DapperDanMan's Blog

Time to crush!

2011-09-21T14:39:00.000-07:00

I've quit my job, after working for 6 months as a 'Consultant Electrical Engineer'. I handed in my notice on the last day of my probation period so I could give one weeks notice rather than 4, tbh I was that desperate to get outta there! It was a pretty tough decision as my life roll is low and my bankroll non-existent (i'm staked atm) but for various reasons I felt it had to be done.

I have about enough of a life roll to survive on til the end of the year, and if I haven't banked any profit from playing low-mid stakes mtt's for my backer by then I will be looking for another job. So not the best of circumstances under which to 'go pro' obviously but that's the way it's presented itself and I see it as an opportunity rather than anything else.

I knew early on in the job that I could either be a very good engineer or a very good poker player and that if I tried to be both I would likely be a mediocre version of both (or have no life at all!). So I knew I had to choose.

You might ask why didn't I stick at the job until I'd built up a bigger life roll through saving wages and or poker. I considered that but I didn't choose to because basically I couldn't hack it any longer, the combination of working 37.5 hrs a week in front of a screen doing mentally challenging things at work and then spending 20+ hrs a week doing the same at home playing mtt's til the early hrs was becoming increasingly unhealthy and the two were affecting each other negatively. My work was suffering as I dragged myself in after late nights playing mtts and my game was suffering as I was tilting easier and blowing off steam when I came in from work. In recent weeks I had decided to keep my sessions to the weekends but that tilted me more, because I was having no social life at all!

Despite all this I've managed to turn a profit of around $3k (b4 split) in my staking deal which has been going for 2 months now. Which is a decent start but I feel I can do a lot better under different circumstances and with more volume. So at the end of the day I decided although not the best timing it was right for me to leave the job a.s.a.p. to concentrate on poker full-time. What will I do if I run out of life funds and the results don't come, we'll see... but whilst I hope it doesn't come to that I am not averse to working in any job I can find, if I have to.

That's my jacking in a good job justification rant over! In other news I'm in Ireland, near Cork, atm with my Aussie family who are over for a visit. Just arrived today but it's been nice catching up with them so far :) They've been trying to persuade me to move back over to Oz and I'm considering it but I need to think about it carefully first. Future blog posts about that decision I'm sure.

For now I'm gunna enjoy a week away from the tables to reset my body clock a bit and enjoy spending time with the 'rellies'. When I get back it'll be time to crush!

Time for a change!

2011-08-20T03:53:00.000-07:00

Since I last posted I've started a new staking deal with a Canadian 2+2er. I've been part his stable for about a month now and have had 2 FT's. One of those was a $3k score for 1st in the $11 1r/1a. Overall however I don't think I'm playing my best poker which I feel is largely due to the fact I'm struggling to balance working full time, play some decent volume and have a social life!

In fact I am noticing that when I start a session the idea that I'm using my rare free time to play is tilting me. So I've decided to look for a part time job and if/when I find one, hand in my notice at work. This has not been an easy decision by any means as it is a good job and pays well. But my enthusiasm for it from day 1 has been low and I don't think that's changing any time soon.

So my plan is to find a 16-30hr part time job to pay the bills and continue playing for my staker on the side. I have worked out I can survive doing this for 6 months whether or not I manage to cash out anything from my staking deal. If all goes well however and I manage to cash out a few times then I can consider using that money to go travelling again.

At the end of the day I have realised that a full time professional job does not combine well with an mtt career and I really need to do one or the other to be sucessful, and reamin sane! GL me!

UKIPT day 2

2011-06-19T23:51:00.000-07:00

After settling in at my first table and chipping up to 46k I was promptly moved to another. On the second hand I played I raised the button with K7o and was flatted by the SB. On a flop of Axx rainbow the SB donk lead into me for around 3/4 pot, which in my experience is usually weakness trying to prevent a c-bet. So I raise and he promptly sets me all-in... sigh insta-muck.

A couple of rounds after the blinds are up to 500/1000/100 and I have 28k. I pick up AKs in ep and raise to 2.3x, a young player who seems pretty aggro pre 3-bets me from MP. It folds to me and he has about 18bbs behind so I realise he isn't folding and know it's going in - I shove and he calls off with TT, no help. My last 3bbs goes in with KQo vs A3o and again no help, so I'm sent to the rail within 2hrs of day 2.

Thanks to all my backers and well played to all those who made the money from the NPF.

UKIPT day 1

2011-06-18T02:49:00.000-07:00

Got a mention on the Pokerstars UKIPT blog:

"A special mention should go out to William Poulsen who made our call of the day with queen-high on a A♦3♣4♣4♥4♦ board after Alan Corrigan tried to bluff the river. Poulsen made Day 2 and will be a player that we'll be keeping an eye on."

"William Poulsen, the bluff catcher"

Finished day 1 with 33.3k (about average for day 1a). Day 2 starts in 3 hours, blinds at 400/800/100 and 1 hour levels all the way through, so plenty to work with :)

2011-05-30T22:35:00.000-07:00

Bet your all wondering if your gunna get nit-rolled here? Will 'dapperdan' Poulsen playin a £550 LIVE event?? Have they stopped holdin $26f's on tilt??

.
..
...
....

Official nit-roll:

To cut a long story short I've been thinking for some time about takin a live shot and what better oppurtunity than the UKIPT comin right to my doorstep?

So I've decided to prepare by playin as much live poker as possible b4 Thursday 16th June when I'll be playing day 1a. The things I want to focus on over the next cupl of weeks are mainly learning to judge peoples stack sizes without having to ask! As well as remembering what has gone into the pot before the action is back on me so I don't have to try and count it.

If I can get a handle on that and generally get a bit more comfortable in a live setting, I will feel ready to take on this 4 day marathon, the biggest BI trny I've ever played.

Watch this space for an update on how the prep is going and then twitter (see right >>) for live updates from 16th June 2pm. GL :)

Weeeeeeeeeeee!!! $6k GTD shipped :D

2011-05-22T09:37:00.001-07:00

1st 4 figure score in what feels like ages and to top it off it was a 1st :D GET IINNNNN!!!

All Change

2011-05-11T03:21:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

In the world of Pokerz:

• Online poker banned in USA - Although I feel sympathetic to the large amount of grinders out there who’ve had their livelihoods taken from them, a part of me is pleased to see those regs leave my tables. Selfish I know, but poker never was the most altruistic game.

There’s a lot of debate about whether this will make the games softer or not, but I don’t read too much into the speculation personally. As far as I’m concerned the key is to analyze the differences at the tables, not on the forums. That said, my feeling so far is the games are softer if you can adjust to the wilder European style. Regs also seem easier to identify (in MTT’s) because there’s a smaller pool of them now so you can remember who they are easier (not easy while playing low volume at low-mid stakes MTT’s where fields are large).

• NPF is no more – My local poker forum (Newcastle Poker Forum) recently closed it’s doors. I’ve been a member there for about 2 years now I think and have come to know many of the regular posters both online and in person. I also recently received their ‘online player of the year award’ something I was very proud to be presented with. I don’t understand the reasons behind it personally as I’m not one to keep up with internal politics but either way it’s a shame.

On the bright side a new forum has sprung up almost immeadiately called North East Poker Forum - www.nepoker.co.uk

Despite all this I’ve been playing a bit more recently as I settle into the routine at work, I’m able to have a few late nights here and there playing mainly turbo MTT’s. No binks since I started the job over a month ago but a few near misses. I’m also completing a stake from a few players on the NPF to play 3 multi-entry MiniFTOPS events on consecutive Sundays. The stake amounted to $520 and allows me to play events: #1, #24 and the Main Event. So far I’ve played Event #1 and didn’t cash, in part thanks to losing a big pot with AK vs AQ AIPF near the bubble.

Will keep y’all updated with my MiniFTOPS results etc, GL!

Where's my head at?

2011-04-27T01:27:00.000-07:00

I'm now 1 month into my new job and tbh I'm not sure whether it's workin out 4 me yet. Working as a 'consultant engineer' is very different to any job I've done b4 with the main difference being the level of professionalism required. Rockin up half cut or tired from a night spent online chasing 5 figure scores is just not acceptable and sumthin I just can't pull off.

It's got 2 major things goin for it tho that I wouldn't get in any other job and that's a decent salary (low varience 2) and it's the start of a career path. However these 2 things aren't necessarily what I'm after just now. Because last year I made a similar amount playing mtt's at fairly low volume compared to most pros. Secondly I'm really not sure if I'm ready for this career path thing. But that's another issue.

Other than that life's ok, I've been cycling to work and in general the structure is doing me good, as is having a garunteed amount of money in my account each month tbh.

What about poker though??? Well, I don't think I'm playing my best just now. I was reflecting last night on this after busting a 250 man $55f in 18th when I called a reg's 1.5x pot overshove on the turn with 2nd pair, 3rd kicker - he had top 2 btw. I came to the conclusion I'm suffering from self inflicted burn out. It's not so much that I've been playing daft amounts of volume or even running bad, it's basically because I've been neglecting other things and as such I'm blaming poker rather than myself.

I forsee this continuing for awhile and my play being affected too, so I need some kind of damage limitation measures in place:

1. Be aware of this attitude and it's causes.
2. Make time for the things I've neglected e.g. fitness + enjoyin the nice weather.
3. Set a monthly stop loss limit for poker from wages. To prevent any tilt snowball effects.
4. Consider giving online a break and playing solely live in preperation for UKIPT Newcastle.

In terms of number 2 I'm seeing a personal trainer on Thursday for an introductory session. If that goes well I will make the +ev investment of employing him for 6 weeks to kick start me getting back into the gym & eating right etc.

As for 3 & 4 I'm seriously considering setting a £200 stop loss per week for playing live cash games and giving online a rest. The idea would be to play £50NL a few nights a week, more on whether I decide to do this later.

Anyways I think I've made your ears bleed enuf for now if u've got this far!!! Thanks for listening and as ever your opinions are appreciated. see you on the tables soon! GL :)

2011-04-10T15:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the the NPF 3rd Anniversary trny and awards. It was a very proud moment for me as I received the award for 'online player of the year' :)

As I discussed with 'Apokerlypse' after he received his award for 'live player of the year' recognition becomes more important in poker the more you detach yourself from the money. Peronally I almost take greater satisfaction from 'bragging' about my wins to a couple of trusted mates and the online poker community than the cash itself. Which is represented by numbers on a screen that never tell the full story as they're constantly changing.

Today I also played 17 mtt's staked by 'Stumpy' on the NPF. It was decent session lasting 8 hrs but despite cashing four times I didn't manage to break even, such is poker though :)

That's all for now, will post up when I have more to say. GL.

2011-03-25T03:41:00.000-07:00

So I havn't blogged for a while, why?

1) I got a job
2) I havn't had a 4 figure score since the last $3r chop
3) I'm lazy

Just as I was settling down to my first properly organised session after deciding to take a shot at 'going pro' I recieved an email from the Engineering consultancy I did my 1 year 'work placement with. 2 weeks later a recieve an offer to work for them as a 'Consultant Engineer'. So I decided to bite the bullet and take the job, putting poker firmlyon the back burner. Basically if I were to turn down such an offer I would be mental, so I took it.

Prior to starting I booked to go to Barcelona to see my friend who I went travelling with in Spain. He had stayed there when I headed to Oz and found a job as an Au-pair (looking after somones kid/s whilst living with the family). By the time I went to see him he was in his second job in a mansion with a very wealthy family. My week there was fun, seeing both the day and night life of Barca. We visited everything from Gaudi buildings to nightclubs & casinos.

Fast-forward to now and I've been working for 2 weeks. The job is interesting and varied and the people are friendly. As for poker, like i said it's on a back burner, MTT's are simply too time consuming to put in any decent volume whilst working 9-5. I've had a stab at 6-max cash but gotten my fingers burnt playing 15k hands of $25NL - $100NL. I need to do a lot of work i think to adjust my game to the many differences of this format.

I'll leave you with a fun hand I played last nite at Aspers (50p/50p blinds):

hero raises to £3.50 UTG with AA
4 players flat call

flop: K7K

Hero checks, check, check, bet £5, fold, hero calls, fold, fold.

on the turn: K7KK

Hero leads £10, call.

River: K7KK7

Hero leads £25...

the guy tanks for about 2 mins saying cant believe im gunna fold... then calls with: 77

$3r $40k GTD 3-way deal :D :D :D

2011-02-17T13:40:00.000-08:00

This mornin I made my first ever $3r FT on stars :D I've been playing these trnys for sooooo long, yet despite their softness and ease of building a good stack in the rebuy period I've been frustrated by never FTing one tbh.

So I was extremely chuffed with the above $4k score which came about via a 3 way ICM chop. I should really have had twice as many chips and therfore the same payout as 2nd ($4377) but somehow I managed to try a big bluff for all of my opponents chips (half of mine) just as the moderator appeared to discuss 'numbers'. I put that down mainly to tiredness as it was 11am and I hadn't slept yet (lessons to be learnt there).

In other news my extremly short attempt at 'going pro' may end v.soon as I have an interview with an electrical engineering company 2moro :) More news on this to follow after the interview. Today though was a day for celebration! So I've been drinking and hangin out with mates etc. all day :)

Almost forgot to mention I've had a couple of lessons with Poker Pwnage coaches lately (Tony Gurerra and 'HerschelW') which I've really enjoyed! I won these through an internal promotion 'trny' held each week by the site and have 1 more comining up. As well as this I'm in a couple of HH review groups that I will be trying to attend more regularly.

100th Post: 3 Month Plan

2011-02-04T04:59:00.000-08:00

I have now moved into my new flat with a friend and I'm planning to get into some better lifestyle habbits. So even if the attempt at 'going pro' on a limited BR falls thru some important life changes will have been implemented. Here's the 3 month plan:

'Work'

Sunday - Thursday (Register from 1pm-4pm)

Exercise

Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday (before I start a session)

Cycle to the gym

Healthy eating

Light breakfast b4 exercise

Lunch - cook healthy substantial meal

Dinner - Have healthy snacks for when working late + leftovers from lunchtime

This is my initial plan but it is flexible so long as I maintain a healthy lifestyle and reasnable working hours. This lifestlye change is long overdue tbh and I'm determined to make it happen over the next 3 months. Hopefully it might even improve my poker 2!!!

Let the games begin!!!

2011-02-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

I will be taking the plunge and moving into a flat on Thursday with a mate of mine. I have set aside 3 months rent + living expenses. Once I've sold a few things this will leave me with a BR of about $4k which is a lot less than I wanted for 'going pro'. However, I reckon this is a rare oppurtunity to give poker a shot properly which would be a lot harder to do if I was settled into a job!

So basically I'll be living cheaply and preying for some more of pattented 'run good' over the next 3 months. If my shouts of HOLD!!! at the screen work then maybe a longterm career might develop... Time will tell :)

Oh forgot to mention for those who are interested I will be playing MTT's (maybe some 90 mans too and using a 1% BRM rule, aggressive BRM I know but it's a go big or go home (litterally) plan!

I like January!!!!!!!!!

2011-01-17T22:32:00.000-08:00

Final hand JJ vs QQ.

It has been an awesome month indeed!!!

Nearly forgot to mention had another FT the otha day in a $33f where I came 6th for $750 and won $150 coaching voucher the next day. 1 hour with Tony Guererra me thinks :)

2010 Roundup / 2011 Goals

2011-01-10T06:02:00.000-08:00

2010 Achievments

Completed my Electrical/Electronic Engineering Degree, got a 2ii with honours.

Had my first ever year with decent profit to time spent ratio, with $20k profit.

Travelled in Spain, Morocco and Australia for 4 months.

2010 Shortcomings

Didn't get as high a grade as I was capable of at Uni (partly due to poker).

Managed my winnings poorly (cashing out 2 much)

Health and fitness could be better

2011 Goals

Find a job a.s.a.p. (I've decided that I don't have enuf in the bank to go pro comfortbly and I think comfort is important for your game etc.)

Get fit

Continue to pwn online MTT's

Consider the BR and living costs savings required to go pro. Atm I have a feeling that $20k BR and 3 months living expenses would be ok.

Ship the $5 2r/1a for $6.1k weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

2011-01-06T04:14:00.000-08:00

2011 gettin off to a great start :D Will be postin my 2011 goals and 2010 review v.soon... just got to work out what my goals are lol!

Spoiler: it's probly gunna involve gettin a job...

4-way deal for $2.2k

2011-01-02T17:13:00.001-08:00

Chopped this after they asked to chop it 5-ways but I refused. By the time it was 4 ways the remaing players were pretty good imo and I was the shorty so I accepted an ICM chop.

2010 recap/2011 goals coming soon. Had a great New Years and xmas, hope y'all did too!

5th in $19.5k GTD for $1.8k :)

2010-12-19T00:53:00.000-08:00

MiniFTOPS Update

2010-12-15T00:14:00.000-08:00

Since I'm most of the way through my MiniFTOPS schedule I thought I'd update you on my progress:

Event #1 Wednesday Dec 08 21:00 ET
$20 + $2 NL Hold'em $250k GTD----------------------------2967/15328-----$0

Event #10 Saturday Dec 11 17:00 ET
$20 + $2 NL Hold'em Turbo $150k GTD----------------------2583/8693-----$0

Event #11 Sunday Dec 12 13:00 ET
$12 + $1 NL Hold'em Knockout $250k GTD----------------19449/26000+-----$0

Event #13 Sunday Dec 12 17:00 ET
$30 + $3 NL Hold'em $450k GTD-----------------------489/16,837-----$131.33

Event #19 Tuesday Dec 14 21:00 ET
$50 + $5 NL Hold'em 4xShootout $125k GTD------------------2166/2544-----$0

Event #29 (2-Day) Saturday Dec 18 13:00 ET
$200 + $16 NL Hold'em Two-Day Event

Main Event Sunday Dec 19 17:00 ET
$70 + $5 NL Hold'em $1M GTD

As you can see only 1 event went reasonably well and I busted that with trip Aces vs a better kicker.

On the plus side I cashed for $131.33 which by not entering the $109 6max event has allowed me to enter the $216 2-day freezeout event with 600k GTD. My backers have also agreed that any leftover cashes can be reinvested in either event #33 ($20r) or other MTT's. So 2 events 2 go with potentially more.

In other news, my Gran passed away recently. She was 90 years old and she had a good life. We are all sad to see her go but also happy that she is now at peace.

Just a quick post to say...

2010-12-03T22:12:00.000-08:00

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Mini-FTOPS and other stuff

2010-12-02T20:07:00.000-08:00

Managed to secure a $329 7 event Mini-FTOPS stake, playing these events:

Event #1 Wednesday Dec 08 21:00 ET
$20 + $2 NL Hold'em $250k GTD

Event #10 Saturday Dec 11 17:00 ET
$20 + $2 NL Hold'em Turbo $150k GTD

Event #11 Sunday Dec 12 13:00 ET
$12 + $1 NL Hold'em Knockout $250k GTD

Event #13 Sunday Dec 12 17:00 ET
$30 + $3 NL Hold'em $450k GTD

Event #16 Monday Dec 13 21:00 ET
$100 + $9 NL Hold'em $300k GTD

Event #19 Tuesday Dec 14 21:00 ET
$50 + $5 NL Hold'em 4xShootout $125k GTD

Main Event Sunday Dec 19 17:00 ET
$70 + $5 NL Hold'em $1M GTD

First I tried to get the stake on 'Part Time Poker' and failed due to having no rep and also because there's been a lot of high profile grims on there lately. So I posted on NPF with the same deal (75/25 in backers favour no MU) and it was snapped up immeadiately.

There are 6 stakers with various percentages of me. Looking forward to this series and have picked only events I feel I have a significant edge in i.e. no 6max, turbo, HU etc.

December is a make or brake month for me in the sense that I need to do well in order to consider going pro next year. Otherwise it'll be time to bite the bullet and find work. Obv if I do get a job then I will continue to play, but a serious MTT schedule and a full time job do not mix well if at all!

In other news: I've had great week away on Rottnest Island, just off Perth Western Australia. It's a nice place with loadsa beaches and not many cars etc. So I've been fishing, snorkelling etc. and generally taking a break from poker to get the downswing out of my system. But I'm ready to get back to the tables now! :)

Update from Down Unda!

2010-11-21T01:04:00.000-08:00

Time for a quick update from Down Under.

Weather: Sweet as fook! :D

Stars staking deal: Not so grand, roll is down to around $850 from a starting point of $1.5k. To be expected when playing large field MTT's but still not desireable ofc, for me or the backer.

Full Tilt: Been going deep on a regular basis, but not getting there :( Most notable results were 10th and 11th last week in 28k gtd and 18k gtd... not fun but encouraging none the less! Also just got my first staking deal on PTP, it's only $55 for playing 10 45 man $5.50 sng's but it's the first step in building a rep on that site. Playing these later on today followed by the Sunday grind :)

Other poker stuff: Joined Poker Study Groups which is a site that appears to have potential but a long way to go yet. Am also giving one of it's members a couple of sweat sessions. Poker Pwnage is continuing to stimulate my game :) I have a 6 month membership there and intend to make full use of it!

Oz: Been getting used to my dads powerboat which I'm goin fishing on soon :) Spending time with the family and eating/drinking well.

On a sombre note: One of my best friends mother's has just passed away, it's a very sad time for him and needless to say I wish I could be there for him. My Gran is also v.ill and I wish I could be there for her and the rest of my family. But we can't be everywhere at once and the dietance is huge. Love to all back home.

Backing Decisions

2010-11-06T03:06:00.000-07:00

I recently made a decision to seek out a backer. The main reason for this is that after paying off my loan my roll is running low for the stakes I want to play and I need most of it for future living expenses anyways.

The first thing I did was post on the NPF a thread asking for peoples advice where to look for staking. 5 different people showed an interest in staking me almost immeadiately, this wasn't why I made the thread but was a welcome bonus.

Out of the 5 people interested I recieved 2 firm offers and chose to go with the best of these. This offer was a roll of $1.5k to play $22f's and below as well as $5r's and below. The backer asked for a 50/50 split of profits and I agreed.

I am very happy with this deal. I did seek to set up a second deal with another backer on Full Tilt but the best offer I recieved was $500 and 60/40 in backers favour. Upon some thought I decided to stick with one backer on Stars and use the last of my roll on Full Tilt.

I did want to switch to being backed in 100% of my games so I could use the remainder of my roll as a cushion to live on for a while incase varience doesn't swing my way. However the deal I was offered was exclusively on Stars and therefore I would need another on Full Tilt. I may yet look into this but in the meantime I will make a compromise.

October Summary

2010-10-29T23:11:00.000-07:00

Below is a list of my deep/semi-deep runs on Full Tilt this month, not including tonights runs in the $3r and $50k gtd. I havn't bothered with the Stars results because they aren't v.good. But as you can see not bad considering I'm a bit patchy when it comes to volume atm.

29 Oct 10 $9,500 KO Guarantee * HENL $11 1978 185 $17
28 Oct 10 $33,000 KO Guarantee HENL $26 1780 26 $114
28 Oct 10 $10,000 Guarantee (1r+1a) HENL $11+ 750 36 $56
25 Oct 10 $33,000 KO Guarantee HENL $26 1841 174 $41
21 Oct 10 $10,500 Guarantee (Rebuy) HENL $3.30+ 1888 28 $54
21 Oct 10 $35,000 Guarantee HENL $26 1585 21 $126
15 Oct 10 $10,500 Guarantee (Rebuy) HENL $3.30+ 1723 94 $24
14 Oct 10 $18K Super Stack HENL $26 807 88 $35
11 Oct 10 $12,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) HENL $5.50+ 1056 50 $40
11 Oct 10 $9,500 KO Guarantee HENL $11 1866 173 $16

This must be the first, possibly 2nd, month in 6 or 7 that I haven't had a $1k+ score. So can't complain really. Woulda been nice to continue the run and it's a shame not to be on the 'Best of NPF's' 'achievemnt' bulletin again. I've been on every one, bar August, since May... 4 outta 5 aint bad and I think I might of been on April's if there was one! Anyways roll on Australia (leavin on Nov 2nd) and hopefully some more deep runs!

The Plan

2010-10-18T16:40:00.000-07:00

I have come to the conclusion that I need to organise my poker playing better. What do I mean by this? Well put simply I've decided that I will only play either 3 or 4 days per week. On those days I'm happy to put in 12 hour sessions if I feel up to it, but my days off must be maintained as poker free days. The reasons behind this are that a balanced life is important for both success as a poker player and general enjoyment of life.

I recently signed up to Poker Pwnage (a training site focussing on mtt's) and watched a video called 'Optimizing your play'. In this video, GhettoFabolous, a well known v.successful mtt player, talks about the importance of remembering why we got into poker. Freedom. The flexible lifestyle that can be enjoyed by a poker player is often not taken advantage of by many pros.

Over the next two months I will be visiting family in Australia. I will be playing poker during this period but will be using my new rule of 3 - 4 days per week only. I see the next 2 months as make or break with regard to whether I can become a professional. After paying off my Student loan and travelling for two months my roll is down to around $3k. So the next couple of months is gunna have to see a heater almost as good as the one I went on before I went travelling.

So in order to increase my chances of such a run I will be trying to put in more volume with the help of 'Table Ninja', initally playing 6 tables and hopefully more once I feel comfortable. Combining this with a more balanced lifestyle and watching 1 training video per day I hope I can build a roll big enough to officially consider going pro next year, if not, it's find a job time!

Back to Blighty

2010-10-10T01:33:00.000-07:00

;
After 2 and a half months travelling in Spain and Morocco it's time to head home. I am flying back to London tomorrow to stay with a friend and maybe hit a few casinos with my m8 Vince before heading back to Newcaastle.

Although I'm looking forward to seeing friends and family back home it won't be for long as I will be goin to Australia on November 2nd. All in all the trip has been a success, and has whetted my appatite for more travelling. My favourite part as probably been Marrakech along with the myriad of crazy people we've met along the way!

As for poker I havn't played a great deal since my last win, however I have dabbled with a bit of 50NL and 100NL 6max cash... I made $200 but got very bored in the process. So despite it's convienience (v.handy when travelling) I will soon be back to the MTT's.

Bink Holiday

2010-09-11T10:13:00.000-07:00

Today was a Bink Holiday! Two nights ago I won my biggest tourney yet, not in prize money, but in field size. It was a çn $11 freezeout with 2498 players. It was a challenging tourney, partly becaues of the external circumstances. These included:

1) Being tired after already finishing 24th in the 32k GTD earlier that day
2) Almost ditching the tourney as I was nearly persuaded to go out that night
3) Constantly having to move around the hostel to find powerpoints and free rooms
4) Being HU whhilst in the common room that I wasn´t supposed to be in at that time of night, with my drunken m8 asleep next 2 me and 2 ppl shagging in the kitchen to my left. However it was impossible to move though as my battery was low and I would´ve got blinded out!

These are the trials of a travelling poker playr I spose. Neways, as I mentioned today was a ´Bink Holiday´ so me and my m8 Tahti decided to ditch the traditional Kebab, Fries and Coke for lunch and headed for a nice resteraunt for a lush meal:

- Partridge Salad with Almonds, Dates and Parmasan.
- Iberian Ham Croquettes.
- Goats Chees, Grilled Bacon and Fried Onion on Toast.
- Baby Artichokes and Prawn Cassarolle.

Yesterday I moved into a shared flat in Malaga with some ppl we met at the Hostel. One is Danish, another English and there´s a Hawaian guy too. The English guy, who wants poker lessons, is training to be a bull fighter! He´s hopefully gunna find me some tickets 2 a fight as well! The flat has is 200 euros a month and has a class view, the only problem though is there´s no internet. So here I am in an internet cafe updating my blog and trying 2 work out if I can play poker here. Adios!

Spain Part 2

2010-09-01T00:47:00.000-07:00

2 weeks have passed and we find ourselves back in Malaga. If I were to sum up the last two weeks on the Theo's farm in a sentence it would be: 'Hot hard work in a beautiful scenic place interspersed with a challenging atmosphere'. What do I mean by 'challenging atmosphere'? Basically there were several arguments while we there including the owner having a go at us. Apparently this was commonplace though according to a family who lived on the farm. This put a bit of a downer on the whole experience tbh. However we gained a lot of experience from this this farm.

So far we´ve seen a snake, many lizards and lots of wasps. There was actually a wasp nest in our accommodation with wasps in it that liked to build cocoons in our clothes around dead spiders to feed their babies eggs on, harmless though.

One of the best things we did during our stay was go to the local village festival. It's an annual event called a ´feria´that every village has. There was singing, dancing booze and food, much fun :)

Our plan is to use the hostel in Malaga as a stepping stone to make plans about where to go next. A strong possibility is that we´ll go to the South of France to do some grape picking. The season for this begins very soon and we have a contact there to help us find work. In the meantime Tahti (my m8 who I´m travelling with) will be working part-time in the hostel and I´ll be chilling out and maybe playing a bit of poker :)

Spain Part 1

2010-08-20T04:36:00.000-07:00

We have only been here for a week and a half but it has been eventful! We arrived in Malaga on Wednesday at 8pm local time. A friend of mine who lives in Malaga picked us up and took us to a hostel. After seeing Malaga from a vantage point (beautiful!) we went for Tapas and drinks.

The next day we walked around the centre and had our introduction to Spain which included heat and the language barrier. This was swiftly followed though by an evening swimming in the sea and enjoying a beach bbq with some very friendly Spanish people.

The following morning it was time to move on and begin ourr WWOOFING experience up in the mountains. It took an entire day to travel there via 2 trains and lots of waiting but on arrival we were met by a friendly Belgian man named Phillip who drove us tot he farm. After days travel an early n ight was in order.

In the morning we began work. The job we were given was to shave the bark off of 30-40 logs using spades, 6y days on we are half way through. Most days have consisted of waking up at 7am and doing this job until midday when it becomes too hot. At this point we sleep, swim, eat, play games with the kids etc. until it cools down in the evening.

Some of the best points about the farm are (in no order):

1) The view over the valley
2) The pool
3) The Charecters
4) Cats and dogs (many)

Today we have a day off as we have worked 6 days straight so we are relaxing by playing games until it cools down and we can go for a walk, possibly to the river at the bottom of the valley.

'Liars Dice' (Drinking version)

2010-08-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

I have been playing various games with mates recently including: 'Risk' 'Gin Rummy' and 'Liars Dice'. One of the most fun games we played though was a home made adaptation of Liars Dice into a drinking game. 5 of us had a mint time playing this game last night so I thought I share it with you. Be warned though, if you're a bit of liteweight like me then you can easilly end up drinking half a bottle of Whiskey to yourself in an hour or so = messy! :s

RULES:

The rules for Liars Dice that we used are pretty simple. We started with 5 players (any amount works), each of us getting 5 dice. All players roll their dice at once but conceal the dice they roll.

After choosing who goes first at random, the first player then makes a 'bid'. For example if 2 of his concealed dice are 3's then he might guess that there are 3 or more 3's on the whole table combined (including his). The next player then has 3 options:

1) Bid that there are 3 or more 4's, 5's or 6's
2) Bid that there are 4 or more of any face value (or any number above this)
3) Call the previous bidder a 'Liar'

Play goes on with players upping their bids until a liar is called. At that point the player who is wrong in this dispute must discard a die. After a player has lost all 5 dice he/she is out!

DRINKING:

Now the fun part. With 5 players we used thefollowing rules which can easiily be adjusted for different circumstances:

1st out - rolls 2x6 sided dice and drinks the number of shots they roll

2nd out - rolls a 10 sided die and drinks the number of shots they roll

3rd out - rolls 2x4 sided dice and drinks the number of shots they roll

2nd place - rolls one 6 sided die and drinks...

1st place - rolls one 4 sided die and drinks...

One final rule we added to this was that before downing each shot the drinker gets to roll a 6 sided die and if they roll a 6 they get to nominate someone else to drink that shot.

1 bottle lasted us 2 games but a second bottle is always handy ;)

ENJOY!!!

Chopped $42k GTD HU Weeeeeeeeeee!!!

2010-07-23T20:54:00.000-07:00

Varience is my new best friend, I know we've fallen out before but we're getting along like a house on fire again! I can't believe how the last 2/3 months have gone :s As I mentioned in the last post I didn't even have a bankroll very recently, instead I was treating each buy-in as an entertainment expenditure... now I'm paying off my student loan with my earnings :D

I choppped this for $6.9k (using ICM) he got $7.5k... Basically I did not want to play HU for $3k! Probably could have squeezed an extra cupl of hundred out of the deal but was too overwhelmed to bargin!!

UNREAL is definately the word 2 describe the past few months of poker for me UNREAL

Time to reflect and plan!

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

FULL TILT PROFIT GRAPH

POKERSTARS PROFIT GRAPH

IPOKER PROFIT GRAPH

After my recent success with online MTT's and because my blog posts of late have been poor, I decided to reevaluate my results to date. With the help of sharkscope I've been able to get together these 3 graphs that show the sites I have played the vast majority of my poker on. I have played on other sites but only for relatively small amounts and and few games. As for live poker, I have been keeping records almost since I began going to the casino and overall my results are about break even, mainly due to a couple of long l8 night losing cash sessions that were balanced out by tourney scores.

To cut a long story short I've played about 2000 online tourneys on the main 3 sites I play and am about $14,000 in profit. I'd say about half of these were SNG's and later on the other half were MTT's. If it wasn't for MTT's, something I gained a taste for whilst playing for Bankroll Supply these graphs would look somewhat less dramatic!

More to the point though if it wasn't for the handful of big scores I've had lately they would look pretty depressing! However, I wouldn't have played 1000 games at the stakes I do if I hadn't continually been running deep.

In acctual fact if it hadn't been for Paul Jackson at Bankroll Supply (the company who sponsored me on the basis of 500 SNG's at the $5 level and below) I would still be grinding small stakes SNG's for a tiny hourly rate! It was Paul Jackson who persuaded me in my first few lessons with him to move up and play $20 SNG's with the odd MTT, which is when I got the bug!

My roll is now sitting at around $10k, as $4k has been spent along the way :) As such the time has come to make some decisions about my next move. I woulld love to continue with my current plan of playing tourneys between $10-$100 (i.e. max buyin of 1% of my roll) with the odd shot at a Sunday major or medium live tourney, but...
I have just completed my degree and really want to do some travelling, for which I have some savings but probably not enough.

Thinking about it now I think the best move would be this: withdraw (reluctantly lol) half of my bankroll and put this in a savings account to keep me going on my travels and until I find a job. This would still leave me with a $5k roll which would be enuf to play up to $50 tourneys which tbh above which I'm probably punching above my weight at this stage! Any advice on this decison is, as ever, appreciated :)

In summary as tempting as it is to push up the tourney ladder as fast as possible, finishing uni is a rare oppurtunity to travel b4 I get tied down to a job. On top of this realistically I should probably not get too confident and start skipping levels just because I'm doing well atm. Instead the best decision seems to be to attempt to consolidate my recent sucess by staying at the same level and taking the oppurtunity of a lifetime to see the world!

Running like GOD!!!

2010-07-01T16:19:00.001-07:00

Special thanx 2 the NPF rail who nearly made me pmsl!!!!!! :D

What next? More/bigger MTT's - sounds like a plan!

1st for $2.9k again! C'mon!!!

2010-06-29T16:40:00.000-07:00

This is the second time I have placed 1st in this tournament :D

7th in $15k GTD

2010-06-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

PokerStars Tournament #317010207, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50 USD
1245 players
Total Prize Pool: $19490.00 USD
Tournament started 2010/06/27 5:15:00 ET

Dear DapperDan098,

You finished the tournament in 7th place. A USD 633.42 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 229.41 tournament leader points in this tournament. For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/leader-board/

Congratulations!

Thank you for participating.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!

My run continues!

2010-06-17T09:11:00.000-07:00

6th out of 1248 is yet another result to be proud of! However I don't feel I played my best at several moments throughout this tourney so was lucky to make the FT :@)

It was one of the longest FT's I've played (around an hour just to finish in 6th) as everyone was still quite deep. Obviously a little dissapointed to finish 6th but $1k has softened the blow :)

Are rules 4 breakin?

2010-06-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

As I'm in London this week I decided to meet an old friend and play a bit of £1/£2 cash at the Empire Casino in Leister Square. I started well, by more than doubling my £50 buy-in with KK. I then played KQ a bit badly but rivered a Q to take me up to £200. Soon enuf I had £250 asnd was feeling very comfortable with the table.

As the night wore on though my recent lack of sleep began to tell and my play suffered as it always does. This combined with some horrible beats (won't go into those) meant I had to rebuy for another £50. More beats ensued and tilt/tiredness combined so that I finished the session at 6am down £200. Being down £200 is not a huge problem atm, but not stopping when I knew I was too tired to play is. Some rules were just not meant to be broken!

Ship the $10k GTD!! :D :D :D

2010-05-25T02:29:00.000-07:00

Weeeeeeeeeee!!! Shipped the $10k GTD on Stars last nite for $2.9k :D It was a $33 buy-in tourney with 500 players. I played a lot more conservatively than I have been recently mostly because I was on table with aggressive players for a good chunk of the tourney, but also because I feel my dicipline has been slipping of late.

I made it to heads up as an underdog by about 2:1. But after folding the first 6 hands I raised on the button with J8o. He called and the flop came 853 rainbow, he bet, I raised and he raised me all-in, he had k9o and I held up to take the lead. The very next hand he raises the Button and I ship over the top with A9s, he snap calls with KTs and doesn't improve Weeeeeeee!!!

The most interesting hand I played on the FT was this:

PokerStars Game #44558314612: Tournament #274587212, $30+$3 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXXIII (8000/16000) - 2010/05/24 15:19:18 ET
Table '274587212 16' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 2: Specki76 (151472 in chips)
Seat 3: DapperDan098 (320140 in chips)
Seat 4: LordGamblor7 (753080 in chips)
Seat 6: cwirek1982 (275308 in chips)
Specki76: posts the ante 2000
DapperDan098: posts the ante 2000
LordGamblor7: posts the ante 2000
cwirek1982: posts the ante 2000
Specki76: posts small blind 8000
DapperDan098: posts big blind 16000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DapperDan098 [Ts Kh]
LordGamblor7: raises 32000 to 48000
cwirek1982: calls 48000
Specki76: folds
DapperDan098: calls 32000
*** FLOP *** [7s 2s 3s]
DapperDan098: checks
LordGamblor7: bets 64000
cwirek1982: folds
DapperDan098: calls 64000
*** TURN *** [7s 2s 3s] [Qs]
DapperDan098: checks
LordGamblor7: bets 80000
DapperDan098: calls 80000
*** RIVER *** [7s 2s 3s Qs] [8s]
DapperDan098: checks
LordGamblor7: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DapperDan098: shows [Ts Kh] (a flush, Queen high)
LordGamblor7: mucks hand
DapperDan098 collected 448000 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 448000 | Rake 0
Board [7s 2s 3s Qs 8s]
Seat 2: Specki76 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: DapperDan098 (big blind) showed [Ts Kh] and won (448000) with a flush, Queen high
Seat 4: LordGamblor7 mucked [5s Ac]
Seat 6: cwirek1982 (button) folded on the Flop

I called on the flop because he had been playing really aggressively short handed and I felt two overs and a 10 high flush draw was good against his range, even OOP. I feel I should have shoved the river though as I'm not folding if he puts me all-in, so I'm just giving him a chance to check back worse hands. Still pleased with it though I think :)

3rd in 20k GTD

2010-05-09T02:43:00.000-07:00

This morning at 5:15am, 9 hours after I began playing, I finished 3rd in the 20k GTD on Pokerstars. This result has surpassed all my previous results in terms of the size of the tournmanet (3,473 runners) and the size of the cash $2,855. Needless to say I'm pretty happy with that!!!

G Casino Online Poker Client Launched

2010-04-23T13:14:00.000-07:00

G Casino launched an online poker client as part of the Ipoker network the other day. They asked me to review the new site and these are my thoughts.

Firstly I already like the Ipoker network because I think it's the biggest network that doesn't allow American players to have an account. Not that I agree with the American poker ban but it is generally accepted that American players are better overall than European ones. This is probably because Americans have to jump through certain loopholes that we don't to play so casual players are deterred. Also as a Nation they have been playing Poker for longer than anyone else.

Secondly I am fond of the relatively small sized MTT's, when compared with the likes of Stars and Full Tilt, at the $10-$30 level. The fields are much more manageable meaning less variance for a regular MTT player.

My experience of playing on G Casino Itself was overall a positive one. Apart from one thing which I will explain later. I liked the fact that the tables were resizeable, which I don't think is an option on some Ipoker clients. But most of all I enjoyed the fish! After losing my initial £20 deposit with the usual AA losing to QTo etc. I decided to enter a WSOP sattelite.

G Casino runs sattelites to bothe the Main Event and the side events, something I've been looking for... So anyway I entered a $20 R/A event with about 12 players. This qualifies you for a $215 Super Sattelite that has a prize package worth $5,500. The package includes the buy-in for 2 NL side events + travel & expenses etc.

The structure is unusual though in that your rebuy is worth 2,250 chips (starting stack = 1,500) and the add-on is worth a further 3,000 chips. So it seemed to me that to get the best value I should rebuy at least once and definately add-on. So I rebuy immeadiatley and get busted by a fish with Q4o vs. my JJ. The players on my table must of thought they had clicked on Facebook Poker because the standard was abysmal!! This prompted me to rebuy and I manged to reach the final 4 with first garunteed a seat (to super sat) and 2nd gtd. $185. Then came the add-on period and the bad news for me... I had already made 3 deposits that day (my first on the site) at which point they instantly lock your account!?!?! So I couldn't add-on. To cut a long story short I went all-in pre with AJ as I only had 9 BB's and was called by T4o... straight on the river omg etc. I'll be back to fish in that pond!! :D

Security informed me that this was a measure taken to protect players agaminst fraud and apologised so I guess it's OK just such bad timing! They will reopen my account tomorrow.

The site will also run a special gcasino.com £50,000 Multiplier Tournament on June 20^th. The more players that enter the tournament the more added value gcasino.com will contribute – up to £50,000! In addition the overall winner will gain a seat in the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) £150,000 Champion of Champions tournament. Promos like this mean G Casino is definitely worth a look! http://www.gcasino.com/poker

Nice weeeee Score :)

2010-04-15T06:13:00.001-07:00

I played a lot of $3.30 rebuy 180 man turbo SNG's in the past couple of days. This was the best of 3 final tables (2nd if you cant see the image). The other two were 4th and 8th. I was pretty chuffed to finish 2nd in this one, although £200 is not a massive score I feel I've been playing really well in these soft fields, exploiting the rebuy fish to the max :D

I feel that small buy-in rebuy tourneys up to $10 are some of the softest games out there. I really like getting the oppurtunity to regulary build a massive stack within the 1st hour of a tourney which gives you the chance to exploit weak players from there on in. Obviously gambling early has it's downisdes e.g. I played in the same tourney 2 nights ago and was in for around $40 I think (in a $3 rebuy). Becuase I had a crazy guy on my left who went all-in pre every hand! Everyone else had folded and I kept getting hands like KJ and A6, so I went in ahead almost every time and lost... c'est la vie! The 3 final tables though show that it's worth it to take some marginally +EV gambles early though imo.

EDIT: Just won 2 tourney seats aswell :D Sunday Million and daily $90k worth $270 in total. Weeeeeeeeee!!!!

Experimenting with Aggression 2

2010-04-04T07:43:00.000-07:00

Following on from my last post I've had a few more thoughts about aggression. Whilst Playing in the Newcastle Poker Forum 2nd Birthday tournament I made an unconcious decision to play more aggressively than I usually do live. When I play live I usually play pretty tight and the times I've tried to get a little more creative haven't worked out for me overall. So I've been thinking why?

The answer is a pretty basic one really, but I've never been good at common sense lol. It's the old addage that you should play solid ABC poker against poor players and that you must get more creative against better ones, as they will spot this straight away. We all know this but I think many people, me especially, forget these basic rules from time to time and try and get creative at a fishy table or tighten up when they enter a tougher field than usual.

Going back to the NPF Birthday game, in the few events I've played with the NPF in the past I've been quite nervous and as a result my play has tightened up a lot. This time I knew I had to play differently given the table I was sat at, where basically people were just playing their cards. As a result I opened my preflop raising and calling ranges a bit and made a few steals that I normally wouldn't have. As a by-product I found that I was enjoying the game more! In a way that I rarely do when playing live. Because I was acctually getting to think about each hand in some depth rather than just playing ABC Poker.

Unfortuneately though this brings us back to the catch 22 that many poker players are faced with: playing fish is boring yet profitable and the reverse is true against skillful players. Causing us to question why we play this game? Is it for profit or for entertainment? Or both... As recreational players do we need a bankroll or can we just chuck on the odd deposit here and there? Do we have to play our way thru the mind numbing micro and low stakes to get to play at an interesting level or can we just view Poker as an intellectual persuit that we're prepared to pay for?

Anyways went off on a bit of a tangent there. This was just supposed to be a post to remind myself to play ABC against fish and more creative against better players... Thanx 4 reading.

Experimenting with Aggression

2010-03-18T06:44:00.000-07:00

I've had this idea floating around in my head for awhile which boils down to this in NLHE how much do your hole cards really matter? I don't mean the old 'any two cards can win' argument either that croupiers love to tell you about 'Aces are useless, I know I see them get beat all the time!'. I mean this: how often do you actually see a showdown? Not very often in my experience, especially in tourneys where if u see a river it usually means someone's tourney life is in the balance.

Anyways, it's just an idea that's based on what I know about poker being a very situational game of incomplete information. Even when you read the HOH intro Harrington lists 10 factors that should be considered in a tourney hand before your hole cards! And he's not exactly considered the most flamboyant of players!

I think you get the idea that I have been wondering for a while about which is can you disregard your hole cards in many NLHE situations? I was a bit nervous about writing this and one of the reasons is I've never read a great deal into this argument so I'm not very sure of it's validaty or the issues surrounding it (COMMENTS APPRECIATED).

The problem is I'm at a stage in my playing career where I'm beginnning (belatedly) to experiment with a LAGGY style in MTT's and whilst this idea underpins the LAGGY style, it is not HOW it works (usually). I mean, good LAG's seem to be mindful of this idea but also mindful of the fact that you cannot 'soul read' or see your opponents cards basically. So because of this fold equity alone is not sufficient to base your game around. Instead a safety net of equity should be maintained in most situations unless you feel the situation is too good to pass up on.

This may all sound pretty obvious but it feels worthwhile to put it into words. Especially as I have a recurring leak which is this: I am a black and white thinker in many ways. I tend not to be half hearted. So when it comes to me experimenting with new moves in a tourney I often find myself taking this idea to it's limit i.e. ignoring my cards completely and focusing only on the stacks, images, board texture, relative positions etc.

In summary I think I need to use showdown value as a safety net i.e. not bluff with air because I feel the situation is 'right' too much. Therefore as I'm only really beginning to experiment with a LAG style, I should should pick spots that are less risky but still challenge myself and experiment in new situations.

Some comments from a friend:

-i think the key is that there'll be some spots where a bet is profitable purely from fold equity
and then you can do it with any cards
-but there are a lot of marginal spots where fold equity isn't quite enough to make a bet + ev by itself and then you need some hand value to back it up, but not neccesarily very much

The night I ran like god, almost...

2010-03-12T04:16:00.000-08:00

Last night I managed the following results out of 5/6 games on Stars:

I played two $55 tournies:

16th in 40k GTD (1,000+ runners)

40th in 5k GTD 500 cap ($15k pot)

And two smaller ones before that:

6th in $12 180 man

10th in $22 180 man

Obviously the big one was the $40k GTD. During the late stages my stack was like a yo-yo! As usual I'm going to do an analysis of what went wrong:

In this case it was a simple error on my part, I got people I didn't know to rail me from Newcastle Poker Forum. Although I'm very grateful for their support at 2am on a Thursday! It was a mistake of mine to ask them to. Basically I kind of knew it could affect my game but not how, so picking a crucial time in a big tournie to test this out was plain daft!

The effect it had on my game was simple, I tightened up and not even in a good way. I started to play only hands with solid showdown value and disregard many factors of the situations I played them in. Why? Because I was worried if I tried re-steals etc. with questionable cards I'd look like an idiot if/when it went wrong. So this meant I wasn't even able to steal blinds as effectively anymore meaning when I saw a hand like TT or AT I was read to get in no matter what, because I knew I needed to pick up chips.

Anyways enough ranting, I want to stress this was MY mistake, not the people from NPF who kindly railed me. Other than this I'm very pleased with the way I played last night :) My total profit for the night was around $250.

Bankroll it is :)

2010-02-18T23:21:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update to say I've decided not to do Vegas this year. Partly thanx to advice from Rosco and Dan Trett, I decided my budget would be too low and that there is guna be other oppurtunites.

The good news is obviously that in 3-4 months time when I finish my degree I'll have a bankroll between ($1k-$2k) to play with, depending on how much I spend/save :)

Decisions, decisions... Vegas or Bankroll???

2010-02-16T19:47:00.000-08:00

OR

My recent win from which I have managed to save about $1.6k has left me with a decision to make: how to spend it :D

Basically I have narrowed it down to 2 sensible options:

1) Go to Vegas with 'Newcastle Poker Forum' gang during the WSOP or (I will have another $1k by then so $2.6k total)

2) Save it to use as the bankroll I've always wanted for online MTT's (when I graduate in June)

I'm torn between the two at the moment. Basically the trip to Vegas is a great oppurtunity as the NPF lads are renting a house, which would save a lot of money. Plus it's an oppurtunity to experience Vegas with a bunch of other poker players (last time was on my own). Plus it's during the WSOP!!! The only cons are I'd be on a budget (only $1k to spend over 2 weeks including buy-ins) and that I've been before so perhaps I should wait to go again until I'm not on a budget.

Option 2 however has it's own allure. Basically instead of pissing about hoying $20-$100 on now and then onto various sites and trying to guess if I'm a winning player overall, I could do it properly! I'm sure I could raise $400 to make it up to $2k which is a perfect figure for $10-$20 MTT's given that I'm not going Pro. TBH the reason (and this is very honest for me lol) I've never kept a decent online bankroll is because when I've had over $1k online I get scared and spend it on something concrete (and usually unecessary e.g. bike or TV).

What would you do??? Comments appreciated.

Stars Step 5 - double mistake

2010-02-10T03:47:00.000-08:00

After my latest win I cashed out $2k from my Stars account so I can concentrate on study again for the last 4 months of my degree. This left $100 which I decided to use to sattelite into a Sunday major... I won a $39 turbo sat and unregged as I couldn't play that nite.

Then, stupidly, I decided to play a step 4 tourney on stars thinking I could cash in the $700 if I won!!! Half way thru it dawns on me that I can't do this, woops! However, I can't bring myself to lose on purpose in the late stages to regain my Sunday major ticket... So I win and advance to step 5...

5 hands in I'm dealt AKs UTG and 3x raise. One caller from MP and I immeadiately put him on a small pair for some reason... Flop: A43 two clubs... I C-bet, he raises, I check sharkscope and see this: he's played 1 $5 SNG on stars and that's it, SUSPICIOUS!!! Anyways I know he can reset his stats and do this but the other part of me wants to believe he's a fish with AQ or a flush draw. So I make a standard $10 SNG move and re-raise, he shoves and I feel commited so I call. If u haven't guessed it by now he has a set of 3's. Gutted.

I think the main two factors in this mistake were years of playing small stakes SNG's and my eagerness to believe what I wanted to, it was a painhful mistake that I hope I learn from. Of course $2k has softened the blow a bit :)

1st for $1.9k Weeeeeeeeeee!!!!

2010-02-05T23:08:00.000-08:00

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last night was my biggest cash ever. And tot top it off I had decided it was the last game I would play online for 4 months (probably lol). I just put a tenner on to treat myself after handing in two assignments.
I'm quite glad I did that. Seriously though this is the result I've been looking for, for a long time now and I finally got it when I least expected, extremely chuffed!!! :D

5 Month Break from Online

2010-01-09T10:22:00.000-08:00

This might sound out of the blue for a few ppl but it's something thats been brewing a while for me. I'm in the last 5 months of a degree that I've been doing for nearly 5 years now, enough said on that factor. There are other reasons for the break too though.

Firstly, the more I hear about successful players on forums the more I realise that they are extremely hardworking people, I can't be with regards to poker atm.

Seconly, online poker has become a big escapiest tool for me in recent times that has prevented me from getting the most out of my life.

Thirdly, I can't afford a bankroll atm to play the games I want to play.

Finally, I need some time to reflect upon where I'm going with this game and how much time/effort I'm willing to give it in the future.

I will still be playing live (once or twice a week max) but the aim is not to play online at all until my degree is over. Good luck in the new year to everyone else!!! See you at the tables (live) :)

Quick Update

2009-12-30T11:20:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-21T02:17:00.000-08:00

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 :

2009-12-14T10:39:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-22T04:16:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-16T18:44:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2009-10-14T15:27:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-10-07T09:24:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-09-29T08:07:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-18T17:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-06T23:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-05T16:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-04T08:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-03T10:32:00.000-07:00

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 :-)))

2009-09-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-09-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2009-08-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2009-07-13T10:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-28T10:12:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-06-24T02:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-23T05:55:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2009-06-11T02:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-02T05:34:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2009-05-20T01:30:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-05-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

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??

2009-05-13T07:47:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-05-06T01:51:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-20T04:22:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2009-04-09T01:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-06T03:03:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-26T05:48:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-25T03:06:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-24T02:58:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

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 :)

2009-02-24T01:50:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-02-21T05:37:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-02-20T02:31:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-02-11T01:40:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-10T02:04:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-02-09T01:45:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-07T09:47:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-05T03:28:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-03T01:53:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-02-02T04:27:00.000-08:00

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 :(

2009-02-01T14:21:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-01T04:42:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-30T01:26:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-27T07:37:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-27T01:20:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-26T05:03:00.000-08:00

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.