Long overdue!

I've been very poor with my blog updates recently! Just had loads of non poker stuff going on and not really had the inclination to update. As I've probably mentioned before, I've recently bought my first house and am in the process of doing a lot of work (well... paying people to come in and do it...).
Had a new boiler and heating installed throughout the house (there wasn't any upstairs before!), New double glazing fitted in every window, totally opened up the garden and laid a new private driveway, gate and parking area out the front. Now got the builders in building an extension for my new bathroom.
Nice to see it all starting to come together! The bank balance isn't so healthy anymore though, already quite over budget and only about halfway through the planned work... sigh.

In the poker world things haven't been going too badly. Just had the usual 'volume' problems - nothing new there!
I continued Feb where i left things in Jan - playing just HU sngs. After my profitable Jan I hit a bit of a break even stretch of 100+ games (which is quite a lot for me and my naff volume!) but finished the month reasonably strong. Started moving up stakes as well once I'd got out of my break even stretch moving up to the $23 and $34.50 games which actually went really well. I was table selecting my opponents quite a lot but even the profitable regs didn't seem too tough to beat, if anything they were easier to grind down with my hyper aggro mode employed than some of the uber calling station luck box fish were to beat. My HU stats for Jan and Feb are listed below:

Month   Games played    ROI        Profit
Jan               357            26.9%     +$1042.92
Feb              176            10.4%     +$247.03

I have to admit I'm amazed at my stats! I started playing HU for fun, really not expecting to be any good at it but seem to have picked it up pretty quickly. Low volume i know but my overall roi's in the games seem reasonable enough.

March - New month and a new game. No real reason for me leaving HU other than fancying a change of scenery and i was struggling to make many VPPs due to not being able to multi table.
Having followed James Atkins blog for quite a while and seen his success in the 18 mans so far this year i decided to jump on the bandwagon. The change has gone pretty well so far!
Almost $800 profit from 164 games giving a 32.4% roi... Totally unsustainable i know but still - I shan't complain.

Been playing all my poker so far this year on my old laptop! I bought a brand new 27" Mac but the lack of table ninja software and Hold em Manager makes me feel like I'm giving up an edge and more to the point, not able to play as many tables comfortably. That said, I'm getting a little frustrated playing 18 mans on the laptop as it's overheating a lot and lagging once i get to about 10 tables which is frustrating as i could quite easily be playing twice as many with a bigger screen and a quick computer to play at. My 'old' desktop (a year old but basically brand new as I've had problems since i bought it so it's barely been used) is back at PC World getting its new hard drive tattooed so fingers crossed, once i get that back it may actually work properly for the first time ever and ill be able to play on a quick machine.

Anyway, got to be up in less than 6 hours as my girlfriends dads coming over to see the house (he's not seen it before) and I'm not sure he'll appreciate me still being in bed - Not so sure he approves of the idea of me playing poker for a living so will have to make half an effort to actually be semi awake by the time he turns up at midday :)

On a slightly sad note... A year ago today i was in Vegas on my West coast US tour! Another trip is long overdue i think!

Me with some Gorilla in one of the hotels...
I did most the photography so i struggled to find a pic of me in Vegas! lol



Bobby's Room, Bellagio



Jan review

Jan has been a reasonable start to the year i guess. I've spent the majority of the month playing the $11.50 HU sngs on Pokerstars and currently have a Sharkscope star for making the the Top 20 for Profit in $5-$15 HU sngs in 2011. My first ever Sharkscope star! First of many though i assure you.

Jan profit: +$1051.91

Hours played:  67

I'm +$804 from the 301 HU sngs I've played and +$352 from the 25 180 mans I've played. I've only unlocked 1 Stella reward so far so that's +$10 from that. Other than that, I've clearly lost a little bit playing random other games. Most probably the plo8 games i was playing last night while tired. That said, i usually do well in the plo8 sngs  but having only played a few, variance got the better of me!

I joined HUSNG.com and have watched a couple vids but as usual, don't think i get much out of them. They just help refocus me i find if I'm running or playing badly - Usually a combination.

I haven't played all that much the last few days of the month though and when i have, i dabbled in the 180 mans again. As you probably notice the sudden increased variance towards the end of my graph! Binked one of them but no results from any of the others worth mentioning.

Ignore the Red EV line - It shows me as running well above EV but its largely down to it not working properly in the 4 msn shootout HU sngs I've been playing. The guys at Hold'em Manager tell me the issue has now been fixed and the new release will be out shortly. I've been waiting a couple of weeks the new release though and there still no sign of it! Come on HM - You're usually pretty good! As a result of this though, I'm not running quite as hot as it would appear :)

Not too sure what Feb holds if I'm honest, as usual I'm feeling a little lost as to what games i should play. Think ill start off playing a combination of HU sngs and 180 mans depending on how i feel each day. May toss a few mtt days in too if i feel that way inclined. As usual, no insane plans for the coming month, just continue to grind and perhaps move up to the $20 HU sngs. The fact I've got a Sharkscope star for the $10 level though makes me want to keep hold of it which is inevitably not going to happen if i stop playing. I've missed 2 days of playing and have already slipped from 14th down to 18th place so I'm close to losing it already if i don't play a bit more...

Away from the poker tables, I've been putting a lot of work into clearing my garden. As I've mentioned before, I've just bought a nice house in the countryside but the garden was so overgrown it looked really small before. Ive stripped it right back and cleared all the hedges and bushes out with the intention of getting it all nicely done in time for summer. Also planning on putting some private parking and my own driveway in. May even build a double garage if funds allow. We'll see - Will try to get some pics up as i think it'd be cool to keep track of the progress as I've putting a lot of hours in and have no pics so far.

Going out to have a look at some kitchens and bathrooms tomorrow morning to get some ideas for what i want to get fitted over the coming months so gonna go get a bit of sleep so i can get up at a reasonable time!

Off to Belfast again for an Ice hockey game next weekend! Lets go Devils! We're currently top of the league but only by 1 point so theres a lot of big games coming up! Fingers crossed we can pick up some Silverware this year! Will update soon with pics provided i survive all the bomb threats, etc that seem to be kicking off over there recently!

Any tips for decent clubs while I'm there? Think of heading to Golden Mile after the game - Sounds like its the student part of town?



Pokerstars Home Games & WBCOOP time again!

Pokerstars Home Games... Excellent idea and addition to Stars software. I think it's a great way to help people encourage their friends get involved in the online game without the worry of playing with loads of strangers/sharks who're going to take all their money (or at least this is probably how many newcomer to the online game think!). I'm certainly going to use this new feature as a way to encourage my home/pub game friends to sign up up and try out the online scene!

I may even start my own blog poker club in the near future... Watch this space :)

In other news... Its that time of year again... The WBCOOP is coming! Later this month bloggers from around the world will lock horns in battle to claim the crown of WBCOOP champ. I plan to show Daleroxxu the way to do it.

Anyone else planning on playing?

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.
Registration code: XXXXXX 616283

New Year... New Game...

As the title suggests, I'm not playing my usual mtt sngs so far this year. I've played a few of them during the first few days of Jan but didn't really make much from them. In fact i think im a little down in those games this year. I did however somehow fall upon a new game... Heads Up.
Its never before appealed to me much as i've never liked the idea of playing to win such small amounts. I'd always imagined the possible roi would be tiny, variance big and that i'd be rubbish at it.
I think this opinion has come from my experience of HU which is usually at the end of a sng with big blinds where its pretty much shove every button, fold every BB until eventually someone gets bored, calls and then sucks out on the other person. Not really that fun... (slight exaggeration i know but you get the idea!)

Having played a few HU turbo sngs over the past few days, I've quickly learned this isn't the case. There's actually scope to get a fairly consistent win rate going and make a fairly healthy and consistent income from them while keeping the flexibility in my schedule that i seem to crave so much - Each game only takes about 20 mins max to play out and are usually much quicker. I don't like multi tabling and you can't really multi table HU so thats a good excuse for getting away from the grinding. I only play one or 2 games at a time at the moment and am really enjoying it. Its very interesting studying your opponents individual style and traits and gets away from the boring ABC sng strategy.

I imagine I'm probably just running well at the moment but from what i read and see, the variance in these should be relatively low so fingers crossed i can keep up a reasonable win rate. I've not actually had a losing day yet. Running a little above EV but not hugely. I started out playing the $6 games for a bit of fun but quite quickly moved up to the $11 games. I've been doing really well in the 4 man HU shoot outs too which has probably helped boost my roi somewhat but its a pleasant start all the same! Hold'em Manager graph with EV line below for just HU & 4 person HU shootout games since the start of the year.

I've signed up to HUsng.com so will watch a few of those videos over the coming month and hopefully improve my game, continue to plug away at them and hopefully continue to see some nice results.
The only downside I've seen so far is that they don't produce much rake and as a result it will be impossible to hit SuperNova playing these all year. If i keep winning at this rate though I'll be able to grind up through the stakes in no time. We'll see how it goes. I want to put in at least 1000 games at about the $11 level before i consider moving up just to prove to myself this isn't just a super hot run.

I'm not ruling out a return to the mtts and mtt sngs sometime soon but my immediate focus is improving my HU game.

On a separate note, i thinking of jumping on the bandwagon of coaching/staking. I've got a few small plans/ideas and am currently coaching a couple of friends to turn them from novices to online superstars. If that goes well, I'll look into taking on some new 'strangers' to coach and mentor and hopefully turn them in to profitable players. I've got a few ideas in my mind of how i can make it affordable and my kind of target market but will play it by ear while i get some feedback of my current 'students' and see how their games progress... If anyone is remotely interested in having a chat about coaching options feel free to get in touch.
If not, i should have something a bit more official in place in the coming months!

In other news... Isildur1 is Viktor Blom?! Who'd have ever thought!

2010 Review & 2011 Plans

2010... It came and went pretty quick! I barely remember it!

Not my best year of poker but i think that's more down to my volume as opposed to results! As I've mentioned throughout this blog, i really struggle to motivate myself to put any real volume in. I simply don't enjoy poker when I'm playing more than 6 tables at a time. I think it gives me a better roi and lowers my variance somewhat but at the end of the day leads to me making less $ than the real grinders. Something i plan to work on in  2011 but I'm certainly not going to tie myself down to any targets just yet.

2010 monthly breakdown

Jan +$604.40

Feb +$2281.91

Mar +$263.33

Apr +$90.11

May +$1441.27

Jun +$2363.21

Jul +$346.75

Aug +$164.28

Sept +$45.64

Oct  -$35.64

Nov +$26.75

Dec +$667.54

Total Profit +$8259.55

A bit embarrassing considering i call myself a pro but i bet my hourly rate is pretty damn good! lol

My year on Pokerstars: Bare in mind both my mtt wins were on Party and Full Tilt so aren't included above; hence the figures not tallying

Jan and Feb i played quite a lot and ran pretty well. Played mainly 45 man and 180 man sngs but also mixed in a few hyper turbo sats on stars which helped top up my T$. I played more than half my years volume at Stars during these first 2 months!

March i spend almost entirely touring around California, Nevada and Arizona. Drove over 2000miles over there and enjoyed every minute of it! Really wanting to go back now! As a result i played hardly any poker but still managed to luckbox my way to some mtt sng wins and show a reasonable profit.

April i spent in holiday mode still. Put very little volume in. Just played a bit of plo8 cash and some super turbos on Party. Ran pretty badly over at party and lost quite a bit of my profit from earlier in the month off stars but still scraped a small profit.

May was much of the same except i managed to bink a win in an $11 mtt on Party which made up most of my months profit.

June we got back to grinding the 180 mans and ran like god. I was winning them for fun. I remember one set i played where i final tabled 3 at the same time and won 2 of them and got 3rd in the other. Pretty good considering a set for me consists of about 12 games max... lol

After my previous 2 good months i went into anti poker mode and just totally lost the will to play much in July, August and most of September. Just playing bits and pieces at random sites.
I eventually decided i needed some $ as my bankroll was quickly evaporating. I decided to grind the Full Tilt Super turbos as they would give me some flexibility as they are so quick to play.
This didn't go to plan.
I was basically a microstakes rakeback grinder over a load of games. It was a real grind and i just felt like i was running well below EV but couldn't face playing anything longer plus the fact i wasn't winning when i felt like i was capable of crushing the games drove me to grind on. In the end, i decided i was wasting my time. Even if i could crush the games, the variance was being too harsh to justify my time when i could win standard turbos so much easily.
With a severely depleted bankroll, December saw me return to my home - mtts. I played quite a bit and put a load of hours in at the microstakes mtts. Eventually managed to take down a $5 turbo which saw me turn a reasonable profit. After I'd taken down the tourney though it cued an end to my grinding and i pretty much took most the rest of 2010 off as i was so busy with family functioned etc around Christmas.

2011... I have some loose plans but nothing set in stone. I'd like to make a bit more $ which i think is simply a case of putting in more volume! I'd also like to play a bit more live and perhaps take some more shots at bigger mtts as i never satellite into anything - well, if i do i usually take the T$ instead! I plan to perhaps keep a bit more structure to my year as 2010 was all over the place but I'm not going to commit myself to a certain game as it will just lead to me getting bored! I would also like to have a shot at Supernova. People have proved its easily achievable yet I'm not convinced ill get anywhere near it again. Will give it a shot though :)

I'm absolutely shattered so will leave the typing there for now. Apologies for the rambling (as usual) but really don't have the energy to reread and edit it now!

All the best for 2011 - See you at the tables!

Full Tilt Rant...

Full Tilt suck!

I tried to transfer some of my tourney winnings out of my account the other day after winning that little $5 turbo but they wouldn't let me! They told me i needed to make a deposit on a bank card and then i could withdraw to that account. No worries i thought, tried to deposit - Unsuccessful. And into the bargain they then freeze my account until i send them proof of ID. I do this and then have to wait 2 days for a generic, copy/pasted reply informing me my photo IDs not valid and nor is my bank statement as its over 60 days old. No response to my comments/questions in my previous email to them!

I replied attaching a choice of 2 different bank statements/utility bills and further explanation as to why i'm not able to meet their photo ID requirements (my passports out of date). I also requested a prompt response seeing as time is dragging on with MY funds frozen in THEIR bank accounts making them money.

3 days later and i'm still waiting for a reply! When they eventually get around to it, no doubt i'll get another copy/pasted response which doesn't directly address any of my previous questions! All i want is my money - i don't care if i can never play there again! In fact, i may even choose not to if this drags on much longer!

sigh :(

I wish more sites had MAC compatible clients so i had more choice of sites!

Rant Over.

Highs & Lows

After my earlier post talking of my good feelings about December things took a turn for the worse...
Eleven of the last thirteen days have been losing ones which obviously hasn't helped my micro bankroll much! I was getting quite a few deepish runs but kept coming up short all the time - Just the nature of playing MTTs. Despite this and my rapidly shrinking bankroll i still felt positive (ish) and kept on grinding away. I was playing well and knew a big score was just around the corner.

My Pokerstars Cashier was looking extremely unhealthy and i was forced to grind $1 tourneys but to no avail... My current bankroll on Stars stands at $0.04. I was subdued to the fact that i'd have redeposit on there but in an ironic twist, i entered a $5.50 turbo on Full Tilt this evening as it caught my eye during late registration. I like turbos... see myself as a lower volume and micro stakes version of MI_Turtle. haha
Not only did i have another deep run but somehow managed to take it down! Not once do i recall getting my $ in bad either (except against short stacks). Just managed to win my flips when it mattered and pick up the blinds when i got a chance. There was a monster stack at the Final table who did a good job of running hot and basically killed every pot he was in! He made life quite easy for me as i managed to win a few flips and grind my way to HU with him. A few minutes of chipping up a little and i got it in with 6's v his A9 and the 6 on the flop gave me a set and the chip lead, albeit by the equivalent of a SB or something stupid.
At this point he offered a chip EV deal which i happily accepted as the blinds were so big i was happy to take the $815 and the tourney win on paper.
I think i had the advantage over him but with such big blinds and a fragile bankroll i thought it best to just get the $ in the bank so to speak.

SO... Finally i'm back on form with a little MTT win. Not huge by any means but at least i have some $ to work with now and will be able to avoid the embarrassment of having to redeposit if i can find someone to do a Full Tilt to Stars transfer.

In other news, I went to the solicitors last week and signed the papers to my house so all going well i'll be a homeowner as of next week and be £20k richer... well kinda.
I'm buying the house off my parents so i'm getting a decent deal on the place and getting £20k back off them when the mortgage money comes through to spend on doing a load of work on the place. Looks like 2011 could be a busy year development wise.

I could really do with some run good indefinitely now i have a mortgage to cover!

Also... SNOW forecast for Friday and over the weekend... Result.