Well thank fck may is over with, just plain and simple a bad month. I have looked back and gone through all of the big losing pots I have had and to be fair its about a 50/50 split between bad play and sick beats.
The only saving grace is that I will get $500 of the months losses back in the next few days when all the bonuses are paid back.
I didn't get anywhere near the 30k hands that I intended to play as after that mad tilt day I had, I just couldn't bring myself to sit down and 4 table for hours on end, so I finished up doing about my normal amount of hands which was about 16.7k
Gonna take it a bit easy next month, only playing when I feel like it, not cos I have to get a certain amount of hands in. Will probably play a bit more on NOIQ again, just to ensure I get some rakeback next month, as I am not sure I will play enough hands on laddies to get into the decent cash. The exchange rate is hitting the bonuses a bit as well, which doesn't help, been taking most of me $$ out of my accounts where I can, seems like the £ is only going one way at the moment.
Some good news in the fact we have decided where we are going on holiday next year, its the wifes 40th, so wanted to do something special. We have chosen Canada and are looking to book an all in one trip for 16 days with all of the tours booked in, if we get the trip that we are after it should be pretty cool, as there is a 3000 mile train ride across the country which I am really looking forward to, gonna have to do Niagra Falls as well, as its one of the places I have always wanted to see, I guess being an ex swimmer, I will always have a fascination with water.
Also starting "another" diet/fitness tomorrow, 1st June seems as good as any other day to start, really gotta stick to it this time, I look back through a lot of my old posts about all the positive thinking and fitness goals that I keep setting and yet none of them have paid off. I guess this time its now or never.
So lets hope June turns out to be a good month, 1k richer and 1 stone lighter, well, thats the plan anyway.
Todays track is from prob the best band around at the moment.
Poker is the strangest of games, massive highs followed by the deepest of lows. At the moment, I am in an all time low in my confidence. After the major tilt I had last week, I managed to pull myself together and pull back some of the loss over the 7 day period following, I did not play much, but when I did, I didn't make any mistakes.
Tonight however, I was back in my old calling station mode, stacking off too light yet again, I thought this was one of the leaks I had removed from my game, however it def reared its ugly head again. 3 times tonight I walked into sets and stacked off. Once with KK and I couldn't lay down post flop, even when I put him on a set or str8, I still called the river shove. Then stacked off with AQs on a QTx board after I had 3 bet pre and he flat called with TT. The final one was just a cooler after I raised pre with 88 and the board came T82. I bet the flop, got raised, I min raised and he shoved. My heart knew he had TT, but I am never folding in that spot, there are so many other hands he could have, I just would have to pay him off if he had it, which of course he did.
So after a good start to the month on laddies taking me 5 buyins up in the first two days, the next 17 days have been a 14 buying downswing, by far the biggest of my cash game playing days.
I thought I was prepared for it, but I guess I am not. the strange thing is, its not the actual amount of $$ that I have lost as I am well overolled, but its the blow to the confidence that I may not actually be able to make a profit out of this game and that I am not getting any better.
I really would like to take a couple of weeks off, but I might have to wait until June as of course if I stop now, I would end up losing my ground in the rake race on laddies which at the moment, if I can stay at my current loss for the month, will still make the month profitable as I would be getting $600 courtesy of lads/rake the rake.
The other annoying thing is that I always like to reach milestones, only small ones, but they provide me with incentives to play, the last one was just getting my laddies balance above £1000, which by the 8th of this month I had managed to do, however as you can see by the last 10 days or so, that balance has almost halved, again its not really about the money, its more about the failure.
So its def time to reflect on what to do. Some people say take a break, others say ride it out. I was one of the people that would always say ride it out if you are playing well, but at the moment, I don't think that is the case.
I think I will see how tomorrow goes, then I have got a live event down me local on weds, then a few winonas at the quiz on Thursday, so that will be a couple of days off at least. With the bank holiday coming up I think it might be a good idea to do a couple of day trips to take my mind of poker for a bit, hopefully this will clear the mind so I can get my focus back and start getting the graph pointing the right way again.
Anyway, for those of you haven't seen this clip, if you are as down as I am with poker at the moment, things could always be worse........always makes me smile
Oh, and if your not a poker fan and don't know who Dave Ulliot, the song is loosely based on one of my fave bands at the moment
Well, today I have learned a very valuable lesson. I am not ice cold emotionally at the tables. I thought I had learned to control myself and take all on the chin. But not today. I thought I had tilted on the odd occasion, but I was wrong, I now know what it is like to tilt properly. I just lost the plot and in the space of 3 hours, lost 7 buyins playing like a complete aggro fish, just trying to chase all draws and push everyone off whatever they had. Of course, I didn't hit any of the draws and they always had the nuts when I pushed in. The annoying thing is, I actually got me cards in ahead on some of the tilts, ie in the case where I 4 bet with 88 then snap called his 5 bet shove for stacks with it, he showed up with AK and the river obliged him the Ace for a juice 220bb pot.
Another annoying thing was that I had pulled back all the losses from last weekends muff beatings and was back on track for a good month, now I am only about $94 in profit after the rakeback and bonuses......Such a fooking fish. Still $2000 up on the year, but this way behind where I want to be.
Seriously thinking about getting some coaching, so might blow $500 of me roll on some of this, got a couple of peeps lined up from card runners who look like they would suit my personality. Maybe they can teach me a bit more about self control, which I obv have not got as much of as I first thought, maybe some meditation is needed.
Another good month, getting a bit worried though, I set some strict bankroll rules a while a go for moving up to 100NL, mainly being $7.5k bankroll and running at least 3ptbb/100 for the last 30k hands. I have ran at about 3.3ptbb/100 the last two months and my roll is now at $6.7k with all of this months bonuses to come, which means if all goes well this month, come the Start of June, I may have to jump out of my comfort Zone.
There was nothing special about this month, the only difference was actually winning on the laddies tables, as the players on Microgaming network def seem to gamble it up more than on NOIQ, getting it all in on flop for 100BB with an open ended str8 draw seems common place, even with 3 to a flush on board in some cases, abs bonkers. So obv plays like that ensures you get some crazy beats. Had my fair share of monsters getting cracked as well, had AA/KK cracked 4 times in 4 bet pots where they flat called my 4 bet pre and the chips went in on the flop, 3 times Q high flop, once a J high flop, obv in those cases they had QQ and JJ. So thats 400euro up the swanny str8 away.
After conversion to $$ finished the month up about $750, slightly less than last month, but I have still got $300 bonus off laddies/rtr to come, which will go into Mays profits, so overall, quite happy.
I'm off work now until next weds and the wife is on the piss in spain with her mates, so its gonna be some serious grinding over the next few days. I am gonna try and make 30k hands this month, just need to keep away from the pub for the next few days, which could be difficult as theres some good footy on over the weekend. I can't believe we pay about £55 for sky and multiroom so I can watch the footy at home and not disturb the missus and I still fook off down the pub and spend £20 watching the game down there !!! Still always good for the craic, if not the liver.
So back to the grind, i-tunes blasting out proper mans tunes of course.......
Woke up this morning feeling strangely positive about everything, dunno if its the chemicals from all the easter eggs, but I def feel different, almost as if all of a sudden, everything is gonna go my way. So, I guess I'll just have to wait for summat to come and smack me in the face and but me back down a peg or two.
Poker been going very well, had a great weekend, being up almost 6 buyins after converting to $$. Moving up the laddies rake race a lot easier than I thought I would, although I am going away this weekend, so will miss 3 nights of what would normally be my biggest points earner, which is a bit of a wounder. Might give it a real go in May if they keep the payout structure similar, I hear they are extending it to the top 3500, which is a shame, as it will surely mean the $$ being spread out more, but I'm gonna aim to come in the top 1000 at least and see where that gets me. Looks like I have found a way to get double rake payout as well, which will mean at least 60% rakeback which is cool. Not everyone can qualify for this as it depends on how you joined ladbrokes, but email me for details if you want, there is no harm in trying.
The $$ are also rolling in on NOIQ as well, not through rakeback, but through actual winnings at the tables. Since I have adopted a better table selection strategy on there, my winnings have gone through the roof, prob winning 800euro over the last 8 weeks on there since making the change, I didn't realise what a difference it makes, there is so much money to be made on that site if you find the right fish (and they don't suck out obv)
I also gotta give a mention to Ian, who was the subject of my post a couple of weeks ago. He got to the weekly final of the Littlewoods WSOP qualifier and was chip leader with 5 left, with the winner getting a $17k wsop main event package, he played some awesome poker, but it was not to be, eventually going out 3rd. I was absolutely gutted for him and I bet he feels the same. I think its only a matter of time before he brings down something real big, I think he has got a great future ahead of him in tournies, might have to get him to teach me a thing or to.
Off out this afternoon to visit my Mom, but hopefully will get a few hours in later in tonight and keep the good run going. So Ta Ta for now.....
March has turned out to be a very good month, in fact, at the cash tables its been my best month ever. Played just under 16k hands at 50NL and have ran at 3.42ptbb/100. This believe it or not is bar far my best winrate over a semi decent sample. It also should of been a lot better. As you can see by the months graph, it was a bit of a rollercoaster ride for the first 11k hands, as I was up and down like a crack whores scutty red G string. I made way to many river hero calls and stacked off light too many times. Sometimes you need to be burnt a few times before you stop putting your hand in the flame. I think I am starting to learn when I am beat and have started keeping away from marginal situations, where I am pretty sure I am beat, but would always call out of curiosity. I think I have mentioned this on my blog before, but sometimes you really have gotta go with your gut instinct, your not always gonna be right, but in the long run, making those big laydowns are probably gonna save you more money than you are going to make.
The last 5k hands it looks like I have ran hot, but I don't think I did, one thing I did change is table selection, before I would just look for a table with 3-4 full stacks and 1-2 60bb stacks. I still do this, but I now re-evaluate the play on the table as to whether or not its gonna be profitable to stay or not. If I don't think theres gonna be money flowing, or theres no fish, I get up and leave, there are plenty of other tables out there and better opportunities.
I know the winrate on my last 5k hands is unsustainable as I ran at nearly 10ptbb/100, but I can definitely see an improvement in my game, something I was beginning to wonder if was ever going to come.
I still have a problem value betting the river when big danger cards hit. This hand is a classic example. When the river hits, my mind automatically thinks he is calling with his set and has just boated up, or even worse has been slo playing his str8 flush, monsters under the bed as its called I think and I then check behind for safety. The crazy thing, if he had shoved, I would still probably have called, so why the fck don't I value bet it !!!
Still $900 profit for the month, I guess playing 50NL in euros helps, as the its sort of playing at 70NL really in terms of $$. I slight shift up I guess, i'm such a nit ;-))
I guess I still have a lot to learn and have to control my fears more and take the fish to value town........Until the next post, GL at the tables and don't be fooled in the morning.
Well the headline of this post may shock you, but it must be true I now have overwhelming proof.
One of my bestest buds Ian (tipster), who was me best man when I got married in Vegas plays a bit of cards himself. In fact he does know a fair bit about texas holdem poker, however as I've know him for 20+ years now, he is, and always will be a big floppy fish to me.
To be fair, the guy is quite an intelligent little muppet and the aging process has been fairly kind to him over the years, he even has a few marbles left in his bag at the age of 50, although he does have a remarkable resemblance to Mr Bean, which his kids remind him on a daily basis.
So, back to the reason why poker is easy. Tipster has recently being dipping his big fishy gills in a proper ocean, namely the poker one that is called Pacific. He has been mainly playing sngs after he managed to con a free copy of sharkscope of some dodgy affiliate probably. Even more suprisingly, he has been doing quite well. In fact so well he has started playing way above his station and entering the 50$ 20k guaranteed. After a few near misses, the big fat tench made a final table and cashed for about $1.1k, which is bigger than any tourney win I have had so far, I couldn't believe it, he must of dished out some serious muff on the way. However the man did not stop there, a few days later, the whale did it again, this time he came 3rd pulling in an even nicer $2.4k. To say I was stunned is an understatement, but I was really chuffed for the little fella.
So you may think it stops there, but no. I was grinding away at me normal 50NL 6 max on Friday night when shortly after midnight I had had enough and decided to hit the sack early for a change. I always take me mobile to bed as I am on call for work, but I was soon spark out asleep. At about 01:45, my phone started buzzing and I was relieved it was just a text, which at least it meant it was not a call off work. But intrigued to know who the fck was texting me at that time in the morning I checked it out and almost passed out with the shock. The text was from Ian and simply said "Ooh, Just WON 20k G, 5.4k - I am legend"
Well what can you say, I was speechless, the fish had grown up into a shark. It can't just be luck to make the FT of that tourney 3 times in 10 days, I really have to bow down to the man and smile with extreme happiness and and green with envy.
The only thing the mupp did wrong was to tell the wife, which has now cost him a trip to Barcelona and a kitchen refurb, when will he ever learn.
So, I guess this little tale should be inspiration to everyone who plays poker. You def don't need to be the best online poker player in the world to bring home some decent bacon, just a little effort in learning the game properly is required, along with a few prayers to the poker gods that dish out the muffs and we can all be running around our lounges at 1:45am in the morning in our underpants screaming "WHOSE THE DADDY" !!!!
Time to get me canoe out on that ocean I think. Its Poker Time for me.......
So todays song is dedicated to you dude, you are truly a god amongst men and when I grow up, I wanna be just like you.........you are my hero
I know this milestone is not much for some people, but for a small stakes player like myself its quite a psychological boost.
I have always kept very accurate records of my profits and loss since I first started playing in December 2003 and as of last night, I officially went through the $20,000 profit margin since I first started. I am really pleased, as I have been hovering just under it for quite a while now, but never going above it, but 5 winning days on the trot on the cash tables got me head above it, and hopefully will stay there.
I guess the next milestone is $50,000 profit. Lets hope that can come before the end of 2010 !!!
Yep, actually been playing some poker for a change. So far this month I have played over 11k hands on NOIQ and I am running at just over 1ptbb/100. Which although not outstanding, is at least in profit. Been a tough grind though. I have been muffed, given out some muff and made some muff calls. So, you could say its been a bit of a muffy month !!!!!!!!
Managed to win me biggest pot so far, all in 3 way for stacks post flop and of course, numpty here, has to get it in with the worst of it, pretty positive I was behind, but with an almost certainty that all 3 were going in, I thought it was worth a punt.
Also managed to get it all in pre tonight with JJ against a loose muff who I thought was at it, only to find he actually did have AA. But the poker gods were with me and a flop of J44 bought a big grin to me face, especially as I didn't even see it as i had the reload window up and only realised I had won the hand when I got the transaction failed message on me reload as I was above the max, always a pleasant surprise that one.
If you looked at my graph over the 11k hands, it looks like one of those blippy things on a life support machine, so up and down its untrue. I am still making some horrific calls, especially when I get raised on the river. I totted it up over the month and I have donked off over 4 buyins with shitty river calls when if I actually sat back and thought about the way the hand had played out it was an obvious fold.
Overall enjoying it on NOIQ, there seems to be a lot of regs, and as I can't datamine, I end up having to play with them to build up some stats to find out which ones are just nitty rake racers as opposed to the ones that can actually play.
Getting the bonuses isn't as easy as I thought it was gonna be, prob only gonna get about 100e max + $100 from my affiliate, not like the good old days of sun when they were on crypto, getting $200 bonus easy and then your 40% rakeback on top !!! Although to be fair, the bonuses on NOIQ do look good better value the more VIPs you get, but you realistically gotta be playing at least 100NL, or be 6 tabling 50NL for 60 hours a week to get summat decent. Maybe one day......
Still, will keep on grinding on. Ta Ta for now and keep on muffing.
Feb ended with big slump, was up on the month going into saturday night when I started having disco problems on Sun Poker, I spent half an hour trying to sort it to no avail, so decided to call it a day for the month so mooched around on the forums for a bit, it was to be my last day on there for a while, so wasn't that bothered, being up on the month was happy too. While mooching the forums, found a couple of people having the same issues as me, so I thought I would try a couple of the resolutions. At first they didn't seem to work, but lo and behold after 30 mins, it seemed stable enough to play. Well, I think you can guess what happened next, yep, I played like a complete and utter cock and managed to donk off almost 3 buyins and ended up the month $84 down overall, was sooooo mad at meself. I still seem to play solid poker for 90% of the time, then have 1 or 2 days when I have a rush of blood and lose 2+ buyins in short succession through bad play. So following this, I did what any normal person does and withdrew my whole roll from sun, that will teach them to fck around with me !!!
So, 1st of a new month, new hope and a new site, well, not new, but back to NOIQ now on the enteraction network. I had played a few hands on there last month, just to test out holdem manager and get some sort of hud set up. I wasn't to be disappointed, the players on there seemed awful and for once my hands held. For the first time since I have being playing 50NL cash, I actually finished the day over $200 up after conversion (Was approx 160euros)
Was looking forward to getting some more hours in on there tonight, but it looks like the site is fcked at the moment, with waiting lists 18 deep on my tables and constant hangs on my PC, so might have to have a little dabble on laddies cash, see how it goes.
Full of hope and optimism at the moment, poker is such a wonderful game when your hands hold up, lets hope i don't lose the plot and try to avoid the temptation to try to outplay my opponents who have no fold button on there little scandi screens.
Been a real frustrating few days at the tables. It seems that when I play bad I just lose loads of money, no muff reward days for old Goth, unlike the fish who constantly play bad and seem to get rewarded all the time. When I play well, I either have smallish winning days, or I get muffed to fck.....This weekend I feel I have played quite well and just got a bit unlucky. I guess thats just the way it is. I so want to stick with 6 max as I really do enjoy it when it goes to plan, but at the moment, i'm not sure I am good enough to be more than just a break even player. I guess for the time being I need to ensure that I am getting some decent bonuses just to cover the learning stage, which at the moment seems to be taking longer than it does to teach a blonde to tie her shoe laces !!!
I have therefore decided to go back to NOIQ next month and try and grind out some bonuses and maybe even make a bit in some of the races. Although I am away on courses for work for 6 days out of the month, so will be missing a bit. The wife is away in spain for a week though, so might be able to do some serious grinding at the tables.
Ignore the two previous posts, as I am just gonna use them as blog entries to keep a track of me big winning hands and losing hands from a link at the side of the blog.
One good thing is that I am no longer losing it when I get stiffed on the river, days of flying mice and roaring expletives that make the dog shoot up the stairs in shear terror. The tilt is well under control, well for now anyway.
As this is in euros, I think this may be one of the biggest pots I have ever won. Was close though, when the chips went in on the turn, I was 50/50 vs one of the other two, always nice to see them hold.
Really struggling to find the enthusiasm to play poker at the moment and I am not sure why. When I do play i don't seem to be doing that bad, cash tables I am up. Struggling to get any momentum going in any mtts, but I always find my tournie results tend to come in streaks , also as I am only playing a few a month anyway, I can't really expect that much.
Had a couple of interesting hands in the space of 5 mins on a 50NL table on iPoker this evening.
This hand was against the table fish and he is the reason I am sitting at the table, typical loose nutcase playing 56/24. Unfortunately I couldn't get on his left, but I still want to get in as many pots with him as possible. Of course the result was not what I wanted and to be fair he actually played the hand quite well. Be interested to hear any comments on how I played the hand and whether or not you think I could of got away from it cheaper at any point.
The next hand happened about 5-6 hands later, I had got dealt AA and had 3 bet the villain pre and he had to fold, so it is highly likely that he may of thought I was tilting a bit when this hand came to fruition. As it happened, I think i played it perfectly, although the flat call pre was possibly the only error.
Only played about 2500 hands this month, which is pretty poor, got a few clear nights now, no more parties etc for a good two weeks, so hopefully should be able to grind at least another 5000 out by the end of the month, will not be the 10k I hoped for, but should do for now.
Very conscious I have not been updating me blog lately, dirk keeps giving me stick for it, so a bigger effort is needed. Gonna try and get a better hand section for the bigger winning hands and maybe a few of the bigger losing ones as well, just gotta work out how to do it within this damn blog dashboard, gotta be an easy way somewhere to store a page with a load of hand history links out there on another page/link, if any of you bloggers out there have any advice, feel free to leave a comment.
Todays track will always bring back memories of my first festival, it was reading in '95 I think. The first artist I ever saw was Heather Nova in one of the side tents. I clearly remember walking in and her first song she played was "sugar" and as the bass bellowed out, I could feel my diaphragm shaking booming, was an awesome feeling. Chose a different track today though, prob cos I couldn't find a decent version of sugar.
Been reading through my last post and thinking a lot. I think one of the biggest mistakes when trying to make changes to your life is to just jump in and try an do things to quickly. Its back to the scenario about changing the autopilot. Your can't really just flick a switch on hit and expect to head of in the right direction and stay on course.
So I plan to use February as a phased change. The changes will hopefully work on all aspects of my life and not just poker. Just subtle changes day by day, which by the end of the month will ensure that these are done automatically without thinking.
So thats the psycho bullshit out the way, now what about the poker !! Well Jan went ok, proper middle of the road stuff. Only played about 5k hands in total. But finished the month approx $330 up, most of which was again rakeback and bonuses. Probably not going to play that many hands this month either, aiming for about 10k this month. Going to watch a lot more cardrunners stuff and really try to put into practice what I see on there, which quite often I don't, not sure why as its glaringly obvious that it works. Def need to stop being so nitty and open up my game a bit.
Decided to stick on iPoker 6 Max 50NL for Feb as I have some bonuses to clear off on SunPoker. So will concentrate on playing there.
Laddies are moving over on to the Prima network and are doing some interesting stuff regards the cash tables there. Gonna be interesting to see how this pans out, depending on the traffic and the fish count, might give that a look in during March.
I really just want to settle down on one site that I am happy with, good fish, plenty tables, good bonuses and either decent rakeback/VIP. I think by the middle of the year I will of chosen my cash home and then really try and crank up the hours.
My ultimate aim for the year is that by december I am playing 30k+ hands per month at 100NL and running at least 1.5ptbb/100. Will be happy with that ready to build on it for 2010. Poker is very much about the long term and for now thats what intend to use February to plan for.
Well the new year started and this was going to be the year my poker kicked on to a new level. The aim was to be a solid winner on the 6 seaters and become a much better player, with the obvious bigger profits to come. Well, I started to play on day 1 and I found it hard to pick up the enthusiasm to play. I stepped back and thought to myself "what do I really want to get out of this year" and I came up with a rather simple answer. Health and Happiness. Somewhere along the line, I have gotten all my priorities wrong. I've been spending far too many hours sat on me fat arse, grinding low stakes cash tables, for what amounts $500 a month. My health has suffered through lack of exercise and I have definitely not spent enough time with my friends and family. I haven't even hit a golf ball since November 2006, A game that I used to love so much, playing every opportunity I got, now just seems a dim memory. So I will be dusting the clubs down and hopefully give my good online buddy jat7065 a whipping.
So a decision has been made. My poker schedule is now going to fit around the rest of my life, not my life fitting in around my Poker schedule. I still intend to try and get 20+ hours in a week, but I won't be putting other things off now for fear of missing a fews hours at the tables, getting rakeback and grinding out some bonuses. Its all gonna be about quality rather than quantity.
Interesting enough, my very first session of the year, I played what I thought was my best poker ever, I felt I made the correct decision on everything I did. My stats were more aggressive than ever,making the right moves at the right time. Yet in the space of 20 mins, I got dealt KK twice and both times getting it all in pre finding my oppo with AA. i eventually left the session just over a buy in down and strangely feeling very good about it. I have managed to get away from a result focused mentality and left feeling good about all of my decisions, which in the long term will make me a more profitable player. I have managed to pull the loss back and I am in profit for the year, but not much.
I have started reading "The Poker Mindset" a book I had for christmas. Nearly all of the issues that it brings up that stop you being a truly big winning player I have and I desperately need to expel these thoughts from my head while I am playing. I def think I will need to read the book a couple of times at least to try and put into practice the ideas that they are trying to put across, hopefully I can use my time more wiseley to do this.
So my first priority now has to be my health. This time I am going to try and reprogram the auto pilot in me, so that I will not stray off the right course. Too many times I have just grabbed the steering wheel and headed of in the right direction for a period of time, then soon as I let go of the wheel, the ship just turns right back to where it is comfortable going. With my background in swimming and training full time for two years, I have all the mental tools to do this and all of the knowledge I gained sudying nutrition over the years now needs to be put into place for ME, not just dishing out advice to others.
As part of an incentive to change, I have started taking a weekly photo in just me tracky bottoms, visual stimulation of seeing your body change can act as a real spur. If all goes well, I may even publish it at the end of the year, maybe for all you fans of my facebook "speedo" pic, do another one, this time i'll tuck me bush in !!!
So for the first song of the year, its one about decisions.
Well, with 2009 just around the corner, I thought I had all my plans set up ready to go for next year, then NOIQ announce they are moving away from iPoker, which throws the whole of it up in the air !!
Still not sure what to do, but will probably tinker about on a few sites in Jan before deciding where to play for the rest of the year.
Still gonna concentrate on cash, even though my records show that I made a slight loss over the year at the cash tables. Overall though, finished the year $6150 in profit, which is up on 2007, so can't really grumble. But most of that was from bonuses and rakeback, along with a couple of $1k promo MTT wins, I guess $$ is $$ at the end of the day, but I need to be winning at the tables to even consider moving up to the next level.
I have set my goals for 2009, will post what they are once Jan is in full flow and I have a better idea which sites I am gonna play with.
Overall 2008 has been a great year for me. Got a lot of work done on the house, new car, pay rise at work and still alive after all of the mad drinking binges.
Lets hope 2009 is even better, especially on the poker front, as I need to move to the next level if I am to fulfill my dream of playing poker full time for a living by May 2012, Happy new year to all of you that take the time to read my blog. I hopefully plan to put more into it next year and make it more interesting !!
The one great thing about xmas shopping, is my xmas shopping day with my bud Stu. The day out is now legendary in our workplace and is now in its 19th year. The day consists of a big fry up breakfast at about 09:30. Then the traditional first pint in the Yard of Ale pub on New St in Brum at about 10:00am. Now this pub is amazing, in the 20 years that I have been going in there the only thing that has changed is the brand of cider and the now lack of fog from fags pf the customers, whose average age must be over 100. The decor, the layout, the carpet have not changed since time began, truly a pub amongst pubs.
The day then continues with a bit of shopping, then on to the next pub. I think you then start to get the jist of things. By 1pm, the time spent in the shops is exactly in proportion to bladder control and the need to get to a toilet to empty the previous pubs beverage. The only place to go to the bog is of course, another pub. A pattern quickly emerges.
The day always ends up with us in one of brums many casinos. The last two years, I have played in whatever tourney was going when I landed. This year, there was no tourney, just one cash table so I thought oh well, not going to play any poker. So sat at the bar and as we were so drunk we could not drink any more cider we did what any sensible human being does. Yes, you've guessed it, start drinking double Jack Daniels and ice, you know it makes sense. It was at approx 10pm we realise that we had not yet eaten as our normal routine of eating at 6pm was changed as another m8 met up with us on his way to the annual Pogues xmas gig, so we had to entertain him for 4-5 pints. So we managed to get some food, then Stu decides to call it a day and leave at midnight. I decide I need more drink so stay, with my eyes firmly set on the cash table. I drift over and see what is going on. As you all know, I play cash online at the 25c/50c tables at the moment. So, when I get to the table I find that they are playing £2/£5 well beyond my limits, so I walk away, not home, like I should of, but str8 to the cashier and whip out £500 and sit my arse firmly in at the poker table with the live fish.
So, the one thing in my favour when I sit down is body language. I can't see my cards cos I am that pissed, so if they get a read on me, fook knows what signals I will be giving off. Now this is where you all think a large tale of woe and bad beats is gonna come out. But no. Basically, they were shit, unbelievably shit.
The game started off interestingly, when I picked up KT sooooooted and raised. The dealer picked up one of my chips and threw it back at me. I thought thats strange, but carried on regardless. Now, when it got to the 6th time he did it, I had to say something, ie "why the fck do keep giving me some of my chips back when I raise ??"........"Its pot limit, SIR" came the polite but stern reply. I could feel myself blush as I realised I had played over 1/2 hour not even knowing it was Pot Limit, what a twat....
This didn't alter the fact that they were poor and played any ace from any postion. I am not the greatest cash player in the world, but even in my drunken state, somehow I managed to take about £300 off them. I think I might even try and go back sobre one day and see how I get on then, although I think when playing sobre, I might be thinking a bit too much about the money.
The following few days were a bit of a blur, as Tuesday saw me have the hangover from hell vowing never to ever drink again, but vows are made to be broken of course.
Online, I have hardly played at all, just had too many things to do for xmas. The only real thing of note was managed to come 58th in the Stars World Blogger tourney, which got me a few step 3 ticket for my troubles, not much to shout about I know, but it was free, so can't grumble.
So its all go for xmas now, can't wait, looking forward to a day in the pub on boxing day, starting off watching ManU at 12:30, hanging on in there to watch the mighty Villa give the Arsenal one up the arse !!!
So a big merry xmas to all of you out there, hope santa emptys his sac all over your lounge....
I hate xmas songs and carols an all that shite, so gonna put up one of of my fave slow songs from one of my fave artists.
Playing at the moment while typing this, 6 buyins down. 4.5 of them I am happy with my decisions.
So, question. Should I still be playing. People say you should have a stop gap when you are losing. My stand on it, is if you start making bad decisions, only then should you stop. although, I can honestly say 1.5 buyins I lost were cos of tilt.
I am a very calm person, I control all of my anger and hide it inside. But does this just create a capped volcano awaiting to pop ?? Time will tell.
Sessions like tonight really do make you query why you do it. I think I am doing something fundamentally wrong at the level I am playing at. Someone with my experience should be able to beat this level quite comfortably. I have heard that some people when they move up find it easier, tempted to try this, but could be an expensive lesson.
Already wrote this month off, close to scrapping the years stats as when I look at them, they make me start thinking of what could of been. 5.5k up after 6 months of year and now only 6.2k up............
Just want to start a afresh next year, but why wait. Might just clear my stats and start now !!
Well maybe the weekend..............
If being a good player is Venus, this is how far I am away from it at this very moment (Courtesy of jat7065)
Bit late with the stats this month and no pretty graph either as I have played cash across a few sites that don't support PT3.
Finished the month in profit for about $340, taking the yearly profit back up to approx $6600.
Hardly played the last two weeks of the month, not sure why really, just could not seem to fit it in, so only played about 15k hands, well short of the 20k target. So def gonna make sure that I hit the 20k hands in December.
Managed to reach Green VIP Level on NOIQ for December and will almost certainly move up to Blue ready for the start of January. The plan is to grind Jan/Feb and hopefully be at the brown VIP level ready for March. Then will see if it really is possible to get up to the Black level. Theres a big jump between Brown and Black, 20k points up to 50K points. Will prob need to be be playing min 40k hands I reckon. Might even add some SnGs to help as well.
December has started off badly, dropping almost 6 buyins in the first few days. The annoying thing is that I don't feel that I have done nothing wrong, just not been paid off when hit and not hitting much else, no bad beats, just slowly leaked away a shed load of cash. I guess this is something that the best cash players just don't do.
Once thing November has taught me is how far I am away from being a decent cash player. As I said in a previous post, it looks like over the year I am going to be slighly down overall on the tables and only in profit due to rakeback and bonuses, some people might say a profit is a profit, but I do want to get to the stage where I am at least a consistant 2ptbb/100 winner when grinding out the hours.
Still feel fairly positive. Have worked out my bankroll plan and goals for next year, will drop those up here in the next few days.
As for todays song, I guess with the title of this entry, there could only be one track to choose.
Last Saturday saw a break from the drudgery and grind of the online world and a venture into the bright lights of live poker and what a weekend it was.
I quite often visit the laddies forum, which is a home for all the reprobates that started most of their poker life on Ladbrokes. Laddies used to have their own forum, which was very active, but sadly for whatever reason they shut it down. Fortunately, thelodger, one of the forums more active members decided to setup a new forum in homage to the old. So www.laddiesforum.com was born. The commnity spirit on this forum is second to none, it really is like one big happy disfunctional family. Lots of love, lots of rows, a real typical family atmosphere and once your are part of it, it is difficult to not keep popping back to see what is going on.
So, back to the weekend. The forum, decided to organise a live tourney for all to play in. The venue chosen was Dusk Till Dawn (DTD) poker club in Nottingham, a truly magnificent venue for live poker. There were 72 entrants, all members of the forum, with lots of online buddies all raring to have a quiet drink with each other.
I decided, rather wisely, as it happens, to arrive on the Saturday. Others, inlcluding a wild bunch from the Emerald Isle all turned up on the Friday and starting drinking on the lunchtime. As you can imagine a wild time was had by all, including a starter bout in preparation for the Ricky Hatton fight the following night.....They were not a pretty sight on the saturday.
I managed to get a few beers in when booking into the hotel and met a few of my online buddies before heading off to DTD. The club was very impressive and laddies had done a great job sponsoring the event. A few more beers were had, then the tourney started. As I sat down on my table, my immediate thought was, "oh fck, I might as well go home now" My table consisted of - thelodger, spread, RiverMaid, PaulScot1, banksoir, calita-reese (MrsLizard) richlizard and Ken007. At least I could get to the stts early and get some beer down me......
With 5000 starting chips and 30 minute blinds, there was plenty of room for play. I would like to tell you about all of the wonderful plays I made and how I managed to hide all my fears and dominate the table. But....as you can guess, it just didn't happen. In fact, I was completely card dead all of the tourney, considering we started with 5000 chips, I can't remember getting above 7.5k, but somehow managed to hang on until the last two tables eventually going out 18th, with hammy rivering an 8 with J8, vs my A9 push, he had to call, no choice as I was short stacked.
The only real hand of note, was one I won by a technicality. The hand also proves how good the spirit is amongst the community. I think we were down to the last 3 tables and I, like all tourney was short stacked. I had about 2.4k and the blinds were 300/600, I had to make a move. I saw what I thought was emmerson post his Big Blind and I looked down and saw QJ, so I pushed. It was at this point, I realised, emmerson wasn't on the big blind, but had raised UTG, what a twat I was, I was done for. It all folded round to patyp who was on the big blind, who re-raised. I was def fcked now. Emmerson thought for a while and mucked, then the killer punch. patyp had not noticed I had pushed and mucked his cards thinking he had won the hand. The dealer pointed out that I was all in and the chips for mine. Was not my fault, but was expecting summat to all kick off, but no, patyp just accepted the decision with no qualms whatsoever, the only cursing that went on was him kicking himself he had not noticed. I have to take my hat off to him, I think a lot of other people might have reacted differently, so well played patyp, your a credit to the game.
It was shortly after that I met my final demize and went searching for more Winona and some sit and goes, which I found both and continued endulging till 5am when I was deserted by all and had to catch a cab on my own back to the hotel, annoyingly finding at 5:15am, the bar was shut, ffs, whats wrong with this country.
I met so many wonderful people, it would not be fair to single anybody out, but I suggest if you have not paid a visit to the forum, follow the link on the left of the blog (not an affiliated link) and join in what is the wonder of The Laddies forum.
