Poker Run Shit / Macau photos

Since I've returned from Macau and left Mark and his magic run good aura, I've had a nightmare. I've dumped all of my month's profit, plus a bit more, in two days - losing about £800 in the process. Doesn't help that I'm £700 behind in EV for the month - Budha is not smiling on me any more! Not good when I know Vegas is just arround the corner. I need to put in some hands in next couple of weeks and hope fortune changes.

I've decided I can't be arsed with a proper Macau round up, but our schedule pretty much went like this for most of the week:
wake up --4pm
potter around room / playing internet poker -- 7pm
go out for food -- 9 pm
drinks -- 2 am
me fight mark away from laptop and busting my roll on PLO 3/6 --4 am

I'll stick a couple of photos on here now of the skyline, the Venetian and Mark doing his Usain Bolt impression - or should I say Bee Gee dance by the Wynn fountains....

Macau Run Good

Just made it in to the BA lounge having received our second free upgrade to business class of this trip, meaning that Soap and myself will now be wined and dined in the luxurious upper deck on the way home. Free champagne and alcohol will no doubt flow and help us both get plenty of sleep on the way home - life is good.

I'll probably put on a more detailed post up here in the next few days once I'm back in the swing of online play, but as most people know Soap proved he isn't the eternal luckbox that me and Brennan assume, busting out of the APT in unfortunate fashion on day 1. He'll ship one of these one day I'm sure. I once again failed in my one attempt on the live cash tables so will not be leaving the cyber tables for a while yet - I still have a lot of learning to do!

Looking forward to getting home now and seeing K, sleeping in my own bed, eating decent food that doesn't mess with my insides, watching english TV and doing some exercise in non 35 degree heat. I slag off England a fair bit, but the weather here is unbearably hot so a cool summers breeze on the quayside will be much appreciated.

Catch up with everyone soon.

Baby Tilia!

I've just transferred my photos to the laptop and had to put this pic on of my new baby niece Tilia - I spent the week at home last week and loved every minute with her. I didn't actually get round to changing her (despite the many requests from my sister!) but I'll consider it next time - I promise!!

I fly to Macau tomorrow evening with Soap but hope to be online while I'm there so I can play some poker and try and make some cash. I'll also keep everyone updated on his progress in the main event.

Swing Central!!

What a crazy days worth of poker. I managed to be down 565 Euros at one point, before a late night rally - mainly on NL50 - clawing back most of my losses so that I ended up a mere £27 for the day. I ran bad then ran good, including one hand where I cold called a 3bet shove for 100 BB (50 euros) with JT offsuit. I could have sworn I had JJ, but no matter, as his 77 had no chance on a JT2 flop :-)

I'm also in a good mood today as the mighty Spurs kicked off the season in style with a deserved win over title contenders Liverpool. We battered them in the first half and I'm pleased with the shape of the team at the moment - however the big tests for us won't be against the big boys at home but against the physical northern teams away - starting Wednesday. Back to back victories would be awesome and a much better way to start the season than last years shambles.

Even Slower Progress!!!

Played for 5.5 hours today and won $40. Was flying until my last session but ran bad (again) and lost most of the days winnings. My RTR money has now been paid in and I can sadly see the true profits of my labours so far this month: £430 :-(

It's mid month already, so I'm a bit disappointed, and a little bit anxious as I don't know how much I'll get to play in Macau next week. I have no choice now but to take my laptop with me and hope to get access to Ladbrokes while I'm over there, otherwise it's looking like beans on toast for the first 6 weeks when I get home!!!

I'm off to see U2 at Wembley tomorrow with K so that should be good - no updates on here likely now until Sunday night at earliest.

Slow Progress

I managed to claw back about £80 in profit today after playing just over 2k hands. I ran badly in a lot of spots, and about £200 behind EV for the day, but also spewed off a buy in or two (again) at NL100. I need to sort my head out a bit as beginning to get a bit of the Carl tilt monster and not handling the bad beats as well as I could....

Talking of which.... during one of my tilty phases, I even paid off Carl the rock with 2 streets of value on a A2236 board with 99 - no idea what the river call was about as clearly behind, but I'll live and learn. Hopefully this little bankroll boost will help him get back in to playing more regularly - and that he remembers this donation when he turns it in to £20k in 6 months time :-)

Got To Hate Mondays!!!

After a great weekend on the tables I've had a grim Monday night, playing for about 3 hours and losing £150. Obviously could have been worse and not the end of the world, but to be honest I was more disappointed with the way that I played rather than the result. I'm still making a few too many unnecessary moves against regulars, and only single barrelling fish retards when I know they normally have pap and just should keep firing away until they fold. Ho hum.

On a happier note, I've made it down south to see my sister and her new baby girl - who is so cute!!! K is with me and I'm massively losing the 'having a baby is not a good idea' argument!! Maybe a couple of sleepless nights will change her mind on the immediate necessity of babies.... we're here til Friday so we'll see....

Crap - forgot to write about golf. It was a class day up by Seahouses on a mint course, and as expected I was more than a bit ring rusty - shooting 10 then 10 on the first 2 holes. I picked up a bit after that (mainly thanks to Azz's ultimately forgiving driver) to score some points on the Stableford scoring system, but two more 9's meant that I went round in a generous 114. More practice needed before Vegas me thinks.

Got to love the weekend!!!

Michael Gray definitely had the right idea when he wrote his song - and although I'm not entirely certain that he was thinking about poker when he directed this video - it's a good enough intro in to my last few days that I'm sure I can get away with a link to his class video below :-)

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x16yti_michael-gray-the-weekend_music

So anyway, after grinding / struggling all week with poker, I put in a few hours on Friday and Saturday night and suddenly the world is rosy again. I made about £70 yesterday but hit some hands this evening - mostly in my last 70 minute session - and finished the day £400+ up meaning I'm nearing a £500 profit for the past 2 days. My monthly P&L suddenly isn't looking so bad.....

I'm crashing earlier this Saturday than normal as I'm off to play golf tomorrow with some of the footy lads. I got in to golf a couple of years ago, and for a beginner I thought I picked it up quite well. Only problem is that was 2 years ago, and haven't played at all since last summer (where I was only an occasional golfer) so more than a bit rusty. Wise man Holmes decides it's a good idea to break his golf duck for the year by playing a ridiculously hard sounding lynx golf course in Durr.....brough (can't remember the name!!). I'm going to be shit and quitely shitting myself, especially as all my mates have been having sly golf lessons and now 10 times better than me. I can only hope the sun is shining and my group are lenient with the 'new tree rule' :-)

I'll play poker again tomorrow night so will update on here how many holes I completed before giving up on the golf course...

Getting there.... and new arrivals

My worried spell didn't last too long and I feel much more relaxed now. A good kick up the arse was probably all I needed, and I went back to the NL100 tables tonight with moderate success. Won about £200 but could /should easily have been more if luckox Soap hadn't shoved over my bet / reraise in a raised pot with 56 suited - my trip 2's obviously no good against that monster on a A28 board :-) I guess it's my own fault as I did get him to join our table due to another monster fish playing a 78/2 style - wish I hadn't now as I lost £120 in the time he was sat at the table!!

In non poker news I am now a proud Uncle, as my l'il sis gave birth to a baby girl this morning - Tilia was born weighing just over 8 lbs. I've seen a picture already but as my folks / family live down south I won't get to see them until next week - I can't wait. This is the second part of what promises to be a mint August and September, which has included and will include:

Paris for my birthday

New Holmes arrival

U2 gig in London

Macau with Soap

Vegas with lads

Oh - and Blackpool for the toon game - nearly forgot the main event there!!!

Not a great start to August..... early month jitters??

Just finished my first winning session of August, albeit a small one, to stop the rot of 3 losing sessions on the bounce. Obviously this is not great news, however it's not a complete disaster either as been playing at smaller stakes (NL50) as per my bankroll management guidelines after my first losing session so I'm not too many £'s down for the month (about £150 at the moment).

I am in 2 minds about whether to jump back up to NL100 tonight or stick at NL50 for a bit longer until my roll improves. Something about the way I'm playing just doesn't make me feel over confident, meaning that I don't want to risk more of my roll at NL100 than I could do by sticking to NL50. Glad it's only the 4th of the month as it gives me time to get my head right and attack the tables later, but it is disconcerting.

Really think I'm putting too much pressure on myself to make money early in the month. Easier said than done, but need to forget about profit targets and just start playing normal poker. Although last month was a good month overall, I started out that month feeling the same - feeling worried about game / pondering merits of quitting work for poker - so I am hoping it's just a phase I need to play through. Two or three more hours play tonight, hopefully with a healthy win, and I'm sure the confidence will come flooding back and good times will roll again :-)

July P&L

A pretty healthy month all in all, with the vast majority of profit generated from my NL100 6max games. I was a little bit disappointed with my feeble attempts at attacking NL200, which I stacked off lightly twice and didn't play my natural game. Hopeffully I'll build up my bankroll again at the beginning of August to give it another shot. Here are the details:

NL Cash: £1,646

(18k hands 11.71 BB / 100)

MTT: £62

STT: £67

Rakeback / Bonus: £727

ONLINE PROFIT: 2502

Live Cash: £156

Live Tournaments: £-58

LIVE PROFIT: 92

TOTAL PROFIT: £2600

Targets for August:

1 - Play more hands!! I ran well this month and I don't think I'll be able to do this every month. The best way around this is to put in more hours, which I plan to do. As perspective, 18k hands is just over 1/3rd of the number of hands I put in while I was in Thailand in March - I think I need to stop playing so much on the Wii :-)

2 - Hopefully carry on making enough money to avoid going back to the real working world:-)

Paris and getting old!!! (er)

Just got back tonight after a great weekend with K in Paris to celebrate my 30th birthday. 30th birthday - not 40th - or 140th - as some people would like to think!!

We did the sightseeing day on Friday, visting The Louvre, Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame during the day, then went to see a classic French cabaret show in the evening. Basically 'classic' means women wandering around dancing topless and gay guys prancing around in revealing outfits to numerous different tunes. Definitely a unique viewing experience!! Link here for anyone wanting a sneak preview: http://www.lido.fr/us/cabaret-paris.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Lido%202006%20EN&utm_term=Lido

K sorted out a champagne reception for me and a birthday cake so was a great way to see in my 4th decade....

Saturday was an early start (6 am!!) so we could make our way to Euro Disney for a full day of rides and juenille fun. Tower of Terror and Space Mountain were very fast, the former being ridiculously scary! They put you in a lift, then throw you up and down the building vertically until your stomach feels as though it's about to come through your skull. I would say good practice for Stratosphere but as I've already done them I'm not going to be doing it again this time around :-)

Meal out Saturday night then long lie in Sunday morning before leisurely stroll around Paris and more cafe coffees and crepes completed a great weekend. I've heard a few people talk about how great Paris is but didn't expect to like it that much - but I'd thoroughly recommend it to anyone.