Had a Holibob !!

Not posted for a while, one reason being that I have been away on Holiday for a week in the beautiful Yorkshire Moors. It was the first time we have take our two new rescue staffies away on there hols since we got them in November last year. We weren't sure how they were going to react, but I can safely say they absolutely loved every minute of it. We hired a wonderful cottage in the middle of nowhere, with just the farmhouse and a few other smaller holiday lets. The nearest village was over 2 miles away called Glaisdale and that only had a butchers, general store and the mandatory pub. It really was heaven. We tried to pack in as much as we could during the day and never left the doggies on there own for a minute, where we went, they went: including the train ride on the North Yorkshire Moors Steam Railway. Its a journey we have always done with our previous dogs where we jump on the station at either Pickering or Grosmont then ask the driver to stop at the unmanned platform called NewtonDale Halt. There is then a beautiful 3 mile walk through the woods to the next station called Levisham, I highly recommend this to anyone, if you do decide to give it ago, be careful to check the train times to make sure you don't end up with a 2 hour wait at Levisham for the next train to return you to your car !!!

While I was away I thought about poker quite a lot. The main thought was basically: is it really worth all of the effort I am putting into playing for what now seems to be small profits. I think all forms of the game MTTs, Cash and SNGS have all moved on to a much higher standard and to be truthful, my game just hasn't. This really came to light looking at my results in April, where over a couple of hundred STTs I was actually slightly down at the tables which I thought over that large a sample I would never have that happen. It has also been the same story this month in the 150 or so STTs that I have played, again slightly down at the tables and only the reload bonuses and the Stellar awards giving me an overall profit.

My thoughts led me to the conclusion that I either just have to stop putting the hours in that I do and just go back to playing for fun, mainly low stakes MTTs, with the odd STT and sats into bigger MTTs. Option 2 is to pull my act together and get a coach. It was not an easy decision as I have quite enjoyed not having to stick to a routine every night that revolves around poker, but I have decided that I really do want the extra $$$ to pay my mortgage off as quick as I can and for this to happen I really need to concentrate more on the studying side of the game than I do.

I look back at what I have called "study" in the past and to be honest it has just consisted of watching cardrunners vids and reading through the forums. It is one thing to watch and read, its another to learn and adapt and I think that I have learnt a lot about poker by doing this, but never ever really learnt how to incorporate this extra knowledge into my game and improve overall as a player. This is the reason why I have decided to give a coach a go. I have contacted a site and have an offer with them which I intend to take up the next week or so.

Lets hope by the end of the year I can sit back and say, well I listened, I learned and now its paying dividends and have a decent profitable year. I am not looking to tear up the world, in fact I think all that I am after is a modest $750-$1000 a month in profit from the tables from approx 600-800 STTs and the odd MTT. That along with the rakeback and bonuses would make me more than happy.

I have also started back on to a new fitness program which has already started going well and I feel a lot better after only a few days. I weighed myself for the first time yesterday and came in at a whopping 15st 10 !!! which I think is only 2 lb lighter than the heaviest that I have ever been.

I will obv keep you all informed of my progress on both fronts.

Todays song is quite apt and if you wanna get stoned off your tits, the album "Sleeps with Angels" which this is off is a damn fine choice.......

Neil Young - Change your Mind