2009 Poker Review

I started the year as a NL50 casual (serious casual) player, and ended it as a NL100 professional grinder. I say grinder, but I admit it's more of NL100 semi professional! Next year I'll get my arse in gear and log some proper volume..... promise.....

Anyway, after learning loads more about 3 betting, double and triple barrelling, hand ranges etc I feel like I'm a million times a better player than I was this time last year. I've got tonnes still to learn, with my main focus area being playing the regulars post flop. I have a few standard moves, but know I'm getting outplayed in too many spots. I know by getting a bit more creative I'm in danger of spewing off a few buy ins, I think it will help me in the long run.

Less tables, more concentration, more hours - that's my motto.

Anyway - just to round up the year - here's my total poker profit for the year......
£19,686.69


I'm off to get lashed at a New Year's Eve party - hope everyone out there has a good one and a good start to 2010.

Dec P&L

My traditional month end slump, with 5 losing sessions in the last 6 meaning my month did turn out to be a somewhat average one rather than the good one it threatened to be just after Xmas.

Here are the figures:

NL Cash: £573 (25k hands)

STT: -£5

MTT: -£60

Rakeback Bonus: £784

ONLINE PROFIT: £1,292

Live Tournaments: £33

OVERALL PROFIT: £1,325

January 2010 targets:

- play 40k hands!!

- better work ethic, including less time wasting on internet / music / TV / Wii and PC games

Poker Update

Quick update (and in response to BM question) - just had 3 losing sessions on the bounce, dropping £300. I didn't do too much wrong i don't think, as was picking good spots to bluff and cbet etc, but every time I end up betting in to a monster or they get there with their draws.

Will hopefully turn this around tomorrow, before posting my month and year end results.

2009 Life Review

I'm not going to try and not write a massive long post about the year, for 2 main reasons.
1. Nobody other than me will read it all the way through, therefore would be a waste of time
2. My potato waffles are nearly done so want to get this finished before then

Instead, in a throwback to the corporate whore I once was, I'll just write it up in bullet points and management summaries.

Top non-poker moments of 2009 (chronological order)
1. Thailand and SE Asia sabbatical for 3 months.
Sunshine, no work, poker wins, great times with girlfriend (K) + friends, LOTS of memories and stories.

2. Quitting work at beginning of July
After returning to England and being told the job I had been promised no longer existed, it didn't take long for me to lose the motivation in my new role. It paid reasonably well, but when your heart isn't in it why bother continuing??

3. Moving house and living with K
No offence to Briggs, but moving out of that 2 bed flat above a shop in Wallsend to a swish 2 bed apartment with K on the quayside is a step forward in life progress - even if it does mean I no longer get to watch unlimited football! Worth it though on so many levels....

4. 30th birthday trip to Paris
Awesome city and company ;-)

5. Becoming an Uncle
Tilia was so cute when I first saw her (5 days old), and nothing has changed in the 5 months since. I even changed a nappy - FACT!

6. Lads 'gambling' holidays to Macau and Las Vegas
Even though first was more of a 'working' trip, was still class to see a city never thought I would do. A completely different culture to anything I've seen before. Vegas was simply awesome.


I know there is a recession out there, and it's been a tough one for a lot of people, but on reflection I'd have to say this has been one of the best years of my life - if not the best. It was stressful at times with quitting work and starting out on the professional poker front, but I can only hope I have as happy a year next year.

Roll on 2010!!

Ho Ho Ho - Merry Xmas Everyone

... and to me!!!

I must have been a good boy this year as for Xmas, Santa gave me a bucketload of fish to play poker against over the Xmas period. I've pocketed a few buy ins over the past few days and I've gone from having a nightmare month to a respectable one. I'm now £700 up before rakeback, so if I don't lose any after Xmas I'll have at least a 1k month, maybe a few hundred quid more. I'll be playing a bit between Xmas and New Year though so still plenty of time for that to change.... in either direction!!!

Anyway, hope everyone has a great Xmas and avoids freezing to death in this hell hole of a country. This time last year I was preparing to head off to Thailand for 3 + months, how I'd love to get some winter sun now. Maybe Santa can find time to get me a ticket to the Aussie Millions?!?! Here's hoping!

Ranting Clearly Helps!

Since my last personal rant, I've tried to turn over a new leaf and put see positives in things. I've also improved my poker set up, no longer playing in the front room with K and the TV on in the background, and returned to my office desk to play in isolation. It's less sociable, and warm (our main heaters are in the front room), but I do feel as though I've concentrated better on my game when playing in the past couple of days.

I've also ran better too :-) I've now posted 5 winning or break even sessions in a row, putting me (finally) in profit for the month - albeit only £200. Or should I say an awesome £200 :-) Few more winning days before new year would be nice too :-)

No Progress / Personal Rant

I haven't updated my blog as there's not really been too much to tell poker wise, I haven't played as much as I should due to social commitments, and when I have I simply seem to be treading water. I get back to level for the month one minute, then drop a few buy ins next session to put me back again. I'm currently still £250 down for the month, and it's putting me in a shit mood before xmas.

I'm also a bit stressed as I really want to play more to try and get my account back to reasonable shape but I'm due to head down to K's then my parents house on Monday, and as it's Xmas I know I also need to be sociable when I'm home. I had a reasonable month last month so bits of me thinks 'fuck poker' for Xmas then start again in New Year, but then that leaves me with my first losing / break even month, which will sting like a bitch - making me a miserable person over Xmas anyway!

I basically need to sort my head out and start working to a schedule again, which I have failed to do for a while now. I got myself a decent timetable written up but not stuck to it since October, and that's annoying me too. Losing personal discipline and not being on top of things is probably the single thing that gets to me - and on top of poker discipline I've also lost discipline on keeping fit too. I'm turning in to a fat, slow bastard - even slower than I used to be (which I didn't think possible) - and that's affecting my mood as well! There's going to be a lot of new years resolutions written on here in next week or so and I'm hoping that having them available for all to see will help motivate me to put them in place.

Anyway - this was meant to be a short poker update but kind of gone off on one talking about things on my mind. There's tonnes of good stuff going on in my life too but it is hard to appreciate sometimes if I feel shit about other stuff. I'll have a word with myself and hopefully post some better / more positive updates in near future.

I run like shit!!!!!!!!!

I'm down in cash today, running bad, probably down another £100 at the moment for the day. I'm running KK in to AA as well, which isn't great news when I just can't suck out no matter how many times it happens to me.

Anyway, the real reason I want to rant is that I've just busted out of the best value freeroll ever. Players Only Poker, 23 runners, top prize of $13k! 2nd prize $1k, pays down to 10th. Unbelievable value, but not when you run like shit. I lose below 3 hands that I get in pre flop- all of which would have put me chip leader - and bust out 12th. Gutted.

A4 suited vs K6

JJ vs 59 off suit

Ak vs JJ

I've pokerstoved this and put my 2:2 maths degree to work to calculate I lose ALL 3 of this only 2.99 times in 100.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

I'm back (sort of)

That's me. After recovering from death's door (a sniffle), I finally got around to playing some poker again tonight after a few days of online Boggle / personal Civ 4 challenges. I rule at the first but suck at the last by the way.... the damn Chinese and their destroyers.....

Anyway, the poker. Very uneventful it turned out to be. Lost about £20 after 1k hands, and ran pretty bad but not horrific. Played well though which is encouraging, and I'm going to need to in next 2 weeks as currently losing £250 this month!!!

GL me for the rest of the month, there will be no horseshoes on this blog for a while....

It's Back

Man flu has returned, and although I'm desperate to play some poker having not played since Sunday, I'm not sure my head is right. I might play some micro stakes or some tournaments later to

a) minimise losses risk if I make a stupid mistake

b) avoid getting too stressed with my decision making - tournies will be push or fold anyway!

Here's hoping I get begtter quickly as need to eek out a profit before Xmas gets here...

Cash is shitter!

My mood has not improved. I've just lost £250 in that session and I am now DOWN for the month. My play wasn't great, and my luck wasn't good either - lethal combination.

Back to the drawing board for the month tomorrow.... time to start all over again.

Tournaments are shit

Played 3 freerolls tonight and crashed and burned in all of them, getting my chips in behind and sucking out in none of them. I obviously can't get annoyed about that but played some tournaments before hand and everyone of my hands that I got in while ahead DID get sucked out on - it's not right I tell thee!

To top it off, spurs did the predictable and threw away a 2 goal lead, missing a hat full of chances, to draw with an Everton side ravaged by injuries. I rate Defoe but he's NEVER EVER been a penalty taker, he has a shit record from 12 yards and should not have taken it. Gareth Bale or Huddlestone should have stepped up (as Keane was on bench) but I fear Defoe is just too greedy to let someone else take it. Hopefully 'Arry sees the light and fixes this next time.

Will be hitting cash tables later so hoping luck / mood of next post is a more positive one.

Jinx!!!

Will I ever learn??? Holmes blog curse strikes again, and after posting a good update report I proceed to drop £300 in my next session, putting me back to about evens for the month. Balls to poker.

Here's hoping Spurs cheer me up and do the business against Everton this afternoon, although I have a nasty feeling it'll be a 1-0 snooze fest to the home team. We'll create a bunch of early chances, miss them all, then Everton will score from a set piece late in first half. We'll try hard in second half but get nowhere. I'm going to put some money on it now to at least get some feelgood factor from a defeat - I hate supporting Spurs sometimes - you can't be confident of beating anyone!!

The Worm Has Turned!

The bad start to the month has been halted and I've managed to drag myself back in to profit for the first time this month today. I'm starting to log more hours now and played nearly 6k hands this month in the first 4 days, bang on target for my first ever 40k hands month. Been a long time coming I know....

Anyway, having just spouted on about my good volume month, I'm now going to take a break until Sunday :-) I have football tomorrow, where I'm going to freeze my nuts off in order to try and shed my Xmas fat that I've put on BEFORE the festive season. Bah Humbug. I'll be back online on Sunday though as I've qualified for 3 freerolls, across Full Tilt, Players Only and Ladbrokes. Here's hoping for run good one time!!!!

Bad start to the month / Cooking Lessons

Alas, the back end of last month has rolled over to this one, meaning I'm about £150 down after 2 days. Not the flying start that I am used to following November, but not too bad. I think part of the problem is that I'm starting my sessions loading up loads of tables, and get stuck playing 6 tables while I work out which ones are the best to keep. This leads me to start session losing, as I can't concentrate on the table action and fold all but premium hands and give up to pressure. Once I'm behind on a session it always feels like I'm chasing, which is retarded I know as I know I should play for the long term not to the short term. I'll change this from now onwards and see if it helps.

In other non poker news continuing the run bad theme, spurs were knocked out undeservedly against Man Utd last night. I also committed the cardinal sin of cooking bacon and leaving it unattended while I nipped to the loo quickly - something that I now know you should never do. Cue burnt bacon, a front room filled with smoke and 2 smoke alarms going off!! The image of me running around trying to open the windows and turn the oven off and unplug the alarms - while not having 'finished' my visit's purpose - is not a pretty one. That mistake will not happen again!!!

November P&L

I've done pretty well this month, although it could have been a lot better but for 5 losing sessions of the last 6. I've ran behind EV but after chatting to Suddes about this a fair few times, I expect to be like this every month as it's a shitty stat that doesn't mean anything. I think I'll take it off my HEM reports to stop me looking at it!!

Here are the figures:

NL Cash: £2,377

(29k hands)

Rakeback / Bonus: £824

ONLINE PROFIT: £3,201

LIVE PROFIT: £0

TOTAL PROFIT: £3,201

Targets for November:

<> play 40k hands :-)