Project Manager by Day... Poker Grinder by Night

MTT Sunday

2011-10-30T15:14:00.000-07:00

Played a bunch of small MTTs this Sunday, around 10 or so. Even though I did not get the results I wanted, it was definitely enjoyable if not frustrating at times. Managed to build a number of large stacks in various tourneys but then ran into a brick wall by not getting cards or running into hands. That was the only disappointment I had but I know that is just tourney poker.

Overall I am happy with how I played but there were a few heart in mouth moments. One such occasion was betting something like 6245 into a pot of 1345 with my stack at just over 9k. This happened to me twice and it does make you panic a little. Thankfully on both occasions the villains folded. My intention is to play the same schedule of tourneys on Sundays from now on if I have the time otherwise I will stick with the 45 mans.

In the month of November, I am aiming for 1000 $7 45 mans but should I exceed 750 games, it will make me just as happy. Also, I am hoping to continue reviewiung as many HHs as I can to improve further.

Until next time, happy fishing!!!

Poker Study/Review

2011-10-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

For a few months now and prior to Black Friday, I somehow got away from reviewing HHs on a regular basis. My play was not bad and i was making money so why bother? This is probably common for all players and all have gone through this phase. I looked at the Sharkscope stats for the "regs" in my games and over a larger sample they had ROIs between 10-14% in 45 mans. Most people would be happy with this and so would I... until I realised that because i cannot put in as much volume, I want to play better than them.

Over the last few sessions, I have reviewed 75% of the games I played. This takes a few hours but I tend to do it before I play (after getting back from work and before dinner) or lunch times at work. It seems over the top as I play around 50 games a session. However, I am finding some spots where I am missing shoves, realising mistakes, also defining the regs and Joe Bloggs ranges much better. This has allowed me to collate a bunch of notes on regs and randoms.

I have also gone over a lesson from a year ago that taught me a few things but over time have forgotten or too lazy to implement. Going over the video also showed me how far I have progressed but there were a few take aways from the video I was not using and that is a big mistake on my part.

Also, I want to start playing a bunch of tourneys, so taken to watching a few MTT videos on PokerVT. I especially like those by JCarver and Devo. I get a lot out of them and even if I have viewed them before, with the increase in my knowledge over the past year or so, the videos are now easier to understand and make a lot more sense then they used. Before it was all overwhelming with stack sizes for 3betting, 4betting, shove spots with ATC, placing people on hand ranges and so on. Tons of information for a novice but as you improve you can work out the best plays before the video even says it.

Anyway got to run in the middle of wstching Devo crush the member of PokerVt in the weekly bounty tourney.

The Long Blog Hiatus

2011-09-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

This is the first blog post in over 5 months and a lot has happened since then. Everyone is aware of the Black Friday situation but being European I had the freedom to play on Stars and Full Tilt for an extra 2 months before FTP closed down. The only regret I have is that the day before the FTP shutdown, I had decided to withdraw most of my funds but unfortunately the closure occurred the very next day.

The money owed to me may seem small in comparison to what is owed to the high stake grinders but the money I had could have helped fund a few luxury items. I am not bitter in the slightest; I never see my bankroll as real money since I have withdrawn more than I ever put in and I see it as a point score. Every session is about putting more points on the board.

In terms of poker, the closure of FTP gave me an excuse to have a break from MTT SnGs and played decided on playing around 60k hands of 10NL. I could have played higher but making sure my fundamentals were correct seemed more important. The experiments is on-going but have recently moved back in the MTT SnG realm by playing the 45 man turbos. I found that the cash game experience has helped me to read hands better.

There has been a “poker league” set up at work. I may have mentioned it before but there are around 6-8 of use every two weeks putting in £10 each. We play a SnG format which is lucky for me since I have more experience of them then the other 7 players put together. I have won 3 out of 10 and another guy has 4 wins. Apart from the other winning guy who also makes a ton of mistakes but runs better then Jason Mercier the other players are not great. I get to see them make a ton of mistakes and for the first time can say, I am exploiting their weak tendencies which I never really understood about how to exploit someone before then. Have another one this week and going to take it down. Will try to post some intersting hands if I remember the details correctly.

I am intending on blogging more frequently but who knows, many have said the same and many have failed so will have to wait and see.

No Longer a Live Poker Virgin

2011-05-14T15:42:00.000-07:00

I embarked on a trip into central London today with the sole goal of playing live poker. This is all very new to me and even went into a "poker club". I have talked about going to a few people so many times and failed miserably. My live experience before this was a few home family games and a few games with friends but drinking beer and been sociable was the primary objective.

What I didn't know when I turned up that there are some terrible players, even the online fish seem to know more than the bunch of fools I was playing with today. They guy to my right, young guy who plays regularly, said it was the weirdest table he has ever witnessed (thank god he wasn't talking about me).

Here are a list of calamitous things that I saw today in order of the funniest/stupidest:

1) We have just had a break and the clock ticked down for the cards to be dealt, it was 9 handed, I fold from UTG and everyone folds to the button that turns over his cards and folds face up. Now this is not funny in itself, except the SB and BB were not even sat down at the table so their hands would have been auto mucked if he even min-raised! Label OLD FISH!!!

This caused a bunch of debate as the other guys on the table said the SB and BB should chop, I pointed out that the BB would win and so the floor man was called over and ruled in favour of the BB who had not won a pot all day and had only 5BB left. Live Virgin is 1 up on the table! You kid opposite, you say you played online... where did you play fish cake... UB? Don't know how he though that it was going to be a chop! Label Oriental Fish Cake

2) The UTG+1 (Oriental Fish Cake) limps UTG+1 9 handed, everyone folds to the BB who instant mucks! Sorry dude, you can check, now that you have folded, you cannot have your cards back! WTF is going on, I thought I was the live virgin!

3) Another situation involving Oriental Fish Cake who was in the SB, Old Fish decided to limp UTG+2 and its folded to the SB who completes and the BB checks, the flop comes down and it checks to Old Fish who bets 50% of the pot and the SB tanks. Oh.. I think he is tanking, he is staring at the flop for about 2-3 minutes, shuffling his chips, looks like he is going to call stacking chips then asks the dealer... Is it on me?! CLOCK PLEASE! UNBELIEVABLE!

4) The guy to my right, NEVER raised once the entire time he was there. Every bet he vocalised, call, bet x, fold, it was getting annoying so the guy to my left started vocalising his actions to mock him but he was clueless to what was happening.

I am sure there was a string raise at one point that I pointed out to the dealer, the guy was lucky as the guy next INSTANT shoved and showed KK, you my friend can buy me a drink later!

Can someone who reads this is this the state of Live play???

It was pretty eventful in terms of watching the randoms playing. I am fairly sure that I was at least the 3rd or 4th best player sice there were 2 very good regs, guy to my left and the guy 2 to my right. The rest... OMG.

Here are a few note worth hands:

1) The 2nd good reg raised from the CO and I was in the SB, he raised 2.75x and I had 15BB behind and shoved my A7s. He was raising a bunch and I had not played many hands due to being between the only 2 good players. What was a little odd, that I was nervous as hell. I had a plan that if I was all in I would stare at the chips in the middle if I was all in to try and avoid giving off tells. I could see him counting down his stack and he had me covered by 3BB. My heart was racing and my palms were sweating (yes live virgin), not sure why I was so nervous as I shove hands online all the time without the slightest bit of nerves. Hopefully that will be eliminated the more experience I get. Eventually he folds and I am relieved but pretty sure I was behind.

2) I am in the SB with 9BB and its folded to me so I decided to shove. The good player in the BB tanked and started talking. When the guy folds, he explains he he folded ATo and wanted to know my hand. What do you tell a guy when he asks what you hand is, the only problem I had was I didn't look at my hand but just pretended by flicking them up in my usual manner. I thought it was a little funny. Sorry dude!!

3) The best hand I played all day was whilst on the button. Blinds are 300-600 and I have 8k in chips, Old fish limps in MP, the guy who limped every hand called in the CO, me on the button with JTss... hmm fold or call... decisions decisions, ALL IN!!! SB and BB insta folds, Old guy grumbles then folds, habitual limper gives a speech along the lines of, all in with 8k preflop, this is not poker and folds! Guy to my left looks at me and I think he knew what I did, it was pretty good feeling, even better than when I have done it online, only difference is now I can see the disgust on their faces!

Anyway I busted in standard fashion, 6 handed the CO shoves for 12BB, I call off my 8BB with KsQs and then insta knew I was in trouble when the the SB said ALL IN! CO had QJo so my read was right, the SB woke up with AK and I was drawing pretty slim on a AKx flop. The board ran out giving the CO a straight on the river!

I really enjoyed it and might try to get there on a regular basis since games online load even slower on a Saturday than they did before Black Friday!

Happy Live Grinding!!!

First MTT Win

2011-04-07T07:40:00.001-07:00

And biggest online score to date!

Yes the title of this blog is correct; I won the $3 Turbo Multi-Entry $4k GTD tournament on Full Tilt Poker. The winner would take home $1.3k; however, I took a chop with a slight chip lead for $1.1k negotiating a $100 more than ICM dictated.

It was insane; I have played many final tables of 90 mans without so much as breaking a bead of sweat and had nerves of steel! This time was very different, I was feeling extremely nervous, not wanting to make a mistake and all at the same time super focused. I had a similar feeling when I came 5th in a $3 1R1A during my time at Vegas, but this was a lot worse as I had built up a massive lead and did not wanted to throw it away.

There were a few key moments during the tourney, one hand just before the bubble burst, I got it all in against two very large stacks with AK vs their 55 and JJ to triple up. From there my stack only grew with a few minor blips. I was small balling it up and the fish were just donating the chips.

The most telling hand came on the final table, I was on the button. The SB just lost a huge pot, then sucked out and was on super tilt which was key in the hand I will describe. At BB 20k, I just over min raised the BUT with 98o and got called by the SB, BB folded. The flop was 567 two diamonds, the SB ships in 720k into a pot of about 100k, well... I have the nuts after double checking and called, he had 43dd and I faded the flush draw for a massive chip stack, nearly three times that of 2nd place.

Thanks everyone who wished me good luck. A big thanks to Bodeye and Nestarasta who encouraged and kept me focused throughout! Also they both helped in the negotiating the chop, but as I am Indian, I was destined to get the best deal possible!

Since one of my goals was to win a large field mtt (2235 fish), I am considering quitting poker for the rest of the year! Not!!! I want to play more but I am stuck in the office writing this blog!

Untill next time... Good luck y'all!

March Recap 2011

2011-04-04T07:38:00.000-07:00

The simple fact for this moth is the same as the past few months; that is that I am just not playing as much as I should be or wanted to. This will change this April where I aim to hit at least 750+ 90 mans or be sick trying!

So a quick summary of my 90 man efforts, not much to really say other than to show you a breakdown.

Summary

Buy In	Pld	Profit	ROI
$6	193	$511.50	40.8%
$12	137	$276	15.5%
$26	3	-$78	-100%
Total	333	$709	22.8%

Unfortunately, I lost a 1/3 of my 90 man profits to playing in MTTs. There were a few miniFTOP events that I entered and got burnt pretty badly. I felt I ran a little bad but then there were definitely a few spots where I needlessly donked of my chips. My game has come a long way but there is a ton more to learn and a ton to improve upon.

My main focus this month is 90 mans, 90 mans and some more 90 mans. Sprinkle in some $10 deep/superstack tourneys that fit into my schedule of play. Like I previously mentioned, I am aiming for 750+ games and if I do that then I will be purchasing an iPad 2! Incentive!!

Live Poker is RIGGED

2011-03-22T10:03:00.001-07:00

I have read a few funny and interesting articles on people’s discussions of online poker being rigged. After a little research there is “software” tools that can help you avoid being exploited by online sites rigging games... only suckers would pay for such tools. Having been in software development myself, it is definitely possible to have code that can rig games. Do I think that the main sites employ such code... 100% not. They would not risk coding such capabilities just in case it got into the main software.

Live games are a totally different kettle of fish, these can be rigged pretty damn easily. Just look at the latest Sorel Mizzi John Racener saga with Sorel dealing the joker off the bottom. A decent card magician can set a deck exactly the way they want with you sitting in front of them without you knowing. I recently saw an episode of “The Real Hustlers” where the hustlers took on 3 members of the Hendon mob and cleared them out dealing from stacked decks.

Now my experience of live poker is limited to the few family games and one or two with a group of friends who do not know how to play. I recently started playing in a monthly game with work colleagues, all who claim to play regularly either online or in a few casinos round London. I saw this as a good way to start my live poker career (lol). The games are a sit and go with 2000 starting stacks and 5-7 players playing.

In my first game, rather than stick to a tight SnG approach I was trying to steal post and out play my opponents after the flop. What I realised only a little too late that these guys were not folding ever pre and I would get into tricky spot. So one hand came up 4 handed, blinds at 50/100, I started the hand with about 16BB and decided to 2.5x UTG, I got 3bet to 800 total by the BB and I shoved over getting snapped called. I had KK vs AA – what can I say RIGGED!!!

Second time round I was playing tighter than the previous game so I tightened up my range to play only monsters and then employ a push fold strategy late on when the blinds were high. Unfortunately, I did not get to the high or even medium blind stages. I was dealt AA on the button 5 handed with blinds at 25/50. Utg limped, CO limped, and I decided to raise 300 from a stack of 1600, getting called by the BB and UTG. The flop came down perfect based on the hands that I saw these two player playing, 245r, the BB checked and the UTG player (someone I have given advice to before) donk bet 500 in the pot of 1k, so I shoved the rest of my stack, the BB said good bet and reluctantly folded. I got called by the UTG play and he showed JJ to my surprise since I was expecting 66-99 or even Ax. The turn was a J and I was out – RIGGED AGAIN.

The funny thing about the second time round was a novice player asked why I shoved for all my chips on the flop. Then the others were giving him a hard time while I sat there thinking, I could have made more money online. The others did try needling me but I wasn’t bothered, I just referred them to a little book called “Fooled by Randomness”. I did remain till the end and think I picked up a few tells which might come in handy although you can never be too sure.

Hope this little tale was enjoyable, if not, unlucky, you got to the end and didn’t find the punch line!

Good luck y’all.

Ps: I don’t actually believe live poker is rigged but always watch out in those self dealt games!

Reflection on MTTs and MiniFTOPs

2011-03-15T04:40:00.000-07:00

Every poker player has dreamt about winning a large field tournament with big bucks at the end. Some are lucky and good enough to have done so. Also there are those that are not one hit wonders and repeat the feat a number of times over their career and even multiple times within a single year.

When I started playing poker I never understood how someone could win a 45 or 90 man let alone a field of 10,000. I was always in awe of someone who won and wondered whether I could posses such skill to accomplish the feat. Playing 90 mans has taught me how to win that form of poker and in some ways has given me some insight into approaching MTTs. Also, I have started to really focus on the MTT videos that are produced at PokerVT, especially the content from Jason “JCarver” Sommerville, Jon “Pearljammer” Turner and Bryan “Devo” Devonshire. I have even resorted to reading “Poker One Hand at a Time” during lunch breaks at work – just so I can try to improve my game. Unfortunately for me, I do not put in enough volume of MTTs to realise that dream anytime soon. What people don’t realise when starting out in this game is that those that win have probably been playing for a while, refining there skills and studying to improve.

My bankroll does not allow me to play large buy in tournaments such as the Sunday Million or the large FTOPs events. Plus I am honest enough to say that I would be burning money like so many donkeys that think that poker is easy. Thank god FTP introduced the MiniFTOP series which I have a sufficient bankroll to play in. I see this as an opportunity to get lucky and run like god one time... I am still waiting having played a few events in the current series and past.

This Sunday I entered Event #22 which was a $12 multi-entry Super Stack Knockout Bounty tournament. This is right in my wheel house as so many people over value the bounties. If definitely opens up opportunities that you may not otherwise get such as more loose calls by larger stacks “bounty hunting”. Having played solidly for a number of hours I did bust out to mainly standard hands in standard spots. However, every time I built a stack I ran into some bad luck and lose a bunch of chips. Still working on how to play these events consistently well and not make mistakes that damage my stack. I obv have a ton of work to improve but it’s a work in progress. With over 50,000 people entered it was fun while it lasted.

I will be entering a few more this week so look out for another post when I ship a big score! ;-)

Good luck y’all!

Lost without Poker

2011-02-15T03:30:00.000-08:00

There is something that has been missing recently and looking at the blog title you can tell that it's poker. I have not been able to play due to my Dell pc having a fault. The hard drive has blown and waiting from an engineer to come to replace it. This put me on inst fire tilt as its only a month old!

It's funny because I thought that I could get by without playing for a few days. However, that has not been the case, I am just itching to grind those 90 mans. It's probably the fact that I can't that makes me want to play more. I think that if you are told you can't do something then you instictively want to do it more. So what have I done to fill the void of not playing... well... I have been watching the PAD Cash Game and Poker VT videos. There is a PearlJammer series where he takes down the 500 on Stars. It's ridiculously long so has definately kept me occupied but it's never the same as playing.

I am now facing up to the fact that I have to go through the pains of re-installing the likes of HEM, FT Ninja, poker clients and so on. Also the added pain of importing my 90 man HH since Nov 2009 because I did not get round to backing up the database before the crash! To those that are reading this... I suggest you back up that database right now.

The engineer is due in today so hopefully I can muster a few games. If you are wondering how on earth I am typing a blog without a pc... I am using my work laptop which I refuse to install poker clients since I may get fired but even worse I may actually be tempted to play during office hours!!!

Good luck at the tables!

Jan 2011 Recap

2011-02-01T02:35:00.000-08:00

Wow, this month has gone faster then I had expected. There were a couple of nice things that happened this month in relation to poker which I will detail.

The first is that I managed to win my little prop bet. It was not all plain sailing as I went on a small downswing and my closest rival went on a small heater. This all made it too close for comfort with around 50 games to go. It looked like I needed to 2-3 wins for me to get a head. Somehow, I pulled it out of the bag; winning the bet with a win in the final 3 games. I am not a type of person to gloat and make fun when I win bets so I will not further mention it. Also, 500 games is a small sample and therefore who ever runs hot over that period will win in general.

Summary

Buy In	Pld	Profit	ROI
$6	299	-$710.50	-36%
$12	201	$1519.50	58%
Total	500	$809	17.8%

What started to bug me a little was getting crushed in the $6 games which I always excel in generally. It was only a little annoying since I was crushing the $12.. thank god!

Secondly, having played enough to qualify for Iron man status (generally Bronze or Silver)for the last 6 months I had a small bonus to clear which is a nice addition to the bankroll. I am all in favour of getting free money! Something that JRB needs at the moment!!!

Only played a round 16 mtts which was covered by the Ironman bonus so overall a good month for a part timer like myself. Still disappointed I did not make 600+ games and it will be even tougher in the month of Feb so 500+ is the aim.

Thats all for now!

Good luck at the tables!

Small January Prop

2011-01-13T07:44:00.000-08:00

I have somehow got myself in a prop bet against two very good SnG grinders, Fried Liver a 180 man expert and Chip210 a former 180 man grinder but has switched to FTP 90 man KOs. The only explanation of accepting this was that I must have been drunk or having an egotistical moment where I felt I was a clear favourite with my new found confidence/success

The prop:
Most profits from the first 500 SnGs in January
Games to be Stars $7/$12 180 man or FTP $6/$12 90 mans

The Wager (small stakes only):
The two losers pay the winner $50 each

The only way I could compete with these high volume grinders was to set a first 500 game cap.

Mr Liver was off to a flyer playing on Stars after about 20 games being up over $1k but fortunately for me went on a sick down swing and is in the minus after his 500. Being a high volume grinder he finished his 500 games a little while ago.

Chip210 on the other hand is only 170 games from completing his 500 and is in the profit. He was clearly crushing the games before he hit a rough patch and another bit of fortune came my way. He looks to be getting back on track.

Me, well I am pretty useless having only played 180 games or so and with half the month gone somewhat behind pace on the volume. My profits are steady but nothing that will set the world alight. I think some long sessions will be due in the next few days.

Better be off, writing this whilst at work is not such a great idea after all!

Good luck y'all!!!

Reflection on 2010 Goals

2011-01-06T10:54:00.000-08:00

In the previous post I literally pasted my results without really talking about them against my goals. So here are the goals I set for 2010:

1) Achieve Iron Man status and maintain for 10 out of 12 months in a year
I actually thought that this would be hard as I felt that at some point I may actually be force into not playing because of family or work. However, I grinded every month this year so gained Iron man status for every month of the year. Let's hope I can maintain this as there is a nice bonus at the half year mark as well as an end of year. With my "medals" I did purchase the 3 in 1 Jacket they have on offer, my once that was similar was old so it was nice to get a new one! Next Iron man purchase will be the Binoculars that can take pictures as well.

2) Move from the $3 KO tourneys to the $12 (a must) and possibly $24 (stretch target)
I moved up in stakes pretty quickly and was playing the $24's in no time. Nick was pushing/encouraging me all the way and Bodeye even asked Nick to easy up on me and not to give me a heart attack at one stage but it was all good. Although, currently not playing many $24's as it is now only for extra income so did not want to handle the swings that come with the $24's. Nick will call me a P***y but he is write, the day job is stressful enough without the thought of losing thousands of dollars. I will go back once I grow a pair... I promise!

3) Feature at least once in the FTP leader board top 200
I actually featured a few times which was a surprise. At the time, I did not know that I would be on my way to Vegas and play 1000 games in 2 weeks! What I also did not realise that unlike Stars, FTP leader board rewards high volume high stakes grinders. So even if you played 2000 $3 90 mans you may not break into the top 100 if the other guys are playing less but at higher limits. Only featured 4 times in the top 100 so nothing to write home about.

4) Play 500+ games a month for 11 months of the year
Utter fail here, only managed this for 8 months. To make consistent money I need to be grinding regularly. Maybe initiating a prop bet with someone will encourage me to keep going every month. I did however, average 500+ for 12 months but that was largely due to the fact that I went to Vegas and put in 2 months worth of games in 2 weeks.

5) Make $1k in 5 out of 12 months
Now here is where being not specific will catch me out. In terms of 90 mans I did make $1k 5 months of the year but I suspect that this was not the case if I included all the MTTs, 45 and and other games (satellites mainly).

Overall it was a good year in poker for me as I mentioned in my previous post. I will look to set some specific ones for the coming year in a few days. May speak to a few people and see what they think I should be trying to achieve with my game. Guess there will be a volume related one along the lines of number 4, may be continue the Iron man run, try and aim for a total profit figure broken down into 90 mans only and overall target (cos I is going to ship at least 1 mtt - lol).

until next time.. good luck at the tables!

End of 2010 Analysis

2011-01-02T06:48:00.000-08:00

I was going to write an in depth and detailed analysis of the year but rather then using words, I have found the pictures to help.

So this first one is all the games on Full Tilt that I played. It includes all the 90 mans, MTTs, 45 mans and some other minor satellites. Overall happy to make a profit on the year.

My 90 man performance for the year at all buy ins:

Summary of all 90 mans if you are to lazy to count it all up:

The graph to back it up:

A little fun statistics about how my performance was like for each day of the week and a monthly breakdown of profit ville!

From the top graph, can you guess which month I was in Vegas for?? Can you seen the stretch where I was struggling/breaking even? All I can say is that at least I had a real job otherwise I may have been struggling!

What was always funny during the course of the year, was the fact that I struggled to have a good performance on a Sunday. I am not sure what was the cause but at one stage I was down a great deal of money on Sundays but a few good Sundays righted that ship. Obviously, love playing Tuesdays and Wednesdays!

The final graph/picture is my results in MTTs, I could not let you all think that I was simply having a great year:

It's a small sample but the last few months my MTT play has improved and understanding a bit more on the ways to approach them. My play in the 90 mans have helped with the learning but I rarely get a chance to play with more then 20BB unless its the early stages. Hopefully this year will be a good year for MTTs.

I left out the graph for my 45 man play, lets just say, I will not be playing them anytime soon! I was crushed in them however, it was during the breakeven/bad patch of the year so who knows what the future lies. With my new found patience maybe I will tackle the $10 level games and see how I fair over a thousand or so games.

Overall I am happy that my poker has improved dramatically over the course of the year. My game has completely changed from this time last year to now. I am a totally different player and it's all thanks mainly to Nick "Mi_turtle" Rainey, Bodeye2 and Aaron "Johnny_Hilldo" Hill. I also need to thank some of the poker players I have spoken to over the past year and you know who you are.

Here is looking to a better 2011!!!

December Grind Complete

2010-12-29T14:50:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, I will not be able to grind my regular 90 mans until next year! So it is with a sad hearth that I post my results for the month. In fact, I should not be sad at all, I had a good month and after a relatively flat patch I have finally come out of it.

The breakdown of games is as follows:
$6 - 288 games @ 3% roi for $55.25 profit
$12 - 172games @ 52% roi for $1175.50 profit

Total 460 @ 30% roi for $1230.75 profit

Now this was not my best month nor my second best month in terms of profit but it was the first month in a little while where my bankroll increased significantly. I put it down to hard work and listening to friend's who encouraged me all the way.

I played a few more MTTs this month with little success, however, having watched a few videos on PokerVT again, I am accumulating the chips, now all that is required is a little run good and hope we can ship one in 2011! There was one deep run where I was around 10th in chips with only 150 let (147 get paid) and Full Tilt decided to crash for everyone! They did give me a nice chip chop of the prize pool but I am pretty sure I could have had a chance to make more by final tabling or even binking it!

I will keep this one short as I want to do a larger statistical breakdown of the year in a few days time.

Good luck y'all!

Fun with the Railbirds

2010-12-19T15:26:00.000-08:00

Before I get on with the main topic for this blog, I thought I might as well post some of the results so far this month.

In terms of 90 mans I played just under a hundred having only time to play 3 times this week. The coming week will be no better but with just over a hundred more to reach 500 should be attainable even with Xmas festivities. I made a decent profit over the period with a dollar shy of $400.

The damage to my roll occurs when I try to dabble in those stupid mtts. Maybe I am not just able to master them, running bad in the small sample I have or just need to study more on mtts (probably this) but they definitely are NOT adding the dollars to my account. I will persist and eventually ship one in 2011 (goal for the year???).

Now for the main reason for the blog; Saturday night after watching Green Zone (Matt Daemon film - pretty good), I decided to log onto FTP to see if the Durrrr Challenge was happening or a few top level pro's playing, alas there was none of the sort so I was reduced to railing Bodeye ;-)

When I rail Bodeye, there are two things that occur, one he seems to start getting monster hand after monster hand and generally reaches a final table. He is a good friend, ex coach, and so he lets me know his hole cards to get a better understanding of mtt strategy which I really appreciate. We then also have a discussion which is invaluable information. Now yesterday there was a railbird, initially heaping praise on Bodeye about his game, wishing him luck, hoping for a run of good cards, praying for the suck out, you know the thing. As I was watching these messages, I wondered when the begging would start and within a split second of the thought, there it was, "can you stake me in a $2 tourney?". At which point I started begging Bodeye in the chatbox, stating that I would give him 10% of all my losses, to which he then stated to the rail he was transferring me $600 because of the great deal I presented him with. The railbirds were going wild at the thought of Bodeye sending the rail some money. To have even more fun, I declared that I would stake one of them $200 from the $600 Bodeye had sent me. I was having a good laugh and so was Bodeye. Unfortunately this was all after Bodeye finished 7th pr 8th when KK < AK when the villain spiked an A on the river.

I had my own railbird for the first time, he apparently likes the way I play, so much so that he felt that I could stake him $20... hmmm... I think not LOSER! I didn't catch his name because I was too focused on playing rather than begging! Not sure what I think of railbird beggars but they seem a little desperate at times so I don't mid messing with their heads if I get the opportunity.

Anyhow, this is probably the last entry before Xmas so wishing everyone a Happy Christmas.

Good luck y'all.

Incredible week

2010-12-12T11:54:00.000-08:00

WOW.. that sums up my run from Monday til today! My thoughts before this week (for many weeks) was when will this breakeven stretch end. Well, it may be a little early but I think it has finally come! Not much has changed in the way I am playing but all I know it that I am winning and may it last forever. All I now want to do play day in and day out. Those bad beats are back to not effecting me emotionally in the slightest. It is an AWESOME feeling.

Played a total of 158 games since Monday making just under $1k in the 90 mans. If it was not for my damned Sundays (seem to lose on Sundays) I would have been up a little more. Cannot complain though as it's just nice to be playing well and confidence. Those abusive chats in the chat box have returned, you know you are playing well when that happens.

Currently playing the $12 Super Stack KO MiniFtops - lets ship an MTT one time!

Friday Dilema

2010-12-03T20:33:00.000-08:00

For the last few months I have been in a little dilemma. It is basically a decision on whether I should play poker with friends at the local pub or play online. The choice is a tough one as I should make more money online than the live event but with the live event I can have a few drinks whilst socializing with friends.

Not so long ago, maybe two weeks or so, I was down at the local pub but rather then play the lame looking poker game, I decided to watch the rugby. Having witnessed the fishy play made me want to join the game next time round. The guys playing look at their cards and then make betting decisions accordingly so should be a faily easy game for someone who has some skill.

During the game I saw that my brother was down around the 10BB mark so on the break I gave him a few tips. When I say tips, I said, if the BUT min rises again, just shove on him and if it is folded to you, dont look at your cards and shove. He is a monster fish and was arguing the merits of such a strategy. On the very first hand sitting in the SB, everyone folds, the IDIOT looks at his cards and folds! So much for listening. On the second orbit the same happened in that everyone folded to his SB, I signaled the motion to shove blind and because he had like 8BB left he reluctantly shoved and ran into QQ. He was NOT a happy bunny, telling me off for a stupid play, I tried to explain why it was correct but you can teach fish to breathe out of water!

So after "getting" my little brother busted, I see that my girlfriend is on final table bubble. She has played a few sng/90 mans and understands that she needs to shove with not so good hands in some situation. Even though she knows, she is always gives me a hard time about it when she gets knocked out. This time was no different as I motioned her to shove UTG 7BB with 87s She got knocked out running into AQ. OOOOPPS!

The next hour was the most pain I have suffered, I rather have bad beat after bad beat than listen to the pair of them whine how I got them knocked out. I sat there smiled and drank my beer.

On reflection, the game was played by a bunch of simpletons and sure that I have a massive edge even with my limited skill. After watching it for 3 hours, I came to the conclusion that I may slit my wrists listening to the idiots talk about poker as if they are experts and playing one hand every 5 minutes! BORING!!!

Online is the way forward for me for now but will consider trying it out one time!

Good luck y'all!

ps: Check out Nick's attempt to get Supernova Elite by playing some crazy volume! Read all about it at www.rainmanusc.blogspot.com

November Ends

2010-12-01T15:48:00.001-08:00

My work this month has really made sure that I had very little time to play poker. I mean there was one week where I had slept for only 10 hours in 4 days. At least the project is now live and I received some praise. Not that it means much from a bunch a people who know nothing yet insist on telling people what is best!

Back to the poker update, basically only managed to play the last week of the month and managed a mere 297 90 mans. It is the lowest volume I have achieved throughout the year and somewhat disappointed. There were maybe a few days where I should have played more but the past is gone and can only look forward.

I managed to play a few MTTs and although I did not win one, my game is coming along There were two tourneys where I finished 61 and 78 out of 2000 or so runners. Both equally brutal bust outs where if I had won the hand then it could have been another story!!! However, when I do bust I think of the words Nick told me on my visit to Vegas... Who would want to be a MTT grinder.. you have to be sick in the head (similar words to those effect). I can only explaining by the statement: You were so close yet so far. Its just very frustrating at times. He is right though so I sticking with the 90 mans for the most part.

With the MTTs and 90 mans I made a little money so that is good. I hate losing, and being of Asian background, losing money is the worst! Yes I can make fun out of myself and culture... no you cannot!!!

There are a number of blogs I read and one that always is entertaining is Jammenplyr. He has started blogging about his exploits at 10NL 6max so I decided with very little time to play 90 mans that I would try my hand at a little cash myself, knowing he is a fish (only messing) and having success, I cannot help but feel I can make a little profit in the games. So this month I have completed 2.5k hands and made a little money, $45 at 9ptBB/100 (yes very small sample).

Initially, I just sucked, playing too many hands over compensating for the tightness of hand range I employ in the 90 mans in the early going. My hand reading skills have greatly improved and that sort of helped me get out of trouble spots that I should not have been in the first place. Jammen sent me a spreadsheet he used when he started as a good starters guide for opening ranges, I was not to far off from the onset but definitely opened two many from UTG/UTG+1. Having tightened up my game a touch and watched a few John Ettinger vids on PokerVt, I have definitely plugged some leaks but know that I am still making a few mistakes here and there. I guess its all part of the learning curve. Definitely enjoying it and will only improve my 90 man games in post flop situations.

My aim in December is to play as much poker as possible whether that be 90 and/or 10NL cash on Stars. The problem with December is all the Christmas parties and socializing before Xmas just get in the way of a solid schedule so I will do what I can when I can.

October in the books

2010-10-31T15:21:00.000-07:00

Very disappointed in myself for how October turned out. My aim was simple enough, to play 600 games, not only did I fail to get there, I also failed to get to my standard 500. I said no excuses but my internet has been extremely unreliable and playing with unrealistic internet is like getting a wad of notes together, pouring petrol on it and setting alight to it with a match.

See graph below for the ups and downs of the month. One bad spell wiped out the efforts in the middle of the month. All I can say is stuff happens and I will come out of the funk at some point.

I have been playing with a new sense of confidence and belief that I lost a little while back. Even though I came back from being up to nearly break even does not worry me in the slightest. I may not be crushing but I am not losing as having to re-deposit would actually make me cry.

Having played a few small MTT's this month has really dented the monthly income from 90 mans but this is a way to break up the grind a little. I have been dabbling mainly in the $10 super stack tourneys which allow for a lot of play and have had a few deep runs without really cashing. I will bink one of these soon enough!

On a totally un-poker related topic, I have somehow added a few pounds to my weight that was not in the overall life goal. So to put things right I have put myself in a spot where I now have to attend the gym 4 times a week and ensure I complete 2 sessions of cardio training on top of the 2 standard cardio/weight training sessions. Each cardio session needs to be at least 30 minutes long in total training eg 20 minutes running and 10 minutes X-trainer. There is money on the line so need to focus.

November Goal: Enjoy Poker and play every hand the best you can!

New WBCOOOP

2010-10-28T14:28:00.000-07:00

I played in this series last year and they give you tickets for SCOOP if you cash so worth entering as a freeroll for a chance to win big!!!

September Summary

2010-10-03T13:36:00.000-07:00

This was another month of disappointment.. in some ways I should be happy and in others I should be not. Let's just start with the positives, I started playing much better at the end of the month and regained the confidence when I was killing the games. Another positive is that I did not go broke and broke even for the month in sngs where I looked like I was going to lose a ton. I took a few shots at some MTT's and although I did not cash I did not feel uncomfortable/out of place.

So the negatives, I only played 376 games and even though I went on holiday and computer issues, I should have played more. If my aim was to quit my job one day to play this game then I had better learn to start killing the games again and putting in the volume. Variance maybe, bad play possibly, loss confidence definitely. Not sure why I lost confidence but I have it back and playing the best I can. The result so far are not reflecting that at the moment but the month has only started.

Goal: Play 600+ games NO EXCUSES!

Mental Weakness

2010-09-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

I have been playing a few games this week and the daily losses are taking its toll mentally. I only play around 20-30 a day so it could be variance. However, for today's session I was mentally weak. Having established a number of large stacks, I did not take down a single table. I did suffer some horrendous beats and then I think my game fell apart slowly. To stop the bleeding and frustration I decided to stop even though my goal was to play 50+ at the start of the session. You should always know when to stop and that for most people is when they are not 100%. My goal is to put in a 1005 every time I play and today it just was not there.

Having finished playing for an hour now my mind keeps me thinking about the possibilities if the poker gods had looked after me a little. I was happy getting called by lesser holdings and having people dominated proving I was playing well. After losing a number of crucial pots when ahead with 11-14 left does not normally take the wind out of my sails but today it did. Hence I was mentally weak today.

A few months ago, I was crushing the games and was cruising along with out a care in the world. At the moment in a few spots I am second guessing what I am doing, is it the right play, am I making a mistake, please god do not make me play like a girl and so on. Not a good place to be mentally. So I reminded myself of what a friend told me: you are a great player just gotta believe it and make it happen! When a great poker player says stuff like that to you it can only boost your confidence so I thank you Nick once again!

Good luck y'all!!!

August Summary

2010-09-13T14:58:00.001-07:00

Yeah, so what I am a little late. Not much to say really except that I played 502 games and literally broke even in the 90 mans. With the few mtt's scattered in I probably lost a little.

This month will be tough to get in the volume as I took last week off to visit the girlfriend's parents in the Czech Republic. Also, my PC is playing up and considering buying a new one.

Started reading "Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time" which is pretty good especially for me where hand reading is not the best. They go though interesting hands and give indept analysis into their thought process. Also the tournaments include small and high buying mtt's so that they adjust to the type of opponents they face. Definitely worth buying if you want to get into mtt's.

Good luck!

Cruising in Neutral

2010-08-11T16:02:00.000-07:00

I am 230+ games into the month and I am stuck at break even. You could say that the frustration is starting to build up a little. Winning huge one day and losing the next two giving back what you won is just damn annoying. Let's take Tuesday, played as focused as ever, making only but a few mistakes, looked like it would be a losing day but managed to end the day with a 94% roi for 35 games. Wednesday, played as focused as the day before, did not win a flip when ahead or behind, and dropped a lot of what I won the day before in 25 games! AAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH.

Ok now that I have vented publicly I feel better... NOT! It's poker and variance; I am doing my best in dealing with the situation I am in. Focus focus focus. So far I have not tilted yet which is probably a little encouragement. All I now need to do is hit the gym hard and take my frustrations out on the punching bag or run myself into the ground.. or hit my boss at work. I prefer option 3 but may have to be satisfied with Options 1 and 2!

Cleared my 6 month Iron man bonus. Always good to get free money so all donations are welcome: ketan7581 at Full Tilt Poker. I may not transmit you automatic run good but it will increase my bankroll. Remember no donation is small.

I am no longer one of Nick Rainey's horses. We agreed that it was good to part ways and try and go it a lone (hence I am hitting up for donations) a while back (start of the downswing.. any surprise there?). Whatever anyone's opinions are of Nick (with the recent situation), he treated me well, gave me a great opportunity and between him, Bodeye and Aaron they taught me a great deal and made me into the player I am today. To give you an understanding of Nick generosity; even though I have "left the stable" he has offered to go over a hand history from time to time an offer I will definitely take him up on. I would publicly like to thank Nick for what he has done for me, will gladly meet you for a beer at the WSOPE and good luck conquering the Pokerstars TLB race. Also thanks to Bodeye, I consider you a Swedish genius, a good friend, are you sure you are not Isildur1?

Ship me some run good... one time!

Summary of July

2010-08-01T07:11:00.000-07:00

Well the month ended and I for one am thankful in terms of poker. It was one of the worst months I have had. It was my first losing month since I started playing the 90 mans back in November. A lot has to do with variance and some to do with a few bad plays.

Only having played 502 games is pretty disappointing but I have a valid excuse... I think. In the last week of the month I had to re-build the PC which took longer then expected and anyone who knows about having to rebuild PCs knows its a ball ache. Importing all my 90 man HH files took the longest and I found a flaw in the PT3 Import which I must remember to inform them about.

Here is the Sharkscope stats for the month:

Line 1 - 45 mans only
Line 2 - $12 90 mans
Line 3 - $24 90 mans
Line 4 - $6 90 mans
Line 5 - 90 man summary for the month
Line 6 - Total monthly summary

As you can see I did terrible in the 45 mans and have done so since starting to mix them into my sessions. It has led me to take the decision to stop playing them until I have done a little more studying/reading/analysis the game so that am comfortable with the adjustments I need to make.

The $24 90 mans also did not treat me well and these are the money earners for me. When you struggle with them they will decided whether you have a good month or not. What I am happy about is that that I crushed the $6 games for 120% roi and even with the bad side of variance this month is nice to see a little positive. I remember in the last session I had that a regular who is getting coached by a top 90 man player called me a luckbox... when a reg complains about you it's just a little more satisfying when the random donkey's do because they should know better.

August has now begun and hopefully I can turn this bad variance around and to do that is to play more. My day job will be full of stress for the next two months where the company is making a major change that will be visible to all soon enough, but this will make poker playing a little more difficult for me. I want to say I will play 1000 games but I know that is near impossible but I hope the 600+ is a fair target.

Good luck all and send some run good my way!!!

Just a Break Even Spell

2010-07-11T08:51:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update as I definitely not instilled fear in my opponents in the 90 mans. Played around 240 games and down just $40. Hopefully working with Bodeye over a few HH files will improve my game.

I feel that Saturday nights are a little hit and miss when it comes to games loading quickly. This Saturday was one of those days where only 1 person was registering a minute. This is just frustrating and so decided not to start up a session plus there was the 3rd place decider World Cup game between Germany and Paraguay.

It then dawned on me that I would have a free month of Cardrunners through the Truely Free Poker Training Scheme which is definitely worth signing up for. I logged in and looked for MTT SnG but there is very little so I then looked at low stake cash games. I stumbled upon a series called Crush Low Stakes (10nl and 25nl) Cash Games by Vaneer. This gave me the urge to try out a little cash and played 350 hands single tabling 5c/10c on Pokerstars. I learned a little about 3 betting which I get little oppotunity to do in the 90 mans except the good old 3 bet shove! It was also good for hand reading practice as I was trying to guess what people had even in the hands I was not involved. A little bonus was that I carved out $26 profit - not bad for practicing.

Next week, I will look to put in more games as I think 700+ games is reachable but need to put in the work. Look to get out of the break even patch as I have been focused and playing well just not getting the rub of the green. Think people may need to avoid me as I feel a rush it about to start soon!!!

June Results

2010-07-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

The highlight of June was visiting Nick, Aaron and Bodeye in Vegas for two weeks which I blogged about previously. June has yielded the most amount of volume in a single month. Although I did not make as much profit as I liked it was still a very successful month.

My game improved while out in Vegas and I continued to play well on my return. Unfortunately, the number of games since my return has been small but then England were in the World Cup for a little while which disrupted my schedule. See Sharkscope results below for the month:

One of my favourite sporting events has started today and it probably one of the hardest to compete in... the Tour de France. Anyone who is in the event is a sick sick dude. It is 3 weeks of pure torture not to dis-similar to the Rainman Poker House! LOL

The goal for the month is simple... play as many games as possible so lets strive for 800!!!

Vegas Trip Summary

2010-06-17T14:07:00.000-07:00

I am now back in the UK after a marathon journey from Vegas to LA then on to London Heathrow. It is a very tiring journey as I cannot sleep on planes even with my Bosch Noise Canceling headphones on. To my amazement and shock to my girlfriend, I arrived home, showered and headed back out to watch a T20 Cricket game. Let's just say she was not impressed that I was away for 2 weeks and then first day home headed out with my Uncle to watch a cricket game.

One objective I had before getting to the Rainman's was to play over 1k games which I did and if it were not for a few teething problems with PC/Internet the number could have been a lot more. Also, I actually took a day off in the 2 weeks I was there because I wanted to watch the England v USA with a few beers. Grinding is no easy task and those who think they want a poker lifestyle needs to understand this is no joke. I played everyday for 8+ hours and then spent 1-2 hours doing reviews, going over my own hands, going over a few guys hands and then the group house reviews. This is a FULL TIME job and if you do not put in the time then you will not get those rewards you are hoping for.

NestraRasta was already at the house upon my arrival and he was a fellow FTP 90 grinder. We had a little dig at eachother in that I said that before I leave the house my name will be above his in the FTP Leaderboard. At the time I said this, I immediately regretted saying it as Nesta had already put in 3 full days grinding. Uphill struggle from day 1 is not what I envisaged. There was a lot of banter between us everyday as somehow Nesta remained on top day in and day out but I was still very determined to dethrone him. I worked harder grinding then I have done in my entire life and at the end of Tuesday's grind I was a clear 130 points clear - thank you very much and left the house with a little grin. Nesta is a great player and if he applies himself will crush the games even more then he currently does - avoid him if you can.

During my time I managed around a total of 1050 90 mans - that is more then I have ever played in a single month. I hope there is sufficient time this month to push that number closer to 1800 if not 2k. We will wait and see what happens on the volume front.

I played on Pokerstars once during my 2 weeks stay. I somehow entered a $3 1R1A event with Ornopro (up and coming $2 180 crusher) and eBecks18 (already a good 180 grinder at the age of 19). We all registered the event after Nick said we should all enter but somehow never entered himself. By the time we registered we were at blinds 30/60 with a stack of 6K after the initial rebuy, but somehow eBecks must have thought the stack was too small and lost the very first hand with KK vs AA. GG sir we will review it one day - just kidding. lol. Ornopro made a run but did not cash unfortunately. Me on the other hand when on a complete tear, I managed one luckbox move when I was all in KK v AA but the poor guy did not read the script when I flopped a K and he did not improve. With regular raises taking the blind and antes, I had built a $3m chip stack, I was excited when I peaked at $1m, then more excited at $2m but when I hit $3m I felt I was in control. Nick was great telling me to keep aggressive and focused. I was extremely nervous as this was the deepest run I have made in an MTT but Nick just said relax and enjoy it. I definitely enjoyed it but the result was a little disappointing. Somehow I lost a few flips and made one questionable play, instead of shipping $1.4k for first, I came in 5th for $400. This was my best run in an MTT with over 1100 registered not bad for a part time player like myself.

There are a few people I would like to thank:

Nick - thanks for giving me the opportunity to come out and grind with you and the other coaches. The house was amazing and having a chef/cook was genius. Having not to worry about cooking lunch or dinner just allows you to focus on the grind maximizing all the time you have. Nick, gave me a few pointers and went over one HH early on in the week which allowed me to up my aggression a little which was a great benefit for the rest of my stay.

Bodeye - well he is a genius and paying for dinner twice which is always nice. Seriously though he helped review my HH files, some troublesome hands and gave me a better understanding of poker in general. I cannot say enough about him but if you get a chance to work with him then do not let him leave if you can. Did you know that he has earnt $1 million in online winnings since he started. Not bad for a 20 year old.

Aaron - he ran around setting up the house and was giving encouragement whether you were losing money or winning money. The message was always the same, focus and get the games in and do not wory about the result. One funny moment was when he was sweating me on a final table, I made a sick read and the guy was crippled to 4BB, Aaron stood up and said you should have this one and walked away. A few minutes later when Aaron re-appears I give him the bad news of how I come second!

Nesta - man he made made me grind harder then before with our little bet even though no money was involved. He drove me around Vegas to see all the big casinos and the strip in general. Without his contribution I would not have been able to go to a Las Vegas show which was awesome (Thanks Nick).

The two week trip was awesome and if you get a chance then I suggest doing it. One piece of advice is if you cannot follow the details below then it is not for you:
1) Wake up and be ready by 9ish
2) Grind till you have put in 100 FTP or 200 Stars games (normally 8+ hours) in as much silence as possible
3) Review for 1-2 hours
4) Repeat the next day

Seems a simple set of instructions but trust me it will wear you down so be prepared. I have a few pictures that I will add later but suspect Aaron will have them on rainmapoker.net in the future.

Good luck with the grind!!!

Constructive Criticism

2010-06-07T22:36:00.000-07:00

I have played poker for the last 4 days straight putting in some decent volume. It's all about the volume at the RainmanPoker house.

Friday - 67 games
Saturday - 72 games
Sunday - 113 games
Monday - 82 games

So in the last 5 days I have played 400 games which is nearly 75% of my normal monthly volume. I have decided to play all my games in a single session but for those who feel daunted by a 9 hour session then breaking it up in 2 mini sessions is acceptable.

I am absolutely loving it here, my schedule is wake up, get showered and clothed, eat breakfast, review a few hands then get grinding, eat dinner after the grind and chill out in the evening. Repeat! It seems like a military regime but I have been set a target of 500 games in a single week so getting into a schedule will only help me to achieve that.

This morning started out in the same manner except that I went over a HH with Nick. It was clear that I was missing great opportunities to accumulate chips and to be aggressive. It was also an area where I "thought" was one of my better parts of my game. Shows what I know about poker... yeah that's right very little. After being called a pussy and a girl and being told to get some balls more times then the actual number of hands we reviewed, it was clear... I need to stop playing like a pussy scared girl with no balls. SIMPLE - why didn't I think of that.

So it comes to no surprise (to me anyway) that with Nick's words constantly ringing in my head as I am played my 82 game session that it was my most profitable day ever. I hit my first ever 4 figure day which is nice but since I usually earn just over $2 a game on average you could say I ran over expectation for the day. In fact WAY OVER expectation... must be nice.

That's all for now so good luck at the tables.

Day 1 @ the Rainmans

2010-06-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

Before I start talking about my first full day let us look back on how I actually got to Vegas in the first place. Everyone knows that online check in the new airport thing. The say.. it will make life easier and quicker... really?!!! I go to Heathrow having spent the time to check in online and STILL had to wait 50 minutes to get seen. Life tilt starts!!!

On handing my bags to the check in clerk he hands me two forms. These forms have to be filled out before landing and getting seen bu the US customs people. My only problem with this is that I have ALREADY entered these details electronically on two different systems. Now I have to repeat the SAME information on two separate forms that ask EXACTLY the same questions! WTF are we filling in paper forms what happened to a paperless (eco friendly) system. Life tilt continues!!!

I nearly forgot to mention the flight from Heathrow to LA, the stewardess managed to splash me with hot tea. Apart from that it was a good flight.

Upon arriving to LA there is a queue bigger then that of Day 1D of the WSOP main event 2009. Un-f**king real. One guy tilted me the most when he decided he was a lazy piece of s**t and left his desk, gave a little whinge, a moan to the supervisor and then reluctantly DISAPPEARS for 30 minutes before starting. I was stuck in the stupid queue for over an hour. So I get to the customs desk and every person who was before me were checked and through within 2 minutes.. oh not me.. I think he looked at me, then at my passport about 10 times, he probably checked every little detail I wrote and spent ages clicking on his keyboard... the fact I am a British Asian has nothing to do with it right? Life tilt even more!

So I get through US customs and my bag is waiting for me which was nice. I then took a small work into terminal 2 to catch my Southwest flight to Vegas. The only problem with this flight was that it was LATE. OMG why on earth does my flight need to be delayed.

On arriving to Vegas the life tilting experiences had worn off. Had a fantastic dinner with Nick, Bodeye and Aaron. The food was great and there was a lot of it! Thanks Bodeye for picking up the bill.

After being up for more then 24 hours, I manged to sleep for only 7 hours which was not great but I will live. Got ready and had breakfast before starting the grind. Fitted in approximately 65 games which was tough going as tiredness started to kick in near the end but tomorrow will be 100 games or more... I hope.

Good luck y'all

May Results

2010-05-31T15:27:00.000-07:00

It's that time again where my results are reported upon and providing you with my analysis. Let's get too it...

The Graph:

The Breakdown:
$6 KO - 155 games
$12 KO - 337 games
$24 KO - 185 games
$48 KO - 2 games
$24 (45) - 50 games

The Analysis:
I played the most amount of games for me then any previous month which was a major achievement. Also, managed to win a 45 man for the first time and hopefully one of many to come. The month could have gone better if I just ran a little better in the 12's where I lost approximately 120 buyins. Having looked at HH's there was not much wrong in how I played them and it certainly was not different to the way I approached the 6's and 24's where I made all the profit for the month.

The Conclusion:
I intend on playing a whole load more in June and hope to have played at least 1000 games if not more within the first two weeks.

The next post will be from a different country and in the presence of the Gordon Ramsey of Poker himself!! I am more excited the a 16 year old girl at her sweet 16 birthday party to see the Rainman, Mr Hill and The Swedish boy Genius Bodeye. I just hope the 11-12 hour flight does not kill me first!

Good luck at the tables!

45 Man Victory

2010-05-29T17:59:00.000-07:00

Today I managed to WIN.. that is correct I won a $26 45 man. I have had a number of close calls but after 50 attempts the poker gods accepted that my efforts were to be rewarded.

Once we got HU, after only a few hands I felt that I was going to win. I also realized my great HU game (I am being sarcastic) was no match for his. It was easy enough to grind him down and then the following happened:

I mis-clicked by hitting the call button rather then shoving all in. Flop comes JJ6ss, he checks, I bet, he shoves (if he has a J then gg), I snap call, I see a naked flush draw and I close my eyes. When I open my eyes the following was being displayed:

Last night, I managed to win a $26 ticket using only 50 FTP points. I entered the early 19K guaranteed and was playing well. Was building a nice stack when I ran a set of 7's against a set of 8's. From there on it was survival mode and looking for shove spots. The final hand was me UTG shoving 11BB with KK, table chipleader snap calls from the BB with 88. It was game over when an 8 hit the river but managed to win $53 for my efforts... not bad for a freeroll!!!

Dad's birthday tomorrow so this could be the last day of poker but will post monthly results later on.

Good luck at the tables!

Additional Note:
Just refreshed PT3 stats for the day and was $60 short of a $1k profit day!!!!

May - Week 3

2010-05-23T14:37:00.000-07:00

It was always going to be a tough week to play since I was away with the company one day, my mum's birthday another and a unforeseeable event (women troubles) that caused my friend to call me up for a few drinks. It meant that I only played 4 days and only managed to put in 143 games. My total games for the month is just over 600 so that 1000 game mark will be near enough impossible for me to hit. My highest number of games for a single month was ~540 and I am ahead of that. So each game now is setting a personal record for the month.

Today, I intended on playing my record number of games for the day but that never materialized. After playing 6 hours solid, I managed a total of 45 games. Euro timing is just the worst and all I can do it sit and wait for the games to load up.

The plan for this week is to play as much as possible! I know there will be two days without a single game being played and there is not much I can do to prevent that.

Good luck at the tables!!!

Been There, Done That...

2010-05-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

Got the T-Shirt... well it should be arriving soon anyway. If you do not understand then let me explain; FTP have a promotion that when you knock out a Red Pro, not only do you get you buyin back you also get a T-shirt. What they failed to tell you is that when you knock a Pro out you will also take that tourney down. Oh.. I nearly forgot to mention I collected a personal record of 8 bounties for the tourney as well.

In summary $12+1 buyin = $12 for Pro KO + $2*8 bounties + $288 for first place = GG. Easy game? Sometimes!!!

This weekend I managed to play a 175 games which is pretty good for me. Even though the outcome resulted in a small short term dent to my balance, I am not all too worried because I know that it will turn round. I always hope it will be sooner rather then later.

This month I have played a total of 475 games already, my standard 500-600 games should be attainable from here ;-)

New Goal: Minimum of 1k games or be sick trying!!!

That is going to be tough as I already know that I cannot play on at least 5 days but if I can get to about 700 this time next week then I will really have a good crack at it.

Good luck y'all!

$24 $12 $6

2010-05-03T16:52:00.000-07:00

I experienced something new today whilst playing poker. In the final three games today which were a $24, $12 and $6 KO tourneys I managed to appear on the final table of each within a matter of minutes of eachother.

My deal making skills failed me in the $24 game which would have made me more then second but slightly less then 1st. I got greedy and the poker gods punished me and made me finish 2nd. It was close as we were both chip leaders at one stage with massive leads only to lose it the next all in.

The $12 dollar was relatively straight forward, I was behind, got it level and didn't look back... NOT. I was behind, then in the lead and then got crippled to 4BB. Guts and determination... basically a few suckouts later and I take the title down.

In the $6 game, I was lying in 3rd and shoved from the SB, I hit 2 pair on the flop but the opponent hit his set on the flop as well. GG.

Railled Bodeye2 in the 15k Super Turbo Knockout where he offered the opponent an even chop with his opponent having a 2:1 chip lead. I personally told the opponent to take the even chop because Bodeye2 is friends with Isildur1 and has some amazing luck box skills to boot. Somehow, Bodeye2's connection with Isilsur1 did not help as he unfortunately came in second. Well played sir. I did have one question, how on earth do you flop a straight and get your opponent to put all their chips in without a single raise?

Good luck y'all

First $24+2 Win

2010-05-01T19:22:00.000-07:00

I have played a number of $24+2 90 man KO tourneys and have gotten very close to taking one down. Today was the day I achieved that feat! See winning hand below:

Let's hope I can win a few more in the coming month.

April Results

2010-05-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

Was thinking about having an interesting title but in the end I could not be bothered and the title is more appropriate to what will be said. The month has ended and not in the way I would have liked. I had hoped to have played more games then I did and that is somewhat of a disappointment. Will look to rectify the situation in the month of May.

As you can see it was not all plain sailing. In fact I learnt a lot from this month in terms of dealing with situations when they are not going your way. It's all to easy to get carried away when winning but seems like hard work when you are not.

At work we have something called stretch targets. You get nothing for reaching your main target but get 50% of your total bonus for hitting stretch target 1 and you get 100% of your bonus entitlement if you hit stretch target 2. So here are my goals:

Goal: Play 500 games
Stretch Target 1: Play 625 games
Stretch Target 2 Play 750 games

I have not worked out what kind of reward to give myself for obtaining one of the stretch targets but sure will come up with something later on. Anyway, the month has started so better get playing... well this evening UK time!

Definitely playing in the $215 SCOOP event with 2m guaranteed on 2nd May using a ticket I had won! Let's hope I can go deep and pick up a few dollars!

Full Time Week is Over

2010-04-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

This was the week that I did not have to go into work and so decided to try the lifestyle of a full time poker grinder. Starting on the 16th and finishing today it was a very interesting week for me.

In terms of poker and lifestyle, I noticed that I had to play my games in the UK evening as the games were not loading up quick enough during the day. This gave me a problem on Monday as I play 5 a side football so if I did become full time, Monday's would officially be my day off from the grind. Also, noticed that my concentration was good for up to 5 maybe 6 hours at a stretch before I felt that there were lapses and my mind began to wondered. I decided to break up the sessions in to 2 smaller 3-4hours in order to keep a high level of concentration and would like to thank Nick for this piece of advice.

One main thing that I loved was the freedom to do what the hell I wanted, whether it was just lounge around, go to the driving range, going to the gym or meeting up with a few people for lunch. Also, with the extra time I managed to go through more HHs and identify areas to improve and have time to go through these with Nick and Bodeye.

Having played 8 out of the 10 days available I fitted in 293 games. I am not sure whether this is good or bad but playing 60% of my usual monthly games in a week seems ok. I definitely worked out a schedule that suits me and should I have a another week off in the future I will have a plan to follow. Hopefully, this will allow me to play a lot more games since this time rounds was learning what suited me best.

Conclusion
Is this some thing I want to do full time in the future? Answer is most definitely yes

One Penny = 2K

2010-04-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

The title of this blog is obscure but don't worry I will explain in full and am sure it will be an enjoyable read (I hope). Everyone who knows poker will inform Joe Public that poker is a game of skill. That in the long run the people with the skill will do better than your random Joe Bloggs. In fact, I subscribe to this fact whole heartedly. However, there is a small factor in which randomness comes into play that we cannot control and this is where some luck is required.

When you are in a rut, downswing, in amongst variance, whatever you want to call it.. you generally think that you have no luck. This is not the case for a lot of people but those who require and in need of some luck then there is a simple cure.

There were rumors circling that donating a few dollars to Nick "MI_turle" Rainey was the way to change luck. I always thought it was a load of hype, maybe some arse licking to get onto his coaching progamme, to maybe get in his good books or just pure idolization.

Now when I hit my rough patch, I spent more time reviewing and playing then ever before and still the results did not change. So I decided that I am usually game to try anything once as long as it's ethical so why not donate some money to the Turtle. I decided I would test the theory out and I donated a single penny to his Stars account, yes that is correct, I donated $0.01 to the Turtle and boom I win 2K straight (relatively) in about 140 games. Can anyone say HEATER???

You want proof - just look at the graph below for the month so far!!!

You can read and see other who have come to the notion that a few pennies sent towards the Turtle is definitely +EV. Read about it here.

V for Visitors or Victory

2010-04-16T00:43:00.000-07:00

When I was younger there was a programme called V, it's about alien visitors and at the time loved it. When I heard there was going to be a brand new series I was excited and slightly disappointed at the same time. The reason is that I have very limited amounts of time to play poker and so watching TV is not really an option, however, I did record it just in case some time frees up.

My intention for Thursday was simple get home, cook, eat and grind hard. However, after working later than usual, and with having to wake up at 5:30am for the gym I did not feel up to staying up too late so I made the early decision not play poker. This gave me a little excitement to watch V. It was supposed to be a double episode but for some reason only the first got recorded and so now I was at a loose end with not enough time to grind but too early to sleep.

So as a true poker addict I went to the PC not to grind but to study the game. I went through a few HH and compiled a few hands to send to Bodeye for analysis. There were some really grosse spots that I faced and getting a different opinion is always good especially from the "boy genius" himself.

I am not one of those people that only post/submit hands that I lost but also getting feedback on ones I won. Yes, that's right, I ask for help on hands I won. This concept bemuses people, why on earth are you sending in hands you won.. the reason is because there is a possibility that I played it incorrectly and missed value. You can gain just as much knowledge from analyzing winning hands as you do that of losing hands.

My plan for the coming week... I am off Monday to Friday next week so my goals are to try a week as a grinder. My schedule will be to wake up, hit the gym, do a few hours review/studying and play an evening/early morning sessions to fit in with US time.This will be my first experience of putting in a full time schedule and looking forward to it. The only thing I ask for is to run like the great Haile Gebrselassie.

This is a long post and sorry but I am bored at work and have nothing better to do.. oh wait... I am going to review a few HH now! Love my job!!!

Tough Weekend

2010-04-11T12:42:00.000-07:00

I put in some volume this weekend.. by my standards anyway completing 102 games. Unfortunately, unlike my previous post I cannot say that the players that faced me will be too afraid. In fact they are probably hoping that I do play since my luck was non existent to be totally frank.

It was definitely, mentally tough trying to break out of the rut I was in and as Nick told me... 1 win erases a lot of the tough times after winning my final game of the day. Indeed it does and although I was not moaning/whinging it was just a little tougher to handle this time playing the 12's. If the same thing happened and it did in the 3's and 6's I immediately brushed it off knowing that I would recover by putting in the games as quickly as possible. I think the money (lost) played a little part in my emotional turmoil but now I have experienced that it wont happen again.

Need to go and watch the Masters, hopefully Westwood can hold on for the W!!

Back with a Bang

2010-04-08T03:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I started with a great deal of enthusiasm and get the month off to a good start since my holiday. I felt good and played the best I could even with two short Internet outages (very annoying). During the session I did feel like I was getting unlucky in those big pots. After single tabling my last table I managed to get to the FT HU and managed to grind the opponent down to 5BB twice but eventually lost which was a major disappointment having felt that no mistakes were made.

So slightly deflated I opened up my PT3 and refreshed the results for the day and BOOM - I had a 104% roi for the 32 games! I was no longer feeling as upset but still frustrated that I came second. Will be reviewing a few of the deep runs tonight before playing to get the correct mindset.

Updates from the holiday... Drank too much beer and Vodka, eat too much (pretty unhealthy), didn't sleep well but had great fun. No poker was a disappointment but manged a few JCarver vids on PVT. Also read "Deal Me In" - conclusion is everyone goes broke, have the discipline/determination to build back and David "Devilfish" Ulliott is one crazy MoFo!!!

March... Marching on to bigger and better months

2010-03-29T15:02:00.000-07:00

March's grinding has officially come to an end for me. There is little or no chance of playing the last two days as I am off on holiday Thursday morning with a bunch of personal stuff to sort out before then. It will be 6 days before I get to play again and sure that the withdrawal symptoms will kick in. Maybe it will be a good time recharge the batteries and come back focused for a huge month in terms of poker.

An update on the month... I can say this has been the best month yet in terms of how well I played and the benefits of playing well. I am not an egotistical person but I think my game has improved this month but I will never allow myself to be one of those people who think because they had a great month that they know it all. I for one will have my feet planted and know that I am scrapping but the surface. With guys like Nick and Bodeye2 only good things will come. Without further a do...

Yeah, you are looking at my graph at the month... those fish shipped me $1.3k... holla!!! Never thought I would make that in a month so early in the year - I am stunned and amazed. This is small fry compared to others but I am not others and that is a massive achievement for me.

The breakdown of 509 games are:
$3 - 266 @ 42% roi
$6 - 141 @ 79% roi
$12 - 101 @ 16% roi
$24 - 1 and lost (didn't mean to enter)

As you can see the $3 and $6 games are a means of printing money and if I can do it then so can anyone else with a little determination. It is possible to earn a living from these if you can put in the volume. At the start of the year, I said I wanted to be playing the 12's by the end of the year... I am not going one step further of saying I hope to play the 24's but I want to try and play the 48's at some point this year. Ambitious... yes, crazy talk... probably, achievable... only person in my way is myself.

Nick said to me what would I say to making $3k a month... I said that would be great... he then said what would I say if I could earn $6k a month.. answer is it would be like the lottery for me and I would go to work the next day to quit my job.

The following has always been a dream and one day may come true (some parts are form one of Nick's past blog posts):
I would go to the office, tell my boss to fuck off, I am not coming back and that I will work my notice at home where I can grind the games for more than twice my monthly salary (little exaggeration as I am fairly well paid for what I do) you baldy b*stard.

In other news, I have achieved the bronze iron man status for the 3rd month running and hope to continue to put in the effort. I wish there were more hours in the day so I can play more games. The 12's take a little while to load and so I cannot have the same volume as before doing the same schedule.

Random other things:
I have like most good players get abused in the chat box but here are some that I will always remember and cherish for as long as I play poker:

1) You f'ing donkey I am going to look at your stats.. a little while later he comes back with.. Are you f'ing kidding me how do you have such good stats playing like a moron

2) (could be number 1) I hate you ketan - this is where I kept the short stack a live and the proceeded to abuse the other stacks

3) How the f**k do you get AA? - this is after I have shoved 5 consecutive hands

Finally (sorry for the long post but had a lot on my mind):
It was my intention to appoint Nick as my new god instead of Lord Krishna and Ganesh but unfortunately he did not manage the feat of getting Daniel Negreanu to meet me in London as he is here this week. Nick I know you read this and probably wetting yourself but you were so close. Maybe if I earn more than $50k then it may be back on the cards.

I leave you with this great track WTFisGRIMACE sent me and cannot get it out of my head:

Shipped a $12 KO Tourney

2010-03-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

I will make this a short (brag?) entry. Unlike having to wait 186 games to ship my first $6 tourney, I managed to accomplish shipping a $12 in just 18 games. All I can hope is that this is the start of a very bright future.

Need only 104 games to achieve the minimum 500 that I set myself each month and should achieve that even though I am busy most of the week with social events that I must attend. I miss playing everyday but life must go on otherwise I will end up single having to do EVERYTHING which is definitely -EV.

Adios Amigos and see you at the tables!!!

Not 100%

2010-03-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was the last time I played a single tourney and I was itching to get back to the games. Had a work do on Thursday night then a stag do over the weekend. All I could think about on my 4 hour journey home was to play poker... have I got the poker bug.. yeah I do!

I had the usual 12 tables going and noticed that my concentration levels were not at the highest. There are a number of reasons, too much alcohol, not enough sleep, not eating correctly and to add to all of those I am coming down with the flu. I already know without reviewing that I was not on my A, B, or even C game and had times where I was timing out. It was a bad sign so I chose no to reload any games once I was knocked out. There is no point donating money to the fishes, I am here to make money not give it away!

Tomorrow will be different expect myself to be rested and ready to crush!

Exciting Times

2010-03-16T14:57:00.001-07:00

The title of my blog can mean a lot of things to different people. As a Project Manager, exciting times generally means that the project is about to go live. I had two such successes at the tail end of last year both of which were high profile in the company I work for. Considering I was only a project manager for less then 6 months just proves that I will get the job done... and SUCCESSFULLY.

The reason for the excitement today is that I was told I can move up stakes. Yes, from now on I will be focusing mainly on the $6 KO tourneys with a mix of the $12's when they load. I can say that the $3 games were good to me and that the regs playing them will be happy to see the back of me. The regs at the $6 got to know a little about me but they had better watch out cause I will be mixing it up with them more regularly and crushing their souls. As for the $12 regs - enjoy them while you can... your time will come... it's not a matter of if but a matter of when!!!

As for one of my yearly goals, I stated I wanted to be playing the $12s and expected to get there round the June/July mark. It's unbelievable to me when I started this journey that this could be achieved only 5 months into the training. Once again thanks to Nick and Bodeye for all their help in moulding me into the payer I am and know there is a lot to learn - I will try to work as hard as possible and repay you for you time and effort.

Let the next level of crushing begin!!!

Tilting Situations

2010-03-15T03:01:00.001-07:00

Saturday, I had to go out for dinner with the family for Mother's day. Now mother's day was on Sunday but my brother could not make it on Sunday for some reason. I was not too happy about the situation as I had intended to play a lot more games. After putting in a few games I stopped at around 3am thinking the Pacquiao fight would be on... I am a fish and the fight did not start til 5am (UK time) sigh.

On Sunday, I was leveling Bodeye2 about our gym bet, offering to waive the bet this week as we both needed to attend on Sunday. He stated that he was popping out for a bit and then let me know his decision on his return. Even before speaking to him, I had the gym stuff ready and looked up the bus time table. On his return he stated that he would be going later on but unfortunately for him I was about to leave for the gym and I was free rolling to winning our bet!!!!

With St Patricks day on Wednesday adn the fact I am away from Friday to Sunday, there was a little sense of panic in me that I would not make the minimum 500 game quota for the month. This prompted me in playing around 40-45 games making a total of somewhere round the 310 mark.

There was one situation that came up and could tilt many people. The situation... $6 KO tourney 14 people remaining with blinds at 500/1K with some ante (125-150??) and we are seven handed. UTG+1 min raises (1/3 of his stack) having started with 12K, this was very strange as he was shoving before. The SB had a stack of 40k at one point but donked it off and was now down to 22k. I was on the button with 14K and looked down at KK, I decided to call hoping the aggro SB shoves over knowing he would turn up with a worse hand 99% of the time. The SB shoves his whole stack, UTG+1 insta calls and I am hammering my call button. SB JJ, UTG+1 QQ, me with KK and ~41K in the pot. The flop was a complete blank, the turn J and I could not improve on the river. Aggro donk gets there, FTP pops up the message you have finished 12th, would you like to register for another tourney, with no emotional torment I click yes and we start over!

These type of situations happen from time to time and dealing with them is a major part of being a poker player. The lesson you need to take away from this is: if you play more then you are likely to see this happen more! That is fact. Think of it that this situation happens 1 out of 100, if you play 1000 games that means you will see this approximately 10 times. If you are tilted then you other games will be drastically affected and therefore lose yourself more money.

I just imagine people like the kid in the video below when a bad beat happens!!!

50% Complete

2010-03-12T16:36:00.000-08:00

I set myself a minimum target each month of 500 games of which I am currently 50% completed. My long work schedule does not allow me to play a large number of tables during the week but try to play at least 4-5 sessions in a week. The bulk of my games played is generally over the weekend especially Friday nights if I am not out with the lads or girlfriend.

Also, I started to clear my FTP bonus and am currently 50% of that cleared. I love the bonus as it's free money and makes me want to play just that little bit more. One of my favourite sayings at Uni was "Cheap is good but FREE is even better". Yes I was a pikey student and wish I had poker to pay my way through it.

Today was interesting in that I made 7 final tables out of the 31 games I played. However, what was interesting was that I did not win a single one. Not only did I not win one, I was never even close. My highest finish today was 4th. There were no obvious spots that I missed but it was just one of those days that lady luck did not shine on me in those all in battles.

So far this month has been great (touch wood) and look to carry my momentum forward for the rest of the month. By the end of Sunday, I hope to have played another 70 or so games.

In other news, I woke up at 6am UK time in order to watch a Nick "MI_Turtle" Rainey review session. Yes, I am crazy but that is the time I normally wake up for the gym so it was not too much of an inconvenience. Also, I am DEDICATED to stop being a FISH!

Just a little reminder to those who read this blog, there are still a few places left in Nick's session so visit his blog and sign up for the opportunity of a life time.

First Week of March Summary

2010-03-08T15:47:00.000-08:00

In the first week and a bit of March complete, I have managed to play 6 days straight playing 176 games in that period. The stats do not lie but I am currently sitting on what looks to be a heater. I am enjoy playing and trying my best to concentrate for the full time I am playing. When I concentrate those rare spots to accumulate chips present themselves more clearly and I see mistakes that the other fishes are making. I am not worried to much about the results and happy to be playing well. I know there are a few mistakes that need ironing out but that will come over time.

I have to mention as a reminder that there is a Opportunity of a Life time that Nick "MI_Turtle" Rainey is offering. Visit his blog at www.rainmanpoker.net and my previous post for more details.

Last and finally because I wanted to make this post as short as possible. I am steadily clearing my Full Tilt bonus but what is an even sweeter bonus is Coach Bodeye2 shipped me $30 for failing his gym challenge two days 94290 and then not meeting the criteria of our prop bet ($10). I LOVE THE GYM and the donations!

Group lesson with the other Bodeye2 students. Always enjoy these sessions and have not once not come away without a new thought, idea or solution to a particular leak of min/others.

Must Remain Focused

2010-03-06T14:58:00.000-08:00

Played my longest session on Friday starting 8pm to 5:30am. I think it was definitely the best session in terms or results but more impressive was that I constantly 12 tabled and did not timeout once in the entire session. You could say I was in the zone and that the results reflected this!

Whilst playing my session tonight, I felt as though my focus was not a very high level, I managed to timeout and made some poor decisions. It was this reason that I decided to cut the session short. If I am not focused then I am just like the other fish and donating my money to the sharks. It's similar to what Nick once said, you might as well get a wad of 100's and lighting it with a match!

I did manage to build two 20k plus stacks within the first 2 levels and managed to bubble BOTH! AAAADRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!! Once the stacks were built I did not have many playable hands. I know you do not need decent hands, you just have to play the situations you are in. Anything I did resulted me in losing chips. It was unreal and will have to review them to see where I might have gone wrong. Pretty damn frustrating... all I can say thank god its over and done with.

The bad news for you fish is I will be back tomorrow with a vengeance!!!

Oppotunity of a Life Time

2010-03-05T20:39:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard a man called Nick Rainey a.k.a MI_Turtle? If not then you need to stop reading this blog, open up a new IE/Firefox window/tab, type in Sharkscope or OPR and do a search for MI_Turtle on Pokerstars.

I hope that you took a little time looking at the stats The Rainman puts up cosistenly on a monthly basis. You can see that MI_Turtle is for real. The Rainman is a MTT/SnG grinder playing a mix of 180 man tourneys with MTTs. You can search for him on Pokerstars and witness the magic of MI_Turtle.

Now if you like watching people play poker... how about watching someone whilst they breakdown each and individual play one by one? How about watching someone whilst they breakdown each and individual play one by one and then getting an opportunity to ask questions? How about watching someone whilst they breakdown each and individual play one by one and then getting an opportunity to ask questions and having them answered? Interested?

Well Nick "MI_Turtle" Rainey is giving everyone an opportunity of a life time by holding a Webinar to display his SnG Coaching skills on March 13th at 1:00 pm Pacific time. The 75 minute session will show you an interactive Pokerstars 180 man tourney review where you will learn the secrets of MTT/SNG’s and improve all parts of your game, from the early stages to final table strategy.

The money and time you spend watching Nick's Webinar on March 13th will be the single most greatest investment you make! I can honestly say that you will reap the rewards as I have.

If you want to see little more proof that Nick is for real deal then do a few searches on the following people who have now become coaches: Bodeye2, NessyB, SluttySara69 on FTP and JohnnyHilldo on Stars. While you are at it check my blog entry 3 months complete to give you some idea of where I was and am today thanks to Nick Rainey and his coaching staff.

If you do not take advantage of this great offer then you have effectively decided to remain a fish... I do not mind as if you see me on the tables I will be the one relieving you of your hard earned cash.

Visit Nick "MI_Turtle" Rainey's blog at wwww.rainmapoker.net and read "Discover the Secret to crushing MTT/SNG’s" for sign up instructions.

Got a monkey off my back!!

2010-03-04T15:41:00.000-08:00

After playing 186 $6 KO tourneys, I finally won one!!! It was so sweet a victory that I allowed myself a quick fist pump before settling down to the other 11 tables that were open. Hopefully this is the start of things to come.

Played another 31 games today and had some good results in amongst them. I was fully concentrated on every decision and did not manage to time out until my NEW wireless mouse decided to die for some unexpected reason! From now on it will remain in the charger when not in use.

The new PT3 (Beta version) now calculates the bounties you have earned so the stats are a little more accurate. However, there is just one little issue that I noticed

Scenario of a $6 KO:
PLayer 1 - ALL in 10BB with AK
PLayer 2 - ALL in 10BB with AK
PLayer 3 - ALL in 8BB with AJ

Player 1 and Player 2 win splitting the $1 bounty. However PT3 thinks that you have the entire bounty so this is incorrectly shown in the results. The only reason I mention this is because of those stats geeks may want to update their results after the session.

Tomorrow is Friday and I hope to play a minimum of 100 games before going to bed and repeat again on Saturday.

New Gadget

2010-03-03T15:56:00.000-08:00

Today, I received my new gadget that I ordered more than a week ago. I refused to pay the extra delivery because it was like the rake in poker and I was not part of a rakeback scheme. In all honestly, the express charge was at least 20% of the actual cost of my goods. Enough of the babbling, I basically bought a Logitec diNovo Media Desktop Laser set for the PC. It has an ultra slim line keyboard, wireless mouse and a detached number pad! Poker has just got a little more easier if I do say so.

It was my first session of the month and as first sessions go it turned out to be okay. Only squeezed in around 25 games but felt I was playing well and got unlucky in some crucial spots. I have not spoken to coaches about goal setting but will stick to the minimum 500 games this month. My intention is to hopefully blend a higher percentage of the $6 games in the mix then previously.

Unfortunately, I have a bunch of social activities that will affect my poker playing schedule this month and that is why I intend on playing between 150-200 games this weekend starting with 100 this Friday! This will put me in good stead to achieve the minimum 500 as one weekend I am completely away for a Stag Party, and another weekend I am away at some relations.

When I joined the Rainman program I promised that I would play as much as possible and so if I need to reduce the number of ours of sleep this weekend then so be it. To succeed in this game, you need to understand you know sh*t about poker, take instruction well and more importantly put in as much volume as you possibly can.

Need to go to bed so I can wake up 6 hours later for the gym! Bodeye2 this is visit number 3 this week - pressure is on!

February Ends

2010-02-28T15:28:00.001-08:00

February is finally over for me and I did hit my goal of playing 500+ games. It's good to have goals that push you and with the shorter month it was a push to get the games in. I was motoring at the start of the month and felt on course to make a large amount of money, however, variance kicked in and claimed back all that I had won. See PT3 graph:

It was mentally tough during the downswing but just have to remain focused and play through it. There is no avoiding variance and the best way to overcome it is to actually play MORE rather then not.

It was definitely running bad in the $6 games that hurt me the most and at the end of the month dropping approximate 35 buyins. If I had stuck to just the $3 games, I would have continued to crush it. Also this month I achieved the Bronze Ironman status for the second month running.

Gym Prop Bet

2010-02-26T14:44:00.001-08:00

In a bid to get my arse to the gym, I felt some extra motivation was needed. After reading Bodeye's blog and his gym challenge I couldn't think of anyone better to ask.

The bet
We must both attend the gym 3 times a week otherwise you ship $10 to the other guy

Some Rules
- If neither make it twice then it's a push
- A week is Monday through to Sunday
- If for some reason you cannot go 3 times (eg on holiday) you must inform the other no later than Sunday before the Monday of the week
- If a person is ill during the week then you must inform the other as soon as possible
- You cannot miss two weeks in a row
- This bet will continue on a weekly basis until either person decides to quit

Now I have a cunning plan, my intention is to ensure I go 3 times between Monday and Friday as to put pressure on Bodeye each week as his intentions are to go Wednesday, Friday and either Saturday or Sunday. So by the time he completes one I should have completed 3 visits. As he lives in Sweden and I live in the UK we cannot exactly check up on eachother so this bet is based on goo faith. Also I am already up from last week!!!

In terms of poker, I ballsed up thinking that I would complete the bronze Ironman status by playing today and Sunday. It looks like I have to play on Saturday but I am out all day... oops. So I have now decided to go to bed early so I can wake up at 5am UK time in order to get the necessary games in before heading out for the day.

Currently 3 short from the coveted 500 mark so should achieve that on Saturday morning.

My HUD Not Working

2010-02-25T15:11:00.000-08:00

My HUD has not been working since Saturday when my pc decided to install a bunch of windows updates. Now I do not know if this is the cause but I suspect it is. iI need help to get it back because i feel like I am playing blind. There are some crucial stats that I used to make more informed decisions..

I am close to the 500 mark and will probably achieve that in tomorrows session. This month has been tough mentally and the end of month graph will show why. I am just plugging away putting in as much volume as possible. I know the game it there and improving but just need to win my share of coin flips.

On a positive note, I did get abused twice today which always pleases me. I had my longest HU battle and came up on top. It lasted at least 30-40 hands as we were fairly deep which is unusual at these games. Also, he was a reg and we had a back and forth match, in the end it was an coin flip where I was favorite to take it down. Before reaching heads up, I managed to KO the 4th place finisher with 94o against their 99, followed by A3 > AK.

Going to see how to fix this HUD on the PokerVT forums to start and then branch out. So until next time... please denote yout money to ketan7581 on FTP.

3 Months Complete

2010-02-21T16:06:00.000-08:00

Today is exactly 3 months since starting the Rainman training programme. This was undoubted the best poker decision I have made and is definitely +ev. I would like to thank MI_Turtle (Nick Rainey) for allowing me to be part of this amazing adventure, secondly to SluttySara69 and Bodeye who have guided me on a day to day basis.

I have made more money in poker these last 3 months then I made the whole of last year. The months have not be plain sailing and there were periods where things were not going right for me. I was always encouraged and told not to worry about the money but to focus on making the best decisions possible.

Other important lessons such as remaining emotionless whether you win or lose, get sucked out on for big pots or win big pots. Also, to try remaining still at all times whilst playing... at one stage my girlfriend thought I fell asleep whilst playing... only to hear beep beep followed by click!

My Full Tilt Poker graph (entire history) from Sharkscope:

As you can see there was an initial dip (where the A is) as I started to learn the various pointers that I was getting. Then it is all uphill with the odd dips to remind me that it’s all about long term results and that I still have a lot to learn. In general, I am not setting the poker world alight but people just need to be aware that I am always improving thanks to the Rainman training scheme. If you wonder if the system is worth it then just look at the graph and think that there are some students in the scheme who are crushing it at least twice as much if not more.

Just to let you know that as I mentioned in my last post: "I did eat variance and shit $$"

Today was a good day! LOL

Funny Story

2010-02-19T17:48:00.000-08:00

Started the session in high spirits having watched a Spacegravy video on PVT, reviewed about 20 HH and winning a £3 10 man SnG on Victory Poker. My spirit was definately tested during the session, here is a classic example:

Table 1 - dealt KK
Table 2 - dealt KK
Table 3 - dealt QQ

Within seconds (I estimate 4 seconds) I was crippled in all 3 tables!

Table 1 - KK < AA
Table 2 - KK < AA
Table 3 - QQ < AK

Now the funniest is 3 minutes later I managed to double up a short stack twice in 2 consecutive hands, AJs < 33 and AKo < AQo. Having doubled him up twice h now has more chips then me!!! At the time I was definitely not laughing but never lost emotional control during the session. In fact I plan to have a cold beer after writing this whilst watching Lost.

With 3 tables remaining, I hope to make all 3 final tables and win them... hold on I must have been asleep dreaming. If only I could do what Vertek said in his blog: "I will eat variance and shit $$."

Will definately give that a go next session!!

Two Sick Sick Hands

2010-02-17T15:32:00.000-08:00

I played a session today the standard weekday 25 or so games. Came out of the session a loser for the 5th session out of the last 6. Yes, its a bad spell and I am working my way through it!

The main reason for this blog is that I had to sick hands both for different reasons.

Hand 1:

This was all in preflop! I could not believe what I was seeing and then a sudden sickly feeling hit me... how are the poker gods going to make me lose this one!!!! Thank the heavens I held for once but could not complete the win coming in 5th.

The second hand was on the FT:

The UTG+1 insta shoved and the UTG+2 insta shoved over and then it folds to me! These two have been playing fairly aggressive but thought that one of them should have a monster and folded. If I had called I would have been up against AKo and QQ in that order.

So managed a few final tables but just not getting the top 3 places but more importantly not winning hence the losing sessions. I write this as a note to myself and others... stay focused, play the best you can and the results will come through the volume of games.

Valentines Day is Over!!!

2010-02-15T00:40:00.000-08:00

In my previous blog entry I entilted it "Early Valentines Dinner" without explaing what the hell that meant. In the last few years the girlfriend and I tend to go out before or after the day, one because I am cheap (not really) but I hate the fact that on Valentines day you must order off the set menu. I mean WTF if I don't like anything on the set menu and secondly its that same S**T that you server on normal days but 2x more expensive.

On Friday, we went to our favourite Chinese restaurnat and it never ever disappoints. The same old waiters have been there for years and years. Great food and great service. The place is always jammed pack and it wise to book up early.

Saturday was a day for the 6 Nations Rugby. Wales V Scotland and the big one France v Ireland. Wales rode their luck and won the game needing 10 points with 10 minutes to go. In rugby terms it is had to achive such a feat but they managed to score 17 which was more impressive. I was then supporting Ireland partly due to the fact I was out with 7 Irish lads but we all hate the French too. Ireland go destroyed by the tourney favourites and the day ended in disappointment. The only upside was the beers flowed from 2pm til 1am and it was definately a struggle to wake up.

On Sunday, I woke up fresh as never before especially having consumed a large number of Guiness'. After a spot of breakfast and some food shopping I actually managed time to do some poker related activities. First step was to do a review before the England v Italy rugby game. After the match I reviewed some more for another 30 minutes to re-engage the poker brain and we were off.

Even though I spent 2 whole days with the girlfriend it was a constant reminder that Sunday was indeed Valentines day so only got a small session in. OMG there were a bunch of donkeys playing but it was the day for the donkeys! This week I intend to kick it up a gear and play more... I feel like I have dropped the ball and let everyone surpass me this weekend! Watch out.. I am hungry for $$$!

Early Valentines Dinner

2010-02-11T14:57:00.000-08:00

Before starting the session I reviewed a lot of the games I played yesterday to see if i made many mistakes. On the whole I felt that there were a few spots where I was lots and had to pay off the river even though it cost me my tournament life. It is hard to fold full houses and sets on uncoordinated boards but hey ho life goes on.

Today I played another bunch of games and was really focused. I have never been more focused then this before. My girlfriend even shouted at me for not listening.. listen to what? All i hear is beep beep meaning it's my go to make the best decision possible. Probably the fact that I spent an hour or more on reviewing my HH from last night may have helped. Will try to incorporate this before every session.

Reminder to oneself: Always listen to Nick "MI_Turtle" Rainey - he knows best

In today's session there were 4 separate occasions where I felt I made the decision possible. The only reason I know this is that on all 4 occasions I was berated in the chat box:
1) fuklukr (repeated about 4 times)
2) fuuuking donkey
3) Piece of S**t
4) why push retard?!

Now these name calling really upset me... NOT. In fact sucking out on them and then knocking them out the very next hand is special. i love getting abused it make poker just that more fun. if i am not insulted in a session I tend to lose sleep wondering did i play correctly! Focus was definitely the key.

Ran a little better today but having read JonnyHilldo's (another MI_Turtle coach) blog, I am not going to mention running good or bad until i reflect on the results at the end of the month. Total of 244 games played so far; nearly 50% of the 500 target so definitely on track to complete this goal and hopefully play more.

Its midnight and I am up in 6 hours to go to the gym before the day job!

Another Bad day in the Office

2010-02-10T13:52:00.000-08:00

The only good thing today was that I attended the gym. Had a personal trainer for today and he always pushes me to breaking point... I love it after but not during! I think that getting fitter will only help improve my poker and help me play longer hours.

Today at the real job, it was was boring as hell and nearly fell asleep at my desk. If I did fall asleep then i know the dream would have been about playing poker. I think the poker bug has hit me had since training with Nick and Boedye.

So in the poker today, I lost another $100 in 25 or so games. The PT3 graph looks a like bad but its only the 2nd day losing and still up massively overall. I have been on worse ones since starting my training so I am not overly worried. The moves I am making the right ones and it's a case of waiting for this small variance streak to go away! You know its not yuour day when you are all in against 3 players with KK and up against AK, AJ, A3 and the A hits the flop... You have got to laugh! Or flopping a full house for a guy to hit quads on the river in a hand he should never be in.

Yesterday, a fellow member showed me a link from youtube on how to play JJ. After watching it, I think I got cursed as I lost with JJ at least 3 times that I can remember. Oh well nevermind but for a really good laugh check out the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP9CBtSW0kA

Going to do a review now of the games I played today to ensure I DID in fact play well and not like a donk!!!

Hoping to crush it tomorrow!

Bad Monday

2010-02-08T14:43:00.000-08:00

Well, I normally play 5-a-side football on Mondays so do not get to play poker. Today was an exception where I essentially could not make it so decided to play a few games. With good results from this weekend my spirits were up and felt that I was going to keep the good run going.

Unfortunately, that was not the case and dropped $70 (mix of $3/$6) in the process of 23 games. The difference today from the other days was simple:
1) People decide to trap me with hands like ATo, 33 and 66 even 8h7h (then complained I hit with my 5s6s - lol)
2) Did not run well in the all ins being favorite or not
3) It was simple the day for the fish

I am not bothered or frustrated and its good to keep playing. At the moment the day job is slow and boring. All I want to do is play poker and think constantly about it when I have minute to breathe. The only thing that I was upset about after the session was the fact no berated or abused me for playing like a donkey. That kind of BS is what I live for and am going to try best to keep a record of the funniest insults I receive! For the abuser(s), I am not allowed to respond by writing in the chat box but please know that I find that s**t hilarious!

Currently completed 194 games approximately 2/5 of the way to making 500 games. My intention is to play more so hope to put in a few long session this week. Its been 10 weeks since training with MI_Turtle training scheme and will post a graph showing my results since I started.

60 Game Session

2010-02-05T18:57:00.000-08:00

I think this is the longest continuing session I had. It all started of well getting to two FT with a big stack but unfortunately could not take either down finishing 2nd and 3rd. After that it was all down hill. At one point I was down 45 buyins but I was proud that I never tilted once nor got frustrated. I continued with the winning formula that has helped me to build my bankroll so far. In the end patience and good play earned me a win, 4th and 5th place finishes to end the day with a 7 buyin loss for the day.

The following hand made my day!!!

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 3.3 Tournament, 1000/2000 Blinds 250 Ante (5 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t10130)
SB (t27642)
BB (t46010)
UTG (t9930)
Hero (MP) (t46262)

Hero's M: 10.89

Preflop: Hero is MP with Q, 10
1 fold, Hero bets t4175, 2 folds, BB calls t2175

Flop: (t10600) 2, 5, J (2 players)
BB bets t4000, Hero calls t4000

Turn: (t18600) 8 (2 players)
BB bets t4000, Hero calls t4000

River: (t26600) 9 (2 players)
BB bets t33585 (All-In), Hero calls t33585

Total pot: t93770

Villian had AcQs!! - unlucky son!!!

The villain was a very aggressive player and expected him to bet the river hence why I called both flop and turn bets. When the 4th club hits the board i am initially disgusted that he got there and shoved. It took me 3-4 seconds to realize I made a straight flush and called. Now it was not my intention to slow roll the guy but I had to make sure. Thanks for the chips though (finished 3rd)!!!

Progress to date is that I have completed 125 games from the 500 minimum that was set by MI_Turtle. I will play a bunch more during the weekend before the Superbowl.

I'm gonna eat you little fishes!!!

Group Coaching

2010-02-04T03:20:00.000-08:00

I had a group coaching session with my day-to-day coach Bodeye2 on Tuesday night. He is a good down to earth person and very talented guy from which I hope to learn as much as possible from. MI_turtle says he will be a phenom in the poker world and after a few coaching session I tend to agree.

This week we reviewed my HH as the guy we were supposed to review was unavailable! Going over the HH, it showed that I have vastly improved. To hear from someone else that I played well is great encouragement. I picked up one thing in particular that I put into practice in last nights session and it worked a charm. There were a few things that I also picked up in my group session with MI_turtle which also helped.

Yesterday was a hectic day for me, I was up at 5:45am to attend the gym for 6:30 completing an 1.5 hour workout. Go to my normal day job for 8:15, travel into the city for a supplier visit, rush home for 6pm, have some dinner, go to a friends pub to serve drinks for 2 hours (to cover a staff meeting) from 7pm til 9pm, watch the 2nd half of Leeds v Spurs, review a HH before the grind. Finish at 1:30am, wake up at 7am for work today!!! Summarised as HECTIC!!!

I have two challenges this month:

1) MI_Turtle has told me that I need to complete at least 500 games. Normally I would not have a problem with this but as it's a shorter month and have a number of social events planned it's going to be tough. MI_Turtle... I will not FAIL!!

2) Within the Bodeye2 camp, we are going to have an internal team challenge where by the winner will get $300 shipped to their account. The parameters of the challenge is that the student that has the best score from the following equation will win: No Games * Ave Buy In * Total Profit. Based on last months results I will not have come even close to winning. This challenge has added to my desire to play/imporve more and I hope to take down my fellow team members.

In last nights session, I had completed 22 games and it was not as smooth sailing as I hoped. It all started off with a number of bad beats being inflicted on me and had a thought that this would not be my day. I remained as focus as ever and made the best possible decision I could in the hands in front. It was not until after the session that I realised that I had a 150% ROI for the day according to PT3 (not including KO bounties). After a quick scan of the results, I managed to bubble on a table where I had the guy dominated but my dreams of a hugh chip stack going into the FT where crushed on the turn.

Going to play tonight... if you do have some spare cash then please look me and my fellow students up and leave it with us we know what to do with it.

January End

2010-01-31T14:19:00.000-08:00

Played in the WBCOOP ME today and was settling nicely with the confidence of yesterday's performance. The game yesterday gave me some encouragement that I am learning the game and improving. A few months back I do not think that I would have been able to go are far as I did. I finished a lowly 1318 out of 2062. There was a fish on my right that was playing 88/10 over 50 hands and had a 14K stack when the average was still 3K. I decided to try and isolate him most hands or limp behind in multi way pots, wining a large percentage of my chips against him. In the end the fish busted me drawing slim on the river! Oh well gg.

In terms of monthly summary, I did not get any more games in since a previous post but see the graph below:

Although I put in 500+ games, my intention is to play more if possible but since it's Feb and there are less days in the month it will be a tough task. Aim high and you may just reach it! Watch this space.

Personal goals wise, I did go to the gym twice a week but not the 3/4 as planned and so will try to improve on that. Really starting too see the change by going to the gym regularly als starting to feel less tired during the day as my body gets used to the early mornings and late nights.

Good luck at the tables!

WBCOOP Event 6 Result

2010-01-30T19:23:00.000-08:00

This is just a quick one to say that I did not win. I came in 3rd and earned a $215 SCOOP ticket. The total field size was 1939 and to finish so high up is a big accomplishment for me.

Along the way I had my coach on the same tabled and got an in-depth look into a genius at work. He not only abuse the rest of the table, I was also not spared. There was a hand early on when I was dealt AA in the BB, Coach raised it just over min as we are taught, I 3 Bet and he folded. Now I am not entirely sure whether it was an error since I know that he is raising loads of hands, he knows I know this, therefore smooth call from me would start alarm bells in his head, by re-raising he is going to fold all the rubbish hands so what do I do? Will speak to him about it.

The best part of the night was actually crippling him to 2-3BB. I raised UTG (just over min raise) with AsKs, table chip lead re-raises 3x my raise, coach shoves! Now if this was any other play I would have had to hesitate really think if my AK was good but knowing coach it was an easy call, table chip lead tanks a little while and folds (stating he had 99 and was insta calling coach)! Coach turns up with Td8d and in Dale Roxxu's live stream says here's the flush coming... unfortunately for him he doesn't get there and I am on my way.

It will be pretty interesting reviewing the HH but will need one of the coaches to assist to see if I was playing too nitty, loose, or donkishly. On a final note, not sure what to do with 2 SCOOP tickets, may look to sell if possible.

Good luck at the tables!

WBCOOP Results

2010-01-30T09:44:00.001-08:00

I have participated in these WBCOOP events this month and proceeded to spew off all my chips. There always seems to be one aggro donk who thinks shipping 100BB every hands to pick up the blinds from the people sitting out is a good strategy. I unfortunately, lost patience a few times and called with questionable hands and did not get there. Also got unlucky in some spots but nad neat stories are never good to tell.

Results so far...

WBCOOP Event #1 - Finished 1532/1634

WBCOOP Event #2 - Finished 1152/4913

WBCOOP Event #3 - Finished 1747/1843

WBCOOP Event #4 - Finished 1520/1876

WBCOOP Event #5 - Finished 144/1536 earning a $11 SCOOP ticket

Tonight is the 6th Prelim event followed my the ME tomorrow. Hopefully I can pick something up but who knows. To get far in these type of events you need skill as well as luck.

In terms of my grinding, I will have achieved the Bronze Iron Man status for January and looking to retain or improve that over the coming months. To accomplish the lowest level you need to gain 50 FTPs for 20 days but visit the site for more information.

The games this month have been up and down like I have mentioned in previous posts but had probably my best session of the month last night. Only got in 29 games as I had a group session with the coach.

Summary with 2 days to go:
$3 Games played: 414 @ 19.73% ROI (excluding KO bonus)
$6 Games played: 95 @ -5.63% ROI (excluding KO bonus)
Total Summary: 509 @ 11.84% ROI

As you can see not doing so well in the $6 games but not sure why. The standards are exactly the same and the bubble is slightly tighter which plays into my hands. Could be the case of just running bad but will not know until after a review session.

Good luck at the tables!

Made 5 Final Tables

2010-01-21T16:08:00.000-08:00

Today I managed to make 5 final tables from the 21 played today. Normally, I would be happy knowing that by making 5 I will come out with a winning session. Alas that was not to be the case, I somehow ended up finishing 5th x2, 7th x2 and 8th. In general, I do not like to talk about bad beats and so do not want to type them either. Let’s just say when all the money goes in whether behind or in front the outcome was the same... NOT POSITIVE!

To run bad only final tables is probably worse than not making the money at all. You spend at least 1.5 hours to get there sometimes as CL but mostly in the pack and not to make it to heads up is disappointing. Overall, i played solidly and should have been rewarded a little better financially. I am running at an all time low of 9% for the month over 444 games.
Good luck at the tables!

Poker After Dark

2010-01-17T16:05:00.001-08:00

I watched Poker after Dark (Nicknames Week) and was in tears. In fact they were tears from laughter... If you are cleaver and seen the episode then you can read the next extract otherwise skip over.

Oh my god Phil Helmuth I am not an 11 times bracelet winner but everyone knows that in tourney poker that getting anted off is the ultimate NO NO. To be honest, I love watching him play, the rants and blow ups are great entertainment and I think he actually does it for the cameras probably in his PAD contract. The last two episodes were just hilarious with Antonio and Laak just taking the piss out of Helmuth

Well in terms of poker my PT3 graph has more peaks and dips that the Alps. It's up then down then up and then down and up and down... you get the picture. To be honest, I have been a little frustrated that I cannot maintain the upwards momentum for a sustained period but that is just poker and variance. I also think that since I am in the process of learning more and more about the game the adjustments being made are costing me. With anything you learn or so I have found there is always a little dip before things improve. It is just key not to get discouraged; I will be a winning player (getting there) in the long run so these daily short term fluctuations should not matter. There are so many fishes that it's only a matter of time before I am crushing every session. I am working hard every time I play with my concentration up as close to 100% every time.

In terms of emotional training, I have greatly improved and did not have a single outburst of joy or frustration which is great. I am trying my best to be as emotionless as possible but I have to take it day by day session by session. I will have another day off from poker and then back to the grind on Tuesday. Monday is my 5-a-side football night which I have been doing for the last 10 or so years. It's great to get out and do something different to poker. Also, decided to add a few more life goals to achieve:

1) Attend the gym 3/4 times a week
2) Eat more healthy in terms of a daily meal schedule
3) Help the girlfriend around the flat a little more

Poker is very important to me in that i want to make it my main source of income onday or allow me the freedom to work less hours or even get luxury items that I would not buy normally. However, I had a small argument/heart-to-heart with the girlfriend and she expressed that I have become slightly obsessed. I need to pay a little more attention to her and the household stuff. Online poker is always there and will not go away. She is willing to support me in terms of my poker aspirations but told me not to control our lives which is totally true.
Good luck at the tables!

Emotionless

2010-01-14T16:08:00.000-08:00

I mentioned about my coaching in an earlier blog and to say that it's the best decision ever is an understatement. The bonus of the system I am in is that I have a head coach and an assistant coach. I work mainly with the assistant coach as he works with me on a day to day basis but still get advice from the head coach and review sessions with him individually or as a group of students.

To cut the rambling short, head coach sent out an email a few days ago stating the objective is to be robot like. He said that I should play emotionless whether I got a bad beat, put one on someone else or just ran good. Also to minimize all distractions and movement of the body. So taking that into account the last two sessions I have failed in the motionless aspect as I cannot sit in a chair for hours without moving... it is just impossible I tell ya. However, I have had my emotions in check the last two sessions so much so my girlfriend has not heard me once in the last two days. I unfortunately managed to see someone suckout on me AK vs. my KK and an A on the river for $40k with 20 people left which made me say something. Other than that I have tried my utmost to react to nothing that happens and stay focused.

I ran pretty well yesterday and managed to take one table down after finishing 9th, 4th and 3rd of which the last two were in the $6 KO rather than the $3. The one where I was 4th had 4 regs so it was a shove fest and whoever ran good was going to win. I think everyone had a short stack or the chip lead at some point... it was crazy to see and be part of it. Today's action was a grind and did not run as well, only making 2 FT finishing a poorly 5th and 9th although I am happy with how I played. It was brutal to finish two games in 11th and 10th but it is always my aim to have a bigger then average stack at the FT. So if that means me pushing (if it's the correct play) then I will do it bubble or no bubble... it's the way I roll... also the fact Head coach will KILL ME if I didn't!!

Today is Friday and I am going to play a long session. I prefer the longer sessions then the short ones I have on the weekdays, makes me feel like I am a poker grinder to a small extent. So all the little fishes that read this... please pay the $3/6 KO tourneys and hand me over your money.

I suppose a quick summary of the month since I am halfway through:
Games played: 312
ROI (excluding KO bonus): 9.11% (definitely below expectation)

Good luck at the tables!

An Honest Reflection

2010-01-11T14:58:00.001-08:00

I said that in my last post I was going to beat variance. Well, I had a great day putting in around 60 games and a very good ROI to show. However, it’s been a brutal last 7 days (since 5th Jan except Friday) and I cannot seem to get any consistent results.

Honestly speaking I made 4 fish moves on 4 different FT finishing 9, 9, 8, 7 and these have really hurt me. I am not worried about the financial aspect but the actual plays themselves. I know how to play better then what was shown and that is the most disappointing part of all. Getting coolered is one thing but if you make a bad move like shoving AQo against a UTG 4x raise because you think you can push them off a hand holding 30BB is just f**king stupid, I know that, my opponent knows that and my 2 year old nephew knows that. I have never been so annoyed with myself that I wanted to push myself. There is no excuse, bad runs eventually lead to bad plays and I think that my current form reflects that I am in a rut and making a few questionable plays that I would normally not make.

I am taking a day off to just go over a few HH and intend on not playing a single hand. I think the break may do me a good as I am pretty down beat at the moment. When you are scared to raise with AA and KK because you think it will get cracked it is time to take a break. It is still my intention to one day make poker my main source of income so to learn how hard it can be early on is a good thing and will only make me a stronger person for it.

That’s the doom and gloom out the way but I think I have found another poker goldmine. During my lunch break today, I dabbled in a little 10c/20c limit holdem cash game on Stars. Wow, do those guys not know how to play poker. In just 133 hands I was up £3.48 (equivalent to 13BB/hour) and i know that the sample size is small but what a rush compared to my current 90 man grind. It is a limp fest down at these low limits and so people can be exploited a lot more. I will probably play this game on Stars when I cannot grind the 90 mans and post results every month. I think this game will suit my more mathematical brain and hope to step up the levels. If any one reads this and has any advice on the best way to tackle this game then please leave a comment.

Good luck at the tables.

WBCOOP

2010-01-08T04:46:00.001-08:00

Well I heard from my coach that he is entering WBCOOP. Since I have not heard about this before I would did a little research and to my amazement this is going to be the 5th year. Think this will give me a great oppotunity of practicing my MTT skills without denting the bankroll. Hopefully I can win a prize or two so I can enter the SCOOP which would be another first!!

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 330353

Today is the day I turn variance on its head. I intend to play between 50 and 60 games today if not more to end this pitiful run I am having. Looking back at a few games in the past three or so days I have missed a few spots and not taken small edges that were on offer also had a number of beats that I will not go into. Staying focused and looking forward to a solid session... stay out of my way!!!

Good luck at the tables!

January... the story so far

2010-01-06T12:15:00.000-08:00

I started the New Year off in style with quite a few beers with friends and family but finished earlier then previous years 2am rather than 7am). It came as a surprise when I woke up around 10am feeling refreshed after a quick shower and a bite to eat. Unfortunately, we had some visitors in the house and they were sleeping in the same room as the PC so poker had to wait... damn it I want a big house!!

All I wanted to do was play poker and really was anxious to start the year as I intend to carry on. I managed to get my session in eventually and ran like GOD. Managed to get to 5 FTs and they were all running at the same time. It was unbelievable and finished 1st, 3rd, 3rd, 5th and 6th for a roi of 168%!!

Since that amazing first day of the month run, I have had a mixed bag of results the last 3 days being a little tough and am going to look at the HH to investigate whether it was play bad or run bad. I suspect that it was a bit of both but either way, I am happy my game is progressing. After watching a “Devo” video on PVT I am making notes on players during the breaks on their general stats and labelling them, think this will help me to understand players tendencies. It’s pretty hard to take notes while multi-tabling so if any one has any hints/tips on this then let me know.

So far the month looks like:
Games: 124
ROI: 20.6%

I think these are solid numbers but the fact of the matter is that I definitely feel that I deserved to have a much higher ROI then currently achieving. It’s unbelievable how fishy and stupid some of these players are. Hopefully I can catch them when I run good to prove to them those AK vs 52hh won’t win you games that often you stupid big stack fish!!

Going to have a long review session using re-player and Sit n Go Wizard (two must tools) for online poker. Hopefully did not make too many fishy mistakes!

Good luck at the tables!

December - End of Month Summary

2009-12-30T12:59:00.000-08:00

This month was a roller coaster, I think looking back that I was running really really hot but that streak fizzled out in the last four sessions where I made a lost. Somehow, due to some mis calculation i did not complete the 500 games as I intended and a little gutted. Please see results below:

Games Played: 498
ROI: 26.42% (not including bounties)

With all the bounties and clearing 70% of my FTP bonus; I managed to double my initial bankroll within 6 weeks which I am very proud of. I have played double the amount of games I have done in any previous month and hope to build on that. One aim is to be able to comfortably 16 table games and still make the correct poker decisions.

I intend on playing a lot more and remain focused throughout 2010 and hope to have the best poker year in my life (although that is not so hard). For those in poker at my stakes... please stay out my way otherwise you may get crushed!! I was told by my ex coach he had high hopes for me and I do not want to let him down!

Watch this space!!!

Happy New Year All!!!

Christmas Result

2009-12-27T04:12:00.000-08:00

As per tradition, the family always plays poker on Christmas and Boxing Day (day after Christmas). We recently changed from a variation of 7 Card Stud to NLH with a restriction on maximum bet size. Everyone starts with £10 in chips with the blinds at 10/20 making it a 50BB game. Due to it being a "family" game we restrict the max bet/raise to £1 this ensures the games last for a lot of hours and no one actually loses too much money in the 4-6 hours we play each day.

In this game, I now have a massive edge, even bigger than last year as I have learnt more about poker this year. Not one person in the game has any real fundamentals so if they hold 2 cards that are suited they will open limp with that, if they have an Ace they never fold preflop, there is rarely ever a situation where someone has limped and then re-raised! Also, when the obviously flush or straight hits you can safely throw away a set or two pair without a second thought!

After the two days of play, I was £20 up basically winning £10 each night. Its small compared to the online winnings but it helps me to understand live tells in a relaxed environment. It is funny how you can pick up things that I never really paid attention to. One clear example was my brother, when he thought he had the nuts he would stack his chips and place them neatly and hard onto the table! Soon as he does that bail out unless you can draw to a hand that can beat him like me flopping a set against his AA, sorry little bro try again next time!!!

With this experience I am contemplating playing in my local game which is a tournament format with approximately 20 people each week. But since the winnings are relatively low for the hours played compared to online, I do not really see the benefits except for a change from sitting staring at the screen for hours.

I wanted to set some goals for next year as with most poker players (boring I know). I set goals as i am a goal driven person, I see what I want and bust a gut to get there, if I fail and tried my best then oh well but it feels good to achieve it all!

So goals are:

1) Achieve Iron Man status and maintain for 10 out of 12 months in a year
2) Move from the $3 KO tourneys to the $12 (a must) and possibly $24 (stretch target)
3) Feature at least once in the FTP leader board top 200
4) Play 500+ games a month for 11 months of the year
5) Make $1k in 5 out of 12 months

I will probably discuss these with my coach and a few other poker friends to see if they are realistic but that is what I want to achieve.

Good luck at the tables!

Brutal 2 Days

2009-12-22T15:01:00.000-08:00

When I started this blog I decided that it would contain all the ups and downs that I faced along my poker journey. As I settle into this new world of blogging, I hope this gets more interesting with time like a good bottle of wine (not that I drink the stuff but you know what I mean).

So the last days have been brutal in terms of variance. It reared its ugly head for the first time this month where I have only cashed 3 times in 55 games. I had a 37 game streak of no cashes which to me seems brutal but I have definitely seen worse.

When I have a downswing, I am more analytical then when the going is good. Did I make a correct shove, did I make a bad fold, should I call an All in, are there spots I can steal being missed and so on. In terms of the 30 games played the night before this session, I made 6 really fishy decisions of which 4 cost my tourney life. After the review it was clear that I could not with an All In situation if my life depended on it.

Today's, games were just as brutal if not worse, made at least 8 deep runs (finishing between 10-16) and final tabling one. I felt I played well and deserved a little bit more luck. There are a couple of spots that I am unsure whether it was right or not but will post in some forum and see what the people think.

Regarding posting on forums, I tend to post hands I win or lose as I do not care about the outcome. In most situations I want to know whether my play was good or bad, am thinking like a good player, are there things I missed in my thinking and is my thought process about the hand good, are there spots where I can improve and so on. What I really hate is when people reply with "yeah it was good" or "you idiot" without explaining why or what they are thinking. Why bother posting if you are not going to be more detailed. My footprint on forums is very small, I tend to read more and post very little. However, since playing a lot more I intend to post a bit more but still not answer posts.

Enough of the biatching, to get over variance is to play more games so that’s what I intend on doing. Keep calm and focused at all times!!!

Good luck at the tables!

PS: Should never have said I wanted to reach $1k in profits - is this variance a sign of karma???

Shooting for $1k

2009-12-21T05:05:00.000-08:00

In addition to my goal of playing at least 500 games this month, I have decided to try and make a profit of $1k. This will be uncharted territory and will be over the moon if I can achieve it!

This sounds results orientated but I do not give a flying f**k what people think. A bankroll increase of $1k in a single month is a huge achievement for a part time player like me. I will post a graph at the end of the month.

Games Played: 408
ROI: 45.44 (not including bounties)

This month has been the most enjoyable and with a little bit more luck with the All In situations I could be crushing the games even more.

I heard a good statement earlier this week and fully appreciate the sentiments it is trying to teach: "If you are always getting it in good, then you are not getting it in enough". To win any tourney you need to win your fair share of all ins. Whether you get it in bad or not you need to win those coin flips, it can be the difference of having a chance to win or falling short by bubbling or mini cashing. Every time I play, I play to win, there is no chop there is no surviving to make the money, I want to enter the FT with the chip lead so I have the best chance of winning. If that means I shove every hand on the bubble then that is what I am going to do. You can call with your AA or KK but trust me I have a habit of sucking out and you will cry when you missed the money by a fish (yes I call myself a fish) who decided to shove with 7h6h from UTG!

I tried to qualify for the Iron man this month but due to the holidays there is little or no chance of achieving that feat this month anymore. The first 5-6 sessions hurt me where I just missed out by a few points really hurt my chances, if only I played another 3-4 games each day I could have made it. The aim will be to qualify for at least Bronze level EVERY month (or maybe 10 from 12 are more realistic).

My next post will probably the end of the year unless I have something interesting to say.

Good luck at the tables!

Thinking about Poker

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

I am really enjoying my poker at the moment. My "real" job has me working ridiculous hours but it does not bother me in the slightest because I can come home and play poker. I may even be considered a weirdo because...

1) When I wake up I start thinking about poker
2) On the way to work I think about poker
3) When I am at work I am thinking about poker
4) On the way home I am thinking about poker
5) Finally getting home, eating dinner I actually get to play poker!!!

It could be because I am doing well in the games that i am playing but today was one of those days where no matter what you did the rub of the felt was not with you. Having grinded 40 games in a session and losing 2 buying is not a bad result. Especially when that was covered and then some by the knockout bounties!!

It's all good in the poker world. There are more and more situations that I am seeing from playing a lot more then I used to. So the results so far this month are:

Games Played: 239
ROI: 51.44 (not including bounties)

As i stated earlier, I would like to play 500 hundred and I seem to be on track but with Xmas coming and the parties with work getting in the way I could struggle. Also, I have made a grave mistake in that all the days i have played, I could have achieved an Iron Man award for the month of December shipping me an extra $25 dollars. If only I played about 3-4 games more on about 5 days I would be closer (somewhat annoyed with myself) but this will be a goal to obtain next year.

Good luck at the tables!

Who moved my cheese?

2009-12-06T16:41:00.000-08:00

I just completed reading a very short book called "Who moved my cheese?". This is a simple yet very insightful piece of reading and anyone who reads this book should consider reading it. The basic concept is that things change and you must find a way to deal with them and move on but I do not want to spoil it further for anyone.

One extract from the book to help you with tilt or bad beats:
The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you find new cheese

If you are a person that gets tilted by bad beats or bad players making stupid plays as I once did then you have to read "Fooled by Randomness". I can assure you that even after reading this book I still tend to get a little frustrated and annoyed but the days of me swearing at the computer screen at some idiot is long gone. This book is a must read/have for any poker or aspiring poker.

In terms of poker we are on 6 days into the month and I feel that I am playing well and making good poker decisions irrespective of the final outcome. Do not think that I am bigging myself up in any way as I know that there is still a lot to be learnt and that a downswing can happen at an point in time. My aim is to enjoy the rush of winning while it lasts.

In terms of results for the month so far:
Games Played: 101
ROI: 54.93 (not including bounties)

As I mentioned earlier, I am enjoying the good form and look forward to playing even more in the coming days. If my hands held up as often as the percentages dictate then i will be even higher but 54% ROI cannot be laughed at but for all those purist it is a small sample size and it will be less as I finish up the 600.

Another extract to describe my current run:
Savour the adventure and enjoy the new cheese!

Good luck at the tables!

December and feeling ready to roll!

2009-12-01T01:36:00.000-08:00

December has arrived and what a journey I have had to date within Poker. Only a year back was when I decided that losing was not an option anymore. I joined a great site in Poker VT and have watched nearly every video published and a lot of them twice. My understanding of the game has grown immensely (but looking back I did not know anything). I managed to turn my Full Tilt account into a profitable state recovering all the many deposits I made being a “recreational” player.

The next stage of my development is to ensure I become a “winning” player. It is my intention to advance my skills and knowledge in the game to a stage whereby I can reduce the hours of my daily job and focus entirely on poker. Having the backing of my girlfriend is of great help since without her support this adventure would be impossible for me. I do not see turning “professional” for a few more months but I can assure anyone who reads this that IT WILL happen.

My goal for December:
Play 500 $3 90 man KO tourneys

With this amount of volume in a month, I hope to see a profit and then from there grow it to a stage where I can mix in the $6 ones. Whether that will be this month I am not sure but will keep this blog updated more for me to remind me what I was thinking/feeling at the time on my poker journey.

Good luck at the tables!

It Started so well...

2009-11-22T14:27:00.000-08:00

In my mind I wanted to get lessons and training to improve my poker skills. It is my intention to become a full time poker player in the future so to do that whilst working a full time job is to get coaching. I am currently not sure whether I am allowed to say who I get training from but it has been decided that i will only play the 90 KO Tourney's on Full Tilt.

My aim is to crush and destroy the $3 ones primarily with a few $6 ones mixed in. During the week, after work I intend to play 9 tables a day and then play until I am dead on the weekends. Having the backing from the girlfriend is a bonus and so with that in mind I can focus on the task at hand.

Yesterday started off well where I managed to final table 4 at the same time again. Unfortunately, I entered 2 tables as chip leader but after a few all ins I was down and out finishing 4th, 6th and then on the other tables finishing 6th and 9th.

Whilst I had the four FT open, I let the thought that crushing these was going to be easy. I can say without a doubt that I was WRONG. A combination of being unlucky (running bad) and a few mis-reads has destroyed the confidence a little losing 25 back to back games. I am not used these type of swings and feel somewhat deflated. Having reviewed all the HH so far, I can say that the fishes had their day today and caught everything and I am sure that my day will come.

Once i speak to my coach again later on in the week, he can hopefully rectify a few leaks and boost my confidence in that I am executing his instructions. Knowing him, if i were in the same room then I might have got the hairdryer treatment for some of the STUPID stunts I pulled but then also congratulated for some high level moves I make (once in a blue moon). Anyway, I have leave and crush some more so until next time.

Good luck at the tables!

A New Dawn!!

2009-11-20T23:45:00.001-08:00

I have unfortunately got to stop my monthly goal. It is not because I was losing or felt that I could not complete the task. The reason was that I have had a better offer to do something more lucrative. It is still poker related but not sure how much I am allowed to say at this point but once I found out then it may be revealed.

I will summarize where I am before quitting (something I really hate doing):

Goal: 400 $3.40 SnG on Pokerstars
Played: 256 with a 0.05% ROI

Goal: 50 £3.30 KO on FullTilt
Played: 36 with a 86.55 ROI - netting $102

In summary, did well in KO tourneys and worked hard to recover from a $100 downswing to get back to break even. Not sure what my goal will be for the future but if anyone reads this then I will hopefully have some interesting stories to tell in the near future.

Good luck at the tables.

Feeling Frustrated

2009-11-17T14:54:00.000-08:00

Played a total of 27 SnGs today, which is more than I play on most week days. I could have played more but the frustration was building and I did not want to start playing bad and tilted so I quit. The variance in poker is something everyone must deal with but having been beating these SnGs for a little while now the downswings hurt just a little. It seems that when I feel comfortable and looking to move up I get a sudden downswing the stops that plan in it's track.

Summary of the month so far:

1) 400 $3.40 SnG on Pokerstars
Played: 174 with a -6.69% ROI (approximately 12 buy-ins)

2) 50 £3.30 KO on FullTilt
Played: 28 with a 119.16 ROI

So as you can see not doing so well in the Pokerstars and that is where most of the frustration is coming from. I cannot seem to win an all in at the moment where I am a 4:1 favorite or a coin flip, I cannot even suck out just one time. Oh well, I am going to do a review session and then get back to it and pretty sure that i can break this downswing.

Good luck at the tables.

A Small Blip

2009-11-12T13:14:00.000-08:00

Well i played 24 games today and won... none making one 2nd and two 3rd place finishes. understanding variance in Poker is a key lesson everyone should learn and as i play so few games I feel the shifts a lot more. It is my aim to play the best SnG strategy but at the level i play there are serious amount of donkey's but having said that I hope they return when I am on a heater.

I have decided to cascade my tables, this way I do not see what stupid hands people are calling shoves with. The time i see this when i review my HH's which seem to suggest that I played well but just ran into bad luck.

Have been reading about Tom 'durrrr" Dwan and how he has become a Team Full Tilt member which is interesting reading but what is more interesting is that he is getting owned by a Swedish player going by the name of Isildur1. Another not of interest is the Pokerstars tournament Leaderboard race between MI_Turtle and EeeTee2008 who have a huge prop bet together.

On a final note I will play a lot more KO tourneys and so hopefully the bad run stops in the 9 mans.

Good luck at the tables.

------------------------
ADDED AFTER INITIAL POST
------------------------

I have just learnt that $3 KO tourneys on FTP are a gold mine. I have been told this in the past but never really understood how to best play them. Started out playing 6 tourneys, getting knowcked out early in one where my KK could not hold against A6o. Thinking this was going to be similar to my efforts on Pokerstars earlier, I was little anxious at shoving from the SB onto the larger stack, but guess what 84o can beat JJ - haha lets roll. I managed to FT 4 tables and it was an awesome sight for me and gutted I did not take a screenshot.

One FT, down to 3 handed and I was 2nd in chips and BB has ben shoving mad. I am in SB, the btn who is short stacked raises, 3x (leaving 6BB behind), I call with AA, BB as normal shoves all in, short stack calls, I call - happy days when they flip over their cards, Btn has ATo, BB, has KQo... HOLD ONE TIME!!! Ship it to the new chipleader and two hands later I get KQh all in against 77, Q on the flop seals the first victory!!

From there I managed to win another, finish 3rd having been sucked out on and a 5 place finish. Not wanting to be results orientated but ship me the dollars. Need to count the bounties as well cause there were a few.

10 Days In

2009-11-10T14:05:00.000-08:00

I am now 10 days into the challenge and I am already feeling that i have bitten off more than I can chew. It seems that when i set the challenge people were determined to make me tilt. Calling AIPF with 84o and 92o out of the BB when I am shoving ATC on the SB... gg losers hope I see you again. You also know when things are bad when you shove with AA or KK then a miracle flush or straight gets there or the dreaded 2 outer on the turn or rive. For once please let them hit on the flop so I can SUCK OUT on them.

Anyway enough of the whinging, these things happena dn we must continue to do the best we can. So the summary as it stands:

1) 400 $3.40 SnG on Pokerstars
Played: 115 with an 9.75% ROI

2) 50 £3.30 KO on FullTilt
Played: 7

My aim was to get ahead in the SnGs before Friday so to concentrate on the KO tourneys on Friday's where the fill up very quickly. I am going to struggle to complete both tasks but I definitely want to complete the first as it seems to be easier for me to rake in the money.

I am considering coaching in the SnG department as I have the bankroll to move up but as I only have an ROI of 9% (small sample) I am not sure whether moving up is the best idea. Just think that a coach can improve the weaker areas of my game in particular when to push if you have 4-5BBs left. Is shoving 98s UTG+1 when there are 6 players left with 4BB and so forth.

Good luck at the tables!

November Goals

2009-11-01T11:24:00.000-08:00

Since October was a successful month, I have decided to push myself a little further this month. Please see goals below:

1) 400 $3.40 SnG on Pokerstars
2) 50 £3.30 KO on FullTilt

I have had a little success with the KO tourneys and wanted to see what I can achieve playing a very very very small sample in a month. So there are the goals and I have already wasted most of the day doing other stuff. Considering that I play around 250 SnGs a month 400 seems to me impossible but will keep you posted throughout the month.

I am also following Nick Rainey who has a prop bet to finish above another player in the TLB on Pokerstarts (see http://rainmanpoker.net/Blog for details). He is streaming the action live using Stickam so will be interesting viewing... perhaps.

Good luck at the tables!

October Goal in the Bag

2009-10-31T15:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I set out to complete 300 SnGs this month and I can tell you that it was hard work for me. Never ever have I played so much and was very worried half way through the month that I would not meet the target. However, with Wednesday off this week, I managed to complete the task on schedule. See graph below.

Now the profit was a little less then expected but a win is a win and I am no professional. With $81 profit for the month at an ROI of 7.94 is OK but my life time in these are 12% over a small sample size. Hopefully, I can improve in the month of November where I will be pushing more volume maybe 400???

Good luck at the tables!

First Poker Blog

2009-10-11T14:32:00.001-07:00

Hi All

I decided that it was in my interest to set goals within Poker like I have at the gym. It will keep me focused on the task in hand. Since I have decided that the goal would be realistic since I have a "normal" day job which keeps me busy. So details of the goal are below:

Goal: Complete 300 SnG at $3.40 level
Start Date: 1 Oct 09
End Date: 31 Oct 09

Now this may not seem like much to you grinders and hardcore poker players but I have never managed to play more than 200 month. Also, I have 24" monitor that allows me to play 6 decent sized tables in tiled mode (preferred mode of mulit-tabling) or 9 really small ones (which may have to be done if i fall behind).

Good luck at the tables!