VeGaS

I'm not out in Vegas for the WSOP and I really wish I was as it must be incredible, the highlight of a poker players year. Let's hope DUPS representative James Keys can ship something massive, wearing somebody elses bracelet will be enough to keep me satisfied until I get a chance to have a go next year!

Still, Vegas in September is looking more likely which will be a class consolation. Hopefully a decent DUPS crowd can turn out, and surely within one of us there will be a massive score or something successful! One time, plssssss! Flights and hotel deals are ridiculously cheap and represent sick value, which as a poker player can't be turned down. It's a proud time for me when my girlfriend buys food or drink at a price which represents the best value, especially so when we both know it will be wasted but the value is too good to be turned down. Who knew poker had so many benefits to everyday life!

Mention must go to Ptevey who basically fulfilled my aims from my last post and shipped a big score in a live event, sick player who is simply a poker genius and hopefully this is the start of a great live career for him if he can spare the time! I'm already keen to speculate with my offline bankroll in live events and this score has simply encouraged me further. Gamble's amazing 2 minors in his first driving test (which judging by his dealing were almost certainly for hesitation) has also hammered home the need to drive as well, and with a car and a pair of nuts, I should be able to get in contention for big things!

Online I have only managed a few sessions, but they have gone well, winning around $1k. A two hour session of around $110 profit ended well when I shipped a $115 4-man to bring in $440 overall, and I played for around three hours yesterday, winning $420. As is to be expected/deserved, I'm still running so bad in every tournie I play, so challenging on OPR looks a long way off at the minute!

For anybody who reads, cheers, and I realise it's not always interesting!! I'm practically handicapped on a computer, so I will learn how to include pictures, HH's etc which will hopefully be interesting. For now, I will look for a cheesy pun/riddle to end my posts!

147

"A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it."

Growing up?! (surely not!?) and shotgun the fame!!

To ensure this is a short post, I'm starting writing it on the train in the time it takes to get from Darlington to Durham, so this won't be another marathon!

It's obv been ages, as exams have been the order of the day! Think overall they were average, with one absolute shocker which will probably be bad enough to bring me down to a 2:2. Very annoying and would signal a disappointing ROI from Uni when a couple of extra marks would be great, such a fine line but I think my apathetic approach will probably result in a failure...meh nvm, there's always poker right?!

On the poker front, I've not been able to play and make the most of the fantastic new additions to Stars. FIRST OFF, A REMATCH BUTTON....boomtown, this should hopefully bring huge increases in profit if I can coax the fish into playing another game, and I'm currently working out the perfect strategy to reel them in...might start giving it in the chat box or drop to any depths to get them to continue donating...is that really any worse than going in to law anyways?!? But, yeah that's sick, and the extra VPP's I can get from playing through their new scheme should be very nice. I have only played 4 times in the last few months but made 1240VPPs on their new rates, so Supernova for the year should be very achieveable and would help me next year to continue to make a form of Stars rakeback. So yeah, that's looking pretty good, and whilst I will have to work my way back into it a bit, I'm looking forward to it. Alongside heads up, I'm going to play more tournaments or devise a sort of schedule of events. I should be able to combine heads up with tournies and want to make strides in my tournament game.

I will also finally start to drive after I graduate, so when I'm on the road I'll hit the casinos more and get some more practice in with a view to play GUKPT sats and hopefully events if things go well. I haven't written any form of structured approach down yet but I want to start cracking the live value, continue working on the online value and try to be as professional as I can. I want to get some live experience with a view of giving Vegas a shot...I want to be out there, trying to win, enjoying the lifestyle, and lapping it up!

I have always struggled more at times with poker when I don't have an aim, so alongside specific win-rate aims I will set I will aim to become famous(!!!), and this will come about in poker terms at least if I can become one of the best and win big online and then afford to play and win live events...I want this, I would love the lifestyle, so I'm going to put my all in to see how this goes!! Such a pipedream probably, but hopefully will give me some focus, and all it takes is to run good once! SHOTGUN that time!!

Dissertation FML

I need to try to graduate with a 2.1, and as such have been working on my dissertation recently. Hopefully I can run good with my diss mark as it works out as a 1/5 of my degree, which is a bit steep imo for a fucking compulsory module but nvm! I have to work like a slut for the next 12 days to get it finished, but usually I find it easier to work hard when I know the deadline is due, so I hope I can wrap it up soon and start with learning/revision for the exams.

All of this obv = no poker, and apart from 1/2 hour the other night where I won about $150 I've not been able to play for a while. After starting the bet, I was only able to put in 6 sessions which I knew would be the case in the first place but also realised that if I had a stimulus I would play more and make more than the $100 I'd probably lose. That definitely happened as I managed to average $500 a session, bringing home $3k profit from the start of the bet. I lose 1/30 of this to Keys, who managed to win the required amount in good time, but definitely won as well as losing. Maybe like a total win amount in a 30hour stretch would be a good bet in the future, as for some reason a small financial incentive can act as a greater kick-up-the-arse to win than the higher amount of $$$ that can be won.

I can't wait to graduate and get playing, but unfortunately I'm going to have to just work work work for the time being, so let's hope I can run good, scrape a 2.1 and be happy!

Back from Doubling!

The tour was incredible, 8 games of football to rip the body to pieces with roughly 4 hours a night recovery time after big nights out on the lash! The Wednesday was a write-off for me as I had a nasty reaction to some food I ate and was sick all evening and night but I pulled it together to play the last few matches on the Thursday before our last amazing night out. Dublin is a pricey motherfucker, and I was horrified to see 2 pints of coke cost 10euros40 in a restaurant, so over £10. A pint of lager was 4.40ffs, how can coke be more expensive unless you're snorting it?!! To compensate, I have hit the tables hard since I have been back.

Prompted by the challenge between me and Keys, I had planned to play on Friday night, but a 45 minute nap at 7pm on Friday developed into a sleep until 10am Saturday. I planned to mix in work and poker this weekend, but I have tried to read through my work and am still too tired from the tour to take it all in so that hasn't been too productive. Luckily, poker has gone well and I have taken a huge stride towards winning the illustrious $100, winnin around $1.2k this weekend and sending my bankroll up to over $6240. Included in this was a 750FPP Double Shootout win for a Sunday Warm Up seat when there was less than 20 entrants so the first round was just a heads up and the secnod table had two seats. $215 in the bank and thankyou very much Stars for not reaching a guaranteed one time! I chose not to play any of the big tournaments this weekend, as I don't remember how to play them!! I have played a few of the monthly freeroll tournies this weekend including the million turbo takedwn and the monthly 100k freeroll, and haven't made it past the second or third blind stage. I need to remember how to play these, Ptevey come back plsplspls!!

Anyway, tomorrow I've got to get myself to the library to work hard on my dissertation, but I hope to play a few hours in the evening. I'll try to update again before I hit the UKSPC on Wednesday from where I'll be getting the train to Llanelli for the Uni Snooker Home Nations.

Also, apparently Keys has been benefitting frmo the exchange rates which has taken him closer to his target without even playing...what a cheating bastard!!!

Sooty,x

Challenge Anika!

The PaulKeys Pig challenge is on, a race for the sum of $100 and more importantly bragging rights and an ego boost! I'm on $4935, he's on $5500, and I have to reach $10k before he makes $11k...simple right?! Well, given he plays 1/2 he could be there in a few sessions of running well, whereas my heads up will be a more steady rise and running like God for a few sessions still won't get me over the target. Still, it will hopefully prompt me to play more, and even I lose the bet, hopefully I will make more than I'm losing in the bet in profit than I would have anyway making it still a good bet for me. It's not great timing for me to get involved with bets like this, with a dissertation and heavy revision on the cards, but I should still be able to get a few hours an evening in if I can plan my work well I should have a good chance of winning and more importantly earning more than I would do otherwise.

March has been a very quiet month for me due to work, but I think i am slightly down after having a downswing where nothing could happen for me at all. I made $500 in an hour before I came back home for a few days, but I think I may be a few hundred $$$ down which is just standard variance and I hope to turn March into a profitable month. Tomorrow I go to Dublin for a football tour which I'm really looking forward to!

Anyway, I hope to post regular challenge updates. One time!!

It's been a while!?!

Evening all, through the wonders of Wifi I am blogging whilst returning home for the Valentines weekend with Louise. I'm really looking forward to it. Two weeks apart is quite a long time, but it's all worth it when we get to spend nice weekends together and do nice/romantic things. A walk in the freezing cold should tick them boxes, so I'm glad to be going home. It's sick to think that we've managed to be solid despite being hundreds of miles apart, pretty good going I think. She's loving the chance to spend my hard-earnt money, and I'm looking forward to treating her, so that's all good.



Anyway, gayness aside, I haven't really been getting involved with the pokers much since the two tournie wins. I've attempted to play a few tournies, but haven't been on it at all, and have generally bluffed away reasonably sized stacks when I realise I don't want to stay up til 5am!



Heads up has continued to be reasonably profitable. I played and busted early in the FTOPS $535 HU tournie, playing a solid reg early on and running into a lot of hands when trying to accumulate the small pots. In the end a pair and a flush draw was inadequate against the mighty J4 which had top pair, and that tournie was busto. I'll definitely keep plugging away at HU tournies, as I definitely feel I have a decent edge, even though the fields are often filled with well-known tournament players.



The tournie aside, I've been playing a mixture of $57.50's and $115's, mostly 2mans but mixing in 4mans. I had an incredibly sick run of 8 4man wins in a row, which would equate to a 16game win streak. Pretty sure that ended on a stupid bluff...well never mind! I haven't got any Scope stats atm as it's still blocked, but I think my ROI is probably pretty decent, and I'm just trying to win enough to justify a perma-move to poker when my course finishes.



As the last paragraph indicates, I've been doing a of thinking about what I plan to do when I finish Uni, and I have definitely been tending more towards full time poker, for a year at least to give myself the chance to see how it goes. I've spoken to a variety of people, but am going to definitely make more enquiries to see if this is viable. When I graduate in June/July, jobs will be difficult to find, and thousands up thousands will be in the queue for jobs in the city. I think I will join an agency, see if I can get in contact with a job that I would enjoy/pays well, and if so I will be faced with a Ptevey like decision and will probably make the same decision he did. I am getting myself prepared mentally for full-time poker should no job be on the horizon though, which I hope helps if I do make the transition.



Money wise, January was an almost £10k profit month, but obviously this included 2 huge wins which won't happen every month! Aside from the wins though, I made around £3.5k playing HU, and this was from playing around 15-20hours a week I think. However, this was running good with the 4man wins, and my average rate will be less than this. Still, it was a very positive start to the year and gives me a good indication of how much I can make at the game.

In February I have been concentrating more on what my hourly rate is, and establishing how much I can earn from the game. I have lost a few hundred $$ playing tournaments (including the FTOPS loss), but have maybe won around $1.1k from 75ish games of HU. I am mixing in more $115's and feel more comfortable at this level. I have a diss draft to do in the next couple of weeks, so I won't be able to play much or work out how much i can expect in a month yet, but when the draft is in (27th Feb) it will be followed by playing at least 30hours in a 5 day period. I want to see how much I can make, how much losing a bit affects me, and what sort of hourly I have. I am thinking I will set a target of $1600 for the week and may have some side-bets on this if there is interest?!

Anyways, this post has degenerated into a life story, so I guess I should end it now. If I haven't spoken to yet about the viability of playing poker full time, then expect that chat soon. If by chance anyone who is a full time player reads this for some random reason then please contribute as all views are very interesting! I love playing poker, I am very competitive and I don't drink, so I have the mental capacity to win in this respect. Whether or not I hit burn-out or how I handle big swings at the higher level is yet to be seen, but I definitely want to test myself.

Peace.

14thFeb7_Star

2/302 in $215 HU Tournament + 7/28500 in the Sunday 200k = $12.5k for me - $4k to stakes....swiiiiish!!

Hi all, title says it all! Managed to sh1p two relatively huge scores in one night, taking home 2nd in the $215 heads up to win 50% of just under $8k, and then a couple of hours later 7/28500 to bring home the comical amount of $4447. All in all, an incredibly sick night!

Can't be arsed with hands etc, but basically I was hitting a lot of cards in the HU, but managing to get paid off against poor hands quite a lot. I ran dead in the last match, and couldn't hit my up and down or one overcard to get back into contention unfortunately. In the Sunday 200k, I rivered a straight with 4 tables left to get back in it, before working up to a dominant stack at the final table. I was big chip lead with 7 left, but JJ < AK and then shoving A3 vs the table aggressor who snapped with AK meant it was a case of what could have been, though I'm not worrying about that!!

Before these two tournies, I had been plugging away up to around $7.7k, so this is a very nice bankroll double up, maybe I'll play a 100/200 table and look for a flip to see if I can do the same again. On the other hand, perhaps I'll book a holiday for me and the girlfriend!!

Anyways, essay time for me, a summative is preventing me from going down to see the girlfriend to celebrate....how bad do I run?!

$4447_7th.