June 2011 P&L

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??

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

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

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!

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....

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

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