Another Boring Poker Blog

This American Thing...

2011-04-21T15:14:00.002+01:00

Strange times in the poker world with the shermans getting the boot.

I've noticed very little difference in the games on stars if i'm honest. They seem to be just as good. As long as there are some crazy Russians I don't care.

While I'm on the subject, what is it with Russians and their inability to play poker? If 2+2 translate their books we're all fucked.

not posted in a looong time but this is semi interesting...

2011-04-03T20:24:00.002+01:00

So I've always been a pretty solid full ring limit hold em player. Over the course of my poker playing career I've always made decent money playing this game but lets be honest, it's as boring as fuck.

In my relentless search to find something that piques my interest and makes me money I've pretty much tried every form of poker ever with varying degrees of failure. I got pretty hooked on heads up limit a while ago but, truth be told, I'm not very good at it. That's ok though because it has solved more problems than it's created.

About 3 months ago I was pretty hard up in poker and in life. Yeah I had a job that earned me decent wages but not much of a bankroll and very little spare cash.

One semi drunken evening I logged on to stars on a whim and sat at a 6 max lhe table. I've tried 6 max before but it was a disaster. This time something really clicked. I handled my opponents aggression really well after being used to playing huhu and there was no tilt, never over defended my blinds and just played really solid loose and aggressive poker.

fucking hallefuckinglujah.

anyhoo... 3 months down the line I've worked my way up from .10/.20c to $2/$4 playing a shitload of hands and actually enjoying poker again.

Moral of the story: If you want to go from full ring to short handed, learn to play heads up.

I'll Be Back

2010-08-09T19:01:00.002+01:00

Currently planning a glorious return to poker in January all going well.

Still playing - not anything like full time and don't think I've got anything very interesting to add to this blog in terms of the pokers at this time.

Fucking Jeebus

2010-03-05T22:13:00.002Z

Can't believe I haven't posted here for so long - thought about it, never got round to it. Not a helluva lot to report on the poker front. Played a bit live, won some moneys, shirked online, fucked around.

I got back into online play a little last month and made a return to 9 tabling full ring limit hold em or 2 tabling O8 with another 4 of LHE. It's really gone pretty ok so far. The tilt problems have completely vanished, the motivation levels are up and I'm pretty happy with stuff so far.

I've got like a vague goal of getting supernova this year and going for supernova elite next year - grinding like a motherfucker.

Right now it's all pretty chilled. I don't really need to play every day. I'm pretty comfortable for the foreseeable future and I'll take my time getting back into the swing of things.

Hope all of you are well and pwning the tables!

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back...

2009-07-15T15:26:00.002+01:00

... is still better than one step forward, two steps back.

more later

Hard Going

2009-07-08T21:39:00.002+01:00

I've been finding it pretty difficult to adapt to heads up play and hit a run of bad luck over a few days - particularly in AIPF situations. I'll spare you the details as I'm sure you're all familiar with the type of stuff I'm talking about. Unfortunately it also coincided with moving up so back down I went to rebuild my confidence.

I'm continuing to plug away though and I've managed to stick to the goals I set myself at the beginning of the month (apart from the make money part obv). I was probably a bit niaive to think I could just step in and dominate at the lower limits.

I'm just going to keep playing and studying the game and the results will follow. I might book a coaching session with a hu player at the end of the month to go over my hand histories and point out any leaks. Reviewing them myself has pointed out a few mistakes that I'm trying to rectify.

A breakeven month certainly wouldn't be the end of the world.

July and Some Goals

2009-06-30T16:36:00.006+01:00

I'm making some (a lot) of changes with regards to poker this month. Since I went back to playing for a living things have been ticking over nicely and I've been making a steady income but my shortcomings as a player have been made apparent as I moved up in stakes. I'm going to take a more professional approach to poker and try to follow the example of other people.

First of all I'm going to play HUSNG's. I've developed some leaks in my game which are going to take a bit of fixing. I think the best way for me to do this is to take a month out of my normal games and learn something new. I can then go back (if i want to) with a clear head and analise my game better. Basically my options were plo or hu - plo can wait.

The main benefit of learning something new is that I'll get back in to the habit of study and review, something I used to do religeously but has fallen way down on my list of priorities. It's very east to get stuck in a rut with poker and before you know it the games have evolved and your win rate slowly dwindles to nothing. With the absolute wealth of poker kowledge out there you need to take advantage of it just to stay ahead of the fish.

I've played a couple of hundred HUSNG's over the past few days and the great thing I've discovered is that there are games going 24 hours. I woke up at 4am the other day and managed to get a game no problem. There seems to be bad players at all hours too.

The Plan

Play $11 HU with 50 buy ins - move up when i hit 50 buy ins for the next level. I'm going to be using rakeback and bonuses as part of my bankroll this month - this is something I never ever do but it'll help me move up pretty fast. The reason I'm doing this is to help me find a level where I'm not quite comfortable - again encouraging me to review my play and seek out answers for tough situations.

Volume

I don't know if I can sustain 100 or more matches in a day as i find them quite mentally draining. I'm going to aim for 50 as a minimum but think I'll get into the swing of things in a week or so.

Tilt

None. Ever. Step away from the computer. Play no poker. This is going to be a big factor this month. I'm only going to be 2 tabling and I'll be paying close attention so those runner runner straights and rivered sets are going to sting a little. I need to stay positive.

Study

I'm renewing my subscriptions for Stoxpoker and Deucescracked and will use them on a daily basis. I've also got the book I'll plough through a couple of times. I'm going to post hands and try to contribute to forums. It might be time to dust off Theory of Poker too.

Take Notes

I'm really lazy when it comes to taking notes on opponents but I NEED to start doing this.

Money

Make some. I don't have a clear money goal as that would be pretty silly given I'm totally new to HU games. I'll be trying to move up so I won't have the comfort of rakeback to fall back on.

In addition to the poker challenges, I have to stop my wife spending all of my bankroll which is winging it's way to my bank account as we speak. She's already said "if you can make money with a $500 bankroll what do you need the rest for?"

Alarm bell are ringing.

Stale

2009-06-28T15:49:00.006+01:00

The shot taking is now officially over and it's been an experience. At one point following my last post I was down a little over 4k or 80% of the money I'd set aside and I was a bit down on myself. I cut back to 2 tables at a time so I could focus more on the tougher players and slowly built back up. After a night of drunken gambling I was back up tp -1k which I can handle. I also cleared $1500 in bonus money to put me up over ther course.

I'm probably not at the point where i can beat these games if I'm prefectly honest with myself. I don't mind admitting it either. There's a lot of work to be done on my part over the next few months and I've set myself a rough target of crushing the $108's by Xmas.

I tried to get back into my normal games over the weekend but it wasn't happening. I think I'd focused so much on adjusting to the tougher games that I struggled to adjust back to the fish. I'm finding myself a bit stale atm and I've been thinking of ways I can challenge myself. I was planning on doing busto to robusto this month but put it off to next month. Now I'm putting it off until later in the year - it just doesn't appeal to me right now.

I was looking through some poker books and came accross Colin Moshman's HUSNG book. I liked his first one so I've bought that and have a new plan for next month. Read the book and play heads up lol. As you can imagine this plan was literally days in the making and the amount of planning and preperation that went into it were very time consuming.

I've always fancied learning heads up but put it off for other things. My priority has been making money for the past few months with the missus being off on maternity leave and spending money quicker than I can earn it. She's back to work in July though so now is the time. I know I've got a bit of a tendency to not stick at something but variety is the spice of life as they say and poker does get a bit boring when you're grinding it out day after day. I've got a really good rakeback deal too so even if I break even for a full month I'll still make 3k or so.... if I work at it.

You're DOING it WRONG!!!

2009-06-23T23:31:00.002+01:00

So far my shot taking has resulted in a 2k loss and 14 tournaments without a cash. Fucking marvelous. I'm not put off (although I'm not entirely comfortable losing that amount of money in such a short time) as I've reviewed the tournament histories and I'm not playing badly.

I tend not to complain about bad beats but I've seen my fair share over the past couple of days. This one sticks out: Folded round to SB who min raises, I have KJs in BB and push, SB insta calls with T5, flop AXJ, turn K, river is obviously a Q and I bubble again. I have millions of these.

I hate talking about hands where I've been unlucky but it's been a little bit harder to take as it's like real money at stake here lol. I need to work on detatching myself from my results as normally I'd just fire up more tournaments and be mildly surprised if I was down for the day.

My regular games have been going ok though and this has helped me shrug it off.

Still off the fags though. Survived my first big test tonight when I went for a meal with my family who all smoke. I even had a few beers and still dont feel the urge to light up. My inhalator thing is chewed to fuck though.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and get a shitload of poker in and try to cash at some point.

Laters.

Moving on up?

2009-06-20T21:06:00.004+01:00

Ok I'm now oficially old. I turned 30 the other day and have always said that I'm going to drastically change my lifestyle when I hit the big three-oh. Obviously I'm taking a few days to celebrate, drink beer, smoke tabs and eat pizza. On Monday I'm stopping smoking (I've cut down to about 5 a day), not being a pisshead and joining a gym. I know people say you shouldn't make too much changes at one time but this plan has been 10 years in the making so I'm totally prepared. My lungs and liver may not be though.

The past couple of days I've been taking some shots at $108's and I've had a pretty decent run at them - I even played a couple of $215's and luckboxed my way to a very welcome $3k day yesterday.

I'm not sure I can beat the games at this level although I haven't noticed a massive difference in play compared to $54's. It's mainly tighter in the early phases and super aggro when the blinds get significant.

I really have to think hard about where I want to be with regards to poker. My bankroll is sitting around the 12k mark (not including yesterday's score) so I'm not comfortably rolled to play the $108's full time. I think I'd want to have nearer 200 buy ins. They obviously don't run as often either so I wouldn't get the volume in on a daily basis. That's not a huge deal to me but if I'm only a marginal winner in these games over the long term then playing 30 or so tournaments a day is going to make for some sick swings.

I suppose it comes down to what you want to get out of poker. I'm pretty happy just making more than i would working for a living. I never really thought about playing higher stakes and I'm happy to grind it out. Maybe I should be a bit more ambitious.

I think I'm going to split my bankroll, keeping 7k for grinding and taking a 50 buy in shot at the 108's. That way I can grind during the day and use my evening sessions to play higher when the games are going. Sounds like a plan to me. I'm over rolled for the games I play most anyway.

I'll give this a shot until the end of the month and see where I stand. Nothing ventured nothing gained and all that.

Happy Days

2009-06-15T16:39:00.003+01:00

There's nothing like a few days work to make you appreciate how good it is to play poker for a living. For the past 5 years myself, my dad and brother have spent the close season painting Dens Park (home of Dundee FC). It started out as a voluntary thing as the club were up shit creek financially but we get paid for it now. Well they pay us and we buy hospitality and sponsorship etc. so all the money goes back to the club. We're all big Dundee supporters so it's good to meet all the guys and get to see behind the scenes. My only complaint is that it's ruined the mystique about the football club. When I was young I used to worship the players and could only dream of meeting them. Now they're just in the way when we're trying to get stuff done.

Anyway the point is I had to work for the past 3 days and it really puts things into perspective. I have a pretty easy life. I wake up when I want, work when I want and finish any fucking time I feel like it. After 2 days of 8 o'clock starts I was fucked by dinner time.

This just adds to the general love I have for poker right now. I'm really happy at the moment. The last couple of months have been great and I feel that things are really working out for me.

When I decided to give playing for a living another shot I was a bit apprehensive. The first time around I was totally miserable and absolutely hated poker. I had absolutely no confidence in my game. I was constantly working on trying to improve, so much so I became somewhat obsessed with it. I didn't realise at the time that the problems I faced were not entirely related to my ability to play poker.

First of all and by far the most important was the fact my only game was full ring limit hold em. I got totally bored of that within a month. Being bored does not help your game at all and I was playing well below my A game. Obviously I didn't realise this at the time and thought I was playing fabulously but running into donkey luckboxes all the time.

Secondly I was playing on Stars and basically keeping American time, playing through the night and sleeping all day. This led me to feel pretty isolated - if I wanted to do anything (like going to the football for example) I had to totally change my sleeping patterns and socialising was a fucking nightmare.

I was also playing in the house and was frequently disturbed by my kids waking up, the dog wanting to take a piss etc. Not good for my mindset. The most productive change I've made was getting myself a little office away from any distractions.

Volume was a big problem for me too. I thought it was lazyness but it was more to do with the fact I was just pissed off playing poker. Tilt was pretty much ever present for me just bubbling below the surface. I expected to win any hand I showed down because it was my divine right to win. I was so much better than the opposition.

I could go on. There was a lot of stuff that prevented me from succeeding the last time and around this time last year I went back to work. To be honest it was the best thing I have ever done. After a while I really missed the freedom that poker gives you. I went over and over all my failings and took time to seriously analyse the issues I had. I thought about how I could make improvements if I ever decided to get back into poker. I spent a few months putting things into place but at the time had no intention of playing for a living any time soon. I fucked it up one time and had to be sure that the second time it would work.

Business started to slow down around Xmas and I was struggling a little bit. I played to make some extra cash and started playing SNG's. When I started crunching the numbers it was dawning on me that there was some money to be made if I did it full time.

I managed to convince my wife who vividly remembers what a miserable bastard I was.

So here I sit, 3 days shy of my 30th birthday feeling pretty fucking happy with myself. I'm currently playing 3 or 4 sessions a day - all SNG's now. I've found a structure that works well for me. I'm not exactly doing 9 -5 but have plenty of time with the wife and kids and dont have to change my sleep patterns if I want to go out. I'm playing a minimum of 100 tournaments a day and find it easy to put that volume in. I generally take Saturday off and play drunken mtt's on Sundays.

I'm taking a more relaxed approach to improving my game and concentrate more on playing the game to the best of my abilities. If I make a mistake I don't beat myself up over it and I'm generally more relaxed when I'm playing. I don't tilt any more and feel strangely detatched when I take a bad beat. Before I would be breaking stuff. I think that with SNG's there are a lot more close decisions where you're either shipping it in or folding so the beats are ever present.

I don't look upon myself as the best player at the table now and don't think it's my divine right to win when I have a good hand. Truth is I don't need to be the best, I'm pretty happy with slightly above average thanks.

I'm very aware of the potential pitfalls but I think I've matured just a little bit. There's also the ever present fear that I'll fuck it up this time. There won't be a third chance.

From the moment I discovered poker I knew that this is what I want to do. Now finally, I'm doing it right.

Getting It In

2009-06-13T23:02:00.003+01:00

Over the last week or so I've been cashing out my bankroll from random sites so I can take advantage of a superb deal on Ongame (details to follow - might be able to get some high volume fish a similar deal).

Not a hell of a lot of poker has been played. I seriously need a bonus or something to clear to get me motivated.

I left around $100 on one of my fave microgaming skins and have consistently doubled it and cashed out on 5 occasions - cue doomswitch if you please.

I've been playing their "extreme" tournaments which I've talked about before. They're great for volume but shit for your sanity. I usually do well if I manage to avoid anything approachng a decent hand in the early stages.

On Monday my new deal kicks in (hopefully) and I'll be back to grinding like a motherfucker. I could really do with another $6-8k month. It's hard when the weather is this good though.

I did have aspirations of getting to the WSOP but it's not happening now. Hopefully next year. I feel jealous of all you fuckers who have been there lately.

bastards.

cba

2009-06-06T00:47:00.002+01:00

my little challenge has gone up in smoke, mainly because I found a bonus that I coudn't refuse.

next month fo sho.

I'm currently playing a shitload so should be fine.

Postponed

2009-06-01T19:39:00.002+01:00

I had to put off my little challenge today purely because it's too hot in my office to play poker. It's 8.40pm and currently 24 degrees in here.

Thats fucking hot for Scotland.

I don't know why it's so hot in here, might be the fact it's pretty small and has a lot of electrical shit in it.

Anyhoo I might have to invest in some sort of air conditioning system. Jeeziz how stupid does that sound?

I spent the day dossing around in the garden, cut the grass and read a bit of Your Worst Poker Enemy which was quite good. I don't feel like I'm havin so much trouble with the psychological part of poker this time around but I don't study nearly enough either. I Might compile a reading list for the next few weeks.

So as promised:

Number of tournaments played: 0
Profit/Loss: 0

Not a bad start

Ok Here's the Deal

2009-05-23T18:18:00.003+01:00

One man, one poker site, one hundred and ten dollars (x2).

Inspired by this thread: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54/poker-beats-brags-variance/turning-100-into-10000-15-days-lowlimit-only-417722/

I've had a pretty decent month so far. Covered the bills and stuff which is what it's all about. As a matter of fact I've got the next few months covered. Anyway I was thinking of my strategy for next month and trying to come up with something a bit different. Boku's thread intrigued me for obvious reasons but I know for a fact I can't put in the sick volume he does without turning into a gibbering mess.

Basically what I've come up with is an excuse to doss around for the rest of the month.

From June 1st I'm going to start with a $110 bankroll, play exclusively on Stars, play only multi table SNG's or the odd MTT and see what I can run it up to.

I don't play on Stars much these days but I've tested the waters a few times this month because of their UK promo.

The goals I've set myself are:

1. a minimum of 100 tournaments per day or 700 per week. Basically if I want a day off I have to earn it.
2. 100 buy ins before I move up (other than random shot taking)
3. only 1 reload of $110
4. profit

I'm not entirely sure why i want to put myself through this other than giving me focus for the month ahead.

I'm going to update every day in June, not that anyone is interested. I'm not doing it for you though am I?

I think one of my weaknesses is not keeping accurate records so at least I'll be able to get into the habit of posting results etc. Also I dont particularly like posting about $$ won or lost because it's all relative. Durrr's 1 million downswings are as bad as a 10NL reg's downswings. For one month only I'll be keeping a daily tally of $$ won or lost and posting them for your enjoyment.

Normal service will resume shortly.

Has Poker Made Me Stupider?

2009-05-23T12:46:00.003+01:00

I was thinking about this last night and I'm definitely not as sharp as I used to be. In my previous employment I had to write reports, discuss ideas at meetings and use my brain in many weird and wonderful ways. Now I sit and grind, sometimes pretty mindlessly and the only writing I do is shopping lists and this shitty blog.

Maybe i need to stimulate my mind more. I hardly even read these days.

On a completely different note I just read about the German dude who ran $100 up to $10k in and epic 13 day SNG grind. Can't remember the dudes name but it was awesome - 50 tabling ftw. Anyway it got me thinking a little bit and I might try something similar next month or the month after. Obviously not $100 - $10k but a bit of a grindfest from low stakes.

Today I'm going to try to sharpen my 24 tabling skills.

The Internetz

2009-05-20T19:04:00.002+01:00

Getting back into poker sometimes has it's drawbacks.

For example, I now read 2+2 more often and not just for the strategy posts. I've always been a bit of a fan of their forums and used to read them avidly although I've made around 8 posts in 4-5 years. I was speaking to a guy I know last night who was banned from a certain forum and they were having a vote to let certain people (including him) back in. Fair enough. I then trawled through the gazillion posts on the subject, more out of morbid fascination than anything else and was pretty appalled by some of the stuff written. So many internet hard men there. I would like the time I spent reading these posts back please.

Way back in the day I used to be a moderator on a forum which started out as a bit of a laugh and a general pisstake. Everything was cool for a few months and I think I used my moderator priveleges about twice on something very mundane. Other mods began taking a bit of a harder line, deleting posts, banning people and generally letting the power go to their heads. Obviously people got pissed off with the heavy handedness and general asshattery. They left in their droves. The site died a slow death and in the end the only people who posted there were the fuckwit moderators and their band of toadying minions.

Much as it pains me to say, I can see 2+2 heading the same way. At least the "social" forums anyway. It seems if your face doesn't fit you're persona non grata.

Hilarious.

I had thought the appeal of internet forums and messageboards was that everyone can contribute their own shit freely. With the exception of horse Pr0nz etc.

Anyway, enough of that shit and more about my struggle to become a super rich poker playing fuckwit.

Today i played over 100 tournaments by 4pm. I consider 100 SNG's to be a full day's work so I'm entitled to doss around tonight and do stuff like write this shitty blog post. I'm not going to though. I'm so highly motivated that I'm going to play more poker right now and try to rattle in another hundred.

It's the new me i'm sure.

Poker burnout incoming.

P.S

I'm currently accepting applications for some toadying minions for a future takeover of the internet.

Bored

2009-05-18T18:24:00.002+01:00

Been pretty bored the past few days with the old poker. Playing a lot of mtt's to break up the monotony but this got pretty dull too. Made a few cashes but nothing spectacular.

I'm going to take a break in a little while then play some hu sng's tonight. Might try to spin my way up to high stakes too.

2 buy in bankrolls ftw.

Why I Don't Play MTT's for a Living

2009-05-14T03:20:00.002+01:00

They suck.

I was a bit bored today so hit up some $4.40 180's while I was doing my usual SNG grind. I had to play $4.40's as that's all I could afford 10 buy ins for given the fact that I'm still waiting on my bastarding cash out.

Anyway, pretty mixed results. Got 3rd in one where I really should have won given I had the chip lead 3 times with 3 left. An ill timed push with A9 against a limped KK fucked that. It was ok though, kind of fun really. Cashed out, ordered pizza. Fuck You prop bets.

I did learn that I fucking suck badly post flop in the low blind levels and need to sort this out.

In other news, someone stole my luckbox and I would quite like it back.

Reward Offered.

Losing Prop Bets and Winning at Poker

2009-05-12T20:59:00.003+01:00

Unsurprisingly I didn't finish my prop bet yesterday and had to ship my stars roll (complete with pizza money). This was mainly because of my inability to 2 table Stars slow arsed turbos without getting bored and stacking off. Once I'd busted twice at the $16 level I gave up.

I'm thinking about doing a 6 or 8 table version later this month as there's a chance this will hold my interest for longer than 5 minutes.

I decided to hit up some Microgaming turbos and went on a seriously sick run cashing in about 90% of the tournaments I played. This was helped by a few insane runner runner luckbox moments and a few beers.

I continued in the same vein today without the luckbox but I think I'm still up. The big appeal of these tournaments is the fast pace and the fact it's pretty easy to put in high volume. Coupled with a bonus which is equal to 55% rakeback it's somewhat profitable.

I just watched some videos on pokertube by some random fish and they were awesome sauce. There's a link in BBV if anyone's interested. The horse one especially is made of win.

Anyway, got about 30 more tournaments to play to hit the magic 100 mark.

Later.

Dial a professional dealer for your Poker Night

2009-05-11T21:08:00.017+01:00

Argh! Our best friend who deals insanely well pulled out of our poker night early last night. It’s so annoying when that happens. Now its just the three of us and none of us can deal or shuffle properly for any purpose other than each other’s laughter. Our poor dealing skills make gambling look like snap.

Anyway, I just want to pick up a phone and dial a dealer or something. Actually, I was genuinely curious about this sort of thing and so being the sad person that I am, I actually google’d it. There’s no harm in trying when you’re bored these days! Well, what do you expect? Turns out there’s a site called dialadealer.com that specialises in finding professional card or casino dealers and fun casino hire suppliers for hire right away in your area. You can even phone them right now. Don’t believe me? Look it up. It’s a bit like a MySpace for people who work as croupiers or card dealers. You can hire a professional croupier for your game who will come and deal for you at a private gathering, home game or even for a large party. Dealers sign up with their gambling skills and fill out a profile that lets them advertise their casino night services and make new contacts with people on the web. So far they have gathered together the finest bunch of card dealers from around the world including the US, The UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The site hits you with the familiar look of the vegas poker table and continues this theme throughout, with a flawless attention to detail. I was able to quickly find a dealer who looked promising by comparing rates per hour, special skills and even a list of tournament awards! The clear photographs make the choice easy and I’m sure this site is no stranger to a large number of visitors like me who can’t deal or who have fingers like jellyfish! Being a relative newbie to gambling I found several pieces of good advice in the articles section that seems to cover almost every single topic I could imagine - from what cigars to buy, poker related gifts and how much to tip dealers.

I always have a high amount of respect for bloggers and the blogging community so it was good to see this tradition continue in the form of the dialadealer.com blog, which unlike most company blogs was incredibly informative and packed with tips, there was also a healthy dose of thelatest news on the casino and gambling industry too. So, lets just say google did its job pretty well this morning and I found myself possibly the best dealer in my area. And he has won about seven tournaments. I guess all that’s left is there to be a competition to see if he can out-deal our best friend this weekend! To book a professional dealer for your next card night you should definitely check out www.dialadealer.com.

Day On

2009-05-11T11:32:00.005+01:00

I made all my withdrawals over the weekend and most of my bankroll is currently floating around in cyberspace. I was planning on taking the day off but read some 2+2 threads this morning and the tales of degenism are making want to play.

I have around $100 hanging around in Pokerstars and about $600 on a random Microgaming skin so I'm somewhat restricted in my choices.

Here's the plan for today:

1. Make enough money before 4pm to buy a pizza. This is a solid goal and one I'm going to keep on my list like forever.

2. Gamble like a motherfucker. Once I've made my pizza money I'm going to take some 2 buy in shots at PLO or something.

*Edit*

That was the plan until I talked to some dude on AIM who gave me the idea of a sit n' go spin up, a SNGSU if you will. Got a nice prop bet out of it too. I need VPP's on Stars for this month's promo (it's sick you should take a look) so this is the new plan:

I'm going to start with 2 buy ins for $3.40 SNG's and move up when I get 2 buy ins for the next level. I cant move down unless I go broke then I have to start at the beginning.

If I make it to the $114 level I win $100. If I lose, give up or get distracted by something shiny then I have to transfer whatever I have left in my Stars account to him. The onus is obviously on me to either win or bust a whole heap of $6.80 shots so the bastard gets zip.

It's win/win for me as far as I can see it :p

Beat: Potentially no pizza.

Play Style Changed for the Better?

2009-05-09T22:42:00.002+01:00

I've been playing a load of super turbo 5 man SNG type things over the past few weeks. Nothing particularly interesting there, ground out a fairly low ROI but cleared a bonus really fast. I quite enjoyed them and once I thrash out a decent rakeback deal I'll be working them into my regular routine.

Anyway, thats no the point of this post.

I played some normal turbo SNG's on Stars the past couple of days. I found it a bit strange at first and had to adapt to the much slower structure. I noticed a couple of things though.

Firstly, I'm a self confessed nit. I play pretty tight and try to play solid poker most of the time. When playing the super turbo things I had to open up my game or face being blinded out and didn't have any problems doing so. Now I'm playing a more regular format this strategy has stuck when the blinds start to increase and I'm finding myself willing to get the chips in with weaker hands in certain situations. This was something I was loathe to do before.

The second thing I noticed is how tight the rest of the players are and how easy it is to exploit them.

I've noticed a big difference in my results with this. I'm winning more tournaments than I used to and have far fewer "scrape into the money at all costs" moments.

I've found some gamble I think.

Limit poker remains my focus and main earner but there isn't much going on there. I'm experiencing a pretty variance free spell at the minute - cue doomswitch.

Scuppered

2009-05-07T22:31:00.002+01:00

On Tuesday I felt really guilty about doing fuck all and being a lazy hungover twat for a day and was really motivated about putting in a big session. I headed out to the office early doors, started up my pc and lo and behold no bastarding internet.

That kind of fucked it.

I decided to do a much needed format of my hard drive and read some books as I obviously wasn't going to be playing any poker.

I used to have a backup connection on my laptop but got rid of it as it was a waste of money.

Anyhoo... got it sorted today, free upgrade to mental superfast shit off a shovel broadband because I complained so all is well.

The shitty thing is it took me all day sort out my pc after deleting everything so it was another day wasted.

What a boring assed story that was.

If I had any sense then I would have kept some cash on neteller and high tailed it to the casino and "worked on my live game"

Not Feeling It

2009-05-04T14:06:00.003+01:00

I've really worked my arse off the past few days putting in sick volume to clear a few bonuses. Stupidly, I got shitfaced last night and really can't be arsed today.

This could be a pretty big month for me too if I keep to my schedule but today I feel meh.

Going to play a few SNG's to try to get my head in poker mode.

Feels Good

2009-04-28T23:21:00.002+01:00

This is the first month for a long time where I've had to rely exclusively on poker winnings to pay the bills. Even when I first started I had savings and shit, then I had business income and such like.

This month I've had poker and effectively tripled my wages, added a bit to my bankroll and am a happy pixie.

Should have sorted my shit out months ago tbh.

Happy Days.

No Blogs = Best Month Ever

2009-04-19T13:18:00.002+01:00

I haven't felt the need to write much lately mainly because poker has been going insanely well this month. I'm currently in the middle of my best month ever, not really in money terms but in the sense of getting stuff done and grinding it out.

I'm finding myself motivated and look forward to playing every day, i'm even sneaking in a couple of sessions on my days off :p

I'm using table selection and jumping around limits at off peak times trying to find great games. I also find myself bringing my A game to the tables a lot more and regular in depth reviews of my sessions is helping me improve my performance.

I've not been paying much attention to winnings/losses on a daily basis but I'm having good results.

I won't starve anyway.

Untitled

2009-04-07T00:03:00.003+01:00

Looking back over my blog I'm pretty amazed that it took me from February to April to get my act together. I've found a potentially nice little routine to my play and shock fucking horror I'm actually enjoying myself.

Poker really isn't for lazy bastards like me. If I make a bit of money I'm pretty content to fuck around until I really need to make some more.

I'm finding the games as soft, if not softer than I did before and I'm actually becoming interested in the game again. I read some strategy posts today!

I've got a 3 session type of thing going on, playing a few hours in the morning, afternoon then evening. Surprisingly some of the best tables I've found have been in the morning where the game selection is poor but the fish are plentiful. If I keep going the way I am I'll be able to take another few months off :p

I've been thinking a lot about what i want to get out of the game and what I would like to achieve so the whole boring goals thing will have to wait.

I'm sure you're gutted.

Return to Limit

2009-04-05T21:13:00.002+01:00

I've not played a single hand of limit hold em for months, certainly not this year anyway and decided to fire up a couple of tables to see how it went. I was kind of dreading it in a way as I had convinced myself that this was the devil's form of poker having well and truly sickened myself of it.

Surprisingly it went ok. I was a little bit rusty i suppose and made a couple of errors but otherwise played pretty solid poker. I kind of got into a groove with it after a while too. This is by far my best game but I tended to shy away from it, mainly out of boredom and partly because it sent me on monkey tilt in the early days of playing for a living.

I suppose i have a slightly different outlook on things this time around. I'm not particularly afraid of failing and having to get a job because I've kinda been there and done it and now I'm out the other side. This makes for a more calm and serene Millar.

I've set myself some vague goals for the month in my head but lets just say I'm aiming pretty low for this month and trying to focus on putting the hours in. I'll get these down in some sort of solid form tomorrow which is officially my first day of work.

Planning on getting an early start too...

I'm Back Bitches (Again)

2009-04-01T13:34:00.004+01:00

New month, fresh start and all that.

I haven't been playing much poker over the past few weeks/months other than some short hit and runs at 6 max NL. Not much else to say about it really. This entire year has been something of a write off on the poker front. I completely lost interest in it and this blog.

Time I got some work done to be honest.

The good thing about not playing is that my bankroll remains intact although I was tempted on a few occasions to spunk it all away and fuck poker off completely.

Today I'm playing some MTT's to get back into the swing of things and encourage me to actually play for longer than 5 minutes. I'm going to try to get a routine going and play in the same tournaments every day so I cant just up and quit.

My entire bankroll currently resides on an Ongame skin so i guess I'll be playing there for now. I've been toying with the idea of using my fpp's on Stars to try to grind up a bankroll from nothing as kind of a side project. Maybe this will rekindle my interest in poker.

Once I've sorted stuff out I'm going to write down some goals as this helped keep me focussed in the past. I should probably go read some forums or something to get my brain back in poker mode.

Back to Work

2009-02-25T15:30:00.002Z

This year has been something of a non event on the poker front. I've played sporadically for short sessions and basically couldn't be arsed with it. I've not even read forums, blogs, books, watched videos or did anything remotely poker related for about 6 weeks.

Now it's time to get back into the swing of things.

I eased myself back into playing today and have enjoyed it after such a long lay off. If you can afford to take an extended holiday I would highly recommend it.

I've been experimenting a little bit with mixing a couple of MTT's in with the STT's and this is looking quite promising. I need to go back and read some tournament books though or I'm going to get ass raped.

I also stumbled accross a new poker site where people literally throw their money away. It's pretty small and only really offers 6 max NL but the players are so bad that even I can turn a pretty nice profit. I'm not going to share the info obviously, the last thing I need is a bunch of sharks checking it out.

I suppose the real grind will start tomorrow and I'll probably be back to being a miserable bastard within a couple of weeks but hey ho.

For now things are looking up.

OK

2008-12-11T20:58:00.002Z

Ran my 40 dolla up to $1147 this week using aggressive br management and taking shots in good games. I'l maybe write more on this later as it was a good laugh.

Anyhoo...

I cashed out all but $200 and I'm going to try again next week.

No news on the SNG front other than fuck you SNG's I'm not playing.

I'm feeling pretty shitty atm so giving myself a break until monday. I've a pretty clear schedule for next week so poker will be top priority.

slightly spectacular

2008-12-06T21:26:00.002Z

While i was cashing out most of bankroll I discovered I had about $40 on a random ipoker skin which I had forgotten about. I didn't bother cashing it out but decided to play some crappy mtt's to spin it up to a decent amount. I stayed around the $40 mark having cashed in a few and promptly forgot about it.

I was uninstalling a few old poker clients today and discovered this $40 so decided to atempt a luckyjimm style spin up at plo. I played for about an hour and didn't hit. Everyone was folding at the least sign of trouble.

Tonight i decided to play some plo8 as I found myself appraising hands as if I was playing O8 most of the time.

I was aiming to get to $200 playing loose and aggressive but ended up getiing to about $150 playing TAG. I decided not to cash out and I'll give this game a proper shot tomorrow.

SNG bankroll remains intact but I can't be arsed at the moment. Want to gambool it up.

Removing the Finger

2008-11-30T12:34:00.002Z

I've not blogged for the past couple of weeks because I've had far too much shit happening. I was afraid it would come out in a long boring tirade.

I'll spare you the details.

Not much happening on the poker front other than the fact I've moved a huge chunk of my bankroll offline for various reasons. This has left me slightly under-rolled for the games I want to be playing. As I'm a pretty risk averse person I'll have to move down to rebuild.

This suits me fine at the moment as I don't have the time to dedicate most of my day to playing and working on my game.

Unless something spectacular happens in December I probably won't be writing much more as this blog has turned into something like a year in the life of an alcoholic low stakes grinder.

Well named as another boring poker blog.

Catch you on the flipside.

my friends... welcome to grindfest

2008-11-12T23:55:00.002Z

if you want to make a living playing poker...

grind like fuck.

this is a public service announcement brought to you by millar.

Steadying the Boat

2008-11-04T00:02:00.001Z

Ok after yesterday's disaster today was much better.

I just counted and I played 187 tournaments yesterday which is a lot in anyone's book. Today I played 12 sets of 9 tables and things went well.

Not much to say about it really.

Grind on!

Fuck

2008-11-03T00:59:00.002Z

My first day of grinding like fuck has been something of a disaster. I managed to drop around 30 buy ins at the old sit n go's. How I managed that I will never know. I got my money in ahead around 90% of the time and was continually sucked out on.

I know i said a big "FUCK YOU" to short term variance in my last post but jesus fucking wept.

If I see another two outer on the river I'm going to fucking poke my bastarding eyes out.

Not really.

It was a shit day but I'm actually really happy with my play. I was playing on Ongame so I know I was getting it in as a favourite and was a victim of the fall of the cards.

If I keep doing what I'm doing then things will fall into place. I have a sufficently large bankroll to ride out the bad days. This was a particularly bad day but fuck it.

Surely I won't be arse raped quite so badly tomorrow.

No Poker

2008-10-29T13:37:00.002Z

I'm spending the last week of the month not playing poker.

November is going to be a huge month for me because xmas is coming up and I won't be able to play much in December. Next month I'm planning a grindfest - minimum of 2000 SNG's for the month. Serious tournament players would probably laugh at calling that a grind but for me that's a shitload of poker. It also means that I should clear a couple of g's in rakeback so short term variance can kiss my scrotum.

Rakeback pro here i come.

I'm spending the rest of this week going through my databases to try to plug leaks, read a couple of books and get my stupid drunken antics out of the way in preperation for a sober November.

(Booooo)

Killer Instinct

2008-10-21T22:20:00.002+01:00

Note to self:

Get some

Old Habits Die Hard

2008-10-20T08:37:00.002+01:00

Last week I found myself slipping back into old habits. Alcohol induced lazyness had started to rear it's ugly head and I know from past experience that this can lead to me being a miserable bastard. Luckily I know myself and my tendencies well enough to sort it out before it got to that stage.

Yesterday I experimented with the number of tables I can play without becoming overwhelmed. I dropped down a couple of levels and played up to 12 at a time, deciding that between 6 and 9 is close to optimal. I also tried playing in sets which was quite interesting. I have been playing 4 -6 tables continuously but playing 9 or so tournaments down to a finish gives you a bit more time around the bubble and all the blinds are similar.

I still don't know what's best for me so I'll keep mixing it up until I find a preference.

Today I'm going to grind like a motherbitch.

Burnout

2008-10-18T00:28:00.003+01:00

I'm feeling pretty shit tonight. I can't sleep because my mind is racing.

Too much alcohol and not enough common sense.

I wanted to write a huge blog entry about various things I need to get off my chest but I can't be arsed. TBH you don't want or need to know.

I played a few MTT's today cashing in one for a ridculously small amount given the time it took me. Nothing to get excited about. Ever.

This is boring. I'm even bored writing it.

At least I might be able to get some sleep.

Juggling

2008-10-15T16:48:00.007+01:00

I really need to sit down and think about how I'm going to fit poker around my other commitments, or to put it another way fit my other commitments around poker.

I'm really, really happy with my game just now. My motivation to play and my concentration levels when i'm at the tables are the highest they've been for a long time. I'm planning to take full advantage of this and find the time to put in some serious volume over the coming weeks.

I've even been reading strategy forums *shock horror* and, wait for it..... books!!

Making lots of cash is not essential at the moment so i can concentrate on building up my tournament skills without going off the deep end if i hit a bad patch (See January to April :))

****

I was seriously considering deleting my blog today because I can't really be arsed with it. I suppose there are a few earlier posts that are reasonably informative if you have the urge to wade through all the shite.

They've been good for me as a reminder about how things can get really bad if you let the downswings effect you.

I now find myself grinding out the "poor man's poker" or SNG's as I like to call them. For someone with lazyarseitis they are a fucking godsend.

I can put in some serious volume, not tilt and make money... which is always good.

The $33's and $54's have been going ok. TBH I don't notice a huge difference in play between the $22's and the $54's. My rakeback at the end of the month will be a lot better though.

I've got a shitload of stuff to work on but I'm giving myself to the end of the year to become a solid tournament player.

Imagine taking advantage of the poker resources out there and actually applying it to your game!!

I set myself unreasonable targets for improving my game in the 1st 6 months imo. 2 hours study a day is hard going when you could/should be playing. I'm not exactly clever either so 2 hours was really spent reading bbv and nvg. I've actually changed my favourites to take me straight to the STT forum... and I've even read it.

Good Luck

Well That Was That Then...

2008-10-13T21:14:00.001+01:00

Half the tournaments and double the profits.

Again, poker is EZ.

Stepping Up

2008-10-13T15:01:00.002+01:00

I've decided that I'm kind of wasting my time with the $22 SNG's, especially with a 10k bankroll. I've decided to step up to the $33s and $54s to see if I can really make a go of this tournament lark.

If not I'm back to cash.

Turn it up to 11

2008-10-12T23:39:00.002+01:00

After a week of fucking around and having to do other stuff I finally got my finger out of my arse and put some hours in.

I played over 100 SNG's today ffs.

It went ok and i probably ended up around my equity with a $300ish profit. It was fun getting it in waaaay ahead and being sucked out on by the river.

2 or 3 outers were the order of the day.

I would have finished down a lot if it wasn't for an insane run right at the end when i cashed 6/6 with 2 wins.

I don't normally talk about hands but there's one I'm really angry at myself about:

6 max SNG, I'm in the bb with around 8bb, sb has less than 1bb in his stack and the button covers. I have 33 and decide I'm calling/pushing whatever happens. The button pushes and sb calls and I decide I'm calling... I must be fucking stupid.

Anyway I call and button has A8, shortstack wakes up with AQ and takes down the pot and I'm eliminated at the bubble with a decent sized stack.

I have a lot to learn. I need to eliminate fuzzy logic from my game and learn to judge situations better even though i'm multitabling.

I also played a bit of O8 but the games were pretty tight but I did ok.

Unfortunately I have to do some shit next week so I don't really know when I can hit the tables hard. I'm tempted to fuck all the other stuff and play the pokers but having half a business I need to work occasionally.

Going back a few months I really didn't think I'd prefer to play poker than make an honest living!

Not Much Poker

2008-10-09T09:47:00.002+01:00

I have hardly played at all this week, mainly due to other commitments which have taken up a lot of my time. I'm planning on putting in a big session today and going full attack over the weekend.

I'm still in bed right now though...

I've been playing some short sessions of NL cash when I've had a spare few minutes and this has gone ok. I'm starting to get to grips with NL and I'll keep playing at least a little bit every day. I'm playing on a pretty small site and the games are super loose/passive. Even a donkey like me should manage to do ok.

Erm.... Suicide is Painless?

2008-10-05T17:16:00.002+01:00

No wonder people top themselves playing SNG's lol. I ran AK into Ax hunners of times and the other fellow hit the x on the river.

every time.

it's still funny though. i was even up at the end of the day.

today is mostly about NL cash and a huge bonus working out at 250% rakeback.

i'm doing good btw, winning mobnies left, right and occasionally centre.

good luck.

Poker is EZ

2008-10-04T08:42:00.001+01:00

It really is.

Hangover

2008-09-29T10:34:00.002+01:00

I got completely shitfaced last night. Drinking wine while playing poker is fun at the time but today I'm a bag of tits. I'm having to rewrite this blog post because of the drunken pish I spewed in it last night. I hate waking up with a hangover and having to retrace my steps on the internet. Drunken internet shenanigans ftw.

Obviously no cashes from the tournaments I played last night but I was pretty happy just to have qualified tbh. I probably would have cashed if I hadn't ran AKs into KK with about 20bb. I also lost to A3s with AK AIPF with a 3 on the river but thems the breaks.

I had a pretty good day though. Playing MTT's was a nice change of pace.

I got a subscription at audibles.co.uk who do audio books and they're fucking superb to listen to while playing. It has done wonders for my tilt control and i can stay pretty focused on what's happening at the tables. I would recommend them to all the tilt monkeys.

I'm going to play a bit of poker once my hangover has abated but the red bull I'm drinking is making me feel a bit shit.

Sunday Sunday

2008-09-28T16:32:00.004+01:00

So as promised Sunday will be my day of reflection. Just like the god botherers.

I played 3 days this week but had stuff to do from Wednesday onward so kind of missed out on the full time poker experience. I was quite impressed with my dedication though, I played an average of 60 SNG's a day. That's the kind of sessions I need to be playing.

Anyway... 3 days $629 profit. Not 3 bad.

Today I've been spunking away my FPP's on Stars and have qualified for the Sunday mil and the million dollar turbo take down for a total of 416 FPPs. I played awesome obv.

I'll be happy if I cash in either and will ship $100 to any of you fuckers who read this if I FT.

Day 2

2008-09-23T20:03:00.003+01:00

Was much like day 1 except it was Monday.

Day 3 is still going but it's pretty much like days 1 & 2.

Day 4 might be more interesting.

Day 1, Second Time Around...

2008-09-21T23:48:00.004+01:00

Was fucking great.

I played 54 $22 SNG's for a monster profit of $209 including bonus lol. Not too shabby for the first day back at the office.

The fact that I managed to put in some volume on a Sunday with the wife and kids kicking around makes me pretty happy. The fact that I managed to actually make a profit despite not really knowing what I was doing was even better :)

I actually enjoy SNG's because it's a fucking laugh. You see some horrific beats but it's over in a second and you're on to the next tournament with different players and back to square one. No time to tilt and no going after the player who sucked out on you.

Today was all about putting in some solid hours and i couldn't care less if I lost a ton as long as I ground it out.

Job done.

Roll On Tomorrow...

2008-09-20T21:04:00.006+01:00

This isn't a post about my new deodorant.

I'm back to full time poker as of tomorrow and I'm pretty excited to be honest. I've spent most of today sorting out my office and getting stuff ready. I'm all set.

In the afternoon I went to see Claypotts Castle with the wife and bairns. It's normally closed to the public but opens for one weekend a year. Anyhoo... we parked the car and cut through a park to get to the castle and there was a long-jump pit type thing. My son asked me what it was and I was trying to explain. In a fit of stupidity I decided to show him my 1337 long-jump skills. Unfortunately when I landed the sand was like concrete and I jarred my foot pretty badly. I really hope no-one was watching as I limped out of the park. I spent the rest of the day hobbling about being a miserable bastard.

Back to poker:

I'm planning to start at a fairly low level to avoid any stress early on. I have about 3 months worth of living expenses coming in over the next week for work I've done recently so making big cash is not a priority right now.

I've set myself goals for the first week which I'm not going to bother posting, mainly because I can't be arsed but I'm going to take things a week at a time. I'm going to set aside some time every Sunday to go over things, review my play and not let shit get out of control.

I've read through most of this shitty blog and can remember some pretty dark times when I didn't have any confidence in my play and let things get to me. This time I'm not going to give a fuck about short term results. It's going to be all about volume, getting in a shitload of hands and not getting stressed.

Bring it on.

Postponed

2008-09-16T08:57:00.002+01:00

My plan to go back to poker full time has been postponed for a week max.

I've been taking some time away because I want to start fresh and put some serious volume in early doors. I've also got a fair bit of money coming in from other sources at the moment so I should be able to start with a 10k liquid bankroll. This is the same as I had back in January so it should give me a good bit of breathing space.

My current plan is to grind out some sng's for the first few days to get my head back in the game and get used to playing big sessions again. I'll probably stick to ongame for the sng's and I managed to negotiate a suberb rakeback deal on ipoker for cash games.

Happy days.

2nd Chance

2008-09-01T21:17:00.002+01:00

After some serious soul searching I've decided to go back to professional poker. Partly because I feel I have really learned from my previous mistakes and partly because i can't stand failing.

So... 2 weeks today I go back to playing poker for a living with some major adjustments to the way I played in the past.

I've gone over some things which i didn't feel were big issues at the time but shit all adds up and 10 small problems can turn into a major one pretty fucking fast.

Firstly I've sorted out my workspace. I used to play squeezed into a little corner of the lounge with my big fuck off 30" monitor dominating everything. I've finished off my "garden office" (thats a pimped out shed to you and me) and this has made a huge difference. I feel pretty relaxed out there, it's comfortable and I get peace to work... usually.

Limit Holdem is the devil. I'll only be playing limit if the games are particularly good or if I'm in the mood. I'm good enough to be playing different games profitably without beating my head against a wall.

Another mistake I made was trying to re-tool my game too much. I know I can play solid winning poker without trying to over think every small decision. Coaching and websites etc. are superb resources but it's not going to work if you fuck about with your game too much. It's fine bringing in other ideas but it can get to the stage where you aren't playing your own game any more.

Motivation was a big issue for me but I think I'm over that now. If I don't make it this time then I don't get another chance. Failing once is motivation enough for me to succeed this time. I've also set myself minimum daily targets which I must achieve.

Alcohol is out until I've hit my targets. I lost far too many hours getting pissed instead of playing.

Discipline goes hand in hand with motivation and is another aspect i struggled with. In order to stop me from quitting while up a bit or after 10 minutes (I did that a lot), I've decided to grind out some SNG's to keep me at the tables. This will probably be short term but should help me put the volume in. I'm going to throw in a few MTT's and mix things up a bit.

This time I'll make it work.

Poker

2008-08-18T13:54:00.001+01:00

Taking some time off from the tables.

Back in about a month or so.

Pride

2008-08-10T09:25:00.002+01:00

Random blog post number eleventy.

Watched my brother take part in the opening ceremony of the Olympics on Friday. See Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7549580.stm

Top class performance imo.

You should be proud of yourself mate.

Rain, Toothache and Fucking About...A Rant in E minor

2008-08-01T16:46:00.004+01:00

I have a huge outside job on right now which should make me a mint but the rain is fucking it right up... fuck you weather.

i have toothache, can't get a dentist for love nor money and want to kill myself atm. Single malt really does help though.

Nothing to do but play poker... turns out I can't remember how to play. Gave FR No Limit a shot but I have no idea. I think I have a few books and a DC subscription but my current alcohol dependance is kinda fucking that up.

I think I'm still ahead though.... Amatay I want to sweat one of your sessions!

I think I'll go and lie down.

Hit it

2008-07-30T16:19:00.003+01:00

So I set myself a goal of $1k before the end of the month and just hit it thanks to a huge fish playing HU 3/6 hold them. my fucking christ he was terrible.

profit since i decided to get a grip of myself: $1372

Once again... GO ME!!

My new goal is another $628 by the end of the month...

The big rebuild...

2008-07-20T20:15:00.002+01:00

Ok, so everyone pretty much knows that I fucked the chance to play pro poker, mainly through lazyness, alcohol and all that. I bought in to my brother's business and I'm back making an honest living. I was still making good dough from poker but stopped playing for a few weeks and got my head sorted out.

I had to withdraw another few quid from my bankroll and I'm now rebuilding. I want to make at least another $1k by the end of the month to take my bankroll up to a measly $3k.

10k roll by the end of the year plus some debt paid off.... Go me!

I'm going to really make use of the coaching sites/forums and all that good shit. Heard that one before?

Me too.

Not much going on...

2008-07-18T12:18:00.002+01:00

I've played hardly any poker for the first 2 weeks in July because I couldn't really be arsed.

I played a bit last night and fannied about this morning for a bit. I think the time off has done me some good and I'm starting to enjoy playing again.

Need to get my finger out between now and the end of the month...

I'm back bitches...

2008-06-20T23:17:00.002+01:00

Ok. I've finally sorted my life out. Full time poker is NOT the job for me. It's pretty obvious that I can't handle it. I'm too fucking lazy, I'm a pisshead, I'm not self motivated, I put myself under too much pressure, my feet smell, I have herpes and I really can't be arsed!

Ok, I don't have herpes... the rest is true though.

In a bid to get all my shit in one sock I started working a couple of days with my brother for a while. This quickly evolved into full time and through some jammy hypnotism shit I learned; I made hime sell me half the business.

If you're reading this mate.. 1.... 2..... 3...... you're under. You did an excellent piece of business with your brother and you should be proud of yourself. [SNAP!] You're back in the room.

As for poker....

I've withdrawn the vast majority of my bankroll and spent it on hookers and blow, beer and tabs and bills and half of an established business :).

I've left myself with about $2k and I'll be playing 2/4 limit full ring and 1/2 limit O8. My new goal is to be debt free (I owe around £30k!!??!!) by the 1st July 2009.

I might actually start listening to other people who say poker is a great hobby but a shit way to earn a living. you were right...

what the fuck am i doing?

2008-05-23T22:22:00.003+01:00

i'm taking the blog down until i can figure out what the fuck i'm doing with poker. i have my whole bankroll spread over about 8 sites for bonuswhoring reasons and once again i'm fucking sick of grinding shitty stakes.

i've gone full circle.

i'm going to have a think about what i'm trying to do with this poker lark. right now i'm just floating around getting fuck all done.

***

ok i was going to take it down but i don't want to delete it so fuck it.

Heater!

2008-05-13T15:42:00.003+01:00

Playing 2/4 and 3/6 on ipoker to clear a bonus and running insanely hot. 4bb/100 over about 15k hands this month.

about fucking time.

it might be something to do with not stressing myself out about poker these days and just fucking doing it. it also might have something to do with the fact that the big fuck off shed i built, insulated and plasterboarded is now habitable.

peace and quiet lol.

Taking a Break

2008-04-30T22:17:00.002+01:00

I'm currently taking a break from playing poker full time. I've started working with my brother a couple of days a week because I was pretty fucking sick of the lifestyle I had developed. I was a bit of a mess to be honest. Playing through the night, sleeping all day, letting poker rule my life, letting the stress of a losing session or two get to me, drinking too much, being lazy, not spending enough time with my wife and kids, blah blah blah. You know the score.

In order to get some normality back I decided to return to my trade (painting and decorating fwiw) which I haven't done for about 7 years. This has gone surprisingly well. I used to hate it but there's something satisfying about manual labour when you've spent so long sitting on your fat arse. Making this change has given me a bit of structure and it's had a positive effect as far as poker is concerned. I don't really give a fuck about winning or losing and poker doesn't stress me out at all. I'm also sleeping a lot better which probably helps. This has all contributed to a pretty amazing week at the tables so long may it continue.

I've certainly not abandoned poker as a career and it'll still make up the vast majority of my income every month.

At the end of the day I had to do something. I think I could have ended up a gibbering mess if I didn't sort myself out.

GL

9 days on...

2008-04-12T03:01:00.003+01:00

To ease my suffering after getting my arse kicked at the tables I went to Edinburgh to have a beer with one of my favourite bloggers Luckyjimm. We had a few beers and spoke about poker and life in general. It was a good laugh and I might write a full trip report later if I can be arsed.

Since then poker has been going pretty well. I don't even have much to moan about today for a change! Omaha 8 is going superbly and I reckon I'll be ready to move up to 10/20 on a more permanent basis at the end of the month. It's quite weird looking back on how much my game has improved in the relatively short time I've been playing. Obviously coaching really speeds your progression and props once again to danzasmack. I would have saved myself a lot of heartache if I had got some coaching when I was learning hold em.

After my last post I decided to take a break from 6 max for a few days and do a bit more studying to better equip myself. One positive aspect of getting killed at short handed play is that when you go back to full ring the decisions seem much simpler. I'm running at something like 8bb/100 over 5000 hands since taking a break. I've more than covered my losses so all is right with the world again. It might be that my thought process is a bit sharper after investing a bit of time trying to improve.

I've been trying to get to grips with 7 card stud for the past few days too and that's going reasonably well. I still pay a bit of HORSE and stud or stud 8 are by far my weakest games so I'm going to spend a little bit of time learning these over the next few weeks. If I can get to the stage where I feel competent then I'll be happy.

I feel like things are starting to come together a bit more for me now. I remember posting at the start of the year when I would sit down to play and have zero table selection as I played 5/10 full ring and there would be like 3 tables running. Today I got up and opened 4 different sites and had the choice of O8, hold em, 7 card stud and HORSE and I basically picked the games that looked the best.

I was spoilt for choice to be honest.

Shit Day

2008-04-03T03:40:00.004+01:00

Got seriously fucked over at the tables today. Fuck you poker and fuck you limit hold em in particular. Never in my life have i been ass raped on the river as often as I have today. Sick. I think I dropped about 120 big bets in total. Lucky for me I'm only playing 1/2 while i learn (lol) 6 max. All I'm learning is how it feels to want to stab yourself in the eyes.

Don't get me wrong, I've lost a shitload more in $$ than i have today and not batted an eyelid. This feels personal though. I played pretty well for the most part despite the wall to wall suckouts but I could not for the fucking life of me get a hand to hold up. I was also playing against people who would not fold a hand under any circumstances and today was their day to runner runner 2 pair, straight, flush, full house... you get the picture.

To make things worse I'm shattered and can't sleep. My brain won't switch off even though thinking about poker makes me want to vomit. If I'm not torturing myslelf with poker I'm casting my mind back over all the times I've been a cunt in the past. I obviously just want to piss myself off even more.

Fucking stupid fucking arsehole I am. I need to get a grip and stop letting the fish get to me. Back to reading The Poker Mindset tomorrow I think.

End Rant.

Solid

2008-04-02T04:01:00.002+01:00

I decided that this month I was going to get the finger out and properly learn short handed limit hold em. So far so good.

I put in a just over 2k hands today and managed to achieve a positive win rate even though I seen some of the sickest coolers ever. I might go through my database and dig some out, there are a few absolute crackers. I'm pretty happy overall. I felt like I knew what I was doing the majority of the time.

I played a bit of full ring limit and O8 to break up the sessions and I've logged about 3k hands in total today which is pretty huge for me.

My plan for the month is concentrate on 6 max and O8, grinding up 50 big bets for the level above and using that to take shots. I want to log a shitload of hands in April because I've been a lazy bastard since I started this shit in January so it's about time i got myself sorted out.

I'll either have a huge month or burn myself out in the process but fuck it.

Wrecked

2008-03-27T08:49:00.003Z

I'm pretty fucked right now after 4 days or so of pretty solid alcoholism. Obviously poker took a bit of a back seat during this time and I need to get my finger out and get some hands in.

I did play a bit of 10/20 O8 which was somewhat ill advised although profitable. I'm not particularly comfortable at that limit and still have a chunk of my bankroll tied up which makes it worse. I did have Danzasmack sweat me during it but it could have been somewhat disasterous. I also put in a solid session at lower limit O8 at some point but it's all a bit of a haze to be honest.

So I'm off the piss now before my wife divorces me or my liver falls out of my arse. I'm somewhat dissapointed to be awake at 9am with no games running at the limits or sites I want/need to play on.

I might hit some steps SNG's on Stars to pass the time. Not that I have any intention of playing in the main event but $12.5k would be a nice start to the day.

Long Days and Producing the Goods

2008-03-19T01:45:00.003Z

I've been continuing to put the hours in over the past week or so and my hard work is paying dividends. I passed £3k for the month late last week after running pretty hot and whoring some boni. I've been doing a lot of jumping about from site to site, game to game and playing various stakes from 1/2 to 5/10. It's been useful in keeping me motivated for the long sessions I've been putting in.

I'm really focused on becoming a better all round poker player at the moment and this has really started to show, especially with my hand reading skills. Being a multi tabling TAG I didn't really give this too much thought before but it's always at the front of my mind now. Putting opponents on hands based on their actions is actually quite easy when you think!

My normal poker sessions consist of 2 tables of O8, Stud or HORSE with 4 tables of Hold em as this keeps my mind active when I'm playing and makes my thought process clearer. It takes a bit of getting used to but it prevents me from slipping into autopilot. I've also been recording some sessions with CamStudio to identify leaks. What I will say, it's easy to play good poker when you're explaining every decision you're making.

I've already set my sights on next month and I've decided to really hammer the short handed tables on Ongame and get things up to speed. I've been dabbling a bit with short handed and keep promising myself that I'll play a ton and get good but I tend to get distracted by other things. Next month it's fucking happening - no more excuses. I have a couple of cracking bonuses to do, one of which I'll have to play short handed to stand a chance of clearing so that is reason enough. I'll also continue playing other games, particularly O8. I'm grinding up a completely seperate bankroll for this as I was making a few mistakes at higher limits which cost me a bit. Getting good at NL cash is currently on the back burner but is very much on my to do list.

I've been playing for a living for 2 and a half months now and things have finally clicked into place. It has not been easy making the transition but I think I'm half way there and hopefully there'll be big things to come as the year goes on.

Days Off

2008-03-10T22:38:00.002Z

I had the weekend off for my son's birthday and the Scottish Cup quarter final and I'm struggling to get myself motivated today. Last week i hit the tables pretty hard and played a few 10 hour days. This was more through choice than anything else as I was really enjoying poker and grinding out masses of hands was less of a chore than usual.

Today I've played for an hour or so and really can't be bothered. I'm feeling pretty shit after burning the candle at both ends all weekend and just want to lie down.

The Omaha 8 games continue to be excellent but I hit a bit of a bad run of cards which has been a bit frustrating. I know if I keep playing the way I am that the big hands will come and not be counterfeited on the river! I had a great coaching session last week that has encouraged me to be a bit more aggressive when I'm playing and this has made a lot of hands easier to play.

I also have something in the pipeline which might generate some extra income but more on that later.

Can't Be Arsed...

2008-03-05T11:25:00.002Z

I've been really hammering the tables over the past few days and putting in some marathon sessions. I was planning to so a bit of an in depth post about various things that have cone up over the past month or so. The truth is that I'm enjoying poker so much that I really can't be bothered. I'd much rather be at the tables.

I'm playing an absolute shitload of Omaha/8 and still bonuswhoring on the side. Trying to get good at a new game has really sorted me out I think. I'm eating up anything I can find on the game and can't get enough of it.

I think that I would like to class myself as a mixed game player by the end of the year but I'll take it one day at a time. I really don't think I could do without the help of my coach who has recognised my boredom with hold em and has helped me embrace other games that really fit my style of play.

I'm currently paying for my education at the tables but have managed to fall in love with poker again and I can't get enough of it. I used to struggle to put in a 2 hour session but the past 3 nights I've played 6-7 hours no problem because I'm really enjoying it.

Not being bored will pay for itself.

Wired

2008-02-29T03:21:00.003Z

I was going to go to bed but I'm too wired on caffeine to sleep. I'm currently going to bed when my wife leaves for work and gettting up just before she gets home. This was a habit I was hoping to break as I'm going out on the piss tomorrow night and didn't want to feel like I was drinking first thing in the morning.

I had another coaching session tonight and danzasmack sweated me while I played a mixture of hold em and horse. Again I got a lot out of it even though I ran horribly at hold em. I managed to recoup some of my losses at horse though so it's all good. I was able to get some of my noob mixed game mistakes out of the way so it was a very productive session. I really enjoy horse but I'm relatively new to it. Luckily the games are so soft you could probably turn a nice profit just by playing tight. I'm pretty shit at stud and stud/8 but I do ok by just nitting it up. I've got a pretty good handle on O8 and razz though and horse is where you find the worst limit hold em players on the net.

After the session I played some O8 on stars for a few hours and the games were phenomenal. I'm going to start playing this regularly and try to figure out how to play it well. These games are a like license to print money. What gets me is that it is relatively easy to play well but people seem to play really badly post flop. I invested in Pokertracker Omaha tonight and I'm currently running at 6.5bb/100. I was really surprised by this as I didn't think I was running particularly hot or anything. After 100,000 hands I'll let you know if it's sustainable or not.

Another shit blog post but a decent one is coming soon. I need to recap on all of the fuck ups I've made this month!

Another Boring Poker Post

2008-02-28T03:27:00.003Z

I have quite a lot to write about but I can't really be arsed tonight. I'll probably do something decent at the end of the month as it's been a tough one. I think I've been to the highest and lowest points in my poker career over the last 4 weeks. More on that another day.

I'm still trying to mix things up when I'm playing at the moment as it relieves the monotony of sitting on your arse playing poker all night. I've noticed that I'm much more aware of what my opponents are doing now. Before I would fire up some tables and pretty much switch off and autopilot my way through the session. I suppose trying to learn new games has got me used to concentrating when I'm playing.

I played some Razz last night and tonight as this is one game where I'm particularly clueless. That game is just fucking sick. Imagine capping preflop with pocket aces in hold em then having to instamuck your hand on the flop. That shit happens all the time in Razz. Raise Raise Raise on 3rd street with the nuts and fold 4th street when you brick and your opponent doesn't. It was fun in a frustrating and not very profitable kind of way.

I'm still forcing myself to play busto stakes no limit for a couple of hundred hands a day too although my initial hot streak has slowed to a steady trickle. My no limit bankroll is still heading in the right direction though.

Limit is still treating me like a bitch as usual but as long as I feel like I'm playing well I'm not going to let it bother me. I had a hand tonight that made me laugh but I can't find it in pokertracker. Basically I turned the nuts after being check raised on the flop. The other guy goes absolutely apeshit in chat for a full 15 minutes. I've been berated before but this was something else entirely. Obviously I don't respond because I'm above all that nonsense (lol) which infuriates this guy further. Anyway his parting shot was "I can't believe you didn't even say sorry after sucking out on me like that".

I was laughing too much to think of a witty comeback.

I have another coaching session tomorrow night which I'm looking forward to. I have a few particular situations which have come up recently where I'm not entirely sure what my line should be.

In non poker related matters I bought a wii for my son's birthday next month and obviously had to test it tonight to make sure it's working properly. My arms are fucking aching and I've lost about a stone I reckon. Tick off "get more exercise" on my to do list :D

Best Day Ever

2008-02-26T01:56:00.004Z

I have played an absolute shitload of poker today and have had my best day since I started playing for a living. Not necessarily in terms of money earned but the best I've played and the most I've enjoyed poker since the beginning of the year.

I didn't play at all for the past few days as I was feeling pretty shit after one of my accounts was locked. I watched a load of videos on Deucescracked had a few beers and chilled out. I knew it would be a bad idea to sit at a table and I'd probably spew. I watched all of the limit hold em videos, moved on to the mixed games videos and finished off with the beginner No Limit content.

I got up today planning to play a little bit and see how it went. I downloaded a few of the sites I used to play on to see what the games were like as I might have to rethink my strategy if the worst happens with the site which will remain nameless. To my surprise I found $500 that I had completely forgotten about on a Cryptologic skin. I was planning to throw $500 on to Full Tilt next month to try my hand at busto stakes No Limit. I decided to sit at a couple of tables of full ring NL25 to get my feet wet. I didn't really know exactly what i was doing most of the time but i managed to win 4 buy ins in about an hour. This was despite the fact I got cooolered twice with set over set and AK < A3 AIPF. I've played less than 200 hands of No Limit in my life so I was quite happy with this. Most importantly I actually enjoyed playing poker again. It was fun.

I then hit up some 3/6 limit on stars for a couple of hours and had a great session, making good decisions and winning about $400. I also cleared the last portion of a $1500 bonus. Suddenly my bankroll is looking ok again.

This evening I spent a couple of hours grinding a bonus on Prima, playing very solidly and had another winning session. I was a bit pissed off with hold em by this time so I decided to play some low limit HORSE on stars armed with my newly acquired mixed game knowledge. I played 1/2 for about an hour and took down another $100.

To cap off my night I played some more NL, quickly going up another 2 buy ins but quit after half an hour or so.

Up about $730 I think but it feels a lot more with the bonus. All in all a good day and hopefully tomorrow brings more of the same.

Dodgy

2008-02-22T14:29:00.002Z

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting us.

We would like to inform you that your account is locked due to an undergoing investigation for chip dumping involving yourself and a couple of other poker players .

The moment we get an update to this case we will contact you. We apologise for the inconvinience.

Thank you for your cooperation and do not hesitate to contact us once again if you require further assistance.

Best Regards,
Nikola

Fuck fucking fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

I finally got hold of their customer service people on the phone and it all sounds pretty shady to me. The guy wouldn't really answer any of my questions, changed the shubject when I asked for the hand histories that were being investigated and told me that I was probably being investigated because I was winning! Obviously you aren't meant to win on this site.

WTF?

2008-02-21T17:52:00.003Z

This afternoon I logged into a poker account where I had been whoring a bonus. I was a little bit concerned as it had taken them 36 hours to credit said bonus compared to other people being credited in 5 minutes. I had cashed out a few days ago as this was supposed to be my wages for the month but it hadn't been processed yet.

Anyway I tried to log in and I get a pop up that says "Your account has been locked out from our system. Please contact customer support". So I call their dodgy telephone support number and keep gettting cut off after 5 minutes. This shit goes on for 2 hours. Needless to say I'm fucking furious. I fired off an email about an hour in to the phone calls and I'm still waiting for a reply.

I'm not a fucking happy camper right now. Even if I get this shit sorted out I'm not going to have enough time to cash out from neteller and pay the bills. I can pay the bills anyway but thats not the fucking point! Cunts.

The best case scenario is that I don't get paid on time this month, worst case I'm down $8500 or around 80% of my bankroll if this site has gone tits up.

I'll not out the site right now as I'll give them 24 hours to get this sorted. If not I'm spamming every poker forum or blog I know with the story of these (possibly) cheating bastards.

Limit Poker is a Bitch

2008-02-20T09:13:00.002Z

I started playing some full ring again a few days ago and I've noticed some improvement in my decision making following a a solid week studying. Unfortunately I suffered 2 days of sick sick coolers and I was totally pissed off with poker.

Last night I sat down and fired up 4 tables and it was more of the same. It is hugely frustrating when you know you are making the correct plays but get fucked over anyway. After getting shat on by a rivered set of 3's against my flopped top 2 pair I was ready to throw my computer out of the window. I insta-left all my tables before monkey tilt took over.

After taking 10 minutes or so to calm down I decided to have another shot. I fired up 9 tables and concentrated on playing solidly and not paying too much attention to the result of any given hand. This is much easier to do when you instantly have other decisions to make. This was probably the best session I've had for a few weeks and I ended up $600 to the good.

I'm killing time this morning waiting on the games to start up. I think I'll spend some more time 9 tabling and hopefully keep up the positive results.

I have another coaching session tomorrow evening so hopefully I can iron out some minor leaks and make some extra cash for the rest of this month.

Hard Work

2008-02-13T11:15:00.003Z

Things are taking a more positive turn for me this week. I decided on Saturday that I was going to grind up the stakes to get my confidence and game back. I've used the time since then to focus on my 6 max game instead.

Full ring limit has become increasingly frustrating for me lately due to the poor game selection and a shit run of cards. Looking at the lobby on Stars there are currently 2 tables of 5/10 full ring running and 10 tables of 6 max. Learning to play short handed is something I've been putting off for a long time, mainly because I'm a nit but mostly because I'm a lazy bastard and learning a new game requires time and effort.

My week has consisted of:

1. watching a video on stoxpoker or deucescracked while taking notes
2. playing for an hour and trying to apply the concepts
3. reviewing my session
4. rinse and repeat.

I've found that it's a good way to learn and gets you playing well from the start of the session. There are a huge amount of resources out there for players who want to improve their game and I intend to make full use of them. Next month I might even take a stab at the dreaded NO-LIMIT!

Dell are finally sending a dude out to fix my pc tomorrow following at least 5 hours of phone calls to their technical support people over the weekend. Fuckers.

Back to Basics

2008-02-09T18:08:00.000Z

Despite last night's tilt I've actually managed to lock up next months wages after clearing a few historic bonuses and such. Instead of carrying on the way I've been going for the rest of the month I've decided to go right back to basics with my game. This is partly to punish myself for tilting so badly and partly to get my game right back on track.

I've temporarily withdrawn most of my bankroll from Stars, leaving $1200 on there. For the rest of the month I'm going to grind up through the limits starting at 1/2 and playing a minimum of 10k hands at each level.

I'm also going to re-read some of my old books, watch a shitload of videos and really work hard on my game. This is something I should have been doing all along but fell by the wayside after a couple of weeks.

After dedicating the rest of February to this, I should come back a much better player in March.

Monkey Tilt

2008-02-09T11:53:00.000Z

I had to clear 1200 raked hands yesterday to release a bonus that expired at 10pm last night. Long story short: not many games going, had to play on bad short handed tables and got my arse well and truly booted. I have never been rivered so often in one session in my entire life. Dealt KK 22 times during the course of the day - lost 14 times. Nice.

Needless to say this sent me on super duper monkey tilt and I proceeded to spunk off another $500 at 5/10 playing extremely recklessly.

I woke up this morning feeling fucking awful and in a foul mood. I then spent 45 minutes on the phone to Dell customer service trying to get my pc fixed. I have to phone back later once the system test is complete. Oh the fucking joy.

Another valuable lesson (re)learned. When things aren't going your way, stop. I could have saved myself a lot of heartache if I had remembered that. Spunking off $800 to clear a $500 bonus is a complete waste of time.

Today is another day though and I'll be hitting the tables again tonight at some point. I have a lot of ground to make up following last nights escapades.

Hangovers, Kratom and Chatting With Jesus

2008-02-07T01:28:00.000Z

I have a fucking huuuuuge hangover just now after drinking far too much whisky this afternoon. I really couldn't be arsed with poker today and decided to get shitfaced instead. I drank some kratom tea aswell which has left me dazed and confused. I feel shitty.

I fired up a poker site to find out when my bonus expires, couldn't find it in the software so talked to live support. The box popped up on the screen and written at the top was "you are now chatting with Jesus". I nearly pissed and shit myself at the same time lol. Unfortunately he was unable to give me any clues about the meaning of life or anything but he did tell me when my bonus expires. Thanks Jesus, say hi to your pop for me.

I tried to get a screenshot but it just saved the chat box and not the text. Bah!

The Grind

2008-02-04T02:55:00.000Z

After being a lazy bastard on Friday and Saturday I put in a solid 8 hours today. No big swings, very little in the way of big hands and quite a good uneventful day.

I spent most of the evening bonuswhoring on a Prima Skin which was pretty boring. Even 8 tabling did little to relieve the monotony. I pretty much switch off when I'm doing this so I decided to stick a film on to watch while I played. This isn't something I would recommend unless you're not too worried about missing the action. At the stakes I was playing the game is easily beatable playing straight forward ABC poker. So I watched the Simpsons movie and then Leon which was fine. I also managed to turn a small profit while not paying very much attention. Hopefully doing this now and again will help to stave off the inevitable burn out that I get from time to time.

Later on I hit Stars and played about 1000 hands over 2 sessions. I've cut back the number of tables I'm playing at 5/10 following my coaching session. It made it very clear that I was missing a lot of profitable situations by playing 6 tables. Unfortunately this will cut back on the FPP bonuses but I've got a few other bonuses lined up on different sites which should see me through to the end of the year. Getting to Supernova Elite aint happening anyway. Maybe next year.

Back to the grind again tomorrow...

Excellent Start to February

2008-02-01T19:52:00.000Z

In the early hours of this morning I had my first coaching session with danzasmack from Deucescracked.com. It was initially intended to be a hand history review but I was having some problems with a piece of software he uses so we did a sweat session instead. This was pretty amazing really and I got a huge amount out of it. I played 2 tables for a couple of hours while discussing various situations with him as they came up. He encouraged me to open up my game a lot more in certain situations and against certain opponents and it paid off.

The fact that there was one of the fishiest players I've ever seen at these limits made it all the more interesting. The guy was 3 betting 10 4 off suit and running at 80% VPIP with a PFR of 50%. I managed to isolate him a couple of times and get paid off by weaker hands. Towards the end of the session every other player on Stars had clicked on to this guy and when he left the table the waiting list was 14 deep.

I'm looking forward to applying the things we discussed over the next few days.

My computer is now totally arsed after I tried to reinstall the system and it didn't work. I need to get on the phone tomorrow to get it sorted. I'm now on my laptop with my old 19" monitor and it's not nearly as comfortable.

I still can't connect to any Prima skins on my laptop so I'm wondering if it might be something to do with my ISP. I'll have phone them aswell.

I'm taking the night off tonight and having a few jars.

Bad End to January

2008-02-01T01:48:00.000Z

I went out last night and had a few beers with a guy I used to work with which was good. Came home about midnight and let my dog out. The little fucker proceeded to escape from the garden so I wandered around in the pissing rain trying to find a black lab in the dark for an hour. He came back at 4.30am very impressed with himself. Little fucker.

This morning I'm hunting for my fags when suddenly I don't feel so good. I start upstairs to the bathroom, make it halfway up and proceed to be violently sick up the stairs, along the hall and all over the bathroom floor. Ironically I was finished puking by the time I made it to the toilet. All I'll say is I regretted having a kebab last night and the cleanup operation took fucking ages.

So tonight I sit down to get some hands in at the Prima site I've been bonuswhoring and the fucker won't start. No worries I think, I'll just reinstall the software and we'll be away. I do that and I'm still getting the same thing - the software starts and freezes before it opens. I try another Prima skin and get the same thing. So I spend about 2 hours talking with live support, try loads of different things and nothing works. Not good news as I'm relying on this bonus for next months wages.

Later on I tried to install some other software and it won't install and I keep getting errors. I also have a weird bug with Internet Explorer where it writes backwards when I'm typing or the window moves accross the screen when I'm scrolling down the screen. It's a pain in the arse.

My Anti Virus shows nothing, I've ran Adaware and Spybot and get nothing. I've pretty much tried everything I can think of. I'm going to try to reinstall windows later to see if that helps. If not I'll be formatting my hard drive and starting again so it'll be bye bye to another pokertracker database.

As far as poker is concerned, I've had an ok month all things considered. Cashed out $3200 in total which is a slight pay rise compared to my old job. I'm pretty happy with this considering the difficulties I've had adapting to playing full time.

Computer problems aside, I'm looking forward to February. I'm planning on getting a serious amount of hands in now that i have some sort of routine in place and hopefully making a decent amount of money!

Good luck.

Ticking Over

2008-01-27T02:39:00.000Z

I have the misfortune of supporting Dundee and decided to go to the match today. What a fucking disaster that was. Actually I don't even want to think about it. It was good to get out of the house though as I've been feeling like a bit of a shut in lately. I also find that shouting at referees is a good outlet for any pent up frustraton.

Things are going pretty well for me poker wise. I've almost completely recovered from my last downswing and things are looking a hell of a lot rosier.

I've been thinking about how I'm going to approach next month as I've learned a few things recently. I really need some structure to my day as I'm currently sleeping for a few hours in the morning then another few hours late afternoon. I'm feeling pretty shit and I think this is to blame. I'm also getting lazy again and not putting in the hours.

I've noticed that the 5/10 games on Stars are significantly better from around 12am onwards so I'll be looking to play at these times. I've also managed to deposit for a $3.5k bonus on one of the Prima skins and should manage to clear this in a month playing around 2 hours per day. The peak times there are in the evening. I'm also playing a bit of shorthanded limit but the games are more readily available than full ring so I can pretty much play any time I feel like a change. I'm really enjoying the short handed stuff just now. The players are generally terrible and I'm liking LAGing it up. I've been a fucking Full Ring nit for too long.

My plan of attack for next month is to sleep from about 4am until 12pm, give or take. Fit in 500 hands of shorthanded poker at some point during the day. Bonuswhore for a couple of hours in the evening and then get down to the serious business on Stars when the games are good.

I'm also going to stop drinking so much as the hangovers are turning me into a right miserable bastard.

Sounds like a plan to me.

lol graphaments

2008-01-24T23:36:00.001Z

This is my last 10k hands and a 178 big bet downsing. Nice. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster to be honest. I'm hoping that I can start stringing together some positive sessions now.

My coaching session with danzasmack has been postponed until next week as my internet went down yesterday. I have a backup but it's a data card on my laptop which doesn't have the hands I want to go over. I'm really looking forward to it, I've watched his videos on deucescracked and have been hugely impressed by his stuff.

I've decided that I'm not going to be a miserable bastard in my blog any more lol. I've managed to regain my confidence and not automatically assume that every session is going to be a loser. I'm just trying to play as well as I can and let the results sort themselves out.

I might post some hands tomorrow if I can be arsed.

8 losing sessions on the bounce...

2008-01-23T03:13:00.000Z

...according to pokertracker anyway. Last night I was feeling like shit. Came off the back of another -$600 day and had no confidence in my game whatsover. This carried on into today, I played a few tables and posted another losing session.... It's becoming a trend.

This evening I had a few beers, decided to play 2 tables at the most, relaxed and played some poker. I think I might be overthinking myself right now, I might have MUBS.

To be honest I'm pretty convinced that I'm just running bad but I can't help thinking that my strategy is being completely exploited at the tables.

Anyway... I had a decent winning session against solid regulars so my confidence is restored a bit.

I'm looking forward to my HH review tomorrow and hoping I can plug a few leaks.

GL

Nothing Doing

2008-01-21T12:36:00.000Z

Not much happening with me over the past few days, still grinding it out. I've been struggling a wee bit with poker too. Couldn't seem to get a winning session in. I seem to be getting a few big hands early on but then proceed to spunk away my $$. I'm making quite a lot of mistakes and doing badly in blind on blind situations again. I'll be doing a big session review this afternoon and going over things with a fine tooth comb. I also have danzasmack doing a hand history review for me on wednesday so that will be useful.

I played a session just now and the tables were really good which is unusual for during the day. Take this for example: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1971603

To be fair I didn't know where the fuck I was at in that hand. Anyway, halfway through the session I was down about $300, same old same old, big draws not hitting and big hands not holding up. I managed to to claw it back though and ended up about $150, hopefully it's the start of a decent run for me.

As I said earlier the daytime games are usually shite so I was thinking about what I could do during the day instead of chasing TAGs around at 5/10. I decided to set myself a little challenge. I've been meaning to learn short handed limit for some time so I'm going to start with 300 big bets at 1/2, play 500 hands a day and see where I end up. I'll move up when I have 300 big bets for the next level and drop down if I hit 300 for the limit below. I'm going to do this until the end of February or March as a bit of a side project. It's more productive than sitting on my arse watching tv or playing the Xbox.

Drunk Shot Taking Anyone?

2008-01-18T23:11:00.000Z

So I'm pretty pissed, watched a film with the missus, she goes to bed and I fire up 2 tables of 10/20 for a laugh. I decided to take a shot with $1k and see what happens. What happens is I win some hands.

Fuck You Downswing!

I thought 5/10 played hard but 10/20 is a whole new kettle of fish... without the fish unfortunately. It plays totally different and I actually seen someone fold to a river check raise! I need to get some of that shit in my game lol.

I go too far with hands sometimes.

In other news: decided to take the night off (apart from drunken 10/20) as my wife went back to work on Monday following nine months of maternity leave. I was feeling somewhat worse for wear following last night anyway. We had an Indian, a few beers and watched a film which was good. I'm lucky enough to live in an area which has the best Indian take away bar none. Seriously the place rocks.

In other, other news: I've been in touch with the coaches at deucescracked.com and danzasmack is going to give me a few coaching sessions. I think I have a few leaks and unfortunately the poker literature for full ring limit is somewhat outdated and assumes people play shittily. I play against people who are pretty fucking good for the most part so decided to get a coach to help me out. Trip report to follow.

In other, other, other news: My wrist has been giving me shit with spending so much time on the computer... nothing to do with redtube you understand. Anyway, I bought one of those gel wrist pad things and it's worked wonders. Buy one.... it's better than a fag packet.

A Review

2008-01-17T20:50:00.000Z

After reading through my last few posts which are all a bit doom and gloom, I decided to reflect on my experience of playing poker for a living to date (all 17 days of it lol). I must admit it's not exactly how I thought it would be and it's been a steep learning curve.

Some stuff I've learned:

Motivation

It's not too easy to motivate yourself when when you can play any time you want. I'm going to try to get into a regular routine to get some structure to my lazy arse life. It's not all that easy to motivate yourself when you're winning either.

Losing

Lets face it, losing is a bastard. Nobody likes to lose. It's even more of a bastard when it's your livelihood that you're spunking away at the tables. There are some things that have made losing a bit easier for me to deal with. The first is having a big enough bankroll to absorb the loss. I'm playing with 1000 big bets and can reload if things go completely tits up (like i get haxxored, get drunk and spunk it all at $200/$400 or decide to do $1k flips). Also having some money in the bank to pay the bills at the end of the month takes a bit of pressure off. I don't know if I would go as far as to recommend having as much as 6 months worth of expenses but having a bit of money is good. The most important thing when it comes to having a shit session is remembering that I can make enough money in a month through FPP bonuses to pay the bills. Fuck the downswings :).

Playing Your A Game

This is really important when you play against reasonably decent players all the time. I can safely say that I don't take my A game to the tables often enough. I started off really well in respect of this. I prepared myself mentally before i started playing and would stop if I noticed myself making mistakes, take a look at the hands in pokertracker, find the leaks and get back to business. This is something i need to get back to doing.

Find a Way to Vent

This blog has really helped me in this regard. My wife really doesn't want to hear about it when I'm having a shit day and dropping $$ at the tables. Lets face it, she doesn't need to know and it'll only make her nervous. I whine like a little bitch in here instead and instantly feel better. She doesn't need to know about the upswings either as she'll go and spunk loads of money on shoes and handbags. I also really enjoy writing lots of abusive shit in a players notes because I get a laugh when I check them out the next day or whatever when all memories of the suckout have faded.

Don't Doubt Yourself: Review, Review and Review

Losing sessions getting you down? Review your play. Spot the mistakes. Learn something and move on. I've found that doing a session review following a losing session is a must. A couple of times it has transpired that I was playing pretty well even if it felt like I made loads of mistakes at the time.

Make Clear and Achievable Goals

It's good to set goals for the day, week and month but be specific. I read my goals for the year and they're waaay too vague. Set yourself clear and concise goals.

Don't Worry About Quitting

Let's face it, sometimes the games are shit. Sometimes you're playing badly. Sometimes you're at the arse end of varience. Sometimes you're on insane monkey tilt. Go and do something else instead of spunking away your bankroll you fucking tit.

Enjoy It

At the end of the day this has to be the best job in the world and I fucking love it.

Tilt and the Downswing Continues

2008-01-17T20:36:00.000Z

I dropped more than $500 in 250 hands earlier tonight in brutal fashion. Nothing held up for me at all and my win rate for the month has plummeted. I admit I did tilt a bit and probably lost about $100 through doing stupid stuff but the rest was lost through vomit inducing suckouts and running into AA 3 times with overpairs.

Fucking fucking fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

After losing with KK against J7o which hit 2 pair on the river I wanted to punch something. I stopped playing instead. Went out to the carry oot shop and I'm going to get fucking wasted. No more poker until tomorrow.

Tilt is a funny thing. I though I'd overcome it and had seen beats so heinous that I was now immune. Apparently not. I lost about 4 big pots on the trot to fuckwits cold calling with any 2 and I was away on super monkey tilt. I'm glad I have the sense to quit before I lose more. I'll take the night off instead.

I'm such a whining bitch lol.

Today

2008-01-16T22:30:00.000Z

I think today has been the first day I've actually followed the goals which I set for myself at the beginning of the year. I've played 2 sessions and 1000 hands so far today. First session was pretty pish and I dropped $350 over 500 hands playing a mix of 3/6 and 5/10. My 3/6 play has netted me a grand total of 50 cents this year... not even enough for a mars bar. I didn't steam although I was pretty disappointed with some of my play and started to doubt myself a bit.

I was obviously feeling pretty shitty given the break even nature of the last few days so I dug out The Poker Mindset and read some bits and pieces. I then took the dog for a walk and hit the tables tonight with a lot more confidence in my ability. Finally hit a winning session and I'm currently -$75 for the day. i'm going top play another 1000 hands tonight starting around 2 or 3am. I've found that the games are a lot softer at this time but I'm usually too tired (or drunk) to play much. Hopefully I'll manage to get a decent win.

Random information: I was taking a look at pokertracker today and discovered that i had won with AA 28 hands in a row and lost with them twice today.

I'm going to get some sleep.

Breaking even

2008-01-15T15:12:00.000Z

The last few days have been pretty much break even for me. No big wins but no big losses either. Just played for an hour and won 1 whole dollar. I think I'll buy a mars bar.

I was just talking to a mate of mine who I used to work with. He is a compulsive gambler and plays live tournaments with reasonable success. He was telling me about the number of times he has busted his roll online because he has to play the biggest stakes he can afford and would rather go busto or robusto. He's had a few decent wins online but has never cashed out and always ends up throwing it away.

I started off in poker playing mtt's and would deposit small amounts and bust fairly quickly. My wife bought me a beginner type poker book which taught a super tight passive strategy for fixed limit and I was away. I started with a $200 deposit on pokerroom, cleared a $100 sign up bonus and had a 300bb bankroll for .50/1. I discovered bonuswhores.com and took full advantage of all the decent sign up bonuses I could find. I built my bankroll up a litttle bit at a time.

Anyway. the point I was trying to make is that I used to get really pissed off at a $10 loss at .50/1 even when I had a decent bankroll. It wasn't about the amount of money involved and I was never really interested in getting super rich quickly (you fucking liar), at least not playing high stakes poker. I used to take a fair amount of pleasure out of watching my bankroll grow month by month even though I could afford to deposit a lot more money and play higher stakes.

When I finally decided I wanted to play for a living I started moving up the limits. I didn't play outwith my bankroll and still spent most of my poker time bonuswhoring. I took me a long time before I became frustrated playing micro stakes with a substantial roll because I ground it up from nothing.

I was trying to explain all of this to my mate but he doesn't quite get it. He informed me that he wouldn't waste his time playing "shitty penny games".

At this point I reminded him that I'm the one who is now playing poker for a living and he's stuck in a shitty job throwing away a couple of hundred quid of his wages every week trying for the big score.

A few days off and my first bad session...

2008-01-12T23:32:00.000Z

I had a few days off to try and get myself motivated for grinding out the rest of the month and approached today with a great amount of enthusiasm. I'm really happy with my game at the moment and have been consistently making good decisions, running goot and generally being fucking amazing.

I played for 2 hours during the day today, again playing the only 2 tables of $5/10 and 2 of $3/6 and did ok. I played for an hour this evening and had a modest win and all was right with the world.

I've just finished another hour long session and got shat on. It was one of those where absolutely nothing goes for you at all. Flopped trips - lose to rivered flush, hit straight - lose to rivered flush, set over set, river a boat - villain rivers quads, hit 2 pair - lose to a bigger 2 pair on the (yup...) fucking river. Down $450 and I'm pretty amazed it isn't more. I fucking hate rivers.

Anyway I'm glad I got that out of my system. It's only 45 big bets and far from disastrous. I'm actually quite glad (?) I've broken my shit session cherry as it was bound to happen eventually. Reflecting on it just now I don't think I played too badly. I made a couple of bad call downs and got sucked out on a few times but all in all I think I did ok. I'm about to review my session in pokertracker so that might change my opinion :)

If I find any hands I played spectacularly badly I'll post them so you can have a laugh at my expense...

edit:

I reviewed my whole session while having a beer or 3 and there really wasn't anything that stood out. I think I'd play all the hands the same. there were 2 hands that I found where I had AK and should have folded the river as I was obviously beat. A bet saved is a bet earned I suppose.

I've had Pokerace HUD for a long time but didn't use it on my old computer as it would flicker like a bastard and really put me off. I downloaded it again because I noticed when I was reviewing my session that I was folding too often against maniacs where I could be 3 betting profitably. I fired up a couple of tables intending to test the fucker out. I played a couple of orbits and it worked fine. I also won a few hands to put me at -$196 for the day.

Not 3 bad really :)

Knackered but running goot

2008-01-09T00:39:00.000Z

I seriously need to get my sleeping patterns sorted out. It's 1240am and I'm totally shattered. So much for working through the night...

I'm going to make a supreme effort to stay awake in order to get some sort of semblance of order here. Unfortunately I'm too snookered to play and I really want to. I've had prior experience of playing tired and it's just not worth it for me. I played for a couple of hours earlier tonight and I'm up about $350 or so which is not exactly an incentive for me to keep going. The games were pretty poor tonight with about an average of 18% of players seeing the flop. Luckily I managed to pick up a few good hands in steal positions so was called down light on several occasions. I also made a few good calldowns myself.

I'm quite enjoying playing shorter sessions as I feel I'm taking my A game to the table more and playing a lot better. I'm also taking a few minutes to prepare for playing which is something I seldom did before. I read something about it in Hilger's "The Poker Mindset" and it's helped me immensely, especially if I am facing a tough decision right off the bat.

Being a bit of a lazy bastard has also helped believe it or not. While I've been procrastinating and feeling shite I've read a lot more on 2 + 2 and watched a few videos on Stoxpoker and Deucescracked. Yay for lazyness.

One of the weaknesses I had was blind play which has improved significantly recently and I now feel a lot more comfortable playing out of the blinds. I've also really opened up my range against some opponenents which has proved profitable. These are things I've struggled with for a while so I'm glad to see some progress.

Anyhoo... I'm up $1454 so far. Cashed out $1000 to stick in my savings account and now need to get my finger out of my arse and start grinding.

edit:

Played another short session (against my better judgement) but the tables were looking really good. Ended up +$270 when the games started breaking up. I'm currently running at 6.63bb/100 on my desktop.

I seriously need to stop playing on my laptop and get my arse out of bed in future.

Lazy

2008-01-08T15:08:00.000Z

I've been feeling pretty ill the past few days so haven't managed to put in many hands, preferring to spend my time sleeping or reading 2 + 2. I managed to put in about 100 hands yesterday and that was it.

I think I'm being a bit lazy as I'll have a wage at the end of the month from work. I'm quite disappointed in myself really so I'm going to put in a hefty session tonight to make up for lost time.

Lots of swings

2008-01-04T22:58:00.000Z

Managed to put in a solid 5 hours so far today and I think I'm done. I played a lot of shorter sessions and left when I didn't think I was playing optimally so I could go over my play in pokertracker. The 5 hours was probably played over 8 sessions or so. I might play another hour or so later tonight.

Really, really swingy day today. I'm up about $75 i think. Had some really horrendous beats but sucked out myself on a number of occasions so it's all good.

One of the reasons I played shorter sessions was because I felt myself becoming a bit tilty with a couple of bad beats. This led to a few marginal call downs with less than optimum hands. As I said, I then reviewed these hands in pokertracker and felt a lot better about my play when I got back to the tables.

I also got the dreaded "ty" after someone sucked out on me with a 2 outer on the river. That shit tilts me instantly but i managed to keep my cool and not give out the usual beratement I reserve for these fuckers. I'll keep that for here.

I actually contemplated asking stars to ban my chat but I discovered that if I type abuse in their player notes it gives me the same sense of satisfaction. It makes for some interesting reading the next time I see them too.

up a bit

2008-01-03T15:42:00.000Z

I didn't play last night or early this morning because I was feeling crappy. I woke up at 2am but decided to go back to sleep. Too much alcohol over the festive period caught up with me I think.

I played for about an hour this morning and 2 hours this afternoon. The morning session went well and I was up a couple of hundred $. There were only 2 tables of 5/10 running so I played 2 of 3/6 aswell. Ran well at 5/10 and got my arse kicked at 3/6. happy days.

I did the same this afternoon and that didn't go well at all. Lost about $300 not getting cards and not playing particularly well. I noticed a big difference in the games today aswell. Much tighter and the players were generally better.

I'm still up $500 so far this year so I'm pretty happy.

1st day

2008-01-02T01:28:00.000Z

I played for about 3 hours tonight and did pretty well. I don't think I'm going to play any more today as posting a winning session is more important to me right now. It may be more important to my missus but never mind :)

I plan on getting drunk for the rest of the evening.

Happy New Year!