November P&L - and early December results

Again, it's been a while since I posted on here, which clearly means things haven't been going as well as I'd have hoped. Apologies to those that left comments that I hadn't got back to - basically I have tried to avoid posting miserable stories so decided best not post at all!

Another turgid month on the profit front for November means I'm hanging on by my fingertips to avoid having to go back to work - here's the breakdown:

6 max: -£445
SnG: - £56
MTT: -£24
Rush: £961
Rakeback: £213

Total Online Profit: £650

Live Cash: £30

Total Overall Profit: £680


As you can see, Rush Poker saved me in November after my 3rd month in a row losing at 6max - I'm done with that for now! I started playing NL25 Rush and moved up to NL50 halfway through the month - full ring - and so far I've found it pretty straightforward. I'm in a nice routine and have a nice system worked out, at least it has worked so far.

I ran terribly in SnG's, or at least I think I did. I've put in a lot of time studying various concepts of SnG strategy, i.e. ICM, pushing / folding ranges and bubble play, and think I have a good handle on what is needed. Unfortunately results don't show it yet but I will be looking to put in some more time on these in December, along with playing some multis as I finally feel I know what I'm doing at the different stages of the tournaments now.

The last part of my new poker strategy is to play more live, especially cash. I want to be comfortable playing live without giving off obvious tells, which I think I'm still doing at the moment. I want to try and standardise everything - bet timing, betting action, the way I look after I bet - which I'm definitely not doing. I've played a few cash games at Aspers on the weekend and to be honest it doesn't really matter at the NL50 level I'm playing, as 75% of the people there are hammered on a Friday / Saturday and never fold no matter how strong you look! Even so, my aim is to get better to hopefully help me get to the bigger cash game of NL200 without shitting myself every time I enter a pot! Although I think online will still be where you can make the most money, I think I need the social interaction of live play to stop me going completely hermit like and losing all ability to hold a conversation - which is another big reason for me wanting to play live.


I've rambled on a bit here - just wanted to quickly add that December has been a flying start for me. I'm already £710 up after 4 days of Rush poker, winning at £32 per hour after 15k hands! The aim is to carry on playing Rush now at home and hit casinos at weekends where possible, hopefully to get a solid month under my belt to give me some confidence to continue playing poker next year without working!!

October P&L - Job queue looming???

Well, another shite month.
Motivation and confidence in poker hit all time low around the 20th October, but a small rally at the end of the month to get me in to positive figures means I've not yet completely abandoned the hope that I can make a living out of this game. I still have nearly all of the savings I've started with so not in any dire financial need, however the early optimism that I'd be playing high stakes and crushing this game within 2 years has gone. I need to get my grind back on.


Here's the breakdown anyway for October:


6 max: - £2
HU: -£198
MTT: £20
Rush FR: £238
Rakeback / Bonus: £306



Online Profit: £363



Live Tournaments: £18
Live Cash: £60



Total October Profit: £441





HEM graph:






Low volume on 6 max hurt my rakeback this month, but I was finding so little motivation as was getting crushed for 3 weeks at this so needed the break. I have more than a few Heads Up leaks which I need to work on, plus some pretty standard 6 max flaws too. I've put in quite a bit of study in the past 2 weeks though so hoping for a new beginning in November.



In non poker news, went 2 weeks without seeing my lass as she was volunteering in a Moldovan orphanage, but thankfully she's home safe and sound (without bringing a kid back!). I was a bit of a mess without her here to be honest, not eating or sleeping well - both in terms of number of hours and the times I was crashing out - and generally turning in to a hermit / tramp! When there's nobody around to keep you on your toes it's amazing how quickly I degenerated in to an unshaved, backed bean eating neanderthal. I don't think this state of mind helped my poker results either, and they certainly picked up when she returned - unlikely to be a coincidence....


I've also just got back from a London weekend with the boys where we went to see the NFL game at Wembley. Nothing happened in the worst first half I have ever seen, but my adopted Broncos were robbed in the second with dubious penalties going against them. I was not happy handing over the tenner to Jazzy! Most of the rest of the weekend was spent drinking and / or eating like a pig, so health kick needs to start now if I'm not going to be 14 stone after Xmas. I'm notorious for saying I'll get fit and doing nothing, so although my intentions are good now we'll have to wait and see what actually happens.....


Right - time for lunch. I'm going to try and post more on here too as been a lazy bastard on that front as well, not helped obviously by lack of poker success, but think it can be a cathartic exercise so expect some bad beat stories to come up soon :-)

Sept P&L - shocker!

A shambles. I've just spent the last 4 hours trying to clear a $200 bonus and in the process have lost £220 - a net loss of about $100. That's nothing though compared to these month end results......

6 max: -£1,144

Rush: £27

MTT: £95

Rakeback / Bonus: £803

ONLINE LOSS: £219

Staking Profit: £750

NET PROFIT: £531

I haven't typed up anything in my blog for ages as I feel as though my game has gone to shit. I've spewed so many buy ins off in the last 10 days it's scary. I was £640 up before London before BIG downswing. Everything I have tried has failed - double and triple barrels when he has it, not firing again when he has weak hand but I have no showdown value. In this time I have also gone from being £600 above EV to £300 behind - i.e. I hit none of my draws in the past 10 days. Ho hum.

Just need to put this behind me now and try and grind on next month. Going to have a crack at some live cash I think when K is away, hopefully will break the losing cycle and freshen up my game a bit. It definitely needs it! Will also spend the first few days of next month reading some articles and watching a few training videos. The videos bore the shit out of me but I think I need to do it to remind myself that it's not professional / OK to lose buy ins by barrelling off like a retarded monkey.

Classic Funny Video

Don't normally post this kind of stuff on here, but got sent this from Blackaz and nearly p'd myself laughing :-)
http://www.virginmedia.com/funny-videos/?bclid=600424035001

London and EPO

First off - congratulations to Brenos, taking 5th place in the English Poker Open over the weekend winning over £40,000 in the process. I know he was a bit disappointed on the day but pretty certain now that he has taken his cheque to the bank he'll be smiling for the next week or so :-)

I was privileged enough to join Brennan in London for the weekend and I thought he handled himself brilliantly both on the table and in the compulsory interviews he conducted for the live web feeds. Here's his exit interview:
http://www.thenutz.tv/videodetail.php?video_id=70598

As for me, there were no side games available due to the small venue at Palm Beach Casino, so I spent my time drinking free beers provided by the Rake The Rake staff while watching Brenos from the rail. All except Saturday that is, where I was suffering from an almighty hangover following the free bash on Friday in Movida nightclub. There were tonnes of poker celebs, including Tom Dwann, Jessie May, Kara Scott, James Akenhead etc etc. My favourite though was Mike Sexton, who I met after one too many free shots so rudely interrupted him chatting up a hostess girl to ask him where the hell Vince Van Patten was! He took it like a gent though and even predicted that Brenos - despite being pretty sozzled himself - would make the final table. Guess he does know a thing or two about poker after all.

Made it back very late Tuesday night and only got round to playing poker again today, breaking even after 1.3k hands. Good to sleep in own bed again (and see mrs of course!) and hoping to crush online over next week or so. I'm feeling proper motivated again and although I know I'm still a fair way behind Brennan in poker savvy at the moment, it does show what can be achieved.

August P&L

It's pretty obvious that I've lost a bit of interest in the blog, but I do hope to regain this in the next few months and start to write about non poker stuff as well as poker results. I've tried to stay away from here the last few weeks as I have felt as though I've been writing the same old boring crap about bad beats / bad luck etc. I apologise to everyone that's got bored reading it - including those bloggers that have a history of writing about the very same subject - you know who you are Soapy!!

Anyway, after a mid to late month rally my August didn't turn out too bad - despite the fact I ran £1,350 behind EV - imagine how good it could have been!:

6max: £1,717

MTT: -£4

Rush: -£65

Rakeback / Bonus: £726

TOTAL PROFIT: £2,374

No live play last month but I am heading down to London to rail Brenos in the EPO, and if running OK in the next week or so will most likely enter myself in the £250 NLHE side event - if running again this year. I can't find it in the schedule online anywhere but I did find a £250 and £500 listed for 2009 EPO so hoping will be there again.

If anyone wants to buy shares in me at even equity then all funds appreciated - this is a bit higher than my usual buy in but I am due to run good so got to be considered a good investment :-) Let me know.

Cash graph for August - more work needed on red line again.....

When Am I Ever Going To Run Good Again??

Graph for this month. Another sick session this afternoon, running JJ in to KK and QQ in to AA on ten high dry flops vs megga aggro opponents and losing a race TT vs AK all in pre. Also can't hit for shit whenever I get my big draws in on flop - AsQs on KsTs9 flush draw flop will always lose to KQ in a 3bet pot if you are me. Always. Hurts when they were all at NL200 as well.

Failed miserably in all the multis last night too, losing

KK vs AQ aipr,

KK vs 89 on a JT2 board

A9 shove versus 99

AK vs KK aipr (I probably should have slowed down with this hand, as was well stacked at the time - not used to ten handed games is my excuse!)

Anyway, enough bitching for one day. Congrats to Brenos on a great performance last night, and obviously wish all the best to Soap and family after what sounds like a scary as hell weekend. It does put my poker losses in to perspective when I sit back and look at it from afar......

At last - a winning day!!

Just finished playing one of the longest sessions I've played in a long time (4 hours straight) and I'm pleased to report it's been a good session. I'm £650 up for the day, putting me £520 up for the month. Still some way to go before I can call it a good month but at least things are moving in the right direction again. Luck hasn't completely turned, as I'm still £650 behind EV for the month, but at least today I was ahead of EV so that puts me in a good mood at least. Hopefully I'll be paid back in endless run good in the EPO qualifiers I have tomorrow night.

4 am here and feels like the old days playing late in to the morning, not something I want to make a habit of, but needs must at the moment. Sleep time now - hope all else out there well.

Poker is shite

This is how I feel about poker at the moment. I'm Kyle and Cartman represents the shit house that is bad luck, following me around abusing me all day and all night. I'm too small and feeble to do anything about it other than sit there and take it from the fat fuck, and even though I may laugh on the inside at his vile humour, I'm beginning to get fed up with him. Over the last 62k hands - about 2 months - I'm now $2k behind EV. Seeing as though 41k of these hands were at NL50 or below that's sick.

Needless to say this whining means I'm losing again this month. I'm only £130 down in real terms, but my soul is crushed. I've got loads of freerolls this month and desperately would like a win to give me the love back for poker, otherwise I'm heading to the job office v soon :-(

July 2010 P&L

Again, not a great month, which was spent for too long at low limits. These games played completely different to my usual levels and it took me a while to adjust, meaning low profits and low rakeback = disaster! Saved by a good final week though.

6 max: £186

MTT: £151

STT: £10

Rush: -£9

Rakeback / Bonus: £376

TOTAL ONLINE PROFIT: £714

Graph of cash games shown below:

New Start

My birthday has been and gone this weekend, which I spent sightseeing with the mrs in Rome, and it's put me in a reflective mood. I haven't posted anything on here for a while, mainly as I've been stressed as hell following 2 poor months (see results in next post). I've been putting a tonne of pressure on myself again, probably stemming from the fact I've been away every weekend in July and spent a fortune. I'm writing these expenses off, using some savings to cover them, and starting again. I'm still well rolled and have plenty of savings, and I think the fact I panicked at the start of last month - playing low limits to protect losses / build confidence - was a big mistake. I didn't earn enough rake and didn't win anywhere near enough to compensate it. Lesson learned I hope, and a more relaxed time frame for playing will be aimed for this month. Having said that, I do already have 2 weekends booked in for August with family and Uni reunion so new relaxed Ben may have to wait until next month!

Anyway, life is still good, and I just need to remember that a bit more often when I hit a rough patch at the tables.

Life / Poker Update

Been a while since I posted and don't have much time so will be quick.

Life has been going well, celebrated K's 25th birthday at the weeeknd by staying at Matfen Hall for the evening - 3 course meal, use of spa etc etc. I think she liked it which of course as any bloke knows was the main thing. I've had one round of golf since I've been back and managed to record my worst ever round of 126, including 71 on the back 9. Much improvement needed in the 2 weeks I have before lads golfing weekend in Edinburgh.

Poker has been a bit of a chore too. I'm currently at break even for the month but do actually feel better today than have done in a while with my game. I'll be caning the tables in the next few days hoping to build a roll again as I've had a bit of time off lately that kills the volume and rakeback.

Apologies for being dull as fuck in this post, really shouldn't have bothered but started so thought I'd finish.

Last 2 weeks

After a horrendous end to June poker wise it was nice to get a holiday in to take in some sunshine with the mrs - disappearing to Spain for a cheap holiday doing nothing but sun bathe eat and drink. I wasn't in the best of physical shapes before I left but one week later I feel like I've doubled in size! I tried to go for a run the day after I came back which only proved how unfit I am at the moment, truly embarrassing. I'm going to go for a couple a week and will hopefully improve....

I did (sadly) also manage to watch the football while I was away and probably like pretty much everyone in England was horrified by our performance in the whole of the World Cup. I've heard / read a few rumours flying around about about some disharmony in the camp due to more prima donnas shagging around and it does piss me off. I don't give a shit about their private lives and if we have thrown away our last chance of winning a World Cup for 8 years due to some twats falling out then I'd happily throw all of them in North Sea and start again with the U17's. We're never going to win it in Brazil anyway (4 years time) so might as well start planning for the future. Terry, Lampard, Gerrard, Ferdinand, et al out!!

Rant over. New season starts next month and looking forward to seeing Spurs again. Just hope we get an easy draw in Champions League qualifier ... any Scottish team will do :-)

June P&L

I'll do a quick life update after this, but wanted to post my results for June on here first - mainly to get them out the way so I can move on!

NL Cash: -£360

MTT: £405

Rakeback / Bonus: £550

TOTAL ONLINE PROFIT: £595

Live MTT: £36

TOTAL PROFIT: £631

Basically, a real disappointment. I started the month on fire winning £600 in the first week, then basically broke even for a week before self imploding through bad luck and lack of skill. I've taken a week off due to holiday and now determined to have a good July - we'll see how that goes. Here is my HEM graph for last month anyway....

I lied - they continue to get worse.....

at least on cash.....

Since my last post on Saturday I've played pretty well, logging 3k hands with an EV of +£230. Does that reflect on my bank balance? Hell no! Take that bitch - another £100 lost, £300 behind EV. As the abovce graph now shows, this is the worst run of lucj I think I've ever had. In 12k hands I 'should' be £420 in profit, instead I'm in a hole for £800. £1.2k in lost EV, and as I'm now playing NL50 and NL100 dollar mostly that's some fucking going.

Only positive I can take is that my game is still holding together - just. I managed to win a freeroll last night of 180 runners on Players Only network for $600, despite losing AK vs AT, AJ vs 44, K9 vs 44, AJ vs A4 and a few other shitty ones. I got lucky shoving on first level with a flush draw + overs to try and build some chips, and once with A9s vs AA when he had just more than a big blind left and I was chip stacked shoving monster, but other than that I basically dominated the (weak) field without any luck. Maybe I should switch to multis when I get back from holiday. On second thoughts maybe not - I hate them more than Arsenal football club. Less than I hate Sol Campbell of course, but that's another discussion....

Anyway, off or lunch and second half of North Korea Portugal game. Hoping for some improved fortunes on the poker table when I return, but not holding my breath :-(

Things can only get better

Poker and football have turned to shit. I'm now LOSING money at poker this month, with only 5 days to go. I had a quiet one Friday night - ie didn't get smashed watching the game - in order to play poker today. How bad a decision can one person make? Not only did I have to stay sober to watch the shittest England performance I can remember in a long time, I also lost nearly £600 at the tables today. The below graph shows my play and EV this week to show how much I've been raped.

After getting in JJ vs aggro reg pre only to run in to AA I decided enough was enough and logged off. I kind of felt he had a monster but he 4bets shed loads so I shoved expecting him to get it in with 99+ and AK. Shitty move really on my part but everyone makes mistakes when the cards go against you.

I plan to put in some hours tomorrow but it's been 17 days since I had a day where I won more than £150, in which time I have posted losing days of -£560, -£210-£170, -£180. Needless to say confidence is not high.

Bad Week

Played 12 sessions this week, winning money in only 3 of them. I'm getting my money in bad and generally not feeling the love for poker this week. Killing me too as need to get some money saved up as taking the last week off for a holiday, and some bills to pay too etc. Hoping for a better day tomorrow to make me feel better.

In mean time I'm off to go take out my frustrations on the golf course with my new driver. I'm erratic at the best of times, but in this kind of mood all golfers should beware as soon as I stand up to the tee!

Happy Days!

Things are looking good! Sun is shining, and I'm making some money. I've only played 4 days this week at a very relaxed schedule, and already £600 up for the month. I also won the Ladbrokes daily World Cup quiz today so will be receiving the new England away shirt - awesome!!

I'm now off to celebrate by getting lashed in the corporate section of the T20 game at game Durham - cheers John for fixing. Hopefully the sun wil lstay out and I'll get a tan too.

Sunday Monday Happy Days.... Tuesday Wednesday Happy Days - the weekend comes..... etc etc :-)

Crazy Start

This has been my month so far. I've only played 4 sessions, and every one has been minimum + or - £200. Not good for the heart! I'm currently just above even so nowt to worry about profits wise.

I've not actually done much else this week, other than watch bits of the tennis and non stop reports from sky sports news of the state of the England squad. I'm not rating our chances this year, unless Rooney can find some form again. I've stuck a sneaky fiver on Serbia to win it as like the look of their squad, however I did this before I saw they lost to New Zealand and the players had to fit off unhappy fans on the pitch! Still good outside bet though in my opinion.

One other thing I did watch this week is a film called Zeitgeist. One of the best films I've seen, and way more scary than any Hollywood clap-trap. It's in the style of Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling For Columbine, without a self righteous fat front man ruining it. I learnt loads and would recommend to anyone.

May P&L

After a lazy weekend spent shovelling food and alcohol down me, it's back to work this week, starting with posting monthly results from May

NL Cash: £1,773

MTT: -£63

STT: -£4

Rakeback / Bonus: £1,116

TOTAL ONLINE PROFIT: £2,822

Live Tournaments: £29

Live Cash: £6

TOTAL PROFIT: £2,857

Obviously I'm not too upset by these results, as it's my second best month since going pro, however it could have been a lot better as I actually lost money in the last week (~£300). I made a couple of elementary mistakes that I think I've identified so hoping to get back to winning ways this week.

Thought I'd also post up my HEM graph for you poker boys to laugh at my red line. Gayest ever.

Quick Update

Not much to report on poker front, after losing £250 on Monday I've been plugging away on the tables and ground out £160 profit in 3 days (5.7k hands). I've been up and down more than a North East football club (ok - not that much) and I've not been able to get the winning run going again that I enjoyed earlier in the month.

I'll be playing again tomorrow, and maybe one other day over the weekend, but we've got family up to visit so unlikely I'll play too much. I'm down on volume from where I'd like to be, and actually in danger of missing the 40k benchmark I've set myself as a standard month. On plus side all my volume has been at NL100 or NL50 £ tables, so my rakeback this month will be more than normal.

In non poker news, I've finally treated myself to a new golf driver today after playing for 4 years with a £50 COMPLETE SET from sports soccer. I'll be getting some new irons soon too as soon as I've had a lesson or two, but really looking forward to playing more this year. I'm miles behind the standard of most of my mates but there are a couple of us who struggle to break 100 which helps make it more enjoyable. Hopefully the new driver will also correct my chronic slice and give me the strength to hit it past the ladies tees now :-)

Here Comes The Pain!!!

On 2 fronts.

Firstly, I think my golden poker patch has ended, losing a bit of money over weekend but also £230 this morning. It was overdue but stil hurts. I also got shafted in the WSOP freeroll this weekend, where out of 160 runners, 130 decided not to turn up so they were eliminated after level 1 leaving it a 30 man freeroll for a free holiday. Not to be my day though as I get AA in pre against 88 to go top 3 in chips but of course he rivers a flush. I then shove AK versus limp to get 2 callers behind me - great. 66 first guy and I hit my K on river, but big stack in big blind woke up with KK so adios Tuna, stick to cash me thinks.

I also ache like hell from sunburn, with my race red as hell. I went to support K do her skydive yesterday, and by getting there at 8 in the morning I thought we'd be first in the queue and therefore she'd be up and home by 11 o'clock. 3 o'clock comes and she's still waiting, both of us suffering badly from 7 hours of sunshine without sun cream. Schoolboy error! Thankfully K managed to get up in the air and carried out her tandem skydive from a rickety looking plane before the clouds came in and closed the airfield down. We've got some class pictures and video on the way, and she had so much fun it's made me think again maybe I should do it too. Then I remember how shit scared I am of heights and I start to remember how crazy it is to jump out of a plane - we're not fucking birds after all!

V proud of the mrs though, and she raised loads for charity. Despite the fact the guy from Ladbrokes never did get round to sponsoring her - shame on him for getting free advertising and not living up to his promise!! The fund raising is still going though so if anyone still wants to add a sponsor then feel free by following the below link:

http://www.justgiving.com/Katrina-Jones1

Lunch for me now, hopefully will run better this afternoon. I've put in a stop loss of £500 each day now after my disappointing £750 loss on last day of the month and hearing of others implosions so I haven't got much margin for error before I have to quit for the day - run good just one time......

Grind Grind Grind...... snore..... zzzzzz

Been trying to keep logging the hours in the past couple of days, and doing OK at it getting through 10 hours and 4k hands, but it's slow progress at the moment. I've eeked out £200 in profit these two days but I feel a bit lethargic at the poker table - if that's at all possible.

I'm in a healthy position for the month at the moment and I'm wondering if this is at the back of my mind as I play - i.e. I don't want to get in to massive flip situations where I know I could run bad - and as I'm £500 above EV this month I know I'm due again - so this could be effecting my play. It means I'm playing a load of small pots and steering clear of big variance. Good for my health and stress levels but not for the excitement factor!

I'm nearly at my designated poker balance for taking a shot at NL200 this month so my serene appearance could well be about to change. Every time I have tried to step up in the past I have got stressed and didn't think straight, or got worried by the money involved, meaning it wasn't long before I was swotted back down to NL100. I feel as though I'm a better player now than when I last tried before Xmas, so hopefully things will work out better this time. Fingers crossed anyway.

Just in case I don't post again before weekend - good luck to Tangerine army on Saturday - and to Briggs and Ager in getting back alive after scrapping with Cardiff fans!!

Still going ok.....

Blog curse didn't actually hit me, which I presumed was bound to happen after posting good results for the month to date in my last post. I've actually managed to win another £600 in the past week - running ahead of EV no less - so I'm quite happy.

I noticed my non showdown winnings were shite over the past 6 weeks since I had my laptop fixed so I've also started to shove or check shove my draws on the flop / turn to stop myself being either called down with 2nd pair by fish stations or pushed out of pots by aggro regs. I'm hitting more regularly than I should do and with the extra folds I'm getting it's massively helped the win rate. Long may it continue.

Weekend was pretty quiet with folks up to visit to see K skydive, however this was foiled by the shitty weather. This means we'll need to get ourselves down to county durham again next sunday morning and hope the rain stays away so K can jump. She was a bit gutted this weekend but it will only be a matter of time before weather will be good enough. I again said I might consider it in the future but not sure exactly when that future is ever likely to be. I'd love to be able to say I've sky dived at least once in my life but jumping out of a plane just ain't natural!!

Also went for a short run this evening to try and get fitness drive started, but all I think it's done is prove how unfit I am. My legs are aching now and I feel shattered. My new running shoes are class though and they deserve to be used more often - just unlikely to be me at this rate.

Going OK....

I'm in a good mood at the moment. Spurs are in the champions league, England look like they have a chance at the world cup, K doing well at work. I also had a good weekend, not getting to bed before 4:30 each night, and was provided with spending money after Brenos luckboxed the Friday night tournament at Stanley. I busted out in comical fashion after shoving with a gutshot and flush draw, only to find out my 83 of hearts was actually 8 hearts 3 diamonds - retard - meaning I was drawing almost dead when I got it in on the flop TJQ vs KT.

Poker online has also been going OK - I'm currently £850 up this month but volume is actually way down on where it should be. I've only been playing 1.8k hands per day this week, which is a lot less than last month, so I'll try and get that fixed. I don't mind too much at the moment due to decent ish win rate, however I know I'll be kicking myself if I have a horror day again and have no rakeback / bonuses to fall back on.

Can't think of anything more to say at the moment but if anything comes to me I'll write some more tomorrow Good luck to all playing....

LEGENDS!!!

What a performance from the lads last night, and to be fair for 99% of the season - the FA Cup semi final apart of course. We deserved to win last night, especially for the 2nd half display, and 9 wins of the last 11 league games proves we're worthy of Champions League football next season. I'm also a relieved man that we've done it a game ealy, so I don't have to sweat out the away game at Burnley and the inevitable grief I would have been given by Cusworth if they had managed to stop us.

Watched the game in 3D last night and as Soap says, it needs a bit of work, but think it will be awesome in a few years. I feel rediculously dodgy this morning having had only 4 pints meaning I've played no poker yet today, but I have voted so it's not been a complete write off. I'll get some hands logged this afternoon but feel as though I need a kick start this month having won a grand total of £32 from 4k hands Tuesday and Wednesday. Not feeling the love for cash games at the moment so may have a bash on MTT's and play some guitar hero today before starting afresh tomorrow.

April P&L

I decided to do the smart thing yesterday and not log back in to play after 3 nightmare sessions, meaning there was no miracle recovery yesterday. Add that to the fact I was 2 weeks without cash poker this month due to laptop issues means my P&L isn't fantastic this month:

NL Cash: £621

MTT: -£29

STT: £23

PLO -£13

Rakeback / Bonus: 794

TOTAL ONLINE PROFIT: £1398

Live Tournaments: -£110

TOTAL PROFIT: £1,288

Overall I think I still need to stay positive about this month - if I hadn't had 2 weeks breaking even on online tournaments I am confident I would have beaten the £2k mark again. Yesterday has to be put down to normal variance, but it obviously stings more as it's the last day of the month and I was already working out my expected profit and even started counting out pennies for a new set of golf clubs. Guess this will have to wait until June - at the earliest!

worst day ever

This is easily my worst day to date playing poker. It hurts. I want to carry on playing as my profit for month now looks awful and only got a few hours left to rectify it, but not sure it's a good idea at the moment....

Maybe later.... after a bit of guitar hero..... hope everyone else is running better than me!

Not such a great day

Lost £233 today. No guitar hero and no curry. Grim times!

A good day

I achieved 3 great things today:

- won £400 in 2k hands at NL100

- beat Lou in guitar battle on medium level guitar hero

- i finished my entire lamb tikka massala, garlic naan and egg pilao rice - WASTING NOTHING!!

Not everyday will be this good so I'm going to sit back and revel in my accomplishments :-)

ps - this is a real picture of me celebrating!!

Up and running

Much appreciation to Brenos for getting my laptop fixed, it's now working better than ever. Windows 7 is class, and if anyone hasn't got it yet that wants it then give Brennan a shout - he's got a link to buy cheaper online than in stores.

I've been back grinding again this week, trying to make up for 2 missed weeks and log some hands. I've played 8k hands in 3.5 days, so not going too bad. Profit isn't exceptional (<£300) but I have been running a bit badly so hoping for improvement by the end of the week. I was also counting on getting a weekly Top Of Dogs bonus from Ladbrokes, but I think there are a few grinders out there trying to rake their way to Vegas, meaning I'm miles down the leaderboard compared to where I normally am. I'm sure these guys are account sharing, but what can you do???

With weather decent, the only thing I can complain about (I have to moan at something!) is that I'm shit at football now. So unfit and pisses me off how unmotivated I am to get fitter again. I'm past 30 now so I fear things are only going to get worse... if only I had some spare time to get to the gym :-)

Charity Skydive

Not me - and most people will know this already - but my gorgeous but slightly crazy girlfriend has decided to skydive next month in order to raise charity for Daisy Chain, which helps support children with autism, and their families. A very noble cause.

If anyone out there in the poker community feels like making a donation to charity, perhaps to help to alleviate the guilt you feel for taking money off the working class without contributing anything to society, then please make this the place to do it. You don't need to leave your name if you don't want to, and any amount helps. I went on my biggest heater of the year after donating, so I believe it has good karmic consequences :-)

Here's the link:
http://www.justgiving.com/Katrina-Jones1

Tournaments = Life Tilt

Man I really hate tournaments. I've lost about £100 this afternoon playing in rebuys and guaranteed tournaments on both Labrokes and Full Tilt, looking for a bit of variation while my laptop is getting fixed and cash games are difficult without a HUD. These donkey fests should equal free money over a decent sample size for anyone with half a poker brain, however in the short term all I ever seem to be is screwed over by arse wipes and retards.

I'm honestly getting used to the bad beats in cash, as you can just reload and try and win your money back, but is there anything more frustrating than playing 2 or 3 hours only to have your KK 3bet shove cold called and knocked out by Q9s? Or 1 hour of rebuys, then first hand get it in pre flop with AK against AQ only to get sucked out on for a 4 suited flush? I think not.

Fuck this shit - I'm heading back to cash and never venturing back in to online tournaments again. Unless there's a tasty freeroll of course :-)

Shit week - literally!

Not been a great few days here, with the following disasters occurring:

1. My laptop died. Hopefully Brenos can fix it over the next couple of days or I'm looking at a hefty outlay for a new one.

2. My car was confirmed as dead. As I couldn't play poker, I finally got round to taking my car in to the garage, where I was told it's going to take major surgery to get it past it's impending MOT. I'm going to find out in next day or so the damage, but any more than £400 (which is likely) then my car will be off to the big flashing headlights in the sky.

3. Spurs are a heap of shite. I just knew we'd throw away our best chance in 20 years of getting to the FA cup final somehow, and we managed it. I know they have scored a boat load of goals for us but I am really starting to HATE Defoe and Crouch. They never move, make runs, look like they are trying - and recently NEVER look like scoring unless an open goal presents itself. I heard rumours earlier in the season that Man City are after Defoe - right now I would honestly sell him or part exchange for Bellamy. I always hated Bellamy too, but after he insulted John Terry on Sky Sports I don't mind him too much now.

4. I also got the shits. Not pleasant. I'm beginning to understand the pain Briggs went through in Thailand, and pleased I only had mine for 24 hours. I'm also pleased I didn't have to go scuba diving with them!

Anyway, after all this I'm currently without a decent laptop and without HEM or HUD for poker, which is clearly far from ideal. I'm therefore going to experiment this week and try out a day of heads up, a day of PLO and a day of tournaments. Hopefully by Thursday Brenos will have miraculously fixed my laptop, but it gives me something to do in the meantime while I'm waiting.

Hope everyone else out there is running better than me!!

Recovery of sorts

After a really relaxing Easter weekend at my folks with K, and seeing my baby niece who is already 8 months old (how did that happen!?!), I got back to the grind today and chiselled out a £340 profit after 2k hands. No massive amounts of luck today as was only £30 above EV, so I'm still waiting for the run good to come and balance out the last week. Maybe I'll just drop the Bad Beat Jackpot on Ladbokes for a share of 150k - that would be fine for me :-)

Epic start - then epic fail!

I've finished playing poker for the weekend now so here is my month to date:

It started off so well, I won a few flips and things looked rosy. Then I got shat on this afternoon / evening. I know I've posted before about EV being a shitty figure but it really did tilt me today. I ran £550 behind EV in about 10 hours, mega frustrating. Same story last month too. Can't wait until I run good - I'll be minted!!!

Good luck to Soap in Irish Open over weekend, I'm smelling a cash finish there - so long as he can stay away from the Guinness :-)

March P&L

Not a bad month in the end, thanks mainly to my 1k upswing at the beginning of this week. Would have been even better though if I didn't get arse raped yesterday afternoon, losing £400 in 4 hours of flip losing.

NL Cash: £1,466 (42k hands)

Rush Poker: -£99

Rakeback / Bonus: £988

TOTAL PROFIT: £2,356

Positives:

New work routine sorted (9 - 5 now) and pleased with the volume I put in over the past 2 weeks

Given up pissing around on Rush Poker

I was also £600 behind EV, meaning this month could have been even better.

Targets for March:

Play 50k hands

Keep tilt under control!!

Irish Luck!

After losing over 1k in 3 days at the back end of last week, I was desperate to make some cash this week to turn around a disappointing month so far. Things weren't looking great this afternoon when I'd managed to only scrape £35 winnings in the first 1.3k hands of the day.

I then took a break, had a coffee in the front room with K and then WAS WISHED GOOD FORTUNE BY A REAL IRISH PERSON!!! (K's friend). Cue £687 boom switch, which felt like a gazillion buy ins at NL100 dollar tables. I won 13/16 AI showdowns, although to be fair to me 12 of these I was greater than 60% favourite when the money went in. It's still an unfamiliar feeling to win those though so I'm more than pleased - and yes - I will be making sure K's friend is invited around again in the very near future!!!


Tiiirrty trrrreeeee potayyyytoes!!!! Graaaandddddd!!! (me practicing being Irish)

I'm still alive

..... just not felt the urge to post on my blog for a while. This has mainly because I've been away (Cheltenham) then been getting my head down and playing some hands this week. This was going AWESOME for me, and was up a shedload after getting through 9k hands. Then the last 2k today have been shite. Truly horribly shite. Have a look at this depressing site of today's P&L:












I have been outplayed, outdrawn and spewed. In my last session tonight I got AK and QQ in pre flop for 100bb and ran in to KK and AA, lost AK to QQ after massive pre flop raise called and pot sized bet for flop, and also tried to barrell off a loose predictable player in a 3bet pot on a T356 board only to be check called for pot on 2 streets with 44. nh, wp. I also got half a stack in with 22 on a K22T board only for river to bink a T and my flopped full house suddenly looks pretty shitty.

Reading through the above has actually made me feel a bit better. I don't think I'd have played the hands any different in a winning session, but when you are running bad and you miss every pot you begin to doubt a lot of your plays. I'll take a break and hit tables again soon. Which I need to do as profit for month suddenly looks very unhealthy!!

I'll try and post a bit more interesting stuff on here soon, hopefully with better news by the end of the month on the poker front!

How Heterosexual Am I???

After getting some helpful advice, along with some not so helpful but expected berating about my gay red line, I really tried to turn this area around and try and win some non-showdown pots in the second half of Feb. I still have LOADS to work on here as I have turned in to a 3 barrelling monkey at times and value betting the villains hand for them, but I think I am making some progress.

Here are the 2 HEM graphs for the 2 main sites I played on last month- starting with Ladbrokes 6 max.

And here is my Full Tilt Rush Poker full ring graph - as you can see I'm always the most aggressive player on the table!!!

I'll add graphs on each month from now on as I think it will be interesting to see these over a long period of time, but main reason I wanted to post these as it's the first month ever (EVER!!) that I've had a positive outcome from non-showdown winnings.

ROAAARRR!!!!

February P&L (and quick Center Parks update)

I made it back alive from Centre Parks and the 'scary' 9 metre jump, which in fact was nowhere near as daunting as I first feared. The zip wire thing that we did was also made less scary when I saw three people go on before me without a care in the world - and their combined age was probably less than me on my own! It was a great week though, awesome to spend some time with the mrs and to get out of my office in to the real world. I did do some exercise but this was more than countered by meals out every day - I really do need to get to the gym soon!

Anyway, here are the final figures from last month, massively helped by my final weeks volume and wins.

6-max cash: £712 (26k hands)

Rush Poker: £256 (28k hands)

Rakeback / Bonus: £663

TOTAL ONLINE PROFIT: £1,631

Live Tournaments: -£39

TOTAL PROFIT: £1,592

Targets for March

- replicate last week of February's work ethic for the majority of March, spending most of my time on NL100 6max rather than NL25 rush poker!

- continue to focus on non-showdown winnings / losses as an area for improvement.

- send more hands to mates for analysis - and hope not to get ripped to shreds about my play every time :-)

Long Overdue Update

I haven't written anything on here for a while for a number of reasons:
1. I was playing shit / running bad and didn't want to bore people
2. I was trying to log hours playing rather than writing, as I was a gazillion miles behind where I wanted to be in both profit and rake
3. I couldn't be arsed!

However, as it's coming up to the end of the month I thought I'd state where I'm at. Thankfully, my run bad sessions finally stopped and I managed to get in some profitable ones, meaning I should end the month in reasonably healthy shape - something that wasn't looking likely last week. I've stopped pissing around as much on Rush Poker - even though I really enjoy it - and rattled up a total of 26k (ish) hands on Ladbrokes for the month - including 11k hands this week. I've also played 28k hands on Rush Poker which is a bit excessive to be honest and detrimental to my bankroll / overall profit as I should be playing 6max on Ladbrokes. I'll cut this down to a minimum next month.

Anyway, looks like I'm going to end the month around £1.3k up after rakeback. I'll post final figures after I get back from my week off at Center Parcs with K - which I'm really really looking forward to. Apart from the 9 metre free fall I signed up for with macho bravado, even though I hate heights!

If I come back alive I'll start posting again around March 7th :-)

No Updates = Hate Poker

Not in a good poker frame of mind at the moment, getting battered in 6max on Ladbrokes, losing every race and then compounding matters by making mistakes too. I'm currently £300 down this month there so not looking great for my P&L, all I can say is it's a good job I've got some savings behind me as I think I'm going to need them!!

I've also been playing a lot of 9 handed rush poker, mainly because I enjoy it, but have a feeling it's knocking my 6max game so should stop pissing around on it really. Just to prove I am capable of a heterosexual red line too, here's my month's graph for Full Tilt only:

Now for some run good on normal game please - just one time!!!

2 Stereophonics Tickets For Sale - March 1st - Newcastle Metro Radio Arena

I've been an idiot and booked my weeks holiday at Centre Parks at the same time as the gig for Stereophonics in Newcastle. If anyone would like to take these off my hands they are standing tickets for Monday March 1st at Metro Arena, costing £35 + £5 handling fee - i.e. I paid £40 each for them. I'm not going to try make money on these so if anyone wants to just buy these for £80 then let me know and I'll send them out in the post. If no takers then I'll whack them on ebay next week.

February Update

It's been a while since I've posted, so thought I'd put in a quick update on how things are going. I've been putting in the hours since the weekend and now logged up 16k hands so far for the month - although 7k of them have been on NL25 Rush Poker on Full Tilt. So addictive. Also very soft, so been having a lot of fun playing 19/16 on a full ring table - which is pretty much equivalent to my stats on 6max. My gay red line is also positive on Full Tilt (just) so hoping I can transfer some of this aggression back across to my Ladbrokes NL100 tables. We'll see.

I would really like to start making meaningful, well thought out posts but I'm not planning this in to my day at the moment so this crappy little update will have to do for now. I'll improve though - promise.

And good luck too to Soap and Brenos at Manchester this weekend. Hope you both cash big - especially you Brenos - that 5% stake needs to be repaid in £000's if I'm going to have a good month :-)

Can anyone help with my gay red line??

Here is my Jan 2010 HEM graph, which shows a horrible non-showdown loss.



Anyone got any (new) ideas that I can use that I'm not doing yet? Am I missing something really obvious?

Jan 2010 P&L

A late end of month rally saved me from a bad month, with Friday and Saturday night social players contributing nicely to my wage - otherwise I'd have been up shit creek this month! Here are the results anyway....

NL Cash: £1,163 (37k hands)

MTT: -£8

Rakeback / Bonus: £719

TOTAL ONLINE PROFIT: £1,874

No live play this month, but fancy a live game or two so will see what's occurring this month.

Targets for February:

- play 40k hands :-)

- delete CIV4 from my laptop to stop one of my (many) distractions

- shake off this shitty hamstring injury and then get myself fit again - maybe even join a gym???

A good day

About time! Logged a fair few hands, about 2.6k, and ran good too. Here's my pleasant looking graph for today:





My red line is, and probably always will be, gay. One mitigating circumstance that I'll plead is that there are sooooooooooooooooooooooo many retards online on a Friday night that I've found it generally unprofitable to bet multiple streets, meaning I'm giving up on most pots after one (or no) cbets. They still pay out when you hit too - awesome - including a royal flush and quad aces tonight.



I'm close to meeting 40k hands - I'm on 35.5k so just need one big push in next 2 days.

Spurs Are Shite At Closing Out Games

Fact.

Poker is still a bit of a slog, but posted my first winning day in a week so hoping that I have finally turned the corner. 27k hands played so far this month, going to be a stretch to get to magic 40k landmark, but will be caning it from Monday onwards so still hopeful.

I've also posted the Pokerstars blogger logo on again as still not received confirmation email. Hoping that the link on the top right, as well as below, will do the trick!

Think Positive!

I'm no longer going to use this blog to whine about poker. FACT. I'm no longer going to get my hopes up about Spurs achieving anything meaningful as we have a backbone as strong as an amoeba. FACT. I'm registering for the PokerStars bloggers world championship and am going to cash in one of the events. FACT (at least I hope so :-) ) Details below

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 211194

In Pictures

Spoke a bit to Brenos yesterday, and know we all go through bad spells, so just need to play through this downturn. I was curious though as to whether it's bad luck or bad play, and I'm definitely making some mistakes, but the below graph does make me feel better as it looks like mostly bad luck to me!

(top line is expected winnings)

650 euro not terrible I know, but when playing for 100 euro buy ins it does feel sick when they happen one after the other!!

Downswing :-(

Dropped £350+ yesterday evening, following the update post yesterday. I ran awful but also made a couple of errors that cost me £40+ a time by betting when I would only get called by better.



Need to get head straight and attack again today - I need some Irish luck - work your magic little leprechaun!

January Update

It's been a while since I posted on here, so I thought I'd write a quick poker update.

I've been logging a few hands more than normal this month, however my results are still only stuttering along. Every time I think I'm making progress I get stuck on another downswing, meaning I'm currently sat at about +£950 for the month after 20k hands. I'm still determined to get to 40k hands this month so we'll see how things are going at the end of January.

Quick Life Update

Still trying to avoid poker for a few more minutes before start up again (see previous post), so thought I'd cheer myself up by writing quick life update.

Due to snow.... not really done much!

Update over.

Actually - I have booked up a March holiday to Center Parcs with K, which is cool. And we did go see Avatar this week at Imax Studio in metro centre. If you haven't been yet, GET YOUR ARSE THERE. It's awesome, especially in 3D on the big screen. £10.50 a ticket, but well worth it.

Brennan also really fancies the lead female character, proving once again after the Fiona Bruce comment (Fiona Bruce?!?!?) that he really does need to get out the house more! Here's a sneak preview of what got Brennan so worked up.....

I think it's the ears that do it!!!

Fuck this poker shit

Just had a grim session, dropping 300 euros in 45 mins, so rather than carry on playing in an angry mode I thought I'd do a Suddes and post my bad beats on here so you can all feel sorry / mock me.

1. KK vs AT on 242 board (100bb)
I ra UG, small 3b by bu - I call for deception and think he's weak. Check raise flop for more deception - show weakness 'find out where i am'- him ship 95bb - ace turn

2. AK suited vs 35suited - K2986 board (100bb)
He limp calls - then calls 2 BIG barrels (3 players in pot) - only to get there on river. I have flush draw turn too, and as only have 45 euros left and pot of 140 on river, figure he'll call off with weaker kings / even a 9. Gay.

3 . AK vs AA AIPF (97 bb)

4. AK on A35 flop (65bb) - he obviously flops trip 3's.


I also manage to get all in with AA on 779 board against reg in 3bet pot, only for him to flip aces too for a split pot.


All variance I know, and will be over this as soon as I post it, but stings like a bitch when happens all in a row. Whinge over.

(apologies for those that chose to read this crap - promise to put up a better post next time)

Always stop playing when tired!

There are far worse things that can heppen to you when tired - like falling asleep behind the wheel of a car or your mates shaving off your eyebrows when you pass out - but playing poker online is also not advisable. I was happily sitting on a 280 euro profit for tonight, but after playing on for an extra 10 minutes past my cut off time (2am) - I managed to lose 120 of it back in 2 minutes.

First I accidentally overcall a pre flop raise with crap and lose about 15 euros floating, and then get involved in a big hand when deep with AK versus a tough reg out of position - 4betting big preflop. Might not have been too bad, apart from the fact I bet 50 euros on river with air when I knew he'd call with ALL his range - even AK. I counted out the bet amount on my slider, thought it through, and decided that a check fold was in fact the better play. Unfortunately as I slid my mouse over towards the check button, I slipped and clicked too soon - BET - snap call him and 50 euros gone not to be seen again. I soon woke up after that, but was too late and wisely logged off Ladbrokes before I tilted any more away. If there was a cat around I would have kicked it.

Despite this annoying last 5 minutes, my month is going pretty well. 8.5k hands played and around £800 up at the moment. Day off likely tomorrow as I'm overdue a squash game with Briggs and in time deficit with K - something I better make sure I put right before she gets angry! I am the boss though.... honest....

Start of 2010....

... hasn't been too bad. I felt very rusty after my NY break, including NY eve and Jan 3rd drinking sessions, therefore only started playing again yesterday. Not before I'd had a refresher course from Ed Miller on StoxPoker, and think this helped with my confidence as much as it did my theory knowledge, as although I knew it all (well, most of it) it's nice to watch again and realise you are doing most of the concepts they preach already.

So results so far - about 200 euro up after 1.5k hands. More volume clearly needed but I feel like i'm playing well - my gay red line is even more profitable than my blue one this month!!

GL to all playing out there - especially those playing during the day as there's too much snow to get in to work - you know who you are!! :-)