Tuesday 28 September 2010

Wahooo, What A Day!

Hey,

I don't normally post mid-week but I have just got to brag about this. Today I won 3 MTT's :D Wahooo! Nice boost to the bankroll as well!

In total I made 6 final tables today with my new schedule which combines Euro and US sites. I came 2nd in a €30 freezeout on Ladbrokes and won these 3:





I plan on spending some time with my girlfriend the next couple of days, so I guess this will be my last session of the month. And what a way to finish! This has bumped my bankroll back over the $10k mark, also meaning that September was a +$8300 month. Super happy with this. :D

Monday 27 September 2010

Large field MTTs

I'm taking a break from them this week! The past few weeks I've been playing a lot of large field MTT's on stars and FTP which are just massive variance whirlpools. Somehow, through grinding MTTSNG's along side, I've managed to profit every week thus far, but damn can they be annoying.

To beat 2800 people just to FT bubble for 10x your buyin 8 hours later really does suck.

I've had a few deep runs along the way:

5/2592 in an $11 freezeout
38/2109 in a $55 freezeout
6/2617 in an $11 freezeout
79/28,687 in an $11 freezeout
11/1301 in an $11 rebuy

etc etc

Basically just playing these without putting ridiculous volume in almost guarantees you'll consistently have losing month despite how much of an edge you have over the field.

So for this forthcoming week I'm going to chill out a bit now that the WCOOP is over and just focus on some smaller stake euro stuff and hopefully watch as my roll grows.

I did have a profitable week just gone despite not playing on Friday or Saturday night which is pretty nice. I plan on putting in more hours on the online felt this coming week.

The Pokerstars' WCOOP was actually really fun and I enjoyed the different MTT's I played in. I didn't actually have a profitable series unfortunately. But still managed to do quite well in a $256 knockout turbo cashing for $896 and knocking 7 people out (at $50 per knockout) along the way. So that was my best run, but unfortunately that score didn't push me into the + on the series. But it was fun anyway!

I've still got 3 events left in the GSOP. I seem to so far have had a very high cash% in these, but all pretty much for the minimum which sucks. I might just have to shotgun the $500 miniFTOPs final coming up next Sunday. It should be fun...

Monday 20 September 2010

Low stakes luckboxing




Hey,

You'll all be pleased to hear I had quite a good week adding $2850 to my roll. I played quite a lot putting in decent hours and had a few little scores including the luckbox award for coming second in a $10 hyper-turbo heads up tournament on Stars. Weee! Must be nice eh.

I had a few deep runs today in loads of tournaments but nothing happened. Probably had 4 tournaments where at one point or other I had over 100k chips. Normally people say this is frustrating but maybe I'm immune as I couldn't really care either way. Which is kind of weird, but whatever!

This coming week is the last week of WCOOP and the tournament leader board challenge on Pokerstars and Full Tilt. Now my rolls pushed up a little and I can play $30 games this forthcoming week I'm just going to grind the tables hard and see if I can put a few big scores on my teams chart.

For those that aren't aware, the Tournament Leader Board competition is just groups of 5 players that each put in $x (I put in $50). There are like 15 teams and every team collects their players best scores over the time period.

So far on my team from what I know some guy has shipped the late night STUPER ($150 tourn on stars) and a couple of other biggies. All I've contributed really is some low buy-in stuff and a couple of 90-man wins.

So I'll pull my finger out this week and give the TLB a good run for it's money. Who knows I may even go on a mini-heater and make some good money while I'm there. Realistically though, because of the field sizes of the low buyins on Stars and FTP. This forthcoming week could be my first losing week in a while, but I'm prepared for that. Bring it on!

Also for those not aware, The Inbetweeners has launched a new series on channel 4, and you have to watch it. It's on Monday nights at 10pm I do believe. And it is funny!

Thursday 16 September 2010

Life can be damn expensive

Life can be damn expensive...

It's not really until you live on your own until you realise how much everything actually costs. If it's not an electricity bill it's council tax, if it's not that you need a tv license. They all add up and seemingly never stop. Welcome to the real world eh. 

So I've kind of been hit by suprise of how much all the bills for this forthcoming year are going to actually be. I'm sticking with my proactive financial planning by putting 9 months rent, bills and a weekly living expense budget aside. But the bills are way more than I thought. Couple that with a £900 deposit on my flat it looks like I'll be bak at the $12 games again for the rest of the week. 

Bankroll $3k. Watch this spac tho, it's gonna sky rocket ;-)

On a more positive note, my Twitter fan base has risen to the giddy heights of 30 followers...cough cough... But hey one of them is Phil laak so I'm certainly not complaining! I also watched kick-ass last night which is a sick film and well worth the watch. Believe me, I too was a skeptic before I saw it. Pretty damn good!

Anyway, the rebuild is on and I've got a huge few days ahead. Wish me luck!!

Wednesday 15 September 2010

Slow start to the WCOOP, but solid goings otherwise..

Hey,

Well although I'm still not really getting anything going yet in the WCOOP, I've been getting quite a bit of volume in outside of the series and am happy to report the bankroll to have risen just over $6k. Pretty happy with that seeing as I was at $1800 just over a week ago!

I've still got 6 events left to prove myself in, in the WCOOP. 3 turboish tournaments that I'm particularly looking forward to as well.

The miniFTOPs has also been a lot of fun so far, particularly the non-NLH events. I'm still not great at any other discipline, but I find them fun. Not quite been getting the volume in playing these as I had wanted due to me being in the process of moving into my new flat and sorting everything out there. My schedule at the moment is pretty insane trying to balance moving in, keeping a social life and grinding big schedules online at my girlfriends place. I seem to be balancing it OK at the moment. So although the flat is mine, like the typical online geek, I won't really move in until the 4th October when the internet is activated. Only then will it really feel like home ;)...haha how sad!



So most of my money is coming in these games, which I'm enjoying a lot at the moment. Thinking of some prop bets for October to really get the volume in if this month doesn't finish up as well as its started. But we shall see...

GSOP is starting on Sunday which should be fun too. I'll be playing a few of their lower buyin NLH events to see if I can bink anything.

Til next time, gl at the felt..

Friday 10 September 2010

A good start to the BR challenge



I started the week with about $1800 as the point of my poker "bankroll" and a good few days later I'm proud to report it now being $4123. I'm putting in pretty crazy volume at the moment and don't think it's impossible for my roll to be above $10k by the end of the month. But I'll set a more realistic target of $7k for the meanwhile. A good bit of aggressive bankroll management and a little run good and anything could happen.

Last night I played the $50 Mini-FTOPS HORSE event which turned out to be a lot of fun. I had started registering for tournaments from 5pm, so was a little tired at 2am when this started up. Come 3pm having 1-tabled the start of the tournament I decided to add another smaller $26 HORSE tournament to the mix too. Maybe that wasn't wise as that lasted through to 8:30am, but I managed to blag 2nd for $700 and change which at the moment is very much appreciated!

Tonight I'm going to start a little later on my session as I'm chilling with some friends in the early evening but expect to do another latish session tonight. It's the stars $109 8-game WCOOP tournament tonight and I'm pretty pumped after last night to own up in these mixed games too. They are pretty fun and people do seem to be pretty terrible at them all too! Not that I'm any good myself haha.

Next update coming on Monday, let's hope I get a good weekend. Gl at the tables all.

Monday 6 September 2010

Broke Living f3nix35 style



Hey,

Anyone that hasn't followed Jean Robert-Bellande on twitter really needs to get their priorities straight. You follow the lifestyle of one of the biggest degenerates in the industry who somehow manages to have epic swings from $100k to nothing in a day or two. Let's put it this way. I don't think bankroll-management is high on his agenda. Anyway, he somehow gets by and seems to have a great life despite the swings travelling the world and hustling enough money together to play high-stake mixed games.

Now I'm not that sick. Although I have a bit of gamble in me anyway. I still prefer the safety of knowing where my rents coming from next month. But the problem is, I'm getting a little bored grinding the same stakes and want to mix things up.

This month is the month of the shot. I've set aside a full 9 months rent, 9 months bills, 9 months living expenses (giving myself an affective weekly wage) and taken this all out of my bankroll. I've taken out my WCOOP entries and mini-ftops. And there's not that much left. But I'm pretty pumped and kind of want to be where I was a year or so ago rising up through the stakes again as it can get a bit boring grinding the same schedule day-in, day-out. Of course I could try and grind super-hard where I am, hope for a heater and hit the high-high stakes of $100r+. But at the moment I think I'll be in a better place pretty much free-rolling the forthcoming year and seeing what I can make of my bankroll not having to withdraw throughout the year for living expenses etc.

So it's not really a boku-style challenge with mad prop-bet money on the side. But I'm feeling a bit broke-living style at the moment. Broke but loving it at the same time. Wish me luck! Soon to catchup and overtake Ant again once and for all :)

Friday 3 September 2010

Bring on September




Hello,

It's been a while indeed. Since my last post I've played the UKIPT Edinburgh (no good, although had % of ledders who got a decent run in), got very drunk at the Fringe festival. Went to Turkey and got even drunker (and browner!) and somehow managed to bink a small $20 freezeout on stars while all of this was going on. So it's been a very busy few weeks.

What's more, my new computer has arrived and I'm setting it up and tweaking it to my liking getting ready for the WCOOP. I'm also moving into my new flat sometime early next week and will be praying that I can get internet there up and working so that I can play as much of the upcoming WCOOP on Stars and Mini-FTOPs on Full Tilt.

I have a very busy month planned in that respect, I'm going to be playing pretty much every tournament in the Mini FTOPS and here is my WCOOP schedule for those interested:

-Event 1 (Sun 5th), $215 NL 6max

-Event 3 (Sun 5th), $215 NL

-Event 11 (Wed 8th), $320 NL Ante Up

-Event 12 (Wed 8th), $215 NL HU

-Event 14 (Thu 9th), $265 NL 6m KO

-Event 18 (Fri 10th), $109 8g

-Event 19 (Sat 11th), $109 NL 10-min

-Event 21 (Sun 12th), $215 NL

-Event 22 (Sun 12th), $530 NL

-Event 32 (Thu 16th), $320 NL 6m

-Event 37 (Fri 17th), $320 NL 10-min

-Event 41 (Sun 19th), $215 NL

-Event 45 (Mon 20th), $265 NL Turbo KO

-Event 50 (Wed 22nd), $215 NL Big Antes

-Event 52 (Thu 23rd), $320 NL Turbo

-Event 60 (Sun 26th), $215 NL


Due to the Mini-FTOPs comprising of a lot of non-hold'em game types, I think I'll be cutting down the numbers of tables I'll be playing this month to 4-6 so I can really focus on the higher buyins of the WCOOP. This would be a nice month to bink big in!

With the new computer I thought I'd try giving hold'em manager ago as my database instead of pokertracker for a while to see how things compare. In tournament play as you rarely get the number of hands to analyse indepth statistics like river check-raise% or something, so really I'm just using it for some basic HUD stats. Pretty undecided so far. At the moment I think I've still got a preference for Poker Tracker just from the aesphetics and how they look when tables are resized quite small. I'll keep at it though and maybe explore a few more functions of this holdem manager while I'm still on trial. One big advantage of holdem manager over pokertracker is that it can apparently be used on Ladbrokes tournaments. Not that I can figure out how to get it working anyway!

I also downloaded Table-Ninja which is an addon to stars or full tilt which supposedly helps a lot when multitabling. I'm trialling the full tilt version and put a session in today, but there just arent enough tournies going on during the day to play exclusively on full tilt. So I added stars in too. Then the software didn't work quite as well. I think it would be useful if I ground out just sng's or tournies on full tilt but mixing sites it turns out to be a pretty big pain.

On that subject of night vs. day. At the moment there are no countries which have a significant proportion of their citizens playing during the UK day time. And to be honest I'm not too fussed about this. Although us Euro MTTers do seem to whine a lot about how all the action is at night forcing a nocturnal sleeping pattern, I'm pretty OK with it really. This is probably because I've always been a gamer playing at night or just used to playing poker in the evenings. Anyway, I put a session in today starting at 10am, finishing about 9pm and mehh... Just not feeling it!

It's nice waking up with society but I do think I prefer grinding at nights plus the games run a hell of a lot more and are much better. The only downside really being that in the winter I guess it could get pretty depressing waking up at 4pm and not really seeing any daylight. After speaking with a few UK Pro's and them shedding their knowledge onto me, I think a good solution is either doing a 5pm-midnight registering session, finishing around 3am and waking at 11am. Or alternatively a 6pm-2:30am session going to bed at around 6am and having the alarm on for 2pm. At least that way you get enough sleep and can fit enough time into the day to see some light, have some food and communicate with the outside world. To start with I think I'll try a 5/6pm-3am grind, waking at 11am and see how that suits me. Well after the WCOOP ofcourse!

So yes, enough rambling. It's going to be a busy month ahead, which could potentially leave my bankroll looking rather short or fully flushed out with Louis Vuitton leather. Let's just see how I run. Gl at the tables all!