2009 Poker Review

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

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

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

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


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

Dec P&L

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

Here are the figures:

NL Cash: £573 (25k hands)

STT: -£5

MTT: -£60

Rakeback Bonus: £784

ONLINE PROFIT: £1,292

Live Tournaments: £33

OVERALL PROFIT: £1,325

January 2010 targets:

- play 40k hands!!

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

Poker Update

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

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

2009 Life Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

Roll on 2010!!

Ho Ho Ho - Merry Xmas Everyone

... and to me!!!

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

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

Ranting Clearly Helps!

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

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

No Progress / Personal Rant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A4 suited vs K6

JJ vs 59 off suit

Ak vs JJ

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

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

I'm back (sort of)

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

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

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

It's Back

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

a) minimise losses risk if I make a stupid mistake

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

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

Cash is shitter!

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

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

Tournaments are shit

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

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

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

Jinx!!!

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

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

The Worm Has Turned!

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

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

Bad start to the month / Cooking Lessons

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

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

November P&L

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

Here are the figures:

NL Cash: £2,377

(29k hands)

Rakeback / Bonus: £824

ONLINE PROFIT: £3,201

LIVE PROFIT: £0

TOTAL PROFIT: £3,201

Targets for November:

<> play 40k hands :-)

Run Good / Run Bad - and another family photo!

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

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

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

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!?!?!

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!

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

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.

Newcastle Poker Forum (NPF) Main Event - £50 freezout

I joined the Forum in the first few weeks that it opened, after it was set up by Dave (DC), who I met at the Caribbean Poker Classic 2 years ago. Although I followed it quite a bit to start with, I didn't get too involved as I wasn't playing live and didn't know what or who they were talking about half the time!! Having said that, as Brenos was about at the weekend we did decide to play the £50 game at the weekend as the structure looked good and we had heard rumours it was good banter too. I'm pleased I did now :-)

I managed to squeek in to day 2 at just under average stack despite sitting on a rock hard table from the dinner break onwards. I had an internet pro who I heard people say were in the top 30 in world on my right, who raised every hand for 2 hours as he was the chip leader and a little bit intoxicated (there for the craic), and a very very good player (fatfish??) on my left. I had to 3 bet light and squeeze - once to hit the nut straight on turn with 67s after an unwanted UTG caller - but wasn't too uncomfortable and always got my chips in good when I was all in:

K9 vs AJ on KJ72 board
QQ vs 99 pre flop
67 vs QK on K598 board
AA vs A5 on J88 board (he check raised bluffed)

I'll try not to go in to loads of details of the final day as there are loads of posts on the NPF itself - with pictures - so if you are interested in how the final table was made up and decided here is the best link to follow:
http://www.newcastle-poker.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=7209

The hand histories don't totally do me justice, as I do end up getting it in with some crap hands on the final table, but that was purely down to my aggressive pre flop game. I noticed there were a lot of people that seemed to be happy to play the waiting game, but as the blinds and antes were massive, I decided to take the opposite approach and go after them rather than sit back and wait. I doubled my stack before getting caught out by a short stack 3bet shoving all in, which I had to call with 'The Ultimate Cranston' (84 suited).

I lost that hand but didn't lose many chips, and my image worked in my favour when the small blind took a stand against my constant button raises by 3betting me with J9. Unluckily for him (Sean) I had QQ this time and although he has a fair few chips behind, he is getting odds for a call against my shoving range - I do have AK here a lot - so he calls but misses.

I make 2 tough (ish) calls with KJ after raising and getting 3 bet shoved by tight (ish) short stack, but after thinking things through, working out pot odds and knowing that everyone thinks I'm full of shit, do make the call to see KT both times. First hand I lose a monster pot that would probably have taken me to chip leader when he hits a Ten on the river (not in NPF thread), but second time a few orbits later I knock out the same guy when he misses.

I get to heads up without having to get my hands dirty, the chip leader (the aforementioned DC) knocking out a talented crisp by the name of Junior Bomber. I obviously wouldn't of had a clue about that sentence either before the weekend, but anyone at Circus over the weekend would certainly know who I meant due to the constant railing / cheering of 'Bomber' from his fan club behind him. My fan club was much better looking though - or at least one half was as Brennan had been joined by K with 8 players left - and I think her presence did loads to help unsettle the 100% male field - thanks for your stare downs K! :-)

Anyway, heads up was virtually over before it started, my 190k chips tiny in comparison vs DC's 810k (20k big blinds) and my third ship pre flop in 4 hands with A3 was called and beaten by JK. I was a little disappointed not to get a double up and play a decent heads up match, but I certainly can't deny that Dave was a worthy winner. He outplayed me in every pot we contested over the 2 days and used his chip lead to massive advantage from 40 players left to dominate the tournament. Mark had told me how good a player he now was, and I have to agree after the weekend. As he is the founder of the NPF, organises all the events and talks to everyone as a true gentleman, I also think I would have been the most unpopular winner of all time if I had come back from the dead to claim 1st prize!

As it was, £930 prize money was a decent pay day (even if £290 was shipped to Brenos as shares!) and I thoroughly enjoyed the the weekend. I'll certainly be looking to play more local events and maybe even start posting on the NPF - who knows - people might actually know who I am now!!

Last Thursday - reminder of a lost youth!

Due to continued laptop gremlin issues, my HEM has continued to be knackered, causing me to stay away from online poker until my IT help desk (Brenos) arrived up at the weekend. This meant that I spent most if last week lazing around / watching poker videos, feeling better about the fact I'm improving my game without actually having to put it in to practice to prove it.

As I was still unable to work properly, I was also able to have a few shandies on Thursday night to celebrate a flying visit by long lost Rogers - a true legend. Back in the day (2+ years ago), I spent a lot of weekends out on the town with the boys, before I saw the error of my ways and settled down with K. Friday and Saturday nights usually involved us lot watching a snake-hipped Rogers schmooze his way in to a girl's heart on the dance floor, before he'd kiss and run, the dirty dog.

As he's still a young 'un, he dragged me and Brennan with a few of his mates from Manchester to Digital for Stone Love, and Indie night I used to 'love' back when I was at uni. Alas, I'm not a student anymore. I'm 30. And everyone else in there was clearly a student, or under 22 at least. Although it was great seeing Rogers again, this was pretty much how I felt I looked:

As I'd only started drinking late doors after playing awesomely in a 20-4 win at 5 aside, I was sober enough to realise that I should probably leave the whipper snappers to it. As Brenos is also nearer 30 than 20, he was easily persuaded to join me at Circus for late night cash table action. We played until the wee early hours, leaving at 5:30, and I banked a tiny profit to cover my expenses for the night.

Blog Curse Returns- Never Publish Winning Sessions!!

I celebrated my wins too early.

I've been here before, most of the time while I was in Thailand, so I should have known what was going to happen. Cue loss of $350 of last night's $480 win :-(

I was actually up for the evening at midnight but decided to log back on for one last session, figuring I'll catch the drunks and tired fish. Turns out I was more tired than I expected and donated my chips around a few tables.

Looking through hands now, I don't think that there are that many terrible plays. I went with a read on one hand with QQ on JT4 board, 3betting all in on the flop when I would normally slow down / fold to a raise, but as I had notes that he slow plays trips I put him on a draw that was trying to outplay me (we have a lot of history). He had 44 so $100 dropped there. I then lost a flip with AK vs QQ for another $100 and then got oudrawn by QT on a T42 board in a 3bet pot, getting half stacks in on flop onlny for him to spike a Q for a third $100 beat in quick succession.

I played a couple of hands after that while on tilt for 20 BB then 30BB and never got the monster double up I needed to get my momentum going. C'est la vie.

I'm off to NFL tomorrow so unlikely now to get any hands in before Monday night at the earliest. This month was looking really promising profit wise, but back to grind fest next week now to try and hit my mental target of £1.5k. I'm running at £1k profit so far before rakeback so on track but would have loved to of had a monster month this month following the spendathon of Paris / U2 / Macau / Vegas.

Time to get pwning and run good next week - just one time!!

And boom goes the dynamite......

Shazam!!

No, I did not just get my leg over. Pretty good news though. I've just about recovered from evil man flu, and now healthy enough to be certain of heading to London for the NFL this weekend. Been looking forward to this for a while, and although I'm not as much of a New England Patriots fan as Briggs is, I can't wait to see all the yank razzamatazz on show.

I'm also running good again at poker. I've just finished probably my most profitable evening's play in the last couple of months, winning $480 before rakeback. It's amazing what winning a few flips can do for your bankroll, especially at NL100.

Anyway, gone 1 am here so time to crash. Been a while since I said it, so GL to all those playing out there :-)

Sniffle Sniffle

This is me.

I've been laid up with flu for the past couple of days, so not played any poker since my losing sessions on Saturday. I just don't feel as though I can concentrate on anything for more than 20 seconds so this is probably a +EV decision, so I'm spending my day on the sofa watching the NFL on Sky Plus with lemsip. Not the worst way to spend the day....

All going wrong

Can't find a winning session for love nor money. Lost about $500 now in the past 2 days and my confidence (and monthly profits) are fast disappearing up in smoke. Grim.

I should force myself to play tonight versus the drunks but just not feling the confidence. It's not helping that flu has taken hold and I'm my head is feeling all groggy, so it's probably a good idea to take a break. I'll see how I feel in a couple of hours.

Oh - in response to Brennan - he did do the majority of the PC fixing. Therefore if anyone has a PC problem please feel free to contact him and he'll happily remove any viruses / worms / problems your PC might have following any illegal downloads of movies, music or 'other'. The reason mine crashed was just due to bad luck of course due to an excel file being corrupted :-)

Rough 2 days

I think I'm getting the man flu, which everyone knows is the worst type, and I think my laptop was feeling left out so it decided to get a virus of it's own. 24 hours ish with no poker and constant texts / phone calls / emails to my technical advisor (Brennan) still left me a bit screwed, with no HOLDEM Manager and looking like I might be booking myself some unwanted time off while it got fixed properly. I then try a last ditch attempt of turning off my wireless router and back on again and hey presto! - my PC is back to working order. Who needs to have an IT degree..... (thanks though Brennan)

In some ways though I wish it didn't work. I've since managed to lose $200 on the poker tables, through bad luck, set ups and one or two loose plays. Not helped by my drowsy state of mind, but I do need to get my head sorted out before I play again tomorrow.

Good luck to mighty Spurs over weekend, although have a nasty feeling we'll come a cropper at Fratton Park. We rarely (never) win there, and they'll be well up for it against 'Arry. Our most influential player (Palacios) has also been round the world on World Cup duty with Honduras, and last time he did that before the Man Utd game he was crap (for him), putting in the worst performance of his Spurs career. Without him, we're average with no backbone. In fact, I think I've just talked myself in to an Azz style back against my team bet on Betfair....

Weekend, Azz Home Game and Circus Freezeout

I haven't had much of a chance to post on here as have been ridiculously busy over the past few days. On domestic front, we had Katrina's family here for the weekend and went out Friday night for her sister Lindsey's birthday in town for an Italian (Sabatini's I think). Thumbs up for the pizzas and the steaks, but I don't think that Mr and Mrs Jones would send out too many recommendations for the fish or chicken dishes!

Azz Home Game

Saturday involved getting beaten (just) in a 11 a side cup match, then an evening of poker round Azz's house. The first game can be summed up as follows:

• Carl tries to bluff Brennan who snap calls with 7Q on K72 board - 'I have nuts versus your range Carl' - rebuy Mr Richardson
• Carl gets all in versus Brennan again with jack high - rebuy Mr RichardsonCarl raises with KQ and can't get away from my squeeze shove - AA rock Holmes - rebuy Mr Richardson
• Another rebuy Mr Richardson
• One more rebuy Mr Richardson

Chips go back and forth as the alcohol and peanut consuming clan tries to outplay each other, and Brennan's monster chip stack is dwindled to a short stack by the end of rebuys as he runs in to a couple of monsters and getting himself pot committed with trash.

Carl is the first casualty after rebuys, as he calls my raise with 88 and flops 389. After slow playing the flop, he gleefully calls my check raise, only to find me holding 99 for the nuts, and his one out doesn't come. With 3 paid and 5 players left, a 3 way all in pre flop sees me and Briggs - the only 2 not involved - looking good for a cash finish. Gav's QQ is facing a flip versus Azz's AK, with luckbox Brennan needing a miracle to stay alive with 55. Flop of TAQ gives Azz hope then takes it away in 2 cards, with Brennan all but dead. But wait..... The miracle could still be on for as Azz picks up more outs with a K turn - and yes - it happens when the J comes on the river for a 3 way split. Grim for me and Briggs.

Brennan grinds back in to the money, after I vanish in 4th after being chip monster on the bubble. Gav raised early, Briggs took ages before calling from SB so I presume my big overshove from BB will just pick up the pot after Gav folds without any further incident. I wasn't counting on Briggs putting me on a bluff though and calling me with AQ. My KK still looks in great shape, especially as Gav tells us he's folded an ace, but not to be as the flop brings 2 aces and I'm back to short stack poker. No luck as my SB shove runs in to Gav's JJ on BB and I'm doomed. In true Ad King style, I take the poker beat very well and run off to the front room to play guitar hero rather than watch the rest of the action - although I know Briggs won (again) by beating Gav heads up.

Second Omaha game was a bit of a drunken blur, but I do know that I was out 2nd after I slow played my turned full house to sucker Carl in with his flush draw, only for him to hit his nut out on the river and obviously call my 'bluff' shove with a better full house. I think Azz won this game, but again by this time I was playing guitar hero in the front room with Brennan - which is near on impossible after 8 cans of stella, but even more so when the blue button is knackered Good evening entertainment though as always....

Sunday Evening

Sunday would normally have been a recovery day, however me and K had been invited to a (Canadian) thanksgiving dinner at our friends house. Steve and Kathleen put on a mint roast dinner for 6 and after putting their son Oliver to bed we got down to the serious business - playing Risk. For anyone that's not played this board game before I'd thoroughly recommend it, it's basically an excuse to pretend to be Napoleon / Roman Emperor / George Bush by invading the world and killing off your mates after making (and breaking) alliances. After being crushed in the last game by the Hass / Hass axis of evil, the Holmes / Jones alliance of the free reigned supreme and I took home the glory of 1st place. They'll be after revenge again soon I'm sure.

Poker

On poker front - I nearly shipped 2nd casino tournament 2 attempts when got knocked out in 4th of the Circus £30 game last night after heading there with Azz and cameo Cuswao. Rich threw his chips away at 12 when he sensibly realised that the game would be going on very very late, and that his work the next morning couldn't take a sleep deprived team leader. I'm sure they could of, but he does insist on telling me he's good at his job....

Anyway, me and Azz short stack our way to the final table, getting lucky and picking spots, before finally losing 'races' - Azz's K7 UTG shove losing to a dubious KT call from the SB to finsih 7th, then my KT losing when short stacked to a SB shover with AQ. £70 profit for the night for me, but don't think I'll ever play another midweek / weekend small stakes game as I didn't get home until 4:30 am and therefore slept through til 1:30 today, missing my online morning grind too.

Online has actually been going pretty well this month, and I'm about £700 up so far before rakeback. Long may this good form continue....

Daily Grind

Started today awful, losing over $200 in about 30 minutes. It didn't look good, but after a quick review of my losing hands I was pretty happy that I hadn't spewed off chips so didn't feel too bad and carried on. Won back my losses in the same session and ended only $15 down, which felt like a victory.

I caught a glimpse of Mark tearing up the PLO1000 table while relaxing in the Thailand sun / rain, so was tempted in to a game of this too. As I'm a novice I didn't sit down in the seat next to him, instead settled for a more relaxing PLO10 and PLO20 - much more my level :-). Did OK though and won $40 in 20 mins, even at these baby levels, so tempted to play a bit more later in the month.

Final session of today has been a 90 minute blast on Full Tilt, where I won a further $100 at NL50. Not an outstanding day, but until my bankroll is sufficient to sustain me at higher levels, I'll be happy with these regular wins and eeking out a pay day.

Off out for food tonight so unlikely to play later, but plan to hit drunks tomorrow night - either at casino or online.

AGGGGHHHHH!!!!! (annoyed)

Was having a decent day today, winning money at poker and winning at 5 a side football (19-2), so I should have known better than to log back on at 10pm tonight. I started the session $250 up and cruising, and as Ladbrokes was dying I decided to play NL50 on Full Tilt to try and build a bankroll from $500 start. Bad idea tonight.

I proceed to run QQ and AK in to KK pre flop for $50 buy ins, then JJ in to AA for $25. My 2 pairs are counterfeited and someone else hits their gutshot on turn after calling preflop raise and pot cbet for 50% of their chips w J8 on a K97 board. AK never any good for me there.

I only won one pot above $12, when I get lucky to hold AA against KK all in pre flop for a buy in, otherwise things could have been a lot worse. I lose $190 in the session so my profits for day are a measly $60, giving me online profits for month of $250 so far. It's a good job I won the Grosvenor on Friday or I would be a depressed man.....

A crappy day

Lost $250 today, although don't think I played that bad. Boards ran out terrible for me and couldn't seem to hit a barn door etc etc. Will get back on tomorrow and hope fortunes change.

Another Reasonable Day

Rattled off another 1.5k hands today for $200 profit on 6max cash. It's 1:30 am here and I've dropped to NL50 tables on Laddies now as it's full of fish virtually BEGGING you to take their money. Sadly I'm getting tired and need to get up in the morning otherwise I'd play a lot longer... not going to complain though. My kings ran in to aces for 150 BB otherwise this post would have been even more positive.

In non poker news, Northumbria Water tried their hardest to ruin my day by bursting 2 water pipes in our area, leaving us (and at minimum our immediate neighbours) without water for 5 hours. Katrina took the brave option of washing with remains of our bottled water, kettle water and anything else she could get her hands on. Being a man I took the alternative option of stinking like a b@$tard and hoping water came on tomorrow morning. As is my way at the moment, I ran good and the water came back on at 11:30 (after K had crashed) - meaning I got to relax in a warm shower working perfectly. I'll break it to her gently in the morning as she gets up for uni and I roll over for another lie in :-)

Ship It!!

After a rocky first few sessions, October has been smooth sailing so far on the poker front. I've logged nearly 5k hands and about $300 up on 6 max cash, playing well. I feel a lot more relaxed this month and not letting the big losing pots get to me as much, which is still my Achilles heel.

After a winning Saturday afternoon session online I rewarded myself with a trip to Grosvenor with Azz for there £25 + £20 one add on tournament. As value for money goes, this is actually really good, as you start with 6.5k chips with an option for one add on or rebuy for an extra 6.5k. As the blinds start at 25/50 then 50/100 for the first 90 minutes, there is plenty if play. In the olden days, I would have loved it - however my opinion now is that it could be a Saturday night wasted due to missing the drunks online. The fact there were only 29 players in it also meant the prize pot wasn't the biggest.

I had no problems getting to the final table but a lack of hands and plenty of others providing action meant I was short stack at bubble time with 6 left. With 18k and big blind of 3k, I'm looking to push any 2. After an UG limp and SB call, I look down on BB and decide my K5 suited is good enough to shove with - hopefully getting folds - but alas get called by UG AK. I was worried but the river brought me the magic 3rd heart for my flush - back in the game!

I then try to knock out the previous UG limper in the next hand when I shove from the SB with KQ to get turbo called by short stack with AQ. No luck for me this time and I'm back to where I started, short stack. We manage to play another hour without losing anyone, then I get my much needed double up, when my shove from mid position versus UG limper is cold called by the rock BB with JJ. My 77 looks in big trouble, but again I spike, leaving me comfortable at last. 3 people depart in quick succession and after losing a race (AK vs 99) then winning one (TT vs AQ) I go in to last 3 as slight chip leader - 120k vs 95k vs 85k. As it's 3:30 am I suggest a chop and I go home with the £275 split.

I took yesterday off so back to the grindstone today - hoping to run as well as the tournament on Saturday!

September P&L

What can I say? Rubbish stats. Playing so few hands is obviously not helping me (target was 40k), but the hands I did play weren't played perfectly. I ran bad at NL100 at the beginning of the month and then had to spin it back up by playing predominantly at NL50, which I managed to do - hence +ve bb/100 even though an overall loss:

NL Cash: -£60
(19k hands, 2.56 bb/100)

MTT: £20
Rakeback / Bonus: £398
ONLINE PROFIT: £358

Live Tournaments: -£30

Live Cash: £212
LIVE PROFIT: £182

OVERALL PROFIT: £540

Targets for October:

-Get a routine sorted!! My playing times are too erratic and still feel rushed, and I did not complete ANY poker theory revision due to my desperation to play.

-Play 40k hands.

- Update the blog more regularly :-)

Vegas Baby!!!

Unfortunately for Mark (and anyone else interested), this is not going to be a long post outlining the events of our 9 days in Vegas. 3 reasons for this:

1. I was too drunk most of the time to remember all of it
2. I could never do it justice writing it up at 1:30 am even if I could remember
3. Brennan has been tasked with pulling together a monster write up and video montage a la his Thailand efforts, therefore I do not want to steal his thunder.

What I will say is it was a class lads holiday, with some quality comedy moments starting on the flight out there (it was good upstairs) and not stopping until the flight back (was that the Flamingo??). Hopefully Brennan's official report will be available soon for all to see.

On poker front out there, I played a fair bit but didn't win anywhere near enough considering it's my job and most of the 1/2 cash tables were garbage. I ended about $300 up on cash over 5 sessions, mostly waiting for the nuts (or big overpair) to get my money in. As Ad can testify, nobody seemed to be able to find the 'fold' button meaning it was just luck whether your hand held up. I will definitely be playing more if / when I go back - as long as it's not with the mrs of course!!!

Finally A Winning Session!

Took a break for a couple of days as was getting a bit sick of grinding out break even sessions and my head wasn't really in it. Played a bit of guitar hero, watched some tv and dvd's (gotta love Mr Deeds!!) and poker videos, and suddenly everything is rosy again. :-)

Played 3 sessions tonight totally about 4 hours, and despite one turn suck out by Carl on me that I paid off (loser Holmes!!) I ran pretty good. I lost count of the number of times I had aces, so just checked now.... 13 times in 1450 hands - one in every 110. You should get them every 220 hands so that's a pretty decent run of cards. This helped me win about £300 to put me back in profit for the month, and more importantly put me in confident mood to hit the tables again before Vegas.

September still not started!

I played for 6.5 hours today, logging 2500 hands on Ladbrokes. Net profit? $2!!! I'm awesome me. Time for sleep and I'll hit tables again tomorrow, hopefully with a slightly more profitable win rate.

September Starts Now

Ground my way back to even for September, including a 5 hour session this afternoon / evening for £200. I've now played 8k hands this month, not great but better than last month's rate!

I also have a new plan and will be moving some of my roll to PokerStars to allow me to play at different times of the day, hopefully against weaker opponents. Very late evening and early morning UK time (2 am - 10 am) are pretty dead on Ladbrokes, and full of regulars. Right now (2 am) there are 4k people online on Ladbrokes compared to 163k on PokerStars - odds have therefore got to be in favour of finding some fish on Stars! Lack of rakeback is a massive drawback but if I can win at a higher rate then sure this will cover it. Big if of course....

Funniest Thing I've Seen In A While

Not a movie, a stand up comedian or watching Katrina lose on Mario Kart - this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlT2UsY3rtA

Feel free to share as widely as possible to increase the embarrassment of our 5 a side goalkeeper

Friday Night

Didn't really happen. I got sidetracked and didn't end up playing much, although did win back about £60 in the short session I did play.

More grinding definitely needed in the next 10 days before Vegas

Bad start to September

Currently down £250 ish after 5.5k hands. I'm not playing well and paying people off with the second best hand -a lot! Sometimes I think I've been cursed when people hit miracle back door flushes or bink off trips on the river after calling 2 streets, but all part of the game I guess.

I'm just hoping Friday night fish help me out as desperately need a kick start to the month...

August P&L

A very disappointing month on the poker tables, where I ran like shit for MASSIVE spells, proving that you definitely need a decent bankroll management strategy AND the patience of a saint not to tilt off all of your bankroll. I think I'm pretty good at the first one, sensibly dropping down limits when I needed to, but still need a bit of work on the latter :-)

NL Cash: £198

(24k hands, 5 bb/100)

Rakeback / Bonus: £696

ONLINE PROFIT: £894

Live Tournaments: -£80
Live Cash: -£110

LIVE PROFIT: -£190

OVERALL PROFIT: £704

Luckily my good July means that this isn't a complete disaster, but I'm obviously hoping for a better month next month. My HEM actually says I'm losing £900 in EV from the cash tables, and as I was playing half NL50 and half NL100, this is about 14 buy ins. Grim.

Targets for September:

Play 40k + hands

Spend less time pissing about on the internet before / after each poker session

Do more poker reading / theory revision.

Maybe play a few satellites if running good and feel like I can afford to take a break from cash tables

Aspers £75 Freeze Out

Since I've started playing online cash tables, the lure of the casinos and the tournaments that I used to frequent every week with Azz / Cusworth / Carl / Ad has been diminished drastically, meaning that I hardly ever bother to play in them any more. Seeing as William Hill were throwing in extra money to the prize pool, and Brennan / Carl / Mark were all up for playing, I decided to make an exception for this and played on Friday. Probably the most important reason for playing though was to get more experience of deep stack play, which I will need if I ever get lucky enough to qualify for a big satellite.

Anyway, I sit tight for first 30 minutes or so, watching Sky Sports News in silent which Aspers considerately put on next to our table, and don't get involved in any hands. Once I saw the Mighty Spurs claim a deserved last minute winner, I thought it would be wise to go back to concentrating on the tournament. I get 2 streets of value with KT on a Kxxx board before checking back river to scoop pot versus a presumed flush draw, then lose it all back when my A7 2 pair is check called on turn and river - 567A2 - I thought I was value betting but alas his 66 slow play is good.

Break sees me even in chips, then more sitting tight before I hit a golden patch of hands. My AT limp sees me hit a 3 suited flop - me A draw - and my flop shove over abet and call is folded to me. I then pick up Ak which splits blinds with another AK, then AQ which I ship in versus short stack KQ (and hold). I then get magic double up, when after raising my 4th hand in a row I get shoved on by JJ - luckily my KK holds and I'm up to 35k with average on 19k and BB on 1k. Happy days at second break.

Carl and Brenos busto in trademark fashion - Carl running out of chips and good cards, with Brenos spunking his stack away after drinking too many shandies - before I join Mark 'Sensey' Suddes on his table. I get a couple of helpful tips - which I'll use in future - before I witness his BB defence with A6 fail to suck out versus a button 'stealer' with AK. Maybe he's not such a luckbox after all....

After losing some chips with JJ raise + cbet - then fold to check raise on Q84 board - I get back to my 35k stack level when I raise and check raise all in on a 889 two suited board. I'm not sure it was the optimal play with QQ, but I figure a cbet and a call leaves me in a shit situation on most turn cards, and I could appear to be on a draw myself leading my one opponent to call me with a pocket pair they figure to be racing - e.g 55-77, or a draw themselves which I'm in decent shape. It mattered not as they folded and I made it to last 40.

I get moved tables again and blind a few rounds away, before making a steal attempt with JT. My stack at this stage is down to 25k so I'm not looking great with BB of 1.4k shortly moving to 2k, so I know I need to hit a hand soon. Either that or pick off the blinds. Anyway, small blind calls and flop comes 78T. Small blind then check raises my cbet all in - leaving me 15k to win a 50k pot. In my early days I know I would consider folding here, as presume to be beat, but when I see the board and work out his hand range, a bluff or semi bluff here is his most likely holding - e.g. 9T, 89, A9, flush draw - and my odds dictate I have to call. He promptly shows expected A9 and he hits a jack on turn. My redraw fails and I lose my 66/34 'race' to exit in about 38th.

I was a bit gutted as if I had won that I'm right back in the mix with over average stack. I made a few mistakes in the tournament too though so can't pretend I'd have been a favourite against the strong field, but would have been nice to have hung around a bit longer - especially as first prize was over £3k. I'll play these again though and hope to run better next time...

Poker Run Shit / Macau photos

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

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

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

Macau Run Good

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

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

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

Catch up with everyone soon.

Baby Tilia!

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

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

Swing Central!!

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

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

Even Slower Progress!!!

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

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

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

Slow Progress

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

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

Got To Hate Mondays!!!

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

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

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

Got to love the weekend!!!

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

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

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

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

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

Getting there.... and new arrivals

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

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

Paris for my birthday

New Holmes arrival

U2 gig in London

Macau with Soap

Vegas with lads

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

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

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

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

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

July P&L

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

NL Cash: £1,646

(18k hands 11.71 BB / 100)

MTT: £62

STT: £67

Rakeback / Bonus: £727

ONLINE PROFIT: 2502

Live Cash: £156

Live Tournaments: £-58

LIVE PROFIT: 92

TOTAL PROFIT: £2600

Targets for August:

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

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

Paris and getting old!!! (er)

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

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

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

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

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

Bad day at the office

I've lost £350 today but actually feel a bit relieved, as I was over £500 down before sitting down for my last late night session, where I clawed back some of my losses. I should also have an extra £100 in the bank after a 1/2 stacker check called 2 streets in raised pot with TT on a Q522 board. I was pretty confident that my JJ was in front as her was a 40/10 fish, but I clearly bargain for the 2 outer he knew was coming on the river. Ho hum.

I think the main problem I've had in the past couple of days is that I'm trying to move up limits, playing one table of NL200 alongside my NL100. I'm a bit of a stresshead at the best of times, and at the moment I haven't yet mastered the bet sizes - I'm still working out the NL100 sizes and doubling them - and it's knocking me off my game at both levels. I've made more than a couple of 'moves' today whenI don't need to - for example the classic 'he's got AK' reraise shove with middle pair, only to walk straight in to overpairs or trips on flops.

I know that there are not that many people on here making bluff raises or check raise bluffing, but during the hands I just can't force myself to believe them! I've written a scribbled note that now sits on my laptop listing some of the shitty plays that I keep making - I'll keep adding to it as time goes by but it's already longer than I'd like it to be!!

I have no idea where I'm currently at in terms of the RTR rake race, but I think I've raked somewhere in the region of $1500 so far this month, meaning I'll get a bit of a bonus at the end of the month. I've only got 2 days left of poker before I depart for a weekend in Paris with K, so I'll be logging a few more hands in the next 2 days to try and get me maximum bonus. Hopefully I won't do my usual trick and throw away my winnings in order to win an extra $50 in rakeback!!!

Sunday Update

Had a quiet ish day today - winning £200 this afternoon in an hour but bled away about £100 this afternoon even though my EV says I should have been £100 up. I'm not going to complain though as I'm still about 300 up in EV this month.

At the moment I'm in the middle of a 5 euro freezout multi tournament that has been going on for 2 hours and there are still 156 players left!!! I only registered late as I saw Brenos was playing and I wanted to get some hands against him for some banter. Typical though that he gets himself knocked out within 10 minutes and I double up and now I'm stuck playing one table while watching BB - not exactly the kind of evening a poker pro should be having!!

Anyway, I'm going to finish this and finish the tournament - 87 of 148 atm.

EDIT - finished about 60th for a massive pay out of 9 euros - that's 3.5 euro profit for 3 hours work - oh yeah!!!!

All aboard the weekend money train!!!!

Kerrrrrchhhhiiiinnnngg!!!!! I've just had an awesome run like god session winning £420 in 70 minutes on NL100.

I had built up my bankroll just enough to have a go at one table on NL200 tonight (as per my life guiding spreadsheet) but decided to break the rules and stick with NL100 rather than jump up stakes. My theory was that I know all of the reg's at NL100 so I avoid them and can then concentrate on the drunken fishes, rather than worry about the unkowns at the level above. Can't complain with the results :-)

That last session means my combined winnings for Friday and Saturday night this week are £810. Not bad for a weekend's work!! Will be online again tomorrow afternoon and evening to see if good run continues... fingers crossed...

Late night update

Just logged another 2 hours and although was looking good at one point to claw back most of my losses from earlier today, I actually ended up only winning £50. A bit dissapointed, but at least it's another green line on the HEM session lists.

No poker planned for tomorrow, however will be hitting tables a lot over the weekend to hopefully catch some weekend drunkards to help donate to my pension.

Rubbish!!!

I've just been doing this fo the past 40 mins, losing £300 in that time. I had more than a bit of bad luck with AA losing AI on the flop of 952 to TT, and also had everyone hitting gut shots on me left right and centre. Not easy to get away when you have AK on a AK9J board against an aggro opponent. I also paid off someone elses gut shot hit when I couldn't get past thinking they were bluffing me so felt as though I had to call.

One other stack off was with AQ, I raise pre in SB, BB 3bets me. In this spot I love a check raise on low boards as they need a big pair to call me, and likely outcome is I still have 6 outs (maybe 3!). Anyway, I check raise a 822 board and he time banks before making a hero call with AK. Wp, nh. Wanker. He was a regular and the same bloke that then skinned me in the AK hand above so I'm not his biggest fan - although he's probably adding me to his buddy list as we speak!!!

I knew I'd hit a bad patch and think this is it. I'm now on only £1100 profit before rakeback so need to win a couple of sessions soon.