Merry Christmas to All

Wanted to pass on the best Christmas wishes to everyone that reads the blog. I hope that everyone has a safe and rewarding time with their families.

For anyone that hasnt played at the tables during the festive period before really needs to give it a shot, the games are amazing.

With that said I am heading back to the tables

Thanks to everyone that reads this blog and inspires me to continue to chart my progress in the poker world

Flux Takes On Atlantic City

I haven't been playing online at all through the first three weeks of December due to commitments with Flux Stables in Atlantic City. We decided to take 8 of our players to the WSOP circuit event at Harrahs and let them play games ranging from MTT's to cash games.

Getting the opportunity to meet some of the guys first hand and interact with them was priceless. Its surprising to say, considering we put 8 randoms into a house for 12 days, but everyone got on tremendously well and really had a great time. We had two guys playing the early MTTs while the rest of us dove into the cash games.

When you put 5 very good online cash game players into a casino full of fish you expect them to crush it and crush it relentlessly. Sadly, at the beginning of our trip we were the ones getting crushed. We ran horribly, flopping top set in 3bet pots and having to fold on rivers, bricking 17 out super draws against TPGK and not being able to flop a set for love or money. (I personally flopped 3 sets during my time there in what must have been about 65pps). Despite the early setbacks, the attitude of everyone was superb.

Before I get too far into the trip report, I need to let you guys know about the house we were staying in. It is a three story house that includes an elevator, a pool table, the most amazing walk in showers and a toilet that makes every other toilet ive seen look like a hole in the ground. Nothing is better when you need to hit the restroom than a warm toilet seat greeting your cold ass. Top it off with a hot tub outside that could fit the entire offensive line of the Dallas Cowboys and we were in heaven. The only downside to the hot tub is the run from the hot tub to the house in what feels like sub zero temperatures.

Joe, one of our MTT players, managed to bring some success to the trip when he made not one but two final tables. First, he final tabled the $570 event and was in contention for the $40k first prize up until the point he got unlucky with AQ v A9 aipf. Sadly we couldn't fade the 9 and despite Joe making a couple of hero calls to split pots to stay afloat, he finally got it in with 66 v KJs only for the other guy to flop the nut flush. Ez game. Only a few days later he was back at the final table of the $230 event. He went into the final table as one of the chip leaders but due to the structure being a little quick, Joe was forced to flip regularly and after going 0 for 3 in flips, he hit the rail in 8th place. Nevertheless, the achievement was impressive and he has certainly given his reputation a boost with his strong showing.

With Mao and Zachvac playing the 5/10 and 10/20 games we made a solid recovery towards the end of the trip and the knowledge that we learned from each other can only stand us in good stead at our regular online tables. The experience was certainly a good one and I really cant wait to either take part in the Oklahoma or Vegas trips scheduled for early 2011.

Outside of live poker, I managed to make day 2 of the 2 day $216 miniFTOPS event. However, after losing with AK v AQ v J6s on the last hand of day 1, it was never going to happen for me and I made my exit about 2 hours into day 2. I need to really put in a lot of hands this week so from tomorrow onwards I will be grinding like crazy. Hopefully I will be able to end 2010 on a positive note.

November Monthly Review

Well November was a monster month for me. I finally managed to grind some volume and that resulted in a monthly best from all things poker related. Of course, binking a tournament and having another deep run makes hitting monthly bests easier but my cash game results have also been very good.





The only downside is that the cash game improvement is likely to stall a little as I will be spending two weeks of December up in Atlantic City at the WSOP circuit event with the rest of the Flux guys. Hopefully, I will be able to add a live MTT win to my resume. If not at least its a chance to learn and improve with some of the best players around.

Good luck at the tables.

MTT Luckbox

With an eye on the WSOP in the summer and the need to put in some MTTs so that I am attractive to potential stakers, I am starting to play a few more tournaments in preparation for that. I figure that I need a couple of wins and a handful of final tables, coupled with my cash graph to be able to get a good markup deal which will enable me to play a full WSOP schedule, which I hope to be between 10 - 12 tournaments.

With that being said, I have been playing the $10 deep stack tournament on Full Tilt. Its a great tournament starting with 5,000 chips, 12 minute levels and a super slow blind structure. After the first hour you are still playing 40/80 blinds which as you can imagine allows you to play a super solid game. As I am playing cash at the same time it doesnt really matter how long it takes as it forces me to grind my bread and butter games at the same time keeping me at the tables for longer if I make a deep run.

Last week I ended up making a deep run and was amongst the chip leaders throughout the tournament and was a mainstay in the top 10 nearing the final table. I played a questionable hand with TT in a 3bet pot where I called down three super milky weak leads on Kxxxx and was shown QK. That loss dropped me down to 250k and one of the short stacks entering the final table. I manage to pick my spots well and with the final table being super soft when we started talking a deal 5 handed, I was feeling kind of bullish about my chances and tried to negotiate a deal very one sided to myself. With my equity at $2200, I asked for $3000. It didn't happen and we were back at the tables. We again at 3 handed tried to make a deal and with my equity at $2900, I asked for $3000 but the big stack had an inflated view of his chip lead and would not budge. After he blew up and was knocked out, I entered heads up with $1.8million chips vs the chip leaders $9.5million. In the beginning there was no talk of a deal but after an hour of grinding him down without too many showdowns he clicked the make a deal button and despite having a chip deficit of $4.5million to $6.3million, I managed to get $3768 to his $3800.



I took my next shot at the same tournament on Saturday and managed to have another deep run and another final table. I ended up getting coolered with KK < AA and finished 6th for $740, without that slice of misfortune I certainly would of been looking at another 4 figure score and possibly another win.

Either way I can complain as these results will only help me at WSOP time.

Away from the tables, I had some back issues this week but finally a trip to the doctors and a steroid shot and some Vicodin and I am feeling 100% better. Had a bunch of things to tie up today, so I will finally be able to log a session once I publish this. I've got to fly in Atlantic City on Thursday to head up the Flux team at the WSOP circuit event for 12 days so online will suffer in December but hopefully I will be able to win some live dollars and all will be fine.

Updates for the month to follow in two days.

Updates Needed

Well I have finally remembered what its like to log volume again. After three months of putting in no volume I am only slightly behind pace to put in 100k hands this month and finally not lose $150 to the 100k hand prop bet pool on 2+2. 100k hands used to be so easy then I became lazy and forgot what it was like to grind. This month I am more focused and certainly grinding more.

As for the results, its been a mixed bag. I'm absolutely crushing the 50pl and 100pl games but am struggling a little at the 100nl games. Part of it is that I am running a little badly and part of it is that I have yet to make the correct adjustments with regards to the level. I am playing a little timid and it is costing me in spots. Ive worked some with Damnringer and Zachvac and I am hoping that I will be able to see improvement in the coming weeks. My series with Rask and Verneer is out on Cardrunners today and it is scary to see the player I was only like three months ago. There has been so much change in my game that I don't recognize the player at times in the video. The opportunity to work with those guys for free was something that I just couldnt pass up. Pure gold.

The coaching offer that I put forward in my last post has just blown up and I have taken on a bunch of students because of it. Sure it sucks to work for a little cheaper hourly but I just love coaching and seeing people improve their game.

The weight loss and nutrisystem are now in full swing and I have gone from my starting weight of 325lbs down to 311lbs in about four weeks. Nothing mind blowing yet but day by day I am completely getting hooked and as I add more exercise I can see me really making a run at 290lbs by Christmas. That would put me behind pace to reach my goal of 220lbs by June 1st but certainly within striking distance.

The radio show is going from strength to strength and I have some great interview guests of 2+2 fame lined up. Ive got CR coach Damnringer, database reviewing legend Mpethybridge and finally Vizer02 giving his opinions on the impact of PTR. Cant wait for those to go out and hopefully they are all recorded and aired by mid-Decemeber.

Good luck at the tables,
Gary

Coaching Offer

Ive talked a lot about my desire to do more and more coaching lately and after taking on more students, I want to push on further. I feel that the majority of my students, if they are willing to put in work, are going to improve substantially and seeing that improvement really makes me feel good and I get a great feeling of satisfaction from it. For those that dont know my results they can be found on PTR by searching El Nino 1 on FT.

Ok so on to the point of the post. I want to offer a limited time introductory offer for lessons. I currently charge $20 an hour for $10nl or lower and $35 an hour for $25nl and higher. The reason for the different charges is due to the fact that I want to make my coaching affordable for everyones bankrolls. No point bankrupting the $10nl player by charging them $35 when it is over 3 buyins at their current level. If your a new student looking for coaching and mention this blog post, I will be charging the reduced rate for the first four lessons of $15 per lesson for $10nl or lower and $25 per lesson for $25nl or higher.

Feel free to contact me by email at Elnino1stake@hotmail.com or more preferably on Skype or AIM at Gary100681

Status Report 100nl

I am now well into my shot at 100nl and things have gone pretty well. The transition to 100nl is a pretty tough one due to the regs just being that much better. They are applying a lot of pressure on you and you have to be on top of your game so much more than is necessary at 50nl. I felt I could play my C game at 50nl and still grind out a decent day. If I try it at 100nl though if I'm not on my B game or better I'm losing or breaking even at best. Its certainly a bit of a culture shock. I'm not sure that I have had my A game for a full session yet, I seem to play well and then let me game slip. It's more mentally taxing too so I think I will make the adjustment and make my sessions a little shorter and now put in three sessions a day rather than the two per day that I used to put in.

Im going to put in a full 100k+ hands at 100nl in November before I decide whether to make the switch permanent, but I'm committed to it throughout November for sure. I will also post my graph at the end to show the progress so far.

I've been doing a bunch of coaching lately and have added a couple more regs from the 2+2 FTP regs thread to my student list and I'm really excited to work with them. I like working with students that are motivated to move up and succeed and all of the new guys seem to fit the mold. I seem to get more satisfaction from coaching than I do playing these days so the more students the merrier. I still want my coaching to be affordable to the micro guys that are building their rolls so even if I do make 100nl stick I will keep my prices the same. No point targeting micro guys and then trying to charge them $50 - $60, because they just cant afford it.

Also the radio show with the Itsawinner.co.uk guys is going great. We have now gotten 50 episodes in the can and thats amazing. I love working with Mal and Gareth and hopefully I'm able to keep them on poker topics but thats tougher than you would think. We have also hooked up with Fluxstables.com as a sponsor to the show so we are now on our way to being big time. I think its still a long road to that though.

Update for the month to follow soon, the rest of the day I'm focused on baseball... Lets go Rangers !!!!

Opening Session Jitters

Day 1 of the $100nl experiment is in the books and while it wasnt great, I recovered well and am happy with the way I managed to come back. Hopefully I will learn something from this and be able to build on it going forward.

Moving on Up

Well updates have been few and far between lately and frankly that needs to stop. I set up this blog to keep a log of how things poker related were going for me and because I've been super busy lately, I have fell behind getting it done. I need to get back to grinding hard and also updating my blog too.

October has been a cluster fuck of things to do. Every weekend this month there has been something on my plate that kept me from the tables. That wouldn't be the worst thing except that I haven't been making the time up at the tables during the week. We are 22 days into a month and I have only played 15k hands. Sure I am winning at a great rate but the volume is horrible for someone that supposedly plays full time. I need from this moment onward to get back to the grinder that I was previously.

I spent some time with Jared, the owner of Flux Stables, last weekend when I flew up to NY to get some things done for the site and planning some future stuff. Everything was great and I loved meeting Jared and Katherine. I think the working relationship will continue to blossom and we can build on the initial successes that we have had.

I have also decided to make the move to $100nl full time. I've been at $50nl for a long time now and produced a decent winrate and I would like to take my game to the next level. Not sure what to expect, or how much different it will be, but I am going to play for a month regardless. I need a sample size rather than 3 - 5k hands every now and then.

I will update regularly with my progress.

A Bunch of Updates

Wow its been a very busy two weeks, so this post is going to be a bunch of different thoughts thrown together into one giant post.

The last week of September, I managed to rediscover my desire to not only play the game but also found a way to win, and win at a very decent rate. I got out of some of the bad habits that I had been forming and really focused on my game. The results I managed to post are a testament to this and hopefully it continues long into the future.

Ive also been diving head first into my coaching and that has been reflected in the number of new students I have gotten and also the results that they are starting to have. One of my newer students that will remain nameless, at his request, has really seen an increase in his winnings after a couple of sessions. He used to be very swingy and had some leaks that needed addressing but since working together there has been far more consistency in his game and it is illustrated by his results. Sure its only a 6k hand sample but you have to start somewhere and hopefully this is just the beginning for him. Here is a graph to his first week after our sessions:



Ive also been doing more and more stuff with the guys over at Flux Stables. I've spoke about them in previous posts but the more I work with Jared, Nick and the guys, the more I'm impressed with the set up they have over there and the things they are trying to accomplish in the staking world. The website if anyone wants to check it out is, Fluxstables.com, Whilst they are predominately a staking group, they do have the beginnings of a very good forum that has a small group of very intelligent and knowledgeable posters that can give advice on a multitude of games. 2+2 has become a little stale with strategy advice over the last year or so and finding a place to help improve can only be beneficial for everyone's games. Ive been trying to get more and more into MTTs and therefore am camped out in the MTT forum on the site.

Outside of poker, Ive started doing Nutrisystem in an attempt to win my bet with the guys in the grind house from last summer. Its only day 2 so not much to report as of yet but the food isnt as bad as I thought it would be so there is hope for me yet.

I will close with the results for September. It certainly isnt impressive but you cant only post graphs when you win, so here they are:

September Results:

Online: $1958
Live: $850
Rakeback: $673
Coaching: $335
Staking: $389
MTT Stake: $239

Total Winnings: $4444

A Weekend of Everything but .....

Poker. Well thats not completely true, but I spent a lot more time away from the tables than I usually would. As any regular readers know, my game isn't the best at the minute and this has been brought on by a number of factors. Well this weekend I decided I needed a break from all things poker related. Friday night I had a family BBQ with all the people that are really important to me and we had a great time. Chicken, pork chops, and steak has a way of making me happy I guess. Just kidding, it was clearly the company present. Its really hard to let things get to you when you have two little nieces running around that don't have a care in the world and cant wait to smile at you.

Saturday morning I managed to get in an hour of coaching with a new student and it went well. Its strange to say that despite not playing well myself that coaching has been unaffected. I feel that I am still coaching things the right way and the results of some of my students is testament to this. The rest of the day was spent with Miss Nino making her the most important thing for once. Not that she isnt normally but I'm sure that sometimes she feels that she takes a backseat to poker. I must say I try my hardest to make this not happen but when its your job and you need poker to pay the bills I can easily see how she does at times. We met up with a friend to see a movie, The Town with Ben Affleck and it was great. The movie is one of the better ones I have seen lately and is definitely right down my alley. Its one of those that I will probably buy when it comes out. Affleck wrote the screenplay for it and I think it was cast tremendously well. After the movie, we did some shopping and to my surprise I got caught up in it a little and found myself giving 'A' game opinions on new outfits.

Sunday morning was reserved for Liverpool v Manchester United and whilst I dont support either team it is certainly a game that I will go out of my way to watch. It didnt disappoint either with Man United running out on the right side of a 3-2 scoreline.

The rest of Sunday, I attended a charity poker tournament put on by two of my good friends, Brack and Sharon. They are two of the most selfless people that I know and they would go out of their way to do anything to help any of their friends. This was no different as they were raising money for a friend who has stage 3 cancer and will sadly leave behind a wife and two small children. We managed to raise over $1700 that will be used for the boys in the future as and when they need it. The whole event was an amazing experience and its truly one of the first times in a long time that I have enjoyed playing poker. We had a great table and when it was all said and done I managed to best 34 others and chopped first place when heads up. I went home from the tournament with a new perspective on a lot of things and hope in the future to be a better person. Seeing the actions of others makes me realize that as a person I have so much more to learn. Hopefully in the future I will succeed in getting where I want to go.

This will probably be the last blog post that touches on personal stuff as I said at the beginning that I would only be talking about poker, and I would like to keep it that way. Lately, however, life is being effected by poker and that has caused the lines to blur a little. That being said I know my personal life doesnt make interesting reading so I will attempt to get back onto poker only from my next entry.

Good luck at the tables.

Poker: The Mental Battle

As many of you know, poker is a beast, it is all consuming and swallows you and your emotions whole if you let it. Well lately it has swallowed me up and spit me out repeatedly. I've had some outside issues that have been weighing on my mind and this has caused me to produce some results that are certainly not like me.

Through fourteen days of the month I was stuck $105. I can't remember the last time I went so deep into the month without being in the positive. I have said time and time again this month that today was going to be the day that I was going to be disciplined and grind out a profit. At the end of every one of those days, it hadn't happened. I knew that I needed some support and spoke to a friend in England on the phone and we talked out the situation. We came up with a few solutions and I went to bed last night somewhat at peace with everything and woke up this morning feeling fresh and ready to grind.

Well today has now come to an end and through 4500 hands today I was +$312. I've never been so happy to win $300 in my life. It got tough towards the end of the day as I took some tough beats but I was able to battle through them and kept my cool throughout. Hopefully now things return to normal and I can rescue the month.

The underlying message in this entry is, always come to the tables with a clear mindset. If your not in the frame of mind to concentrate and compete, don't even sit.

I will be coaching some tomorrow and might convince myself to go and play live tomorrow night. I'd originally decided not to do this but if I can put in another solid day I might reward myself with a fun night out playing cards with friends.

Winstar $2100 Tournament Review

Ugh is the way I'm going to start the write up about this tournament. I played day 1B and had what I would consider a bad table, I had Joseph Cheung (3rd in chips in November 9), and two very solid internet guys. I knew the face of one of them but couldn't place him. We started with 10,000 in chips and blinds at 25/25. This gives the illusion of a deep structure but antes were introduced in level 4 or 5 and therefore everyone becomes short quickly. It really just makes you want to gamble earlier than you really should in a $2100 buy in.

I managed to chop my stack in half in level 2 when i open AQo UTG+1 and proceed to get 5 callers!, I lead 3/4 pot on AQ7 and get a single caller from a poor local. He again check/calls a 7 turn for almost pot, the 7 on the turn brings a two flush in diamonds. The river comes a K that fails to complete the flush and after he checks, I proceed to make a thinnish value bet. He min check raises and I go in the tank, I obviously know its for value, just thought there was a small chance that he was value raises an A assuming we were chopping. Plus he is so bad that I wasnt prepared to fold with so much in the middle. He rolls over TJdd, having called with a gutter, turned a flush draw and then binked the gutter on the river.

I doubled up soon after by 3betting QQ pf and being called by KTcc. After the flop of QT7cc, we quickly got it in and I managed to hold. I got a small rush of cards after the first break and managed to get my stack to 14k before I decided to brain fart it all away. A solid player opened in the hijack and I sensed he might be weak so I elected to take a flop with A3hh. Normally its a standard 3bet but I made a mistake. We saw a flop of T25dd and I took a check/call line on the flop with the intention of taking it away on future streets. The turn Jh then gave me a gutter with a flush draw and here is where I made my second mistake. He lead for a pretty solid bet on the turn and I elected to check/raise. He bet 1750 on the turn and I check raised to 4k, leaving me 8k behind that I was going to shove on any river, if I was called. Sadly for me he took very little time to shove in on me and it left me in a gross spot. If I think my over is good then I have about 30% equity and I'm needing to call 8k to win 20k which is 2.5-1 on my money. Obviously not getting the absolute correct odds I was pretty confused what to do. With the tournament structure in mind, I made a crying call and was shown QJdd for top pair + flush draw. I blanked the river and was out. I think its interesting to note that the river was a Tcl which would of been a great card for me to represent had he decided just to call.

I had a second seat and entered Day 1C. This went a lot smoother and I played well throughout. The poker gods caught up with me after dinner when 88 < AQ and then AK < AA in a blind battle and that was all she wrote. Not too interesting but I finished a more respectable 155th.

I had the opportunity to join the Flux guys in Atlantic City for the Borgata series but things in my personal life aren't going to allow that to happen sadly. So much credit needs to go to Jared and Nick for the excellent job they are doing with their stable, really great guys to work for and a breath of fresh air in the staking world. Hopefully I will be able to get together with them soon.

Next major foray into live tournament poker is likely to be the WSOP circuit event at Choctaw in January.

I will post my August results shortly, after spending time away playing live I really need to log some

Changing It Up With MTT Grinding

I decided that I was pretty much done for the month after attempting, and failing, to RUSH out 36k hands in 3 days, so on Monday I thought I would see what it was like to play MTTs all day across a full schedule. I decided that I would do it across FT and Stars and would limit my buyins to between $1 - $11. I started at noon and registered for all the tournaments I felt were +ev for me, with the final tournament starting at 4pm. In total I played 26 tournaments with buyins totaling $198. I decided to include my spreadsheet of the action, as you can see I made one final table and had 7 cashes although was unable to turn some big stacks into final table stacks. It was slightly disappointing but I think I will try to do this 3-4 times a month in an effort to break up the normal cash grind.

$1050 River Series Event

Not a whole lot to comment about on this one sadly. We started with 214 runners but with only 5000 chips and 30 minute blinds the structure required a double up in the first couple of levels. Sadly the cards didn't cooperate and spots just didn't come up where I could steal / resteal effectively.

Got it in pre with QTs v AJo for 8BB and although i flopped a FD with a gutter and turned a pair it wasn't to be and I hit the rail in level 6.

Online poker has been less than stealer this last week but thats really down to me not being focused and playing anywhere near my 'A' game. Its doubtful that I have even reached my 'C' game lately. Hopefully things will change this weekend as I have to put a load of hands in to hit 100k for the month.

Good luck at the tables.

$330 Winstar and Ugh Rush Poker

Just as I tell you on Sunday that I feel my poker is in a good spot, I'm going to tell you on Wednesday that my game has gone backward a little. I played the $330 buyin for the Winstar "River" Series on Monday and thought that I played reasonably well. I misplayed a hand in the first level but managed to put that behind me, win a couple of races, and make myself healthy again. I went card dead probably at the most important time of the tournament and couple this with the fact that I had a very good internet pro on my right opening and 3betting every hand that having cards was a priority. Sadly they didnt come and when I got my 12bbs in with AKs v QQ in a 3bet pot preflop, that was all she wrote.

Online has been poor for me too the last few days. I ran well below EV on Tuesday and today was just a non-starter. Just as I said I dont want to judge my results when I was on a heater of sorts, I also dont want to judge them now. Hopefully things settle into a nice happy medium and I can start September fresh and ready to go.

Weight loss took a step back the last two days but I am looking to turn that around and have it be a blip rather than a crater.

Playing live tonight in my normal Wednesday game and then am playing the $1050 Winstar event Friday.

Good luck at the tables.

Long Weekend...Little Results

I managed to play a decent amount of volume this weekend but couldn't really get much going at the tables. I played about 5500 hands on Saturday and was down $20 for the day. Every time I thought I was about to get on something of a rush I kept getting hit with nasty rivers. I didn't play my A game for the day, I was something around a C but it should of been enough that I could of grinded out a small profit.

This morning I woke up at 6am and hit the tables but gave away two stacks in very easy straight forward I'm beat spots and managed to finish 1500 hands, +$100. I wont be at the tables much tomorrow as I am playing in the opening $330 event at Winstar. The small events all lead up to the $2100 Main Event that luckily I have already locked up a seat for. My hopes of getting a career best month at the tables have gone as I haven't played enough but my game is still in a good spot

Long may it continue.

$18k Guarantee Final Table Score

Just managed to finish second in the $26 18k Guarantee on Full Tilt. I only played the tournament because I had to finish my cash hands for the day. Always good when you get a $2700 boost to the bankroll from an MTT.

Time for a well deserved sleep if you ask me.

Keep on keeping on!

Just a little update mid-month on my progress. Both at the tables and away from the tables, things have been going great. My game feels like its been the best it has been in over 2 years and I get up each day expecting to crush the tables, which is something that I had been missing. As I've said before, I'm really hesitant to confirm the changes have made the difference because of the sample size but in the weeks to come id like to confirm this is the case.

The weight loss has also started to happen. In the first two weeks of August, I have managed to lose 12lbs. Its great when you get on a scale and you get to see the results of your hard work. I know in the beginning that it will be easy and it will become harder and harder but I'm inspired to put in the hard work.

Lastly, I've started to get back into the coaching and I'm loving it. With the trip to Vegas, I had to cut down on the number of sessions I could do, but now I'm back home I've got the coaching bug. Managed to do a session with a new student looking to crack $10nl and I think that with a session or two he will be crushing it. If anyone is looking for a session, please get in touch. Also a big shout out to Mpethybridge over at 2+2, who is an amazing poker mind and does a great job with database analysis. He has a website that is worth a look: http://mpethypoker.com/

Good luck at the tables.

Going Through Changes - Eminem Inspired

As I've previously mentioned in my blog, there are a lot of changes going on currently with me. I've been working hard on my game at the tables and also working on my life away from the tables by changing my diet and lifestyle as a whole.

Well today is the start of week two. First week, I started to eat correctly, I think that in the first seven days of August that I ate more fruit than I have in the rest of 2010 combined. But to be honest, I felt great doing it and didn't once crave a soda or some crap food. Sure I ate Subway twice in the week, but going from a foot long on white with a soda to a six inch on wheat with a water is proof that changes are happening.

At the tables, my game has been going through changes too. These are inspired by working with others and I really think that the results at the end of the month will speak for themselves. I felt I was a good player before the changes, I'm hoping by the end that I will be a more well rounded player. I don't want to talk too much about the changes in my game for fear that its purely sample size and not a result of better play etc, so I will refrain from passing judgment on that for a few more weeks. I do want to add that I've started marking and reviewing hands once a week with a couple of players whose game I really respect and I came out of the review session with new ideas and lines that I'm excited to build on in the coming weeks.

Now onto the blog title. With it being the second week, I've decided to start to do some exercise as well and as I was logging a session this afternoon, the games turned bad and I wanted to utilize my time better so I decided to go for a walk. Whilst it seemed like a good idea at the time, halfway through the 4-5 mile walk, I felt like a complete idiot. The temperature says its 98 degrees but that its supposed to feel like 104. Let me tell you it felt like 110 to me. Then as I'm making my turn at the halfway point, Going Through Changes hits my Ipod and its at this time that I realize the title of the song epitomizes my current state. I've got to make these changes to come out the other side a better person and player.

Good luck at the tables.

July Review

I feel like its necessary to post my results for July, purely if for continuity purposes only. I knew that with being in Vegas for half of the month, that my online play would suffer and therefore I had no goals or aims for the month and just accepted that whatever happened, happened and I would deal with getting back to the grind hard in August. I got back from Vegas July 18th but had family in town from England for the final two weeks of the month, which required a lot of time away from the tables. You really cant put a price on spending time with family and friends, so whatever money I did lose by not playing I'm sure was worth it.

Total from all things poker related: $2720

It wasn't too bad considering that it was only half of my normal volume. Things obviously will be different this coming month as I am now on the stake, meaning a portion of profits will be shipped away. I only hope I am able to make more from the stake at $100nl than I did from $50nl on my own money. I'm confident that this will be the case but only time will tell.

Lastly on a personal note, August 1st starts my ten month journey into getting healthy. Those people that have known me for a long time know that since becoming involved in poker my weight has increased dramatically. I topped the scales in Vegas at 327lbs and made a bet with guys in the house that I will be able to weigh in at 220lbs by June 1st 2011. Can I make it ? I'm really not sure of that answer but I know that I need to try, not only for the nice prop bet but to get myself back in acceptable shape. I wont be spending too much time talking about weight but I will update probably once a month with my progress, both good and bad.

Good luck at the tables.

Moving Up

After spending a lot of time in the Grind House this summer I realized one thing about my poker game, I was settling. I had become too comfortable and too accustomed to the winnings that I was making at $50nl. Sure I was never setting the house on fire but I was also pretty much guaranteed a winning month at an amount that I deemed acceptable. Well, after seeing the guys in the house and the drive that some of them have I have decided to move up to $100nl and from there, if my game permits, as high as I can.

As many of you are aware, I'm something of a bankroll nit and I've used it as an excuse for not moving up in the past. An excuse is exactly what it was, possibly a deep down fear stashed away that maybe I wasn't good enough for the step up. Well we are about to see whether or not I am good enough. I decided to approach a very well known FR guy who was offering stakes to gauge his interest in a possible deal. Whilst he was keen to work with me, he was looking for people at the $400nl level and didn't want to get involved with people playing smaller games. I respect his decision and am happy that he took the time to review my application.

From there, I was approached by a different staking stable and after coming to terms on a deal that I felt was fair to someone with my track record the deal was sealed. In respecting my staker I wont be naming him or outlining the deal we agreed but I feel that it could be beneficial for both parties. He is new to the staking game and eager to take on new players, so if you are looking for a stake and have a decent track record hit me up and I can introduce you to him.

So what the future holds I dont know but I know I am stepping up to the games eager to show to myself, most importantly, that I am good enough to sit in the game and compete.

Vegas Review and a Promise

Well the blogging in Vegas was a huge failure. It wasn't that I didn't want to update the blog with my progress but finding the time to do it provide difficult. You get on such a strange schedule that the days seem to blend into one and it feels like your on a constant conveyor belt that just merges your days together leaving you no time to do anything constructive. Now that I'm back at home I am going to aim to update regularly again. I really enjoyed blogging and am excited to get back to it.

First off, I had an amazing time in Vegas, I met a bunch of people that I had only previously played with online and now I'm happy to call them my friends. We did a bunch of fun things and generally just had a good time. I played a lot of golf and realized how much I really do love the game. If only my on course game was as impressive as my desire to get better. I'm putting it on the to-do list for the upcoming year for sure.

My tournament results ended up being three cashes in ten events. I played four WSOP events ( 1 $1000, 2 $1500's and a $2500), a Golden Nugget Grand Series event, a RIO Deep Stack and four Venetians. My best finish was 29th for $11,870 in the $1k WSOP event. The event has already been blogged about so I won't go into detail about it but it was an amazing experience and one that I hope to be able to experience again in the future.

Cash games for the second straight summer were a disappointment. I did run bad for some of it and I certainly could see the improvement over previous summers but I still find myself not being able to adjust to the slower pace of live poker. I need to realize that I cant call every $7, $10 or $12 raise with 97s and expect to be profitable in the games. Boredom has a huge impact on my live game and hopefully in the coming months I will be able to figure out a plan to overcome this, as I'm not ready to give up on being a live cash game player just yet. I've started to think that the best option may well be to play 2/5 so that I'm forced to concentrate more and so the money means more to me. Its going to be a work in progress and I guess only time will tell.

Lastly, my online results for my time out there were average. I won some, lost some and pretty much broke even while I was there. I didn't put in much volume so I'm not really concerned with the results at all. I tried an experiment playing the $100nl shallow tables. Whilst I think that with some work, I could beat them for a decent winrate, the swings were just too big to be able to deal with so that is on the back burner again. I did get some invaluable advice from Ach Ja and Zachvac that I hope I am able to implement into my own game. Results so far are mixed as I'm in something of a transitional stage but in the future I think I will see some marked improvement.

Im going to close for now but I'd like to thank all of you guys again for your messages of support during my run in the WSOP. I have locked up a seat in the $2100 River event at Winstar Casino with a guaranteed $3 million prize pool so hopefully I will have some more live success in the near future.

$200 Daily at the Rio

Played the $200 daily yesterday at the Rio because of a mistake I made in scheduling. I had planned to play the $340 deep stack at the Venetian but it was a limit event and I'm not good enough to be able to play a $340 tournament playing limit so I headed over to the Rio and played their daily. Dip, Darren(Perfection), Ed(Muppetpower) and I had a last longer $10 bet to add to the competition. Although you start with 15,000 chips with 30 minutes levels, the aggressive blind structure quickly turns it into a super turbo. We played for about 8 hours before the money bubble burst and when it burst I was the only person remaining, Dip bust about 8 before the money. I ended up taking a flip for the chip lead with 25 remaining and ending up on the wrong side when my TT couldn't hold vs AK. With the top heavy pay structure, $26k for first, I really like my flip. I ended up cashing for $820 and bringing my cash streak in live MTT's to 3 in a row.

Going to grind hard this weekend so there will be no tournaments but I will be back on the tournament trial next week.

WSOP Event #24 Recap

For those of you that read 2+2 or subscribe to my twitter you will already know how close I came to fulfilling one of my dreams in poker, making a WSOP final table. Out of a field of 3295 I managed to finish 29th.

It was a surreal experience that contained many highs and only a few lows. I started slowly on day 1, playing only a few small pots and very gradually building a stack. My first big hand came about 4 hours into the day when I got all in with TT v AK, the board ran out all low and I got my stack up to about 7700. The only real hand I felt I overplayed the whole first day came after the dinner break. We came back to the table with blinds at 150/300/25 and the action folds around to me on the button, I look down at A8o and realize that the BB hasnt yet returned to his seat. I decide to minraise to 600 and the SB then goes into the tank, he makes it 1600 and I decide that I have some fold equity and decide to shove for 7700 total. He goes into the tank for a full 3 minutes and then calls with 77. Luckily, the flop comes out Axx8x and I got my stack to 16,000. The table breaks relatively quickly to my benefit, or so I thought. Im then seated at a table with Eric Frolich (2 WSOP bracelets & FT pro) and Craig Marquis (2008 November 9) and I realize early on that im not going to be able to be too active. Frolich seemed to make it his mission to accumulate every green 25 chip on the table and who was I to try to stop him. I do steal a few blinds though and manage to keep my stack from completely depleting. We return from a short 20 minute break and I get the couple of hands I'd been hoping for. I pick up JJ utg, raise and manage to take it down uncontested. Very next hand I pick up QQ in the BB and utg+2 opens and I shove my stack and he snaps calls with 77, the board helps neither of us and I finish day 1 at 22,700.

Day 2 started with great optimism, 507 people returned and 342 would get paid a minimum of $1867. My goal early in the day was to try to accumulate chips but the poker gods had other ideas. I got a steady dose of 85, K4 and 93 and as we approached the money bubble I only had 10k in chips. At this point I decided to lock up a cash before being super aggressive with my chips after the bubble burst. The bubble burst very quickly and once the cheers from the remaining players died I got about trying to build a stack. I got a mini rush of 5 hands where Iwas all in every hand and managed to bring my stack up to about 25k. Our table then broke and I was moved to probably my toughest table of the tournament. I had a very good player, Jaymes Rosenthal two to my right and Cardrunners instructor Matt Reed (m_reed05) to my immediate right. Sadly for me, Matt had a short stack and was very good at shoving before me and therefore I couldnt really do much to get chips. I went to dinner on day 2 with 17k chips and was desperate when I returned to get my chips into the pot. Within 5 hands I managed to get all of my chips in with 77 v AQ and held and then shortly after doubled through Rosenthal with JJ v TT. Suddenly my chip stack had risen to 65k and I was back to average.

I was moved to a table that seemed like a dream, it had three players on it that I would consider below average at best and two of those three had 200k. After seeing one of them basically open every hand for 6 hands probably the hand of my tournament came up. I had built my stack up to 70k when he opened again in MP to 9k, blinds were 1k/2k/100, I looked down at AQ and decide to 3bet to 23k with the intention of getting it in on most flops if I was called. He thought for only a few seconds before calling and we took a flop of AT6. Basically gin for me and it got better when he decided to lead for 20k, there was no thought of folding and I moved in for 44k, only 23k more. When he didnt snap call I knew I was good but wasnt sure if I wanted the call or not. He tanked for about 5 minutes before calling the rest off with TJ. I managed to fade and was up to about 135k. I managed to uneventfully chip up to 220k before I was moved tables. I went very quiet for about 2 hours before I got all of my chips in preflop with AK v QQ, binking on a Axxxx board and getting myself up to 330k. As people continued to be knocked out my stack fluctuated until the end of the day where I bagged up 232k and headed to day 3 with only 30 players remaining.

Heading into day 3 I was 16th out of 30 but the stacks were very tight and it was apparent that the chips would be flying into the middle at a rapid pace. Id been unable to open when sadly the biggest hand of my tournament happened. A shorter stack moved in for 130k from EP2 and it folded around to me in the SB, I squeezed out AK and pretty much immediately moved all in for 200k. We tabled our hands and I was in great shape, it was AK v his K4. The board ran out a very nasty 23565 and that was basically my tournament. Had the hand held I would of had a very healthy 350k and could of gotten myself into contention. The tournament ended quickly after when I shoved J8o in EP2 with 70k at 6k/12k/1k and was called by AQ. Sadly no help came and I was out in a very disappointing 29th place for $11,780.

Sure had you offered me that at the start of the tournament I'd of snapped your hand off but having been so close to life changing money I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth. Oh well cant complain too much, I was so close to living out a dream. Im back on the tournament felt tomorrow in a $340 at the Venetian Deep Stack series.

Before I close, I'd like to thank all of those people that sent me good luck messages by text and pm. Hopefully soon I can be back in the same situation. More updates to follow.

Micro House Recap #1

Feel bad that I havent had a chance to update over the first 9 days of my stay but things have been super busy. We have moved into the house and for the most part everyone is getting on fine. Its always going to be the case when you put that many people in the house that personalities are going to clash, and there has been a little of that but its been minor and things couldn't be better.

As for the poker, I havent played as much as I would have liked but I'm hoping over the weekend that I start to hit major grind time. I played my first WSOP event on June 2nd and lasted a grand total of two hours. I got into a 4bet pot preflop with AK v 99 and then proceeded to get the rest in on a flop of 8s, 5s, 3s holding the As for the nut flush draw plus two overs. Sadly for me I managed to brick off and I was done a lot sooner than I had hoped. On the positive side, KurtSF made the final table in the same event and finished in 7th. We had the whole house up there railing him and I have to say it was a great experience. I had a small % of him too so it started my trip with a bang. Hopefully in one of my two remaining WSOP events I can reproduce Kurt's showing.

I did start my tournament grind on Saturday with a solid showing in the $135 deep stack tournament at the Golden Nugget. I finished 25th out of 370 for a small cash which took a mind numbing 14 hours. Great structure with a lot of chips but the juice is a little high on the smaller event.

As for the cash games, I have been predominately playing at the Wynn and the games have been good. I just really need to play more and reap the benefits of the soft games. I plan on getting my major grind on though now so I expect the games to be very profitable.

Away from tournaments we have been playing a lot of golf. Both DJ(Cougfan) and Matt(Scooby) are very good golfers and therefore Dip and I have been playing with them in a skins format which has been fun. We have played three courses already and they have all been amazing. Spanish Trials so far has been my favorite and we managed to play it for $40 when the course price is $200 a round. thanks to golfnow.com. Ive only played 4 times this year so my results have been hit and miss although I can slowly see my game improving. Im completely addicted to the game and cant wait to play more.

Other than golf, we have bought a ping pong table for the house and the action on that has been thick and fast. Im average at best, but manage to hold my own against most of the house but get destroyed by Dip and Arjun. We have a night out planned for tomorrow to celebrate mine and Dip's birthday so there should be a lot of drinks flowing. Then Saturday brings the start of the World Cup and I cant wait for every match. Im going to be glued to the t.v.

Going to close for now, but more updates to follow. I will update my twitter during any tournament i play.

WSOP Eve

We have finally all settled in the house and I'm really impressed with everything so far. All of the guys are cool and everyone seems to be the laid back type that will make everything go smoothly. Got all of the pcs set up and have turned the second living room into a grind room. It will just be a short entry because I have my first WSOP event tomorrow and I need to sleep. Updates will be sent out all day via twitter. Follow whatever progress I might make.

A Real Grind

Well I have finally experienced the real grind. I left myself 40k hands to hit for the 100k prop bet in a little over a week. Problem is, I don't have a week, I have five days. I need to get the hands out of the way by Friday so I can take a couple of days off before i head out to the WSOP. Meaning 8k hands a day is needed. Now I only 12 table so it becomes a huge amount of hands. On Monday I managed to play 9700 and yesterday I logged 8k. Ive settled into a routine of waking up at 4am, playing until noon, sleeping until 4pm and then playing from 5pm - 11pm and then heading back to bed. Not much of a life but it works and for five days I can do anything. Monday was a complete nightmare, I got into a $260 hole early, managed to grind my way back out of the hole to be up a small amount before plummeting back down and ending the day -$223. Nothing more demoralizing than playing that many hands and ending in the negative. Surprisingly, all it did was provide me with the motivation to crush on Tuesday. I managed to win $412 yesterday, which brings a smile to anyone's face. Day 3 is about to start now, updates to follow.

Also an intriguing question to close, If you knew someone was multi accounting but they were a 90/3 fish down $6k and the biggest whale you know, would you report them ? (Think Guy Laliberte of the micros.) For obvious reasons the name of the person wont be revealed, just interested in the responses

Random Updates

Going to just throw down a quick update of the past week as it has been super busy, which has left me with little time to update. Poker, touch wood, has been going well. I think that the shock of last month's poor performance made me really focus on my months results and thankfully for me it seems to have paid off. I'm winning at a rate that I think is acceptable and my confidence in my game is coming back. Its amazing how much of a confidence game poker is. I should manage to hit 100k hands for the month which will enable me to win my piece of the 100k prop bets.

I managed to sell off all 80% of my WSOP shares on 2+2 in about 16 hours and am now committed to playing events #8, 23 and 45. Event #8 and #45 will be on my stake and then I will pay for event #23 myself. I sent off my pre-registration form for event #8 today, as it is on June 2nd and I only arrive in Vegas June 1st. The last thing that I want to do is arrive and find out the event is sold out. I can see myself being more organized than I was last year and I think that I will reap the benefits of it. My schedule is set and gives me a couple of days off between events so that I can recover and always be at 100%. As I'm a huge soccer fan I won't play on any day that England is playing because I expect to be drinking in a bar and to be honest watching soccer is more important to me than poker. Its a way of life almost.

I've still got a little bit more money to earn before I have my monetary goal to take out to Vegas with me but I expect that to be hit with a few days to spare. This will allow me to take a few days off and recharge before the 18 hour drive!!! Really looking forward to meeting the guys that are staying in the house, I speak to most of them daily on AIM/Skype and I know I will learn so much from them during my stay. They are some of the biggest winners at the micros, so being around them can't be anything but good for my game.

I swapped 10% with Flippn Corner on 2+2 in the miniFTOPS main event and he gave me as good of a sweat as Ready2Win. After min-cashing myself, I watched FC end up finishing 90th. Such a sick result in a field of 14k and was a nice $1k score for him. With $150k for first though, I wont lie to you and say that I didn't think about what I could do with my share of such a huge score.

Off to play live tonight in a very juicy game. Good luck me.

So Close to a Bink

I wanted to use this as a shout out to a fellow grinder that went so close to binking a huge score last night. I was approached by Ready2Win earlier this month about the possibility of buying a small percentage of him in a couple of the upcoming miniFTOPS. I think he has a great understanding of the game, so I jumped at the chance to get on board. I shipped him the agreed % and didnt think much about it. Being the guy that he is, he jumped on AIM before the event and told me it was starting and that he would update me at the end.

The tournament was a 4x Shootout, where the winner of each table advances to another table against the winners of the previous round. Well he won his first table quickly and advanced to his second table and again swept aside his opponents to be in the final 81. This is a solid achievement already as it started with 2200 runners. Sadly at this point, I had to leave and couldnt follow the rest of the sweat. Turns out R2W finished a hugely respectable 35th place, losing a flip when 4 handed at his 3rd table. I picked up a tremendous return on my investment and certainly will be looking to be on board the next time he is looking to get rid of a %.

Hopefully I can return the favor to him when i play the WSOP events this summer as he has a % of me in those.

Busy with Poker

Seems that I have so much poker related stuff on my plate lately. Got a podcast to do with Mal and Gareth today, which will be fun as usual. I've got to get some coaching out of the way as I'm busy this weekend with moving and then I've got to get my hands in for my prop bets and also Vegas money. I'm on pace to hit the goals I set for May so I'm happy.

On a stake note I have sold 33% of my 2 WSOP events so far in less than a day so I'm hopeful I will manage to sell the 70-80% I need to play it.

WSOP Stake

With Vegas rapidly approaching I have committed to a tournament schedule that should give me a good chance at making a deep run once or twice.

June:

5th Golden Nugget $135

10th Venetian $350

12th Golden Nugget $135

13th WSOP $1000

17th Venetian $350

19th Golden Nugget $135

22nd Venetian $350

26th Golden Nugget $135

27th GN Sat to ME $135

28th GN Sat to ME $135

July:

1st Venetian $350

Im also looking to sell off shares to a couple of $1500 WSOP events that I have made a thread about on 2+2. If anyone has any interest in buying a piece of me, let me know by posting in the thread.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/163/staking-selling-shares/selling-shares-wsop-event-8-event-45-1500-a-780869/#post18815407

April Review

April Goals: -
[ ] 100k hands (less bc im in Cleveland with Nfeugo20 and Vizer02 watching the Rangers v Indians)
[x] Continue with more 100pl if the games are good
[ ] Final Table MTT .... one time
[ ] Focus on playing A game at all times
[x] More coaching
[ ] Exercise and get mentally ready for 6 weeks in Vegas

Results : -

Online: +$698

Live: +$1070

Rakeback: +$768

Coaching: +$225

Staking: +$343

Total: +$3110

I don't think I've ever been more embarrassed to post a PT 3 graph in my life. Words don't express how upset I am at myself for the performance I put up in April. If I was a major leaguer I'd of gotten demoted to AAA. For 30 days, I turned into one of the people that I make money from. I was an absolute station, if there was a bet to be called, I was in there raising my hand and volunteering. Half pot bet on the river, I call, pot bet on the river, I call, overbet shove (must be a bluff), i call. Simply put if there was a call to make I made it and the results show that it was an epic fail.

There were some bright spots in the month too though. Staking went a lot better than I expected. We managed to find a grinder that has a real talent for the game and if it were not for outside influences, he certainly wouldn't need to be staked. Luckily for us though, we have an agreement that is suitable to both parties and the extra money earned really came in handy. Live poker was also a success, managed to score a few cashes in my local Wednesday night game which helped to pad the coffers. I also played my first live casino session in 2010 and although after an hour I was bored out of my mind, I managed to book a nice profit. Need to play some more in May to get myself ready for Vegas in June and July.

Coaching is continuing to go from strength to strength and I can see my students really getting a grasp of what I have been telling them. To see students come to me and be happy with the sessions we are having is really rewarding. I think there is a big month around the corner for a few of them and hopefully one of them will be ready to move up to a higher limit pretty soon. Once a couple of students have completed the intensive side of our coaching then I will post some testimonials from them on here. Nothing is better for new students than satisfied old students.

I've really began to focus so much more on my game in the first two days of May and it has really shown in the results. I'm assigning ranges better, betting in the correct spots and also, most importantly, finding that fold button.

May will be pretty busy with preparing for Vegas and also some other things on the personal front but I want to hit 120k hands this month and really put in the hours. I'm in Ready 2 Win's 100k prop bet so I don't want to have to ship him $100 at the end of the month.

May Goals: -
[ ] 120k hands
[ ] Continue with more 100pl if the games are good
[ ] Final Table MTT .... one time
[ ] Focus on playing A game at all times
[ ] More coaching / staking
[ ] Exercise and get mentally ready for 6 weeks in Vegas

An attempt at breaking the funk

I've said this so much in the past month. I just cant seem to win / play well for the duration of a session. Sure I will start out well but then just completely fall apart at some point and erase all the progress I've made. Its been the same for about three weeks, I will be grinding and get up about $200 and then in a matter of seconds will just give it all back and be like wtf was that?

So I've decided a day away from the virtual felt might be in order. So what do I decide to do on my day off ? Golf ? A ballgame ? TV and a chill out ? No of course not, I'm not that smart....

I'm off to Winstar casino, nothing like some live poker to get rid of the run bad / play bad. Sign me up for 30 hands an hour of juicy live action.

Untitled... Off the Cuff

I don't really have a thought that I want to blog about today, I just feel frustrated by the game and my blog is a place that I can use to blast off on a rant and it wont cost me 3-4 buyins. Ive been talking to some friends whose opinion I value a lot about the game lately and have been really interested in what they had to say. I'm not going to go into the specifics of what we spoke about but I will say that I am eager to see the benefits/detriments of what we spoke about. In conversation it seems so simple but its the application that might prove taxing.

Ive spoke about how I need to log a load of hands for both Vegas and my monthly props and it really just proves to me how important it is to maximize your time. Its not that I have anything important to do that is taking me away from the tables, its more just that i waste a lot of time. There is no reason why I cant be playing 8-10 hour days but instead i play 4-5 and feel satisfied. I saw an interview on ESPN last night with Tim Tebow and it made me really question myself. Now I don't for a second claim to have a whole lot in common with Tebow but that in itself is the problem. He comes across as so motivated and determined to succeed. I think that I take the micro limits for granted, sure I win at a nice rate that many would like to emulate but all I am doing is wasting my time. I don't have the desire to move up the limits, I don't do session reviews anymore, in short I've stopped trying to improve. I should be at 200nl and winning, not at 50nl just twiddling my thumbs. I need to pull my fucking finger out of my ass and get moving.

Hopefully Vegas and being around a lot of people I respect will help. It could be the most important month of my poker career, or it could signal that maybe its time to move on to something else. Only time will tell, but I am going out there with a positive attitude and aim to improve 100% as a player in that short period of time.

I wont be posting hands too often in my blog but this one just made me laugh and made me realize what happens when you give a Russian a full stack. He is running 11/7 with a 5% 3bet with otherwise pretty normal, unimaginative stats.

Full Tilt Poker Game #20221123623: Table Node - $0.25/$0.50 - Pot Limit Hold'em - 12:54:32 ET - 2010/04/20

Seat 1: Steffe1991 ($50)

Seat 4: CaptainBekk ($32.25)

Seat 5: tinks797 ($56.55)

Seat 6: El Nino 1 ($50.35)

Seat 7: skimman ($81.90)

Seat 8: Fedorov AI ($50)

Seat 9: daehanminguk ($0), is sitting out

skimman posts the small blind of $0.25

Fedorov AI posts the big blind of $0.50

The button is in seat #6

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to El Nino 1 [Ks As]

CaptainBekk folds

tinks797 folds

El Nino 1 raises to $1.50

skimman calls $1.25

DURAN MESA18 sits down

Fedorov AI has 15 seconds left to act

Fedorov AI raises to $6

DURAN MESA18 adds $35

All Upinyerpu sits down

daehanminguk adds $35

All Upinyerpu adds $20

El Nino 1 has 15 seconds left to act

daehanminguk has returned

El Nino 1 raises to $18.50

skimman folds

Fedorov AI has 15 seconds left to act

daehanminguk has been disconnected

daehanminguk has reconnected

Fedorov AI raises to $50, and is all in

El Nino 1 calls $31.50

Fedorov AI shows [6s 4s]

El Nino 1 shows [Ks As]

*** FLOP *** [Tc 2s 3s]

*** TURN *** [Tc 2s 3s] [5h]

*** RIVER *** [Tc 2s 3s 5h] [8c]

Now maybe someone can tell me what he is thinking. I certainly cant argue with the 3bet squeeze as my fold to 3bet % is pretty high but when I elect to 4bet to $18, I really cant see where he thinks he is getting his fold equity from. Its like he chooses to compound the stupidity and just dump off $42 for no reason. The play didn't work my little Cossack, just fold and wait for a different spot.

On a brighter note, i played in the Pokersluts.org weekly tournament on Sunday evening and had a blast. They are hosted on Full Tilt, start at 9pm EST and have a $5 buy in. There is only a couple of tables and you will need the password to enter as its a private tournament (pw: imapokerslut) but it was a great laugh. They record a show to go along with each tournament and i certainly enjoyed every minute of it, despite not really knowing how to play some of the 7 game mix. Next Sunday is Razz and I encourage you if your looking for a laugh to take a look.

Cleveland Trip Report

I flew to Cleveland on Monday morning to spend some time watching baseball with NFeugo20. Vizer02 was supposed to be up here too but like all poker players he procrastinated and left it too late to book his flights and the prices became extortionate so he had to miss on the trip. Opening Day and Progressive Field was full, the temperature for the game wasn't bad unless you were in the shade which was pretty cold. As you can guess, I found myself in the shade. We were in the upper deck which made the ballpark hard to appreciate but on the whole it is a very nice park. The Rangers managed to win 4-2 in 10 so I left a happy camper, unlike nearly all the home fans. Game 2 was a game of missed chances for the Tribe and the Rangers ran out comfortable 6-2 winners. That brings us to today's game, a pair of lefties on the mound and it was a gem. The Rangers led 2-0 until the bottom of the 8 when two errors cost them the game. Two routine grounders resulted in fielder errors and instead of none on and 2 out, suddenly there was 2 on and no out and Shin Soo Choo bombs a 3 run dinger over the wall. I left sad but its good to see the tribe win a game, they certainly needed it.

I fly home tomorrow and it will begin a major grind. Ive got prop bets to reach 100k hands for the month and im certainly going to be up against it to get there. I've played about 22k hands which leaves me 78k to make my target in about 15 days. No problem lol, 15 5k days in a row and im there :) Got to get podcasts done, coaching done and also check in on my stakees. Busy, busy, busy but its certainly my mess so i have to get out of it.

Rakeback Doesn't Lie

Fridays are always a mixed day for me, its the day that I receive my weekly rakeback payments from Raketherake and also the day that I dread logging in and starting a session. I know that many of you love to play at the weekends but I absolutely hate it. The variance is so much higher and whilst I manage to get it in good most of the time, its always some random bullshit two pair getting there by the river. That's why I fear Fridays.

However, rakeback provides that silver lining, that shining star in the face of another black day at the tables with the weekend warriors playing bingo poker. Well today the lining really doesn't look silver, it looks more like bismuth or mercury (I cheated here and google'd a list of precious metals because I struggled for 5 minutes trying to figure out a cheaper valued precious metal). My rakeback payment for the week was $145, which is absolutely terrible. An average rakeback payment for a week is $280 and if i'm playing anything that resembles a normal week, its in the $300 - $350 range. So the fact that i only received $145 is telling me that I spent the week slacking at the tables. After looking back at PT3 the most hands I've logged in a day is 3500, which based on my normal volume is lol. I'm at 21k hands for the month in 9 days, I should be at around 35k.

Whats causing the lack of motivation ? I really cant answer that, I'm really enjoying poker at the minute and everything that goes along with it, yet i cant find my usual motivation. I'm hoping its not burnout because with Vegas only six weeks away, I really need to put in the hands so I have the money to play an aggressive tournament schedule. I have a pretty busy weekend with coaching and a live tournament on Saturday and then next week I'm in Cleveland to watch the Rangers with NFeugo and Vizer so there will be no poker. It looks as though it will be a super long end to the month trying to make up for all the lost hands. I can only hope that Cleveland refreshes me and I'm able to come back with some new found motivation.

On a side note, I played in my usual WNPL (Wednesday Night Poker League) event and managed to take down a nice $850 score. The event was a $100 buy in with a splash pot of $1135 resulting in a nice $3800 prize pool with only 27 runners. Each week money is taken from the tournament prize pool and then once a quarter is splashed back into the tournaments so hitting a quarterly score like this is always nice.

Just as I was going to publish this and start a session, my phone rang and a friend invited me to lunch. Finally my chance to say no and log a session to get back on track. Sadly not, I'm off to lunch,

Good luck at the tables to all.

Another Tuesday, Another Podcast

Podcast is recorded on Talkshoe.com and is scheduled to start at 3:30pm EST. If you log into Talkshoe, you can find our show under the name 'Live Poker Show'. Please stop by and say hello, heaven knows that Mal and Gareth cant stay on poker talk that long so the more guests and people saying hi the more likely we stay on poker topics.

Busy Week Ahead

I write this after having the most frustrating 10 minutes of my life. One of my students in Thailand set up a session for 3am EST for a review of some hands he has played since he has made the transition to $50nl. As im still normally awake at this time and the games are usually beginning to die, its a perfect time to do a session. However, third world Thai internet didnt want to cooperate and our calls on Skype would drop every 20 seconds.... beyond frustrating.

Ok rant over... This week should really be a busy one for me on the poker front. Since I am heading up to Cleveland to meet up with Nfeugo and Vizer next Monday, I really need to put in a lot of volume this coming week. As Nfeugo, despite playing for a living, never plays poker anymore I think there is a 5% chance that I log any hands during my time there (four days). As I would normally play about 15k hands in that time, I need to make them up sometime and before I go seems as good as any.

This means I need to be hitting about 5500 hands a day, which would be fine if I wasnt a little busy with other poker related things. On Tuesday, I've got the podcast to record and three hours of coaching to do and on Wednesday, I've got a live poker tournament in which there will be a $1000 splash pot along with 25 players ponying up $100, so thats a no brainer to attend. All these little things add up to me needing to maximize my time. So I thought I would make a post so that when I come and check back on my blog later in the week I will see that I need to be playing and not randomly wasting time on the world wide web.

On a side note, I seem to have conquered my calling station demons, through four days of the month I think I have pushed the demon back into the closet and firmly shut the door, only time will tell for sure.

Good luck at the tables to all.

March Review

Results: -

Online: - $2929
Live: - $0
Rakeback: - $1142
Coaching: - $335

Total: - $4406

All i can say about March is that it was an amazing learning experience. For the first half of the month I was playing well and making good decisions and then midway through the month the wheels fell off. What I have come to realize about playing poker at the micros is that if your a better player you can outlevel yourself. You assume because your capable of 3bet getting in AK for value that your opponents are. Well, sadly thats incorrect, when a weaker opponent 3bets preflop, its normally what he considers a strong hand. Now obviously different villains consider different hands strong and that is where we have to interpret stats etc, but for the most part they have what they are representing. This is also the case for raises postflop. When they are raising they have it, when they are weak they are calling you down. I for the second half of the month forgot this and as a result I broke even for about 30k hands. Now there were some coolers and unavoidable spots in there for sure but for the most part I got away from the things that have let me be so successful at the micros.

As we enter April it is going to be my goal for the month to get back to playing the A game that got me to where I am today and not some fancy hero calling monkey that results in blah results.

April Goals: -
[ ] 100k hands (less bc im in Cleveland with Nfeugo20 and Vizer02 watching the Rangers v Indians)
[ ] Continue with more 100pl if the games are good
[ ] Final Table MTT .... one time
[ ] Focus on playing A game at all times
[ ] More coaching
[ ] Exercise and get mentally ready for 6 weeks in Vegas

In a rush to play rush .....

I had a hand prop bet with Luka Allen for the month of March in that I had to hit 120k hands to his 50k hands. Now whilst this doesnt seem fair to me, it needs to be remembered that my normal volume for a month is about 100k hands and Luka's is about 35k, so we were both pushing the envelope to hit a new 'career high in hands'.

I started well but then fell behind pace, mostly due to the frustration of some bad beats and those bad beats resulting in bad monkey play by me. That said, I dont like giving people $250 so with three days remaining I was 19k hands short of 120k. After getting in about 5400 on the 29th, I knew on the 30th that I needed to push it so that I didnt have to be worried and have to play some crazy number of hands on the 31st. I decided that the only way to really get the hands in was to RUSH it out. Now most of you know my hatred for RUSH poker and therefore yesterdays events might surprise you. I decided to 10 table RUSH at the $5nl and $10nl level for 7 hours !!!! I played 4 x $5nl FR, 4 x $5nl 6max and 2 x $10nl FR to get 14k hands in.

After recovering from the sight of every KK running into AA for the first hour and then from a dead arm from the repeated stress of constantly clicking my mouse, I managed to slowly get the hang of the game to the point that I think if I put in the work that I could be a winner in the games. Its certainly something I dont want to do though so unless I am way behind another prop bet dont expect to see me RUSHING in the near future. Here is a graph from my RUSH session for yesterday

Cant Get Enough ? Try a Podcast ....

Each Tuesday i do a weekly podcast with two friends from across the pond, Mal Clarke and Gareth Witty. We talk about all things poker related and as Mal and Gareth have the attention span of a monkey doing math, we tend to slip onto some non-poker related stuff too.

The show is live each week at 3:30pm EST and is hosted by Talkshoe. It is listed on Talkshoe as The Live Poker Show and you will need to create an account with them to join the show live on air as a guest, which we love to have. You can also download the show via Itunes and the link to the podcast page can be found on my interesting links sidebar under 'podcasts'.

Everyone must give one episode a try...

Better Start by Saying Hi !!

There are hundreds of blogs out there and i certainly read my fair share and whilst mine will be somewhat lost in the shuffle of them all, i feel that this will allow friends and family to keep track of what is happening in my world. I will for the most part keep it poker related and will only stray onto personal things in my life if i think it is necessary and relevant to whatever is happening poker wise.

With this being the first entry though i think its ok to introduce myself. I log about 95% of my poker hours on Full Tilt under the screen name El Nino 1, and yes to all of you out there n 2+2 world, i am a nit and certainly am ok with admitting it. I'm going to try to keep this first post pretty brief as i need to log 14k hands in two days to win a prop with Luka Allen and if i start to detail a lot of stuff in here it will take me hours. I'm such a computer and technology noob. Id happily pay someone to install everything for me.

Here is what 2009 looked like for me(not incl rb): -

Here is the start of 2010(not incl rb):-

I certainly have good intentions to regularly update this blog and will be more than happy to include the blogs of friends in the poker world. There will be blog posts in the future regarding coaching, the 1 month 1 micro Vegas grind house and also general updates on how poker is going for me.

If you have 10 minutes to spare i think my well on 2+2 gives a pretty good insight into anything you might want to know about me.

Good luck at the tables,

2010 Graph YTD (Updated March 30th)

2009 Graph