Right!

Time to sort my shit out. The last 3 months I've been pissing about, not keeping records, and generally hemmoraging money all over the place. Time for direction, organisation, focus.

The big bit of news is that I've left uni, at least for now. Assorted medical and personal problems meant that xmas was a write-off in terms of uni work (and poker...sigh, byebye bankroll), so I'm months behind on work. That wouldn't be too much of a problem in itself, but the crux of it is uni really isn't what I want to be doing right now. It was always a filler as I had no clue what I wanted to do after a-levels, and I never really enjoyed it. I'm not in a place where I can just get through it for the sake of it - I need to do things I enjoy and am motivated in or else I'm just going to grind to a halt.

I should clarify that I'm not leaving uni to be a 'poker pro' or anything. Although I suppose poker will be my only income for a while... I'm in a lucky position being fairly well off financially and having zero responsibilities, so I'm going to do what I've wanted to for a while - lots of travelling and teaching english. Hopefully going to teach in dakar, senegal for 6 months this winter, if not there are hundreds of teaching organisations all over the place. I was diagnosed with S.A.D. (I think this is the reason the last two years I've gone all tilty and dropped $10k in januray/february) a few months ago, so my plan for the next few years is basically: poker + stuff I enjoy in the uk for 6 months in the summer, travelling and teaching for 6 months in the winter. Man, I hope it's as good as it sounds.


So, on to the poker. Well after the xmas crash I've been hovering around busto online, and putting in a load of sngs on ipoker. Almost earnt my GUKPT seat, which is nice, though have been running pretty bad, which is less nice. I'm now truly sick of sngs, so it's back to mtts for the foreseeable. Slowly getting back into them the last few days, no results to speak of yet. This would be a really really nice time to run good; little bankroll, big life changes, self doubts... cue 100 buyin downswing :P Probably will make some major redeposits at some point unless I have some big scores soon.

Decided it was about time I actually worked out how much I am up (hope it's up!) at poker, lifetime. I have a horrible feeling I'm in for a nasty surprise... I'm very guilty of ignoring/rounding down losses and exagerating wins. I've requested my complete deposit/withdrawal histories from all the sites I've ever played at (took bloody ages), waiting for the results now. Finger's crossed.

Sorry for super long post, it's been a while. Good luck at the tables!

Back to the grind, some live donkaments

So I've been grinding the sngs again at ipoker, which have been going pretty well, almost got a workable roll for the limits I want to play there again, which is coolio. I want my GUKPT seat!

Played 2 live sessions last week. One was £10r, which I ended up dealing for as no one else wanted to which was fairly stressful, and didn't really give me a chance to concentrate/play much. Bust out pretty standardly (KK < 55 < 88), but got £20 and a free meal for dealing so not all bad. Ended up waiting around for AGES for a seat at a very juicy £1-1 cash game, but only got it at like 4am as it was winding down. I was pretty tired too, ended up dumping a quick £50 and leaving.

Next was the £50r, which was probably the worst I've ever run live. AK < A3, AK < J3s, AQ < 64s, top 2 < turned gutshot, £50 a pop. Managed to chip up a bit before end of rebuys, another £50 for the addon (in for 250, sigh). Chip up some more after the break, then get KK. few limps, I raise, some calls, J63r, I bet, get check-shoved on, call, he flips 36s. Sigh.

Gonna play it again tomorrow though, very fishy. And nice stakes-wise too (assuming I dont sink £250 every time...), dont particularly feel like playing cheap tournaments if i'm making a trip and using up an evening trying to make money. And I'm sure not going for the atmosphere, lets face it - gamblers are either dull or annoying. Usually both. Ipods are an awesome invention.

Anyways, glatt y'all.

lots of downs...then an up

So i've been doing that whole tilt thing again...which has been pretty costly. Low point was playing $500 and $1k hu sngs in ipoker. dropped 3k there, probably down about 7k the last few weeks overall. Which sucks majorly - I'm a stupid twat. Been having a very rough 6 weeks anyway, with an array of personal and medical problems, so my head really hasn't been in the right place. I've withdrawn whats left of my battered bankroll (about 2k), have been depositing every now and then for mtts when I feel like it's not too bad of an idea... but i havent felt like grinding at all, so ive been playing the odd mtt session, but less games and higher buyins, so down about another 2k from those - not that much for $200 mtts. was playing ok, probably shouldn't be playing them, but oh well. Decided I really want to get out of this stupid country and play a live event somewhere, so have been playing sats for things including the irish open which I played a sat for yesterday...

and took down a seat! weeee




In april I shall be visiting the land of green, guinness drinking leprechauns surrounded by shamrocks and fiddles... and any other stereotypes you care to think of. So that cheered me up greatly; dont know why but sort of feel like I might settle down now. I've been gambling looking for a big score, now I actually got one (shock horror) maybe i'll be a bit more sensible. Bought time too, need to get back on the sngs for the bigslick promotion, dont want to get 1/2 way to a gukpt seat and then quit, would be such a waste.

...and that's a wrap.

So I guess it's time for the mandatory '2008 roundup' post. Pretty good year in terms of results...

Fulltilt: $3600
Rileys: $0 (50 deposited)
Ipoker: $6250
Pokerroom: $0 ($600 deposited)

total online: $9850
LIVE: +$1250

2008 total: $46,150
Grand total (since 01/03/07): $76,750


Had a great run towards the end of the year in the mtts, ran like crap in the sngs but not too devastating, and started tilting and turning to the cash tables. Ups and downs! Don't really feel like I improved much as a player this year though, and next year I plan to work on my game more if I get the time. 2009 goals copied from pfu:

- If I do play full time for a prolonged period of time like this summer, get a Cardrunners subscription and spend some time analysing and improving my game.

- Start actually building my roll instead of cashing out all the time. Get my roll big enough to play the majors regularly ($20k minimum)

- Get my first 5-figure score. Been close a few times, would be nice to nail one.

- Get to at least 1 GUKPT tournament via the bigslick promotion, try to sat into others, play well in them.

- Stop tilting and donating at the cash tables.

- I'd like to have a $50k year since I was just short this year, but I don't know how realistic that is as I probably wont play as much. Guess that's just a thought rather than a goal.



Well, that's that then.

oh noes...

Looks like that pesky 'tilt' thing is back (leaning tower? tilt? geddit? ...never mind). Been playing some cash, 2/4-10/20 CAP and shortstacking. Silly. Up ~1k overall, which is pretty amazing considering how much of a donk I am. Bust my PP roll, ran my pokerroom roll up to 1750 (and sensibly cashed it all out just now) broke about even at fulltilt. I really enjoy the CAP games there, but I really suck at them. Hopefully making this post and thinking about it will stop me playing any more... might take a break for a while.

One thing that helps me put things in perspective is that playing 3/6 or 5/10 with what's most likely a bunch of cash regs is almost certainly -ev for me, even shortstacking or trying to find other shortstacks to play against... in which case, I'm not just gambling, I'm taking a pretty bad gamble. It's probable that I have a higher expectation (tho obv still negative) playing roulette. And since I have an absolute 100% no casino games rule, how come this is allowed?

Lets hope the pleasure side of my brain starts listening to the logical side...

Fulltilt: $2700
Rileys: $0
Ipoker: $6400
Pokerroom: $0 ($1750 withdrawn)

total online: $9100
LIVE: +$1250

2008 total: $46,050

Rebuy tastic

So I had another decent mtt session, went deep in pretty much all the mtts I played, had a few small cashes, went very deep in a $30r and $25r on ipoker, busting the 25 in ~15th. I final tabled the $30r as chippo, though only had 12bbs, so was a crapshoot really. The table was halariously tight so I was shoving a lot, and bust 2 shorties with 94o which was fun. Got HU pretty even, then lost when villain open shoved for 4x pot with OESD, I snapped with top pair but couldn't hold, so I took 2nd for $2400. It really helps running so good in mtts when I seem to insta-drop 10 buyins whenever I even think about playing sngs.

EDIT: another great (and in parts frustrating) mtt session again tonight, really deep in a load of tournies. Got to the final few tables of a few for some cashes, got to the final table of a $100 mtt on ipoker but manage to bust in a huge cooler when in 2nd in chips to the chippo QQ < AA which sucked. $600 there, and then I donked up a $50 turbo tournament that lasted 1hr 15mins for 250 people lol, won it for $3.6k. Mtts love me at the moment!

Fulltilt: $2700
Rileys: $400
Ipoker: $6750
Pokerroom: $700 ($3000 withdrawn)

total online: $10550
LIVE: +$1250

2008 total: $45,750

sng pain

So the pain has continued, and I'm on a ~80 buyin downswing. Which is always fun. My worst downswing buyin-wise (tho not in terms of $$$). Im still in profit tho which is something, at 3.8% roi... meh. But I'm feeling ok cos I just received my rakeback for last month - £1017 :)

Decided to play mtts today, got 2 final tables, 7th in a $100 for $350 and 3rd in a $25r for ~1200. So a decent session, up about $1k, but both very frustrating exits, especially the rebuy, where I lost a pot that was almost all the chips in play to a 3outer vs an insane lagtard 3 handed. Basically a $2k 3-outer. But anyway, feels nice to actually win some monies.

Fulltilt: $2850
Rileys: $500
Ipoker: $5200
Pokerroom: $600

total online: $9150
LIVE: +$1250

2008 total: $41,350