Hardly playing much at the moment, mainly due to the fact I have just picked up a couple of rescue dogs who seem to be taking up all of my time. We lost our precious staffie Fern earlier in the year and had not planned at looking for another pooch until early next year, however a friend of ours happen to mention a rescue centre in hereford that had a couple of staffies that have always been together, but due to lack of interest from anyone in taking them both on, they were about to be split up. We just felt heartbroken that this would happen so we arranged to go and see them on a Sunday afternoon about 3 weeks ago. After taking them for a short walk, we absolutely fell in love with them and ended up bringing them home with us. I had forgotten how wonderful it is to have a dog, or in this case two dogs !!!! So our little family is complete again with the new arrivals being Red an 8 year old pure bred staffie who is a proper little gentlemen and also Crywdro a 5 year old cross staffie who is as barmy as a bog brush. I have not smiled as much for months as I do when I am with them. I am even getting up at 6am every morning with the wife to take them for a walk, which is abs unheard of, I think I had forgotten that there were two 6 oclocks in the day !!!
Obviously looking after the mutts I have not had time to play much poker and also the bad news is that I think I might of missed the boat with my rakeback deal on my new site, still waiting to see what my % is going to be, but it looks like with all of the changes on the MG network that I won't be getting what I was hoping for, so will probably be moving sites again. I have played about 9k hands this month and I about 2 buyins up, I have managed to find quite a few fish at the 10NL 6 max tables, so I am still sticking to my challenge to build a roll from scratch, although if I need to move sites, I might start at 20NL as the money coming in at this level is not much at all. But at least it looks like I will be having a profitable month at the tables without rakeback for the first time in a while.
I plan to play some MTTs in December in the vein hope that I can bink a decent score to get my yearly profits back up to something a bit more acceptable cos at the moment its going to be my worst year profit wise that I have ever had and I have played over 300k cash hands !!!!
Looking forward to xmas, going to have a quiet one with the family and the dogs, lots of food and beer, with plenty of planning and goal setting for the new year.
Been listening to this band for the last week, even bought their latest album, def worth a listen.
Editors - Papillon
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Starting from Scratch
Well its back to the drawing board and back to basics. I have made my decision on what I want to do for the foreseeable future and I have decided to give Full Ring on Stars the elbow and go back to playing 6 max on another site with a decent rakeback deal.
I have also decided to go back to the beginning and concentrate on my play more than the volume, for this reason alone, I am going to go back to playing 10NL 6 Max and set myself a challenge of building a whole new bankroll from an initial £300 deposit into my new site. As I will be playing in Euros its not really that much of a drop, but I am going to be very disciplined in my approach to both my play and my bankroll management. I am going to stick to a strict 100 Buyin Rule for moving up to the next level with the added fact that I also have to have played a minimum of 50K hands at that level and be running at least 1BB/100 winrate. Regardless of the bankroll, if I can't beat the level I am playing at I can't move up....simples.
In preparation for this I have actually been playing some 20NL€ 6 max on ladbrokes for a while (had a bit of spare cash on there) I have only played about 1k hands and have been playing ok with some good results running at +10BB/100 but as its such a small sample Its not really a good view of the long term, but I suppose its better than being -10bb/100. My new site isn't Laddies, but its on the Microgaming Network, lets just hope with all of the changes that they are making that my rakeback deal will still be valid, If not I guess it will be all change again lol
The timing is quite good really as my shower blew up the other day with smoke steaming out of it, we are really lucky we were at home when it happened as if we were at work there was a good chance it could of caught fire and burn the whole house down !! We have been thinking about replacing and redecorating the bathroom for quite a while so it seems like the ideal time to sort the lot out. As I am dropping down in stakes and set myself a bankroll challenge I have also decided to take £1000 out of my poker bankroll to put towards paying for the bathroom, it will help keep the wife quiet for a bit if she can see some winnings from my spoils going towards she actually wanted for a change ;-))
This will leave about £1700 in my poker bankroll, so even though I am starting off with only £300 on my new challenge, I will keep the remaing money that is not left in Stars/Laddies in a seperate savings account. I always feel that it is best to keep my poker roll in a totally seperate account, that way its always there if you need it.
One good thing about making a change in what your are going to play is the fact that you get a new surge of enthusiasm and excitement, this is fuelled by setting detailed goals and bankroll plans, lets hope the bad beats hold off long enough to keep the hope going. The other good thing about not relying on volume to get bonuses and keep VIP levels is the fact I can play when I want to play and when I am focused. I think too much of my play on stars has been mass tabling while not in the mood just to get the volume in and my results have plummeted because of this.
Lets hope by my next post I can pull back some of the years losses on the cash tables and maybe even have a profitable month in November without counting the rakeback, which is something I have not done since about April I think !!!
Off to see these bad boys on Thursday night along with Avenge Sevenfold
Stone Sour - Through Glass
I have also decided to go back to the beginning and concentrate on my play more than the volume, for this reason alone, I am going to go back to playing 10NL 6 Max and set myself a challenge of building a whole new bankroll from an initial £300 deposit into my new site. As I will be playing in Euros its not really that much of a drop, but I am going to be very disciplined in my approach to both my play and my bankroll management. I am going to stick to a strict 100 Buyin Rule for moving up to the next level with the added fact that I also have to have played a minimum of 50K hands at that level and be running at least 1BB/100 winrate. Regardless of the bankroll, if I can't beat the level I am playing at I can't move up....simples.
In preparation for this I have actually been playing some 20NL€ 6 max on ladbrokes for a while (had a bit of spare cash on there) I have only played about 1k hands and have been playing ok with some good results running at +10BB/100 but as its such a small sample Its not really a good view of the long term, but I suppose its better than being -10bb/100. My new site isn't Laddies, but its on the Microgaming Network, lets just hope with all of the changes that they are making that my rakeback deal will still be valid, If not I guess it will be all change again lol
The timing is quite good really as my shower blew up the other day with smoke steaming out of it, we are really lucky we were at home when it happened as if we were at work there was a good chance it could of caught fire and burn the whole house down !! We have been thinking about replacing and redecorating the bathroom for quite a while so it seems like the ideal time to sort the lot out. As I am dropping down in stakes and set myself a bankroll challenge I have also decided to take £1000 out of my poker bankroll to put towards paying for the bathroom, it will help keep the wife quiet for a bit if she can see some winnings from my spoils going towards she actually wanted for a change ;-))
This will leave about £1700 in my poker bankroll, so even though I am starting off with only £300 on my new challenge, I will keep the remaing money that is not left in Stars/Laddies in a seperate savings account. I always feel that it is best to keep my poker roll in a totally seperate account, that way its always there if you need it.
One good thing about making a change in what your are going to play is the fact that you get a new surge of enthusiasm and excitement, this is fuelled by setting detailed goals and bankroll plans, lets hope the bad beats hold off long enough to keep the hope going. The other good thing about not relying on volume to get bonuses and keep VIP levels is the fact I can play when I want to play and when I am focused. I think too much of my play on stars has been mass tabling while not in the mood just to get the volume in and my results have plummeted because of this.
Lets hope by my next post I can pull back some of the years losses on the cash tables and maybe even have a profitable month in November without counting the rakeback, which is something I have not done since about April I think !!!
Off to see these bad boys on Thursday night along with Avenge Sevenfold
Stone Sour - Through Glass
Monday, October 11, 2010
What to Do ?
Well, I am really in a dilemma as what to do with poker at the moment. I am not sure whether to stay with cash, give STTs a real go or mix cash with MTTs. The cash side as you know is not going very well at the moment, this month started off where last month left off and I had a bad first couple of sessions, I have pulled some back, but still not where I want to be. STTs seems like an option, but I played that 25 x $5 challenge recently (cough, which I won by the way) :-) and although I ran and played ok, I really had fogotten how boring the games were. Likewise with MTTs I have played a couple in the last few days and although I managed to make the final table in one of them, in the other I was going ok then after a couple of hours, I 4 bet all in with AA only to get chimped by the big chippie at the table with his pocket sixes, pretty standard stuff, but serious monkey tilting none the less.
I have done back to try some 6 max on microgaming and really tried to change my nitty style, so far going reasonable, my play stats are 100% better than they used to be, I guess as I am only playing it €20NL the money don't matter so I can concentrate on playing well and not worrying about any major losses. Although I have had a couple of hands where I have got busted on which made me remember why I left microgaming in the first place !!! Still, I will keep this going in the background I think and see what happens. If I do decide to stay on MG, I may even join one of the other sites just to take advantage of the deposit bonuses, I have only really played on laddies on MG for quite a while now, as my other old Prima accounts all jumped ship onto other platforms.
I have looking where to play MTTs, mainly looking for reasonble fields of up to 500 max, pref 5-10 buyins of any currency really, the selection on laddies is pretty poor at the moment, they are due a big reshuffle in the new year, so hopefully this will improve. A few people have mentioned about ongame being good value, so might give that a go, I think Betfair have just moved to there, so def might give them a look in.
One good piece of news on stars is that they seem to have dumped the clearence vpps to get the bonuses, so when you cash in a bonus, you no longer have to play a shed load of hands to get the $$, the bad news is that they did this a few days after I bought a 25k FPP $300 bonus lol, so I still got to clear that, so I am tied to stars for a bit longer. I only need about 600vpps now, so hopefully I can still cash that in without losing more than the $300 that I will get back. I will still have about 17k fpps after that clears, so might just buy some of the $50 bonuses, not sure yet, just would be nice to see my profit back up over the year, as its not looking too clever at the moment.
So there is a real decision to be made over the next few weeks, I am going to give myself up to the start of december to decide. Mainly because if I do stay on stars, I would want to start next year off as Platinum to give myself a good shot at getting some solid bonuses. For now, I am just going to try and play a bit of everything but try and spend most of my time studying the vids/forums. I think in and ideal world mass tabling full ring would be my thing, but with the leaks I have got at the moment, this is like burning money and I next year I don't want to be in the same situation where I am this, ie 100s of hours played for peanuts returns. If I am going to put the same amount of hours in next year that I have this year, I want $10k back as a minimum. We can but hope.
One of my fave bands, with one of my fave songs.....
New Order - Crystal
I have done back to try some 6 max on microgaming and really tried to change my nitty style, so far going reasonable, my play stats are 100% better than they used to be, I guess as I am only playing it €20NL the money don't matter so I can concentrate on playing well and not worrying about any major losses. Although I have had a couple of hands where I have got busted on which made me remember why I left microgaming in the first place !!! Still, I will keep this going in the background I think and see what happens. If I do decide to stay on MG, I may even join one of the other sites just to take advantage of the deposit bonuses, I have only really played on laddies on MG for quite a while now, as my other old Prima accounts all jumped ship onto other platforms.
I have looking where to play MTTs, mainly looking for reasonble fields of up to 500 max, pref 5-10 buyins of any currency really, the selection on laddies is pretty poor at the moment, they are due a big reshuffle in the new year, so hopefully this will improve. A few people have mentioned about ongame being good value, so might give that a go, I think Betfair have just moved to there, so def might give them a look in.
One good piece of news on stars is that they seem to have dumped the clearence vpps to get the bonuses, so when you cash in a bonus, you no longer have to play a shed load of hands to get the $$, the bad news is that they did this a few days after I bought a 25k FPP $300 bonus lol, so I still got to clear that, so I am tied to stars for a bit longer. I only need about 600vpps now, so hopefully I can still cash that in without losing more than the $300 that I will get back. I will still have about 17k fpps after that clears, so might just buy some of the $50 bonuses, not sure yet, just would be nice to see my profit back up over the year, as its not looking too clever at the moment.
So there is a real decision to be made over the next few weeks, I am going to give myself up to the start of december to decide. Mainly because if I do stay on stars, I would want to start next year off as Platinum to give myself a good shot at getting some solid bonuses. For now, I am just going to try and play a bit of everything but try and spend most of my time studying the vids/forums. I think in and ideal world mass tabling full ring would be my thing, but with the leaks I have got at the moment, this is like burning money and I next year I don't want to be in the same situation where I am this, ie 100s of hours played for peanuts returns. If I am going to put the same amount of hours in next year that I have this year, I want $10k back as a minimum. We can but hope.
One of my fave bands, with one of my fave songs.....
New Order - Crystal
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Game Over
Well, despite all the support I have had from my poker buddies, the Supernova dream for this year is over. I started off the month with the intention of really giving it some hammer and put in two long grinding sessions, both of which I got battered dropping nearly 10 buyins. My confidence went out the window and along with it the willingness to put the hours in that was gonna be required.
To be honest, its a bit of a relief. I can now come home from work and do what the fck I like rather than quickly get some dinner down me neck then get on the PC.
I have played a bit since the first few days, but not that much, mainly chasing the 50 Billion Hand Promo, I dropped down to 9 tables and prob broke about even over the month not including the first few days. As for the promo, I never got a sniff, but that jammy fooker Dirk managed to hit one of the milestone hands and got paid off $1k, pleased for him of course, but why the fook could it not be me loooool.
So the plan for the next two months is to fix what the previous 6 months have broken, mainly my game which has gone to complete pot. It will also give me a chance to sort my health out, which also has taken a nosedive. so plenty of study on the tables, back to 4 tabling at the very most. Also mix in some 6 max sessions, mainly because after dropping from 13-15 tables back to 4 I know I am gonna bored as fook.
I have still managed to get to Gold Status this month and will probably try to keep this going in October and November while I decide what I really want to do for next year. If I can fix my game back to a winning one by December, I might up the volume so I can start off 2001 as Platinum. I will only bother doing this if I decide to try and go for Supernova next year. I think I can achieve it easily over the whole year, starting it later like this year gave the added pressure of having to play when I really didn't want to.
As stated above, I can also try and concentrate on my health. I am currently 15 Stone 7. I want to get below 14st by the beginning of December, then hopefully keep to that weight over xmas during the party period ready for a fresh start next year with my ultimate weight goal to be around the 11st 0 mark. A tall order I know, but if I can acheive the first goal, I am sure it will give me the confidence to carry on and when your confident it carries over to all areas of your life, which hopefully, will bring a new era of positivity (is that even a word lol !!)
As I don't need as big a poker roll anymore, I decided to take out £1000 to pay for some bits and bobs that I needed. I intend to put some of it back over the remainder of the year, but prob only a few hundred punds. So should be starting off the new year with a bankroll of about $4000. Although if I do decide to go for supernova next year, I might be willing to invest about $1000 of that in some decent coaching over the first few months so I don't spew $$ like I have been doing at the tables lately.
So its a big apology to all the 50NL full ring regs on stars, who no doubt have me on there buddy lists ;-) I won't be at the tables no where near as much till next year.
So I guess my life will be a bit quieter for a bit......
Dubstar - Not so Manic Now.
To be honest, its a bit of a relief. I can now come home from work and do what the fck I like rather than quickly get some dinner down me neck then get on the PC.
I have played a bit since the first few days, but not that much, mainly chasing the 50 Billion Hand Promo, I dropped down to 9 tables and prob broke about even over the month not including the first few days. As for the promo, I never got a sniff, but that jammy fooker Dirk managed to hit one of the milestone hands and got paid off $1k, pleased for him of course, but why the fook could it not be me loooool.
So the plan for the next two months is to fix what the previous 6 months have broken, mainly my game which has gone to complete pot. It will also give me a chance to sort my health out, which also has taken a nosedive. so plenty of study on the tables, back to 4 tabling at the very most. Also mix in some 6 max sessions, mainly because after dropping from 13-15 tables back to 4 I know I am gonna bored as fook.
I have still managed to get to Gold Status this month and will probably try to keep this going in October and November while I decide what I really want to do for next year. If I can fix my game back to a winning one by December, I might up the volume so I can start off 2001 as Platinum. I will only bother doing this if I decide to try and go for Supernova next year. I think I can achieve it easily over the whole year, starting it later like this year gave the added pressure of having to play when I really didn't want to.
As stated above, I can also try and concentrate on my health. I am currently 15 Stone 7. I want to get below 14st by the beginning of December, then hopefully keep to that weight over xmas during the party period ready for a fresh start next year with my ultimate weight goal to be around the 11st 0 mark. A tall order I know, but if I can acheive the first goal, I am sure it will give me the confidence to carry on and when your confident it carries over to all areas of your life, which hopefully, will bring a new era of positivity (is that even a word lol !!)
As I don't need as big a poker roll anymore, I decided to take out £1000 to pay for some bits and bobs that I needed. I intend to put some of it back over the remainder of the year, but prob only a few hundred punds. So should be starting off the new year with a bankroll of about $4000. Although if I do decide to go for supernova next year, I might be willing to invest about $1000 of that in some decent coaching over the first few months so I don't spew $$ like I have been doing at the tables lately.
So its a big apology to all the 50NL full ring regs on stars, who no doubt have me on there buddy lists ;-) I won't be at the tables no where near as much till next year.
So I guess my life will be a bit quieter for a bit......
Dubstar - Not so Manic Now.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Should I throw in the towel ??
Well, I have had a week off work and planned to play tons of hands in my bid for supernova, however it just hasn't happened. The week has turned out having a few more drinking sessions than I originally planned, which although was great fun, was not good for the grind or the bankroll. I started off the week with the best intentions, getting a 5k hand day in for the first time, but I didn't play well and it affected my confidence quite a bit, I think after that I was looking for excuses not to play just in case I played or ran bad again.
I reckon I might only pull in about 8k vpps this month, which will put me on around 42k for the year in total, with 4 months to go this would mean I would need to get 58k vpps at an average of approx 14.5k vpps a month to get it. Considering the most I have ever gotten is about 8k, that would obv mean playing a lot more than I am now.
So sometime in September I am going to have to make a decision what to do. If i don't carry on and get to supernova, all my plans for next year will have to change, if this is the case, I might as well try something else for the remainder of the year as at the moment as it stands the year is going to be a complete washout and almost certainly the lowest yearly profit since I have been playing poker, which considering it is by far the most I have ever played, is pretty piss poor.
I still think my health and fitness is causing me issues as my concentration level is appalling, even when I am 15 tabling, I still tend to drift off and mooch around on the net. I know for a fact that the days when I can keep my mind on the game, my decisions are much better (not always the results, variance is a beeetch)
If I do knock the supenova bid on the head, I think i will spend more time on my fitness, I have been trying to lose a few pounds, well stones to be fair, for quite a while. I have posted before many times how if you feel better about yourself, your confidence level increases and if your confidence increases, so does your profit at the tables, so I think this is a must starting in September.
But for now, it was my buffday on Wednesday, so tonight is yet another night out on the piss, which will inevitably end up with 9 tabling drunk later on, I know I shouldn't but sometimes I can hold it together and play ok, other times the drunken risks pay off !!! but mostly, I play like a twat and lose a buyin or two lol......c'est la vie.
Todays song is from a little known band called 22 pisterpirkko I came across them by accident when at a festival in the 90s, it started pissing down and I dived in the nearest tent and this band happened to be playing and they were amazing live.
22 pisterpirkko - This Time
I reckon I might only pull in about 8k vpps this month, which will put me on around 42k for the year in total, with 4 months to go this would mean I would need to get 58k vpps at an average of approx 14.5k vpps a month to get it. Considering the most I have ever gotten is about 8k, that would obv mean playing a lot more than I am now.
So sometime in September I am going to have to make a decision what to do. If i don't carry on and get to supernova, all my plans for next year will have to change, if this is the case, I might as well try something else for the remainder of the year as at the moment as it stands the year is going to be a complete washout and almost certainly the lowest yearly profit since I have been playing poker, which considering it is by far the most I have ever played, is pretty piss poor.
I still think my health and fitness is causing me issues as my concentration level is appalling, even when I am 15 tabling, I still tend to drift off and mooch around on the net. I know for a fact that the days when I can keep my mind on the game, my decisions are much better (not always the results, variance is a beeetch)
If I do knock the supenova bid on the head, I think i will spend more time on my fitness, I have been trying to lose a few pounds, well stones to be fair, for quite a while. I have posted before many times how if you feel better about yourself, your confidence level increases and if your confidence increases, so does your profit at the tables, so I think this is a must starting in September.
But for now, it was my buffday on Wednesday, so tonight is yet another night out on the piss, which will inevitably end up with 9 tabling drunk later on, I know I shouldn't but sometimes I can hold it together and play ok, other times the drunken risks pay off !!! but mostly, I play like a twat and lose a buyin or two lol......c'est la vie.
Todays song is from a little known band called 22 pisterpirkko I came across them by accident when at a festival in the 90s, it started pissing down and I dived in the nearest tent and this band happened to be playing and they were amazing live.
22 pisterpirkko - This Time
Friday, August 20, 2010
Struggling for time
Been a busy old month, unfortunately busy, as in, out on the piss a lot !!! So obv, the poker hours I planned to put in have suffered. I have only played about 22k hands so far this month and I am slightly down at the tables. This is mainly due to one drunken tilty session where, to be honest, I just did not care about the money at all and just piled in with uber aggression. Of course when you are pissed your reads and timing are, well to be blunt, fooking miles off !! With the big drop in profits that comes with it. This along with an AA vs KK all in pre for 110 bb where the board finished 8, 9, 10, J, Q !!! Did not help either.
I have got an all day wedding tomorrow as well, then sunday the mighty Villa are on telly at 13.30, with Man U the next game on at 16:00, which means another all day super cider sunday....Just hope I can keep off the tables when I get home.
The good news is that I am off work all of next week, so should be able to catch up on the old hours.
I decided to cash in 50k fpps for a $650 bonus which I should be completing early next week, so hopefully the doom switch won't get turned on and lose the lot getting the bonus, which I have heard a few people say its rigged to do *tuts at conspiracy theorists.
I have also accepted an STT challenge from BurnleyMik on the krackedkings forum. Only a $20 wager over who can post the most profit over 25 $5 stts on stars. I haven't played stts for yonks, they used to be my bread an butter back in the day, but I got bored, although at times when playing bad at cash I have thought about going back to them, especially now that I am used to mass tabling a bit more, I only used to play two at a time when I did them a while ago, I feel I could comfortably 18 table them, hopefully not getting heads up in all 18 at once !! Will be starting them next week, Mik has already done 10 and got 4 3rds and 2 2nds, so might have me work cut out.
Will be having a night in tonight (well thats the plan, until Winona calls !!) so hopefully can get a couple of thousand hands in and catch the friday drunken fish on later, although that could end up being me !! Got to die me hair tonight at some stage, so having a shed load of beer prob not be a good idea, otherwise I might end up looking like a morris dancer !!
Thats it for now, feeling pretty good at mo, mainly cos I know I got a weekend on the piss and partying coming up and a week off work straight after. So as we are in a happy mood......
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Happy House
I have got an all day wedding tomorrow as well, then sunday the mighty Villa are on telly at 13.30, with Man U the next game on at 16:00, which means another all day super cider sunday....Just hope I can keep off the tables when I get home.
The good news is that I am off work all of next week, so should be able to catch up on the old hours.
I decided to cash in 50k fpps for a $650 bonus which I should be completing early next week, so hopefully the doom switch won't get turned on and lose the lot getting the bonus, which I have heard a few people say its rigged to do *tuts at conspiracy theorists.
I have also accepted an STT challenge from BurnleyMik on the krackedkings forum. Only a $20 wager over who can post the most profit over 25 $5 stts on stars. I haven't played stts for yonks, they used to be my bread an butter back in the day, but I got bored, although at times when playing bad at cash I have thought about going back to them, especially now that I am used to mass tabling a bit more, I only used to play two at a time when I did them a while ago, I feel I could comfortably 18 table them, hopefully not getting heads up in all 18 at once !! Will be starting them next week, Mik has already done 10 and got 4 3rds and 2 2nds, so might have me work cut out.
Will be having a night in tonight (well thats the plan, until Winona calls !!) so hopefully can get a couple of thousand hands in and catch the friday drunken fish on later, although that could end up being me !! Got to die me hair tonight at some stage, so having a shed load of beer prob not be a good idea, otherwise I might end up looking like a morris dancer !!
Thats it for now, feeling pretty good at mo, mainly cos I know I got a weekend on the piss and partying coming up and a week off work straight after. So as we are in a happy mood......
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Happy House
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Whores Draws
The title exactly shows what my July was like and as you can see in the graph, up until the last two sessions of the month it was looking quite rosy, but as we all know, a good kick in the balls is only a few hands away.
To be fair, I actually ran quite well, which is even more annoying cos I would of expected to of won a lot more considering how +ev I was, but I guess we can't have anything.
The main downside of the month poker wise was the amount hands I played. I was determined to get over 12k VPPS but personal circumstances dictated otherwise, I did manage to get over 7.5k though so at least I have got back to platinum level, but I still am now only on about 31k VPP, so to get to 100K by the end of the year to get to supernova is starting to feel like a tall order. As stated in my previous post, I have got some leave in August so want to try and get a lot of play in. I feel realistically I need to be over 50K VPP by the end of August to stick a chance, but this would involve probably moving up to 18 tables from the 13-15 I am currently doing. I am already find it difficult to post any sort of decent profit mass tabling as it is. Maybe I should have at least two days a week where I drop to 4-6 and play proper poker instead of just mindlessly play nitty abc poker to get the volume of hands in. If i am going well, its def any idea to be looked at.
On a personal note July was a truly awful month for me. There are only 4 things I truly love in this world namely my wife, my mother, my grandmother and my dog. July incredibly took two of these away from me. My Grandmother sadly passed away at the grand old age of 84 and the funeral took place at the beginning of July. Then when things looked like they couldn't get any worse by beautiful staffie Fern went off her legs at the age of 13 and we had to make the awful decision to have her put to sleep. Now I have had a couple of dogs before who have passed away, but this was the first time I have been in the vets when we have had to do it and it is truly the most heartbreaking thing I have ever had to do, I am even shedding a tear while writing this just even thinking about it. She was one of the most precious little things you could ever meet and the house now seems completely soul less without her running around causing mayhem. We will eventually get another staffie, almost certainly from a rescue centre again, but it won't be for a while as the pain of losing Fern is still to hard at the moment.
Any, enough of cheering you all up, this is supposed to be a poker blog !! So at least you can see the reasons why I didn't hit my goal of 12k VPP.
Gonna go out for a walk today around a local park then have some dinner then start back on the grind. Still not sure what to do about the FPPs. I have about 62k of um at the moment, so could cash 50k in for $650 and then do the same again in September. Would def help the roll I suppose, but tempted to keep them for the $4k 250k fpps if I get to Supernova. I don't need to cash them in just yet as my roll is quite healthy, so will prob leave them for now. If any of you our there that read this are stars players, let me know what you do with them and the best value ?
Thats it for now, hopefully it won't be a month before my next post, should be able to slip in a few updates in between the grind, if I haven't gone completely insane.
Something softer today to calm the mood.
Bauhaus - All We Ever Wanted Was Everything
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
A Tough Month
Well the ship didn't stay steady for long, in fact the day after my last post, I put in a 3000+ hand session and managed to donk off almost 8 buyins, I should know better than to mention how things are turning around for the better, cos inevitably it goes tits up almost straight away.
The month didn't turn out a total disaster, approx 40k hands played and only $15 down, with some fpps in the bank to cash in at a later date, so technically was in profit, but could of been so much better, I still reckon I tilted off at least 4 buyins and lost another 4 buyins with stupid calls, its the same old story.
One bad thing about the month was that due to the world cup, I didn't play no where near as much as I should of as I was out on the piss, or watching games at home so I didn't manage to maintain platinum, so have dropped back to gold. I really need to get at least 12k vpp next month, or I will have no change of getting to supernova by the end of the year. If I can get approx 12k in July, I have got some holiday booked in August and intend to have a full week of 8 hours at least a day to try and get some serious grind in, I really need to get at least 20k vpp that month to get me back on track, I may be able to do the same again in october.
As long as I don't hit a big downswing and start monkey tilting again, I should be ok.
Lets hope July can be the first profitable month at the tables in the last 3.
GL me and bring on the grind.
The Jam - Down in the Tube Station at Midnight
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Steadying the ship
The complete and utter disaster that was called "May" is over. I hope I never have another month like it. I really had to step back and evaluate my game completely. In doing so, I believe I managed to identify a few major leaks and worked on them. I still have many more leaks to look at but I think at least I have stemmed the downward spiral that I thought I was never going to be able to get out of. I am not saying I have turned it around completely yet, but I now, for the short term at least seem to be heading in the right direction.
I finished May 19 buyins down, but at one stage was over 25 buyins, so the re-evaluation of my game has paid off already. I only managed to get 50K hands in at the end, mainly due to the fact that I was running/playing so bad, I ended up cutting down the amount I played. I guess this is only natural, although I it did cross my mind to start chasing my losses, but this is just a recipe to disaster.
The one good thing that did come out of May was that I did actually make platinum, but only on the last day and if I am going to hit Supernova by the end of the year, I now know it is going to take 100k hands per month from now on in, or something close to that figure, I really don't want to end up in a situation where I need to get about 25k vpp in December and end up doing stupid mass tabling sessions for long hours, although to be fair, this may even be good practice for 2011 when that is exactly what I will be doing.
If I can sustain my play at the moment and keep on the winning track, I might even invest in some coaching in September, I have a couple of people in mind from Cardrunners who I think will be able to improve my game.
So, lets just hope the ship has stopped sinking for now and we can stay afloat and have a profitable month without rakeback for a change and you never know, in two months time, I might even get a comeback king icon on PTR ;-)
Madness - Night Boat to Cairo
June has started off a little better, continuing on the winning streak, only about 4 buyins up at the moment in about 14k hands.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Nightmare on every street
Well the wheels have really fell off the wagon, its been a really bad 10 days or so. In this short space of time, I have virtually lost my whole years profit. I have tried to put my finger on what the problem is and have come to the conclusion that it is just variance, I have had a few inevitable bad beats, but most of the big pots I have lost have just been coolers with at least 6 sets losing to oversets. I am about 16 buyins down this month in the 33k hands that I have played so far, which is very bad considering my quite nittish style at full ring.
I am considering changing the style of play that I use and I am definitely going to have to experiment with different lines as the style of play on stars does seem to be a lot different to what I am used to on other sites. When I was sponsored with Bad Beat on ipoker. In the first 3 months I was up over 1k playing only two tables of 50NL Full Ring and was obv playing a lot less hands than I am now as I am currently 9-13 tabling normally a min of 3-5 hours a day. So I must be doing something drastically wrong.
The other thing I may need to consider is the the variance seemed to have kicked in since Stars changed the min buyin structure so the 20bb guys can't now sit at the 40bb-100bb tables that I am choosing to play on. I am beginning to wonder if a lot of my profit when I first started to play on stars was from playing against these short stacks in a +ev fashion. I am not sure how I could filter this out in HEM to see if this indeed the case, although I really don't want to go an play at the 20bb-50bb tables as I have read a few studies that the short stackers do have a real advantage long term.
The good news I guess is that I have already retained Gold Star status and should move up to platinum by the end of next week. Should also be able to purchase a $650 VIP Bonus at the end of the month, which should bring some welcome $$ back into the bankroll which as I said above is taking a bit of a hit at the moment.
I reckon its gonna be a long struggle to get to supernova and I need to develop an effective strategy to at least break even very quick, or it will be back to MTTs and Snooze and Gos again.
Prob won't play too much today as its FA Cup final day here in Englands green and pleasant land, which means a compulsory all day out on the piss.
Also need to start to increase the frequency of my blogging to help with my enthusiasm through these bad times. Hopefully the good times will be back again very soon.
Time to get the blood rushing round the body ready for the day out, crank up the sound to full and give it some thrash.....
Pendulum - Watercolour
I am considering changing the style of play that I use and I am definitely going to have to experiment with different lines as the style of play on stars does seem to be a lot different to what I am used to on other sites. When I was sponsored with Bad Beat on ipoker. In the first 3 months I was up over 1k playing only two tables of 50NL Full Ring and was obv playing a lot less hands than I am now as I am currently 9-13 tabling normally a min of 3-5 hours a day. So I must be doing something drastically wrong.
The other thing I may need to consider is the the variance seemed to have kicked in since Stars changed the min buyin structure so the 20bb guys can't now sit at the 40bb-100bb tables that I am choosing to play on. I am beginning to wonder if a lot of my profit when I first started to play on stars was from playing against these short stacks in a +ev fashion. I am not sure how I could filter this out in HEM to see if this indeed the case, although I really don't want to go an play at the 20bb-50bb tables as I have read a few studies that the short stackers do have a real advantage long term.
The good news I guess is that I have already retained Gold Star status and should move up to platinum by the end of next week. Should also be able to purchase a $650 VIP Bonus at the end of the month, which should bring some welcome $$ back into the bankroll which as I said above is taking a bit of a hit at the moment.
I reckon its gonna be a long struggle to get to supernova and I need to develop an effective strategy to at least break even very quick, or it will be back to MTTs and Snooze and Gos again.
Prob won't play too much today as its FA Cup final day here in Englands green and pleasant land, which means a compulsory all day out on the piss.
Also need to start to increase the frequency of my blogging to help with my enthusiasm through these bad times. Hopefully the good times will be back again very soon.
Time to get the blood rushing round the body ready for the day out, crank up the sound to full and give it some thrash.....
Pendulum - Watercolour
Monday, May 03, 2010
Back and ready to grind
Hello Peeps....
Back from a tour of my new fave place in the world, namely Canada. Was out there on a West to East fully guided tour, which included a 3000 mile train journey from Vancouver through the Rockies, stopping eventually in Toronto. the tour also included stop offs in Jasper, Ottawa and a short period in Montreal. Without a shadow of a doubt, it was the most wonderful holiday I have ever experienced.
As we were going in mid April, we spent a fortune on Winter clothes, ready for the cold onslaught that was about to be thrust upon us, which of course, never came. The weather was outstanding, with only 3 hours of rain during the whole time we were over there and that was when were on the train, so no coats were needed.
Its really difficult to pick out what I loved most, we just did so much while we were out there. I guess if I had to choose one thing that stood out, it would possibly be the helicopter ride of Niagara Falls. All of my life I have said that if I was gonna die tomorrow, the one thing I would have to do before I popped it would be to see the falls in the flesh. When the opportunity to fly over it in a helicopter came up, it just had to be done. I took so many photos while up there, but I think this is one of the best ones that came out ok.
I could talk forever about the holiday, but as this is a poker blog, I know you will only get bored. I do however intend to return to Canada again in the near future, hopefully to tour move of the West coast in the next 3 years or so.
The bad thing about holidays is that they eventually end and you have to go back to work. This strangely enough was short lived for me, as after two days back at work I got the dreaded Man Flu and had to come home sick. I always get really fooked off when I have to have time off sick as I do like to take the piss out of the girly puffs who have a sniffle and don't turn up. I don't tend to get ill very often (touch wood) but when I do, I seem to get it bad. Luckily it only lasted for about 4 days, so I now feel ok again and have been back on the poker tables.
I did manage to play enough hands in April to retain my Gold status on stars. But as May has now started, the grind is now on to get to SuperNova by the end of the year.
I currently have about 12k VPPS and seem to be holding my own 9 tabling, but due to stupid and I mean STUPID calls I am not winning very much at the tables. I have got to the stage where I have played a lot of hands and my hand reading skils have improved immensely. However, what hasn't improved is my abilty to put my reads into practice. There still seems to be a little man on my shoulder saying "Call you fool, he hasn't got it" even when if you follow the hand through to its logical conclusion, it is bleeding obvious that he has it and the fold is the only option.
Still, I am in profit with the bonuses and building up some nice FPPs ready to cash in later in the year. As stated, this year is all about getting used to mass mulitabling on stars and hopefully developing a strategy that at worst is break even, but hopefully bring in at least 0.5bb/100 which is my aim considering the amount of tables that I will be playing.
On target to hit platinum this month, so as the title says, Let the grind begin.
New Order - Perfect Kiss
Back from a tour of my new fave place in the world, namely Canada. Was out there on a West to East fully guided tour, which included a 3000 mile train journey from Vancouver through the Rockies, stopping eventually in Toronto. the tour also included stop offs in Jasper, Ottawa and a short period in Montreal. Without a shadow of a doubt, it was the most wonderful holiday I have ever experienced.
As we were going in mid April, we spent a fortune on Winter clothes, ready for the cold onslaught that was about to be thrust upon us, which of course, never came. The weather was outstanding, with only 3 hours of rain during the whole time we were over there and that was when were on the train, so no coats were needed.
Its really difficult to pick out what I loved most, we just did so much while we were out there. I guess if I had to choose one thing that stood out, it would possibly be the helicopter ride of Niagara Falls. All of my life I have said that if I was gonna die tomorrow, the one thing I would have to do before I popped it would be to see the falls in the flesh. When the opportunity to fly over it in a helicopter came up, it just had to be done. I took so many photos while up there, but I think this is one of the best ones that came out ok.
I could talk forever about the holiday, but as this is a poker blog, I know you will only get bored. I do however intend to return to Canada again in the near future, hopefully to tour move of the West coast in the next 3 years or so.
The bad thing about holidays is that they eventually end and you have to go back to work. This strangely enough was short lived for me, as after two days back at work I got the dreaded Man Flu and had to come home sick. I always get really fooked off when I have to have time off sick as I do like to take the piss out of the girly puffs who have a sniffle and don't turn up. I don't tend to get ill very often (touch wood) but when I do, I seem to get it bad. Luckily it only lasted for about 4 days, so I now feel ok again and have been back on the poker tables.
I did manage to play enough hands in April to retain my Gold status on stars. But as May has now started, the grind is now on to get to SuperNova by the end of the year.
I currently have about 12k VPPS and seem to be holding my own 9 tabling, but due to stupid and I mean STUPID calls I am not winning very much at the tables. I have got to the stage where I have played a lot of hands and my hand reading skils have improved immensely. However, what hasn't improved is my abilty to put my reads into practice. There still seems to be a little man on my shoulder saying "Call you fool, he hasn't got it" even when if you follow the hand through to its logical conclusion, it is bleeding obvious that he has it and the fold is the only option.
Still, I am in profit with the bonuses and building up some nice FPPs ready to cash in later in the year. As stated, this year is all about getting used to mass mulitabling on stars and hopefully developing a strategy that at worst is break even, but hopefully bring in at least 0.5bb/100 which is my aim considering the amount of tables that I will be playing.
On target to hit platinum this month, so as the title says, Let the grind begin.
New Order - Perfect Kiss
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
March Round Up
The best month by far this year, finishing approx $880 up, which has helped put my year back on track. It was fairly rock on the cash fron, but managed to finish approx 3 buyins up and played by far the most hands in a month I have done, I estimate I played approx 42k hands, not the greatest win rate by far I know, but at least it was a winning month over a significant amount of hands. Didn't reach Platinum on stars in the end due to a few nights out on the piss over the last week or so.
I have one day left at work tomorow, then I am off work for 25 days, yep, TWENTY FIVE FOOKING GLORIUS DAYS.........YEE HAAAA. Have got a great trip touring across Canada planned for the wifeys 40th and just can't wait, I have always wanted to go there so at last will be fulfilling one of my lifetime ambitions, which I feel I haven't done to many of lately, def time to get a wish list going and start crossing them before I start getting toooooo old.
Anyway, back to the poker. Last months profit mainly came from a decent tourney finished (see below) Dunno why, but last Friday, I just fancied playing a decent MTT, so went for the $30 Deep Stack on Lucky Ace Poker (on the 888/Pacific Network) I actually spent the first 4 hours of it playing it on the my 2nd monitor while 9 tabling cash on stars, did nothing special, just played solid. To be fair, the tourney sort of played itself as most of my big hands held and I got paid off to boot. No real special hands, no beats to shout out about, I didn't get lucky, just a plain ole boring mtt which just happened to go on for 7 hours. I eventually went out 6th when I was the short stack, I decided to call a min utg raise on my bb with QJ with the intention to shove any non dangerous flop. I think the flop came down 24 8 or summat like that, so I shoved, I was quite stunned when he snap called with his mighty AT for a 1/4 of his stack, a good call I know, but not a single thought went into it, but hey how, $637 for 6th has helped me no end and I have a little tourney roll on LAP to play with now.
Won't be able to play for about 16 days in April, so the plan will be to just keep Gold Status on Stars ready for the big push in May where I hope to play 100k hands in a month for the first time, although a back log of work may get in the way, but will give it a go.
Lets hope the rest of the months of the year can yield a similar amount of profit.
I guess we should have a Canadian Theme for todays song, thought about Monty Pythons I'm a lumberjack, but settled for this.
Alannis Morisette - Ironic.
I have one day left at work tomorow, then I am off work for 25 days, yep, TWENTY FIVE FOOKING GLORIUS DAYS.........YEE HAAAA. Have got a great trip touring across Canada planned for the wifeys 40th and just can't wait, I have always wanted to go there so at last will be fulfilling one of my lifetime ambitions, which I feel I haven't done to many of lately, def time to get a wish list going and start crossing them before I start getting toooooo old.
Anyway, back to the poker. Last months profit mainly came from a decent tourney finished (see below) Dunno why, but last Friday, I just fancied playing a decent MTT, so went for the $30 Deep Stack on Lucky Ace Poker (on the 888/Pacific Network) I actually spent the first 4 hours of it playing it on the my 2nd monitor while 9 tabling cash on stars, did nothing special, just played solid. To be fair, the tourney sort of played itself as most of my big hands held and I got paid off to boot. No real special hands, no beats to shout out about, I didn't get lucky, just a plain ole boring mtt which just happened to go on for 7 hours. I eventually went out 6th when I was the short stack, I decided to call a min utg raise on my bb with QJ with the intention to shove any non dangerous flop. I think the flop came down 24 8 or summat like that, so I shoved, I was quite stunned when he snap called with his mighty AT for a 1/4 of his stack, a good call I know, but not a single thought went into it, but hey how, $637 for 6th has helped me no end and I have a little tourney roll on LAP to play with now.
Won't be able to play for about 16 days in April, so the plan will be to just keep Gold Status on Stars ready for the big push in May where I hope to play 100k hands in a month for the first time, although a back log of work may get in the way, but will give it a go.
Lets hope the rest of the months of the year can yield a similar amount of profit.
I guess we should have a Canadian Theme for todays song, thought about Monty Pythons I'm a lumberjack, but settled for this.
Alannis Morisette - Ironic.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Ready to Rock
My Pc was starting to really piss me off, so I took the plunge and rebuilt it from scratch. Installed windows 7 and then put all me poker software back on. Took the drastic decision to start off a whole new database from scratch and not import any of my old hands. I guess its a nice clean start all round. All back up and running, decided to buy table Ninja as I am def gonna stay on stars for my little supernova challenge.
I have upped to 9 tables and will probably stick at this until May, possibly go to 12 in April depending on how it goes.
I have reached Gold status as expected quite easily and possibly may even get to Platinum by the end of the month depending on what I get up to next weekend.
Things have been going ok at the tables for a change and I am a few buyins up, although I have been running quite a bit above ev to be fair, but I ain't gonna complain whend I do. Not sure exactly how many hands I have played this month as I have started a new database, but have managed to clock up 18k hands in the last 9 days, so I am pretty sure that this month will be the most I have ever played. This is gonna be nothing compared to the 100k hands+ a month I will need to be doing shortly, not sure how much I am looking forward to it, but gonna give it a good bash.
So the suns out, just come back from a lovely walk in the park with my wife, i'm winning at poker and I am about to go down the pub to watch the footy and sink a few winonas with me mates. Its what life was meant for.
Rock on...............
The Cardigans - My Favourite Game
I have upped to 9 tables and will probably stick at this until May, possibly go to 12 in April depending on how it goes.
I have reached Gold status as expected quite easily and possibly may even get to Platinum by the end of the month depending on what I get up to next weekend.
Things have been going ok at the tables for a change and I am a few buyins up, although I have been running quite a bit above ev to be fair, but I ain't gonna complain whend I do. Not sure exactly how many hands I have played this month as I have started a new database, but have managed to clock up 18k hands in the last 9 days, so I am pretty sure that this month will be the most I have ever played. This is gonna be nothing compared to the 100k hands+ a month I will need to be doing shortly, not sure how much I am looking forward to it, but gonna give it a good bash.
So the suns out, just come back from a lovely walk in the park with my wife, i'm winning at poker and I am about to go down the pub to watch the footy and sink a few winonas with me mates. Its what life was meant for.
Rock on...............
The Cardigans - My Favourite Game
Monday, March 08, 2010
Shoot for the stars
Been playing on Stars almost exclusively at 50NL Full Ring, only 6 tabling just to get a feel for the site and also only playing when I feel like playing. I don't know why, but there is def something about Stars that makes me tilt less, I am sure I will prob regret that statement later on the year.
Only played about 6k hands this month, but I am over 3 buyins up, so can't complain had a couple of beats too, but overall, nowt to send me on a spunk monkey tilt fest.
In preparation for upping the amount of tables, I downloaded a trial of Table Ninja. It really is one impressive piece of software and I would not play without it any more on stars when multi-tabling, it is worth the $$ alone, just so the active table is under the mouse so you don't have to click twice, which was driving me fooking nuts !!!
The only pain in arse I have is that I can't upgrade to the latest version of HEM, due to an issue I have with .net framework on me Vista PC, its gonna take a rebuild to cure it and frankly I can't be arsed. If I am gonna rebuild it, I will prob go straight to windows 7, but its coming up to 3 years old anyway, do thinking about buying a new one, will prob leave this till I come back from me hols, will def save a lot of hassle being able to build the new one and get it all set up while still being able to use the old one.
Been having a mooch on pokertableratings as well, not sure what to think yet, I am not sure how accurate it is, as I have noticed it has already missed one of the days off when I was two buyins up, which over a sample less than 10k hands, makes a big diff to how you potentially would view a player, so might use it as a very rough guide, but prob not make any stacking off decisions based on the info on there.
Overall enjoying poker again, although this may be due to the fact that I am playing only when I want to at the moment. This will obv change in may when I have to start grinding out prob at least 500vpp a day to get to supernova by the end of the year. I will post my progress weekly on this little challenge from the beginning of May, but as of now, the plan is just to tick over, slowly transfer $$ over to build the roll up on stars ready for the big plunge next year. Made Silver Star this month and should easily get Gold. Hopefully keep Gold during April when I won't be able to play many days, will just have to make sure I get a fair few points in on the few days I can play.
I also think I may of misjudged my calcs for next year, on my last post initially I said my aim would be for SuperNova 500k, looking at the VPP/Hand I am getting at the moment, I think realistically this may have to drop to 300k target unless I can get some big sessions in at 100NL, I guess time will tell.
After seeing Rammstein the other week, it def got me thinking I don't go to enough gigs anymore, used to go to loads. Next on this list is the Foo Fighters, I saw them at the Reading Festival in about 1996, even crowd surfed to them (was a bit lighter in those days !!)
Wish my hair would fooking stay like his instead of looking like some ink dipped hippy !!!
Foo Fighters - Best of of you (Live)
Only played about 6k hands this month, but I am over 3 buyins up, so can't complain had a couple of beats too, but overall, nowt to send me on a spunk monkey tilt fest.
In preparation for upping the amount of tables, I downloaded a trial of Table Ninja. It really is one impressive piece of software and I would not play without it any more on stars when multi-tabling, it is worth the $$ alone, just so the active table is under the mouse so you don't have to click twice, which was driving me fooking nuts !!!
The only pain in arse I have is that I can't upgrade to the latest version of HEM, due to an issue I have with .net framework on me Vista PC, its gonna take a rebuild to cure it and frankly I can't be arsed. If I am gonna rebuild it, I will prob go straight to windows 7, but its coming up to 3 years old anyway, do thinking about buying a new one, will prob leave this till I come back from me hols, will def save a lot of hassle being able to build the new one and get it all set up while still being able to use the old one.
Been having a mooch on pokertableratings as well, not sure what to think yet, I am not sure how accurate it is, as I have noticed it has already missed one of the days off when I was two buyins up, which over a sample less than 10k hands, makes a big diff to how you potentially would view a player, so might use it as a very rough guide, but prob not make any stacking off decisions based on the info on there.
Overall enjoying poker again, although this may be due to the fact that I am playing only when I want to at the moment. This will obv change in may when I have to start grinding out prob at least 500vpp a day to get to supernova by the end of the year. I will post my progress weekly on this little challenge from the beginning of May, but as of now, the plan is just to tick over, slowly transfer $$ over to build the roll up on stars ready for the big plunge next year. Made Silver Star this month and should easily get Gold. Hopefully keep Gold during April when I won't be able to play many days, will just have to make sure I get a fair few points in on the few days I can play.
I also think I may of misjudged my calcs for next year, on my last post initially I said my aim would be for SuperNova 500k, looking at the VPP/Hand I am getting at the moment, I think realistically this may have to drop to 300k target unless I can get some big sessions in at 100NL, I guess time will tell.
After seeing Rammstein the other week, it def got me thinking I don't go to enough gigs anymore, used to go to loads. Next on this list is the Foo Fighters, I saw them at the Reading Festival in about 1996, even crowd surfed to them (was a bit lighter in those days !!)
Wish my hair would fooking stay like his instead of looking like some ink dipped hippy !!!
Foo Fighters - Best of of you (Live)
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Been Thinking
Brain hurts cos of it. But at last I have come to a decision on what I want to do with poker..........
First of all, nothing is gonna start in anger till May 1st. I am going to spend the next two months sorting out my health and fitness in preparation for what I want to do in the future. Everything I do is now geared around planning for next year.
In short, I have decided to give Stars a real bash, beginning with getting to SuperNova by the end of the year. Gonna build up some VPPs over the next two months, just so I can start May prob at Gold, Get Platinum in May and then go for SuperNova by the end of the year.
I have done some calcs ready for next year and I really believe SuperNova Elite will be beyond me, even if I play 100NL, working full time as well, will just be a bit too much. So my aim for 2011 will be to hit 500,000 VPP, then review from there.
Obviously all of the above depends on my state of mind, as it from what I have seen it can be truly soul destroying when you hit a bad run of variance, and when you are playing that many hands a week, it is gonna hit hard. I def have the bankroll to do it and I have already started moving the funds around, I expect I may even make a loss this year if I don't do anything else, but if I don't cash in any of my FPP's it could be a good year next year if I can stay close to breaking even. Of course the plan is to win at the table as well, but this will be a bonus as no one can play there A game when 20+ tabling.
All may change in the future, but for now this is my plan.
Still well up on the month, found I have lost my patience for MTTs so started to drift back to cash again, lets hope the gods can let my hands hold up for a bit, cos I know then I can crush the levels I play........cough.
Went to see the greatest live band on the planet a couple of weeks ago at the LG arena, 3rd time I have seen them and they were better than ever. If you ever get a change to go and see them, you just have to check them out.
Rammstein.
Short trailer from set
No real decent live footage that has good sound on, so here is just one of there many cool vids.
First of all, nothing is gonna start in anger till May 1st. I am going to spend the next two months sorting out my health and fitness in preparation for what I want to do in the future. Everything I do is now geared around planning for next year.
In short, I have decided to give Stars a real bash, beginning with getting to SuperNova by the end of the year. Gonna build up some VPPs over the next two months, just so I can start May prob at Gold, Get Platinum in May and then go for SuperNova by the end of the year.
I have done some calcs ready for next year and I really believe SuperNova Elite will be beyond me, even if I play 100NL, working full time as well, will just be a bit too much. So my aim for 2011 will be to hit 500,000 VPP, then review from there.
Obviously all of the above depends on my state of mind, as it from what I have seen it can be truly soul destroying when you hit a bad run of variance, and when you are playing that many hands a week, it is gonna hit hard. I def have the bankroll to do it and I have already started moving the funds around, I expect I may even make a loss this year if I don't do anything else, but if I don't cash in any of my FPP's it could be a good year next year if I can stay close to breaking even. Of course the plan is to win at the table as well, but this will be a bonus as no one can play there A game when 20+ tabling.
All may change in the future, but for now this is my plan.
Still well up on the month, found I have lost my patience for MTTs so started to drift back to cash again, lets hope the gods can let my hands hold up for a bit, cos I know then I can crush the levels I play........cough.
Went to see the greatest live band on the planet a couple of weeks ago at the LG arena, 3rd time I have seen them and they were better than ever. If you ever get a change to go and see them, you just have to check them out.
Rammstein.
Short trailer from set
No real decent live footage that has good sound on, so here is just one of there many cool vids.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Part Time Poker
Not played much since my last post, played a fair few MTT's with limited success. Made a few $$ on the Laddies Weekly 2010 Leaderboard race, could of done a lot better in it, but picked a bad week. I was actually leading it by over 100 points after 2 days, but had already got tickets to see Rammstein on the weds night, co couldn't play. Thursdays as you all know is my piss up night (not missing that) but missing two whole days out of the the whole week, was never gonna be good. Also picked up about $280 rakeback from last months play on VC, so overall about $400 up this month, so back in profit for the year....JUST !!!
I have decided I am not going to play much poker at all now until May when I return from my hols. I need to concentrate on my fitness levels and to get my weight down, I really have let meself go lately, I think I need to set some goals to get meself back on track.
On the subject of goals, my enthusiasm does seem to have wained a bit for poker, but my desire to get some serious wonga out the game is still there. Again I think I need to set myself some challenges to keep my interest up. I have seriously been thinking about going for Supernova on stars from May -> December. That would give me approx 8 months to get 100k VPP, I think that this could be pretty achievable and would definitely give me some focus as it would require some proper planning and discipline time wise to get there. I would probably look to do this at 50NL Full Ring, if anyone has any experience of this sort of grind, please feel free to leave some comments or drop me an email.
If all goes well and my game improves to cope with the massive swings the above will take, then I may even consider giving SuperNova Elite a bash, I know I would have to play a minimum of 100NL to get there as it is gonna need an average of 2740 VPP a day, which is some serious grind. I'm really not sure I could dedicate myself for a whole year to get there, but if you could do it and break even at the tables, it could pay a serious wedge of your mortgage, which is something, to me, would make it all worthwhile. Although the wife would prob have a hissy fit at me playing poker for 6-7 hours everyday !!!
But at least it gives me food for thought on where to head.........
Joan Osborne - One of us
I have decided I am not going to play much poker at all now until May when I return from my hols. I need to concentrate on my fitness levels and to get my weight down, I really have let meself go lately, I think I need to set some goals to get meself back on track.
On the subject of goals, my enthusiasm does seem to have wained a bit for poker, but my desire to get some serious wonga out the game is still there. Again I think I need to set myself some challenges to keep my interest up. I have seriously been thinking about going for Supernova on stars from May -> December. That would give me approx 8 months to get 100k VPP, I think that this could be pretty achievable and would definitely give me some focus as it would require some proper planning and discipline time wise to get there. I would probably look to do this at 50NL Full Ring, if anyone has any experience of this sort of grind, please feel free to leave some comments or drop me an email.
If all goes well and my game improves to cope with the massive swings the above will take, then I may even consider giving SuperNova Elite a bash, I know I would have to play a minimum of 100NL to get there as it is gonna need an average of 2740 VPP a day, which is some serious grind. I'm really not sure I could dedicate myself for a whole year to get there, but if you could do it and break even at the tables, it could pay a serious wedge of your mortgage, which is something, to me, would make it all worthwhile. Although the wife would prob have a hissy fit at me playing poker for 6-7 hours everyday !!!
But at least it gives me food for thought on where to head.........
Joan Osborne - One of us
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
All Change
Jan the 1st came and the plans for the year were all laid out. Bankroll aims, table selection, amounts to withdraw on a regular basis etc etc etc......
Jan the 26th and the toys truly went out the pram, a few mad tilt sessions and I had had enough of playing cash. If you are 15 tabling and you start tilting, it can be very expensive very quick.
I ended up withdrawing all of my money out of all sites, except for £200 in laddies and about $75 on stars. I also decided to take out about £1800 out of my bankroll to pay for the spending for the up coming Canada trip in April and pay of the odd other bits of stuff.
So its back basics, back to playing MTTs with maybe the odd 6 seater cash table when there is not much else about.
Yesterday was me first day back at the tables and went ok, played about 8 tournies and made 2 FT's coming 2nd in one and 4th in the other, although the 4th was in a Razz tourney with not that many runners. Also bubbled the FT on an omaha tourney, which was a bit frustrating as I got it all in with AAxx on the flop with the nut flush draw, the fish who called by all in with K6xx for the 2nd nut flush draw hit K and 6 on the turn/river for runner runner two pair, now that is foooking annoying, but c'est la vie. Hopefully tilt will be behind me soon (yes, I have said that before lol) but really gonna try not to let it get to me anymore.
Still not sure where to play me tournies yet, currently mainly playing on lads, but I know the pacific/littlewoods network has some good tournies on there, my m8 Ian took one down for a $12k payday in the last week or so, so they must be shite !!!
The one thing I did do after I had me little tanty snot rage was go back through all the hands etc and to be honest, I really didn't get shafted that much. I only ended 10 buyins down at the tables over about 27k hands, which is not the end of the world really and I have got a fair chunk or rakeback to come back which will cover most of that. I think the main reason for giving it a break is that I really don't want to go a whole year again being a slight losing player and making small change on rakeback, hence the reason to go back to MTTs. I will def be looking to sat into a few of the bigger tourneys and once I have got my roll back up again, start to look at buying in to €20 euro tourneys directly. I have left £3k in my poker savings account which is how I keep my bankroll seperate from my day to day money, and have about £300 online with about another £250 to come back in rakeback this month. Hopefully this will be enough to move forward.
Hopefully as they say on KrackedKings.....Big one coming !!!
New Order - Dreams Never End
Jan the 26th and the toys truly went out the pram, a few mad tilt sessions and I had had enough of playing cash. If you are 15 tabling and you start tilting, it can be very expensive very quick.
I ended up withdrawing all of my money out of all sites, except for £200 in laddies and about $75 on stars. I also decided to take out about £1800 out of my bankroll to pay for the spending for the up coming Canada trip in April and pay of the odd other bits of stuff.
So its back basics, back to playing MTTs with maybe the odd 6 seater cash table when there is not much else about.
Yesterday was me first day back at the tables and went ok, played about 8 tournies and made 2 FT's coming 2nd in one and 4th in the other, although the 4th was in a Razz tourney with not that many runners. Also bubbled the FT on an omaha tourney, which was a bit frustrating as I got it all in with AAxx on the flop with the nut flush draw, the fish who called by all in with K6xx for the 2nd nut flush draw hit K and 6 on the turn/river for runner runner two pair, now that is foooking annoying, but c'est la vie. Hopefully tilt will be behind me soon (yes, I have said that before lol) but really gonna try not to let it get to me anymore.
Still not sure where to play me tournies yet, currently mainly playing on lads, but I know the pacific/littlewoods network has some good tournies on there, my m8 Ian took one down for a $12k payday in the last week or so, so they must be shite !!!
The one thing I did do after I had me little tanty snot rage was go back through all the hands etc and to be honest, I really didn't get shafted that much. I only ended 10 buyins down at the tables over about 27k hands, which is not the end of the world really and I have got a fair chunk or rakeback to come back which will cover most of that. I think the main reason for giving it a break is that I really don't want to go a whole year again being a slight losing player and making small change on rakeback, hence the reason to go back to MTTs. I will def be looking to sat into a few of the bigger tourneys and once I have got my roll back up again, start to look at buying in to €20 euro tourneys directly. I have left £3k in my poker savings account which is how I keep my bankroll seperate from my day to day money, and have about £300 online with about another £250 to come back in rakeback this month. Hopefully this will be enough to move forward.
Hopefully as they say on KrackedKings.....Big one coming !!!
New Order - Dreams Never End
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Slow Start to the Year
Hellooooooo, the year hasn't started off to great, the days I can be arsed to play I have managed to get a bit of a grind on, played about 14k hands so far this year, but running -ev at the mo, so I am about 2 buyins down, although I am happy with the majority of my play at the moment, so can't really complain.
Not played as many tournies as I would of liked, as I haven't really had the time to sit put aside 6 hours or so to go deep in anything decent, so no news on that really, gotta tidy the house up a bit today, getting a bit lazy on that front, then hopefully try and get 3k hands in over the day and maybe a couple of tournies on the evening.
Speaking of tournies, the Stars World Blogger thingy is up at the end of the month, I have cashed in this a couple of times, so looking forward to playing this again. I would love to play on stars full time, might have to see what it would take to make supernova elite playing 25/50c tables lol, if its possible, might have a bash next year, now that would be a challenge.
Option 1
So the first tune of the year is has to be one of my fave artists of all time, he is the godfather of grunge and just probably one of the best live artists out there.
Neil Young - Cortez the Killer
Not played as many tournies as I would of liked, as I haven't really had the time to sit put aside 6 hours or so to go deep in anything decent, so no news on that really, gotta tidy the house up a bit today, getting a bit lazy on that front, then hopefully try and get 3k hands in over the day and maybe a couple of tournies on the evening.
Speaking of tournies, the Stars World Blogger thingy is up at the end of the month, I have cashed in this a couple of times, so looking forward to playing this again. I would love to play on stars full time, might have to see what it would take to make supernova elite playing 25/50c tables lol, if its possible, might have a bash next year, now that would be a challenge.
Option 1
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: 141319
So the first tune of the year is has to be one of my fave artists of all time, he is the godfather of grunge and just probably one of the best live artists out there.
Neil Young - Cortez the Killer
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