First time for everything...

I have registered to play in the WBCOOP PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! You too can Play Poker Online at PokerStars.com and take part in the WBCOOP which is open to all Bloggers by registering on WBCOOP to play.
Registration code: 427465

Let me know if you're also playing and ill keep an eye out for you. Feel free to follow me at the tables. I'll post updates as the events progress.

I'll make a proper post shortly regarding the sng grind so far in 2010.
Its been quite a nightmare to be fair so far... Info and graphs to follow :)

Thanks to DaleRoxxu and his excellent blog for informing me and encouraging me to sign up for this excellent promotion from Stars... check out his blog if you haven't already! http://daleroxxu.blogspot.com/

Goodbye 09, Hello 2010

Happy New Year!

2009... Not my best poker year ever. I've struggled in both finding motivation to play and in running well. The two probably go hand in hand somewhat!

I've always been a tournament player at heart however have for some reason lost the will/ability to play the bigger mtt's. Even now that im back into the swing of playing sngs, i rarely feel like playing mtts. I feel a little lost almost with them and quickly find myself asking why i bothered buying into it as i cant be bothered to play and just donking off my chips, the first reasonable excuse i get to do so... Its quite frustrating as i learned my poker game in the MTT's and have got some reasonable scores over the years. I just cant motivate myself for any length of time.

Ive even dabbled in cash games this year and do for some unknown reason plan to do so again in 2010 at some point... Despite never getting on with them! If i can learn to love them though, i can see an easier and more flexible 'grind' with better long term profits. This won't be till later on in the year i'd imagine though as i need to build up a healthy roll in the sngs first!
Ive played the sngs consistently throughout the year and especially towards the end of the year. Its obviously where ive concentrated all my efforts and can see that being the case for most of 2010. Ive made a reasonable profit in November and a lackluster profit in December but thats down to being pretty lazy and not playing for half the month and also a prelonged breakeven stretch as i'll come onto in a minute...

so to summarise... 2009 was largely a write off play wise apart from a couple of good months in the summer and a reasonable end to the year once i discovered i could multitable sngs profitably so didnt have to play 4 tables max at a time anymore! lol Ive learned a lot in the latter part of the year and i think it sets me up for a good and profitable 2010.

2009 Total Profits: +$4723.71

Hardly anything to write home about but not too shabby considering how much i played for most of the year.

Sharkscope graph - Pokerstars, all games 2009.

Most of the sngs i played on Stars have been from the last 2 months of 2009 and 2 months ago i was actually down $250 for the year!

As for December, So much for me making Platinum star... I quickly realised i wasn't putting in enough volume so just had a quietish month and hit goldstar again a few days before christmas and then pretty much took the rest of the month off apart from the odd game here and there for fun. The last few days ive had a nightmare with internet connection. Im only getting speeds of 0.13 mb/s so im waiting for a BT mechanic to come out on Saturday to hopefully put it right! I'm 95% sure its not my pc or router as ive tried a new router, changed every setting and piece of hardware under the sun and checked the speed through various other means with no joy. As a result its meant ive got no confidence in the connection so dont want to do any multitabling which is going to delay my start to 2010 grinding a little!

Once again, i have no Holdem Manager graphs to post as they're split over pcs... Im hoping to upgrade my setup very shortly so if i get around to it in Jan i may end up with split graphs again. Im sure putting them together is possible but it seems like far too much hardwork! lol

December Totals: +$574.55

Although i did lose a $100 in that prop bet with my friend which ive not included which does drag my actual profit for the month down even more which is quite worrying!

so...

Plans for 2010..

With business not going too well in the current climate im not sure what that spells for the future of my company so im kinda expecting to end up taking the plunge into becoming a full time poker player as opposed to just a rec player (even if i do spend more time playing these days than i do working) this year. As a result, im starting 2010 with the mind set that poker is my main source of income. Luckily, my girlfriend of 6 years is fully supportive aslong as i can bring in atleast a couple hundred a week at the moment as her jobs quite well paid so its not as if i starve if i fail. I just have to get a real job. This is not in the plan though as i dont do failing :)

I'm going to play almost exclusively at Pokerstars grinding sngs, as ive been trialing for the past 2 months.

I plan to shoot for Supernova this year. It should be achievable with some commitment... We'll just have to wait and see how that goes at the moment as a year in the poker world is a long time indeed. Many things can happen in the space of 12 months so fingers crossed they'll be of the good variety!

GL in 2010, See you at the tables!

yikes

Just a quick update...

Ive got my desktop back now so am playing on there rather than my laptop. As a result my December results are split between the laptop and the desktop which means you'll have to wait a little while longer for stats etc as ill play 99% on my desktop again now but it'll take some time to grow some new graphs with reasonable volume.

I have just played my worst ever set of sngs hence me blogging to get away from the tables.... Just lost every flip and when i got it in good, lost as well :(
I'll post my Decemember graph from the last few days (since i got my desktop back) below. Look at my adjusted EV line and that sum up the session i just had... lol

GREEN = actual profit  RED = EV adjusted profit

And here is my sharkscope graph from Decemember 1st through to November 18th for all sngs.

Just as i slowly started clawing back some profits and moving upwards again i just have a $200 losing session. So demoralising... I guess i just need to put some more volume in really as my average games per day is pretty naff at the moment. I should be aiming to average 75 games+ a day ideally rather than my current 24/day average...

I'll leave it there for now and go get some rest instead i think.

Prop Bets, running bad and dodgy computers

I'll keep this short as im not feeling too great and its a quick update so i can moan :)

We'll start with the positives - This bit wont take long at all! Im +$495.10 so far this month (even after my $219 downswing earlier tonight) which works out at 11.5% roi. Almost 2 weeks in and thats a lot less profit than i'd planned... Im guessing a lot of the reasoning behind that is volume though.

Bad Beat

Apart from being in profit for the month so far, the last few days have been poor. My desktops gone in for repair so i've been playing on my laptop a lot with an extra monitor plugged in. This was working fine but recently its been really laggy with the tables which has caused me to time out unknowingly and misclick etc which tilts me more than any bad beats. Hopefully the desktop should be back soon and im hoping to get a new one in a few months time if i keep doing ok at the tables.

Apart from the odd small upwsing, the games seem a real grind at the moment which is damaging my motivation - theres no way i'll hit platinum now this month as my volumes been really down on what id planned. Guess ill just maintain my Goldstar this month then crack on in the new year chasing Supernova.

After my losing session i thought id try to sort out my sngwizard which i cant seem to get to work. After messing with the settings and hand history folder locations for over an hour, i got nowhere so cant even review my play and see how bad ive been playing... *sigh* and to add to my frustrations, i think ive messed up my import settings for HE Manager which just makes me even more work.

Moving up.... Then back down :(

My bankroll got upto about $2900 so i decided to start playing some $27's mixed in with the $16's and a couple of $38 ones. Having sharkscoped the 27s and 38s, there seem to be a lot more fishy/losing players in them than at the 16s even. Can anyone shed some light on why? Im not sure if that means ill get a better roi in them - i cant imagine this could be the case but im a bit confused as to why there are so many regs in the 16s when these 27s and 38s are starting up full of people taking shots and losing players.

Any ideas?

My stats in the 27s were ok untill this evening when i think i barely cashed in any of the ones i played so its plumeted back into the red now! I've played 30 $27's and am showing a loss of $45...
in the 2 $38's i played ive got 2 2nds so have a +$113 profit from those. Huge sample size i know! lol

I'll post some pics from HE Manager once i have my desktop back rather than bore you with text...

MTT SnGs?

One thing playing on my mind a lot is whether i should start playing more mtt sngs.
Im showing a 50% roi in the $12 45 seaters and have a solid idea of how to play them. Ive just avoided them in the past because of the variance but my bankroll should easily be big enough for these games so i dont see why i shouldnt play them more. I just feel like i should stick grinding the stts as ive been doing ok at them. High volume in the 45s is still a bit of an unknown!

Has anyone looked into which is more profitable at these kind of stakes? STTs v 45 seaters on stars. Would be intersting to know a solid players $/hr rate from each...
I know which is higher for me at the moment but theres no way i can maintain my current $/hr rate in the 45s over high volume.

Prop Bets...

Ive never been big into betting and gambling but with all these prop bets about on the internet at the moment, my appetite had been wetted somewhat! My friends (who's grinding a bankroll up at the $6.50s) decided to propose one to me which i took up the offer of. Starting today over the next 2 weeks, taking him upto 11:59:59 ET on December 24th, He'sgoing to grind his way to Platinum star in just the $6.50 stts.

To the big grinders that may sound fairly easy going but considering the max number of games he'd ever played in 1 day was 150 i thought it was an ok bet so with odds of 100/80 (i pay him $100 if he does it, he gives me $80 if he fails) - He basically has to average about 140 sngs a day for 2 weeks.

So far today his volumes been insane and he's winning quite steadily as well which is making me feel awful (This makes me sound super mean - I really wanna see him do well, but i also want to win! lol). Not only am i feeling like ive already lost the bet after 1 day, but he's on an upswing right when ive gone and lost about 30% of my months earnings in less than 2 hours...

Fingers crossed things pick up a bit tomorrow! *sleeps*

p.s. Apologies - This post didnt stay too short - If you read my blog, you'll soon get used to my ramblings :)

November Roundup.

November was quite a mixed month but on the whole i'm quite pleased with my progress.
My good run continued for a few days after my last post but then the last week of November was a real grind making no progress at all... Struggling to breakeven most days as you can see from my sharkscope graph below...

Sharkscope graph for the $16 & $6.50 STTs (1st November - 31st November)

 
I finished the month +$1427.80 overall in profit from all my poker activities but also released $200 worth of bonus which brought my months total to +$1627.80
 
I'm pleased with my profits for the month although i can see scope to do even better as i barely played the first week of November and the last week was a real grind as you can see....
 
Ive been multitabling sets of about 13 games, using Tableninja to auto register which makes things easier.
 
Whereas i was feeling very positive about things halfway through the month im now feeling just a little disillusioned by my breakeven run at the end of the month. Im not sure what more i can do to improve my roi% which stands at 9% for the month. I mean, i know thats quite a respectable roi for 9 seater sngs which are what make up 99.9% of the sngs tracked this month but its almost all come from the good run. If i keep running badly through December i'm worried im going to lose faith and heart. We'll battle on though so see what happens :)
 
I joined sng grinders this month and i actually think their videos are pretty good from what ive watched. Very well explained and clear. I am planning on moving into playing more mtt sngs over time because of the better rois that are possible the less regs/need to table select - not that i table select that much as you dont really need to in the $16 games. I just put off starting a new session if there are a lot of regs registered in the games. You're always going to get 1 or 2 though and even some of the regs at $16 stakes are pretty poor so theres not too much to worry about.
 
Finally, i've been reading a lot of blogs by various sng pros etc and have updated my blog list on the right hand side for anyone who happens to want some good reading material to help inspire them. Some of their profits still amaze me and give me something to really work towards.
 
Oh and as a closing note - I went from Bronzestar straight up to Goldstar fairly easily on Stars last month. I'm going to aim for Platinum star this month but its going to be very touch and go whether i'll reach it, especially with the festive activities later this month. It's something to aim for nonetheless...
 
Happy Holidays!

Blogaments

Hey ho - its a been  while again since i last posted and quite a lots changed.
Im currently feeling pretty rough with flu/cold (no changes there  then) so thought id take this opportunity to update here.

This month ive finally got over some big mental barrier ive had for ages re: multitabling and putting in volume.
For some reason i decided to start multitabling the $16 sngs - 12 or so at a time and its been going pretty well. Ive been playing for about 2 hours a day on average playing between 20-50 sngs a day... I know ill hit a downswing soon but ive been doing fairly well at them and seeing pretty consistent profits and results.

Stats for November so far...
SnGs played:  256
ROI:              17.7%
ITM%:           43%
Hours Played: 21.2
Rake:             $256
Profits:           $723.50
$/hr:               $34.07
 
small sample size i know but im still happy with the results. I dont feel ive been running amazingly well either. Ive seen my fair share of coolers over the past few, the biggest being my full house on a KQQAJ board - me holding AQ - villain has KT and hit the runner runner royal flush to scoop it.
 
Right... i typed all that earlier then never posted it. Been to the ice hockey now with its stupidly late face off time. I cant seem to get any pics to save on here atm... the laptops playing up with copy paste :( next time ill try to get some graphs etc up here

Its been a while!

I haven't updated this for months so thought I'd get back to it. Thinking i should really change the blog title too seeing as i never got going in the cash games - i was winning at a reasonable rate but playing at low stakes the rake was killing it and i just found it a grind...

May actually went downhill a bit after my last post... i actually ended the month +$735.23 in profit which isn't too shabby considering my volume. trouble is $72 of it was from a bonus i finally released and another $604.50 was from playing one of my step 4 sngs and winning a seat into a big tourney which i then unregistered from and sold the W$ online. my actual play for May only netted me about $58 profit.

I played what was quite a big live tourney for me in Aspers, Swansea on May 31st. I satellited in online for $11 to the £135 buy in tourney. It was to launch Roberto and Antoni Romanellos new poker site - 'One Way Poker'. It was quite cool to play a relatively low buy in tourney with a decent structure which had attracted a few big name pros off the UK circuit. Ive played loads of pro's in online tournies but its not the same as playing them face to face in a live environment. Played on the same table as Full Tilt Pro Andrew Feldman and Micky Wernick.
I actually played well and was among the chip leaders heading into dinner break but it was all downhill from there. Card dead and then whenever you picked up a mid pocket pair there'd be a raise from utg and a re raise before it got to you so they'd go into the muck. I ran J's into Q's then eventually shoved 78suited from the cut off, 1st into the pot only to walk straight into A's and finished just short of the cash after what was a very long day :( A good experience all the same though!

June was a reasonable month finishing +$638.72 in profit most of which came from 2 deep finishes in Plo8 and Nlo8 mtt's! Must be beginners luck as I've only just learned this game but really enjoy it! Picked up a 2nd place and a 1st place finish. Also got a bit of profit from the Nlo8 cash games on Stars...

July on the other hand wasn't so great. i played a lot more sngs which were a real grind and didn't get any tourney scores really which didn't help. Eventually finished -$101.67 for the month. Think its only my 2nd or 3rd ever losing month!

August started even worse than July... I switched to multi tabling the $12 45 seat sngs on Stars with little success... I'd previously done well in them but was obviously suffering a bit of a downswing! I was actually in quite a deep hole heading towards the end of the month but then managed to get heads up in another Nlo8 mtt where we dealt for $544 profit and then 2 days later got another 2nd place finish in a Full Tilt $8.80 mtt which meant i eventually finished the month +$176.41 - Not great but much better then the loss i was heading for before the 2 mtt scores!

And so we come to September - the start of autumn... Darker earlier in the evenings and the start of Ice Hockey season again :) 7 days into September now and Ive not been well for much of it so not put in much volume (not that i normally do when I'm well mind! lol). Think I'm slightly down for the month so far but nothing to drastic and no real scores to report just yet. Hopefully they'll come. I'm getting the impression from reviewing my last few months i should really revert back to concentrating on mtt's. I'd like to have a crack at the wcoops but cant really afford to so planning on hopefully selling part of myself or swapping % with someone - If anyone fancies a deal get in touch.

I went down to watch the final table of the GUKPT Cardiff tourney yesterday which was cool. Awesome final table line up:

1st Karl Mahrenholz £38,700
2nd Iwan Jones £24,200
3rd Craig Swotton £17,400
4th Andreas Hoivold £10,800
5th Jon Kalmar £7,800
6th Tristan McDonald £6,000
7th Andreas Papantoniou £4,800
8th James Martin £3,600
9th Daniel Nutt £2,500

Congrats to Karl - an excellent display of patience. After going to the Final table Jon calming made a pretty brutal play against him with ATos v Karls K's early on. 1st card to hit the flop was of course the A which cost Karl 2/3rds of his stack! As well as Iwan Jones and Papa - the local lads. And James Martin who seemed like a nice guy and not from too far afield.

Also, to finish, I'd like to extend a big congrats to Henry Griffiths who successfully completed the Blackbelt Poker training scheme and is now a Blackbelt Poker sponsored pro under the watchful eye of Mr Channing.

Marvellous :)