Tourney Update

Hey

Experienceing somewhat of a turn for the worst recently dowswinging on three of the main sites i have been using recently. This is slightly annoying as well because tourney variance can damage your bankroll very quickly. I wouldn't say that much of my play was at fault for this because on the sites i have resorted to at the moment my ROI is averaging around 80% with profits clearing the $5K mark across all of them. Just experiencing a nasty downswing of late, but i am definately looking forward to the upswing that should ensue soon, and hopefully with this some more xmas money to use for my family. This is just a little update really to say i'm alive and yet again pledge an empty promise to start blogging more on here!

cheers

Deal or no Deal?

Hey

Just won $2.8k on stars making my weekley earnings on there around $5K, which ain't bad! lol. I think i might just start grinding on here for the rest of my life if this continues. However, my sleeping pattern is adjusted with American time so i have no life really, just money making seems to be the only thing going for me lol.

Back to the tourney anyway. I just played my usual game and found that i was ripping guys to shreds. It was only a $5.50 2R1A ($20.50) tourney so this is probably why i found it so easy. However, the final table had no play in it because everyone was in or on around 10 bbs apart from a runaway chip leader. With 8 left it soon became a lottery and by this time i was showing my yellow belly and frantically e mailing pokerstars support for a mod to come on and arrange a deal. That was with 8 left!. One thing led to another and we're left with 5. The mod decides to turn up and the shit gets sorted and i dealt from last position with like 6 big blinds left lol.

This was fine, don't think i had another alternative but to take the money, but it was the request of the mod to play out the tourney that annoyed me, while he watched. Apparently we need to play out the game so that afterwards the money situation can be sorted. So an idea came to my head. This is our very own deal or no deal poker version! Should he have taken the money, should he have played on, there is only one question deal or no deal! I got everyone on board with this concept and we all seriously played for an hour afterwards for no apprent reason really but just for curiosity's sake. It was a beautiful sight really. This was poker at its finest. Not for the money but just for the love of the game

So Should i have dealt?

Congratulations on your finish in tournament #209010675! You agreed to a deal at the final table to adjust the payouts as follows:



When the tournament ended, you were automatically credited with the official place 2 payout of USD 4,049.10.

The difference between this amount and the amount to which you agreed in the deal is USD 1,257.05, and this amount has been debited from your account. You will find this transaction in the cashier history at this time.

NO!

I came 2nd, and not only do they let us play it out to beat ourselves up about it, they place the money you would have won in your account and then take it away from you once they sort out the proper, agreed payout. I was staring at the balance in my cashier thinking you want to stay here don't you, you beautiful $1257.05 yeeeeeeeh you want to become a weeks intense driving lesson programme don't you, maybe then i can buy a car and drive on the road and shit, yehhhhhh. But not to be. It was taken out and i was left disgusted with the world.

Meh at least i am cheating on my sharkscope hehe, i believe i will have profits showing of $1200 more than i should which is fine by me lol. Makes me look more menacing to the fishes but maybe will make it harder to make use of my premiums if they always think i have it. O well hu knows.

Well i am off to bed now but as a parting gesture, Fenix35, if you're reading this, be very afraid, my br was at £500 two weeks ago but im coming for you. You and ure $50K bankroll aint safe from me. Once i pass you im gonna first mooney you, then do the Jay Z dance towards you. Then runaway into the hundreds of thousands just like on an ice cream cone. So tasty.

Gl peeps

BOOM! Back Baby!

Hey

Well after my last post it probably looked all doom and gloom for the Antster (and yes i will assign myself in the third person while putting a cockney twist in it for good measure) but since my bankroll was at a measley 800 euros i have had two very big wins. Both coming in 2000+ minefield pokerstars tournies where i placed a third and a fourth for $2K a pop wagering $11 in the first and $15 in the second one, both results coming 3 days after eachother. I was so busy transferring that money onto softer euro sites that i had no time at all to gloat on here but here i am :)

My record across three euro sites in particular is great, with a standard positive roi of over 80% and 100's of games to boot on each one hopefully means that sorta result making isn't luck. I'm just going to be ridiculously stringent now with my bankroll and abuse these euro sites in particular because i find them more bearable than the massive fields of the american sites. With a

I also learned a major thing in the past few days. Never mix euro site mtts with at most around 300 runners with full tilt or pokerstars tournies of 3000 odd runners. This will just lead to annoyance over how many you have left to conquer on the american sites and just aggrevate you enough to play poorly too on the euro sites. That is why i am playing the euro sites during the peak times of say 5-m - 11pm and then when those tourneys are done and i don't want sleep lol i can play on the american site tournies out of those times. Particularly the mtt sngs they have going the 90 mans, 45 mans, and 27 mans. I know when combining these with the 3000+ mtts it won't be pretty but it sorta feels right when ure only playing on two sites and know what to expect.

Revelations here as i write, i have had a downspell since the wins on pokerstars and realise that if i dnt cash in one tourney tonight my life bankroll will be at £1600/1806 euros/$2500 dollars. After being at a peak of say $5000 dollars. Easy come easy go right. Just shows you talking about br management doesn't make you utilise it! Been playing 10rs and $50 freezeouts since which i guess isn't horrendous but i may need to be a lot tighter.

To be fair as well since the win i have spent around £600 dealing with some other shit. Also, i need to stress that I have taken into account all the rebuys i am likely to spend in the tourneys tongiht and i am playing about 20, so would be unlucky for me not to add to that proposed BR stated above.

Anyway i am in a great mood approaching the Slovenia trip having been quickly backed for the 30% i eventually decided to giveaway, and i feel that i will be bringing a good game to that tourney. A bink here would be amazing as i think the estimated prize for first is between 50-100k euros so that wud be a win of a lifetime. I will be playing for first and if i get the opportunity to play the bubble i will be doing so aggressively avoiding other likeminded people and those with AA! hehe.

Really need to start reading other blogs, apart from the ones on my list and should get my networking shoes on but i guess it's something i am unlikely to get around to too soon, saying that though i could start tomorrow if i was bored!

A big thank you to the new guys that are starting to follow me on this blog along with the older ones, it's real nice to know that you appreciate this, and don't forget to leave comments. I'm pretty sure that is why every blogger blogs, well that and advertisement money, *cough*Amatay*cough* :)

Cheers guys

Relapse!

Hey

I am dealing with a small bankroll at the moment and with this you cannot play underolled. Tonight i did out of frustration of me being completely able to combat the 10 euro/dollar rebuy tournies that most sites offer and being annoyed of playing the smaller sngs which are a hell of a grind for smaller profits. Started with 300 euros in my account and now im left with 100.

I enjoy playing mtts out and out but obviously i have put myself in this spot so im going to take the fact i only lost 200 euros tonight "gambling" my roll, and carry on playing the smaller games.

The big bonuses are due in soon which will double my br of around 400 quid so that will be nice. I am probably going to spread my roll and try and target 2 to 20 table mtts which i wud have to say i am an expert in for the lower levels of say $5-$50. If i just stuck to these i would be a wealthy man eventually. This basically limits me to playing full tilt and pokerstars which i won't mind doing if i am winning loads. Need to sort out my rakeback on FT though cos i know they offer 27% but at the moment they aren't letting me have any.

If anyone knows of anymore sites for good low level mtt sngs leave a message, haven't really checked the sng section on ipoker or party poker so i shud have a check there but anywhere else?

Its a sad sight to see me on less than 1K of a bankroll but with every downfall comes a lesson and i feel i am on the right road now. Mainly it's to stick to a strict br management scheme where i can play my poker without fear of going broke. With this i will definately prosper as i am a great mtt player, so in time i should be hitting a £10K br again and still have my heart set on having £25K by June of 2010 by just being a robotic mtt mastermind with no tilt. Will see how it goes. Should seem farfetched to a lot of ppl that i think i can do this in my current spot but i have always been ambitious and never totally deluded. So Gl to me i guess :P

gl peeps

Well, that went shit!

Hey

Tried to 16 table grind cash for a whole month and live off the rakeback but turns out that i am shit at cash poker. So many things that i am just not suited to on it, maybe if i got a poker tracker it would help but at the moment i just seem to tilt on it or find it disastorously boring. I started the rake chase with 3500 euros and ended before i lost it all on 1000 euros. But at the moment i only have 200 euros becos the 1000 total comes when i have received all of my bonuses by the middle of next month.

To add a little spice to the proceedings, i won a 2K trip to Slovenia. Included is a 1100 euros tourney that has a 4 day structure for around 200 runners i believe. First takes home around 50K. Im selling 30% of my action for this if anyone is interested in taking a piece, im selling it at 5% = £50. So get in touch if you are interested.

Atm i am just concentrating on my bread and butter which is the multis and low level sngs (6man turbos and 20 mans). Low buy ins tho annoyingly because of my situation but however i have such an edge on the games here that i shud be looking at 100 a day profit in just the fiver games. Would love it if the tenner games were just as fishy wen my br increases. Running at 10% roi for these sngs which is nice, but infortunately not running too well at the multis but these results dnt affect me because of the nature of how i am exiting the tournies. Bad beats left right and centre which i can't do anything about, perhaps tho i am getting too low before pushing and tht is affecting my longevity in a tourney, maybe i shud be accumulating more non showdown chips but this is always tricky in the lower levels when you get perennial calling stations that don't know a cat from a dog.

It's gonna be a tough old grind now to get back to my heyday of a £10K+ bankroll but its a sure road and i am a capable tourney player. Cash games aren't for me atm tho. I think i have the perfect grounding to become a great cash game player (capabale of playing up to 16 tabs well and quite good at reading trends) but i just don't know whats what there. I am not confident at all about what certain raises mean in certain spots and i just need a helping hand there in cracking the enigma that is the 6 man cash game.

All in all im in a disastorous spot compared to what i really shud be on but i have no doubt that i have enough to be well off from this game so i just hope my hands hold and i get lucky when going in from behind.

Peace out

P.s get in touch about backing me in Slovenia

Jay Z Calls me out!

LOL a different sorta post today. Scrolled youtube and found the clip i was longing for. Proof that Jay Z had a little chat with me and went as far as emulating my dancing in front of the whole crowd, even had the opportunity to go on the big screen to show everyone else there what i was about. So if anyone has some disputes over me not being able to dance i can always show them this without having to actually pretend as if Jay z (one of the biggest names in the music industry) said he liked the way i danced.

Pretty immense night and without doubt one of my favourite artists. Here's the link, btw watch from around 1.50 to 2.20 and also notice right at the end of the vid he points towards me as he exits the stage :):):):)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQzqGwwATrs



Laters.

13 table cash grinding FTW!

Hey

I am looking to grind £3000 rake for the month from 13 tabling 0.25/0.5 . This is after my BR getting dangerously low, and i need a sort of less variance filled venture to get me picked up again. I have just over 2.5k to do this with and i know it sounds risky (because it probably is) but i think i will be fine and for some reason i won't be listening to nay sayers about this strategy. All they will do is aggrevate me. I'm gonna go ahead with this, play the odd tournament to suppleament the winnings and hopefully all will be well. tbh i have 50 buyins at this level and will be playing with 13 of them at any one time, i think i should be ok to get through just the first month break even and if i can it should be plain sailing because the £1500 ish in rakeback bonuses should have me in a good way

I will be back on later to look at everyone elses glorious posts before i lock myself away from humanity and 13 table for 8 hours a day 6 days a week. I'm determined to do well and this needs to be done for me to play tournaments only in the future with a much much safer roll. The switch date back to tournaments i wouldn't mind advice on, what roll should i be looking at to play them safely if i am thinking of 12 tabling $20r - $100f ?

Cheers ppl.

Total Change Of Plan for Now!

Hey

Well i decided that i hadn't a big enough roll to play cash games at the levels i wanted so i decided to go back on the tourney grind with the exception of not playing a tourney over 50 of any currency apart from one tourney where my roi is ridiculously good. Had a great day yesterday securing £2000 for my troubles mass multitabling 12-15 tables across three sites where all the buy ins where low, and i cleaned up. One particular heads up game in a 2000 euro gtd sticks to mind however when we were playing for 400 euros first getting 800 and second getting 400. I got it in good as a mass chip leader 4 times and lost all of them, getting rivered each time. I got lucky back at him once however but when it was his hand that decided to hold i was aggrevated to see i would get scond place.

There was only really one move i can remember that i believed to be an atrocious one on my part yesterday, well not atrocious but i got played like a flute. This was in the early stages of a 50 euro tourney where i had 99 and raised it up pre to get one caller. Flop came down 7KK and the guy bets out pot to me. In most cases now, the guy will have A7 or 87 and wants you out of the pot to take it down where he knows its good. However this guy was a tricky mofo, and decided to bet out with sevens full, i then decided to re raise all in and he tanked called to rub it in. I put vwp in the chat box and tilt was never a factor there for me.

I am sort of free from tilt now i must say however that is only because recently i have been running quite well and my decidion making has been rather good. Normally what happens is that i make one donk move in a tourney and the other 12 i am playing suffer as i am playing more aggressively to try and make up for that loss in that tourney immediately, which is never a good idea!

My scores last night included $700 for a 6th in an 8K 400 euros for a second in a 2000 euro 400 euros for a 4th in a 3k, 700 euros for a three way split in a 4K, and loads of other min cashes which i am rather happy with.

The future of the plan now is rather shady. I don't know what to do. I have a good tourney game and at the moment i am reaping the benefits through clever bankroll skills where i can be comfortable playing the games i am without getting scared of being broke. I need to take a monthly balance check over 3/4 months to get an idea of variation and my profitablity. I may decide to just head towards the 10K i need to play 0.5/1 and just grind at that but i definately won't if the tourney game is treating me well because i feel i have an edge in it. I hope all this bigging myself up won't result in a calamitous collapse anyway and i hope i continue my form as i have plenty of work to do to catch up with f3nix35!

GL.

Learning Quick!

Hey

In these cash games you really can't fuck about. Played 3 one and a half hour sessions 9 tabling 0.5/1 6-max cash and noticed that the games are noticebaly beatable and at the very best break even worthy! However that is if i can maintain the mindset of a freakishly stable human being that can only play when mentally fit to do so (not drunk, tired or in any other negative mindset). Because in one of those 3 sessions i was sort of not on my game, i was slightly dazed and never felt right, and this resulted in a 200 euro loss, which had me down 250 for the 4 and a half hours i played. The previous two sessions were pretty sick tho.

The first one consisted of me getting setted on like nobody's business. I realise i played two hands in this spot rather carelessly. One of them consisted of when i had AA i was in mid position and utg popped it up to 3.5 and i only re popped to 11 everyone else folded until it got to the BB who called the extra 10 along with the UTG raiser. Flop 479 rainbow. Gotta be loving that right? BB checked along with UTG and i bet 24 into the 34 pot and instantly got pushed all in for my last 65, UTG folded and everything in my gut told me he has a set he has a set there is no way you can call there is no way you can call, but part curiosity and part he could well have JJ i make the call and shockingly he has 44 for the set. I was in relative disbelief tbh that he had 44. Who flats 10 pre with a 100 stack at 0.5/1 with 44, even though i know he knows the UTG initial raiser is coming into the pot behind as well it still doesn't make this play profitable. What i thought he could be making that flat call pre with was JJ-KK and at a push AK. 99 wouldn't be out of the equation but so many people fold that there in that spot!

The other situtation i don't even want to get into. I would just like to say that pre flop on the flop on the turn and on the river the guy bet into me healthily and i called all the way with QK os out of position on a K high board thinking he was bluffing. Weren't my finest hour when he showed me his dominating hand, but you find some guys bet all the way on a bluff right? hehe no is the real answer to that. Well maybe on a real dry board but honestly it wasn't and i was fishing it up big time.

However, in the two first cash sessions i found i was playing well and dominating but i was getting really unlucky in spots as well but brushed it off as variance, there were also tricky spots that i was never sure how to deal with and this mainly rotated around getting 3-bet pre flop. I am never quite sure what these guys are doing it with and find myself folding the AQ-AK in these positions but in time i will get comfortable as i will have seen eventually what these guys are up to when they finally have to showdown a 3-bet pot and then i can see what they were doing it with.

The overall dynamic of playing 9 tables at once seems manageable and i honestly quite enjoy it. I did loads of maths yesterday as well and figured that i would rake in the region of 30 euros an hour so if i was to play 216 hours in a month, which is 9 hours a day, 6 days a week, i would rake in 6500 euros. Which would translate to receiving around 700 in an affiliate promo for raking that amount, 2000 in a rake chase and around 2000 in actual rakeback. So if i round that up i would be getting £5000 a month which would be bloddy tough work with the hours i am willing to put in so if i receive monies in the region of that it would be fair play. This would be ofc on the back of a break even game only and barring the first 3 months where i will allow myself to play a break even game as i am transitioning from the tourney scene i would fully expect to start turning a profit eventually to add to the 5K a month. I have no idea what a reasonable turnover on the tables would be. I would imagine somewhere in the region of 50 euros a day perhaps? which would add 1500 to my earnings which would culminate in a 6500 turnover monthly which would be bloody fantastic! However a slight tarnishing of this is that the site operate in euros and that this in reality is £5700 but i will take that! Could have been worse, the site could have been in dollars!

Have another issue with the cash games and tht is i am sort of completely underolled for them! I have a diminished bankroll which i have alreadt stated in a previous post and currently in my poker account i have 970 meaning 70 left for rebuys across 9 tables haha. I initially started with a little over 1200 but as i sed i lost 250 so i need a little bit of luck now for my BR to go up instead of down in this crucial part of my bankrolling history. I still have about £2K in the bank however as back up with more monies in transit from other sites but i would really like to keep that in there and only use these monies. Even with 2970 tho i would be underolled to play these games! However all i need to do is to get through the first two months on this shoestring budget and i will be laughing all the way to the bank rudeboy!

By the way i was thinking quite fervantly recently about what the future holds for me in poker and decided that i will stick to this hopefully until my BR is at crazy limits. Somewhere in the region of £100K and them transfer monies into full tilt and pokerstars and once and for all rape those sites for every penny in their tournies with no fear of being underolled, so i can really let my skill factor take centre stage. The thought of murdering these American sites is what is keeping me going as they have pummeled me recently.

Sorry for the long post but felt as if i should let u guys in the know of whats up with me. The next few days i will be having a break from the game as i don't feel up to it to be quite honest, so gl with all you guys and i will update here again asap!

Laters.

Cash games it is!

Hey

I am gonna start gambling a little with my roll i have around 5K left in the bank after i have been spending loads, I was in relative shock when i saw that number tbh, but its enough to recover! I am going to be 9 tabling 0.5/1 limits 6-max cash from here on in, well maybe i will play some more tournies to build the roll a little. But the hope is to grind 160 hours in a month at those limits and take in the bonuses and rakeback with a break even game, so much for aspirations! I really don't care if i can't win any profits on the table just that i get the hours in and the bonuses stay huge. Would be nice to think i could be a profitable player tho! So there is the little update on whats happeneing with me, i am going to see how this cash thing goes and if i can get anywhere near say £3000 a month. I am going to stick with it. I am probably going to play 3/4 tournies daiy anyway so boredom just shouldn't happen. So up the cash game and hopefully up the bankroll aswell!

Gl.

Cash or Tournies??????

Hey

Got a dilemma at the moment and as the title suggests im not sure what to do. I love tournies and have loads of time for them but have concluded that they may not be the most profitable route for me as well as the most sinsistently profitable either. The fluctuatuions found in tournies is jarring and if i am to want to take up pro poker after uni i will have to have a deep bankroll to think about playing tournies full time and paying rent and other bills.

That is why i am thinking about playing 0.5/1 cash games, 9 tables for around 50 hours a week. Calulated that if i do this i get a little over £1000 weekly in rakeback so all i would need to do is show a break even game. Now this is a hard prospect to not go for as its guarenteed money at the end of the week and i will have to be unlucky not to be at least break even. However, it may turn out that i could make just as much or more from playing tournies so it is confusing for sure.

This is why i am thinking that i might trial the cash game thing for the next week or so to see if i can maintain a break even game or better, and then have an equally long stint in tournies to see if that is working. If both are working then i would possibly integrate the two playing them at the same time or having days off one and days off the other, possible playing each one of them at their peak fishiest times if this time varies from both fields. It's gonna be an interesting few weeks for sure for me and i hope that my profitablity in this game can just grow and grow.

On an intriguing note, my dad's mates with the mate of a pro Millwall footballer and he revealed to my dad that the starting striker at the club is on £1800 a week wages, which are most probably halved because of tax to £900 a week. It's quite a pleasing thought to think that if all goes well that i can be earning more than a 3rd tier professional football player lol.

Gl at the tables but not against me.

Crushing!

Hey

Had been playing non stop for about 6 days recently for 10 hours a day and found myself averaging around £500 a night which is incredible. Been targeting what i believe to be the weaker euro tournies to achieve this goal and i have been having relative success with this. I particularly love any 6-max tournies going on because shorthanded, i am rather a better player because i find that people really don't appreciate the often deep stacked nature of these tournies and play a lot looser so i just sit back and wait for my spots, because you are given time to wait! This gets me on to another point in that the ultra long structures in online tournies suits me down to a tee! This is for the same reasons given above and that i am beginning to have the patience of a saint in slow playing these fools and maximising profits from the legitimate hands i get.

Starting now to dislike the 10-30$ freezeouts on sites because of how quick the structure rises and how hard it is to maintain a stack when you often get played back at all the time. So i have just given these up on many of the sites in favour of rebuy tournies with slower structures, and also in the rebuy periods the potential to get huge stacks from going all in with AQ-JJ pre flop and getting an ace-rag call is great. In these tournies it is much easier to maintain a stack as you often get more respect for raises as you are often playing much more deep and you also then have room to bluff flops in position that you have missed. It also gives you the opportunity to guage your oppenents liking/disliking of the flop/turn/river and gives you the chance to play accordingly. So safe to say that i am often playing only rebuys nowadays! However, i do play the occasional high value freezeout with lower starting fields, as i believe that people play tighter in these because they think they have a higher chance of success because there are less people to go through which is true and isn't true because i am sure there are expectant sharks that enter these tournies waiting to prey on the nervousness of some of these players.

Have given up for the meantime on full tilt poker and pokerstars on the general conception that they are tougher games, however i am starting to think i have made a broad stereotypical labelling of how good the American player plays and should really back myself in certain tournies. But i was talking to Fenix about this and i said that i plan to load my bankroll up on the euro sites first so that i have a comfortable bankroll to face up to the full tilt and pokerstars high limit tournies from 20r to 100r/300f which could have big value if i learn how to adapt quickly. Will probably set a target of how much i am willing to lose so i can play the tournies relatively care free and hopefully it could be the start of something special. But at the moment i find that i am enjoying playing the 10r, 20r, 25r, 50r and the higher freezout tournies from 25 euros to 100 euros on the euro sites too much to give it up with a massive preference and pretty sick success rate at the 6-max rebuys and the double stack freezouts.

Also incredibly i can say that i am somewhat im my element across 12 tables at a time and feel fully confident i am playing near to my best game on every table. I do have one leak though that i will testify to and this is often in the rebuy tournies mid-late on where i don't open raise enough pots in position with looser holdings to try and play flops and win them without going to showdown, also to develop a slightly looser persona to make it easier to maximise value on the legitimate hands i am likely to get. To be honest i am capable of doing this but i am rather lazy in pressing the auto fold button to make things easier for myself in certain spots and so will look to get more involved where i feel i am at my weakest. The importance of playing 12 tables is HUGE because it enables you to tackle variance on a nightly basis where i have to be really unlucky not to final table anything when i am grinding 12 tables at a time for a 10 hour stint. Normally i get thoguh around 30 tournies in this time and its great to say i am able to play these at a high level at the rate i am, many people can only play a tenth of what i do in a night! Gotta thank Will Hill for my 12 tabling ability really because those small view versions of the tables were great (Pro View) and made it so easy to start on 4 tables and add one daily until you found the comfort zone.

Took a break tonight because i am not feeling quite at my best but i will leave you now with one of my proudest sharkscope graphs, i hope the rate on this bad boy continues! I'm quite liking £500 a day tax free! ROI below at 100%.

GL.

getting on swimmingly

hey

Im loving tournies atm! up £2000 from the last three days of play and i have been on good form. Some shoddy moves have prevented me from better results, and some bad luck also. What i do know is that when i get my resits out of the way i should be killing the games and making in the region of £200 a day. It's a lot to do with the fact that i can 12 table and still play to a high standard. Which is great because you can dispell the nastiness of variance by getting the volume in.

I am a sharkscope shark across 4 sites now but have lost thousands on three sites as well which tarnishes the good work. Ongame has been particularly nasty to me recently in administering really bad luck to the point where i am questioning whether or not i am ever gonna play there again. Saying that i will probs bink a huge win to put myself back into the black on that site anyway so i will wait for my time.

The gym sessions have basically stopped in the past 2 weeks with me being a lazy bugger. I don't know why this has happened really, i am not one to shy away from exercise if needs be. I like to run and do weights but i treat it like school, you don't want to go in the morning but once you are there it ain't half bad. That really needs to pick back up so i can get the bod i deserve and can be physically fit for my football team on the sunday.

Speaking of which i was told that i probably won't be selected because of my fitness. You should see this team! A lot of them are spastics with no technical finesse at all, they are fitter than me but i would be seleceted in front of most of them by any other manager! O well life is a bitch but i just need to get fit really.

Got an exam on tuesday which i hope i get well prepared for (day before revision obv!) and i have four courseworks to do by friday which will be tough and only when all works are done will i return to poker. Couldn't have had a better incentive really, i am bloody addicted to this game!

Btw above is the graph i am generating on one of my favoured sites.

Back on the grind

Haven't really been playing that hard recently, but i will be from now on methinks. Gonna be grinding some different euro sites to see what i should be playing on the regular and am starting to feel that i have my touch back and should start to dominate. Time will tell hey.

I have been playing a bit recently and am starting to feel that i can start to crush online tournies again. My graph listed above is from one if the sites i use. I think i will be able to make even more money on there in the near future, which is exciting.

Plans remain for me to crush my uni retakes and for myself to remain relatively tilt free and to enjoy myself which i feel will be easy to do. But could just have jynxed myself!

New Plan

Hey

Just a quick note to say that my last few days of online grinding haven't gone well. Mainly to do with the nonchalant attitude i have towards playing across 6 or more tables for a long period of time. Finding it hard to keep concentration and this may be to do with not having a good routine going. Probably should go to the gym before grinding online to help mellow me out and increase the focus necessary to play for such a long time without fidgeting. So i have decided to give up the grind online for the forseeable future (hehe probs will only be a week!)

Instead i am going to fill up my days with three things. Gym in the morning, Uni during the day (need to study for retakes) and jump on the train from uni to play at the empire casino to hopefully destroy what i hope will be fishy games. That is going to be the routine from wednesday onwards and will end as my retakes are sorted at uni. Then i will keep the morning gym thing going, then try and do summin of interest during the day (involving me getting out of my room) then hit the online grind from 5-7pm onwards until about say 3.00am that will mean i will be in bed my 3.30am and can wake up around 11.30am get brekkie in and then leave for the gym at 12pm. That seems like a solid play on life really. And btw yes i do realise it wouldn't be a morning gym session if i leave my house at 12pm but at least its in keeping with my body clock anyway!

Apart from that piece of boring information i have nothing really else to say except a big congratulations to Ben for winning the 1000 euros ladbrokes package to Killarney with a seat for the 550 main event. Really envious of this as i am going to be trying hard to win the same trip and perhaps another festival in Ireland through qualifying on Ipoker. The latter event being called the Irish Winter festival and is held in Dublin i believe.

I hope to get back on Grind with success when i do start to play online, but that will only come with a focus, and that focus will only come with a strict life regime which involves regular exercise and as much time as possible away from my room of work. Good luck people.

Laters.

$12kGTD Win

Hey

Just took down the $12K GTD on party poker. The 109$ entry one. Cards went my may royally throughout this but i can't remember putting a foot wrong tbh. Very happy with the $3360 prize money considering i had a 0 balance during this tourney as this was my last punt before i sorta gave up on the software for ipn and ipoker but now i might look to develop that roll and look not to take a lot of it out. Just skimming profits off the top.

I had two other final tables tonight in a $12.5K gtd on ipoker and the $7500 GTD double stack on ipoker as well. The former i played very tight and eventually had to push with 97 in the cut off with 7 big blinds left, got called by Ace rag and lost getting out in 10th for $250+ ($109 entry). In the latter i went out in 5th when i found A9 on the big blind with 10 big blinds left. The cut off raised all in for 8 big blinds and on previous history with him i knew he had less, or was likely to anyway so i called. He showed 10K and binked a 10 on the river. Annoying because first in this tourney was paying $2000+ . With the pot won i would have been second and comfortable in chips. Probs would have weaved some magic to win the whole thing but will never know now! I won $600 in the tourney. This only had me at just above even on ipoker because i played a lot of tournies on there inc. trying to qualify for the irish winter festival in the $50r tourney ipoker had running. Misplayed 99 in early position and got my just deserts in that one.

In the 20K 30r on ipoker i went out as a 30/70 favourite for a pot but lost with about 40 left i believe. Lost some coin flips in that that were pivotal also. Came 17the 10r $10000 GTD as well getting a little too aggro pre flop and getting caught out. That was especially annoying because i only play that tourney to final table as all other prize monies are rubbish in comparison, but it weren't to be this time.

Before the party poker win, which was the last tourney of the night, i was bemoaning the nature of tournament poker and thinking i wasn't cut out for the game because its not a reliable income and can make u feel like shit if you keep losing money without winning. After the win i still have that taste of loathing for tournies, but my love for them can be described as bittersweet. Winning one is an amazing feeling, especially for the amount i won tonight. I guess i just need to keep records of how much i win over a certain period to see if i shud continue with it.

But back to win, what was best about it was that i didn't really get overly excited by it. Just sort of closed the room and looked to surf online as if nothing happened lol. I think this is a great mentality because i use it across the board even when i get the worst of beats.

Like the one i got late on in the 10000 10r on boss today when i get it all in for 20 big blinds with KK against 1010 and the opponents hand makes quads by the end and after hours of playing im sent crashing out. I just shrugged it off, but i have to be forgiven for exclaiming a "fuck off" to myself lol. I then carried on with the other 8 or so tournies i was still in making sure my temperament remained.

It would be fair to say that the win has been a confidence booster and has shown me i still got game, something i was questioning during the drought of wins before this. I hope this is the start of some nice wins to come but also hope these aren;t the last words of a fool who has just jynxed himself. :)

Gl people.

Taking a break-Gym membership

only played around 7 tournaments tonight many of which were on average around the 100 dollars mark to play and i didn't cash in any. This has pissed me off. Mainly because i don't really know what my whole bankroll is at now and am scared i could be getting close to not being fully rolled for 100 tournies. I am going to add up all my monies and then plan from there. I also don't want to continue playing because i feel i have a massive leak in my game and that is i don't play enough hands when i have 30 big blinds or more in a tourney i normally keep waiting for a hand, and if it doesn't come i am forced to push all in as a short stack.

So after my break tomoz i am going to come back on friday trying to vary my game and see whats what. Even though i am a profitable player i still think that this flaw in my game is hindering me from making more. That and the bad luck i get sometimes!

So yeh i am just gonna leave you with that and that i have joined a gym for 6 months in an effort to get fit and perhaps take my football slightly more seriously. Perhaps semi pro level stuff might result but we will see!

GL

Willie Tann the Man?

Hey

Decided to travel up to the Grosvenor Victoria casino London to try my hand at the £330 NLHE freezeout with 100ish runners. Found myself seated at a table with 2 familiar faces and one other that i knew as Willie Tann. His record speaks for itself and he is a great player but boy does he get hands at the right time!

Started my onslaught when Tann raises from mid position to 300 (blinds 50/100, 6000 starting stacks) i get QQ in the Cut off and re pop to 800, folds round to him and he calls.

Flop A Q 9 two hearts, one spade

He checks to me and into the pot of 1750 i bet 400, to emit weakness, of which he re pops to 1500, and i flat call to try and induce a bet out from Tann on the Turn.

Turn - 8 Spades

He checks to me and i bet 2000 into him scared of the possible 10 or J river or perhaps a possible flush. In hindsight i probably should have checked behind because betting 2000 here is just showing raw strength, but at the time i was so scared of the 6 outer 4 to a straight coming on the river that i felt obliged to bet at it. If the turn brought a 2 i would have checked behind all day long. 8 spades was one of the worst cards i could have seen imo, that or the 8 of hearts, but others cards could have scared me like a K J or a 10 which could have made him a straight. He folds to the 2000 raise. This ends the first of three meetings with the Tann-Meister.

Soon after this hand i get AJ os in mid position and raise to 1000 with a stack of about 9000, blinds at 200/400 with a running ante of 50 i believe. Folds all the way round to the BB who pushes all in for around 5000 total. I dwell and make the hero call in the knowledge that i saw the same guy bet all in with K9 when he was short stacked from the dealer button into the blinds when he had 15 big blinds remaining. Gave me the impression that he was an impatient mofo. One that would perhaps get the same impatience when one attacks his blind with a seemingly weak bet of 2.5 bbs. i believed his range included A7-AK, 66-JJ, with QQ-AA i would think he would get slightly more tricky. anyways with the edge in my mind tht there is enough value in the call as i believe i could be a 70-30 against an ace with a lower kicker, i call and he has A10. I take the pot and his chips. Willie Tann comments on what an exceptional call it was and by his expression and everybody elses at the table they wouldn't have had the balls/stupidity to make the same call. I was slightly taken aback by this from Tann, to have impressed a wiley pro like him i must be doing summin right. He would soon teach me a lesson anyway.

Soon after i misplayed AQ by flatting a raise pre, where i should have taken the initiative by re raising or folding.

Soon after tht i find willie tann raising 3 x BB in mid pos, i have AJ on the dealer button and flat his call, everyone else folds. Flop

10 5 5 Two Hearts

I think he has missed and he checks to me, i check behind thinking my Ace high Jack kicker is good. Turn

7 Hearts

He half pot bets me and still thinking i am in the lead i flat call. River

2 hearts

4 to a straight out there and he tank checks to me and knowing now hes unlikey to have a high heart if any i steal the pot away from him with a 3/4 pot size raise.

Change tables soon after and find my first hand is JJ. UTG+1 raises 3x BB i re raise to 1200 blinds at 300/600, i re raise to 4100 with a stack of about 17000 and it folds around to the dealer button who goes all in for 13000. UTG +1 folds and i go into the tank. He must have QQ KK AA here right if he so confidently put all his chips in after a raise and a re raise? But i eventually call and gobsmacked but equally relieved he hasn't got me crushed by holding KQ. He misses when the community cards fall and i get a comfortable stack.

The next hour and a bit involved me stealing pre flop uncontested now and again getting re raised once when i open raised with A7, the guy was a rock so an easy fold to his all in. Eventually i have around 23000 blinds at 1000/2000 ante of 200.

I have QKsuited on the dealer button everyone folds around to me and i make a standard 5500 raise to hopefully take the blinds uncontested. I am immediately met with Wille Tann in the small blind pushing all in for his last 20000. Now before this spot i had see Tann go all in pre holding JJ JJ 1010 AK. And nothing less than those bad boys. But for some reason i felt that he can't always be blessed with premium hands and this does look slightly suspect that he is re raising a dealer button raise, which he can rightly presume is relatively weak so could, in essence be re raising with a lot less than QK suited. But it wasn't to be. For some reason i felt inclined to call 14500 to win a pot of 10000 to leave me with a little over 2000 if i lost the pot. If i decided not to call i would have had around 8 bbs and a decent enough stack to get fold equity pre flop if i wanted to open shove with any two to receive the blinds and antes.

He has AK suited hearts i have KQ suited spades and the board comes A J 3 5 7 was hoping a 10 would come to save the day but wasn't to be.

I utterly misplayed this hand but it taught me a valuable lesson to take a breather and properly evaluate tough decisions in live and online poker, and to take my time to avoid spazzy calls like this, and not to let my aggro side reign, the one that allowed me to call with QK suited becos "i am just not gonna take that sorta shit from Willie Tann" you know. It was a definate call against this player as he exhibited tight as fuck poker in terms of re raising so strong pre flop and i think he was raising equally as strong open raising, because the deck was hitting the man in the face!

Oh well i am happy with my performance. I think i did very well except for three glaring mistakes that i can remember that will now be mended for the next time i play a high limit live tourney. Really enjoyed it despite the fact i played 5 hours to get 16th, when top 10 pays and first was a cool £10000+. In many ways i am happy i didn't win the money because invaluable lessons were learnt tonight by me losing my chips, but ofc i would like to have thought that i was gonna learn those lessons even if i took down the £10000 but it wasn't meant to be!

Now it is to the online grind and to make some real money so i can hit the live circuit with a vengence properly bankrolled. Loving life at the moment and loving the way i am reacting to a mistake that could have effectively cost me £10000, well one thing is for sure anyway it cost me the £330 buy in!

Big respect for the Tann meister as well, he was getting it in good constantly tonight and hunted me down as if i was a fishy gasping for air. Gl to him tonight. Hope he doesn't win it though, give it to someone less rich than him!

Gl at the tables.

Multitabling

Hey

Just a quick update to say i am getting some good results in with a 3rd place in a 10K GTD for over $1000 and some other lower ones, that i am quite pleased with. The big wins are, however, tarnished by the buy ins of the tournies i enter and don't cash in. I can't expect to cash in them all by the age old problem with me is that i play too many tables and don't seem to concentrate well enough on each of the tables to play as well as i could. I got up to around 10 tables today and i have to admit i was really uncomfortable there. I am lowering the amount of tables i play to 8 now and will lower it again if there is still no improvement.

Sorry about the ridiculously boring post but for now i really can't be arsed talking any more so until next time laters.

GL.

update

Hey

Haven't been playing well and been getting unlucky in spots to prevent me from deeper runs in tournaments. I notice more and more now how tournaments hinge on coin flip situations. I think my style of play has it that i am so tight pre that i eventually dwindle down to 10bb or around that and i have to push all in to make a coin flip or worse happen. My mid-tourney game has to improve. I need to open up more without being too loose to make my card holdings less important if i abuse position. This said every time i try to do this i get into awkward situations and find myself thinking why the fuck have i done that. I just need to develop a flair instead of the robotic pre flop stance i currently hold.

However the very tight strategy does work on some sites, boss media for example, the play is so bad on there that you just need to wait for a semi decent one to get all your chips in good. This being said i could still open up a bit more on there as well

Looking forward to the next few days of poker online because i will be experimenting a bit more with plays, but i will need to make sure i can hold my patience throughout the massive slog because i am yet to record one night where i haven't made at least 3 glaring mistakes in a session. That needs to be reduced to zero.

Gl.

Manning Up

Hey

I feel i have turned a new leaf in terms of playing poker. No longer are my emotions completely intertwined in with getting a bad beat or winning a huge pot. I am starting to feel like a mercenary, and in keeping with this, one that is only interested in the money. There are probably better ways to get money in poker than to play in MTT's but i just love this form of the game too much to give it up. Also i'm not fully in the know of the optimal strategy in NLHE cash games 6 man or 9 man to ever steer away from what i am doing currently. I have said that i would play sng's more often but i hardly do this (this will change).

In the last 2 days i am up over a Grand sterling from mtt's but for no less than about 24 hours work (yes that is bordering an obsessive amount of time playing, but i love money!), so life is good. No more posts will talk of any bad beats in a "i hate my life" fashion. I might mention some but only for entertainment value and in a matter of fact way. Being too affected by the turn of a card is really bad for you and in seperating your emotion away from the parts of poker you can't control (when you are all in pre flop for example) you can study more on how to better the skill aspect. The variables under the "skill" aspect are quite vast for a game that a lot of people play all the time and you see guys doing different things in the same situtation and both of them can have correct reasoning.

This means that when most pros play day in and day out they always feel they have made a mistake and that they should have done things differently, unless this is a glaring mistake, they are probably beating themselves up unjustly. I realised this tonight. I always come off a session despite being up hundreds of pounds and thinking wow i played crap today i should have done this and that differently (thinly veiled brag). If you have opened your eyes up fully to all the information given to you at any one time and made the best decision you could given the circumstances than you can't do anything else. It's only when the results come in of whether that particular decision was right or wrong do we berate or congratulate ourselves. If it's a negative result we seem to think we did the wrong thing, but this may often not be the case in the long run, just for that given moment.

Sorry for this gibberish but i am just laying out some philisophical shit to help people prepare mentally for the slog of poker. I feel i am grounded enough now to really buckle down and make some money over the summer, and in winning tonight, i can see that i could do this more often, but only with the right temperament.

Laters.

Clawing my way back

Hey

Had a 14 hour shift yesterday and put in some massive ipoker and boss media volume to mixed results. I was up overall by about £400 but i had a 2nd place in a 7500GTD that should have been a 1st when i got my money in heads up with 88 against his 8K, he rivered the K, that cost me $1000. Another situtation where i was on the big blind with 10 bbs on the 7500GTD on boss where there were 7 left and a short stack goes all in for 3 bbs the mega big stack flat calls, then folds around to me, and i see 88, i realise that i could be beat by the short stack who let himself get that small because he was waiting for a monster, but i knew that 7 big blinds of my all in raise would normally be good as the mega stack was prone to calling with weak cards. Turns out he wasn't as weak as anticipated, him holding A10 (if hes holding A10 he would have made the same call with A7 or 77-44 imo so my all in raise was good) when i pushed all in, the short stack had AQ. Nothing hit for those guys until the gin card on the river which was an A and that saw me flying out for a measly 280 euros in comparison of what could have been 2800. O well.

Another situtation saw me lose with QQ all in against 66 with about 50 left in the 25,000 10r on ipoker i had about 15 big blinds at the time which had me middling the field and i ran into a guy that was one of the chip leaders, that was all in pre flop and he turned the 6. Annoying more for the fact that this field has a ridiculous amount of runners and i did well to get this far and be nicely placed in chips before this travesty, but wasn't to be.

In the $12K GTD on ipoker 100 entry i was stung quite hard when i thought i won the pot but to my dismay had seen someone make a runner runner straight flush on me. had AQdiamonds raised it up got called, flop 10s9d8d 2 diamonds, i was getting a little restless and shipped all in to a guys bet out on the flop, he called with JD10H, turn was 10d, which i loved thinking right, just need to avoid a J and a 10 and i will be fine with the Ace High flush, unkowing that a 7 diamonds would give him a straight flush. Amid a victory dance when the 7d came i was shocked to see my win percentage of the pot at 0% and was duly grounded when i realised what happened.

But i would need to mention three times i got lucky yesterday won with AJ vs JJ in an important pot, won with 1010 vs. AA in another important pot and in the most shocking of the night and the last one i will talk about in this blog, something amazing happened.

11 people left in the 7500 GTD that i came second in im on the BB with 86 spades with about 20 bbs so i am doing well, folds around to the SB who shoves all in for around 17 bbs, i snap call obv knowing my 86 was the nuts, he has 1010. Flop 445. i am drawing to 4 outs (any 7) and a perfect runner runner of either two eights or two sixes. Well two eights came didn't they. Twas luvverly to inflict that, the poor guy must have thought i was an ipoker cheater as if i knew what cards were coming, but i just accidentally pressed call to my horror as i was flicking thorugh tables, hardley ever happens, but this one will be hard to forget.

I am going to do another 10 hours tourney shift tonight, in the absence of anything better to do cos all of my friends have jobs during the week :(

gl at the tables

Disaster

hey

Sunday went terribly with myself tilting for the most part, meaning i need to re evaluate what the hell is going on. I gathered that playing 12 hour days without break can make the best of men tilt and that if i want to have a 12 hour day i shouldn't have one the day after too, so whenever i have a tourney day, the next day will be of sngs and cash. So that i can break away easily from them and do whatever i want.

I'm scared to look at my BR now by looking at what is in my bank and in all the rooms i play but i hope i won't need to look just yet and can do after i get a really good run going. I am limiting myself to playing ipoker and boss media because this is where i am most comfortable. It's annoying i am not more comfortable on party poker because this is arguably the best out there for tournies (out of the european sites) but the software takes some getting used to. In that transition to adjust to how that site plays i don't want to lose anymore money so i am sticking to my two fav sites.

Ipoker and Cassava are the only sites i play on where i am up on tournies which is worrying, but this is almost certainly down to the amount of tables i have played and how it can be difficult to use different servers at the same time. If i solely play on only boss and ipoker i think my bad form should end, barring ridiculous bad luck. Even if i get the latter though i won't complain because i would have my really good A-game back and it would only be for bad luck that i haven't got what i deserved.

It's terrible going through a bad run, even more so when it is of your own making. So it is just about maintaining composure and getting some results under my belt where i find it most comfortable to play. Also, even when i get some huge monies coming in i need to learn not to spew like this again! Especially in times of recession when no one will have sympathy for you when you say you have lost £2000 in two days because you weren't "up" to protecting your investment. However i may just not have the temperament to ever not tilt and if this is the case i will have to bow out of poker, and concentrate much more on my studies.

Shout out to Ben who seems to be doing what i should be right now and is killing me in the BR challenge we had set up! When i said GL to you at the beginning of this i never meant that much luck! OJ. May more come your way.

peace.

update

Hey ppl

Annoyed at my play of late. Been loading up too many tables at once and see myself playing on all of them nonchalantly, because i am on auto-pilot on all of them. I am now only playing a max of 6 tables where possible and i will try to get a "feel" on each of them. Hopefully with this will come better results. Quality over quantity after all.

Tonight i am playing the 140 euros 100000 GTD on boss media, the 300000GTD on ipoker along with some others there. the 250000 GTD on ongame the 150000GTD on microgaming and the 300000GTD on party poker. They start at different times around sort of 6pm tonight and already realise i am bordering 7 tournies i may be playing at a time, i will bow out of 1 or 2 though during the onset of the night if it is getting a bit hectic. Looking for comfort tonight, and hopefully only 6 tables will provide it. Maybe the high buy ins of these tournies is the problem of why i am tilting, but i don't think so. I am generally unphased by any amount of money being put towards a tourney because i back my abilities well enough to think i have an edge in them. Most fish would say this but i would like to think i am not one. Definately not the finished article by any means, because there are some simple maths with poker i haven't even got a hold of, but there are some tricks i like to deploy that i feel aren't used by many ppl that give me an edge.

In terms of BR management what i am doing tonight is ludicrous, but i am doing a low risk gamble. If nothing comes in tonight i still have a big enough BR to rebuild to its former glory, if something does come in tonight, i could well be laughing. This sorta gamble won't happen after tonight, this will hopefully be the best send off possible to my old gambling ways.

Peace.

Tilt and DTD Monthly Tourney

Hey

I'm gonna be trekking up to notts to play the monthly £330 tourney 80K GTD with Cos to try me luck. Played it before and was surprised at some of the poor standard being played. So much so it actually annoyed me and despite knowing the other guy had sucked out on me in the fishiest way possible i still gave him my chips on my exiting hand, so he inadvertantly had the power of making other people just as bad as him. Will need to watch out for that again this time.

I am going to play a solid game at first to see how the opponents on my table are playing and then try to adapt suitably, so as to get the most chips as possible from them without them realising. Perhaps some pre flop bluffing when the blinds are at a juicy level, or just playing my position to make the value of my hand not so important and only pretending to have one. Thing is with this though you're not playing children and they will quickly adapt to how you are playing so whenever i feel that someone has got onto me in that they have latched onto the way i have been playing i will flip-reverse it (cheers blazin squad) and play the game that will most abuse their perception of how i am playing. So basically a COMPLETE MIND FUCK.

This just shows the importance of preparing properly for such an event and i am making sure i am only going to be drinking water or orange juice for the event (gay i know and what) and eating nothing that will make me too sluggish. Also wanna make sure there is no tension before hand as i am still not too used to playing live, so i might have a walk outside or something to try and sort that out. Otherwise what else can i do but hope hands hold up and if i am chasing, i catch up. Happened at the empire for me in that good cash (well we split the top 4 monies) albeit undeserved, but i don't care, i just want the money, and if it means i play like a fish to get there then by all means. Loving the contradictory nature of what i am saying already, in how i am berating fish getting lucky on me but i wouldn't mind winning in a fishy way, i guess what it all boils down at the end of the day is i wanna win some money.

Played online tonight and i am not going to go into too much detail because i lost £300 but what i will say is that pizza is evil :P My bro chose the takeaway tonight as i paid for it as his treat for mourning the loss of our pet dog of 15 years (silently greiving). I otherwise, wouldn't choose it because it makes me too tired. It had the knock on effect of making me uninterested in playing in the middle of very big tournies and i regret eating the lovely tasting, Italian Based meat feast with 5 toppings, becos even though it tasted great, it makes me lose money. Some coin flips weren't going my way either but on the whole a bad day at the office on my front and definately myself to blame. Probably could have just had a sandwich, but when the pizza is getting waved in front of your face, you can't not eat it right? :P

Well i am looking forward to the trip anyway and maybe saying hello to a few familiar faces, mostly to my main man Ben whose blog is very interesting and listed on your right. Hope Cos, Ben and myself make the final table, and if i take it down by beating them, well that would just be sweet wouldn't it haha.

Laters

Birthday today!!! Ant 04/06/89

Any guesses for how old? :P

I'm feeling great today, i had a winning night on ipoker securing another $4000 GTD tourney win and two other final tables that i should be happy about. I know there were definately mistakes made but i made less than the average winning player does, so i can't be too pissed.

On review of my game though i am definately seeing leaks, my pride and laziness means i don't seek to learn from other sources apart from my own experience on how to improve my game, which is bad. Many people have said i should sign up to some poker training sites or read up on strategy in forums but i can never concentrate fully on them because they bore me. I already feel i have a good understanding about how to change my game to suit the dynamic of the tournament i am in, but maybe i should learn from others to see their viewpoints on the same situation, because not everyone plays like me.

The three biggest leaks in my game are that i occasionally tilt, i don't fully know in certain situtations whether i am getting the right pot odds to call or not (a matter of not knowing the specific maths) and playing too many diff sites at the same time.

Tilt is the hardest of the problems to solve. So i just tried to break down the reasons why i get it and deciphered that it's because i play for too long. 6 or 7 hours straight most nights, which is tough to do and still be on ure A-game across loads of tables. However i don't want to stop the amount of hours i play, i just need to somehow make them more interesting so that i enjoy playing poker more during it, and maintain concentration. Aside from actually playing poker itself the only way i can stay amused is through listening to songs, and maybe 2/3 different albums a day to listen to while i play will help. Also a bad diet is a reason for my tilting. On pizzas, i felt sluggish and really tired which made me play dire poker, as i was just trudging through the hours of play with no real intent to do well, so i would just fuck about in essence. Coca-cola is also very bad as the caffeine doesn't help. So from now on i am making sure that on the same day as a tourney grind i am eating healthily and only drinking water.

With the second aspect of my game that needs improving, its simple enough really. I just need to put loads of different poker situatuions into a holdem calculator online to give me the odds of different situations, and if i do it often enough and study it, i will be able to have the odds pop straight into my head as soon as a decision arrives in a game. How quickly i can get an outcome is important because i play so many tables.

Thirdly, I'm gonna talk about playing across different sites at the same time. There is definately a problem in doing this. Many rooms are so unlike eachother that when you play them simultaneously you always have to adjust to the different layout meaning you have not got a great "feel" of any table because you are so confused by the ever changing layouts. This might just be a problem with me, but this has meant that i have lost loads of money as i desperately try to cram in the best tournies from diff sites at the same time and it just wont work. There are sites that are similar to eachother in layouts and i am happy knowing which ones these are because they will couple nicely, but i guess its regrettable to say that i may well give up playing on more than 2 sites at once :(

If i get these three things under wraps and maybe branch out into poker forums to read up on strategy then i may well be on my way to being a good player, i'm already ok but whenever a player thinks there is no way that they can improve, that they can't be any better, than perhaps that person is a fish.

GL at the tables.

p.s my graph so far on ipoker is pictured.

A quick round up of whats happening.

Hey

No real reason as to why i have't posted in recent weeks, just haddn't felt up to it. Have developed some real lethargy out of nowhere recently, feeling really tired even though i have had loads of sleep and my concentration is completely shot. I might get a check up from the doc to see if it is anything serious because i have had an incredibly poor diet and hardly any exercise in the last years and im hoping there is nothing wrong. This has distracted me somewhat to concentrating fully on anything i am doing and same goes for poker.

Might seem i have some bad news to say to you on the poker front because of the downbeat start but that isn't true. Have had great success on ipoker recently started playing on my new will hill account on the 5th may this month. Had just under 100 multis with an average buy in of $36, roi of 187% and profits of $4520. Weren't the best of starts but i think i am finding some form.

On the live front i need to change my game completely. I find myself getting a little too nervous of my surroundings with everyone eyeing you up when you're in a hand and yesterday it got to me. I lost £400 at a 1/2 table to a drunk fish who goaded me into calling with the worst of it on 3 occasions. I wasn't feeling right to be honest, was a little tired and never felt too comfortable, but these are no excuses i should have realised this and stopped playing, so I could come back on another day rearing to go. This is an experience i am taking on board to avoid doing in the future and again i am happy to have felt it. Almost as if losing this £400 will pave way for much more than that to be made in the future. Instead of approching the live game with relative trepidation, i'm gonna go out to enjoy it, and when i say enjoy it i mean make some "John Houblon's".

My volume of late has been pretty lacluster and this is down to how lethargic i have been feeling and has prompted me to start taking better care of myself. Wouldn't be feeling great while playing tired, obviously, so i am doing the right thing in reducing my volume until i feel a lot better again. To be honest i have been getting these good results in while not feeling my best so i would like to think i could be ridiculously profitable if i was feeling more energetic.

Will get back to you guys about more of whats happening and hopefully more brags about how well i have been playing. Would love to be able to see the gradual progression from lowly part time player to full blown poker proffessional in these blogs and i have a good mindset now to make this a real possiblity.

Cheers for reading.

Cash Game revival

Hey

I am going to be concentrating now on my cash game to try and generate loads of rakeback and keep a consistent win rate. Something that is very hard to do even for the best players in the tourney scene. So the plan of attack is to grind 9 -12 tables of 1/2 playing at a just above break even game and live off the extensive rakeback. Planning on playing 40 hours a week of this after my exams next week so i should be getting something in the region of $4000 RB a month.

I say i want to play a break even game, but atm i would be happy to do this because the step up to 1/2 from 0.5/1 is quite a big one in terms of how the games are played out, much more 3 barrel bluffs to call down, and many more non believers to your c-betting. So i need to adjust to this, and try to adjust to the regulars and try and beat them up in the mind fuck that often ensues at this level, well for the slower ppl like myself anyway! The plan is then to actually be turning a nice enough profit without rakback from playing 9 tables and if i can do this consistently i am looking at a lot of money to be made.

No need to get caught in the headlights of monies to come though, it is a distant entity as i try and mend holes in my cash game and stop spewing as a calling station and instead know what to do to support my really good calls, and my profitable plays.

I will be playing cash on and off this week, as i am still revising, but when my exams are done i may turn into a complete animal. Thing is tho with so much money on the line at one time, one slip up in terms of tilting and i will need to move down limits and grind the very nitty 0.5/1 so i can't afford slip ups and i am gonna make sure that my maturity as a poker player stays from here on in.

Gl at the tables.

More posts to come

Hey

Just a little heads up to say i am going to post as much as possible to make sure this thing doesn't die out. I'm about to go to sleep but expect to hear more in the next couple of days. ATM too tired to talk about poker and will be sleeping instead, but don't want you guys going anywhere! Will be attempting a post a day from my next post onwards. Should be quite a feat if i manage it but i think it will help me develop my english because looking at prior posts it's awful!

Also will try to maintain interest in this thing for the reader, dunno why you guys have put up with me so far, been quite boring, not had a lot to talk about and above all else self depreciative :) lol

Hope my exam revision continues to go well, want to spank them next week as hard as i am going to spank fishays this summer, attempting a £20K profit in three months. Ridiculously lofty goal, but in trying to attain this i can still get summin worthwhile.

Just need to maintain discipline. Tis fekkin hard tho sumtimes and i envy those that can play with an estute level headidness because i feel if i had this i could be dangerous. I don't so i'm not. Comes and goes with me. However, all is not lost in my pursuit of mental stamina because i used to have it when i played on the crypto tournies so i think it will be possible with the ipoker ones, just a matter of time.

So i leave you now, before the land of nod, in hope of poker prowess to come. Will it bare its head? I guess anybody's guess is as good as mine, quite clearly a worrying sign.

GL.

Museum trip, o joy.

Hey

Today i had to go to two museums today to write up 1500 words reviews on each for my History course. Not many pieces of work as boring as this as the other courses are very interesting. We can get to look into football hooliganism if we want to and stuff of this sort so i am always engaged with this, but this museum trip was as boring as it sounds, and even worse, I doing this on my own. But saw the funniest thing today.

Was walking through the park on the way to one of the museums and i saw a couple walking on the grass, the bloke had brought a ball with him to give himself some entertainment if the other half was giving him greif or whatever. Anyway shit went down here!

The guy was trailing the girlfriend by some way and i noticed he saw the football just in front of her as she was walking with it, kicking it delicately. The guys face then turned into a fit of raw, animalistic determination as he went on a dash towards the girlfriend. I'm thinking hes not attempting what i think he is, is he? He gets closer and im thinking, he's not slowing down here he's going through her to get the ball!

The saving grace here would be that he would come in at some sort of angle to make a hook sliding challenge so you take less of the man and more of the ball, but no, hes gone straight through her!

I think what started as an aggressive joke turned into heartbreak as the girlfriend was wheeling on the floor, screeching, and the guy got very apologetic all of a sudden. I had to turn away to stop laughing as he just weren't thinking straight the poor lad.

I guess this could be related to the world of poker. The guy (average Joe losing poker player) was hypnotised by getting the ball (first prize and the glory) without taking into consideration the poor girlfriend (the rest of the playing field). He should have really just carressed the girl and took the ball with some style, keeping everyone happy.

:(

I clearly have too much time on my hands.

take it easy.

Poker break

Hey

I will only be playing poker on and off until mid may and my exams for uni are all done with. Might as well put in the effort with the books for this short burst and then appreciate the massive holiday until september to get more serious with poker and my £11K roll. Annoying though because my roll should be more like £14K if not for silly tiltages that i had straight after a big win. This involved not giving a damn about losing over £500 a spell because i was always comparing it to the big payday i had before.

When i come back i am going to be playing more cash games, more sngs and less multis. Wanna mix it up and see if a solid cash game can fund the variance of the multis (where i am best at) or maybe sngs will be my calling ground from now on as it ties in a multi into a quicker timeframe. Maybe its the fact i have good patience that multis have always suited me, but i need to exapnd myself to see where i can make the most consistent wonga.

The bet with amatay was called off as both of us lost our bollocks completely quoting how we thought the other was out of this world. So $50 is staying with me!

Lucky Grind

Right then

its 8am and as of the last 16 hours i have had £3500 in winnings. Not sure how much i am up since my last post but i have been putting huge volumes in. I think its the reason why i am always talking about a decent final table because any muppet can reach one if they play hundreds. It's all about profitability though and at the moment tournies are treating me fine.

Today i got the most monies from a third place finish in a $10K GTD for $1000 and a 5th place finish in a $100K gtd for $5000. I cashed in some others but i had a lot of dud tournies that i feel are dud because i am playing too many tables. I can finally hold my hands up and admit to Cos (my friend whose blog "10 buy ins" is on the list to your left) that i should be playing less tables. It's hard for me though because there are a lot of tournies that look so appealing around the same time! If i was to not play on so many tables i would probs be more profitable, but we shall see what i do in later posts.

By the way, all the recent positive results you have been hearing have all been played on what i call the "baby-maker" (My Dell XPS M1530) laptop which has seen me put in much better performances on a screen that makes all the tables appear smaller, and therefore more manageable to tile while multitabling. £1500 it cost me, but it has paid for itself already, and hopefully it will pay for a few more things (house, holidays, protection money etc. etc.)

Have to admit i can hardly keep my eyes open. Was playing the $100K GTD for 9 and a half hours and it started at 9pm. I blame that time frame where i should be asleep for me not coming first as i was second in chips at one point but i was spazzing out as i am prone to doing. Not fair though when you can hardly see the screen in front of you as you have been playing for a combined total of 16 hours in one day!

Would like to metion also i met up with Amatay and Cos on friday night for a session down at the empire casino. Cos and I were around £200 down and Amagay was up £55 lol So technically making him quite possibly the greatest player alive, but as im not content with this i have offered him a small wager to see who will rake in more tourney points in the pocket fives leaderboard from tuesday for two weeks.

I will update this blog with details about this even if i am getting spanked and should be interesting, was nice to see amatay was getting his excuses in early saying "but you play more than me" but sounds like gruffnut talk to me as Platonic would put it lol. I think it will be close anyway as i will be playing less as i have revision for exams, so probs about the same volume. There you go gruffnut talk from me as well.

I am going to love you guys and leave you for the time being but next time i blog which could be in the next couple of days i am thinking about proposing a "Blog a day Guarentee" to stop this from stagnating and to keep the adoring fans on board daily. Would have to concur if i do this the content may not be as exciting but my artistic approach to writing and keen eye for entertaining stories should keep you all coming back for more :P

Gl peeps.

And so the torture begins.....

Hey

Down about £500 since that magical friday night, which is annoying but its mainly because i have been getting real bad tiredness spells while playing. I get enough sleep but the diet of pizzas and other take away meals has meant i am not even fit enough to sit at a laptop without wanting to sleep. Pretty dire i think you would agree. But i can't be bothered to exercise. So a little problem here lol.

Had about 12 tables open of quite high buy in tournies, started really buzzing and up for the occasion, playing well. Then it hit me and i was in dire straights bowing out of 10 of the tournaments without cashing and having to take 30 mins to have a nap before returning to the 2 i had left open. Obviously now really short stacked but managed to be only down about £200 because i cashed in both. Then went on a mental cash game session this morning and tilted.

Remedy is to start exercising and eating better, and everyone can do that right? lol nahhh much easier to spend years learning how to play poker in a decent fashion than to spend 2 weeks to get into shape. But its a battle and i will have to do it to maintain profitablity in poker.

I'm writing this now sprawled across my bed with laptop on chest having not moved for the last two hours, and it feels good, but one must change dammit!

peace.

$20K GTD win, $5K GTD 2nd place and Betfair $20K Bubble

Hey Ho

Bit of an upswing day you could say lol! I won $5000 from a $55 entry $20K GTD by coming first and came second in the $5K GTD for $755. Also bubbled the betfair biggie for just double my buy in annoyingly, so around $240. This was against the losses of playing about 13 other tournies and losing in them. I shouldn't have been playing as many tournies as i did and i am disgruntled i did it. Lesson learned not to play when you don't have control and i didn't tonight. So profits for tonight then stand at around $5500. in the past week i have also won over $1000 on ongame and took down $1250 in the $4000gtd on ipoker but the latter only broke me even on network.

Lemme describe the big win. I was a complete luckbox again. QQ>KK KK>AA 36>10K JK>A6 and three other flips i all won. I think there are more even that i cant remember lol. I am thinking that even though i have been having good success, it hasn't been done in a completely reassuring nature. I have basically been lucky in all of the times i have hit big scores. This even goes back to the Empire win. Thing is though i have taken lots of pots down unopposed by being coy and aggressive minimising the gambling element of the game as i was trying to avoid showdowns. I normally accrue a lot of unopposed chips so that when i do get into a tricky spot the loss in chips will only be a partial blow to the stack. This means that i keep pushing other players late on in a tourney with marginal holdings when i know they are likely to fold. When they don't i am holding a hand like 87suited which is normally always live to call down their re raise all in of say AJ or something. So i get in lots of spots where i need to suckout and when i do i normally play well enough to take down that tourney or at least get heads up, when i don't i play the waiting game with a shorter stack to pounce when a big hand comes along to go all in and then go on to win the tourney lol. So i have been lucky when i have won a tourney but you could say that is just mys style? I dunno.

The massive thing i have learned is not to play your cards in the latter stages of a tourney but instead the other players, the blinds and the chipstacks. There is so much dead money out there to be stolen that it just has to be done and i go for it if i have a 20 big blind stack or above and look to start accruing unopposed chips with marginal holdings as i know the spots where i do put a raise in i am more than likely taking it down. Problem with this is that you get a reputation. But what can people do against you if they don't have the holdings. You could raise sumones blind with 72 and they call with QJ looking to defend because they know i am full of it. Flop A83 he checks, i pot in a continuation bet in position and then geronimo i take the pot down with no worries. It's all about guaging your opponents and the situtation and the importance of position is fucking crucial.

I will go on tomoz to try and dominate some more tournies but maybe try and play less but play better in them, maybe a max of 12 and see where i can go from there. I don't know what buy in range i will be playing either but one thing i do know is i normally excel in the tournies with less than 500 people because i can often get really restless if i am involved with anymore, so i might look to have that as a rule, meaning i am not playing anymore full tilt or pokerstars tournies for the time being. I am thousands in the red on those sites for spazzing out in them because of how weighted their payout structure is towards the final table and if there are 5000 runners it can be distressing if you come 20th for only 5x the buy in or whatever.

Btw a big thank you to yorkshire pud for giving me a shoutout on his blog :)

Good luck people.

Multi-Table Madness!

Above is what my laptop is capable of doing with full tilt poker and pokerstars tables. I am certain i will be able to play on 30 tables at a time. Problem is will i be able to profitably? I will play 2 dollars games to find out on each and try and make a profit from them, to get a feel of the tables. I want to do this because if i can freakishly familiarise myself with 30 tables and i decide to play cash, then i am in for a ridiculous amount of rakeback. But this will be very tough as other players will know i am a multitabler and will be re raising me more and more knowing i will likely be playing ABC. As well as the two sites pictured for another respected, reputable online poker site, try this for multi-table madness. Party poker has been beginning to grow on me with their soft tournies and even softer cash games, so i could easily be seen playing there at any one of the mad hours i stay up until!

Anyway i got the laptop today and have to admit that i am very pleased with it. I think that the resolution is its beig selling point as being able to fit 30 rooms, tiled, is an amazing feat. I also like the keyboard as i am typing this as it is quite chushioney but the touch pad has a little too much friction which will hopefully fade away.

I am going to have a sleep in a bit and when i wake up i am going to see if playing 30 tables is reasonable. I think the fact that the screen on my laptop is only 15' makes it a lot harder for this to be a reality so if i am having problems i will refund this for a 17' laptop i could have bought at a cheaper price that i found after i purchased this one. It's not as good with other aspects so if i can deal with the monitor size then this comp is deffo a keeper.

Looking forward to playing later and curious to know whether or not i can multitable hardcore on this thing. I hope i can anyway!
Laterz.

I'm a Fish......It's Official

Hey

I have depleted my bankroll to a pittance through just being ignorant to how much i actually had altogether and playing too high a buy in tourney. Also not playing a low variance form of the game to build the br slowly, so i will be doing that when the new laptop arrives.

When my online barclays account has fully updated only then can i see what damage i have done. But i am always one for the challenge and i feel i am going to do well in whatever form of nlhe i take up. In the next few days i will have a better idea of what the plan for building my bankroll can be because at the moment it can be done in a number of ways.

1. Low buy in sit and gos 9, 18, 27, 45, 90 and 180 runners
2. Low buy in multis of 300+
3. Low level cash games 6 man
4. Low level cash games 9/10 man

I'm thinking that the first option will be the most fun for me as i will have that competitive sense of competition in wanting to come first instead of the slog of cash games where sometimes you think, why the hell am i bothering?

The trouble is then to find out what type of sng i will be most profitable in, in terms of runners. I think i will be starting off playing the $20ish dollar ones probably 12 tabling them to get a feel of the game and how i need to adapt to win. I also think i will start by playing the 45 man one on full tilt.

Looking forward to the laptop now. It's coming between 8am and 1pm so i hope it wows me, if it doesn't i am getting my money back! Too much to spend to not be satisfied and i hope it does in ways i can't even imagine.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Good luck and God bless.

Awaiting My Time....

Hello,

Only a day now seperating myself from the baby maker that is my new £1000+ laptop. I hope we have a good relationship and get off to winning ways online. I think i will take to this computer like Maggie Simpson takes to her dummy. Should be a match made in heaven and yes you all would be right in saying i am extremely sad, but hopefully a saddo with loadsa money.

I will only be playing one tourney today on this laptop (borrowed my bros) as its a 2500 euro freeroll with under 30 runners, so lots of value. But it is on Boss Media though so i may have committed suicide before i play my second hand!

Peace.

How many tables is too much?

Hey

I was just wondering what everyone thought about this. For everyone that reads this blog, how many tables of poker do you feel you can play without it seriously effecting your performance?

I am coming to realise playing 12+ means you are limited to playing very tight and are not maximising profits by being a skilled player, who can play more hands than just the premium ones. But there are players out there who seem to play quality on many more tables so i don't know.

When the new laptop arrives i will be running some gay tests into where my comfort zone is trying to squeeze out as many tables as possible. Maybe this will vary for cash and tournies, but the idea is i want to be playing as many as possible, very well, to make it easier to make money.

What do you guys think about this?

Back through Popular Demand!

Well in reality that was non existent but in my dream world i had thousands asking for a new post as they were growing tiresome of not having some insightful revolutionary poker writing to fill up their dreary days but i am here to soothe again.

Lots of things to talk about here dearies. I am now playing in a post Cryptologic world and at first my reaction to it made me lose money. My frustration at having such software be put away made me furious with what else was left to play within the poker world, which obviously made me tilt. Ipoker will grow on me however because there is potential. But what i am starting to find is that there are a load of other sites i was ignoring that i really shouldn't have been. I am now playing ongame network which is good because i am winning on it. Boss media will take an age for me to start winning on because the software really does tilt me beyond belief, their small view is hurrendous and makes multitabling very difficult. B2B is alright but as i hadnt got a nice run going on it i have decided to not play it as much, fickle i know.

Pokerstars is a site i will be using more regularly particularly the sit and gos which i think i have a superior edge in and will love to dominate them. I feel all the crytpo grinding of multis was great prep for my now new found quest to dominate the sngs on full tilt and Pokerstars, and i will document my upward ascent for you all. Bodog and ultimate bet have good softwares but they are letting me play for security reasons and want me to fax them ID which i cant be bovered to do so that is on the back burner. Cake network is in the same boat as boss media in that the software is bordering dire but this is more to do with the size of their smallest screen which is too big. And i can't quite think of any other notable networks. Cassava will be one for the future but has the same problem as cake in that their smallest room size is too big but these won't factor too largely when i have the mammoth laptop that i just ordered from dell.

It is the XPS which set me back £1500 which will be delivered to me in the next two weeks. The reason i was prepared to pay so much was the fact that its resolution is 1920x1200 which in laymans terms means compared to my current 1200x800 res laptop i will be able to fit in fuck loads more tables making my profitability sky rocket when i get used to playing on 20+ in a good way. Also was willing to buy one because the one i am using now is cancerous, its literally falling off its hinge and the monitor keeps on flicking on and off which was really annoying yesterday while multitabling.

But that didnt stop me from coming second in two $33 200 man multis for a combined profit of $2000, which was lovely. Basically paid for my laptop. But i am still behind in terms of my BR because of the tilt i had post crytpo. Still it is in the region of £7000 so i will be alright with getting that up (wahey) very soon. Got a Irish open satellite as well tonight for the main event, its a 1/16 chance i believe. I won a caribbean cruise with will hill at a 1/20 shot last year so i know i am capable, all about luck though, and if i will have it.

Plan for the next week or two before the mammoth laptop comes........I will 4 table tournies all week at a casual sorta rate taking it easy before the madness with my new laptop begins. I fear your other players' safety when i do have it because i may cause suicide attempts and getting people to cry because i will be hurting people that bad. Not that i have a big ego here its just truth innit :P

GL peeps and i will look to update the blog at a much higher rate.

Peace.