Wrecked

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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.