this week :(

I played a session last night that resulted in a £15 win, woo. I final table bubbled the €10r for about €90 as well as some other smaller cashes. It really sucked to final table bubble in 11th though, as with 15 left I was the big chip leader. I have never had a meltdown as big as that before, but apart from one missed bet, I don't think I played it too badly.

Tonight I put in a smaller session but it still came out to be profitable. I entered the $22 double deep on bwin but it only got 61 runners which surprised me. That meant for a smaller prizepool than I hoped, offering only $450 for first. I ran pretty hot in it, and went into heads up with a 2-1 chip lead. I was really hoping I could break my run of coming 2nd everytime I got heads up, but unfortunately I flopped top pair with KQ on a QhJc5h board and ended up getting it all in vs my aggro opponent, who had 55, meh. Another 2nd for me, making it 0/6 in my heads up confrontations. This is highly frustrating and I really hope to turn it around soon.

I also got one other smaller cash on the night meaning overall I won £160. This means a £175 win for the two days of grinding, which is quite nice, but I felt it could have been a lot more. Tomorrow is Sunday, but I won't be playing as I have a lot of coursework to get done. However, on Monday I will be going to grind at Bens flat which should be both enjoyable and helpful, oh, and profitable ;)

Goodnight!

Update!

Hey guys, been a week since my last post and not much has happened since! I played a half-session mid week that didn't go well and then on Saturday I played my first super50 which is a deepstack £50 at dtd. After 90 minutes of folding I finally picked up KK but unfortunately I ran into AA. Doh. Tonight I put in a session and I managed a final table on boss in the €22 deepstack but I came 9th when AK couldn't improve vs 88. This left me with a small £25 loss for the night. I have been really breakeven in 2010 and it is frustrating, but I guess I should be happy I aint in makeup!

I signed up to pokersavvy the other day and it has helped dramatically. I try and watch a video a day (they are about 45 mins long on average), and it is great to hear thought processes which had never previously entered my head. Worthwhile investment so far. Infact, it helped me with my session tonight in many spots, and I made a few plays I wouldn't have previously made and they all worked, so it seems like it is doing the trick (results orientated ftw).

On Thursday I might be going to Bens flat to grind and go through hands/accounts etc, but it depends on my coursework situation. Hopefully I manage to get it out the way though as I would quite like to go as it is really helpful and it actually got me my biggest ever score last time!

Off to bed now. Goodnight!

Weekend Review

Hey guys, I thought It would be better to wrap up the weekends poker in one blog post rather than update every evening, so here we go!

Friday -

On Friday I headed down to DTD for the first time in a while and entered the £25 freezeout. I am pretty sure they have reduced the starting stack from 4k to 3k which is a bit annoying, but I could be wrong. Anyway I folded for about an hour then reshoved KJ into K9 and a 9 flopped. GG. I then late registered for the £10 rebuy into the following days £300 thinking this might be a cheaper, more fun thing to do than play a cash game. I was wrong. I lost all my all ins before the break which meant I became one of those douches shouting for chips every 5 minutes. Anyway after the break I had a good run, tripling with AA vs JJ and TT and then winning a few smaller pots. Unfortunately though, I lost the big flip with AQ vs 99 to seal the deal in 19th. Goodnight.

Saturday -

Booted up a session at around 7.30 on Saturday evening which started with the iCOP6 which was a €22 heads up. I won my first round in a pretty long match, but lost in the second round in a hand I can't actually remember. I got a min cash in a €11 freezeout but the big score came in a $11f on bwin for $812. Unfortunately this was yet another 2nd place finish, so my run of not actually shipping a tournament continues. But still, it was a nice score which I am happy with. (I ran like god from 18 onwards)

Sunday -

Same start as Saturday but this time with iCOP 7 - THE MAIN EVENT. This was the worst tournament I have ever played as the software clearly couldn't cope. I also lost 175 big blinds on the first hand with QQ vs 22 when a 2 flopped. Fortunately I doubled and got back in it, but 88 vs Q8 aipf busted me when a Q flopped. No other tournaments went well either, and I suffered a pretty big loss for the evening. I am hoping to get a refund on bwin though as I was unable to add-on in the $11r due to technical reasons. This left me with 10bb after the break which is below where I would like to be in that tournament. I sent them a snotty email basically saying I play a certain way because of the guarantee of an add-on etc. Hopefully they buy in to it and I get some $ back.

Review -

Fun weekend with three nights of poker. In the end it was about £250 profit online, and -£100 loss live. As I take half of what I win online, then it looks like I just squeezed out a £25 profit! Good times.

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!