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!