Update from Down Unda!

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

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

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

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

;
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

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

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 :)