Game Over

Well it has finally happened, my love affair with poker is truly over. The effort required to keep on top of the game is now to me no longer worth it.

I look back over the last 10 years and the fun I have had and nearly all of it happened in the first 7 years.

The last 3 years, I have literally been flying solo. Moving to cash, with the amount of tables I have to play, I could no longer have the chat windows open on MSN with all the great people that I used to chat with on a nightly basis, I think I miss that more than anything.We used to have such a laugh it was untrue. Winning money seemed to be an added bonus to the craic that we used to all have. But I guess people move on, times change and attitudes change.

I actually only moved to cash as I could no longer put the time in for the 8 hour tourneys and the minimum of an hour playing regular sit and goes. I think I fooled myself in to thinking that with the experience I have in the game that it should be enough for me to tick over a small profit at the tables and make all the money back in rakeback, but the games are so much tougher these days, you need to study much more to just stay afloat.

I have therefore took all of my money off stars and have taken the tough decision to not play any more till at least October. Even then, I will not put any money back in to any poker site, I have about $60-$80 in bonuses that I have yet to cash in and that is all I am willing to use.

Its a shame in a way as I am running at about 3bb/100 at 5NL over 120,000 hands so far this year, so I do know the more I play the more money I will make, but for the amount that is coming in, I just can't be arsed.

The time I used to spend playing poker will now be spent back how I used to spend my time before I played poker and that is fitness training. I have neglected my health for to long. I already have my "before" photo from January the 1st, maybe the next post on this blog will be on New Years Even with a comparison to my "after" photo.

So thats it folks, I am sure I will keep in touch with a lot of my poker buddies on forums and on facebook, but for now, the poker dream is over.

Good Luck at the tables and may all your rivers in life be in your favour.

Goth.

Wannabe Millionaire - February Review

We all want to be rich don't we ? well I know for one thing, I won' be getting there fast playing 5 NL !!! however, if I live for a very very very very long time, I possibly maybe.

The goals I set for the month were, well to say the least, missed, but I did have a winning month. Stats as follows:-

Hands - 24418
Profit - +$61.13
VPPS Earnt - 523


Giraffe (spot the large drunken session, clue = cliff base jump)

The VPP ratio looks low only cos there was a promo in Jan which basically gave a VPP boost, but basically I did enough to just get to silver for the second month running.

I really am struggling to sit down at the table an grind sessions out. The most surprising thing is last year when I was losing constantly, I would happily sit there for hours pushing buttons and donating the mooonies. However this year when I am winning at +5bb/100 over 50k hands so far this year, I just can't be arsed to play.


As for studying, that may as well be a swear word in a convent at the moment as I would rather spend my time playing Windows Internet Backgammon at the moment than sit down and do a hand review session !!


So, what is the point of carrying on. Well, the short answer is, I don't actually know right now. What I do know is I still intend to carry on playing keeping a minimum of silver star status. I do still have a plan for moving up and my roll at the moment online is $387. At $400 I intend to change from 4 x 5NL zoom, to 3 x 5NL + 1 x 10NL Zoom. 


The strict bankroll plan I have for stars this year will ensure that I will at least break even at the tables and take home all of the bonuses etc, so to avoid the disaster last year of only just being ahead after rakeback.


I still have £1550 in my offline bankroll, but will probably use this for the odd live tourney and cash session, the only problem with that is the fact I only attend the casino on drunken nights out, which if the cards fall right can be very profitable as I found out at xmas, however, as I seem to turn into a raving bluff monkey wanting to show everyone at the table every bluff I make, it will eventually catch up with me. Hopefully I can get there sobre one day and a few of the regulars will remember me (oh yes, they will remember me lol) I can get paid off pretty lightly when I have the goods.


On a personal front, I have had the all clear from my last cardiology clinic and no longer have to go back. I still have an slight anomaly on my E.C.G but researching this  could actually just be a result of the seriously heavy training I did when I was swimming and body building in my youth as it is a common symptom in current/ex athletes. Or it could also be the result that I am currently a lazy fat pisshead.


The good news however is that I can start to do some proper training now. I have managed to lost over 20lbs without doing much training at all, so hopefully I can now increase that loss to get down to something that does not effect my health negatively like I believe it does now. I did a few weeks ago actually get below 14st for the first time this century, but a few too many footy games and takeaways have put another 1/2 stone back on since then. Hopefully this is a very short set back and will soon be back below that magic figure, with the ultimate goal of being 12 1/2 stone by the end of the year and ready to for 2015 when I intend to get back down to 11st and fit as fck.


Thats it for this month, been a bit of a long update as Grandpa Dirk was whinging about the length of the last post.


Oh and as it was long, I am not going to go back and check spelling, repeated words and paragraphs that don't make sense as I have missed key words out, hopefully you are all clever enough to get the drift, well.......


Toodle pip.

Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey - Jan monthly review.

Slow start to the year, only played 16850 hands, all at 5NL 6Max but ticked over at 5.6bb/100 which I am more than happy about for approx 9.5 buyins up on the month, will be more than happy to keep up that win rate if I can up the volume a bit. I only really played to keep Silver Status, will hopefully put a few more hands in this month.

Stats

Hands:- 16850
Total Profit:- +$47.25
VPPs earnt:- 501

Giraffe

Feb Goals

5 Hours Study
60K Hands