Bad day at the office

I've lost £350 today but actually feel a bit relieved, as I was over £500 down before sitting down for my last late night session, where I clawed back some of my losses. I should also have an extra £100 in the bank after a 1/2 stacker check called 2 streets in raised pot with TT on a Q522 board. I was pretty confident that my JJ was in front as her was a 40/10 fish, but I clearly bargain for the 2 outer he knew was coming on the river. Ho hum.

I think the main problem I've had in the past couple of days is that I'm trying to move up limits, playing one table of NL200 alongside my NL100. I'm a bit of a stresshead at the best of times, and at the moment I haven't yet mastered the bet sizes - I'm still working out the NL100 sizes and doubling them - and it's knocking me off my game at both levels. I've made more than a couple of 'moves' today whenI don't need to - for example the classic 'he's got AK' reraise shove with middle pair, only to walk straight in to overpairs or trips on flops.

I know that there are not that many people on here making bluff raises or check raise bluffing, but during the hands I just can't force myself to believe them! I've written a scribbled note that now sits on my laptop listing some of the shitty plays that I keep making - I'll keep adding to it as time goes by but it's already longer than I'd like it to be!!

I have no idea where I'm currently at in terms of the RTR rake race, but I think I've raked somewhere in the region of $1500 so far this month, meaning I'll get a bit of a bonus at the end of the month. I've only got 2 days left of poker before I depart for a weekend in Paris with K, so I'll be logging a few more hands in the next 2 days to try and get me maximum bonus. Hopefully I won't do my usual trick and throw away my winnings in order to win an extra $50 in rakeback!!!

Sunday Update

Had a quiet ish day today - winning £200 this afternoon in an hour but bled away about £100 this afternoon even though my EV says I should have been £100 up. I'm not going to complain though as I'm still about 300 up in EV this month.

At the moment I'm in the middle of a 5 euro freezout multi tournament that has been going on for 2 hours and there are still 156 players left!!! I only registered late as I saw Brenos was playing and I wanted to get some hands against him for some banter. Typical though that he gets himself knocked out within 10 minutes and I double up and now I'm stuck playing one table while watching BB - not exactly the kind of evening a poker pro should be having!!

Anyway, I'm going to finish this and finish the tournament - 87 of 148 atm.

EDIT - finished about 60th for a massive pay out of 9 euros - that's 3.5 euro profit for 3 hours work - oh yeah!!!!

All aboard the weekend money train!!!!

Kerrrrrchhhhiiiinnnngg!!!!! I've just had an awesome run like god session winning £420 in 70 minutes on NL100.

I had built up my bankroll just enough to have a go at one table on NL200 tonight (as per my life guiding spreadsheet) but decided to break the rules and stick with NL100 rather than jump up stakes. My theory was that I know all of the reg's at NL100 so I avoid them and can then concentrate on the drunken fishes, rather than worry about the unkowns at the level above. Can't complain with the results :-)

That last session means my combined winnings for Friday and Saturday night this week are £810. Not bad for a weekend's work!! Will be online again tomorrow afternoon and evening to see if good run continues... fingers crossed...

Late night update

Just logged another 2 hours and although was looking good at one point to claw back most of my losses from earlier today, I actually ended up only winning £50. A bit dissapointed, but at least it's another green line on the HEM session lists.

No poker planned for tomorrow, however will be hitting tables a lot over the weekend to hopefully catch some weekend drunkards to help donate to my pension.

Rubbish!!!

I've just been doing this fo the past 40 mins, losing £300 in that time. I had more than a bit of bad luck with AA losing AI on the flop of 952 to TT, and also had everyone hitting gut shots on me left right and centre. Not easy to get away when you have AK on a AK9J board against an aggro opponent. I also paid off someone elses gut shot hit when I couldn't get past thinking they were bluffing me so felt as though I had to call.

One other stack off was with AQ, I raise pre in SB, BB 3bets me. In this spot I love a check raise on low boards as they need a big pair to call me, and likely outcome is I still have 6 outs (maybe 3!). Anyway, I check raise a 822 board and he time banks before making a hero call with AK. Wp, nh. Wanker. He was a regular and the same bloke that then skinned me in the AK hand above so I'm not his biggest fan - although he's probably adding me to his buddy list as we speak!!!

I knew I'd hit a bad patch and think this is it. I'm now on only £1100 profit before rakeback so need to win a couple of sessions soon.

Week in Review

It's been nearly a week since I last posted so I feel as though I owe the blog a bit of effort. However, I don't think 01:30 am will be the time for me to write in detail about everything that's just been happening - I'll just start a few bullet points per day and see how it goes....

Thursday 16th

Brenos arrives and we play the Aspers £30 freezeout. I make it to last 14 before having my QQ busted by 44 all in pre flop to just miss out on final table. Most luckboxes I know with blogs never mention they're good beats, but as I had KQ beat AA for close to all my chips 2 rounds earlier I'm not going to complain too much. I win it back on cash tables afterwards but a 3 am finish means it wasn't going to be an early morning on Friday. (Congrats to Toward who showed us 'pros' how it should be done, taking down 4th I think in the tournament)

Friday 17th

I continue to run good on 6max winning another £100 then just getting the better of Brenos on Mario Kart before being thrashed at bowling. You can definitely tell he hasn't had a job in the past 4 years...

Saturday 18th

I run K to the station so she can catch her hen party bus to Liverpool at 7 am in the morning - it might have been later but still felt too early!! Rolled back in to bed before lucboxing some more online wins (£150) and then hosted the lads poker game. I used to play the home games very tight and therefore if I didn't win money, I didn't lose much either. Since I've moved to 6max online though I've loosened up - and it costs me in every game! Went through 3 buy ins and busted out first in the first game, my AJ clearly no good vs Brennan's 69 offsuit in a raised pot - flop A69.

Second game is even more blurry but I do last longer than Brenos, but duly follow him to the losers Wii shortly afterwards. Briggs continues to batter all before him in home games, winning one of the 2 games for what feels like the 5th poker night in a row. I'm just pleased he doesn't want to put money in to Ladbrokes as I have a feeling I'd be broke if I played against him there too!

Sunday 19th

Sleep, then one late freeroll on Laddies where 88 loses all in pre flop versus hoodoo 44.

Monday 20th

A losing day at poker!!! What the fuck?!?! Have 3 losing sessions out of 4 but actually count myself fortunate to only lose £100 - it could have been a lot more.

Tuesday 21st

Another disappointing day, although a slightly winning one - making about £50. I was a lot more up but lost £200 in the late night session tonight, calling off a bit lightly where I think I'm being 'outplayed' by regulars. This I think is my new problem, where I don't believe anyone has a hand therefore call down a lot with 2nd pair. I'm perfect for value towning at the moment by anyone who appears to be stealing from late position. I'll watch a couple of videos tomorrow on blind defence and tighten up my game - an annoying leak.

I also played football tonight and any fitness I thought I had has been shot to pieces. I'm overweight, slower than normal and all my muscles ache. Even if I didn't have K reminding me every day, I can tell I'm on my way to 30....

Right - that was more than I thought I'd write. I'm going to be a bit more disciplined and keep this updated more regularly. At least I'll try.

Just for Azz - good luck to everyone at the tables!!

Luckbox Holmes

Oh yes, I'm a happy man tonight. At one stage I was over £200 down for the day but some 'inspired' play - along with a boat load of luck - means that I finished the day just under £500 in profit. A few set ups in my favour - for example KK vs QQ all in pre flop - and a couple of nut flush draws hitting and it's amazing how quick things can turn around.

I know one of the key principles of being pro is to take the wins and the losses in equal measure, i.e. not to get too happy when you win and not too disappointed when you lose, but I can't help but be pleased that I've made a good start. I know that if I had run bad this week and got myself in a deficit in my first week I would have been depressed as hell, so it's clearly something I still need to work on.

In the meantime I'll update my master finance spreadsheet and thank Budha (my poker god) for blessing me tonight - long may it continue :-)

Up and running

I have finally managed to end my internet access hell by buying a dongle (spelling??) for £35 and can use it as a pay as you go from now on if I need to. I have £15 on it at the moment which I hope will last me through to July 22nd when Sky finally get round to turning my broadband on. Lazy bastards. Plan is now to play a gazillion hands in the next 2 weeks to earn some rakeback and hopefully finish in a decent position on the RTR leaderboard. So far I have managed 830 hands for a grand total of £10 profit today over two sessions. I'm a poker god me :-)

In non poker news, I had a mint weekend with K to celebrate her 24th birthday - going out for a couple of mealks and quad biking for 2 hours on a farm in Otterburn. For anyone that hasn't done it I'd thoroughly recommend it. Funniest moment for me was seeing K's face when she got stuck in a swamp, then in a ditch, then after she broke the back light of another quad bike after driving in to the back of it! Luckily the quad bike owner didn't notice and we did a runner before he checked the vehicles - it's nice to run good at life :-)

Right - time for me to see if there are any decent tables running at this hour. I'm a bit knackered after football but reckon I've got just enough energy for one more hour of poker. This working life can get tough sometimes!!

How stressful and tiring is moving house???

'Very' is the answer to this rhetorical question. Me and K have spent the last 2 days ferrying clothes, furniture, DVD's, crockery and iron man suits (amongst other things) from our old place in Wallsend to our new luxurious pad on the quayside. 2 bedrooms, decent sized open plan front room / dining room / kitchen and 4th floor view balcony doors opening up to a view of the Tyne. Much better than living above a shop with scally kids throwing rubbish in to our front garden.

All this moving has meant my first week of pro has meant very little poker. I did manage to get a few hours in on Sunday night and also played for about 3 hours today - and doing OK. Just over £500 up this month so far, but as I'm not going to be able to play now until internet gets installed in our new place next Monday, the chances of me beating Brenos in the RTR rake race are slim. Shame like as I know he's a lazy bastard and I could have taken him!!!

Anyway - time to play football. I hope year end has finished for all those stuck in the office in my old work - I can't begin to explain how happy I was on Sunday night when I turned OFF my alarm to STOP me waking up on Monday morning :-)

Freedom!!!

At last, work is over and I'm a free man!! A free man with a ridiculously large hangover, therefore no poker or anything else today other than trying to recover sufficiently to start moving again.

Packing up house things tomorrow for move on Monday, so not expecting to play much poker until Tuesday. At the moment I'm still just happy that I won't need to be setting my alarm anymore for Monday mornings :-)

26 hours to go....

... nearly there!! :-)

June P&L

This month has been a very strange one, with my decision to quit work and concentrate on poker full time obviously overshadowing everything else poker wise. Knowing that I will be playing A LOT from July onwards, plus flat hunting and various other commitments (Epsom etc) mean that I haven’t put in the hours that I would normally. Here are my final figures for June:

NL Cash: £72
STT: £35
MTT: -£12
Rakeback / Bonus: £362
Live Cash: £142
Total: £599
(8.5k hands 0.0000000000000001 BB / 100)


This is clearly not enough money to live on full time, especially with an upgraded accommodation to pay for, but I’m still optimistic that I’ll make it. Even if I don’t, I’m still 110% certain that I’ve made the right decision to leave work and give it a shot – if I hadn’t done it I’d live the rest of my life regretting not having the cahoonas to try.

Here’s hoping that poker god Buddha II appreciates the sacrifice I've made under his name and rewards me by helping me run good next month!!

ps - congrats to Brenos and Soap for awesome June figures - I've got something to aim for now :-)