Holmes' Big Deal

End of the line

2011-11-18T08:25:00.001-08:00

Well, that's almost it. I've lost so much money this week, virtually all of my month to date winnings, and I just cannot be fucked with poker any more. I know everyone suffers from variance but I honestly feel that I have been shafted royally for as long as I can remember, having only about 2 months above EV in the 30 months I've been pro. It has been particularly severe this week and I just don't think I'm handling it very well any more. I NEED money with a wedding / vegas holiday to pay for and it is killing me to see others walk off with mine after getting it all in as a 20:80 underdog. Time and time and time again.

So I've taken drastic action and decided to definitely get a job. While I look for work, I'm going to do what I probably should have done from day 1, and claim job seekers allowance. I have always felt that it would be immoral of me to claim it when I am earning a living playing poker, but as I am currently failing in that profession and therefore broke I have bitten the bullet and going to join the Byker masses collecting dole money. I don't actually expect this to be my long term solution as I'm aiming to write up my CV over the weekend and hit the employment agencies on Tuesday next week. No more pissing about, time to get back to work.

In semi poker related news, I'm also moving again. Me and the mrs are downsizing to a studio on the other side of the water, cutting our monthly rent and bills by more than a third. I do like the quayside views from my current location, but we really don't need 2 bedrooms and it seems like a waste of non-existent money when we don't need to spend it - especially when there are other things to think about (honeymoon, food, etc). Although small, I actually think the new place could be really good - it's 20 seconds walk away from the Hilton and we're both planning on signing up for the gym there so we should get some good use out of it. It's also about a ten to fifteen minute walk away from Circus casino so if I ever do feel like hitting the tables again I won't have far to go!

I'm going to play at Aspers on Saturday I think but after that I may well take some time away from poker, especially if I get some temp work sorted. Online poker can definitely go fuck itself for all I care!!!

Job Search Update

2011-11-13T12:47:00.001-08:00

Hasn't really started yet! I am seriously trying to put it off, even though I still feel it's inevitable that I need to get one. The problem is I haven't even sorted out a CV yet so I can't sign up at a temp agency until I get this done. Maybe next week :-)

In the meantime, I've been playing a bit of poker..... and it's been going OK if not spectacular. I'm £350 up online playing NL50 and below 6max. I've also been the casino 3 times and up around £100 from there, and won a freeroll for another £75 so not been too shabby. Maybe if I run good again next week I might postpone the job search. Certainly gives me some incentive to play well I can tell you!

Also been good to have a weekly poker strategy session with Brenos so hoping this continues as believe it's going to help my game massively. He plays far more aggressively (and fearlessly) than I do so will be good to get a different perspective on strategy. Maybe he might even get round to updating his blog one of these days as well...

The fat lady is clearing her throat...

2011-11-01T03:08:00.000-07:00

... there are some people on the pitch too. In fact, nearly everyone thinks it's all over. Including me sadly :-( Looks like the dream is dying, at the very least temporarily.

I just can't seem to make any real money at the moment, and my diminishing bankroll is stopping me playing any higher in case I have a few bad beats it crushes me completely. I still have a fair bit of savings but really don't want to throw them at something that doesn't look like it is working out so stuck in no mans land at the moment - I can't win that much playing micro micro stakes, but scared shitless of moving up and getting crushed.

Anyway, here are the figures for the month of October:

6max: £36
Rakeback / Bonus: £296
TOTAL ONLINE: £332
Live Cash: £26
TOTAL PROFIT: £358

Needless to say I'm pretty mortified at the moment. I've resigned myself to the fact that I need to get a job pretty soon, i.e. this month, so will gradually get round to writing up my CV this week and probably signing on while I look around. I know there is fuck all out there and also that I'll be taking a big drop from where I was when I left work so all pretty demoralising at the moment. To be fair, I'm not even sure that I want to head back in to the accountancy world as it did bore me shitless, but the problem I have is that I'm not qualified for anything else. My work life sucks balls at the moment.

If I do end up quitting the poker full time, I won't quit playing on the side. I still think I can win money at this game and actually think having the pressure taken off will help my win rate. I'll probably also spend more time studying and updating this blog - I mean - what else do people do in offices all day apart from surf the web and send emails to their friends?!?! Whatever happens, it's been a learning experience. At least I can say I tried, even if it ultimately ends in failure.

I'll keep this blog updated on latest developments, as and when I have any news.

Sept 2011 results

2011-10-03T04:25:00.000-07:00

Well, this month never really got started. As per last post I had a sick sick run which knocked me back from
1. playing A game, as without doubt tilted and stressed myself this month
2. winning enough to return to stakes I should / want to be playing.

All in all a not at all satisfactory month:

6max: £147
MTT: -£20
STT: £40
Rakeback / Bonus: £485

Total online profit: £652

More hours, effort and tilt management needed for October. Hopefully this will also be the month Brenos finally gets back in the game so looking forward to having some poker workshops to try and bounce ideas off someone - definitely think this is an area I've neglected and could seriously help me.

Sick sick sick

2011-09-15T03:02:00.000-07:00

I am running worse than Sogelau Tuvalu in the 100metres at the moment, losing EVERY showdown and unable to win despite the HUGE statistical advantage I have when the cards are flipped. This isn't to mention of course people who call 4bets with A3 suited for 2/3rds of their stack only to hit a flop of T33 vs my AA. Poker sucks balls.

Here's my graph - 2500 big blinds behind EV this month. Awesome.

September so far

2011-09-13T06:07:00.000-07:00

Been pretty rough to be honest. Firstly one of my old football buddies sadly died at the age of 26, having been suffering for almost 3 years with a disease I will only spell wrong so will just say it wasn't nice. Not only was it a sad loss but also actually unexpected, as he had been on the road to recovery before he suddenly died of heart failure following a routine surgery. His funeral was immensely sad but his family were amazing - welcoming everyone and giving a moving tribute at the ceremony. RIP Gary.

With this in mind, my troubles on and off the tables are all pretty small time, but as this is my poker blog I guess I better update it anyway. I'm running badly on BOSS network at the moment, but grinding through it on the low stakes still. Currently around approx. £300 up for month on 6max cash games, so still a little short of the £500 target I wanted before moving up to NL100 again. Also crashed out of a £1k freeroll STT through Virgin, losing a race with 77 vs AQ all in pre - very standard but if had won that I fancied my chances as there would only have been 6 left, I would have been chip leader and there was even a guy sitting out who forgot it was on presumably! Amazing value from Virgin though so looking forward to qualifying again this month. Rakeback is totting up though so not in dire sorts at the moment, and apart from the odd brain fart I'm actually playing pretty well, getting my money in good a lot but being shatfed by the cards a lot too. Still optimistic for month though.

Running bad also in house buying. Had found an apartment that me and mrs were looking to buy in Battle Hill, and although historically not the nicest of areas the new build estate did look safe enough and a good investment. Even though I can't get a mortgage and count as a 'dependable adult' - i.e. need to be looked after by my mrs do to no official income - we were all set to go ahead under her name only until the building group started being arsey and demanded we move in within 2 weeks. If we were in the same situation next year I'm pretty certain we would go ahead, but with Vegas wedding not too far off now (April next year) we decided to play safe and save our pennies. 3 months double rent / mortgage + bills is no way to prepare for Vegas honeymoon, and despite expert bargaining on our part we could not get building group to give us £2k cashback to help the move go ahead. Understandable but annoying.

That's about it so far - will try and keep this updated weekly from now on til rest of year at least.

July and August 2011 P&L

2011-09-05T02:03:00.001-07:00

Been a long time since I posted anything on here, mainly because of denial of a continuing bad poker trend in the last few months. I've bitten the bullet now and decided to stick on July and August results though, and will have a bit of chat afterwards.

July 2011

6 max: -£134

PLO: -£2

Full Ring: £15

Total Online: -£121

Live Tournaments: -£44

Live Cash: £99

Total Live: £55

TOTAL LOSS: -£66

August 2011

6max: £1,076

PLO: -£18

Full Ring: -£45

Rakeback / Bonus: £409

Total Profit: £1,423

As you can see, a bit of a contrast between July and August. I feel like I've relearnt 6max poker having not really played it for 10 months, and actually really enjoying it at the moment. I'm still on bankroll rebuild mode at the moment, playing NL50 and below, but been CRUSHING on the Boss network so my aim is to continue this and hopefully get back to playing NL100 this month.

With the upturn in fortunes online I've somewhat abandoned Aspers and the live games for the time being. I was winning a sizeable chunk in July but 2 losing sessions of £185 and £307 - the last while trying and failing at a shot on 1/2 - meant that a reasonable live month was ruined. The games are still soft so I will be returning a bit this month I think, but nowhere near the volume I put in over the summer. I will miss the Asperes points though as loved eating at Freyas for free!

Plans for this month:

- Crush NL50 and below to get to £500 profit for month

- Once hit £500 profit, take shots at NL100

- Watch 20 cardrunners videos - ten on 6max, ten on PLO

- maybe buy a house?!?!

June 2011 P&L

2011-07-02T09:47:00.000-07:00

A little bit more upbeat since my last post as I've been hearing some positive noises from a few sources about the likelihood of me getting my money back, so I have decided to err on the side of optimism (strange for me) and NOT write off my Full Tilt account as a loss just yet.

Rush Poker: -£100

STT: -£15

MTT: £931

Rakeback / Bonus: £56

Total Online Profit: £877

Live Tournaments: £199

Live Cash: £1,085

Live Profit: £1,283

Total Profit: £2,160

Unfortunately July has started badly wth a loss of £185 last night. I played for 9 hours and saw one pair above 6's, but was still on course for a small profit at 4 am. Unfortunately I then tried to double barrel someone when I really shouldn't of, then shoved a turn against a decent reg who made a hero call with 88 on T637 board - I showed A6s with nut flush draw - but miss my outs. In hindsight I looked tilty so probably should have just flatted the turn, but also expected him to fold most of his range as he'd raised pre. C'est la vie.

A busy July ahead with stag weekend in Newquay, a 5 night stay in Prague for K's birthday then my birthday at the end of the month.

Run Good --> Run Bad --> WTF Do I Do Now??

2011-06-30T06:59:00.000-07:00

Another crazy last few days on poker front.

Run Good

Ran exceptionally well in a 420 player freeroll on Full Tilt on Sunday, playing well and being comfortable - getting it in twice with AK versus AQ for monster pots helped - and then sat tight at the final table waiting for mega aggro players to busto. Got to 4 handed then hit the biggest 10 minute heater of my life:

1. open shipping 10 big blinds from small blind with 56 to beat AQ big blind with river straight

2. open shipping 12 big blinds (after losing some blinds) with 55 to river a straight versus KK

3. 3bet jamming 20 big blinds with T9s heads up to beat KK again with river 2 pair.

Was delighted with the result - probably the biggest single tourney win I've had online - netting $1.6k. Not bad for a nights work!!!

Run Bad

Been pretty much destroyed online since I got my laptop back from the knackers yard (Brennan's PC laboratory), taking way longer than it should of to get used to multi tabling. When I finally figure out how to play again - I started to run bad too - and currently tracking at £100 loss for the month - although this is 6 buy ins short of expectation.

Run bad hasn't been restricted to online either, and I haven't been able to win for a while at Aspers either. I'm not taking big losses, only £100 a time max, but I'm losing all the monster pots. I can't get there with any big draws, and I can't hold with made hands versus tilt shoves either. Biggest sick hand of the week though was when I got £100 in on the turn with 77 full house - J799 board - versus obvious AA/KK - only for 9 to bink on river to lose me another £220 pot. Not been a good week on that front...

WTF?!?!

All the run bad on the tables though pales in to insignificance when I wake up at 1pm yesterday to find out Full Tilt has lost it's gambling licence, and therefore all rights to operate in the world. Crucially for us mere players this means no games AND NO CASH WITHDRAWALS - a bit of a fucker when I have $2.3k sitting online in their coffers.

I was mistakenly hoping that FT were going to be operating normally in Europe after Black Friday disaster - after all, there's a tonne of online sites that do pretty well having never been in the US market - but alas my misguided naivety has come back to haunt me. I wouldn't have minded too much normally as I was only keeping a small(ish) roll online, but 2 days before I take my month end wage out (including tournament bink) the poker client and their website go down, with no likely date to return.

I'm keeping fingers crossed, worshipping my lucky poker buddha and praying to my poker pope - both of which sit next to me on my poker laptop - hoping that the hearing set up for next month in London will grant them a licence again - or at the very least let them get back online so that players can get their money back. At the moment though I'm probably just going to write this off as money lost though, as with US players still without their funds I think the chances of UK players getting theirs back first are even slimmer. I just wish the whole online industry would sort themselves the fuck out so I can figure out which site is safe and which isn't.....

..... which leads me to the initial question - what the fuck am I meant to do now? I can't play online really, as have minimal bankroll and wouldn't even know where I could safely play in the future - maybe Ladbrokes I suppose. I might have to start looking for work again, as not sure 50p / 50p games at Aspers can really sustain me in the long term. Or I might sign on and claim all the benefits I can before axing it all and going to live in Thailand doing TEFL / scuba diving instructing!

Decisions decisions......

UKIPT and June review so far

2011-06-19T09:58:00.001-07:00

UKIPT

After bubbling the big £50 rebuy satellite at Aspers last Sunday, I somehow managed to run good and get myself qualified the very next night in the £10 + £10 + £10 game, meaning I got to play the main event this week. Due to huge number of runners and the fact the buy in of £550 was a bit bigger than my normal game, I decided to sell some shares in me meaning I'd get back £190 ish even if I failed to make cash.

Was a bit nervous when I arrived but after a couple of rounds of blinds was pretty happy with the standard I was up against - a few decent players, a few average and some obvious internet qualifiers who were pretty naive. I managed to chip up fairly early from my starting 15k to a healthy 32k, with the biggest pot being my trip 2's holding versus a medium stack shoved flush draw. I was then card dead for the rest of the day, losing a few small pots and making one hero call that was wrong for 2k but basically not playing a hand for 3 hours - meaning I'd made it to day 2 but with only 18 big blinds and 15k.

I was still mildly optimistic going in to day 2, knowing that a double up would put me back in to average stack territory but also knowing I'd need some luck to get it. As I'd been so card dead I was sure I was due, so when I shoved over a raise with AK I was certain I'd win the pot - even after he tank called with TT. Alas, it was not to be and I bricked all the way to the river, sending me home after a mere 20 minutes of play on day 2. My woes were not as bad as Brenos though, and my 5% stake also sank when his KK ship pre ran in to the mighty 56 suited which made a miracle straight to send him home 7 places from the cash. Gutted for him obviously, but also for both our sets of investors who we let down without being able to show them a return! Loved the experience though and will be looking to qualify for some more of these as did feel comfortable and would like to test myself against some of the better players who play these...

June Review

As my laptop has been completely dead, I've been forced to grind the live 50:50 cash game at Aspers as my only source of income. I started like a house on fire, but had a couple of iffy nights to lower the unrealistic target I set myself for the month. I am still nicely in profit though, winning over £800 in the ten visits I've made so far this month. With my laptop now back I will probably play there a little bit less but as it's been going well I think I'll still head there 4 or 5 times a week, just for less than the 10 hour sessions I have been putting in so far this month.

May 2011 Results

2011-06-19T09:50:00.001-07:00

Been unable to post on here for a while as my laptop has been dead for 3 weeks and not been able to see my May figures until now, as Brennan has thankfully managed to save all my vital files and I haven't had to buy a new laptop - thank fuck.

Here are my results anyway....

Online cash + rakeback ~£540

Live Tournaments -£55

Live Cash £555

TOTAL Profit £1,040

These are only rough estimate results, as I can't get concrete online cash results but I think this is a pretty close reflection. Pleased that live cash continues to go well and will continue to keep plugging away at this as still think the live games are softer than online at the moment...

Uncle Ben!

2011-05-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

Again!

My sister managed to pop out her second child last week, this time a baby boy, and even managed to do so without being filmed for national television! Luckily for me my sister gave birth on Friday, meaning me and K were able to zoom down on Friday night and spend the first 3 days of his life with my folks. See cutie in pic below - and the baby :-)

Since we came back I've been informed that the baby boy has now been named - Jet Johnson. Although I personally think that he now sounds like a cartoon character from the future, my sister and her fella are angling for the 'rockstar' sound to his name - let's hope he prefers guitars then and not flying scooters! I'm just pleased I (i.e. Katrina is pleased) that we can now buy baby boys clothes (ie miniature spurs football kits).

On poker front, things have been quite good actually over the past couple of days. I was struggling at the beginning of the month but now up to a healthy 1k profit - including rakeback. This has been primarily due to 2 awesome sessions at Aspers playing 50p 50p - I followed up my £290 win with a £220 win and am thoroughly enjoying the live experience. I should try to get there more really but there's just too many other things to do in the evenings.....

Been blogging here while playing some Sunday freerolls and just busted out in 4/21 with top prize being an ipad - bit gutted as was leading going in to the last 4. Still hanging around though in the Full Tilt one though so hoping to sneak in to the cash to add $50 or so to my roll. Will no doubt bust just before the money but can always hope for that big score :-)

EDIT - just busted 3bet shoving with AQ only to run in to KK in the small blind - AND AA in the big blind!! I run so bad :-(

Rising from the dead....

2011-05-12T05:39:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try and kick start my blog again. I've been a lazy bastard and it really only takes a few minutes to write an update so I figure I should really do it. Reasons are as follows:

1. I think I run better when I think about poker / write about it

2. It gives me an excuse to have a nosey at how well other poker players are doing through my following list

3. Main reason - I'm becoming more and more stupider, with my IQ actually dropping 8 points in a year since I've been full time pro. K (psychologist) says this is the rate of dementia, so I figure I need to do something quick as I'm only 31 and don't have too many IQ points to keep losing at this rate!

So how has May started poker wise? Shit. At least it was until yesterday. I ran terrible, trying to run up my Full Tilt balance to play NL100 rush again but as soon as I tried to play it I lost 3 buy ins in 20 minutes so been back grinding the NL50 again. I'm now £236 up for the month from online, and won £290 at Aspers yesterday playing 50p/50p - hitting EVERY draw and getting paid in every spot. Makes a change as I lost £64 at Aspers at the weekend, highlight being getting all in (bar £5) for a £140 pot with 93 on a 9935 board versus A9 - only for him to bink on river. Such is poker....

Anyway - all in all I'm about £400 up now for the month - and hoping yesterday (and this blog post) will help me run good for the rest of the month. I definitely need it as have some wedding deposits to pay for. And I REALLY want to buy some new golf clubs too :-)

April 2011 Review

2011-05-02T05:21:00.000-07:00

What a crazy month!

First and foremost, had a great 9 nights in Vegas with the mrs and booked up the wedding venue for next year - the Wynn. The chapel looks pretty good, but the main appeal was the terrace with open bar we've booked up for the reception that looks on to the 'lake of dreams' - proper swanky. Very much looking forward to that next year :-)

With the US government then fucking over the entire online poker population, my money has also been in and out of limbo all month. I withdrew the lot from Full Tilt on the day the shit hit the fan, but have since reloaded £300 to try and rebuild a roll there as now hoping everything is sorted legal wise. I'll not be keeping as much on there as have done in the past, that's for sure.

By about the 15th of the month, I'd been able to do fuck all work, bar a couple of live sessions in Vegas, and with online off limits I was forced to get out of the flat and play some local live poker. Went OK all in all, with only 2 losing sessions out of 7 and a tidy profit. Nice to know I have an alternative income possibility if online does die permanently.

Anyway, here's the final P&L:
Rush: £586
Rakeback / Bonus: £98
TOTAL ONLINE: £684

Live Tournaments: -£12
Live Cash: £657
TOTAL LIVE: £645

OVERALL PROFIT: £1,329

March 2011 P&L

2011-04-01T02:30:00.000-07:00

At last - a good month. Rush Poker: £1,578 STT: -£4 MTT: -£3 Rakeback / Bonus / Freerolls: £294 Total Online Profit: £1,865 Live Cash: £170 Total Profit: £2,035 Online Review: I ran like god for the first few weeks, winning £1,000 at NL50 rush but being about £500 above EV, then took a shot at NL100 for the last week and played well / didn't get shafted to make over £500 there too. I feel a lot better about my poker life having moved back to NL100 as although it is definitely tougher than NL50, I think it's still beatable for me and can provide me with a livelihood that doesn't involve 50 hours a week and running awesome at NL50. I'll be starting April at the new level and hope to carry on where I left off. Live Review: Played 4 sober sessions of NL50 at Aspers and one highly intoxicated one. Profit for sober sessions was £330, loss for drunk session was £160. Lesson well and truly learned. On plus side I'm feeling miles more comfortable live and do enjoy (most of) the banter so will be heading there a fair bit more in the coming months. They have a NL200 game there which I'd love to have the bankroll to play in comfortably, as sure there is money to be made there, but until I get a roll I'll be grinding the lower level tables to iron out any live tells I'm still carrying. There's a £500 UKIPT game at Aspers in May so ideally I'd like to be a live expert by then and rolled to buy myself in to that one if I can't scrape a satellite seat. We'll see.... Life Review: Everything going well at the moment, happy with life. Off to Vegas on Sunday for 9 nights with mrs to sort out wedding plans for next year, so that should be a class holiday, and got 2 more long weekends away booked in for June / July. Would LOVE to qualify for a WSOP package in Vegas but with all my holidays I don't think I'm going to have time this year even if I did make it! Guess I'll have to wait until next summer to win the $9 million main event jackpot. One more thing - COYS!!!! (we're crocked with injury so expecting the worst but still can't wait to see us take on Real Madrid)

Feb 2011 Results

2011-03-01T02:38:00.001-08:00

This has been a really weird month. I started it grinding the NL50 rush tables well, storming to a healthy £400 profit in a week, looking pretty for a good month and hopefully taking some shots at NL100.

Then things went tits up:
1. my internet crashes, leaving me without connection for 5 days
2. my HEM dies, leaving me HUDless for a week and effectively unable to play rush poker for a further week as I try to get it sorted
3. I get dreaded man flu, which mostly stopped me playing, but I couldn't stop myself as bored at home so logged on and lost a fair bit of my profit
4. Full Tilt spazzes out on me, leaving me without a site to play on for 3 days too!

I've also finally started to play a bit live and really enjoying it, however I'm not running the greatest, losing nigh on every race / 70:30 in cash when get it in with the short stacks. TT vs Q2, AJ vs 44, KK vs 99 etc etc etc - all for £40+ pots that would definitely help my P&L. I also had to ship £125 to share luckbox Brennan after we went halves on a cash session at Aspers after I won £175 and he lost £75. As if he needs the money!!!

With all that in mind, here are the final results:
Rush: £219
STT: £40
MTT: -£45
Rakeback / Bonus: £116

Total Online Profit: £330

Live Tournaments: -£12
Live Cash: £110

TOTAL PROFIT: £428

Now for the good news. With about 10 days to go of the month, in the middle of my slow death from man flu and bitching about my shitheap of a computer not working, I get 3 pieces of mail through the post that cheer me up. 2 decent wins on premium bonds (that I kind of forgotten that I had) and a well deserved tax rebate for OVERPAID tax in FY 2010. I definitely didn't know that was coming, but all three combined came in at close to £1300. Helps me through the low income month that's for sure!

Next month:
DEFINITELY get my black card status on Full Tilt - low volume means I'm further away than at the start of last month, but I hopefully will get there towards the end of March.
Keep on playing live cash at the casino.

Jan 2011 P&L

2011-02-01T06:38:00.000-08:00

Laziness knows no bounds in terms of this blog.... however have been proper busy this month sorting various shit out, including:

2 broken cars

1 broken laptop

1 set of flights to Las Vegas (April)

9 nights of hotel accommodation (Desert Rose - just off the strip)

All of which finally got completed around mid month and managed to salvage somewhat the losing month that it threatened to be, however not exactly groundbreaking results:

Rush: £755

STT: £15

MTT -£27

Rakeback / Bonus: £242

---------

Total Online Profit: £985

Live Cash: -£41

Live Tournament: -£22

Overall Profit: £922

Rush Poker continues to pay for itself, and now that I have consolidated my bankroll to exclusively Full Tilt I'm aiming to be playing NL100 full ring pretty soon. I'm also very close to getting the Black Card there, within next week or so, which will mean extra points and therefore bonuses, which will help with the low rakeback I'm getting at the moment. My iron man and Full Tilt academy balances are pretty decent too now so should have more bonuses from then soon too so looking a bit rosier on that front.

Live cash didn't exactly go to plan this month, due entirely to one night where I lost £160 playing NL50. I ran QQ in to AA on a T44 flop, then AK in to AT in a big 3bet pot - only for flop to come out AT9 leaving me in a shit spot. I recovered a bit in the last week though and starting to feel a bit more at ease playing live. I'll be heading down to the casino again this weekend and hope to start showing a profit there soon!

Anyway, for any poker geeks out there, including myself when I look back at this in many years from now, here is my HEM graph for Rush last month. Check out the return of the gay red line!!!

2011 - New Year, New Me!!

2011-01-03T05:51:00.000-08:00

Biggest news that I have failed to report on here, mainly due to my shockingly poor dedication to this blog, is that I got engaged over Xmas to my gorgeous girlfriend, now fiance, and we've (nearly) set a date for April 2012. Great news for me is that K is keen on a Vegas wedding - not my idea honest - but also means we'll need to go over this year to check out possible venues etc etc. For 9 days. Nightmare :-)

With 15 or so months to go to the wedding and a Vegas holiday this year, and a stag do to go to it's clear I need to make some serious money to help fund all this! Hopefully this will give me the motivation and kick up the arse I need to push on and move out of the low level grinding mode I'm currently in.

How am I going to do this?

2011 targets:
1. STUDY MORE!!!
One of the main reasons for my fall from grace has been my abject laziness to study poker for over a year. I logged on, played my hands at 6 max, and was on lazy boy mode. When I started losing I didn't have a clue why and felt completely all at sea as hadn't been thinking about hands at all and just played auto pilot. This will not happen in 2011

2. Play live cash
Having visited the casino a fair few times at the back end of 2010, I just can't get over how poor some of the live play is. On Friday and Saturday nights I don't think half of them can even see the cards let alone know how to play properly!! I want to be crushing the low level cash games at the casinos regularly and looking to move up by the end of the year to 1/2. I'd like to think I have the game now to play that level but I know psychologically I'm not ready to risk the £800 in one night I'd need to have to feel comfortable playing there (2 buy ins of 200 bb's). I'll get there though.

3. Play more tournaments - successfully - including some satellites
I'm learning here and now have think I have a much better grasp of what's needed in this sphere. I'm not there yet though so will need to make sure I keep up to speed with target 1 in order to continue my progress. I don't think I'm a million miles away though and as tournaments are something I enjoy I'm going to keep going with this.

4. Maybe (maybe!) learn some PLO
Only if I'm feeling adventurous!

2010 P&L

2011-01-03T05:41:00.000-08:00

6 max: £5,896
HU Cash: -£407
Rush: £2,230
STT: -£186
MTT: £641
Rakeback / Bonus: £7,639

ONLINE PROFIT: £15,800

Live Tournaments: £661
Live Cash: £169

LIVE PROFIT: £830

TOTAL PROFIT: £16,630

Sadly this is actually less than last years total, but as 5 of the last 7 months were winning months of less than £720 in profit this is actually higher than I was expecting when I put my figures together. I'm actually quietly optimistic for the new year at the moment!!

Dec P&L

2011-01-03T05:36:00.000-08:00

Not a terrible month, and was looking like going to be a pretty good one until the Xmas holidays kicked in. I basically stopped playing any Rush poker after the 18th as was back at my folks then the mrs parents, meaning surroundings not conducive to thinking poker so I settled playing for a lot of tournaments to try and improve my leaks in this area. As you can see still not completed!

6max: -£2 (about 100 hands!)
Rush: £921
STT: -£159
MTT: £98
Rakeback / Bonus: £383

ONLINE PROFIT: £1,241

Live Tournament: -£22
Live Cash: £73

TOTAL PROFIT: £1,292

November P&L - and early December results

2010-12-06T08:56:00.000-08:00

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???

2010-11-02T04:49:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-09-30T21:59:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-19T05:47:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-16T07:47:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-01T02:02:00.001-07:00

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??

2010-08-16T09:34:00.000-07:00

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!!

2010-08-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-12T13:53:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-03T04:05:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-03T03:20:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-04T04:14:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-04T03:58:00.000-07:00

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.....

2010-06-21T05:23:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-10T08:35:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-04T07:17:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-01T03:32:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2010-05-24T04:47:00.001-07:00

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

2010-05-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

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.....

2010-05-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

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....

2010-05-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2010-05-06T03:22:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-01T03:54:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-27T08:23:00.000-07:00

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

A good day

2010-04-26T13:08:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-22T04:06:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-15T07:52:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-13T08:38:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-04-12T02:43:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-06T09:22:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-04-02T17:32:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-01T05:27:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-03-29T12:54:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

..... 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???

2010-03-05T10:33:00.001-08:00

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)

2010-03-05T10:18:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-27T17:48:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-19T07:58:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-12T10:47:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-11T04:19:00.000-08:00

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??

2010-02-01T03:22:00.001-08:00

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

2010-02-01T03:01:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-29T20:02:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-23T18:31:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-01-21T03:23:00.001-08:00

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

2010-01-20T01:41:00.001-08:00

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 :-(

2010-01-19T05:05:00.001-08:00

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

2010-01-18T08:36:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-11T09:39:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-11T09:18:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-01-09T18:16:00.000-08:00

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....

2010-01-06T09:21:00.000-08:00

... 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!! :-)

2009 Poker Review

2009-12-31T11:28:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-31T10:10:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-30T14:01:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-30T07:32:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-24T09:03:00.000-08:00

... 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!

2009-12-21T16:46:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-19T16:35:00.000-08:00

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!!!!!!!!!

2009-12-12T12:55:00.000-08:00

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)

2009-12-11T17:25:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-08T03:27:00.003-08:00

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!

2009-12-06T16:17:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-06T13:06:00.001-08:00

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!!!

2009-12-06T06:46:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-04T17:01:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-02T09:36:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-01T03:50:00.000-08:00

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 :-)

Run Good / Run Bad - and another family photo!

2009-11-28T18:30:00.000-08:00

I've been all over the shop in the past week poker wise, first winning £800 in 2 days then dropping about £350 in the past 2 days - including a grim £250 tonight. What's frustrating but also slightly comforting is that I think I've played better while losing compared to when I was winning and just been running my hands in to monsters or coolers. I'm hand reading better and tilting far less than I used to, which is good, so my dining tables and crockery are taking less of a beating.

In life run good, I've also spent a relaxing week at my parents house with K and I got to see loads of my niece, who's now 3 months old, but weighs more like a 2 year old. She's certainly got some podge on her - check out the size of her cheeks in the photo! Not quite sure about the outfit, she's either:

1 - just escaped from juvenile detention centre

2 - just performed on stage with N Dubz

3 - just won 2nd prize in a 'dress like a giraffe' competition

I'll be heading back down there for Xmas, so looking forward to seeing how much she's grown by then. In the meantime, I'll be hitting tables hard next week (after day off Sunday) with first aim of getting to 30k hands in November. I've played 28k so far, so only need 2k on Monday, so should be do-able. One last winning day for the month would also go down very nicely!

Update Time

2009-11-25T04:49:00.000-08:00

Been a while since I updated this and although I really wish I could confirm Mark's nap, sadly it's not because I'm running good. On the flip side, I'm not running bad either - and to be honest I'm not really 'running' anything at the moment as been struggling to put the hours in (again). We've had an endless sea of visitors at our place in the last week, and now I'm down at my parents house visiting my family, including my baby niece. She's still really cute but did make me jump the other day when she farted on my leg - I nearly threw her across the room which didn't please my sister!!

My target of 40k hands this month is looking like wishful thinking, as I'm only on about 22k at the moment, but do hope to get to 30k by the end of the month. I'm also considering playing the £50 Aspers event this weekend, but it might be difficult to register if there's limited capacity. Brenos / Mark (welcome home) / Azz / Carl - if you fancy it let me know.

Reality Check

2009-11-16T08:51:00.000-08:00

Well, I knew it was coming. My heater is over and now on a bit of a losing streak, dropping 600 euros in the last 3k hands. I'm also break even over the last 8k hands so my mojo has dropped a bit. I think I'm trying to play too many tables, 5 or 6 at times rather than normal 3 or 4, and also not fighting enough for non showdown profits - as Brenos would say I've gone back to being a showdown monkey.

Need to get my head back on straight then hit tables again tonight......

Impulse Buying At It's Best

2009-11-12T02:22:00.001-08:00

I've been umming and agghhing for ages about getting some fish for the flat, as I think they are dead cool and also thought they would relax me when I get my poker anger problems, so yesterday me and K headed to an aquarium to check out the prices and see what the deal was with cleaning / caring for them. While we were there though, we changed our minds as soon as we saw this little fella, and instead decided to buy a turtle - how cool is he!?!?!

'Crush' is pictured in K's hand above, and is absolutely tiny at the moment, but will grow to be quite big. I splashed out a bit and bought him a £100 tank + filter + heater, and he's now swimming happily around in it next to the TV in our living room. He's dead easy to look after at the moment, and I'll only need to get a bigger tank in a couple of years time. We can also take him out of the tank any time we like and he can wander around on the living room floor happily for 20 mins or so too. He's my first ever pet and I'm shit scared I'm going to kill it somehow, accidentally of course, but K seems to be a natural so I think Crush is set for a long and happy life on the Newcastle Quayside.....

(poker still going OK - played a few more thousand hands since last post and no longer on the heater but not losing either - just better than break even from where I was)

A Losing Session!?!?!

2009-11-07T17:04:00.000-08:00

I've waited a while to post this. I've just had a losing session, dropping $89 on NL50. I made a couple of loose calls and also got coolered on one hand, and I feel sick. Thus brings to an end my longest winning streak of online poker....... 14 sessions in a row where I either break even or win :-)

I've not put anything on the blog as I know it curses me, so I'm hoping that as I lost this one session, the run bad has been taken up already and I'll continue to run good for the rest of the month.

For the record I'm currently £1.6k up for the month. BOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!

Useful Links For Any Readers!

2009-11-06T07:42:00.001-08:00

I'm not doing an Amatay and selling my soul, but instead putting on some links for people I know or have been introduced to. If there is anyone else out there trying to make some money or start a business online then feel free to send me a link and I'll add it on to here - using discretion of course!

Anyway, here are the first 2 links:

Cosmetics Fever - http://cosmeticsfever.com/engine/shop/index.html

For those of you lot that know Gary Johnson, this is his site. He's been off work ill for the past 2 years, without sick pay, so in between his morphine shots and trips to the hospital, he's set up a website to sell cosmetic products for extra income.

He's got every perfume and aftershave you can think of on here (not just from P&G!), as well as makeup stuff for women, at a fraction of the price you'll pay at the shops (he's wangled himself some supplier in Asia I think). Take a look through and get ordering for Xmas - get free UK delivery too if you spend enough.

In Running Odds - http://inrunningodds.com

Not sure if this link will be as useful to everyone, but if you like to gamble then this will be good for you. Paul Newton asked me to link his mate Pete's site on here, which shows the bookies odds on in running sports events from major firms such as Betfair, Ladbrokes etc. Therefore next time you are watching football on TV and fancy a bet, load up this site and see where you'll get the best price.

On personal front, poker is going OK. I'm not playing perfectly, making too many mistakes for my own liking, but been running good so getting away with it! I'm going to tighten up my play a bit and log some more hands this weekend - hopefully the run good will continue but I'll win some money that I deserve too :-)

October P&L

2009-11-02T11:11:00.000-08:00

Not bad, mainly due to the fact that I am putting in the profits from the NPF tournament in October. I think it's fair as I did pay the entry fee and played the first day in October - even if I did cash on November 1st :-)

NL Cash: £668

(25k hands)

MTT: -£18

PLO Cash: £26

Rakeback / Bonus: £500

ONLINE PROFIT: £1176

Live Tournaments: £924

Live Cash: £30

LIVE PROFIT: £954

OVERALL PROFIT: £2131

Targets For November:

-Play 40k hands!!! This has been on here for 3 months now but illness, then pC illness stopped me last month aftera solid start to my new work routine. I'll get it right in November though.

- Keep on revising and working on my game.