Quick Update

Just a quick update on the cash challenge. I've played 30k hands now from the beginning and I am break even without rakeback. Considering the steepness of the learning curve of deep stacked play I am pleased with the results so far. Hopefully now that I have just signed up for rakeback and I have some 6-Max experience under my belt I can get this ball rolling!!!

Azimut Cash Challenge

Once again sorry about the image quality, if you click on it you will be able to see the details. A very experienced and skilled player on the NPF has set up a 'cash challenge'. So as I've always wondered if I could cut it playing 6-max 100bb's deep I decided to join in, all be it with a limited starting bankroll of $100.

I'm now 15k hands into the challenge. The first 3k hands at 5NL went badly as I lost about 7 buy-ins and slightly belatedly dropped down to 2NL - not how I'd envisaged things going :s . Switching from playing $10-$30 MTT's to 2NL was something of a challenge in itself lol... but part of the reason for doing this challenge was to learn proper BRM, something I have rarely if ever properly employed.

11,620 hands later and I'm back at 5NL hopefully to stay this time. The challenge is to rise 5 levels so I'm back to square one, bring on 10NL!

set over set over set :

It's times like these your glad your only playing 2NL lol! Sorry about poor image... I had the 9's.

Deep mistakes, Manchester and Sklansky

I haven't written for awhile due to the fact I haven't made any big final tables. I'm putting this down to a lack of volume combined with my recent switch from smaller fields to huge ones (1,000 - 6,000). Despite this I've been running deep eg. making the last 150 2 or 3 times in the Stars $3 rebuy. In fact I seem to be runnning deep a lot which is encouraging but at the same time it's making me wonder why I mange to convert these deep runs to good finishes so rarely... I think a good example of what I may be doing wrong came the other day in a 1000+ man $11 tourney on Full Tilt that I busted in 50th:

It folded round to the SB whilst I was in the BB and he raised to 3x the BB, I had A4s and decided to push over the top, he insta called with JJ, no help for me and I busted.

Up to this point I had been picking great spots for re-steals and chipping up substantially through them but at this point I got carried away and failed to analyze the situation... This player had just moved to the table so straight away I should give him credit as I have no reads on him, worse than that though I realised afterwards that I had played with him on another table recently and had forgotten that he was in fact a very tight player, woops!

So what was this mistake that I feel is repeatedly my downfall, I play decent aggressive poker in the mid-late stages which takes me deep with a good stack and then in one foolish moment/hand the confidence I have gained gets the better of me and I make a move (or 2/3) without fully considering the factors around the situation resulting in the worst kind of bust out - when you know its your fault!

Anyways the moral is that I must maintain dicipline and focus as the tournament progresses and remember to treat every hand as thoug it could be my last (the curse of NLHE). This of course is hard when you play lots of big MTT's and are just a recreational player, but is quite simply the only way you're going to go from deep runs to FT's... nuf said :)

Enough rambling about my shorcomings then, what else have I been up to? (for the brave souls who are still reading lol). Poker wise I started a facebook group called Newcastle Low Rollers which has nearly 30 members now. It's mostly m8's who have a vague interest in poker but a few who regularly play live, so we're havin a few home games, trips to casinos, pub games etc. If anyone readin wants to join just add me on facebook (will_poulsen@hotmail.com). We had a trip to the casino the other night which was fun until bot me and my m8 got busted both all-in preflop with KK (seperate hands). His was v.harsh - all-in preflop for 70quid in a 0.25/0.50 game lol! Wait for it... against A7s! and trip 7's hit on the river. The other player had no reason to believe he could make him fold as my m8 hadn't been laying anything down, he had better reasoning than that though! I hit a Royal Flush with this hand the other night! LMAO!

In other non-poker related news, I'm in Manchester atm, hav had a gr8 wknd visiting my Australian family who are over. Been to a posh Indian resteraaunt, a play, markets and generally enjoyed their company immensly :D Meanwhile I've been reading Sklansky's 'The Theory of Poker', I'm about 1/3 of the way through and am enjoying it so far. Despite it's constant references to Limit poker and 7-card Stud, Razz etc. it's great to read where the origonal concepts of EV came from and things like 'The Fundamental Theorem of Poker':

"Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponents' cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all their cards, they lose. Conversely, every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain; and every time they play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose."

When I first read this awhile ago I thought wow so what... But when you see it in the context of this book it's the basis upon which all of his other theories/advice sits so although it sounds simplistic by itself when it's used within another theory you can see it's importance. It's like 2+2=4 in maths on it's own someone tells you and you go "Wow, you're clever" but without it more complex sums and equations would not work. As well as this I've started watching training videos from Cardrunners etc. as I now have access to them through a torrent site listed in my links :) Lovin that as I can't afford the subscriptions to the sites atm. Got to go catch my train back to Newcastle now, playin 2moro nite at the Hussar in Heaton hope to see some of you there...

11th outta 1388 in $35k GTD pffffffffff

Too gutted to remember screenshot again! $8.5k for first, I got $300.... Becoming a specialist at just missing out on the big money lol!

Another Final Table, 6th outta 600 weeeeeee!!!

Forgot 2 take a screenshot but u can see the reult at the end of the graph :)

I havn't been playin much since I spent my bankroll recently but I just fancied a $3 rebuy on Ipoker today... 6 hours later and I'm on a Final Table Weeeeeeeee!!! I was chip leader too with 6 ppl left when I raised from the SB with KTs and got a call, no alarm bells yet cos this guy seemed to be defending his BB.

Flop is King high rainbow with no straight draws, I bet... He raises nearly all-in (he was 3rd in chips)... Now the alarm bells rang, but not loud enough!!! I think for awhile and decided top pair decent kicker is good enough to get it all-in in a BVB battle... he shows KQ, oh dear! From then on I've got an M of 3 or so I shove a couple of times and walk into a hand... game over and that "big" cash ($1000+) continues to elude me... Oh well, one fine day!

Bankroll no more...

Today I blew my bankroll... on two wheels :) As I'm in my final year of University I've decided I'm spending too much time playing poker and not enough studying! So in order to kill 2 birds with one stone I bought something that will help me get fit and study more... a Charge Plug singlespeed bike :) which I've wanted for ages now but the 500 quid price tag has put me off a little...

Does this mean the death of my blog??? Hopefully not! I will still play when I have spare funds each week, either live or occasioanlly online. Also I will try to find some other topics to rant about on here, which I know my friends at least will find a lot more interesting! Watch this space...

Persistance Pays :D ($680)

Weeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! It's been ages since I've had a first place in an MTT. I wasn't feeling well either while I was playing. That didn't stop me bullying the final table bubble though, which gave me a 2:1 advantage over the second biggest stack coming on to the final table :) From there it was more bullying and a lot of luck that put me in an even chip situation with the ft's worst player heads up :) I didn't manage to screw this one up! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

13th out of 666 in the $6k GTD

Another deep run :) So close yet so far, a familiar story in tournaments... My best move of the game was this:

I raised to 4xBB UTG with TT and got 1 caller... Flop J34 rainbow. I continuation bet and the other big stack who called me pre-flop shoves 33k into a 15k pot... I call and he shows Aqo. I felt he had air cause of the overbet and the lack of draws on the board. He wouldn't play a set this way imo or AJ for that matter... This put me first in chips :D

Unfortuneately though the bingo stage of the tourney came around and it wasn't my day, oh well next time :)

All night cash games :s

First the good news I hit my 3rd ever Roayal Flush today (see above)... It only netted me about $9 though.

I played cash at the Grovesner from 11pm til 7am the other night and worked my 30 pound buy-in up to 230 :D Thoroughly enjoyed it especially how fishy my table was.

However it appears I have not learned my lesson of not playing live poker when tired!!! At 7am we were kicked out and we all decided to head for Aspers... BIG MISTAKE! Suddenly the blinds were 1/2 instead of .25/.50 and my 200 quid profit didn't look too healthy. Add to this my jet lag from America and the hour of day I knew in the back of my mind it was time to quit, but didn't.

400 pounds later (down 200 for the night) I called it quits feeling thoroughly annoyed with myself for playing when that tired AGAIN! Hopefully now I've learned my lesson, some people can do this but I can not.

Day 7 - One more

My bus was at an inconvienient time so I decided to stay one more day. After checking out at 11am I headed for the strip with a couple of other english travellers. After basking in the oppulance of Ceaser's palace shopping mall for awhile and generally wondering around I decidded to give the Bellagio 1/2 game one more shot. I sat down with $100 at 5pm and played til 11pm using my usual TAG style. This payed off nicelly as I finished $260 in profit for the night. This would've been more if I didn't have to lay down 2 pair to a straight with 789 on the board. He showed me JT and I was happy to only lose $100 in the hand :)

I'm back at the hostel now waiting for my 6am bus to the Grand Canyon. Gary the chef has just told me his dad gave Jimmi Hendrix his first gig!!! He showed me his dad's book too with the front cover showing the pair together, amazing! My battery is running out now so I have to go... Mite not blog for awhile because my charger adaptor is boken. See you all soon!

Day 6 - Lazy Day

Woke up at 5pm after some much needed sleep and hung around the hostel til about 11pm drinkin beer and vodka by the pool. The prize for most interesting person I've spoken to in Vegas goes to Gary the chef at the hostel. He's in his 50's or 60's I think and has a really interesting history including his claim to fame that he knew Ken Kesey (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest writer) who was a good friend of Jack Kerouac.

At midnight we (a group from hostel) went to see the 'Fremont Street Experience' a huge overhead light show in the old 'Downtown' district of Las Vegas. |It was impressive in it's own right but didn't quite measure up to what the strip has to offer. After that we went to some of the old Downtown casinos and gambled cheaply, I lost $10 on roulette for the experience. I went to bed early though (2am) as I had to check out at 11am.

So what are my overall impressions of 'Sin City':

• The strip is like nothing else in the world, especially at night. So much money has been spent on making this place play to all the senses which is epitomised by the fountains at the Bellagio.
• When you venture off the strip you find that this city is also home to extreme poverty and all that goes with it including drug and alcohol abuse as well as prostitution. There's definately another side to this place that most people never see.
• Once you get past the flashy exterior of the strip the insides of the casinos are much of a muchness imo - rows and rows of slot machines among other games. It may sound strange but this almost put me off playing poker!
• If you know where to go Las Vegaas can be cheap but if you don't you better have some cash behind you!
• The poker here is an education worth paying for. The players are both interesting and on average a lot better than back home. This makes the games less profitable but much more mentally stimulating and satisfying :)
• Overall I'd recommend it to anyone who can afford this trip but don't build it up too much, Las Vegas is an eye opener, at times a jaw dropper and a city of contradictions - it is not Paradise.
  

Day 5 - Tired

The day started lazily lying round the pool and contemplating buying tickets for a show, but after awhile we decided it was too hot to go into town for them. In the evening we headed for the strip to see some sites (me and 3 others from the hostel). We managed to cover a lot of ground over the course of the night seeing many of the hotels from Planet Hollywood to MGM, The Bellagio (including the fountains which were beautiful) and Luxor.

Six hours later tired and with sore feet I sat down at the Ceaser's 1/3 cash game with $100. As it was labour day wknd (bank holiday) the tables were teaming with fishy players. So I decided to buyin for 300 after awhile only for the fish to disapear as over agressive sharks swam in. This should've been my que to leave but as ever I stubbornly remained seated. After 6 hours of play I waas down $200 which wasn't too bad considering I lost most of it to the fish with legitamate hands. Exhausted (5am by now) I stood up and left greatful for the experience of the hours that I played with the good players.

As it was still dark I decided to hang around and play one more game at the Flamingo (much softer) where I bought in for $100. I ended up playing QQ badly as I was goaded into an all-in move by a v.poor player who I had beat... except the classic error in this situation - there was another player to my left (with 2 pair) woops! Oh well still $1k up for the trip and a little wiser (I hope).

Day 4 - No Poker

I decided to take a break from poker on day 4 as I havn't been seeing enough of the sites and the hostel I'm staying at was planning a big clubbing night out. So instead I went to the Stratosphere tower which has a 360 degree view of the whole of Vegas, amazing!!!

Then I paid a visit to 'The Gamblers General Store' which has every concievable thing to do with gambling from old casino slot machines to poker tables, books, chips and real casino decks of cards - souvenir heaven :) Then came back and had a kip before the night out.

20 people from the hostel managed to cram in a great big limo thing and we headed to the Wynn night clubs after seeing a great band in a local pub. Then came the shock of my life, $22 for a double whiskey and coke, madness! Good job I had plenty to drink before the nightclub :) Which was pretty average tbh.
Despite being told we'd have the best night of our lives it was a bit of a let down really but I still enjoyed it and met plenty of new people, danced loads and got home at 4am. Overall another great day in Sin City!

Day 3 - Another Final Table

The run continues. As my budget has now significantly increased I decided to play the Venetian $120 tournament (80 runners) that's mentioned a lot on the net. I wasn't as impressed with the structure as I'd hoped and the competition was quite good. Despite this I managed to final table again. I reached the final table of 10 ppl with a short stack and only 9 spots paying so things were looking ominous... until I picked up AA UTG and shoved. I got 2 unlucky callers 99 and QQ and my Aces held as I hit an Ace high flush weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Unfortuneately the payout was very top heavy and my stack dwindled as the blinds rose so with 6 players left I was forced to shove from the button with A2o only to be called by TT in the SB. No improvememnt and out I went for $473 (profit of $353). 1st place would've been $2.5k! But I can't sniff at a 3rd day in profit :D

Day 2 - Even Better :-)))

I had a restful day on day 2 with a plan to hit the tables in the evening instead today in the hope of finding some looser players. After this initial good poker decision I followed it up with a less sound one (in profit terms) and chose to play at the Bellagio. For the first few hours this looked to be a bad decision, but one I was willing to pay for. The players were although not brilliant (obviously it was 1/2) much better than what I'm used to and as a result I was nervous.

After a couple of hours and a good fold later (top pair to a concealed straight) I was down to $25 and low and behold my patients with a short stack paid off as I flopped the nut flush whilst unsuspectingly sitting in the BB :D My comeback began! As the hours passed the table changed from the players mentioned above to a much softer mix by which time I had worked my way up to $400 by calling a LAG's all-in on the river with my top pair, there were straight and flush draws out but he mucked, he was so LAGGY he coulda had anything.

Three other hands I can remember were getting it all-in pre-flop with KK against AQ and hitting quads :D Then losing another $300 pre-flop all-in to the same player with AKo against his AA (big mistake by me and very wishful thinking). Basically I played the hand horribly. I raised from UTG and he min-raised me - ALARM BELLS - I'm the tightest player on the table and he does that?!?!?!? So I decide to 3-bet :S Thinkin he'll put me on AA or KK... could be worse but there's more. He does a hollywood sigh, rubs face etc. and then 'thinks' b4 shoving! the pot is now $160ish + $180 more so I'm getting 2:1. Hmmmm, my reads all say fold but somehow I talk myself into calling thinking/hoping he has QQ or even JJ. Nope it was Aces. Epic blow up!

Oh well, I blame ego for that one and put it down to experience, luckily though along comes the next hand: 99 in the BB. Two or 3 limpers as usual so I raise it big to $17. One caller and the flop comes 3 hearts with a 9 :D I'm saved I was thinking - any bet I make here looks tilty and also my last hand shows I can be aggressive. But I feel he will bet if I check so I do, he obliges and I raise looking super tilty now! He shoves and I call... No hearts on turn or river and he mucks, overpair or flush draw I suppose? Anyways that's me back up to $700 and I finish the night on $750 ($650 profit) after 8 hrs of play. Nobody shows to play in Bobby's room unfortuneately but it's time 4 bed. $1k profit in 2 days, GET IN!!!!!!!!!

Day 1 - Off to a flyer!

On my first day in Vegas I woke after only 3 hours sleep but being as excited as I was I got ready and headed for the strip. Managed to get on the wrong bus, even after asking the driver who was typically bad mannered and offended I didn't lilke her bus, so I complied and got on. An hour and a half walk later I reached the Wynn casino, the newest and one of the classiest on the strip, so I went in to check it out...

Wow! Some ppl obviously have $$$, this was a different world! The shops that lined the way to the casino were not exactly like those on Wallsend High Street, put it that way! After a little bit of searching I found the poker room (it was now 9am) but the 2 games that were going on looked pretty serious so I decided to move on and check out some other venues.

Several casinos later, hot and tired from walking I reached Ceaser's Palace. Despite hearing the games here were tough I decided to stay and wait for the noon $85 tourney which has an excellent structure for the price. Whilst waiting for it to start I sat down with $100 in a $1/2 game and manged to finish with $200 after an hour :) Great start!

The tournament kicked off at noon with 40 runners. I immeadiately decided to play a similar strategy to what I play in 20 and 30 man SNG's which is tight at the start and loose at end - simple but v.effective. Luck was on my side as I hit some big hands from overpairs to sets and got paid off most of the time. A few hours later I found myself on my first Vegas final table. With 5 spots paying I played patiently, stealing blinds now and then. Finally it got down to 3 handed and I pushed all-in from the SB with 96o my loosest move of the game, obviously. I was insta-called by KJo and the flop showed a Jack signifying the end of my tournament and a $333 payout. I'm about to use SNG wiz to analyze this push as I'm not sure about it even tho I was pretty short. Either way $350 profit for day one is a great start for me :D


UPDATE: SNG Wiz said a push is correct with any two if his range for calling is as low as 40%. So definately correct to shove here :)

2nd Twice in a day!!!

Vegas here I come! I have just arrived in Denver Colorado where I will be staying for 4 days before moving on to the Grand Canyon and then... VEGAS!!!

Just before I left Australia I manged to come second in two online tourneys in one day! The net profit was about $700 which has been a huge bonus to my Vegas funds :D

Australia was brilliant (lot's of fishing and camping) and the Rockies are amazing! I will report back soon when I have some poker news.

Australia!!!

I leave for Australia tomorrow and although I will have access to a computer I have decided to take a 6 week break from poker...

Until of course I reach Vegas... At which point it's back on! Check back in September for updates!

End of an era

My letter to Bankroll Supply about why I have decided to leave:

Dear Paul and Peter,

I have come to a very difficult decision to leave Bankroll Supply. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity that was given to me and the support and tuition I have received over the last 3 months. However the following reasons have lead me to make my decision:

• 50 STT's a week is currently beyond my capabilities.
  
• When I return from my holiday I will be completing my final year of university, during which 100% of my grade is determined. Therefore this is likely to still be a problem.
  
• As can be seen from filtering my Sharkscope results my STT results at the $10/$20 level have been poor. It is my MTT results that have kept me break even.
• I can't expect you to take me on as an MTT player as I doubt I could play a high enough volume of these.
• To be honest poker has begun to change from being a fun hobby to something that is more like work. I think this is in part due to me losing my interest in STT's and prefering to play MTT's, something I cannot expect you to support for the above reasons.

I hope you appreciate that my main reason for leaving is a question of prioritising my education before poker and not a reflectionof the BRS team or way of doing things. I wish you all well in the future.

Regards,

William Poulsen.

STT's or MTT's?

OK so I know I said I wouldn't post nemore graphs, but f**k it this my blog lol. The graph on the left is my SNG grpah since I joined Bankroll Supply (my sponsor) and the graph on the right is my MTT graph. Now I know the samples are small (especially the MTT one!) but...

I'm starting to wonder if this is an indication of the types of games I should be playing. At the moment my deal is that I play 200 STT's a month (which I'm struggling with atm due to a long commute) and 1 $10/$15 freezeout MTT a day. But my results over the last 3 months in STT's have knocked my confidence as a SNG player whilst the reverse has been true with MTT's.

Also I feel atm that, and I hesitate to say this, my main interest lies with MTT's, perhaps due to the formulaic nature of STT play. The obvious solution would be to play both and use my STT winnings to supplement the MTT downswings as many Bankroll players do. However as you can see from the graphs atm it is working the other way around!

The main problem remains however that my sample is simply too small to make a judgement and so perhaps I should give it more time??? All opinions appreciated!

Monthly Update

This month I finished about $80 up. It's not a lot but two sucessive months in profit is good enough for me :) and hopefully for Bankroll Supply too.

I have also been talking to my mentor and we've agreed that for now I stick to playing a maximum of one $10 or $15 freezeout MTT per day. I think this should improve my profit in the coming months as I had been playing a few too many lately.

On my first day of this rule being set I played a 416 man $10 freezeout and came 4th :D I attribute this result to the new book I'm reading called "Poker Tournament Formula" by Arnold Snyder (http://www.pokertournamentformula.com) that was recommended to me by my mentor. This book has been a revelation to me for playing small buy-in fast structured MTT's!!! I have only read about 1/3 of the book I am loving it so far and will continue to experiment with his aggressive strategies!

That's all for now really, I've resisted the urge to post another sharkscope graph this month... Off to Australia then Vegas soon, Can't wait!!! :D

VEGAS BABY!!!

The title says it all really, looks like I'm off to Vegas in August!!! The plan so far is to do a 2 week trip starting in Denver, Colorado and finishing in San Fransisco. I'm also planning on stopping in the Grand Canyon and possibly New York on the way home :D

I won't have much money to spend but I've been told that Vegas is very cheap (apart from the gambling of corse). Plus I've just found a website that has a listing of all tournaments in Vegas (http://www.pokertournamentformula.com/las_vegas_poker_tournaments.htm) so will be hitting a few of those!

This trip will be on my way back from Australia where I am visiting my family next month, so a terrible Summer ahead for me :D. Enough smugness for now, wish me luck in Vegas baby!!!

Another Final Table :D

Final Tabled the $7 rebuy on Mansion the other day. Went on to the final table 3rd in chips and very close to 2nd and 1st. So you can imagine I was somewhat pleased to see KK as my first hand...

I'm in MP and the chip leader raises form EP. I reraise to 2.5x his raise. It folds around and he re-raises to 2.5x my raise! What's going through my mind:

"It's the first hand of the final table and he's 4 betting a stack that can destroy him! At this level I reckon this pretty much means AA, KK or QQ. But am I ever folding KK pre-flop in a tourney???"

Obviously the answer was no I'm not and so I 5 bet all-in and he calls with AA :( Nowt I could do I suppose. So I finished 10th out of 333 runners for about $100, not quite the $1.6k for first but a good result none the less :)

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Had my best result ever last night! Finished 4th in a 1,200 man $10 freezeout on Mansion poker fo $730. Just 2 days after coming 2nd in a $5 rebuy for $370. Needless to say the old graqph is looking a little better now :D Don't know what else to say really other than I ran like a god and played well, as is required for these huge tourneys. Big thanx to Chica for railing me 2! was a great help having a m8 by my side :)

The last hand was somewhat of a cooler, which I'm not bitter about. There were 4 players left and I picked up JJ on the button, early position folded. I made a smallish raise hoping to induce a re-steal and my opponent in the BB shoved. I insta-call and he flips over KK!!! Brutal! But tbh I was just happy to go out on a hand I could feel happy about rather than something that was gunna haunt me 4 ages lol.

Came 2nd in a $5 rebuy 2day out of 173 players for $370 :D

This has done wonders to mitigate this months downswing. In other news:

• Came second in a GUKPT sattelite for the $100 game and negotiated for 30% of the winnings should the player (McKinney from NPF) cash.
• Signed up to SNG Grinders training site for 3 months (only $45).
• Got offered some online sweat sessions by Karl Mahrenholz for free!
  

So things goin pretty sweet poker wise. Had a good weekend 2 as I went clay pigeon shooting on Saturday. Despite the fact I was shit (came last out of males) I really enjoyed it, especially the game BBQ afterwards :D

MTT or STT SNG's??

Hello, just another short post reflecting on some stats :) I dug the above graph out from my old Sharkscope reults. It shows my results (profit and ROI) on the Y-axis and the no. of entrants into that SNG on the x-axis. As you can see my results for 18 man SNG's were much better ($400 profit and 40% ROI) than my results for 9 man SNG's ($75 profit and 15% ROI) whilst both were over a sample of around 200 games.

What does this mean? Well I fear the sample size is too small to draw any major conclusions but it has got me wondering! Am I significantly better at 2 table SNG's than 1 table SNG's and if so why??? I know they're recognised as softer and also that the more entrants the higher the achievable ROI perhaps that explains it... Combined with the small sample size I think I may have as best an answer as I can come up with at this stage. In the meantime I will continue to play a combination of 10 man and 30 man SNG's on mansion to see what I do best in.

Variance?

I was intending on only updating my bankroll supply progress on a monthly basis but I've just hit a 'terrible' downswing and thought it was a good time to take stock. As you can see from my
sharkscope graph above, I recentlty went on something like a 20-30 gagme losing streak! Someting I am not used to... especially at the $20 stakes.

However after a group training session with Paul Jackson and other SNG players for bankroll
suppply I made some much needed adjustments to my game. Combined with a stubbornly avoided move down in stakes back to the $10 games this saw my 'form' on sharkscope go from 'super tilt' to 'hot'. Unfortuneately this can only be seen on my graph as a short levelling out of a big downswing.

So it appears the rest of the month is gunna be damage limitation at the $10 level, trying to
claw back some of that nasty loss. On a brighter note though I ran deep in the $10 $4k GTD last
nite finishing 36th out of 500+ runners. At one stage I was 4th in stack sizes but it wasnt to be
this time. In the end I went out on QQ Vs AK all-in pre-flop.

Having completed my first month with Bankroll Supply I feel it is time to reflect a bit on how
things have gone. I think the most significant outcome of the last month has been my jump from
the $5 games to the $20 ones as previously mentioned. This occured toward the end of the month thus my results can not be representative of how I'm doing at these stakes.

The hardest challenge of my first month was probably finding the time to put in 7-10hrs per week,as I work full time this was a bit of a challenge. However moving up in stakes has made this challenge a lot more interesting! If I could only learn to multitable more tables I would be able to complete my hours much quicker!

What have I learnt and what are my goals for the future?

I've learnt that HUD stats are invaluble when multitabling, even just VPIP and PFR :) I've learnt that even poker players as successful as Paul Jackson are able to bring themselves down to your level and offer highly relevant advice. And I've learned that I need to be a little less results oriented as the swings in SNG's, when you are playing low volume like me, mean you don't get much of an indication in the short term of how you are doing.

As for my goals, I feel a lot more focused than a month ago, when I was seriously lacking in
direction. For now my goals are to keep playing the $20 SNG's until I establish a large enough
sample size (400-500 games maybe) to decide whether I'm winning or losing at this new level. Thisshould be attainable by the beginning of July when I will be heading to Australia to visit my
family. When I add these results to my previous sample of 550 games on Full Tilt I should have a sample of 1000 games which I have read will give me a fairly reliable ROI.

Not much more else to say atm than gl me!!!

I had my first lesson with my new mentor at Bankroll Supply last night. I feel extrmely lucky to be mentored by such a high profile player as Paul 'actionjack' Jackson! For those of you who haven't heard of him watch this video!

The session consisted of using software that allows him to view my screen and skype to discuss my decisions whilst playing. If I were paying for this kind of coaching I would shudder to think of the cost!

The main outcome of the session was that he felt I was playing at stakes well below my capability and has urged me to move on from $5 and $10 SNG's and start playing $10's and $20 to begin with moving on to $20's and $30's a.s.a.p. I'm really looking forward to this as SNG's have become a bit of a grind lately that are hardly worth it if you are not making a decent amount of money.

I must admit I was a little apprehensive at first because I wondered if a player of his caliber would be interested in someone playing at my level but was happy to find that he's a very down to earth guy who considers all levels the same. I can't wait for our future sessions now and am really looking forward to this great oppurtunity to move up in stakes!

Virgin Festival

This is the hand that I busted out on in the Virgin Festival (not a bad beat story i promise!):

I'm in the BB and a fairly new player at the table is on the button, he min raises. My only read on him is that he is probably tight due to something he has said. He doesn't know I've been playing tight because he is new. I have 83o and elect to call reasoning that I don't want him to believe he can steal my blind that easily. I'm not v.happy with this part of my play due to my read and position.

We see a flop heads up though, I have about 6000 chips and the blinnds are 150/300 and are going up soon to 200/400. The flop is AQ7 rainbow i think and he checks, I check behind. The river is a brick but brings a second club and he checks again so I take a stab at the pot and bet 1000 (into a pot of 1350) he calls. The river is a 3rd club and makes a gutshot straight on the board, however I have nothing. He checks again and I think for awhile before moving all-in for another 4000+.

My reaoning behind this was as follows: The pot was now 3350 about 3/4 of my stack and I was soon going to be down about 10 BB due to the immenent blind increase. I sensed that he didnt like the texture of the board and had checked for that reason. So I decided to represent the flush or straight. In the heat of the moment I neglected to put him on a range of hands but his checks on all streets had indicated to me he was not confident in his hand. Therefore I made a move... Unfortuneately he read my nervous demeanor and after deliberating for a long time and repeating to himself 'you've got shit' lol called with trip A's :(

I believe my my mistakes in this hand were as follows: calling the min-raise pre-flop (I've been reading Gus Hansen's 'Every Hand Revealed' lol) and making a bluff that I could not maintain my composure afterwards sufficiently... probably due to playing priimarily on the net. Also of course not taking the time to put him on a range of hands was a crucial error!

The good news is afterwards I won a STT that was a sattelite into another tourney the next day and then came 4th out of 16 in that which paid about £150, a slight consolation :)

SCOOP!

Scored a seat for the SCCOP $109 main event (on pokerstars) last night via a satellite. I only opened the $1 rebuy sat. to keep me entertained whilst grinding. But it soon sucked me in and I finished in the top 13 of 300+ runners :D

The main event is held on the 12th of April and runs for 2 days! There's $1M garunteed but there could be up to 15,000 players which is putting me of a bit. However, I just found out that I can exchange the ticket for such things as a WSOP satellite ticket, hmmmmm...

(Vince) Argh Poker Clash

Introducing: Vince Bell

Vince is a good friend of mine who loves this game probably more than I do, although I haven't played with him a lot I respect his play a great deal from the hand examples he sends me and the results I know he's had (see the photo of the £20 freezeout results at the bottom of the page, he's in second - for the record we split the pot so it was on a technicality!)

Writing a blog is a bit hard by youself so I decided to invite a friend to contribute as well. So without further ado here's his first post:

This Thursday the Royal Holloway Series of Poker was taking place and because I have no money I wasn't going to take part. My friend Sam whined at me for 20mins and gave me the money to buy in and I held out until the last minute then thought I'm addicted to poke so why not lol.

The tournament was a £30 freezeout which is continuing this Thursday night there were 27 runners an 12 remain sharing 1.35M chips. Obviously because I didn't want to play in the first place I dominated the first session wiping out player after player with hands like J3hearts against KJo hitting the flop J83 and my favourite hand AJclubs.I'm second last to act and raise 4.5BB with 2 limpers the button and the blinds to get past, I get called by all but the SB. The Flop Ks Qs 4h checked all the way around. The Turn 2d BB bets 1/3pot fold fold hmmm, I call button folds. The player betting is Jake, aggressive at times. The River Js, Board Ks Qs 4h 2d Js, Jake thinks and goes all in for just under pot... My gut instinct is call but my brains going "are you mad?!", I think and call whilst saying "this is either genius or just plain stupid" I wait for him to show he turns over 66, relief and quite a large pot to start my rampage up to 337,500 just under 25% of the chips with only 12 players left =).Now here's the other thing...

I have just been invited to play in the Poker.co.uk Invitational Freeroll Qulifier. 10 players are invited only and the top 2 enter the Invitational Freeroll which is only offered to the top 35 players of February and the Director of the company. It's a 110euro buy in with 2000euro added so the prize will range from 2300 to 5600 euro depending how many play (theres a 200euro bounty on the director too lol), this is also on on Thursday night =S

So I have a big day on Thursday and I have to get up to do a 7hr laboratory session before the games =S

Lets just hope I remember to have my Weetabix!

It was an eventful weekend for me as far as poker goes. Beginnning with a trip to Aspers on Friday night to play ythe £20 freezeout. Unfortuneatley I only lasted about an hour and a half as I did my best to accumulate chips before the blinds forced me into push fold mode!

Feeling disappointed I decided to take out £50 and sit down at the cash table for the first time. This proved a good investment as I soon found myself with KK in early position, with a limper in front of me. I raised it to 4x BB preying for action, only to find i got 4 callers! A low ragged flop followed and the UTG limper bet into the pot, I moved all-in over the top and got 1 caller with a flush draw, KK held :D and I nearly tripled up. For the next two hours things went well and a coulple of well timed bluffs and all-ins saw my sack increase to 4x my buy-in at which point I decided it was time to call it a night.

In other weekend news I went to the match (Newcastle Vs Arsenal) for the first time in ages and thouroughly enjoyed the first half, I won't go into the second though.

Finally a quick update on my sponsorship progress, I've been playing mostly $10 STT SNG's and I estimate I'm down about $30 but theres plenty of time to turn that around by the 21st of April, when the profit is paid out.

Today I got my first ever sponsorship deal :D with BankrollSupply.com. This is great news for me as bankroll management has been my most pressing problem of late. Particularly playing MTT's has damaged my income from grinding thus hindering any possible rise in stakes :(. However this is no longer a problem as my daily limit will be increased as I improve.

I'm really looking forward to the next period of my poker career which will involve playing a minimum of 90 table hours per month i.e. if i play 3 tables at once 30 hours per month. To begin with I'll stick to my usual $5/$10 SNG's until I'm comfortable with the system and then move up! I can't really express how pleased I am atm because I've just had a bottle of Champers, which I've been saving, with my friend Tom :)

3 out of 5 :)

Won my local pub tournament again last night, making it 3 wins out of 5 :) I'm very pleased with this as my success rate in the past has been pretty poor in these games. I attribute my increased success to loosening up as I pretty much have an image of a total rock. I think this was becoming too predictable amongst a regular crowd of players unlike online SNG's where it's the best way to play early on as you rarely play the same player twice. Anyways £50 profit was another welcome payday for me! :D

56s got da FUNK!

Played at Circus last night for the first time and really enjoyed it! :) I went with my 2 m8s Rob and Taty. We were havin a few pints and decided we fancied a SNG but when we got there all that was on offer was a 64 man tourney, £15 buyin with 1 rebuy or addon which none of us had enuf for (the R/A that is). Any way we sat down on a newly formed table together and proceeded to play some loose 'pissed' poker lol. Then came my favourite move of all time! Enjoy:

All fold to Taty on the button. Blinds are only 50/100 and stacks are 5000 average. He raises to 1000! hmmm... Wonder what he's got. SB folds and BB re-raises to 3000, oh dear me-thinks he has a MONSTER! Taty snap calls. Flop is something like J78 and BB quickly goes all-in for 2000 odd more. Taty calls and flips over 56s giving him an open ender. BB has KK, turn is blank and river a 9 completing his straight. Needless to say the BB is gutted and Taty somewhat embaressed! Taty went on to come 4th and win £180 his biggest cash yet and his first live MTT. He gained a bit of a reputation to say the least. His last hand was fitting as it was against the same guy who called his all-in post flop after asking 56s again???

On a lesser note I had my first ever royal flush! :D Can't remember where I finished but was pleased with my play overall, although I was a little timid as usual in a live game.

Won a 90 man at last!

Last night was a small milesone as I won a 90 man $2.20 tournament. It took me around 20/30 attempts with about 6 final tables but I kept finishing either 5th or 6th! I finally cracked the nut last night ironically whilst only concentrating in part as I was running deep in a 5000 man $5 freeezefout. Unforttuneately I had to settle for 84th in the end but I'm very proud of yet another deep run at the big money! :)

Just for posterity I thought I'd show off some of my best big MTT results on Stars too:

On Full Tilt:

One fine day! :)

Off to a good start!

I kicked off my small MTT campaign last night with two final tables in 90 man tourneys. I played a mix of two $8.80 deep stack 90 man's, a $4.40 180 man and a $2.20 90 man just to keep me busy. By 2am I was on two final tables at once in the $8.80 and $2.20 tourneys :).

Unfortuneatley I could only manage 8th in the $2 and 5th in the $8. I went out of the $2 as I pushed over the top of a short stack all-in with ATs partly because I thought I was ahead and partly because I wanted to concentrate on the $8. The short stack had JJ and virtually knocked me out, AJs next hand saw me all-in and I didn't improve so that was that leaving me to concentrate on the potentially more lucrative game.

In the $8 I picked up A8o in the BB and made a crucial error. The table's most LAGy player (after me) raised my BB from thee button and I re-raised for half of my stack. It was a half-baked move that cost me, as he flat called and I missed the flop. He went all-in on the flop and I was forced to fold. Part of me was thinking that a re-raise of 3x his raise looked stronger than an all-in and the other half thought that I didn't want to put my life on the line with A8o. On reflection this was definately a push-fold situation, but we live and learn.

Two hands later I was in the cut-off with an M of 4 and a very tight player was in the BB who had the same stack as me. I still think this is probably an any 2 push and in my case I picked up 35o, which I reasoned to be live cards so shoved and was called by KQo, no help followed and I made my exit in 5th for $50. Up $35 for the night :)

All in all it was a very encouraging start to my new small MTT campaign and thanks to Rospicko for the suggestion to leave the $2 180 man turbos alone due to variance. I'm increasingly convinced they're the best way to go if I'm to switch from STT's to big MTT's as they are a great training ground for the situations you find yourself in when playing big MTT's.

Won my local pub game :D

I won for only the third time since I started playing at my local pub (a long time ago) last night. Well we split first and second anyways (£40 each) not exactly a major score but not to be scoffed at either! I agreed to a split because after 10 mins of rollercoaster heads up action we were evenly stacked and it was clear neither of us was giving an inch... plus it was late, excuses, excuses... Anyways anyone whos followed my blog will have read that small live games are my worst so any results in those games are particularly pleasing :)

My favourite hand of the night was acctually one I lost, lol. I made a questionable call of a 10BB raise (pretty standard at this stage for this game lol) before the flop from MP with KJs. I reasoned that there was 3 callers and therefore good drawing out value. I was VERY cautious at this point as the flop came king high. I checked as first to act and the initial raiser (my m8 who I've been giving lessons to) proceeded to count the pot (by looking) and then bet 2/3 of it (about half of the starting stacks). Until this happened I was ready to fold to any resistance but this just happened to be exactly the amount I had taught him to continuation bet... Anyways after a bit of thought I put him all-in for not much extra and he called with KQo. The funny part though was that during the break he told me that he made sure I had watched him count out the pot and bet exactly 2/3 of it so I'd think he was c-betting! Well Played Tahti, I felt like a proper muuug!

After reading a post on a forum where someone suggested that stars $2.20 180 man turbos were a good way to build up a bankroll I have reconsidered my plan. Since I've been having a bad run on the single table SNG's and frankly I'm getting bored of them anyways I thought I'd try out this idea I read. Hopefully this will also quench my thirst for MTT's and prevent me from blowing my bankroll that way.

I've started with $150 so that's about 69 SNG's. My experience so far is that these things are mental! When it starts everthing is normal but pretty quickly you're all-in every other hand and when your 4-tabling it can be pretty stressful! Think I'll stick to 3 tables for now, good luck me!

Update

I just thought I'd write a quick update on my poker shinaigans... I played at the Grovesner Casino last night for the first week of the Newcastle Poker Forum's league. I was a bit apprehensive about playing some decent players for a change as I'm used to playing random members of the public at Aspers. However I went to check it out anyways.

I ended up finishing 63rdish out of about 117. So not a bad result considering the quality of the field. The only thing I would've changed about my play would've been to be more aggressive in a couple of spots, but nerves got the better of me and I played it a bit too safe.

As for my online activities things are not going too good. I decided to put on a balance of 150 pounds instead of 100 to allow me 40 buy-ins at the $5 level sng's. It's now douwn to 90 pounds and I'm forced to consider moving down to $2 sng's. I don't know if I've lost my knack or whether it's just variance but I've been on a poor run either way. Will I ever have the patients again to grind up a bankroll for MTT's? Not sure atm.

Good Advice

When reading Eric "Rizen" Lynch's bolg (famous online MTT pro) I came accross this handy nugget of advice:

"So, how do we know who has a lot to lose from playing a pot with us if we don't have a big stack? A general guideline that I like to use is that any player who has 15-30 big blinds and less than twice my stack size is a prime target to attack. If players have at least 15 big blinds, they are not so short that they're desperate to double up, and if they have fewer than 30, they typically are shallow enough that they're reluctant to take flops with people without a real hand."

Just to put it into context (http://www.rizenpoker.com/articles/2007/08/target-practice.html), he's talking about the mid stages of an MTT, and who you should apply pressure on pre-flop by blind stealing etc. Attacking the mid-stacks is old news but I thought it was a handy rule of thumb :)

That's all for now, can't wait to get his book "Winning Tounaments One Hand at a Time" in 3 days!

AA vs KK vs K10

Last night I played in my regular pub game in Heaton. It began badly as I pissed away half my chips playing half-arsed poker. I won it back though by calling an all-in with the nut flush draw which hit. From this point on I played a solid game and made some big calls to take a massive chip lead.

Everyone thought it was foregon conclusion that I would win but desppite this 3 hands decimated my stack putting me out in third. The last of these was a tad unlucky to say the least... I picked up K10 on the button (3 handed) and raised all in due to my short stack only to be called by AA and KK, oh dear. Still I'm really pleased to have nearly won a small live game again as these are my worst games atm.

I've just ordered 2 new poker books:

"Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at A Time: 1" (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Winning-Poker-Tournaments-Hand-Time/dp/0974150274)

and Gus Hansen's "Every Hand Revealed" (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Every-Hand-Revealed-Gus-Hansen/dp/0818407271)

Both are highly acclaimed. "Winning Poker Tournaments..." is by some of the most successful online tournament players alive such as Rizen and Pearljammer. I can't profess to know much about them but people on the forums are going nuts about this book so I thought it was a must buy!

"Every Hand Revealed" is a description of every hand played at the Aussie Millions when Gus Hansen won. I think that's a great idea for a book and I haven't read a bad review yet so for £8 I couldn't turn it down! Also I think I'm getting to the stage in my game where I need to loosen up a little and consider styles beyond ABC poker, Hansen sort of personifies unconventional play.

I was just excited so I thought I'd post about my new aquisitions lol. I'm just hoping that they will be a bit more readable than Harrington on Holdem or SNG Strategy which both took me a LONG time to read due to their dry nature. I can't imagine Gus Hansen's book being boring though!

Not Again :(

Just finished 242nd out of 6000ish in a $5 freezeout on Pokerstars. Pushed with TT UTG as my M was about 6... called by AA and JJ, game over. Another 4 hours to get my entry fee back lol - not sure if I love or hate MTT's atm.

Running Deep

I've had a pretty successful weekend despite the fact I've got nothing to show for it. On Friday night I played the 20 pound freezout at Aspers and finished 20th out of 160. Slightly disappointed to go out so close to the final table but to be fair I did let myself get short stacked. This was in part due to making an aggressive move that got called and ruined my image on my table, forcing me to tighten up. Crap hands followed and before i knew it I had 3 BB's. At this point I made a stand with K8o and despite hitting 2 pair on the flop lost to a flush on the river. The suprising thing was I wasn't that disapointed and had a really good night after :)

The second success was a deep run in the Pokerstars $3 rebuy. I finished 342nd out of 6000+ runners :). My last hand was an attempt to steal a pot with 3 limpers and a third of my stack. Unfortuneately one of them had limped with ATo (his 3rd limp in a row) and insta-called my push, his hand held up against my A4o to knock me out. So all in all some good results :)

Virgin Festival Seat

Won a seat to the Virgin Poker Festival held at Aspers in April last night! (https://www.virgingames.com/poker/pokerfest.aspx?festival=newcastle2009). The poker gods were looking down on me as I shoved all in with T9s from ealy position on the final table only to see the BB call with AA... Strangely I fancied my chances of a suckout tho and sure enough two pair hit on the flop. Weeeeeeeeeeeee!!! In my defence (I was called a donk for this move) I had an M of 3.5 and the blinds were about to hit me so I thought it was time to move. Also people were tightening up as we neared the bubble, about 8 left at this point, so I reckoned a shove from UTG+1 was unllikely to be called. Very pleased to get a seat as this was my last attempt! :D

Got a Plan

Thanx to my m8 Chica who's a pro and has a WSOP cash to his name I have a plan :) :

- deposit £100 on titan
- build this up to $500 playing primarily $5/$10 SNG's
- play the odd $2-5 tourney to keep me sane
- when up to $500 swich to playing $5 MTT's solely
- play live tourney's (primarily Aspers and Grovesner) out of pocket money when can afford

I will keep the blog up to date with my progress!

Pub/Home Games

Without a doubt my least sucessfull arena of play has been small live games. Why? I don't know but I thought I'd elxplore this in today's post. Possible reasons:

- I'm a bad live player (casino results seem to dispute this)
- I'm easy to read once you get to know me
- I'm too predictable once you get to know me
- The play is too slow therefore I get bored and make bad decisions
- It's just my perception
- The sample of games is too small and dates back to when I was just beginning anyways

As you can see from the above reaasons it has been on my mind for some time! So why do I bother going:

- These games appear to represent very good value compared to online games for same price i.e. softer competition
- They're a good night out and pretty cheap too! I especially like the 'commarderie' (spelling :s)
- They keep my live game from getting too rusty

So it's a constant dilema. What's the big deal? you might ask it's only £10 and it's a night out! Well it's £20 after drinks and taxis and I'm a student. Ultimately though it comes down to one thing - ego. I take poker very seriously when compared to the players I play aginst at home/pub which makes it sting all the more when I get beaten. And as we all know ego is a central part of a poker player, every time it get's knocked down it needs to be rebuilt, in my case that's usually weekly!

Numbers

I don't know why but I'm having trouble relating "real life" money and the money in my poker balance. Of course this is a big problem! Related to this has been my recent increase in online play. This saw me losing £170 one day and making £300 the next wilst on holiday. As a student this is a lot of money to me and although I was on holiday at the time this is becoming a more common theme.

My biggest difficuly is I get bored very quickly when grinding either cash games or SNG's. This inevitabely sees me chasing MTT's of varying sizes and buy-ins as the potential immeadiate results are far more appealing. This tends to have the effect of decimating my hard earned cash through SNG's or cash tables.

What am I trying to say? Well... It's a New Year and I have just got out of debt thanx to some poker success :D This calls for a new plan and unfortuneately a new bankroll as I needed the last one to pay off the debt. I hven't made this plan yet but I know it's gunna have to be somehow diciplined and at the same time keep things relatively interesting for me. Any suggestion are welcome!!! My roll is £100.

Last night was my first attempt at qualifying for the Virgin Poker Festival. Unfortuneately 7th was the best I could manage and 5 places out of 47 were awarded a seat, gutted!!!

TBH I was pretty lucky to reach seventh as I hit a cupl of 3 outers on the river to survive. However it wasn't to be as I attempted an ill fated steal of the blinds by shoving on the shortstack, woops! My reasoning behind it was that we were on the bubble and I was second last in chips, therefore I thought that he might fold and that I needed the chips which equated to 1/3 of my stack. Unfortuneately I had been pretty aggressive in that position and so he felt committed with his J-10 offsuit to a call. I had J-6s and no help came leaving me severely crippled.

Why am I writing about this hand in such detail? To help me reflect upon the decision to push... Part of the influence for this was that I had been watching an Annette_15 training video earlier that day (http://promo.betfair.com/gmd/landing/2008/player/). For those that don't know, her style is ultra aggressive and in this spot she would shove any two cards... BUT perhaps not against a desperate short stack when so close to a qualifying position!

Anyways for those of you don't know the prize for this tournament was a seat in the Virgin Poker Festival in April worth £150. I will have two more attempts!

Background

Just to get the ball rolling I thought I'd give a bit of history about me and my short poker career. I'm 24 years old and currently studying Electrical/Electronic Engineering at Northumbria university, so basically I'm a soap professional dodger.

I started playing poker a couple of years ago when friends decided to have a few home games for £5 or so. This got me hooked and as a result I later opened an account on Pokerstars. Part of my inspiration to do this was that a friend of mine, who was already a pro at this point, seemed to be making a good living form online poker. Right from the beginning he gave me the most crucial piece of advice a beginner can have: "Start small and don't move up til you've built a bankroll that allows it". Standard advice I know but he really impressed this upon me and until recently I have been religous aabout this.

So I started with $1 and $2 SNG's of varying size and was a losing player for a long time, obviously this didnt matter at thesse limits tho. However, gradually I began to level this out until I became break even and eventually started turning a small profit :) At this point I got more interested in poker and started reading about it online and in books. Unfortuneately to date I've only read 3 books (Harrington Vol 1, SNG strategy and a limit poker book) but I plan to change this.

To cut an already long story short I then moved up to $5 nad $10 SNG's on Full Tilt. At last check on the OPR website my ROI was 20% over 500 games :)

My biggest successes to date though are at Aspers casino where I have played about 10 times and reached 4 final tables. On two these I came first although on one of those we split the money four ways. I am very proud of both of these wins as I never considered myself much of a live player before however I will now play live much more often!

Why a blog?

Why start a bog? Rather than boring all my (very patient) friends with my poker stories I thought I'd create a space where I can write about them all and get it off my chest. This way anyone who's acctually interested can come and read about my poker experiences and probably other life ones too!