Zooooooooming back ????

Not quite give up poker totally just yet :-) Had a fantastic holiday away in Yorkshire with the wife and doggies, although we almost didn't go as on the Friday before we were due to go on the Saturday morning, Red my iccle old staffie started collapsing. We rushed the poor little fella to the vets who decided that he needed to have some x-rays to find out what was wrong, these were scheduled for the Monday, so the holiday was postponed for a few days while he had his tests. It turned out he has a very enlarged heart and a lot of fluid on his chest which was causing him to faint on any sort of exertions, so he was given some diuretics and some heart tablets which he now has to take for life. He was given the all clear to go on holiday. We eventually left on the Tuesday, which as we had booked the cottage for two weeks, wasn't really a problem. Luckily the tablets helped a lot and he was a different dog, not quite his normal self, but he was able to come with us everywhere we went and didn't leave our side for the remainder of the holiday. We know he won't last very long as its just a matter of time before his heart gives way, possibly a few months, maybe even as much as a year, but at least we can live with the memory of the holiday that we had with him and it was one of the best holidays I have ever had in my life.

The best thing that came out of the holiday is that I have now found out where I want to live, it will probably be when I retire in about 16 years time, but I live in hope of getting there sooner. Basically we came across a small little village called KirkbyMoorside. I have always said I want to retire to a place just like Alvechurch where I currently live that isn't Alvechurch. KirkbyMoorside has a much larger village centre with a load more facilities, yet the surrounding housing area is a lot smaller, giving it a much tighter nit community, there are many pubs and takeaways within walking distance, what more could a man want.

With the final destination for my life now sorted, I just need a cunning plan to get there as quickly as possible.

So, how do I get there quicker, well, you guessed it....POKER !!! While I was away, my priorities definitely changed from playing poker to spending more time with my family, especially with Red and his heart problems and also my current health problems which are still under investigation. However, there has to be a balancing point somewhere that I can fit in both. Playing Regular sit and goes, is just too time consuming. Even 9 tabling, If I was to play one session, I still would have to put aside 1.5 hours at least, this along with the fact that I am finding them mind numbingly boring has lead me to move back to the cash tables. I have decided to go back to basics so have dropped back to 10NL, For those regulars who read my blog, they will know I had a failed attempt at Supernova a couple of years ago 15+ tabling 50NL, basically breaking even even after the bonuses/rakeback. This was mainly due to the mass tabling. I believe I may have found a solution to this in the form of Zoom Poker, Poker Stars equivalent to Tilts old Rush Poker. This enables me to only have 4 tables open at a time, but still crank up between 1200-1400 hands per hour. So far things have gone ok this month, played about 20k hands and I am about 10 buyins up. Having only 4 tables open does allow you to follow the flow of the game much more, with the benefit of folding instantly hands you don't want to play and moving straight on to the next hand. I am still adapting my play to the nuances of playing zoom, but I think long term for me, it will be a lot more profitable/less variance than mass tabling regular tables.

I am also going to amend my bankroll strategy and take more aggressive shots at moving up than I normally would, which for me was always 100 buyins to move up. This time I am going to move up at 40 Buyins and moving back down at 30. I will still keep an extra £1000 back in a separate account as an emergency on top of what would be deemed my "Active" bankroll. I should get back to Silver Status by the end of the month. I have a week off planned in June while the wife is away in Rome with her friends which should allow me to really up the volume during that month and hopefully get to Gold Status, or if I can move up to 25NL during June, maybe even make platinum.

If things go really well during June an July, I have done some rough calculations that while playing zoom, it is feasible to get to supernova by the end of the year. This would the the ideal scenario ready for 2013, where if I could start on supernova level and then aim for 300k Supernova, some decent $$$$ would be coming my way, especially if I can get any sort of + BB/100 hands going at the tables.

So overall, even with Reds and my health issues, things are very positive at the moment and I am only looking ahead for the time being and not at the past which I have always been prone to do.

For now, Goth is back.........

AC/DC - Back in Black