Guess who is back???

 Yep, Gothman has decided to dip his toe back into the fish pond and start playing some pokes again !!!

Had a lot of work on the house done recently and it looks like my mortgage will now not be paid off for when I plan to retire in 4 years, 4 months time. So a cunning plan is required to help the payments along.

As I still have a VirginOne all inclusive account, my interest rates have gone through the roof, so some serious binkages are required over the next 4 years to ensure Goth can retire a happy little man and live his dream to move to Devon/Cornwall/Somerset with wifey and the pooch.

Starting off small, just plonked in $50 into GG Poker which seems to be the biggest network now Stars have fooked it all up since dropping the super nova scheme.

Just using some of the free tickets as part of the joining bonus and already up to $73, so long may that continue, not sure what I am gonna play yet, probably mix it all up with cash/rush/AOF and tournies.

So lets see how it goes, wonder if Dirky will start whinging again when I don't update me blog regularly.

Watch this space.

Goth is back......

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

Waste of a Year !!

You can probably guess by the lack of updates what the poker year has been like. To put it mildly, I need to either improve dramatically or just not bother, but as you can guess, I am not going to give up just yet.

I have finished the year $122.22 in profit AFTER rakeback and bonuses, which is a big concern as I played approx 670,000 hands this year, mainly at 25NL zoom.

So what happened, well basically, if you look at my top 10 losing sessions of the year I would of broken even at the tables and thus been at least a $2k up. It seems that my lack of focus or playing at certain times, ie when pissed or when not really in the mood takes up more of a toll than I imagined. The good news I guess is that if I can limit those sessions there is hope in making some reasonable $$.

I was hoping that I could pay for a new car out of this years winnings, but I can just about fill my existing one up with some fcking petrol !!

So the plan is simple, I am going back to basics. Changing from Full Ring down to 6 Max and dropping right back down to 5NL Zoom with an initial online bankroll of £150. I still have an offline roll of £1550, which I will always keep separate for reload bonuses. I will not however use this for topping up my account at all, if I start losing, I will drop down levels, if I go bust, I give up it is that simple.

I have setup a withdrawal plan and moving up/down plan which is slightly less conservative than I have at the moment, also any bonuses will not count to moving up at all. So again, if I am not winning, I give up.

I know I say this a lot, but I hope to post more, I would like to setup a PGC thread on 2+2, but not sure that I would keep it up, so I might just post up an initial thread with the goals and see how it goes and update it once a week, if it gets any followers, will then maybe update it more regularly, will prob x-post on to here as well, which is a bit lazy, but who cares.

My primary focus for 2014 is going to be my health, if I can manage to fit quality time with my family and friends and squeeze in 100k hands per month, that would be ideal, but if something has to give, it will be the poker volume.

Thats enough shit for now, hope you had a merry xmas and wish you all a happy new year.

Goth.

Steep Learning Curve

Apologies for the lack of updates, but 2013 seems to have just flown by, it seems only days since the grind for supernova began on Jan 1st.

The grind is going a lot slower than expected, I was ahead of schedule on Jan 1st, but since then I have slowly been falling behind the pace. This was to be expected as I knew that at some point I would have to move up to 50NL to have a chance of reaching my goal. What I wasn't expecting was the amount of VPP per hand being approx 20% lower. This has put me further behind schedule than I had planned for, so I will need to up the grind or move to 50NL quicker.

The other option is to add some 10NL zoom tables, however I would rather not do this until I am winning at a constant level at 25NL. I am currently down at the tables overall on the year by a few buyins, so I don't think it would be a good idea to add tables while I am not in profit pre rakeback.

I managed to play just under 100k hands in January which is the most I think I have played in a month before and I am on schedule to play about the same this month. My losses at the tables have really come down to about 6 to 7 days losses. In Jan I did manage to have 1 day where I was 13 buyins down, which was really annoying that the time as I was winning at about 5bb/100 until that particular day. It was just one of those days where I was running KK into AA and when I had AA, KK was sucking out. I also manage to have 3 top sets vs lower sets where they rivered quads after all in the money had gone in on the flop or turn.I did also manage to hit quad 9s on a QQ9x9 board where the villain had flopped quads and played it perfectly when all the money went in on the river.

The one bad thing about grinding is that there are many days where you just don't feel like playing, are tired, or just are generally in a bad mood, I have had a few days like this and have tilted 4+ buyins off. Its these days that I need to take note of and learn by my mistakes. I am not sure what to do, ideally I still need to play, but I need to be very mindful of my mood and if I detect any sort of adrenaline going or see myself 4 bet bluffing in a stupid spot, I need to force myself to stop straight away. It might be wise when these days happen that I do stop playing and use the time for studying instead, at least then some useful poker activity will be happening !!

The other addition to the learning curve I need to adjust is playing pissed after the quiz on Thursday nights. It was unfortunate at the end of last year and at the start of this year I had a few small winning sessions when I was doing this, which gave me the false reasoning that 6 pints of Winona does not effect my play or judgement at all, the last two Thursday nights with a total loss of about 10 buyins has proved this to the contrary !!! I def need to stop playing. I still have about £30 in one of my iPoker accounts, so I might just force myself to play some 1c/2c 6 max on there if I want to blow some steam off when I get back !!

One thing I am pleased is that I am studying a bit more, still nowhere near as much as I would like and I am not yet posting hands on forums etc like I should. I decided to buy leak buster and it immediately identified some critical leaks in my game which I have started to adjust, it did spot quite a few leaks that I knew I had and even tell myself while I am playing that I am doing it, but still carry on. Hopefully I can keep ironing them out one by one and get my game more consistent.  I still have a massive leak in paying people off to much when I know I am beat, I still can't help myself calling with my big hands knowing full well he has the exact hand I have put him on, its almost if I have to call to prove that my hand reading skill is spot on !!! as I watch the pot go his way and I say "I knew he had that"

Been a bit of a long post, hopefully won't be as long until the next one.

Goth.

2013 Review and Onwards

Well the year has come to an end poker wise as I won't be playing any more hands till the 1st Jan, a full 3 days off !!! WooHoo !!!

I am not sure what to think of how the year has gone really, I should really be pleased as its my most profitable year so far, but this was mainly down to luck boxing a $5k+ payout in an 800 runner tourney. I shouldn't really worry about how I win the money I suppose, but I can't help thinking it could of been a lot better. Saying that, I believe that it is the first year I have actually been in a profit on the cash tables over a 12 month period, which is a sign of progress in the right direction.

 The yearly breakdown of how the money came in is as follows:-

Cash = + $437.01
MTT = + $5400.06
SNG = + $126.11
Rakeback = +$350.00
Bonuses = +$395.21

Total Profit for 2012 = $6708.39

The plan for 2013 is another shot at Supernova on Poker Stars, this will mainly be done at 25NL Zoom, so it is gonna take a fair bit of effort to get considering I will be working full time and trying to spend more quality time with the wifey and doggies. I also have the goal of upping the fitness levels and losing at least 3 stone in weight. This is the same Goal that I set this year, but due to my heart and lung issues that I have had for most of the year, I have not been able to put any exercise in at all. Hopefully as I am slowly starting to feel better I can start progressing on this front as well. I intend to take some weekly topless pics to track progress, might even take a few in the old budgie smugglers, if all goes well, I might even post some before and afters for you to peruse and help you bring up your lunch !!

I have put up a progress bar on the left of the blog to track my progress, the code is courtesy of Glanza_Mike on 2+2 who is having his own shot at Supernova Elite in 2013, heres wishing him all the best in this, he has a PG+C Thread on 2+2 for this and I have linked his blog if you want to track his progress.

Apart from the poker and weight loss, I have a number of other personal life goals for 2013, not sure if I want to out these yet, will see how January goes and might discuss it then.

Will definitely be making a more concious effort to update the blog on at least a weekly basis with some tails of woe and the odd mandatory giraffe, also need to post some more "real life" stuff, as this blog is a Poker AND Life blog, seems to be too much of one and not enough of the other.

So thats it for 2012, no need to look back any more. Looking forward to 2013 and hoping it can be the best year of my life so far. I hope it is for all of you too.

Best Wishes and a Happy New Year.

Goth.