I feel like a pig shat in my head...

Had a few too many last night... fun night! No poker for me today though.

*groan*

Played 2 sessions since last post. Felt like I played pretty well the first one and had lots of near misses, but didn't manage to bag any scores and ended down $600-700. But yesterday I ended up winning $500 in small cashes, and reaching 3 final tables, 2 for $500 each and the third I took down for $1700 :) So that was nice.

I've decided to go for a promotion I've been told about - if you can generate $13k of rake from november until the end of march you get a £1000 seat at a GUKPT event of your choice and £200 expenses. It's more of a staking deal since the site gets 25% of any winnings and you have to wear logos and stuff, but still, I've wanted to play a gukpt event for a while, and this seems like a good way to do it. Good motivation too - I'll need to play ~2600 $50 sngs in that time, which works out at 130 a week. Which is a lot considering uni work, but I'll just go nuts over the xmas hols. I'll make $4k in rakeback alone! Guess I'll aim for... 10k total, which is like ~5% roi, should be doable.

Need to get pokertracker working again, I stopped using it on fulltilt because I couldn't get it to move hhs once it'd finished, so it took 20minutes reimporting thousands of hands everytime. But I think it should work for ipoker, and I think it's pretty important I get it working, especially seeing as I'll be playing at least 9 tables. I can get away with playing mtts without it, but getting even a tiny extra edge can mean a lot when I'm putting in this much volume of sngs.

Anyways, I'll stop rambling. I have a hangover to nurse and the screen is making my eyes hurt.

Fulltilt: $3550
Rileys: $0
Stars: $0
AP: $0
Ipoker: $1500
Pokerroom: $3250
Betfair: $0

total online: $8300

LIVE: +$1200

2008 total: $24,150

I'll be back...

...right now! Just finished my first session of poker in over 2 weeks. It was a pretty small session, broke about even, meh, whatever. Actually got the internet a few days ago, but haven't really felt like playing...which is weird.

Looked into some opr stats of mine and found that my roi for mtts isnt really that great... about 30%, with an average buyin of $50. Which works out at roughly $60/hr which is good, but I feel I should be doing better than that really. Or at least I definitely could be, and it feels stupid/lazy not to try and do the best I can. I think partly it's the huge gap between my B+/A game and the rest of the time (really really huge), but also I haven't put any effort into bettering my game in a long, long time. Haven't read any poker books since HoH a year ago, browse and post on the odd strat forum, but not often. I don't mind too much now, since I don't have much time for poker (this year at uni is going to be much tougher than last year) but next summer/next time I play a lot I'll probably get a cardrunners membership or something. 50% I'd be happy with, and I don't think is unrealistic. So I guess that's a long-term goal.

I'm not unrealistic in my poker goals, I know I'm never going to be a top tier player, but I can definitely improve a HUGE amount from where I am now. I remember working out my hourly rate this time a year ago and it wasn't much different from what it is now. I'm playing the same limits with the same bankroll. I should've made a lot more progress than I have this past year.

So anyways, with that ponderous thought, I'm going to bed. What with somehow not feeling much like playing poker and having loads of work, I probably wont be posting much... GLATT I guess.

Fulltilt: $3900
Rileys: $0
Stars: $0
AP: $0
Ipoker: $1900
Pokerroom: $950
Betfair: $0 ($500 withdrawn)

total online: $6750

LIVE: +$1200

2008 total: $22,650

blerg

Not been going so great. Lost $1k on wednesday, which is the biggest 1-day loss I've had for a while. Dropped $600 playing sngs, and then played 2 $200 hu games and lost them both. Which was pretty stupid. They were both fairly poor players, but my head wasn't in the right place, and dropping $200 in one game is still too much for me. So yeah, took the day off on thursday, played last night and made a bit (won a $10 turbo mtt on betfair) but got really deep in 3 tourneys and managed to bust them all which was really frustrating. Played a few games just now but got bored and it's a lovely day outside, so I'm probably going to go out instead.

Looking forward to going back to uni on monday, think I'm getting tired of poker for now. If I was ever going to do this full time for more than a few months, I think I'd need to force myself to have one or two totally non-poker days a week so I didn't get like this - bored and more prone to tilt. When I'm fresh it's great, I feel good, play good and can expect some nice results, but when I'm tired of it all evening winning (which doesn't happen often) is tainted. Sounds odds but I need to be more strict in taking time off, I stil have the urge to play when I'm not playing, but then when I start playing I want to stop. Weird, huh? Guess that's the gambling side of it. But I've made ~9k this summer (~2 months) which I'm happy with, paid for my holiday, rebuilt my online roll and have enough withdrawn so I can eat next year. Which is always good.

Anyways, probably wont play much over the next few weeks. Gonna have to get back into the habit of getting up before 12, studying and... well, not playing poker. I don't know how I'm going to manage!


EDIT: Was finishing off a $26 90player at ft when writing this post - just took it down for $600 :) which is a nice boost, and a nice way to close out poker for the summer. Adios for now.

Fulltilt: $4100
Rileys: $0
Stars: $0
AP: $0
Ipoker: $1550
Pokerroom: $1000
Betfair: $0 ($500 withdrawn)

total online: $6650

LIVE: +$1200

2008 total: $22,550

Fulltilt million challenge

So I got up a 5am yesterday on 3 hrs sleep to go to london for the fulltilt million challenge. Got there at the start time - 10:30, and ended up waiting outside for 40 minutes while they registered everyone, and then another 45 minutes in a TINY room which was supposed to fit like 150 people?? So that was pretty sucky. As one guy sitting next to me 'the words brewery and pissup come to mind...' The actual room was pretty cool, laid out nicely, although again pretty packed, observers and tv crews all over the place (yep, I might be on tv... woo lol). Play got underway well past 12, 5k starting stack, 30 minute levels (missing out a few like 150/300...) Nothing much happened until 100/200, where I nearly doubled with trips vs trips lower kicker. Nothing much more, made a few steals, then lost a big flip, and was crippled, out in 45th or something. Meh. Oh well, at least I get $500 for turning up.

Been mostly playing sngs, which have been, ok, breaking even on them roughly. Also started some HU sngs, which have been going really well. Mainly pleased with me keeping my head, been playing well, and not tilting which has always been my main problem with HU. Probably up 400-500$ on them. The main thing which has helped is the sharkscope searches I bought - I just check everyone I play HU, and don't play the profitable players. Easy!

Fulltilt: $3850
Rileys: $0
Stars: $0
AP: $0
Ipoker: $2950
Pokerroom: $850
Betfair: $150

total online: $7800

LIVE: +$1200

2008 total: $23,200

FT FT

Weird session this evening. Started off great, and had a few deep runs going, and then it all went wrong... had a big chiplead in a $75 mtts near the bubble, then lost AA < QTo AIPF to have double 2nd place, then AKs < AA for a big pot, and then 2nd nut boat vs nut boat to basically bust. Min cashed in that. Few other tourneys went in a similar vein, until I just had one $50 15k at fulltilt left. Ended up broswing the interwebs and drinking beer waiting for it to bust, but it didn't - ended up coming 4th for 1900 :) Bust AJ < AT, but got fairly lucky in parts... like getting it allin on the turn and hitting my 2 outer on the river with 15 left for huge pot, so can't complain!

Kinda feel relieved more than anything, was soooo tilty after busting the $75 tourney I thought I was going to explode.

Fulltilt: $2750
Rileys: $100
Stars: $0
AP: $0
Ipoker: $2950
Pokerroom: $950
Betfair: $150

total online: $6900

LIVE: +$1200

2008 total: $22,300

Slow and steady wins the race...

Had a few poor sessions, but recently had a decent session on the sngs and a 90-man win at fulltilt. Up to 150 of the jackpot games, and am almost exactly breakeven (+$500 with RB/bonus). Still too small to tell, but I have a feeling it might be too hard to beat the extra $4 rake for a decent amount... getting an 8% ROI normally is breakeven here, a decent 10% is netting you $1 a game. Not sure that's worth it...certainly not without the incentives. It's weird...there are some players who play those games A LOT, like 12-tabling 6hrs a day, they seems to play ok, and on sharkscope they've played 7-10k games. And are down like 10k. One guy is down $24k over 7000 games. wha?? Seems mental, who grinds like that, for that long at those stakes and loses $24k? I don't understand it. I can understand people who play $400 HU games for the thrill, and lose a ton, but to grind out $60 sngs for hours every day just doesn't seem to fit somehow... maybe these guys are just desperate to win the jackpot.

Anyways, I'll play a few hundred more, see if it's viable, and then most likely just play the regular sngs there. And carry on with the mtts of course. Oh and I deposited on betfair for a promotion they had, some WSOPE freeroll. Starting to wish I hadn't though... still need to earn 250 more points in the next few days.

Fulltilt: $1100
Rileys: $150 (200 deposited)
Stars: $0
AP: $0
Ipoker: $3200
Pokerroom: $1000
Betfair: $150 ($400 deposited)

total online: $5600

LIVE: +$1200

2008 total: $21,000

Sunday...

Just finished the sunday sesh. Went pretty meh. Had a pretty bad session earlier dropping $500 on sngs, and spending $550 on sats for 2 $200 seats, so although I'm up on this session, I'm down on the day. Had one small cash for $280, and came 2nd in a $5r for ~$1k. Went better than it could've.

Fulltilt roll is crazily low, might actually have to redeposit :/

Fulltilt: $700
Rileys: $0
Stars: $0
AP: $0
Ipoker: $3150
Pokerroom: $1100

total online: $4950

LIVE: +$1200

2008 total: $20,950