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.