blonde poker forum

Hello,

Not really been a big user of Blonde because my laziness held me back so much so that reading anything online was just too much to do. However on the advice of my friend Cos i thought i would give it a bash and thought the best way was to sort of introduce myself to the community with a log of what is going on for me on a nightly basis on a typical mtt grind for myself, where i can document the highs and the lows and the WTF!s of playing MTT's exclusively.

At the moment i play seriously on the euro sites and have an average outlay of about £1000 per night across about 20-30 tournaments and i play mainly $30f-$200f and $20r-$50r, but on the euros the high end tourns are relatively scarce so my bankroll doesn't get shot up every night! ideal grind is registering from 6pm-12am.

Last month i did the picture attached which i believe is a $9k plus month which was great. I had won a $30K GTD for $6.7k aswell which remains my highest ever online score :)

Hoping to use this thread just to let you in on whats going on with me and hopefully get to know everyone else a little better.

I have no real idea what my goals are. I did a pisstake one at the beginning of the year to say $100K for the year, but now i have feint hopes of that actually happeneing and if it did that would be stupendous.

I am going to spend the month of feb revising and doing assessments for my last year of uni but playing live a lot more and entering tourns from £200-£500 and may well be at the UKIPT Notts.

So yeh i am sorry about boring you thus far, but thought this would be the best way for me to say hello to you peeps. I sort of already know Amatay and as already mentioned Cos and that is as far as i know the peeps on here i am afraid!

Blatant 'I know Cos' post

haha yeh man hes a ledge

Just a few qs what site u play on?
How long u been playing?

Ongame, microgaming, ipoker, IPN mainly and i have been playing for 3 and a half years. Seriously for about a year though.

Do you play for yourself? or one of the bankroll companys?

i am out on my own. i couldn't handle being backed. Maybe for live events but i would rather go alone.

Cool! Goodluck wiith the diary and pokerz

cheers i am going to post up on here again on a night where i am going on a grind and maybe to update on live goings on aswell.

Cos is a bellend

like

Good Luck with this

Good luck ant. I think blonde will be good for you.

Also, please tell us why you weren't able to play football yesterday. 'Did your back in' the text said, does that mean you opened the door too fast to the dominoes guy?

Win it all bud

Going to bed early doesn't work too well by the looks of it?  :P

Woke up at half two woodsey fmel!

I played football in the morning and made a pretty tremendous save which needed of me to fully extend myself in a compromising position by which i fell to the floor like a ton of bricks. Resulted in oppo players in stunned silence and myself too buzzing to actually forsee the pain which i would feel later on in that day. I should be ok for next week! Great to hear you had a good game in goal btw. Update on me is that i am thinking about playing at the empire or old vic tonight for a bit of a cash game. At the same time i will be at a book revising. If the combo of live cash and revision works and is enjoyable then i will be doing it every night i need to revise! Could be a revolutionary idea but i will probably turn into the guy that takes too long to post hs blind or constantly needs reminding that it is his turn!

GL with this.

Was gonna say Welcome but then you said you're a mate of Cos...so I won't ;)

Nah you can all welcome ant, he's nothing like me; he's a nice guy.

Is he buff and hairy like you?

Hi Ant,

Good luck with the Diary, looking forward to this.

A £1,000 nightly spend on MTT's?  Good grief - to many of us, that's just jaw-dropping stuff.

How many do you play at once? Is there an optimal number? At what stage do you become much less effective? Is 5 or 10 Tabling really enjoyable?

Sorry for all the questions. I've been around a while, & am not naive to the game as a whole, but all of those things are a bit of a mystery to me &, I suspect, many others.

PS - Keep that run going, too, live the dream.

I play around 12 on average and can play up to 16. I tile them across two screens aswell, stacking is just ridiculous. I start to play worse on more than 12 tables and i find 12 tables to be the most exciting and where oddly enough i feel i play best.

Playing any less sometimes i overplay hands but its not enough for me to not have a feel of each table. The £1K outlay is a new thing just to let you know. I am not rolled for it but i can afford three bad nights before i will have to step down on the higher limits. So i am just going to enjoy the shot taking.

Playing only a small session tonight registering mainly from 7pm - 9pm but 22 tourns. I may have to unreg from the lesser ones if its getting too crowded. I am looking forward to it but i am annoyed i haven't prepared properly as i haven't gone through the "ritual"

ah jesus tonight isnt going well, in my last 11 tourns

Good luck with the diary Ant.

Came 4th in a $10K GTD on party for $1K. I was out and out 2nd place of 4 when i get JJ. CL raises it up pre i rr he calls. Flop 1096 i bet out he rr i rrr all in he calls, he gets there annoyingly with 89 and i am out. O well has me about break even for the night which is a touch. But if i was to win that pot it could have been another £2K plus night. O well such is tourney poker.

Happy with my run thus far and am noting that i am only a newbie at these high stakes on the euros and if i am doing well when i am making loads of mistakes, perhaps when i am more used to whats going on i can really make a killing.

The aim is to really play 5 days a week and try to make £1250 so £5000 a month. If i did that that would have me on for the $100K target i have set myself. I am not an idiot though i know the variance is a killer in this game and it would be foolish to think i can just run away with it but i am hopeful things will go well. Taking a break tomorrow night but might play live this week at some point otherwise back on the usual grind!

surely you are way under rolled for this?????

He's said he's underrolled and taking a shot atm. Iirc when it goes bad for 3 nights he will drop back down

Good Luck with this, nothing wrong with a bit of shot taking in mtt's as long as you are disciplined to step down when it starts to go pear shaped, Just be careful, the aim is to make enough money for yourself annually, but let's not forget, as long as you still got dimes, you can allways rebuild your losses :-) :-)

gl

Appreciate the goodwill gestures. I wonder what u guys think is a suitable roll for a $1.5k a night outlay? Remember that I am playing across like 20 odd Tournies so I can often make a prof in the same night. My average buy in I would say is about $80

How big are the fields of the tournies you're playing?

Like you said a 6.7k$ win was your biggest score and that will only pay for 4 nights of terribad results.

I think fieldsizes will make a big difference as to how large your bankroll should be.

100-200 runners normally and that goes up to no more than 300 where possible, learnt early on I couldn't deal with the swings of 1000+ runners so I avoid them as much as possible. As the runners in the tourns I play are so small I normally return a profit or I take a huge chunk out of the outlay to help myself out on a nightly basis. Atm I wager about $1.5k a night with a $25k roll but I like to stress its rare for me not to make some returns on a night so the real amount I could lose in a night is more like $1k and my aim is to make $500 a night so about $2.5k a week. Obv a grand Target but why not go for it when it is just about within the realms of possibility! Per tournament I am wagering about $120 I would say and this is in keeping with a 200 buying rule I self impose so I think the setup I have right now isn't too strenuous on the BR.

I'm the worst with BR management.. but $120 avg buyin on 25k roll seems abs fine to me, doesn't really matter if you play 5 or 25 tourns a night

This, especially if you stick to tournies tat don't have ridic fields. 100-200 runners sounds fine.

Good luck with this mate. Looking forward to reading about your progress.

Cheers amatay lookignto hopefully push on in these shot taking days so that the shots i am taking now will no longer be that!

Got a big big grind on tonight and i have incorporated 4 new tournies from pokerstars to see how that flies a 20 1r1a 35k gtd, $55 90k gtd, $55r 50k gtd and the $162 65k GTD. Gonna have a feel of what the competition is like in these before perhaps including them in a regular grind.

16 tournaments tonight. Not prepared properly for this grind, just had a massive dominos but feel fine regardless. Should have gone gym aswell to have me buzzing but hopefully i will bink regardless. Lets do this!

in my last 12 tournies not feeling good had some terrible luck in the 162 on stars aswell

3/8 on the 30k party poker

2/6

so gutting i went out in 4th with KK in the sb with 12 bbs. I flat call, bb shoves all in with 58 i insta call. He gets his straight on the turn and game over for me and i get $2.8k. So sick as first was $10k. I tell you what though i made loads of mistakes and i was chip leader for such a long time. I really need to sort my routine out and make sure i go to the gym because that really does get the craziness out of me. So frustrating but nevertheless it is a £1200+ night and things are ticking along quite nicely. :)

Hey Ant - I'm David :)

Cool to rail others progress in this kind of endeavour, obvious GL's etc

Can i ask some kinda personal questions tell me to gtfo if you dont wanna answer im just interested !

how old are you?
how long you been playing full time for?
how did you build your bankroll initially?

Also, I dont play MTT's so couldn't accuratley comment, but most of my best mates and my flatmate play HS MTT's full time and Im pretty confident $25k is HUGELY underolled for av buyin of $120, I would guessitmate ~$100k would be an acceptable roll for that level, but don't quote me :) but if you're taking shots you're taking shots so lots of run good please!!!
 

asked my flatmate just now and he said a "comfortable bankroll" for this level would be $250k ??? spose this would include $1k's/$100r's etc so this does make sense

Basically means hardly anyone is rolled for the $1k monday

yeh very easy to go on a 300+ buy in downswing playing mtt...

i think you two are missing the point of that i am playing mtts with less than 200-300 runners where i can and playing 12 tables a time and often about 30 tourns a night. This limits the variance completely so i think $25K is a good bankroll for these games. If i was to be playing 1000+ mtt's i would need a lot more but i would never do that anyway i would rahter shoot myself in the face and watch as the blood trickle to the floor as i lay dying. Also the tourns i play i have developed a very good strategy for and see myself often winning tournaments late on taking advantage of some good know how and balls.

The rate i have been going at since i have turned to outlaying £1000 a night is to be making £2000 a night in the last 8 days i have been playing. I hope the trend continues as i would be a happy bunny.

On the front of how long i have been playing its been 3 and a half years now and been playing seriously for the past year. I am 21, I am not full time, I am a student of History and plan to get a 2:1.

Frustrated not to get the 10K for first tonight but hey ho maybe next time hey

not trying to put you down just sayin...

Nice result tonight ant, unlucky not to have won it all.

These guys are giving you good advice though. Nigdawg is the son of treefella u know

you said that you think you are rolled for the games you are playing and you are playing $2k anight with a $25k roll  so what do you do if you go on a 10 losing run?  $25k is a nice roll to go to vegas with and crush the venetian deepstack with very soft game

He's said in the thread already that he's taking a 3 night shot or he'll drop down.

 Cheers for the warnings guys I will be sure to drop down when this run ends. But hoping out of blind belief I will continue to crush and just stay at these limits. I might be going Vegas in the summer and looking to exclusively just beat up that 300 game

Cool, yeah I mean I'm all for shot taking lol (sigh)

wasn't trying to flame or anything just interested, and yh smaller field MTTs will be lower variance, Nigdawwwwwwwg will be far better placed to comment but MTT variance is just SO sick

$25k is a good roll for $3rebuys - $26's and they are insanely soft on tilt/stars altho I never win in them lolol

 

Lost $6k recently. Been playing too high and i know it, but more annoyingly i feel is that i am playing on sites that i know tilt me and that i generally don't play well on which affects every other table i play on. On the back of this realisation i am going to only play on 5 sites now and only play two biggies a e30r and a $50r and that will be it. I have a $20k roll now and i hope that with the new schedule i will get back to winning ways.

I don't think the br skills i am doing at the moment are good but i do think i am just about playing within my means for the roi i think i have on the games i am going to play, i have a good feeling im going to murder. Especially when i am settled and am adding a bit of Rick Flair to the proceedings.

good luck with all of this, try to stay out of trouble, it sure is a long way down, and there are not tha many ppl out there to give you a hand back up.

GL

+1 glglgl

I fell ya on the software thing, some of the euro sites get me absolutely RAGING tilt

mtt variance is ridic. gl mate :)

YEEEEEHHHHHH BOYYYYYY

won a 10k gtd on a euro for 3845 euros and i came sixth in another 10k gtd for 550 euros, the latter covering the layout of the night basically and the former is the straight prof which is lovely. I think it goes some way to covering my months losses so far so happy days a bit.

I did take out £560 for a ukipt day 1b ME seat today for £560 so its helping to get me out of the hole. Buzzing now and looking forward to my next grind on friday. WOOOT.

WOW WELL DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Keep at it, I'm sure you will ship the lot, congrats :-)

cheers need to keep a run up!

Nice one dj talent

WD mate, keep it up.

Played notts UKIPT day 1b today and got redic unlucky. Had 25k blinds 200/400 50 ante. Im in mid pos with 66, frequent raiser raises to 1100 with AA i rr to 3550 folds around and he calls with his 40k stack.

Flop 6J2

he checks i check

8

He bets about 4k i call

A

He goes all in and i call. Wammo in my face i am out of there.

O well. Been grinding during the weekend around this tourney and it hasnt been going well must be down about £1500. Mainly becos i am not playing with my proper set up. Tomoz is my last day here (sunday) so i am altering the grind to only be 8/9 tabling and trying to concentrate more this way. Looking forward to it and could it be my first 5 figure score? WOULD BE NICE!

Ul with the comp, good luck tomorrow online, :-)

I won about $2k i think today i had so many close shaves in some huge tournies, the big score came in the 20k on party when i came 4th for 2.8k but i made the last two tabs of a 50k and a 100k came 9th in a 10k gtd aswell so it was pretty sick today. I am happy with my form and think it wont be long before i get that 5 figure score. Hopefully before the next blog post hey!

Bet flop

it was going in however it was played, but i suppose you are right i should continue the aggro on the flop to represent the bluff. he would have rr i would have flat called and it all would have gone all in on the turn. But still i was losing all of my chips regardless :(

Im playing 21 tournaments across the euro biggies today probably a $3000 grind tonight. Bring on the huge binks! Gl to everyone else!

gl mate

Ant didn't come to football again today.

Disgrace imo

Argh 19th in the party poker highroller it was $30k ftw aswell. I couldn't get there with a flip. ARGH. One day.

really frustrating night. I got unlucky in a good few tourns and if only i had run better for longer in some spots i could well be financially well off now :(

Anyway that isn't my real concern now, even thought that was a $1000 losing night. My main greivance is that sharskcope has me up for about $12k for the year, but i couldn't honestly tell you where those profits are in reality. It is as iss they have made them up because i would say that i am $8000 short according to my bank account and poker site cashiers. I am going to leave the game for a week just to let all withdrawals get into my bank so i can have a real look at what my financial situation is and then apply a 200 buy ins rule because unfortunately i may not be rolled to be playing as high as i have been anymore. Even though i am a winner in the games.

I guess it is patience though and being able to wait my turn for the spot to crush, so i will have to do that. Plus i have about 5 assignments for uni all due in next month so i really have to get a move on in starting them and poker will only serve as a distraction, so i am going to give it up until all my work is completed. So much easier said than done but i really need to be disciplined to make sure that the three years invested at uni isn't a complete waste and that i hopefully get that 2:1 (it's history i take btw for any of you that care!). So that is that going to come back feeling refreshed after the long break and i will be roaring to crush again.

Two pairs of statements that both seem mutually exclusive?

:)

This.

I have had the problem of spending too much for a while now and thinking i havent then just thinking it has disappeared. I am most definately up $12k in 7 weeks which is awesome and i intend to carry that on to meet the 100K aim for the year.

To the comments above i am on for a 2:1 history degree and my poker is going great so i am in the least bit worried. I have noticed recently though that i need to stop playing pokes to do this work with 100% effort so i am taking the hit by giving the game up for a bit.

Only problem i have really is organising my finances and stop spending so much on complete crap and tighten my belt.

566   $26.08     $74     32%   $14,761

These are my results for the year so far. So the quest to be a serious MTT grinder is going well. I am hoping to level at $10k a month which is about £6.5k a month or £1.6k a week. WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MONEY THOUGH. I swear to the big man that i am getting grimmed with the prospect that my money is going into the thin air. Gonna have a little look at my funds tonight but i am bound to be really annoyed. Despite being up $2k tonight with a 4th place finsih in the betfair biggie at 20.00 the 40k 50r for $3.4k. I laid abaout $1600 tonight and cashed for about $3.7k so not bad at all

wp, get ur degree out the of the way imo, it is something you will allways have if things don't go to plan.

The main thing is you like to be playing, so even if you have to take smaller steps than what your used to, you still have the chance to build on it and keep playing, I for one, can honestly tell you that I have made this mistake countless times, it is not nice, and certianly not healthy, even if your the best player in the world, if you have lets say 10k, and you play 2-500$ comps, and you run like poo for months, even if you drop down to the 100's you still halve your chance of keeping in the game, if you were to lets say, play the 30/50/75's.

I'm not preaching, I'm just giving my opinion, on 1st hand experience, I wd much prefer u saying you sattelited into the bigger comps, and keeping in the game, than having it all one minuite and gone the next.

I really wish you all the best, just rememeber, there are so many gamblers would be quite happy for you to fail, and then go "I told you so".

glglgl

cheers dreenie for the support. I counted how much my roll was at yesterday and it was $16k but i still decided to carry on playing with an avergae buy in of $120 where i really should have a roll of $24k to play.

I went ahead and played otnight after a solid day at uni and i won two tournaments, a 10k for 2.3k euros and a 5k gtd for 1.25k euros. and i came 7th in a 30k for 700 euros i got really unlucky not to be looking at the 8200 first place in this one but o well, also got a 3rd place in another 5k for 650 euros, final tabled a $16k and got 9th for $450 and i min cashed a lot of tourns to have me up a whoooping £3250/$5250 for the night and now has me over $20k in the br dept.

I am going to carry on what i am doing and hopefully this isn't a fluke. I am doing awesome this year in terms of final tables and tourns won. I just hope i have longevity in this and get to my goal of $100k for the year and if i do that that i can call myself a serious pro, something i haven't been able to say once yet.

fk me all that tonight? run better

wayyy well done!! - Kep it going :-)

P.S. - If you could kindly pass on this run good to me, I would very much appreciate it tyty :-)

again im not best placed to say, but Im pretty sure an av buyin of $120 you need ~$100k. Not wanting to piss on the bonfire or anything I wish all the best, but i been living in the midst of MTT variance for years and I've seen the horrors first hand! Would be cool to see what some of the guys think actually, Trigg/Brammer/Shrewdie/camel or anyone else ITT????

Anyways great start to the year wpwp, add me if you have skype would be cool to chat hands or w/e (not that im any good at donkaments lol)

glgl

i think hes grinding on euro sites, so can prolly get away with a way smaller roll as fields tend to be much weaker and smaller.

N1 ant

arrrrrrrrrrrr vvvvvvvv good point.

anyways if you continue to final every other donkament you play you hardly need any roll ;)
just keep crushing and leave BRM to the nits lol

Wd Ant! vwp, hope the luck continues for you.

might find this interesting (defo read both as the first half of the first one is ridic depressing lol)

http://www.nsdpoker.com/2011/01/mtt-pros/
http://www.nsdpoker.com/2011/02/mtt_pros_2/

This. Cheers for the congrats. Playing again tonight and will post up again what happens even if I play appallingly/get torrid bad luck.

What kinda schedule you playing and on what sites?out of interest

A 20% ROI player will be a loser over a 3,000 tourney sample almost 26% of the time. That’s much higher than I’d expected, and it’s the sort of number that should scare the shit out of prospective and current MTT professionals–If you want to play MTTs for a living, you better either put in a ton of volume, play really well, or be prepared to be a slave to variance (and nobody’s actually prepared for that).

wow

Where did you quote that from? + 1 on the wow

From Noahs blog post, remember he's looking at 1k Shaun Deebs not 1k break even grinders......

It is from the links that lildave posted to Noahsd's blog.

yeah to both of you

the comment above is not about shawn deebs - its obv any 20% roi player

Yeah it's true about the swings in mtts, but as ant has said he's mainly in smaller fields with less variance.

Good luck with this btw ant, it's dom-met u a cple of times and r blogs r linked-altho mine is updated once a year nowadays.

Played ant live a cple of years bk and was v impressed, obv he'll have improved since then too, so i'd be expecting the lad to crush this challenge.

Win it all ant, shots ftw...well sorta! :)

Cheers man. Btw can you remind me of the time us two saw eachother two years back? And what one is your blog mate? Currently 12/12 in the 90 cubed on party btw. Need some double ups!

Isnt this just covering over the reality? Whether the games are smaller and weaker than some of the bigger sites doesnt exclude them from variance.

Be on the wrong side of variance for a week and you start doubting how your playing etc...

Just my personal views never played as high as he is.

I am wondering though, are you withdrawing from your roll to live or is all your profit going into building up your roll? From reading it appears you withdraw but is this to live on or just disposable income to have fun with?

how did u do in 90 cubed?

Hello lewis, the games i play i have an average ROI of about 80 to 100%, so that is whay i feel so confident in my game and as i play small runner fields i can afford to have only a 200 buy in rule, so for $100fs i can have $20000. I sort of have a disposable income aswell mate, but i am trying to make it less disposable, and turn into more of a saver, wouldn't mind paying for a house outright in 3 years time.

Cos i came 11th, was so unlucky yesterday, came 13th in another 30k gtd and 11th again in a 20k, 4th in a 5k, 8th in a 10k and some others. Really frustrating night and think i am about $700 down on it. At one point i was comfortably playing on 21 tables which did make me laugh. I had 12 up on my 24' screen and 9 up on my 15'. The tables just sort of got to 21 as i had over subscribed and i sort of didn't notice what was going on until i was back down to 16. Was an awesome feeling really because i am quick enough to play pretty well despite having that many. I know many people can play more than that through stacking tables but hell to that, i cannot concentrate on them like that so tiling in this way and being able to tile to so many has made me get a warm gooey feeling inside

Pretty sure it was the empire 200 fo when we both final tabled, and maybe once at the vic for some comp too.

My blog is http://domspokernews.blogspot.com/ (http://domspokernews.blogspot.com/)


Nah it's not really covering over the reality. Obv variance is a factor in any game, just not as much in the games he's playing compared to the bigger and tougher fields.
Thus he dsnt need a huge amount of buy ins in his roll if he sticks to these games, all of crse imo.

Yep of course i know you mate. I got confused by the nico username, if it had said Dom i would have presumed you. Hows it all going on the pokers front? I think i saw that you cashed in the ukipt Notts?

Poker is tough going right now mate, but it's mainly due to me not putting in any volume.

Yeah another smallish cash at ukipt yep, lost big flip to winner 3 tables out.

Anyway best go put in said volume, win it all ant. :)

sweet mate you two, i couldn't think about winning at these games without huge volume so yeh good luck to you.

To have a true roi anywhere near 80-100% ud have to be pretty fucking amazing imo

fyp

80-100% is unsutainable without a freak 1 off score starting you on 3000% ROI and even then it will have a continual downward trend

Probs is sustainable for the absolute sickos, but in the bigger fields right?

And probably never gonna realise ur actual MTT ROI in a lifetime anyhow.

I will put in a solid amount of volume and then post up my graphs as proof but i think having 80% roi should be sutainable for me across maybe 5 sites, but i wouldn't mind dropping the roi issue until i put in enough volume to prove that it isn't just the one off bink that has my records so high.

How many games must one have in mtts to prove that the ROI they have isn't just a fluke and is a fair reflection of how good they are? Or is it impossible to tell because one massive bink can alter the records deceivingly favourably. I must add though that in my case in playing the euro sites i can never win more than $10k in one sitting on most weeknights with the exception being sunday.

yea 80% ROI longterm seem unobtainable unfortunately.

How many games do you need as proof to say 80% is attainable?

3,307   $22.44     $43     83%   $74,224     N/A   87

that is my life time profits above which doesn't include my first year and a half i played at cryptologic on will hill and the 3 holidays i won and also the extra $10000 on pacific i had won that wasn't logged because pacific have only recently included scheduled into proceedings. So my roi is actually much closer to 90%.

How many more games do i need to play before i can say i am a 80% roi player then, because i am finding you guys' easy dismissal of how maintaining a roi this high is very unlikely, as perplexing.

You have zero idea of the concept of variance then, reread if you didn't NoahSD's blog.

Without 3-5k hand samples you cant be 'sure' that you will be winning even with a high winrate. 80% is ridic high and considering how much tougher the games have got in the last few years and the winrates people achieved back in the softer games I really doubt this is anywhere near sustainable.

ah fair play on the point that all of those 3000 odd games have been in the last 500 days so it hasn't been played when the games were really soft. from late 2008 onwards. Yeh the game has got tougher even since then but i still think i will maintain an 80% roi for this year and possibly even into the next but i know someone on here is going to say even a year or two isn't enough to show if you are a winning player at tourns and that its a fair reflection so i will just carry on playing until i have sufficient evidence for your seemingly high criteria.

3k games really is nothing. Dont think anyone is saying ur not a good/winning player, but its pretty much a fact that 80 % is an impossible roi to maintain in small fields. I think the only reason that ppl are mentioning it is that in an earlier post u infer that u are basing ur 200 buy in rule on an 80% roi which is extremely unlikely to be (isn't) ur true roi, even if it has been so far. Something more like 30,000 games would probably give you a more realistic idea of what it is, and if its still 80% then ill get down on my knees and sincerely apologise.

Yeah what Stato said. Not in any way a dig at you personally, more a general dig at the world of poker and peoples seeming lack of comprehension of just how much variance there is in the game and in everything about the game.

Sly fix bean

i'm a sly dog isit

Not sure anyone could ever put in enough volume to fully convince someone they are an 80% roi player imo.

Would it not make more sense to ignore the Sharkscope ROI figure (average of ROIs from each individual tournament) and instead use a figure derived from average profit as a percentage of average buy-in. That seems to be 50-odd % here. Those Sharkscope figures suggest your return is (predictably) quite a lot bigger in percentage terms in lower buy-in comps than in higher buy-ins, and the 83% (let alone an 80-100% range) is therefore misleading.

Good going anyway, whatever stats you use... Hope you don't get annoyed by people questioning a stat or two - I think they just don't want to see you be unrealistic, because so many people fall into the trap of having a good few months and extrapolating that into unlikely figures for their yearly earnings - and in that they're really just trying to be helpful.

Moskovich +1 all your posts are really good  :)

Just a quick point in Ant's favor on the ROI front, its actually harder to sustain a higher  average ROI on the smaller sites as the big binks that rocket the figure up come along much much infrequently, so the 3,000 game sample would be extremely encouraging and would suggest you are capable of sustaining a high (above av) ROI. The advantages of the smaller/softer fields are not that you can keep a higher ROI, but that downswings will be smaller and you can grind them off a smaller roll allowing you to play higher and earn a higher $/hour. Given a choice between an 80% roi at $50 p/hour or a 45% roi with $60 p/hour it should be a pretty easy choice.

80% imo, which I can only take from everything I've seen and read and people i know is too high, very very few players are capable of sustaining it but I'd fucking love it if you got a 40k game sample with 80% and stuck in all our eyes lol

What kind of game sample to identify a true ROI I don't really know, I would suggest that in terms of hands played you would need 4 or 5 times the amount of hands a cash player would need. I would hazard a guess at 5million tourney hands.

Thing is with MTT variance is that because chipEV and $ev are often so far different, I think it's likely to be impossible to ever actually see variance through - so if there is no real long term lol 81% it is!!!!

Well i am going to average about 5000 tournaments a year i think. I would assume 15000 games is enough to truly distinguish an mtt'er esp with the smaller fields. So that is 3 years worth grinding pretty hardcore aswell

I dont think it's anywhere near enough personally, but then again, it doesn't realllllly matter lol if in 3 years time you've got $250k in the bank you're not gonna give much of a fuck whether you've got 40 or 80% ROI

Im sure so many MTT players run way way above $ev lifetime even over a 10-15k sample.

Just run like god on a sunday :p gogogogogogogo

Fair play to all responses on the ROI matter. My focus is and always was on the yearly profit of $100k and if i get there nothing else matters. Having a big grind tonight. My last sessoin resulted in a $800 loss so would be nice to go on a killing tonight.

And to start my run good i won a bet on the wolves Blackpool game which has resulted in me winning $480, making sure not to give the result away there haha.

I have had a torried last 4 nights of playing. I had the first two nights of final table bubbling about 4/5 very big tourns and then on the latter two days i tilted heavily because of the earlier frustration and got slightly more unlucky than usual. This has made me step back and consider things.

I will have to find out what my roll is after withdrawals make my bank. Also assess where i think i may be going wrong. I know one problem is always trying to include ipoker but i swear to God all it does is tilt me to the high heavens, so despite them having very nice tourns i am going to see them off my list. Then i am going to take off one or two biggies i don't play too well in.

Basically to make sure i am not over exerting myself in the broadness of tournies i take on and play the ones i am most comfortable in. I have a habit of taking too many on and running the risk of those affecting my other tourns. I also have a problem with wanting to play too high too quickly and ignoring the lower $20-30f tourns that i played superbly in. I will be adding those back in and trying to build my roll slower and in a more assured manner so i can always take a tilt hit if needs be, with that leeway i probably won't tilt.

So yeh i am going to be playing lower now with the slight loss in BR, also taking off tourns that go out to tilt me and putting back in more of the tourns i used to crush. Eventually i will find the perfect grind for me.

btw u played absolutely sick at football on sunday

haha thanks. I was talking with joe (a teamate) that the reason i did well is because those areas are way too big for a five a side pitch making it easier for a goalkeeper to narrow down the angle. Gutted when they scored!

really really good post mate I really hope I didn't come across as a dick before I think this is ridic sensible and you might only make 80k this year but you'll be in a miles better spot to make 160k next year and billions the year after :p

wish you all the best mate ggllggll

Good post. This is pretty much what you said you would do if you had a couple of bad sessions, and you're showing that you have the discipline to recognise that you need to it, which is pretty important IMO so well done on that and good luck going forward!

Also, might be an idea to take a break (not a long time, like 1-2days) do stuff with mates etc. Remind yourself of the real value of money. Playing mtts its sometimes pretty easy to forget cos you're not thinking anything of winning a 1k prize or w/e. That way u may feel refreshed and be motivated to still grind ur absolute hardest even at a lower money level

sweet, thanks for the responses guys. I played a much more enhanced grind tonight where i omitted the tilt tournies and played the ones i liked but i had a problem with playing too many and that is ok because it won't happen again, i am going to limit myself better now with the experience.

I believe i may be down about $300 for the night or around that as i had some nasty beats and awkward spots for it to be another frustrating night made it to a final table of a $20k gtd but went out in 6th with JJ<KK so that was pretty harsh.

Tomorrow i am looking forward to the grind and have a great feeling i am going to win. Mainly because i am going to make sure i only play a max of 16 tourns (the max i can play and honestly say i maintain control) and only the tourns i love playing, so i just need the luck with me and hopefully i take some huge $$$$ down.

well i am in mostly every biggie in europe tonight. My roll is in shocking shape if i dont bink. :(

good BRM

whatever happens tonight i will still be rolled ok for $50fs and 10rs. I just hope it doesnt have to come to that though. Deserve what i get tbh with you, if i do lose out.

How did it all go? - What did you play?

went crap mate waiting a few more days to let the dust settle and then have a look at my br. Going to play cash for the rest of the month on and off because i need to study more this month and that could be the plaguing thing with me, with the degree in the back of my mind i am not concentrating properly. So gonna play a lot less this month. Pump April quite hard, ease off towards the end of it and then tests in may and that is it, i will be a free man so no more excuses then

well its been a month now and its been a time of rebuilding and hardley playing, instead doing some coursework.

The main problem with me is and i have done this 4 times now, is that i crush the $33fs -$10rs and below on the euro sites get my br above $15k then i go mental on the $50rs $100fs and above and i just plummet after a bit of bad luck and then subsequent tiltage. Allowing myself to go crazy because i know how solid i am in the lower tourns to rebuild its as if i am allowing myself to mess about in the higher tourns.

This won't happen again and i am now nursing a very small roll but one i am prepared to build slowly, playing the $22fs and $5rs and below across the euro sites and in the last three sessions i have dominated making about $800. So i am just going to stick with these until i get my roll to say $10k and then maybe start incorporating bigger tourns.

When i have my roll that big again i am just going to make sure i abide my these rules.

1. Update my br daily so i know daily profits and losses including life spending
2. be prepared to move up and down the stakes with results pending
3. Know that i am not superman and don't apply too much pressure when i play the bigger games again. Play what i know and be comfortable and the money will roll in. I only really lose in tourns on a long term basis when i decide that i will ie. not keeping my head and spazzing out.
4. Just in general never lose my head and try all that i can to keep it. Exercising more to release tension, eating better and thus accepting bad beats better.

I am thinking about possibly doing a vlog on youtube, but it will possibly be the most boring thing in the world. I will probably start doing it when i get more successful and have a better life, ie start going out with cos more. But yeh lots to look forward to and when my uni is over in mid may it really is full steam ahead!

gl anup

Past two nights i have played the 5rs and $20fs and below on the euro sites and have been dominating. I think i gotta be one of the best active players across these limits as all the others are gonn abe playing higher. It really is fill my boots time and this is without binking loads of tournies i have only managed a 3rd or fourth in.

I am going to keep this going hoping for more $500 days until i get to about $10k when i can think about playing some $10rs and $50fs. I know i am a winner in the games when my temperament remains stable, so i am going to do all i can to keep cool headed and if i do i feel i have a good future.

Big congratz to Amatay and Greekstein btw on the poker encore deal. The former i would say is on par with me when i get going in tourns and i think he would back that up :S and with the latter he is too good to play donkfests but when he has all i hear about is binks!

$1k up day today. Made about 4 final tables, grants the runners were never more than 200 but i am happy with this. Only played $22 and below so i am going great, had to 12 table all day from about 14.30 though and now only the one table up. I would have incorporated more tourns from 8pm onwards till very late only if i didn't have to get up early tomoz but i do so no 12 hour shift allowed!

BR was at about $800 10 days ago and is now at $4k, Gonna stick to these low tourns until i get to $10K where i will probs get rid of the $10f and $3rs and play some 5rs but mainly $10rs/$22-$55fs.

Loving it atm. Showing great composure to rebuild. Will just have to continue to show it as my br reaches $20k

wp fish

Glad it's working for you !

I hope you can achieve what you set out to do, just rememeber  - " If it takes you months and months to climb the mountain, but you still get to the top, what is the point of climbing that mountain in a few days, but you slip back down to the beginning of it straight away?"

I hope it works out for you, gl

How about a massive sprint the whole way? lol. Would prefer that more.

Thanks for the support. Don't call this a comeback, i was already here!

Ant, I always thought you were pretty nitty with your money so if you don't mind me asking how did you go from 20k with a 3 shot rule at higher limits to depleting a roll in no time?

Not a rub at all as I've thrown away more rolls than a baker.

i was following sharkscope over my actual bankroll to calculate funds. So i would use the recent history search feature and it would tell me one figure of profit when in reality it was no where near that, i couldnt believe how inaccurate it was.

Then i had tilt fuelled high end shots that got no where, and also got hit with some real life withdrawals that were quite expensive, paying for holidays etc. and then all of a sudden i was there at $800. Not to worry thought i will pwn again and ride the blows with more of a backbone. Just gonna show the patience now to wait till i get back up there. I think by the end of june i will have $20k, but no pressure obv, i just am feeling really confident.

Gl ant.

Remember. Britain's got talent its the dj talent.

Big grind again today. Started at 14.15. Would say the evens over/under would be at $300 prof for the day. Hopeful.

again not meant to be a ub, but how come you didn't just look how much money was in ur accounts?

It was more i chose to ignore the amount in my accounts and hope for the best and bink big. Sharkscope didnt help and put me into a flase sense of security. Also how withdrawls take a while to get into ure bank account confused matters.

Mainly i can describe it as mad shot taking tilt.

lol Ant, sort it out u facking fish ;)

lol.  wp. that's a new line for me.

I will be back crushing you mate you watch! :P

Last three of a tourn with the payouts of 250 for third 375 for second and $600 for first had the chip lead and went out last with a dodgy all in call.

Looking at naughty pictures makes you play good [ ]

about $500 up tonight, came 4th in a 6k gtd where i made a big mistake to cl when i was second in chips that is haunting me, but i'm not too bothered i have learnt from it i won't let it happen again. Got very unlucky on some final table bubble my favourite of the night being when sb shoves 38 into my bb of QQ and hits 888 on flop, that hurt. I'm going at a good rate at the moment and hope to keep it up!

two weeks ago my roll was $800 now it is $4.5k but i have a $2.5k backlog of student loans coming in that will help but ignoring that i have made $3.7k in two weeks so its not bad going with a $1k up day tonight. I won a 3k gtd for $780, made 3 final tables and came 14th in a 100k gtd for $800.

I hit some real bad luck at times tonight so i am happy that i was eventually up nicely, annoying close shaves as well, but in most of the spots i really couldn't have done anything.

I am going to continue playing the games i am playing being the $10-$33fs and the odd $55f, $5r-$10rs as well. Also satelliting into the bigger tournaments on each site, obviously ignoring the ones where their biggie is a rebuy because that makes the satellites for them slightly defunct.

Enjoying it now and i have a lovely foundation to push onto the $20k prediction of a roll by the end of June. Hopefully with this blog and proper bankroll management i will be always playing sensibly and recording winning months, knowing that winning days are not always in the bag.

Just remember, if sharkscope says you are +$10k but you only ha\ve $5k, your roll is $5k not $10k :p

glglgl

lol any excuse to find reasoning to carry on playing like a d*ck. I say its a pretty unique technique that no one else has been brave enough to use the old pretending i have money trick

complete mayhem tonight!

I was on a final table of a $5k GTD 4/4 in chips but was close to second and i had another 7/8 tables open in promising positions. I am at my mates house playing and all of a sudden the internet stalls for half an hour. Giving up on that i get another mate to drop me home, and i manage to come 4th in the ft as i was blinded out, and only have 3 tables running.

Enraged i tilt enter every tournament available on the euro sites at 12-3am but this only really includes a $100f that is out of my buy in range the others are ok and the story is yet to be finished as i am still playing but i am deep in that biggie and hope to take it down and i will be reporting on here in about 2 hours time.

$40 up and got very unlucky as tonight was tilt worthy. Came 7th in a $8k gtd for $430 and if the 50/50 held i could have went on for a tidy profit. Other close shaves that were annoying along with the 4th place that i was unable to finish off and got sat out blinded out.

I'm not too upset really as i could have been a lot worse off. Starting again tomorrow :)

wpwpwpwp keep it up :-)

19.00 grind start time today lets gogogogogogo

gl fish. i'll see you in a few games tonight.

havent got an exact profits for the night available but my educated guess is im up $500. Went out of everything apart from one tourney where i dealt for $871. Quite interesting.

It was 270k, 200k, 150k stacks 5000/10000 blinds. I was second and i then just shout for a look at the deal, everyone accepts. Guy in first then offers chip percentage to which third place and I weren't too happy but then i managed to sway him in the chatbox to do a threeway even split and boooom i eventually got it. $815 was second place prize money $415 third and $1340 first officially, so myself and third took 1st for a relative mug, but to be honest it was still anyones game and he was happy to do it so happy days.

Roll at $7.5k and moving up redic quick.

What ? Like 4 tabs maybe, then you'll get bored, fired up some adultay entertainment and have a few good beats.

Is the tyre fixed on the hairdressers car now btw ??? (you missed a good nite Sat, I think, as me an Jack cant remember anything !!!)

I was watching your fishay moves at that final tarb. Reeeedic deal 3 handed, mbn. Had a few little results myself last night :) We should do a volume based bet or something for May. I could use the motivation.

I havent got enough yet for a volume bet with yourself just yet, maybe in june i will have enough. I was meaning to ask you for a backing deal for the two $100's on Party the 19.30 $15k and the midnight $8k. I would put up $55 myself and you put up the other half for a 25% cut of any profits in that tourney and ofc makeup, but i won't be dealing in makeup because i am that good.

Think you know i am better than most of the field. I think its either you or the Greekstein that would ever be interested, so i thought i would offer it. I would say get in quick because soon i will be rolled for myself soon enough!

Btw nice effort then last night! Tell me what you won sir?

Not really interested in any bet whereby the winner is the fish with the most vol or prof. Just a little bet that we both agree to play x amount of games on a set no of days/wk if one of us dont stick to it the other person pays up. Not interested in stakin atm as got too much money tied up elsewhere and need to save every penny for my own grind. I didnt win anything last night but got a 3rd and 7th in the 20r on ftp and pp aswell as a mincy 6th in 20f pp. I just always struggle to play. Once im sat im usually ok and kinda enjoy it.

ah klkl no worries dude.

How do you find ftp tournies now without the americans? That 20r would normally be quite tough?

smaller fields which i prefer. Too early to say but it can only be softer?

Got absolutely buttfcuked in a big final table. AA<55 and then with a small stack 410<82. Won $2100 in that on but with $7500 up top and if the hand held i would have been first it bloody hurts.

Had three other smaller final tables aswell tonight aswell which covered the buy ins and had me up about $400 in itself, so altogether a $2500+ night and i have to be pleased with that.

Going great guns at the moment and unfortunately i may have to play less as university rears its ugly head. Not too long until that is packed in for good though!

Has my cheese roll at about $9.5K

N1 ant

this is how much money you have in yor accounts yes?

Haha yes it is. I'm on some fckin awesome form.

wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii wpwpwp

not to be patronising, but I am going to keep asking you this, for your own good imo

There is no way this is not patronising but on past form its what i need. Rather be patronised than be broke! Keep it up, tytytyty

grinding a big one today on about 2 hours sleep. probs shouldnt but still fancy it

Mad unreggind tekkers now, tiredness has hit me like an express train. Not sure how much i am in for. Probably about $500. Got 6 left, one is an ft with $847 up top and that would be nice because i want to call this session a write off.

Making loads of errors simply out of tiredness.

+$40 dollars today

One tournament left and i can count myself unlucky again really. Won a $1500 gtd for $500 came 4th in a $3k gtd and then final table bubbled a few. Took a shot at a $33r and that didn't go well, made a bad play and got what i deserved in that one.

One site in particular is aggrevating me with how many times i go in good and i get done, but ofc this is the typical story so i will continue to play until the stats are suspiciously against me over like a year before i call it quits on there.

Going well and considering i was feeling dizzee for a lot of this grind and with one left to go i can call it a great damage limitation job.

I wasn't going to play again at al over this weekend but i am such a degen i didn't realise my library is closed over the weekend for easter and my planned study time is cancelled until tuesday as the books i need are conveniantly placed out of reach.

Im probably going to have a sleep from like 9pm til 2am and then grind some american sites and what is left from the euro sites at that time.

Sorry this is bit of a drag, will be trying to make it more interesting after i finish uni and i get some sort of life.

Well i'm not quite sure what my roll is atm. I think i have been on a downswing but surely no more than about $800.

I can say for sure its no less than $7.5k and is probs no more than $9K. So i can safely carry on with the games i am playing.

The reason i don't know what my roll is, is because i lost my debit card and the ability to read my balance in its absence while waiting for a new one, plus i am sure that some withdrawals from sites have not gone through because it was set to go back to my old card number. So a lot of things to sort out when it does arrive, but for the meantime i am enjoying the poker regardless of a little hiccup and i am pretty sure tonight is the last night of pokers for me for another 3 weeks, unless i can sort out a revision + poker schedule which would be awesome.

So yeh thats it. I think my main up spell will be after uni is finished and i can concetrate on pokers full time. Bring it is what say i am so pumped for it.

Ant,

It's rediculous to not know what your roll is and its dangerous too.

Open a spreadsheet and write down the name of all the sites you play on. Record the amount in each one.

Below, allocate some rows for 'pending cashouts' and tick them off when they arrive in your bank.

Below that have a row for your bank balance and use a simple formula to tot up the total. Simple.

+1 world class advice. You can be an amazing pokes player but with tez brm or just tracking of bankroll you can go busto in no time.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA constanteeenio Paperpoops giving BRM advice!

Its true thou Antonius, its not really that hard to know/find out how much money you have? Also when you say bankroll i get the impression you mean life roll, so all the monies you have total.

To be fiar tho, this isnt bankroll management advice, this is just how to record what you're bankroll is advice....

Starting roll $200k

34 hands of $500/$1000

Finishing roll $213k

Blackajck session

Finishing Roll $113k

430 hands of 300/600

Finishing Roll $400k

Cashout $2,500

BlackJack session

Finishing Roll $85k

Do ppl think playing bj is Fun?
I hate it so slow and boring

Wheel of death ftw!!!

Have you thought about using Moneybookers or a site like that? I would imagine it would be easier for you money management wise just having withdrawals to bank from one place rather than different sites.

i do log all the balnaces on the sites and withdrawals going through and have a number, but as i said some withdrawals might not get thorught and may be lost in limbo i don't know.

Its my life roll amatay. I don't really have that much expenditure, just food and rent really, soon counsil tax when my student status goes. I never really want to delve again into say $4k of my br and leave that safe in the bank but that is always going to be used if needs be so i guess my life roll is my poker roll

Argh $500 loss night, no more for me now for a couple of weeks with my exams and revision coming up. Look forward to coming back with better discipline as i used the hiccup of the lost debit card to play above my means, not madly so, but enough to exert too much pressure on the BR. So falling back into old trends.

Will be good to break and re evaluate again at a later time, so this is a temporary goodbye for a while, i hope you all have the best of luck at the tables!

Hello Ant,

I have just read this diary for the first time and must say I've enjoyed it.  I hope you can continue to build your roll and are crushing the HS MTT's very soon.

Best Wishes,

sovietsong.

n1 tyvm.

Was introduced to Gin for the first time tonight along with my regular cider, its hit me quite hard i must say. I have asked a girl if she fancies going on a "drive" with me and i havent even got a license, and i was flirting with a relative minger all night, even thought i know she wants it but i never will, what a whore i am!

Played a cheeky points freeroll last night and was so close to binking a 2k holiday package. 300 odd entered top 1 got the prize, entered it for a laugh and i got to 1/4 and then with AQ and about 27 bigs in the sb i call a 25 bigs all in shove from the dealer with AQ. The standard was horrible so he could have easily had A7+. However on reflection, i should have just tried to small ball chip up and exert pressure in a less hasty way to secure first place. Calling for all my chips isn't an ideal play with a hand like AQ but i am not too upset with it, because if it did get there the trip was effectively mine.

He had 55 in the end and his hand held to decimate me. Also won a satellite to a midweek biggie on another site so last night wasn't too bad. The process of playing about 5 hours for nothing though did hinder me in getting an essay done last night which i now have until about 5pm today to do. 6000 words, 2000 of them written in my head and the rest i will have to do on a wing and a prayer. so gl me!

Hi Ant; just read a few pages of your diary there and enjoyed it.

For the sites you play on do you use any kind of software such as table ninja and HEM?

a little hint, never ever play tired, its better to play pissed or drugged than tired by a distance. I always try have 2 hours sleep before a session. Sometimes you might have to put back your session but so be it. " hours kip, nice shower is just the ticket to tackle a session

Great advice.

I'm pretty sure you just sleep through the day from the hours i have seen you on facebook. Logging on at 4am ftw!

I never play tired anyways, one of the cardinal rules.

Along with don't touch yourself until 55 mins past the hour and too much caffeine is the devil, if you want more rules just ask.

And cheers hairydude. Nope i don't use HEM or any HUD, just like my fav players Amatay and Greekstein. We go against the grain yeh, fcking mavericks.

right decent grind tonight across 4 sites, been on a losing run of late but have got a hold of the counting my br trick so am fine for my stakes.

Sold 40% of my action for the fox poker club £325 tourn starting tomoz (day 1a started today), no mark up either because i wanted it sold quickly. Looking forward to that and hope for the £11kish first place!

lol wp on that. gl tonight and the Fox thing!

tyvm amatitty

Now tonight was a weird one. Was bubble boy to 2 $3k live event packages which was very frustrating but managed to dust myself off and come second in a $8k gtd came 14th in a $30k as well and some other decent finishes to have me $1500 up on the night at the very least.

I am annoyed most at the fact i have ignored satellites for this long. A lot of the feeders to the main satellites for big events are of terrible standard and i may start grinding them to spicen things up alongside my usual schedule. But besides that i am having a bit of trouble with my set up.

I have a desk and chair available for the conventional arrangement of laptop screen and external monitor but there is a fault. My chair is too wide to slip under the desk so i have to lean in to be close enough to play and my back kills after a grind. Its the desk itself that is the problem really, the gap for a chair is too small. But the desk costs an arm and a leg and is maahussive so i dunno if i am gonna change it but i guess i have to.

What i have resorted to now is just 12-14 tabling on my 15.4 screen while in bed supported by pillows and a shoebox to propel the laptop to eye level. External rollerball mouse as well for convenience and number pad. It's bloody awesome. The comfort is amazing even though the image of it should make most of you puke.

I need to find a middle ground, where i can have the comfort of a bed set up with the screen close enough to my face without extending and being at ease, but be able to get a second monitor involved somehow, which has given me a fantastic idea as i write! A 24' monitor on the bed anyone?

Buy a desk and chair that fit and work. You can do it for under £100 if you need to. It is comfortable and you dont feel swamped with laptop on you.

Get one of those height changing hospital tables and play in bed like a desk imo !!!!

That would be the dream coggy. I would gain about 100 pounds though and i would also just have a piss bag on. The dream.

and what drugs are you two on during your daily grinds?

I have enjoyed reading this, I am just getting into poker myself and enjoy playing MTT of about 45 players or so. Only one at a time at the moment though as it's more for fun than taking it ultra serious.

What sites do you play on? I have ditched pokerstars for the moment as I have faced so many bad beats on the river there :/

Lol @ bad beats on the river

BAD
BEATS
ON
DA
RIVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVA

Hey CAI, cheers for the kind words

play on the sites that were intially unavailble to americans before, like ipoker, party and ongame.

Your not gonna get much love on here talking about bad rivers on pokerstars btw! Just to warn you. Greekstein just waits in the mists to pop up and ridicule statements like that!

Update with me. I'm on the pwnage ting. Won $2000 last night, about $150 tonight and im keeping nicely within a good bankroll management structure to not have too huge a fluctuation.

Will tell you where i normally go wrong and its later on today (sunday). I just think ahh well its only one day in the week i will just buy in this one time into the biggies across the sites, never again. No more shots!

Closest thing to a shot i am going to do again is either

1)i have played a lot of low buy ins in the day and to have a biggie as an outlier will still keep the overall average buy in for the day at a sensible level. or

2)I get backed for a live event and put up 50% of myself or whatever.

Got a nice routine going and the one time i remember a sustained period of this feeling i was dominant, until i went on a hliday to break the run then all of a sudden i never got my composure back.

So i'm playing it cool and just going to pwn these tournaments and have no regrets. Tonight and yesterday i never really made 1 tilt move which is rare for me, i normally make one gambly type of move a night but recently i have been proud of nearly every decision, whether it proved to be right or wrong when the cards were faced up.

I'm rambling anyway and will end in saying tonight i am sattellting into every major i can and playing tourns not really over the $55f mark. So hope for some binkages.

Laters

You popping on Stars for scoooooooop ?

nahh, im gonna build my roll in the easier tourns and then hit pokerstars hard with a huge roll next year maybe

I know everyone has there bad beats but the fustration from riverstars was killing me :P giving myself a break from there, although I might play some UKIPT sats for newcastle.

As I said though, only really playing small stakes, single mtt or 6/9 player sngs at the moment.

3/4 tourns left on the night and i am up $4000.

Made a nasty mistake heads up in a tourn. We were playing for $2100 and he was a weak player but i just couldn't get there.

Live and you learn though and i am happy with how things have gone down tonight.

Hope it continues.

Still in a 100k gtd 112/120 in the money atm. If that gets won i will report again in about 4 hours time.

Wp ant, v nice night already!

Lunch tomorrow?

yep we can do pizza express in the village?

if your reading this Cos in the morning don't ring me until like 12.30 for lunch at 1, papa needs his rest.

Round up on the night.

Up $4960.

Won a $2k gtd, a $1.5k gtd, and a $3k gtd. Came 4th in a $2.2k gtd, 10th in a $3.5k gtd. 7th in a $1.5k gtd.

Came second in a $15k gtd as well

cashed in many other tournaments including some biggies that i sattellited into for a nice profit

So i was in dominating form all night. Had a very close call for that second place. AJ beat my 77 all in pre to win it all but i still had a decent stack but i made a mistakeso i didn't win the $2k extra for first.

With the other tourns i was playing relatively flawlessly. Was multitabling 16 at a time through the night with no hassle. I am thinking about buying a desktop so i have the capability to have two external monitors working for me to have 12 tables each on them for 24 tables in total. I hope I would be able to handle that and i think with a bit of practice that will feel the same as playing 16.

Life Roll is up to $13500 and from having but $800 to my name last month its a great achievmant. I said by the end of June i would have a $20k roll. I am hoping now by that time i have a $30k roll. Here is to hoping and to finally let this be the final push into the big bucks and into insuring that i could possibly pay for a house outright in the future. That is the dream.

Nice work sir...Enjoy reading this and with the FK Ups stars have done to the 180s, I will probs go back to playing more MTT's on smaller sites.......Especially if that bum Amatay can live of playing like 3 pw or summin.....Teach him about volume will ya Ant.

Cheers. Don't need to teach that man anything, he can play as much as me and most probably better than me (can never admit hes better fully!) he just literally needs to sit down at his desk and get started and hes fine. If he had a strategy to get from whatever it is hes doing to his poker setup up he would have no problems. Too busy travelling around the world anyway from the sounds of it!

What has gone on with the sngs on stars then? Have heard regulars on here moan about them but havne't been bother to look up what the problem is myself?

Changed rake and structure and it's shit.  I've not had a massive 180s sesh yet in honesty but with the 3 min blinds now it felt like we were at push/fold far to fast and then short stacked to soon.

Thnik Mr Atkin says it well :

http://www.atkinator.net/2011/05/epic-fail-by-pokerstars-sng-changes.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Atkinator+%28James+Atkin%27s+Poker+Blog%29

Just hopinf This Wednesdays changes correct/change a lot of the crap !!!

ah fair play coggy, hope it all pans out.

For tongiht i am planning a bit of a subdued affair. Playing smaller tournies that i enjoy and normally do well in and to not really bother with the bigger ones.

This is because i am pretty tired right now and will be cutting off early to have a good 12 hour sleep from like midnight.

Hope it works out.

Proud of myself.

Realised at 19.50 i was exhausted and unregged from all tournies i had done for up till 22.00, which has saved me a lot of hassle and i am only on 8 tables now. Bit boring this but will try to keep focus!

Because i am playing less tables i decided to play in on 30r as a treat, started terribly but i hope that improves.

vwp over the weekend! - Hope you keep it up, and run good for the rest of the week - glglgl

p.s. - Teach me pls, I'm useless :-(

I have been 4 years in the making to be consistently profitable so I am a bit too slow in the head to sort you out with this but gl elsewhere!

I lost about $100 yesterday as I was very very tired and therefore completely useless. So I unregistered as fast as I could before the main bunch of tourns came in before 8 and I would like to think now I could become a.master in tilt control from this bit of work.

 I was saved by a 5th place in a $8k Gtd for $500 as my only cash btw AK<1010 stopping things there.

Been having big trouble with sleep recently only getting about 6 hours in at a time and am sure its due to the amount of caffeine and lack of exercise, so today onwards I am off fizzy drinks bar special occasions (that doesnt include when I feel like it!) and exercising everyday. I need to take this slow from the beginning because I am a fat bastard atm. So bad that when I break into a run my knees ache afterwards from the unnecessary pressure they are receiving and I am also panting from walking uphill. Ladies form an orderly queue!

 So probs just best to lay off crappy foods and get into walking more than buses to lose that bit of excess weight and then when I feel I am fit enough go to the gym. Ahhh swimming is a good idea from the.get go actually.

Not playing tonight as I am playing in a messabout fiver house game with friends that I always like to lose in to keep em sweet. Normally go in with shit, then make a spiel up to them saying how bad their play was and.then sit down and watch telly away from the table. they then think they are superstars beating one of the bestn There is no way I'm spending my spare time grinding fiver games, you can have the money. I just want my sky box on my days off :)

So right now its brekkie then off for a swim. Will report bak on here if this thread gets lively otherwise I need to start posting on other threads.

FUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKK Weighed myself at the gym and i am 20stone 9 pounds. My worst previously was 18st and 7 pounds when i last thought i was fat and trod on the scales, to promptly lose a lot of weight but WOAH!

I am 6' 3inches and generally always was quite muscular which makes me heavier but i have to lose about 4 stone.

Shocking.

6'3 and just touched 23 stone here also. Was in the forces for 8 years and let myself get fat, now I am a civvie it has just got out of control. Was planning on starting a new 'regime'  Could be a good chance to get a Prop Bet on the go?? I work 7-7 so you should smash it. Good chance to keep it interesting though.

Ps i have had a £200 prop bet before on losing weight and lost.... FML i am a degen in every way possible.

I feel your pain. This will be an end of a beautiful era though. One spending days in bed playing poker getting up only for the toilet and the front door for pizza deliveries. You gotta keep it fresh i was on the Papa Johns, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Pizza gogo, speedo pizza etc. Days of pure beautiful sloth.

With that though i threw away a promising goalkeeping career, could still get trials at semi pro clubs but i'm 21 and it may be too late, but we'l see when i get fit. Had previously played for a semi pro youth outfit and was excelling at 18 then had an injury that kept me out and i just got and stayed fat from after that lay off. Was going to have trials for mens conference south teams but that got put on hold and nothing materialised because i never went out of embarrassment.

Rather not prop btw bet because i don't want monetary pressures would rather societal sooooo.......I'm thinking about doing the worst thing possible with this news. Post it up as an update on facebook telling everyone how i have let myself go. Most of those peeps i don't see regularly on there so their image of me will change! Would expect so much vicious banter that the idea would be to post a 6 pac pick in about 3 months time as a big FU.

Then again i won't do that lol I am just get to the gym and lose it all.

Preeching to the choir fella. I am looking at doing P90X. youtube/google it has had some great results.

GL in the pokes and the beef shredding.

Yeah them Fizzy drinks are really bad for you, I have been drinking a lot fo redbull lately, and it's really bad for me, I was so addicted, I was in Nottingham for the monte carlo on the 2nd day, and literally walking around nottingham highstreet going mental, just because I couldn't find the shop that sold it - so sick!

Now summer is coming, I would recommend lots of salad stuff, you can easily make it and keep for a few days, so can still grind with no pressure of having to cook, that or a soup diet, which you can make in bulk - gl with whatever you choose..

Do you smoke at all? - I smoke heavily, and even if I walk up a stairway, I am breathless, it's terrible, last week I bought some clothes that are suitable for the gym, each day, I am putting it off, hopefully I will get there by next week :S

Gl with everything :-) WIN IT ALL

Hey ty for the support.

Never touched red bull because of its addictiveness and i have never really been a good sleeper so anything to spossibly hinder that too much i have avoided, recently caffeine has been doing me on that front so i am axing it with no sweat really.

As for smoking i don't smoke no. Had my dad as a walking advertisement of why you shouldnt. Approaching fifty, he laughs a lot because hes a cheesy joke teller but it would always turn into a three pronged cough where it seems his lungs were definately going to come out. Oddly enough after 25 years of smoking he had a prolonged illness where he was in bed for 2 weeks and didnt smoke as he was unable to.

When he got better he realised his chest felt better from the break from smoking and decided to have a real go at giving up the cigs, at 47 i believe! He's over a year off them and when he laughs he doesnt cough afterwards and he has said that after the initial temptation of a cigarette comes (bouts last for 20 secs) its fine if you just ride it. He also gave up beer for lent, and to be honest with you i know he's my dad but he was a lost cause with drink and smoking and he just showed us all recently hes effectively a B-O-S-S and can do what he wants. So fair play. I hold that if he wasn't a roofer doing physical exercise everyday he would have probably died from the amount of abuse he gave his body but thankfully hes changing at the right time!

Sorry about that tangent! Just thought it was relative! Yeh about eating habits dreenie. I have always been picky and never traditionally liked salads so i am keeping it simple. I am going to have a frosted shreddies/crunchy nut breakfast (know its not the best but i need summin tasty in the morning because there is no chance of me eating otherwise). Then arrange brown bread sandwiches through the night of my grind and eat whenever i feel hungry. Beforehand i would have gone to the gym for an hour as well. Very easy to do on paper and will be easy to do in reality if i just get used to it. Then the weight will shed off. Always been athletic aswell so can take the pain of pushing myself at the gym the problem was getting in there, much like when children don't want to go to school but realise when they are there it is sometime a bit of a laugh. So eating better, exercising more and taking away caffeine to shed the pounds, then getting back into goalkeeping and instead of being known as a Neville Southall be known as a Edwin Van Der Sar instead :)

On the poker front tonight. Funny story. I had qualified for a big $200 $25k GTD at the start of last week for tonight, but had mates saying they wanted to play poker. I asked about bringing the laptop they were sceptical at first but i explained 1 tabling and playing live would be a piece of piss and it was!

Came 6th in it for $1300 but had lost $600 earlier from an early grind so not a bad night. Went out 77<A6 which felt good because i got it in ahead pre flop all in.

So things going very well, just need to keep this up.

Cool story, it's nice to know a bit of an insight into a poker players life :-)

The breakfast thing is a good idea, I very rarely see anyhting before midday, so I tend to call mine lunch lolololz - I still recommened you cooking some soups tho, literally buy a bundle of veg from supermartklet, chop it up and let it boil, blend and walaaa ... Lots of meats and veg good also, and steam fish is a reall good one, I use to work for chinese ppl, and they said that if you eat lots of steam fish, you will keep really good skin.

yh gym is good, not sure if it will suit me, but I like getting the ipod and just walking miles, that's good for you too.

It's gr8 when u can sattelite into bigger things and get a deep run, makes it so much sweeter, hope you keep it up :-))

Not a big veggie person or a soup person so i don't think so. Also not a cooking person lol. I can get into it but its more wont than cant cook! So sandwiches and keeping it boring is more alluring to me right now.

Only recently realised how sweet satellites were and they are worth the while. Probably lost thousands by not knowing it sooner but knowing it now will help me from now on so not too bothered.

Been staying on euro sites ie on ps or ftp so the satellites i am playing are into medium sized tournaments. As soon as i build my roll on the easier games i will transfer some money to ps and ftp and will try for the huge tournaments and hopefully win big.

I don't really know how i will fare on the hardest tourns online but i think i wouldn't be out of place, i just think if the going is easy elsewhere play there. The biggest prizepools are on the harder sites so i just want to have a big enough roll to deal with the blatant drop in ROI i will be having by playing on FTP and PS.

So im just gonna keep on doing what im doing in the easiest games i know best and keep pwning.

Thread hijack, sorry, but have you ever tried an electronic cigarette? I got one 3 weeks ago, and haven't had a real fag since. Feel so much better too. Still get the nicotine, just without the tar, carbon monoxide, 1000 carcinogens, and stinky fag smell. Plus you can get chocolate flavour (and any other flavour you can possibly think of, including about 30 tobacco varieties). And all in all, it'll cost me about 1/3 of fags ongoing.

Any decent links to this P90X chaps ? Anywhere where the info is 'free' online (gotta love a freebie)

I've had a look, just watched some dude on youtube and it looks awesome so wanna get involved (tho I may take longer as an hour a day is a lot for me).

I'm about 6.2 1/2 and about 14 1/2 stone (heaviest for years) so not massive but wanna tone this shizz up (holiday in 8 weeks)

Lol @ milligan and ant being fat boys. I had you both tagged in my head as young and slim.

Good luck with the weight loss, I'm trying it atm, but am a bit of a junk food junkie, and its hard to break the habit.

Haha. You son of a bitch. Image of how i pictured you...

(http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110212095955/uncyclopedia/images/0/0b/A_typical_celtic_fan_8173rf8.jpg)

Tell me about it Dominos will shut down after a week of me not ordering.

Coggy few torrent sites have some versions of it, but if you want the proper stuff with the manuals etc have to stump up the cash.

Deadman, Alex etc = young and slim

Me = late 20s and Fat. Sigh. I say late 20s probs look early 40s but i always wear hats to try make myself appear younger. Was good at school as i could buy booze and go to 18 movies, but always got charged full fare on the bus.... sigh.

Haha, quality picture... You dont know how close you are ;)

Had a little check up of my br and its no less than $13.5k atm.

Unsettled at the moment because i am in the thrusts of uni and just hope to come out of it with a 2:2 really. Definately not what i should be getting but i think its a good result if i get it as i didn't really try this year with the distraction of poker. I think with poker i could hopefully make enough in the next 4/5 years to invest away from the game and develop something as a self employed person living a great life away from a 9-5.

If that falls through then i gave it a shot and i will refocus on mainstream ideas on how to creat a buck and i will be ahppy in myself i gave it all i had.

I made a spider graph just now with a list of all the things i want to see developed in my life and it was pretty interesting. Sub headings were, Poker, CV, family, social, health, writing, general goals and then i had lines sprouting from them to further develop each. Did a whole A4 page and have it there to serve as motivation to not waste any more time and try to be as productive as i can be in all of those places.

At the moment i am doing last minute revision for exams starting today at 9.30am and 1.30pm today. Should do ok in them. Had to break a torrid sleeping pattern to overturn a 3pm till 6am waking hours. So forced sleep at 10pm tonight and woke at 1 so have to stay up on that sleep now through the day which will be tough but i will manage

Been playing a little bit recently, have had a torrid time trying to qualify for a poker holiday but it just hasnt been happening i might give up on the cahse and concentrate on money prizepools instead.

I am thining about getting a 24 table set up all planned out. Two 24' monitors and tiling 12 tables on each screen. I can comfortably play 16 while tiling, and hopefully i will manage to play 24 correctly as well but i won't hold my breath. Regardless having two big monitors will help massively as i will have more space to play the tables i want.

I am excited about the possibility of getting comfortable with 24 tables though, the rb from the tournaments would be handsome, i would be playing the softest tournaments out there at the lower end of the runners spectrum but i will be pwning so hard i could be making a wonderful bit of wedge. I am dreaming of one day being able to win around £300 a day.

Obv unhealthy to have daily targets when playing multis but in terms of monthly or maybe yearly ones i wouldn't mind having targets, but i will not be taking them seriously so i think that is ok. The targets i will be taking seriously are the ones for volume whereby if i get the chance to play 24 tables over a 10 hour period i could be playing 50+ tournaments daily avg rake of each would probably be around $3 so the bonuses i could expect from raking $150 a day could be quite nice in itself.

Short term goal now is to study hard and get all my assessments out of the way as well, get a 2:2 or above, then plan my life incorporating poker, gym a decent social life and spending time with the famo, hopefully coupled with a decent revenue and I will be a very happy camper.

No, I haven't where would you get these from??

GL with your exams, hope you get the marks u want!! - keep up the good work on the pokerz, I would highly recommend the monitors, really helpful, and u will never look back :-)

I want to never look back you are right. Dream is buying a property in london with cash and possibly getting into the buying and selling in that game, if not just buy a house for myself try and carry on playing poker for living expenses, want to somehow work out how to avoid working an honest minute in my life though. Granted working towards poker is long hours and takes dedication but i choose my hours and i love the game! Ah the dream. I hope it comes true.

I hope it does for you too, time, dedication, passion and discipline all work towards it being a success and you always show on here, how hungry u are for the success so imo, it's only a matter of time b4 ur crushing all the games u wanna play - gl with it all :-)

ty. Wish i had the same conviction in my own abilities, there is no denying i want it bad though and am willing to commit the hours. I guess you are half way there then!

Lots of tinternet places. I'll send PM rather than pollute thread further.

Ure alright Rex especially as your trying to help spread the word on a product better than real cigarettes.

Non poker related.

Have had 3 hours sleep and been up for 12 hours, absolutely shattered. Just finished a 2 hour test this morning 9.30-11.30 and i think i should get the grade i wanted got two questions that i revised only for and they came in so was running good there. With the test i have from 2-4pm tonight i am not prepared for at all, I have about 50 pages of reading to do before 2 and its 12.18 atm to really be prepared, but i am going to get my skim reading on to try and help.

Doesn't help at all that i have a heavy cold/onset of flu coming on and i am in trouble in terms of concentration. Feeling light headed and tired and may fall asleep in the exam. Wouldn't be the end of the world but i need to make sure if this next test, accounting for 1/16 of my yearly grade, is bad i fail with the highest mark possible. Really going through the pain barrier here and am not giving up, know if i get through today knowing i tried my very best there is nothing else i could have done and i can lay my head to rest to sleep tonight with a smile on my face. So i'm to leave you now to get on with it, feel slightly more perky after writing this because i am thinking about my future brag posts of the future running away with 6 figure score brags. Would have to make a five figure one first! Haven't even done that! What tourney pro hasn't done that? lol

cyas

went to bed for about 4 hours earlier, awoke and thought i would start a grind despite feeling quite ill. Its not gone well. Have overplayed AK twice with huge stacks, both times though i was a coinflip so not the worst thing in the world. Initiially i didnt feel too bad but now i feel terrible. Got 8 tables now and i am just going to try my best.

glglgl  on you getting the grades you want - What sites do you play?, and which sites do you prefer for mtt's personally?

Any good ?

made the last 20 of a 5k 10r on party last night had 35 bbs in the bb. Someone min raised from early pos, folded around to me and i called with 44. Flop 356 all clubs i had club. He has me covered and bets 4/5ths of pot i insta shove. Now when i am feeling better i normally might put a fold out there as its quite a strong move from him and i have too much chips to get involved with only a straight draw effectively with him telling me he has a higher club. He had 99 with one club and i didn't get there.

I also got hasty with other spots but it was a very loose game i was playing and i wasn't paying attention to the fine detail instead just going for it which meant i didn't do as well as i normally do. Would say i am about $300 down on the night and  i need a count up of the br later to confirm.

I have woken up this morning in a real bad state with a terrible throat and i really just want to feel better to start pwning some poker and make up for yesterday but i am not going to rush into it if if i still feel bad.

Dreenie i play on most of the old "euro" sites and have yet to test out the waters on pokerstars and full tilt but i will soon. I play exclusviely tourns with over 100 players as well and normally less than 500 so that makes me a multi table tourn player.

Disgusting timing with this illness, probably will have to wait 2 more days before i can play.

aksdhgsdkjghdfsigh

had a very long sleep during the day and feel much better so i started playing.

For some reason i have had a tendency tonight to take all three bets as light and have 4 bet jammed always running into KK and AA, normally i get my fold on but i just was non believeing and i shouldnt have been in these spots.

have about 13 tourns left, will be in a spot if i dont cash for more than $1000 i would say. Still leaves me with a br of at least $11k

Not really been straying too much over a sensible buy in but its definately not being sensible.

Re-evaluating after tonight and getting stricter.

Reval alias on ipoker?

Also could you post a schedule?

Thanks good luck

ty for the good luck.

Wont be revealing names that a lot of people on here don't already know. So basically that leaves only party/ftp/ps i can reveal and that is anupreturns, anuplander and anup returns.

Your user seems familiar?

KidStrak on ipoker

Barely play on there though as its rare for me to play an evening/night and they have ruined the day time tournys which used to be ok.

down to my last five tabs.

Not really cashed at all and have been unlucky in spots, biggest single win available to me is $4.5k but i am lowly in that.

Here's to hoping.

just one left now and not looking forward to the br count up tonight!

well haven't counted the br just yet. Have had a rebate of £108 from barclays though because they withheld a poker withdrawal because it was put back through an inactive debit card and they were suspicious, so that is nice.

At the moment im just one tabling while constructing this essay due for tomoz about the film Halloween, its for my selective course (chose film for the soft touch obv).

Have to describe the gender construction of the Heroine and the villain. Pretty straightforward. If any of you have points towards this tell me and i will put www.blondepoker.com/forums in the bibliography ha!

good film that

Well im on the rape tonight.

Details to follow.

Notable cashes were for 1250 Euros, $1500, $950, 430 Euros

I believe i was up $3500 for the night but my BR is at $13600 meaning i went on a pretty drastic down swing before this. Showing really i need to do my BR every night to make sure i don't get careless. Mind you i have spent quite a lot recently and as this is my life roll i would say on the poker front i could be about break even for a while now.

Will push on now uni is over and i am doing this for a living. Feel that i never tilt any more which is a great plus. I am very good at taking a bad beat and keeping at it to rebuild after a loss. I do however have a problem with shoving too light or making the mistake in shoving at all or calling too light in certain spots whereby if i gave myself another 3 seconds thinking time, instead of instant decisions, i would know what the correct play was.

Looking forward now to getting the second monitor in and commencing with at the very least 20 tables and hopefully work towards 24. At the moment 16 tables is a piece of piss and that is even with the use of a 15.4' monitor being used for 4 tables (the 24' monitor being used for 12). Any time i want to play more i cant because the laptop monitor is too small and i am having too much trouble playing more than 4 there. In overbooking emergencies though i have had 6 on there to make it 18 in total and that seemed ok.

Will repeat that if i get up and running on 24 tables which i am confident i will be good at doing, my rate of profit earning may shock me and i hope everything just clicks and i pwn hard

Surely the not keeping proper track of your bankroll is so you can take shots and chalk it upto not being sure how much $$$ you have.

If you want to , it isnt hard to keep track close enough that means you cant lose $500 and be unsure why.

You're right Strak i sub consciously don't look at my br so i can go a little bit crazy and let that affect my roll.

For this coming night however i am taking a calculated risk in terms of the tourns i am playing. My roll in the way i have my bankroll management set up is allowing me to play with a $65 average buy in so that's about 50 Euros as well. I am playing quite a few $109's tonight as it is Sunday and i fancy myself.

Anything over $109 buy in i am looking to satellite into. So i think of the shots i could be taking tonight this is a pretty tame one, however i am playing a lot of $109's! Gonna try and make sure there aren't too many tables on tonight because that could be a bit too detrimental to my ROI.

On another note i am doing a very sick bet for 300 Euros on the Premier League D day tomorrow. Got odds of over 4/1 for it and it involves Wigan not losing, Tottenham winning and Wolves winning for a very nice returns. The way i saw it was that i wouldn't be betting on sports again for a very long time as I only ever really bet on the Premier League so I am going for a big punt.

Looking forward to it. My grind starts at 1pm.

Sunday went at a break even level really. I had not slept the night before and did a massive bit of good damage prevention by unregistering from the big nightly tournaments because i would have failed.

The roll is at a little over $12.5k and the rate of me making monies has slowed partly because of the payments in my new set up and because i was concetrating a lot on my studies recently and it was always going to hinder me. The whole setup hopefully should be here by friday meaning i can get down to some serious grinding. Will probably invest in a new chair and maybe a new desk also but at the moment that isn't that necessary so hopefully I will take to the new 16-24 table format very well.

To be honest i think that i will settle on about 18 tables at a time because i might find that any more would break the camels back and if so 18 is still a vast amount of tables and if i was to play for my proposed 14 hours a day for 6 days a week i will be putting in huge volume. Would have to be careful as well to be playing lower buy ins to accommodate for the more buy ins i am making in case i go on an early downswing.

Promised to go on a two day cricket tour next week to Henley-on-Thames which should be fun and a nice getaway on monday til tuesday and on the saturday of that week its my birthday and i need to plan a family meal and a get together with mates somewhere.

I always under hype my birthdays and give no one any notice on whats going on but for my 23rd birthday next year i will make sure that isn't the case!
 

i Could swear whenever A7 or lowere goes up against another A6 or lower that one of you have to hit your kicker by the river. Nearly every time!

yeh, whenever i have A7 vrs a worse ace im usually a huge dog. Its the same thing when my pr faces a raggy ace and the 3 outer hits like 80% of the time, standard!

KK <AJ in the last 20 of a 14k gtd. O well. Proves you right about the sh*t ace anyway!

FML - every big hand I have lost tonight has been lost like this.

Have a $12k br.

Just been asked by someone to go to vegas for about £1k accom and flights for about 10 nights in July and i was wondering if i had too little to experience it the way i would want to. Mainly this would mean going out partying and clubbing, doesnt take a lot for me to get drunk btw and to play some tournaments if i can. Been told it isn't too wise to grind a $350 tournament as its not good value considering i'm out there for only a little time. So if i was to go i would probably play $1/$2 and get 50% backing to play a WSOP $1.5k.

Just worried its a little too soon with my roll but my new setup is here today and i think i should be able to make a lot of money for the month of June, but this may be adding too much pressure on me.

If i think about it though the worst that could happen is that i lose $4k on the trip meaning by the time i get back to playing poker again after the trip i could be lift with a $5kish roll and that is if i am break even from now until the start. I also have to pay for the spending money for a trip to Mallorca for the end of July so it would be a balling lifestyle in July and if all goes wrong i would still be rolled to play $20fs which should be ok.

Just i wouldn't mind having no external pressures for money and pushing on into the twenties and thirties of the thousands, might have to give it a couple of days to have a think about it but i am being swayed to a no. Unless i can work out a way not to spend too much in vegas but i don't think i would enjoy it as much as i could next year when i envisage myself to be relatively well off. Decisions.

Just read through your diary and found it a great read. I play mostly live poker myself but am looking at taking online poker more seriously.

Any tips on starting out online?

Don't play like me probably! Would say set aside as much as you can for poker, have a bankroll for it. Then look to develop it without losing it all early on. So only play with a fraction of your roll at any one time. You have to decide too whether to play cash games or tournaments. The former being much more convenient with rakeback and the ability to stop when you want but the more fishies lie in the latter.

Would also tell you to learn how to play as many tables as you can at once and get comfortable with that because that means you are spreading the burden and giving yourself a better chance to withstand a bit of bad form and the ability to make more, more quickly.

As for me i played 24 tables yesterday tiled across 3 monitors. I found that it was definitely bearable for about 30 mins and then i got auto tired because it is so draining on the concentration to be playing at that intensity for so long. So i have decided that getting to 24 tables will eventually be profitable for me, but not at the moment. I really have to hit the gym hard to help with stamina for that sort of mental grind, so for now i will be staying with a 16 table grind whereby i am already sort of in my element. Not flustered by that many tables and find that i am playing my optimum game (whatever that is) across all tables even if i am short handed across a few of them. I actually enjoy playing 6 max's the most tbh and it is my strongest game.

So plan is to play on 16 tables and go gym daily. Then when i find myself improving physically i would assume my mental capacity will be improving also so then i will attempt the incredible and go for 24 tables, but maybe that won't even help and i will have to accepts 18+ isn't going to happen. Meh

Yesterday i was experimenting and my form went out the window dealing with all those tabs. So that might explain the $800-$500 loss, was very unlucky as well anyway not to make a massive profit on the night as i final tabled bubbled two huge tourns but not to be. Looking forward to future grinds as my set up is nearly now epic. Would ideally now needs a more comfortable chair and a modified desk but would get on fine without that.

Picture of the Makeshift setup is below. Notice the good use of a shoe box.

Do you use any poker tools like a HUD etc?

I don't no but I do see the advantages of it. I always can't be bothered setting up because I play on many sites and also worry that the little stats boxes will take up too much space and prove to tilt me. However I should have holdem manager to review my hand histories after I play to mend leaks.

Righteo.

I am going to be playing tomorrow night and hope for a winning session for once. Been a while since i have felt one of those.

Now i have my manic i need to play 24 tables right now all the time phase out of me i will resort back down to 16 tables tomorrow and hope i get lucky.

I am going to post up a thread on the internet poker forum about how to get your Holdem manager sorted as well in a bit because i play on many sites and i know the HUD and HH's don't get automatically detected and may need help with that. I don't want to be losing an edge where there is one so i should be getting these stats installed.

As for tonight i will be watching the game and feel annoyed to say but want Man United to win, mainly because i don't like the hype surrounding the Barca team and i wouldn't mind it if they were given a good hiding and from the looks of things Man united might be one of the best teams in club football to actually do that.

Today i go to the gym for the second day in a row and i am making sure i am making a routine of it. I have been told by Coggy to download a sort of exercise regime from online but with no offence i am going to follow the things i normally do in the gym and it is effective but i just need to keep it up. I firstly go on the cross trainer for 10 mins as a warm up, 10 mins of stretching at the mats, then i do my pilates while i am there for about 15 mins. This looks pretty gay but it don't half work! After that i go on the jogging machine for 15 mins, jogging for 2 mins and resting for one and alternating. After that i go to the leg weight machines, all four of them doing three sets of about 10 on each. I then make my way to the dumbells and blast my pecs, shoulders, biceps and abs. So that about covers every area, i then do a 10 mins continuous slow warm down jog, then make my way to the mats for a stretch down and then hit the showers where i rub my balls and make sure my crack is clean.

Will be posting on twitter tomorrow during the grind with updates of how i am getting on @antgaughan follow me if you haven't already you will be exposed to some awesome mundane tweeting.

Playing two days of cricket tour tomorrow. I'm hoping that I open in both and that I get 150 runs. The standard is normally piss poor and I'm good at dispatching woeful bowling from my back foot. On my front foot I am a retard. I'm talking a propa terrible player. I can't generate any power from a forward drive whatsoever and it is frustrating because I have good hand eye coordination and can smash on the back foot but nuthing on the front so I may be paying for some coaching soon and see how good I could get. Already play for Dulwich 4th XI with loads of runs last year but I wouldn't mind knowing where I could be if I wasn't just using one dimension.

In the poker front I really haven't been playing because I am trying to sort out my daily routine first without getting bogged down with tables and this has meant for the past two days I have gone to the gym and it was depressing. Never have I been in this bad a shape. There is a hill on the way to the gym I have to walk up to get there and I am panting hard. Can't jog for more than two mins without a walk and I have a huge gut, but I am determined to have a beach this for July/August when I go on a lads hold to Magaluf. Where there has already been side bets on who can what the most birds in the seven days we're there. But I have always been a romantic you see and think that I might fall for the first bird I get with so the bet has been changed to how many times you get it. Who thought chivalry was dead?

with the cricket imo your strength is all in your right arm (assuming you are orthodox right hander) and you should be concentrating on exercises that build up the left one. believe it or not its all about conditioning. most people assume being right handed their right hand is the stronger. this is not the case as their left hand is because of conditioning. an example is opening jars. we hold with the right and twist the lid with the left and this has made it stronger. you cant be that bad if you are opening the batting tho

Good point about building the left arm up, its pretty limp atm. I think even if it was built its technique with me as I always play off my back foot to shots where I should be on my front. As to me opening, I get away with it because I have a good prod for a single and a good forward defensive. I then wait for the bad ball to have a swing at wide of the stumps and normally make a connection. My average across about 10 games last season was 50 so I have a good game going but it could be so much better if I had any attacking shots from the front foot.

Decided to play in the end tonight.

I think i will bink huge.

GL

About 1400$ down for the night and went against one of my rules of only playing when fully fit to. I was pretty tired throughout because of my sleeping pattern. If I am going to be honest I haven't had a good session in a while now, always playing when I shouldn't out of boredom.

My roll is now close to $10k which is not good. I need to be pushing on but am faltering by not being properly prepared for a grind, but from now on I vow to do something else with my night if I feel groggy/tired instead of lose money.

Like Cos now I have to treat this lark like a profession, and when I do I see positive results and when I don't I hemorrhage badly. Need to find where I mislaid the jared tender book, read it and start applying some of the philosophies in it.

The one thing I am doing well recently though is going to the gym and actively losing weight. I will have a beach bod for the summer and I hope by the time my hols comes I am a well oiled machine both mentally and physically so I can make a killing on life in general. I know I can, just fucking hard to use the stringent discipline required.

Btw, If you did think of me topless and oiled when I said the above, It's only natural and I advise you give in to your lustful urges.

If you trained with weights you'd look awesome because you have the perfect frame for it.

One more thing (that is a little less gay).

-Get vegas booked.

Amagay will sort it.

Argh I have been on a mass losing spell though! Ah Fuck. Will have a look tonight when I get back from the cricket.

Just to update you guys on how the cricket is going I got 1-15 from 3 overs of bowling before the rain came in and washed the game out.

I am doing a promo on my Twitter today that if you follow me and put up a run total of what you think I am going to hit today, you get a cash prize. @antgaughan. Have a golden duck, 37 and 87 so far.

gl with the grind! be good to see a tournament grinder

Thanks. Was a good victory that against Reading.

As for me i need to hand in the last of my courseworks for friday, but then i have to do 3 re-submittals for august which i have to make sure i don't put on the back burner too much because to start up again with two weeks to go i might be cold so i might get all those three done and handed in before the end of June. They make up 23% of my final year grade, so not to be taken lightly at all and with the amount of time i have to do them with only poker as the other pressing issue i should be looking for top grades here to consolidate for some of the not so good grades in the other assessments.

There is the boring stuff out of the way. I feel like i haven't played poker in about 2 years even though it has only been 3 days. I think its because it feels like two years since i put in a well prepared and well played session and that actually happened about 3 weeks ago and because of the ill prep i have been on a tough losing streak. However, i am happy that this fall is really because of my own demise in not being disciplined with sleep or fitness rather than being well prepared but just not being good enough at the tables. This said that means that I am a joke to be a pro poker player now and still take these things for granted. I think it stems from me not having urgent expenditure pressures of bills and rent and what not because i still live with the parents who have me on mates rates. I need to create that pressure so that i am never waning on the concentration front and to feel like i am playing for something rather than for the hell of it.

So I am going to first get back on the winning streak and once i feel i have my routine set, whereby i go gym daily and sort of social hours for the week, i can then think about putting a percentage of money away each week. If i was to set goals in how much i can put away it will give me that fight to play every table as serious as the last and to never give up despite the harshness of the game. That is what is missing, that will to fight to the very end. It will come with better fitness more steady success and a goal to make the money for. My distant goal is to buy a property in cash from my savings, my short term goal might be to put away £2000 a month. That is provisional of course, but hopefully when i am up and running i will get there. I also have to be more careful with my spending because i can be quite ridiculous with the amount of watches i buy and the amount i lose on takeaway food when preparing myself is the healthier and more economical option.

Also i will need to live life a bit more and with the freedoms of no university and just poker i will be doing that, and with that i should be having much more interesting stories to share on here other than the self turmoil battles with myself that can get repetitive and boring! So i will leave you with that. I will be playing again full time and near enough on a daily basis from the 6th June onwards. I would also like to note it is my birthday on saturday the 4th and would like to think i always give you a healthy reminder of when my birthday is through my username!

Just making sure i am ticking this diary over.

Today has been full of procrastination for a 3000 word essay i need to do by tomorrow. I need to do 50 pages worth of reading, plan an essay, locate quotes and formulate my arguments by about 14.00 tomorrow but i am lost in a spell of online episodes of the US office and listening to music. So i am using this as making a clean break from that to get on with things. After i finish this post of course!

I think tomorrow is going to be a poker night for the first time in a while. I did have a day session yesterday that ended in me being a little bit above break even, but i was unlucky in spots so never mind. Tomorrow the emphasis is going to be on confidence building, so i am going to count the bankroll and then play lower than i normally would so that i can experience better results from poorer players just so i can start to feel good about myself again, building up slowly until i start laying down some wondrous plays to nail the biggie tournaments online.

Saturday is my birthday and i have a leicester square get together planned at a weatherspoons then a move on to the clubs around there. Should be a blast especially as a few faces are gonna be there that i haven't seen in a while. The day after is going to be the more formal meet up for lunch with the family and that will end that weekend and another year older.

On monday i start my routine for success. It is going to be to get up in the morning, have breakfast, wait an hour, then go to the gym for an hour, then come back and grind for about 12 hours and do that for 5 days a week but if i am in the mood, for as many days that i can get away with doing just so that i can get my bankroll going and that i can get my confidence up because it has taken a hammering recently with ill prepared grinds and obvious subsequent failures of nights.

So looking forward to the days ahead and hopefully will get into this essay now and hand in something decent tomorrow. Will post up on here again probably on saturday morning after tomorrows grind. Cheers.

up about $600 at least for the night and finally think i may have my perfect toruney grind planned. Picking only the tournaments that i enjoy playing and in no way shape or form seek to annoy.

For example, i used to play 500+ 10r fields but i just am not suited to playing for that length of time and concentrate properly because i would get easily frustrated if i have played two hours of a tourn and there is still 200 left. Much better suited to tourns with less than 200 and with a speedy structure, so i am finally being disciplined enough to stick to only that.

If any of you fancy a rail i am 15/17 in the 20.35pm gmt 55f 5k on party and just about to make the money, anupreturns on there.

out in 6th 778 board i have JJ raised it up pre with 20 bbs got a bb caller, he checks to me i bet 4/5 pot he min reraises i jam he has A7. $330 i think the prize was.

Cashed for 800 and 715 euros in my two best results tonight and have had a load of min cashes to help protect that prof.

In my last 5 tourns now, will update in a bit on them.

add $1600 to that, just came second in a tourn.

one left to come as well, got third in the bad for a gtd $650, first is $1500

came second for $1000

Overall im up tonight £2300

However, i was downswinging hard before this and now only see my br at about $11.5k, so of late i haven't been over $14.5k for like the last two months, but now i feel with the suitable grind, 3 monitor set up and a hell of a lot of confidence i am going to win and stay winning until there is nothing left to be had from these tourns.

I think I am going to start a fight with four men outside my front door, armed with only my hardened fists while one if those complete fuckers is armed with a road drill and from 8am he hasn't been afraid to use it!

wooops bit strong earlier. Have to arrange my grind differently now i have to be up at 8am.

Going out on a drinking session tonight and tomorrow starting a gym regime that will hopefully have me drop a couple of stone before 7 weeks is up. Going to go ultra disciplined and i find that i have to go all out to do something properly or i don't do it well at all. In this case that means if i am to try and lose weight im best off not allowing any respite with occasional junk food i will have to cut it out completely.

Gonna be interesting to see how this effects my poker game as well, i would assume i will probably be 50% more effective because i can remember about 7 days worth of gym and then a poker grind on the same day and i always recorded a plus night. May well have been variance but it most definitely helps with the concentration.

Happy the mods have stopped replies happening on this thread from other users as well :P

had a small 14 tourn grind from 11pm tonight as i had gone out for a drinks sesh. I am down about £200 tonight but i have two tourns left.

One is anupreturns on party poker where i am 20/25 with $1350 up top the other has $4500 up top and i am lagging behind with 36 left.

7/11 on party $5k GTD that started at 22.30, anupreturns the name if you fancy a rail.

other tourny i lost AK<JJ in a 6 max where utg min raised and it folds around to my bb and i have 22 bigs, with loads of antes in the middle i ship, he snaps. Don't think i should have played it any different. Not even a min cash in that one.

Probably need about 6th in this to break even on the day. Looking forward to tomorrow though when i can get a full 16.00-04.00 grind going and really play my bread and butter tournies without any distraction. Gym beforehand also and probably a chinese for lunch :)

Good read mate . I would be interested to know your schedule if you would be willing to share?

Nope sorry. Thanks for the compliment though about the read though.

Will let you know my anupreturns name though is party and on pokerstars its anup returns as a lot of people know that name already.

I play an average buy in of about $55 and i would say i play about 50 tourns a night

to the rail now i am 3/8 with 79k chips blinds at 1500/3000, very tight behind me but second and first both have 90k and 268k respectively.

Have got Greekstein railing me and his input is interesting and correct. Have disputed with him with how one hand was played already but i think its just a difference in styles as opposed to right or wrong, well errmmm actually i may be wrong lol but its only marginal.

down to 4/8 as i type this so will get back to work.

argh i lost it heads up in the 5k gtd on party, winning $815 instead of $1350

The battle went back and forth but ended basically, with me on 320k and him on 270k

He open min bet to 20k from 10k and i flatted in the bb with 78

flop 732

i check

he bets 26k

i insta ship the lot

and he snaps with 33

I may have had too many chips to do this. In the end i was annoyed i didn't win a flip to seal the deal hu before and i am quite tired atm and was getting very impatient to find the spot.

Oh well live and you learn but i was relatively unlucky whatever way you look at it.

$420 up on the night.

Annoying because when you come second in a tourney you think you will have more prof than that, but surprised myself with the amount of entries and failures i had elsewhere.

Some close shaves, all in all pleased, considering i was slightly tipsy playing the night grind.

Why would you not say what your schedule is ?

I asked him this yday mond.

He said he didn't wanna advertise soft tournies.

Lol antaments

Oh ok, glgl.

HUGE grind tonight.

Probably not safe within the buy in limit but not by too much. I may have to start unregistering if it gets too much, sort of haven't got my head around how many tourns i should or shouldn't be registering for. It's hard to get it just right and depends how deep you get.

Haven't prepared properly today as i have dodged gym. I think on days where i do this i need to get my dumbell grind on for like 30 mins because something is better than nothing.

Just had Cos tell me about a 100fo at the international half an hour ago, he got me all excited, i started unregging and then realised there was abso no chance i was making the 7 start would be getting tehre for 8.30 at best as i was already in about 8 tourns.

Agggrevating because i would have like to have gone. Unregged and can't reg back into some 18.00 tourns as well qhich is annoying but o well. Hope he does well.

awdiufhsdiufhsdiuhf

Need to get refocussed now been tilting a little bit just now.

[ ] Will be trying to do well.

Hope he plays good poker then! haha

see u @ the tarbs later fish, gl. chat to u on msn later m8

Sweet. Well i am tilt regging two tourns i shouldn't be tonight and one of them is the 991r1a on party and as you are a phenom on there i wouldn't mind a rail when i bink that :)

I'm sending the bill to Cos for my tourney entry losses tonight because of the emotional hardship he put me through earlier, teasing me with a live poker trip that could never be. He however gets a letter of thanks if i tilt bink a tourn i should be nowhere near and a free lunch on me.

After the masterclass I gave you last night, I expect no bill coming my way.

And what about your poker tutelage?

Normal service reusming during the day time. Gonna do a br count and see where i am tomorrow.

 Played about 80 tourns over the last two nights and i can't honestly tell you where i stand in prof/loss for that.

Some close shaves but some appalling play as well late on and i really need to get that tilt call out of my armoury.

How can you not know u fish? Write down ur balance at start of sesh then check it and write it it down at the end. Then do some simple maths

jeeeeeez. I just haven't bothered doing the maths, will be doing it tomoz. I am not a complete dribbler.

Seriously

Start - ipoker $1,400

       - party $ 2,200

Total - $3,600

End - ipoker $3,000

      - party $2,500

Total - $ 5,500

Profit $1,900


If you play 10 sites then type it out on a computer and print 100 pages off so its easier to fill in etc etc.

Take the effort.

You could even use a spreadsheet!

Genius !!!! :-)

Can't you guys see i have already set up a word document with start and end balances but i just haven't bothered last night to type in the end balances that was all. Couldn't be assed.

I do quite like how people can overlook the fact i make mathematical decisions for hours on end over 12 or more tables but could get defeated by simple addition. It was always not wanting to find out what the br was rather than not knowing how to do it!

I have just woken up which isn't good. I don't quite know what i should do whether to take it easy or start the grind now. Playing cricket tomorrow and i would have to say i am at my most immobile i have ever been because i have had no exercise in about 2 weeks.

Need to really get the sleeping pattern going. A 4am-12noon is ideal but i have yet to actually have that work for me. That would mean i would have about 5/6 hours everyday for myself before the grind take over. So that would mean gym and maybe lunch with mates, but atm its, wake up to the grind and then feel some loneliness from 4am till about 10am!

Btw i sat down with $400 at a 10/20 last night and left with $2000 after the table fish went. Thinking i was the dogs bollocks i then sat down at 3/6 omaha with a stack of $600, and didn't know what i was doing. I lost most of it on a A25Q5 board rainbow board when i had 22 in my hand, i had raised the flop and turn and then river, all half pot bets i believe and then he shipped. Knew i was beat but it was a tilt call and he had me the whole way with 55 in his hand.

Happy that happened because i have never been so clueless in my life, will probably have to teamviewer a good omaha player before i ever play again, and must start out lower.

Dont even know if i have excel or how to do it.

I write mine out by hand in a notebook.

Lol! A few lunches with me and you're taking shots in big cash games and have no clue of how much money you have or where it is, already!

Weeee degen!

ure not wrong straying froma normal grind tonight to gamble a little bit, where i should be playing $55f by my own accord i am taking shots at $100f. lol. Not really extreme but always living life on that edge you see.

You write so diff to how you are

Howd you mean?

Yeh i think i agree. i've only met you a few times and chatted to u a bunch on msn but i get what Costas is saying :)

Please explain yourself. Is it that i sound like a prick when i write? Would rather that than actually be one in person :)

Ah never mind about the me sounding different than when i write. It may not be apparent on what i have written on here so far but i often do talk more eloquently on here, and if you are thinking that must make me a complete mong in real life then you are probably right. Wouldn't mind amatay or greekstein putting up more of a decription, because my hunch could be self delusion.

As for tonight. I don't know if i am up or not BECAUSE i haven't counted my roll yet OK GUYS lol. Still have one tourn left which i am 8/13 in with $750 up top, but otherwise i should think i am up. As i cashed for $1200 and $750 elsewhere tonight and crucially made a lot of min cashes which shouldn't be overlooked.

Will have one last update tonight with how i got on in the tourn and with an updated br count. I may also walk 2 miles back and forth to the kebab shop to get some food cos i am starving :)

Last few sessions have been pretty profitable i must say.

Annoyingly i think they could have been more so but i have been experimenting with different types of tournaments and really seeing what the perfect grind for me is with the max of around 16 tables at one time.

I need them all to be relatively similar in structure so that i don't get confused by how each plays. For example, i wouldn't like to mix and match too many turbos alongside deepstacks as this would only seek to annoy. Going to try and keep my grind to normal tourns and some turbos here and there and with the deepstacks, this is only for tourns with the biggest guarentees of the night so the patience would be justly rewarded with a bigger prize.

Did the br count just now and i have $13671 and its that precise as a big fu to all those br counting haters out there that like to have a go. Yeh. Have a look at that number. Rounded to 5 significant figures not 3 like you would expect.

Playing cricket in about 8 hours. Hope to try and be a lot better from my front foot and have been doing some leaning forward exercises with the bat to try and help myself out.

Anyway all in all pleased with how things are going. I'm yet to be settled on a grind and think as soon as i am i can expect quite nice and steady profits on a weekly basis because of my volume.

Hi Great thread  and very interesting.

What UK time do u kick off ?


Steve

Cheers.

I kick off normally at about 16.30 UK time and finish between 03.00-04.00 for a solid 12 hour grind

Nobody is hating you for not counting the roll.

I have only seen people trying to help tbh

I hate you

It was a level post if you are referring to this ....

"Did the br count just now and i have $13671 and its that precise as a big fu to all those br counting haters out there that like to have a go. Yeh. Have a look at that number. Rounded to 5 significant figures not 3 like you would expect."

I thought the part where i got into year 9 maths gave the plot away. My comedy is never too obvious. The fact you missed it has made me laugh, hope your not pissed off.


Thats a real shame. Have only had a good word to say about you.

Is it because i am fat?

Am i the person you could be if you carry on the way you are with your laziness? An undoubted player but caged in the body of a chubster.

Is it the fear that has triggered this attack?

I hate you too.

If its a personalised attack you are after your not getting one, clearly a cry for attention this. At least Amatay was original.

On to the grind and it is mahooooosive today. Nothing Bankroll destroying but it is out of my comfort zone. Rolled to play with $65 at any one time and i have bought in for a couple of $109's as it is sunday. All those higher than that i have gone for the satteliting route. I am playing a small normal grind to try and consolidate for these extravagances but it is mainly filled up with 20k+ gtds and sattellites into them.

I have had a very long sleep to prepare for this and woke up at 1pm, which is ideal. I hope things work out for me tonight.

I am very tired atm. I had a 10 hour sleep as well so don't quite understand this.

Concerned tbh. I think this is all the inactivity catching up with me. Will be changing my diet from now on and i know i wont be going gym daily but i hope at least twice a week.

As a consequence of me being so tired i am unregging from most of the tourns before 8, could be a blessing in disguise or it could be a complete r*pe. We'll see.

I need to hold out my eyelids for the the tourns i am still in as well btw!

The more you sleep the tired you wil feel you numptay. Go and have a run and stop eating kebabs

 
yeh will be running and no more kebabs, but cant do anything now too deep in these tourns. Feeling better now but finsishing regging early. Still get a hefty chink of tourns in though so its ok.

Do u wanna come spinning with me and andy tomorrow?

Hope this falls within enough notice of your one day rule.

cos and andy spinning 


(http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/outragous76/cosandandyspinning.png)

nice made me laugh when i saw it earlier.

Right, about tonight's grind. I am down $1500. I was doing ok until i had a can of red bull and i got way too edgy. Slumped out of the two party majors because of this and even my desperation bid to crack open a bottle of magners to calm me was in vein but made sure i didn't lose more.

Why i drank the red bull i don't know. It never has sat well with me. It was the only drink within reach of me so i went for it, bought a couple of cans when i had to stay up to break a bad sleeping pattern.

Today i don't care what time i get up or if it means i am eating into my grinding time i WILL be going to the gym and i WILL be cutting out all shit food and drink. No caffeine either as i don't think i can handle it during a grind when i need to concentrate, i am already pretty wired as it is. I am quite a hyperactive person that can't sit too still to be honest and it sorta helps with the grinding so really don't need any help!

I am counting my days as a pro from this day forward and i hope that i can never say i had a bad day at the office because each time i sat down i was prepared and ready and could have no excuses. If i make mistakes while playing so be it, everyone does, but i don't want to be saying it was tiredness that made me irritable. Exercise will help me last longer (wahhheyyy) and i have never had a spell in my life where i have been fully fit so WHEN i get there it will be a new and interesting feeling.

Been living off dregs in that regard most of my life and have made the most of being unfit, maybe things will be a lot easier being fitter.

Got absolutely wasted in Croydon last night. Was on the jagerbombs and cider. Pretty deadly combo.

Plan for tonight is get my grind on. I am trying to sort out my holdem manager finally but i am having big issues with not knowing the password of my postgresql account and every attempt i have made to sort it hasn't helped. Gonna be trying to get to the bottom of that before i get my grind on from 5. Might get another nap in as well cos i didn't get much sleep at my mates.

Should really go gym today but might just have a warm up jog in the garden followed by a dumbell session in my room.

Croydon. Old school. That used to be my stomping ground. I got a life time ban from Blue Orchid. Was back there a couple of years back but ended up going Tiger Tiger. GL with the grind.

Cheers. I went to the spreadeagle, weatherspoons, green dragon and ended the night in reflex where the drinks were incredibly cheap and when my song comes on in there shit goes down. Tis a particular rap riddum that one might say is delightful. Oooops may have given it away.


Decided i may only play 12 tables at a time tonight because i think if i play any more that i would really need the help of a holdem manager HUD. Big problems with mine atm though. Every thread on the holdem manager forum offers solutions to my problem but they say that i need to locate a .conf file that is missing on my computer for me to be able to change the password. Bloody nightmare.

I doubt anyone changes their mind as much as you.

lol i only 6 tabled tonight.

Last night caught up with me

and ? Results ?

Had a close shve in a $10k where i came 11th but i was down for the night.

Had connectivity problems all over and that was another reason i unregistered from a lot of em.

Another big grind tonight and i am feeling really good about this one. Hope i pull off some multi binks in one night like i have done in the past!

And ? results ?

lol, standard post from me this is

every time there is a delay in me posting results it ihas been bad night lol

I don't think i could have played better yesterday. Vital coinflips never went my way and i bricked everything. I didn't let it affect me the whole night through but it was just jokingly not my day. I am not playing immediately tonight instead deciding to go to the gym and to finally try to get to the bottom of my holdem manager problem.

There was one spot that could be seen as tilt. On the bubble of a $15k gtd tourn i called down an all in on the flop with only a flush draw after i had 1/3 of my stack already invested. If i was to fold i would have had 10 bbs and an ability to cash and find a better pushing spot, but if i was to get lucky there i would have been on for a much higher finish. Just weren't meant to be.

I have also noticed that a lot of my positive results have been coming from turbo tournaments. I seem to know when to push and fold in the right spots and when tp take advantage of limpers in front with an all in or when not to because a limp is an obvious sign of a huge hand. I think i have an edge over a lot of people with this, so i might give the turbo only grind a whilr tomorrow night before i try in the big tournaments again.

I will have to be playing much lower than i would like to though because yesterday has meant i have to drop down to $40fs. So i am going to allow all 10rs of any currency and maybe a cheeky $50f, but most definately no $100fs.

I may play a late grind tonight if i get bored but would really like to have my HUD set up first.

Also a big shout out to my mate Ben Dobson for binking a deal at the Venetian deepstack extravaganza for $25k. He has now set the bar a lot higher for me to go and crush next year when i hopefully go to vegas.

Would you say that is a fold with just the flush dra then ?

I'm never sure in those spots as I assume it's close but tend to take the spin with probs 40%ish to go for thedeep run.  Also, you don't know that you might get a better spot and then min cash and I dont like playing to min cash (different in a turbo when around the bubble 10BB is probs an av stack

that tourn wasnt actually a turbo and it was literally two off the money as well $150 min cash would have been tasty.

Yeh it was relatively close. I went for it and it didn't pay off. o well. I just really hope this sunday i get a big bink to set me up and to stop worrying about the tourns i want to play in and know i am profitable in. That is the way of the world though and i have to roll with the punches and drop down levels where i need to. Just frustrating.

Since my last count up i have lost $2800.

That was in one and a half sessions and my bankroll is now at $8300.

I did have a bit of a gamble in my last bit of play but i can't put a fault too wrong with what i did do when i played just really that i probably didn't account for such bad luck. It was terrible what i came up against and with the volume i put in i don't expect not to make a deep run in at least one tournament.

Not going to take it personally but i am going to take a definite step back in how i keep on pushing at the ceiling of the safe max buy ins i should be having and instead always be safely under it to leave leeway for a terrible night. This means now i am going to play a quite a bit lower than my br suggests i should all the way to a nice and safe $40k bankroll. I think when i hit that, with the tournaments i play, i needn't worry too much with the $100fs and $22rs that i would love to play and am successful in.

Just need patience now. I realise i hit hard luck in my last outing and now i think i am reacting maturely to the situation and entering back in some $22fs that i thought i saw the back off for good when my br hit $14k but not so because i have been pushing way too hard on the limits of the br, so good enough to me that this has happened.

Slightly concerned about the yo yoing at this time though i must admit. I think more than ever before i am feeling the harshness of a downswing despite huge volume and i haven't had such a dry stint like this before. I sort of thought that a prolonged downswing was only ever there because of the bad reaction of the player to maintain the bad form. However, what i am feeling right now is just cold, hard, downswingage and rightfully i am taking much better precautions now to nurture a very small life roll.

Cheers

Do you think you think about MTTs in the right way? I am surprised you expect to make a deep run with every session you play. Some 180 man turbo players on Stars have 50+ buyin downswings often.

Good luck with dropping down. Maybe set out some BR guidlines in the thread that you could try and stick to?

Cheers for the input lewis

You are right i should be more open with my br management so i could use your guys help but i am going to do something quite weird now in depositing on only one site where i find myself to be competant and just playing on there. Hopefully it will be easier for me to make more money doing this as multi tabling will b easier and it will take the stress away from having to readjust to every table i am playing on because of its look and structure.

In playing one site however i will be playing a vast range of tournaments not necessarily within safe br limits and i am honestly having a gamble to get out of this rut initially that is all i can say. I believe my bankroll is at about $7k i haven't bothered counting but it really isn't less than that from memory and i am going to play a hefty nightly grind of about $1k on the new proposed site. Which basically means i need a good start and fast and i have to hope it happens for me.

The protocol will be if i have one bad session i will instantly revert back to what i find to be the boring constraints of playing carefully with my bankroll. I may decide to get backing or actually play within my means, but by playing on one site and one that i am decent on i think that will help with concetrating.

I know this is generally wrong to do but i am openly having an initial gamble to get going and if it doesnt work i am off to the boring careful grind to get me up and running.

In addition i was at wimbledon today.

It got rained off by about 4.30 and we left by 6, before that thought i watched some good tennis. Mainly from the outside courts but i caught a bit of the cilic ljubicic match and boy can the latter serve. 137mph looks so quick and i know roddick can go faster which is mental. Got the tickets because my friends brother is going out with a female umpire and she gets first dibs of ground tickets which aint half bad. Now and again she sorts us out with centre court as well and i believe we will be watching some tomorrow. :)

Does get a bit boring after a while though watching tennis. Unless it is a good game or its fit women.

Also and this

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaRd-2WcSTo

Such a good read buddy, keep up the good work!!

Cheers.

I am at Wimbledon again today lucked out again on centre court tickets. Was in and out of there yesterday and watched c.niland the irishman play the tennis of his life against a much higher ranked player to be 4-1 up in the fifth set only to lose it 6-4. The.fields of athenroy was sung when he was 4-1 up and with a two break advantage he must've thought he won it! Biggest bottle job section of any match I have seen.

Haven't played poker since my last posts and probably will start tomorrow.

Won a tourney last night for $600. After about $300 loss in the two days before it was a nice save to have. Need to put in more volume tonight methinks and really push on.

Sh*t. I lost $1000 in my last grind and my br is swinging low to $7000. Played very well.

One mistake with a 14 bbs shove from cut off with KQ just past the money bubble whereby the stacks of the other players suggests i should have been more patient maybe? I don't know to be honest it is pretty unlucky to be snap called by AA, but i think i could have waitied a little while longer maybe. Just lol unlucky all night really.

Doing a massive overhaul now. Setting up holdem manager finally and i think the HUD will really help me pwn that extra bit more. Have a subscription to DeucesCracked that i hope helps, anyone recommend some low entrants mtt grinders on there, or maybe the 180 mans on pokerstars because i would imagine they run similar to the games i play.

Also going to make sure i review my hand histories and make sure everything is going well. For marginal spots i will post online to see what you guys think and will consult mates about it.

Trying to see if i can make sure every stone is not left unturned. Want to try and make sure i am doing all i can to be beating these games as effectively as possible. There is no doubting i already can but probably not as effectively as i ought to be. It only took Greekstein about 10 seconds to immediately tell me where i was going wrong with one of the first hands he teamviewered me on. That can't be a good sign.

People might think, Greekstein an authority on how to play hands properly? But i for one respect his opinion and wont have a bad word said.

So i am off to Eastbourne today to meet up with some mates at one of their houses that the rent ends on next week so gonna get a bit lionel messi down there. Also agreed to play cricket on thursday saturday and sunday of this week. That is 300 overs of cricket in the space of 96 hours and for half of that i will be fielding as i don't bowl and that time passes agonisingly slowly. Doing this in a bid to get off my arse and exercising and i think its a place to start as its better than inactivity but not quite as good as a hard gym session.

Will be up and playing next monday on a serious schedule again. I will be going by my 200 buy ins safety rule to help me deal with the swings. So no more 10r euros tourns anymore. I have an average buy in of $35 to deal with now so i really shouldn't even be playing the $10rs but i might as i normally average $40 worth of buy ins and might just have it as my gamble.

Going to be interesting to see how this all pans out. I don't give a flying f*ck about end of year targets or how much i should be making in a week/month. I am going to concentrate on the skills behind my game and developing them, to practice good bankroll management (200 buy ins rule is ok considering the small fields i play i feel, no point discussing this too much i feel) to be more healthy and to grind for a hardcore amount of hours which i think i already have locked up.

Forget about tournaments and concentrate on cash games with discipline and the thirst to learn you have.  You will do well.

I feel I have wasted a lot of time with tourns when I could be playing cash. Always been ok but too privy to tilt. As soon as I have the hud and watching tuition vids on the go for cash and tourns I would hope things will look up for me. I still think the tourns are still where I should be though I just am hitting some.harsh variance and realising you really can't afford one mistake cos the tourns you fish out of could have been the ones you went onto win.

If I have all bases covered with health, hud, tuition and i still lose regularly then I won't know what to do. I still think its just nasty downswinging though and I am yet to have a score over $7k online which I think shows that the amount I have won so far, a lot of smaller binks and lots of.them means I have skills and haven't just got lucky now and again. However, I wouldn't mind a big score now as I have been trying long enough!

$2600 of my $7k roll is on ftp.

Sweating it.

Play a few less tables , drop your worst tournys.

exactly what im doing strak, cheers. Hoping to run at my expected roi tbh. WOuld be nice to just have a steady profit intake. The downswing recently has been tough

gg $2.6k mate

Always like reading your updates Ant.
What is your expected ROI?

Cheers, always nice to hear nice feedback and about about 50%

Always nice to see some optimism !

Hope u get yr money back mate

This is more like it! Cheers.

Tonight has been an odd one im up a nice amount but i feel like crap because i have been still running bad and in two spots near the end of my grind i lost focus and made a bluffing line that was never going to work and basically forfeited about $300 in prize monies i would say.

I had KQ and raised 2.4 bbs from mid pos with about 40 bbs and got a call from the sb and bb folded. Flop A103 he min bets out and i call. Turn 7. He min bets out again i raise to about 7 bbs and he calls.

Right then he has the ace and has been laying the blatant please re raise me trap, thinking because he's min betting that i would be foolish enough to put ina hefty re raise for him to just snap off. Sometimes though they really don't have it and my rr works. So when he calls the turn i give up unless i hit my gutshot. I didn't hit my gutshot with a blank river and he bets out the min bet again with quite a lot in the middle and i just jammed. I think at the time i got pissed off with a linking not running properly on youtube or something and it was a rage all in, with not much logic. Just after i did it and hindsight agrees with this that i get him off his hand 20% of the time. So risking my tourney against another huge stack is just not worth it especially on the bubble. There were 13 left i think and $800 up top. Only a small $2k gtd but these are the only ones i play really.

$350 up for the day at the moment and i am not too happy with that considering i was getting hit up the face with more variance and tilted in the situation above because of it. Otherwise i kept my composure well and got in great spots but i wasn't running very well.

I have two tourns left now that have $500 for first in each of them and it would be nice to take both down.

Oh yeh and my rakeback is coming in at the end of the month that will be a nice supplement towards my bankroll. I think i will be looking at about $450 which is always nice. Next month though i am looking to really push on in the volume stakes and aim for more rakeback and hopefully with the more play, better decisions, less tilt and more outright wins and that fucker called variance, well no one can do anything about that badass.

Out with Cos and Mitch, who i haven't met yet for some drinks and dinner.

Going to mentally prepare Cos for Vegas with my words of wisdom and a solid handshake of good luck as i bid him goodbye later on.

You should have to pay for one of those as it is +ev.

A little dissappointed that i won't be going to vegas with him this year or at all and i think it is a show of how stagnant i have been in my ways and my bankroll for the past three years. Never really pushing on at any stage and for me to really think i can make this work as a short term profession i really need to buck up my ideas. Basically no stone left unturned and playing best prepared as possible.

If that happens then i will win. It is as simple as that. I wouldn't even have to worry too much about variance as i would say my bankroll management will cover me and the increase in my roi and huge volume may make the downswinging relatively defunct on a weekly bases. As if i am playing 50 tourns a night 6 days a week and the average amount of players in the tourns are only at about 100-150 i could see myself always in the money by the end of each week. I would have to be terribly unlucky not to be in profit weekly with this routine. I think it would have to some really terrible cards or me not playing as immaculately as i could to prevent this from happening.

Regardless of me stating the above i don't really give a crap about how much i make and when i make it as long as my br isn't in trouble, i am playing within my means and i am developing my poker skills as much as possible daily. As then good times will hopefully come with that.

The talk on here with Jared Tendler helped in that he told me not to set expectations as i don't have the skills yet to be in a position to expect (i don't think many players can "expect" anyway!) but instead work on goals on how to better develop my game and then hopefully the rest will come with that. In this regard i have watched some videos on deucescracked which were good. I am trying desperately to get my HUD up and running but the postgresql is messing me about and i am also playing safely within my means. However i am yet to make the trips to the gym that i would like. I am at my all time fattest and i am a disgrace tbh. I need to tone down and get healthier to play poker for these long 10 hours spells i want to play, because being unfit can bring undue stress on the body and agitation and the concentration isn't as good so i am selling myself short every time i ring Dominos.

Starting off slowly on that front. I am playing as much cricket as possible. Now you may laugh at this as an exercise plan but i am playing two whole days on saturday and sunday and i think it is up to you how much energy you burn here. You could just waddle around the filed and run slowly between the wickets and basically have a leisurely time. However, you can also think you are Paul Collingwood and run in between overs to new fielding positions, always run the first run hard and always never give up on a ball in the filed that may or may not be going past you and over the boundary. I will be doing this for about 6 hours each day as well unless i am out as a batsman (but that won't happen!).

Looking forward to be looking upwards now with the depleted roll (fucking ftp!) to nurture it and finally get up and running for good.

Good night out with Cos and Mitch.

Chinese was nice and the pub afterwards was jokes.

They both went halves on a fruit machine, jackpotted it for £70. Laid the pound coins on the table. Thought a while about what to bet on to scoop the lot and decided it was to guess how much the food menu there was if you were to buy everything available. Mitch got the closest and binked the lot. So that was that. Was fun to watch. They also did heads or tails for their share of the chinese meal beforehand which Mitch won too. Bad night for Cos. Good times overall though

Haven't played in a while as i have been taking to cricket.

Making sure from now on my posts will be a lot less descriptive because i talk about the same things or complete bull anyway.

Back on it tomorrow with a session and a gym session and hopefully will get the HUD sorted because that is a real pain in the arse

Good read this

Should be updating this more really

Completely aggravating run of luck playing atm. Breaking even most days and i have been privy to some very stupid plays on tilt. The reason why i am updating this less is because i haven't got that steady run going neither have i got my grind settled as the one i was settled on, of which i am a huge winner in the games, i have taken an unexpected dip in variance. So much so i have had to move down in limits and need to now re-adapt my play for that.

Got some bad news from my uni as well which was gutting, a mistake i made in admin has made it much harder for me to scrape the 2:2 i was settling for. I have re sits to do that i need to get straight 1sts in and makes about 1/4 of my whole grade. 3 pieces in total. Will be concentrating on getting that up to get the ok result in a 2:2 from uni. I know i am capable of better i just had no direction whatsoever as to a career and that made me question always why i was taking a History degree and thus made me really not want to go at it hard. I think i eventually will find my suitable career and only when i have my eyes set on it i will work to my full capability. Poker wasn't a distraction here for the poor grade, more a reaction to me being confused about why i was taking a degree.

Idiocy on my part to not sit down and re evaluate what i wanted to do after the first year of uni but external pressure from parents and family made me conform. Maybe a change of course would have been good. I think i will get back to studying hard but as i said need to wait for knowing what i want to do.

For now it is to make as much money from poker to pay my way and to do some part time work for free if necessary to get a feel of different jobs so i am actually trying to find out what i want to do instead of letting it hit me in the face, which will never happen.

I enjoy writing, and think i may take some journalism courses part time and creative writing maybe because i think i would be good at that. Need to develop my vocabulary and try to learn the tricks of the trade on that front to help fluidity and for sentences not to become too boring, like most of these posts are! Probably could just take some acclaimed books out on both subjects before i think about qualifications.

Sorry about this trail of thought here, it isn't really poker related! Going to grind hard on the getting coursework and winning monies front and just feel good about uni being over and feeling a bit more freedom. That freedom will get much more limited if i don't take my poker seriously though and lose my bankroll and have to work a 9-5. So all i am doing now is non stop work and making sure i relax from time to time to maintain sanity.

Also gym is going well. Decided some days i will just wont fancy getting out of the house, so in those occasions i hit the dumbells hard for about 30 mins twice a day, which is still a tough workout.

Have you ever taken an expected one?

Poor english on my part and didn't word it properly. I didn't expect the dip in variance to last this long and it haddn't before in the tourns i want to play. The fact that these tourns are normally only 100 man as well made me not expect it more.

What would you expect to be normal variance ? As in, how many games would you think it was normally for you to go without making a profit ?

Well i don't know tbh and that is probably a problem. It doesn't matter really if you are playing well and move down the limits accordingly

In 45mans it's not too uncommon to have 1k game b/e stretches, I had a few last year and I would like to think that was when I was one of the best players at them games. There are a ton of very good mtt regs like Trigg, Middy or whoever who've grinded hard for months on end without getting a decent result.

Tbh, a few times I've thought about posting itt but didn't want to seem negative as you seem to take it as a personal attack on you so I cba. If I'm being honest with you I think you've ran like god for a little while and maybe that's made you think you are better than what you actually are, I'm not saying your bad just a lot of people can be a bit short sighted by short term results. I think what you are experiencing now is just a very small example of how brutal variance can be and many people can struggle to deal with it.

As I say I'm not looking to have a go at you and there are many people more knowlegable than me on here to get advice from if you want it. Hope it turns around for you soon, glglgl.

Your right. I have taken a lot of responses on here personally when it comes to variance and expected ROI mainly because I have had a good run. My eyes are now open to what I am going to deal with for as long as I play poker and the importance lies in not lowering your standards through tilt when variance hits you hard. I am now expecting long stretches of bad runs and I won't moan about them.

I will focus more on the hands that are borderline and look for advice on here and support as well if my head is lowering.

Fair play on you not wanting to post because you thought it might rile me, because you were right, but not anymore. So I welcome more people to put their word in if you like as everything will help me plug some flaws in my game. One that I think has been plugged now is the naivity of not expecting long break even to losing spells. So many more leaks are left to fill including hasty decisions immediately after a bad beat, letting myself blind down too much when I should be open shoving a bit wider and others I may not even realise.

Cheers mondatoo.

This is a great read ant and i sincerely hope you hit your target. The guys on here are giving you a lot of sound advice,so take it in your stride and all the best for the future.

Cheers cooperman

As for this blog im sorry i haven't been keeping it up to date mainly because i haven't been playing and instead been camping out in the gym. Done my first full 2 weeks of gym sessions going once every two days and i struggled to get to playing poker as i was always exausted afterwards. That initial exhaustion is turning into feeling more energetic after a gym session though and i am now going to be able to play poker after these harsh training sessions.

However i have a holiday in 9 days time along with about 7000 words of essay to do of which has to be done to a very high quality to salvage any respect from my degree, so i might still be delaying getting back started with poker. Would rather have a first draft done on the work before i come back from hols as i will only have 2 weeks then to hand in a final copy and i wouldn't mind hiring a private tutor to iron the flaws out of it and make sure its a great piece of work.

I don't know if any of you are history and or film lecturers that could mark my work and tell me where i have gone wrong? I will be paying whoever does it but i would assume i will need to be finding these people in the yellow pages or another equivalent. I think the tutors are supposed to be on your beck and call during the summer for those retaking but i assume they will ignore e mails as they have done all they have to do in terms of helping students during term time.

Regardless i am going to make sure what i hand in is solid and can only sit back and wait then. As for the holiday i already have enough spending money to cover having a great time in Mallorca, Magaluf so should be fun.

Gonna use this next week to work as i said but also to try and get the HUD sorted which i always avoid as it is aggravating, always had problems and it is never straightforward, but the plan is to have the setup ready for the comeback as a full time pro, where i really, for a change, will have no other distractions other than developing my own poker game and concentrating on br management. That freedom of mind will do me wonders as i will be so much more relaxed. Hopefully i will eventually catapult upwards but i don't know if i can sustain this as a living for any long period of time or not. Have always did it to supplement uni and avoid me doing a sainsburys job which it has done, but to make some serious dollar im not sure i have the capability.

I do have the hard work factor in me though and the capacity to always be learning and adapting my game, i believe i can play 12 tables effectively enough to carry on playing that but i know where my weaknesses lie and it mainly is what to do to 3 bets and when to 4 bet light or when to 4 bet jam with the goods as you know they are calling, or know when to just flat call to a 3 bet. Also when to 3 bet light myself or if i should just flat call to a raise with AA to induce the other guy to commit his stack on the flop. I think i need to study this most and a lot of the answers lie in position of the raise, their history and how many chips people have relevant to the blinds.

Normally i get a good feel of what to do in these spots as i collate this information well, but its the player's history i normally stumble on as it is hard to remember what this guy has been doing with 12 tables on the go, which is why i think a HUD is so necessary and how it should give me much more confidence in my plays. Pisses me off that i have always had trouble configuring it but i think i will be so much more profitable with one that i can no longer hastily play on without one. 

Ant, your full of shit.

be more constructive?

Trying to spot the joke and failing, all I have got so far is a grammatical error.

lol nice work

pretty boring life atm up until my hols on monday.

Played 14 tournaments last night varying from $5r to $15r and $10f to $30f and cashed 5th in a $2500 gtd for $200 4th in a $800 gtd (very small tourn i know) 8th in a $1400 gtd and a min cash or two and it turned out i basically broke completely even.

I think there were two glaring mistakes, one where i had 109 suited in the small blind and only 6 bbs left and it folded to the dealer button, with only 5 left and he raised 2.5 bbs and i shoved thinking I can't be in too bad a shape against any hand and could probably get the bb out. The structure of the table was 3 big stacks with about 40 bbs each and one other with 7 bbs. Turns out it is just me and the dealer all in and my 109 doesnt catch up to his QK. With the other relatively short stack on the table and my open shove blufs getting through with folds even with 6 bbs i should have waited a little bit. Got allured by the prettiness of 109 suited.

Had some bad beats as well where i would have been in a very promising spot in a couple of tourns but i never look to bore you with that as they are always boring to read. Trying to think of other mistakes. Ah yeh the min open bet from dealer button i sometimes get restless in the sb with a KJ sort of hand and rr all in when i have about 12 bbs but they always seem to have an Ax and call. I think i need to realise if i feel awkward about a spot and think it is a trap i should just get out and not do what i think is "right" to do.

Not sure when i am next playing but i would hope i get a nice bink when i do, but i am just going to try to keep to 12 tables and play good poker, if i am reducing out and out mistakes to only two a night that is normally good for me, but need to get that down to 0. Mistakes being moves that really have no feasible logic behind them, not something that had a good thought process behind it but turned out to be wrong.

Be fair to say i am going through a dry spell, but i think its dawning on me that the past 4 years of poker play i have done hasn't been anywhere near as good as it could have been mainly because of my fascination with playing 16 tables. I know i can play 12 effectively knowing the history of what is going on on each table pretty well, but when i add anymore, the stress levels go up and i am playing very abc and tightening up and just letting myself get bullied. I noticed in the past it has been when i am near the end of any night when i have less tables i always play much better than when i have 16, so much so i think when i have 16 tables i may well be a losing player. But i always made up for it with a good end game with the tourns i had left. So i am now really being careful at not instant registering for every tourney i like but making sure i don't go above 12 as i will see my winrate go up with an improved end game.

Sorry if you read this, bloody long and not much going on in it post!

Forgot to mention i am sweating $2.6k on the Full Tilt Fiasco and i really need that to come through for me. If it doesn't not the end of the world, but with this downswing and slight carelessness with money i have had recently it would be a welcome injection.

Quite a long spilling my guts out post coming out that i hope gets a lot of responses. Going out to drink first. Expect it at 2ish tonight.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii :)

Too drunk to post now will do probably Sunday morning. Apologies for the wait.

You haven't had enough to drink if your sensible enough not to post :)

Lol. Don't ever want to feel that drunk then! First time I ever got drunk I got completely wasted and it made me learn always to ease off when relatively trollied. Simply didn't post because I knew I wouldn't give it justice. Talking enough here I may aswell br posting it! :)

that 2.6k sits there well  ;popcorn;

Can hardly see. Completely fcuked. Got the onset of flu from a.random in a rave in Magaluf. Still find time to come on here though. My life is great. Speaking so well for being as drunk as I ever felt before. I'm bemoaning my luck for waking up tomoz. Will give up excessive drinking etc.

Will.probably start again tomoz though. :(

Didn't drink all day today as flu is on me hardcore. Two nights left after this one I hope I feel better tomoz. Will go all out, but I think this illness might ruin the holiday.

So far this week I have watched dizzie rascal, Calvin Harris and tinie tempah with a bit of Nero and frisco at mallorca rocks and BCM and has been good
 
Tonight I went out on the strip despite feeling so ill, as I don't want to let down the lads. I thought a reverse bungee slingshot thing would liven me up and it sorta did. Did the other ride there aswell but was sickly. All my mates wanted to go on neither which was rather pumtang of them.

I lasted another 20 mins bought a water and then gtfo and into my hotel room now. No air con, this place is having a laugh. Too hot to sleep. All the signs of flu. Limbs ache, have a high temp,slightly dizzie and a bad headache. Can hardly stand really as its pain. Will stop the illness moaning hopefully this improves when I wake up tomoz then I will have the best night of my life (why not at least have that attitude eh?).

Flu has done me completely. Back tomoz. Gonna spend all of today in bed. Next post will be about where I am at pokerwise and my plan with that. Probs expect that late next week.

dont bother mate, that plan will only change within 48 hrs.

The "plan" is actually going to address that. Want this to be a new me a consistent grinder with no mad tilt or br related craziness. Again I will address properly on a huge post when I am fit to.

I think could be epic.

does 'the plan' actually involve ever telling us what 'the plan' is ????

It involves not saying anything for days and days then it will be the usual stuff of , no games higher than this , check my bankroll all the time etc etc.

I have no plan. Will come back to you guys when i do. I have a small bankroll and yet again have to rebuild.

All i do know is though, that i need to do far more doing the right stuff than just talking about it. Ignored a lot of good advice on here as well over the course of the thread caught up in my own world because i was on a winning spell or whatever. Gonna try and do things right all the way now. I know i have a good game when stable minded but can be way too privy to being erratic, something i may never get control of and therefore i could just start playing poker recreationally as opposed to seriously.

I am embarrassed to say i still don't know some of the maths of the game. As in when on the turn with a certain amount of outs to your name sometimes my mind immediately goes blank as to whether or not i should call if i am getting the correct odds. I normally calculate the amount of outs i have and then times it by either 4 on the flop or by 2 on the turn to find out the percentage of how good i am by the river. Whenever i need to do this with a lot of tables running and its an awkward spot, sometimes i get stressed and get a little bit hasty on some more tables across the board. Will need to practise this part of my game by playing on less tables and building confidence slowly with it.

I do also have to contribute more to the poker hand analysis thread. Need to know how to log hand histories. Probably find it easier if i had holdem manager working but it tilts me so hard to try and get that up and running that i just stop and don't bother. I HAVE to get that sorted, just get on their forums and be very consistent in my enquiries to get it all sorted, instead of just giving up nearly immediately at the first hurdle, again i should stop talking about it and just DO it. Which i am now as we speak :) Hopefully will get that up and running soon.

I have a membership to a poker tutorial site but never really use it, have it as a part of an affiliate deal to get a free membership but i never sit down to watch mtt vids and listen to what these guys have to say.

BR wise i need a massive roll to 18 table any game really. I am thinking about limiting to 6 tables in the early days to put my br under less threat in certain games  and then maybe increase with some profit under my belt. The way i am going to gauge that is to look at my br, have a look then at my outlay for the night, if it is above 5% i shouldn't be doing it but if it is on or less than that then i think it should be ok. Or is 5% of a bankroll being played on a night still too much?

What do you guys reckon with that one. How much should a serious mtt grinder look to outlay comfortably of his roll each night, because i think that is the major question with me, and if i stick to a safe number (percentage) then i needn't be stressed about having to make profit every night just to stay afloat and i can actually play with a Rick Flair. I can be a winning player and a consistent one but my absurd br philosophy thus far has tarnished what i could really be making, so i would like to once and for all put it to bed.

Last night started my comeback. I had my first grind in a few weeks and found myself 390 pounds up. Definately welcomed and I have a really good feeling about this ascent. It was a 10 euro 3k Gtd and I came second. I was 1/25 and padded my chips all the way down to the final 5 with some aggro play, stayed lucky when hands held all in but heads up for the extra 200 I thought I could have played a lot better. I find I do get a lot more seconds than firsts and this is mainly because I am far too passive and often have to have something of the board to play post flop. I find it hard to float in pos with overcards or just on the lookout to get a cheeky re raise in on the turn. This is actually where I will start my study I think, when I look at the deuces cracked videos I can watch. See what these guys are doing HU to open my eyes a little bit.

I think greekstein once watched me hu in a party poker tourn and wasn't too impressed so I'm keen to see what flaws i do have and try my best to mend them.

Ant, you're fucking hilarious.

rapidly becoming one of my favorite people.

Well that sounds condescending! Not sure I want to be known as hilarious when I'm not trying to be. I guess its still a positive reaction to post though hey :) Does the 5% of the br per night sound right to you suup?

haha yh I always sounds condescending ITT lol - i don't mean hilarious specifically from ur recent post, I just meant in general!

yh 5% per night sounds fine to me!

Sweet, its gonna be tough sticking to that. Might be starting at more like 10% as I'm playing quite low, and if I get in trouble, just get backed maybe.

$220 down with the final 10 to go started at 14.00 might be ending at 02.00. Putting in a SHIIIIFFT

anyone wanna give me HU tuition for free?

Got absolutely pwned now again for the title 120 euros up for grabs he has 70kish i have 30k ish, i get dealth 109 he has J9, 500/1000 blinds from the dealer he raises 3000 and i call.

Flop 87K, i check to him he bets 4000 i rr all in for my last 27k, and he calls.

WTF

he has 10 as the gin out and if i have air also 9 and J, i was just shocked when he snapped me off.

If i was to have a hand like 7Q he would have 3+3+4=10 outs 10x4 and be around 40% to win, but would imagine its lower in case i two pair on the turn? Equity was there then for the call?

He had to put in about 23k to win 66K (the 12k already in plus his 4k bet plus my 27k ott+ his call of 23k?) so he just needs 33% odds on his hand to call? So pardon my ignorance if i have done something wrong here i am not one to normally breakdown a hand like this and anyone's input is fine.

Is he factoring in 109 for me and thinking that makes it even more worthy of a call?

If i have the K he is drawing to a two pair or that gin 10 card.


5/42, 3/33, 28/43, 10/23 in my last tourns of the night no more than $850 up top in any of them but already $258 up and i have felt in supreme form. It's tough to keep concentration for this long but i am doing well to continuously check myself and i find i keep motivating myself by reminding myself that each of these lovely coloured tables represent money and i cannot at any point take any of the games lightly.

Well that is poorly written but i am tired :)

Bricked every single last of those tourns, was hoping for one more decent cash.

Ended $330 up so i am a happy man regardless. Did get very unlucky in spots but who doesn't when you play 30+ tourns a night.

how did u go from being $258 up with 4 left to $330 up after bricking everyone of the last 4? :)

i use bricking in terms of not going as far as i wanted to. Obv the wrong use of the word and will make sure i just say i only min cashed some of the last ones, yeh but really annoying mate, should be up quite a lot more! You play tonight?

I think another way to look at it is...you've won $330 playing low BI small field MTT's.  Glass is half full sir and some days you will min cash, lose flips late and get donks sucking out on ya.  It's super standard.  Obviously you'll also have days similar where you lose bunce, but it's a longer haul thing.  Stop panicking and think more positively.

A pessimist is always alone. An optimist is always two people away from a threesome..

Well cheers there.

I'm happy with last night, don't think I could change much in my approach as I played as well as I knew how. I will develop my game because I am going to study more and with this hopefully things will become easier and I turn seconds into firsts and really hone in in the leaks I have. But I am very happy coggy, two nights and about 600 quid when I'm outlaying only a small amount, result! I just get frustrated when you get 4th or final table bubbles where you are unlucky and one more prize jump would be lovely on ure profits list.

Obviously I have dealt with this as you have to instantly while you play but I do leave some time to reflect after a session on what could have been. Then I quickly remember that the only reaason that I got my highest score of the day is because I was a complete luckbox. So swings and roundabouts! If you think I am panicking I'm clearly giving off the wrong vibes. Tbh I'm naturally an optimist. I still think crystal palace are getting promoted this year and we can't even beat Peterborough.

Sigh,,,,, Palace fan = no more feedback from down the road on the Costa !!!!

Uh oh live in brighton and support them do we?

I can change. :)

lol Cogs, the great philosopher

Well these riots are getting dangerously close to where I live. If anything is about to go down, Obv joining forces with Greekstein who lives up the road.

Well they hit my hometown tonight, and in true journalistic fashion i just bopped down to have a look at what was going on. They smashed the glass doors to the londis and ransacked the place, apparently not getting away with too much money from behind the till when i asked the bemused worker about what happened. He said around 20 of them rushed in and took all sorts of things. Maybe they did take the money behind the counter and this guy was just trying to hold some pride that he held them off, i don't know.

Beside it is a pharmacy. This was in a much poorer state and hopefully below i can attach some pictures of it. Massive pane of glass had been kicked in, they went in and made a lot of mess and assume that a lot of them went into the drug section at the back where most of the expensive prescription drugs are. When i got there to take pictures apparently the shop was left bare for anyone to walk into for about an hour, but when i got there to take pictures, there were at least 5 police officers there orchestrating workmen who were putting up makeshift windows. Oh how those guys are on to make a lot of money tonight. The police were also pretty casual as i was taking 3 pictures, instantly thought i would be told to f off or that my phone would be taken if i was to record this mess in anyway but if i would have asked one of them to move for a better shot i think they would have!

The third place which was across the road and i didn't get a very good look at was a post office which the bottom half of the doors were caved in through i assume excessive kicking and ramming. What did they think they were honestly going to get in there? It is like a bank with all the safes around the back well guarded, was a complete silly move and i didn't take a closer look as i was actually pissed off that these rioters weren't even thinking properly there. Obviously i know they may not generally be the brightest bunch but this got to me.

On the way home i passed a less saturated spot in terms of shops where there was really a very small chance that any rioters would be interested in looting, but found my local newsagents donning a pretty powerful sign. So much so it did take me aback quite a bit as i took a pic of it. I think the shop closed and a disgruntled regular of the place might have put it on as a big statement to any potential idiots.

I think that the trouble in East Dulwich involved only three incidents as i had a good look around and many bars remained open but would be interested to find out if anything else happened. Anyway the pics are below (hopefully), if you can't see them i had trouble uploading them on here and you are welcome to see them on my twitter @antgaughan

born and bread in Brighton Sweetheart ;-)

WE HATE PALACE, WE HATE PALACE

(Chelsea fan really (long story) but obviously living down here all my life I was brought up watching the mighty stripes at the Goldstone, which you youngsters might know as a retail park !!!)

Don't know much about brighton fc history so all of that is lost on me despite being a "youngster" of sorts :) You did catch a very jammy win on the weekend but i do like to see that the atmosphere in there was good against Doncaster as it will be roaring against the Palace. Lets not hope there is too much trouble in and out of the ground and also that we don't beat you by too much, you have only just got into that stadium after all :)

On to tonight, and i did a pretty big grind from 18.00-00.00 with only one tournament left as we speak. I played three sites was £100 up on two but bombed completely on the other losing about £150, so as it stands i am down £50. 25/70 in the last one with £640 up top.

Made only a couple of mistakes that i noticed, but starting to feel that i haven't got the best rebuy strategy. Normally always a little bit too tight in the rebuy period and don't splash out and gamble as much as i should be doing. Normally i only have the double rebuy and add on stack going into the non rebuy period as opposed to quite a hefty one. Need to really loosen up here and experiment i feel. Also best to be comfortable with the amount of the rebuy, being able to reload all the time if needs be because i would be so much more effective with a bigger stack going into the mid stages of a tourney that i should be liberal with the amount of rebuys i am prepared to do.

May have to start at the micro rebuys then to play these types of tourns effectively, but i am being very patient and i am happy with how things are going i know i got done over tonight in late stages when under pairs were setting against my overpairs all in pre flop, but its all so standard that i cannae be bothered to talk about each incident intricately.

Will just say these last three playing nights i have felt in the best form of my life, playing very aggro, opening a lot of pots when i have a big enough stack to, open shoving what i believe to be in good positions (probably should check sngwhiz to get it all completely on point) and when i get down to the end of tourns on final tables i ladder well and stay nice and aggro to stay afloat instead of see my stack dwindling. If i have the biggest stack i normally stay the bully to ensure i see showdown as little as possible.

Just building slowly back up to a comfortable bankroll so that i can look to make more profit in the bigger games. Being very careful about my buy ins now and making sure everything is correct on what i am laying for each night so hopefully i will see a gradual but steady increase to the BR without any heart attack inducing loss of 50% of my roll in any one night!

Took me a while to write that now 19/51 in the last tourn.

35 quid down for the night. Meh.

The last post sounds like i am upset and im not really, if i were to keep going with basically a break even night like tonight, and two other stonking nights profit wise every time i played mtt's i would be more than happy and that is now what i am going to expect because variance allows for you to plan for things. :)

Three sites , £100 up on 2 and £150 down on the other? £50 up surely?

100 up collectively on those two sites not on each one and then by the end of the night 135 down on the other. Should have made that clearer.

Up "early" today on only 6 hours sleep, want a medal for not going for my usual disgusting 10 hour sleep, probably writing this will make me tired and I will just nod off.....

as is palace will beat the albion....lmao...defo up early and still dreaming obv

Woooot, weight loss. Yehhhhhhhh. That is all.

Well i know this diary is going to crap at the moment, but i haven't had much time to play poker recently nor do anything that interesting, but i am losing weight. I played a pre season football match last Sunday, still being quite a bit overweight, but the girlfriend's of one of the other players had noted how i was becoming more svelte (she said this to a mate who was spectating). Didn't know what it meant at the time, assumed skinnier and was proved right but wasn't too sure so held back my inner thoughts of the fist pumping.

Played an alright game it must be said. I hadn't played in four months and felt how slow my reactions had got between the sticks. Unlike Eso Kral i am 6'3 but also unlike him i am not very good, well at least now i am not. My reactions were so slow! I mean one shot was pummelled through me at some pace, everyone expected me not to save it and I got a touch onto it to tip it onto the bar but it went in off the underside. I could have sworn i did enough to get it over and receive the plaudits after. I was basically nodding in appreciation of my fans of the save and had to face palm at it going in. Everyone else thought i was unlucky but in my heart of hearts i know my reactions are slowing at the ripe old age of 22.

Besides that goal i conceded another 2 which i could do nothing about, but we had also scored three, and as it was a friendly we decided a draw must be settled with an immediate penalty shootout. Now i pride myself in my penalty taking record. I would say I am penalty taking king to be honest. I think i have taken about 20 in my days so far and have put in 19. The one miss was a travesty and the elements were against me. I'm pretty sure a bird tweaked as i was about to take it, it may as well be counted as a goal tbh, but more about that later.

Back to point and with all the confidence of a man in control i stepped up for the very first kick, giving the keeper a wry smile, he returned it with a much more playful one and i thought ahh ooops i hope he doesn't think this is sexual, then i walked up to the spot and placed the ball top left with consummate ease. When i say top left a part of me thought it was going wide until i realised i was taking it and misses didn't happen. Not ordinarily massively cocky about anything but with penalties i am. I would love to have a prop bet with someone on them. We eventually win 5-3 after one of their men hit the post with their attempt. I dived the right way every time but just couldn't get to any of them which at least gives me some hope to save some for the future.

Now back to a bad, distant memory, of the penalty miss that did occur last season. It was a cold morning, one in which I had hardly any sleep and was quite a bit hungover. We were winning the game i think 4-1 and everyone got a little bit casual by the end of the game. Then the regular diver in the team managed to get past a few players outside the box and squirm his way inside, then for his regular routine of waiting for a defender to come bundling in and to nudge the ball to one side and gracefully accept the challenge to take the plunge to the ground. The comedy I find most in this is the way he slaps the grass afterwards in appeal to the ref who always gets sold, despite how obviously crafty this man is at winning spot kicks. The penalty is given.

I start my casual walk from the other end of the pitch, taking high fives as i normally do from the centre backs and midfielders en route. I then get given the ball by a good mate up front, who a little peeved about my comfort with the situation says, "i hope you miss". Now this threw me a little but i smiled and thought, no bother this is going in. Then when i place the ball on the spot i look up to see i am basically placing the ball on the touchline such is how far skewed to the right this pen spot has been placed. I would say i was about 3/4 of the way to the right of the goal. I crapped myself, i must say. I hadn't seen anything like it. A dilemma engulfed me. What do i do with this ball.

Do I go for my normal top left despite having to change my bearings completely to get the ball there or do i change it up and hit it top right, where i have had success in the past, and it looked like i would have to basically toe poke straight to get that end so thought why not, that is what i do. I take the kick, lifting the ball nicely to negate his attempts even if he goes the right way but it hits the inside of the post. The ball remains live though and in my confusion of not reeling away after seeing it hit the back of the net i remain a striker, even though at one point the ball was put out wide near the touchline. It comes back in and a little melee ensued before the very mate who wished me the worst before the penalty had put it in and remarked to me after he had did it, something of the lines of "this is how it is done". He owned me that day.

Now vowed a miss will never happen again.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiii mentioned in Ants diary

I have had a week of eating healthily, but now i am succumbing to the craving of dominos, which tbh i don't often get too much anymore (use to be daily orderings), but i do know from experience they open at 11am sharp and i may be, in the same way winos queue at weatherspoons at 9am every morning, be ordering as soon as they open. This will be a one off treat as i have done well so far, i am going for the ultra thin base and i am probably going to save it throughout the day to justify it as a meal on a balanced diet. I know i am talking bollocks here and should eat summin else, but you only live once dammit!

literally waiting for the seconds to go by for it to be 11pm. An fml moment if ever i saw one.

Had the pizza today and i felt sick after it to be honest. I think i have just gone off them. Still ate it don't get me wrong :) but i could feel my body not wanting anymore but my brain getting tricked into thinking have one more slice, have one more slice, so to stop the monosodium glutamate ruining my weight loss programme i am happily now not wanting to have any takeaway pizza. This is a big deal. This is from a man that has on and off had pizza mostly every week and in one dire stretch i believe i had pizza for lunch and for dinner 4 days in a row, don't think i got out of bed either. Just a whale in the making. Like one of those channel 4 documentaries into how Billy hasn't left his house for 15 years, the only bit of daylight he sees is when he opens the door to the delivery man, problem is he needs a custom built heavy duty mobility scooter to get him to the door.....etc etc.

Played a bit of poker tonight and i was up, didn't play many tournaments but got lucky in the last one to strike a deal heads up and take away a total for the night of about £200 profit. Can't complain. Was only a 4 hour shift. Did get lucky though as the main prof came from a crapshoot, but i was unlucky in the rest so swings and roundabouts hey, just have to keep your head in the game. I just have to make sure with every grind i don't feel too financially committed otherwise i will stress and play a lot worse being a lot more hasty with decisions. I am going to build up now smashing the small tournies but playing so many that hopefully the roll will build to play the medium sized tournies of the ilk of $33-$100f and $20-$50r. The basis is going to be on me making sure i know what i am going to register for at the beginning of the night, calculate total buy ins, then edit if it doesn't abide by my new found under 10% of my whole poker bankroll rule. That is high i do know, but hopefully with playing the smaller tournies of the calibre of $5r to $10-$20f i can expect my roi and volume to help make that less of an issue and if i stick to winning in them the percentage of my br being used each night will get lower and lower.

However i do know variance, and i will check myself almost immediately if i find the percentage of my br increasing each night because i have lost on previous nights and i won't be afraid to play the micros and in dire straights i will get backed if needs be. However in my last 4 sessions i have been £600 up which is great with a small roll, again i know this may be variance on the positive side for me but i will just keep on going and see what happens.

Its all about being comfortable with my grind and making sure i don't feck about with the br policy i have. I need to stick to MTT's i know at the minute as well. I also have to make sure i get my HEM sorted, which has always been a thing left undone and i think deep inside i may not want it set up because of the hassle but i know the analysing of hand histories afterwards will be so good to improve my game.

Dream is to see what it is like to play the games i am good at comfortably and not to rush into wanting to play them immediately, then hopefully in this manner i can have a safe rise in profits without having to look over my shoulder at busto.

Hi if you decide to go with the get backed route! send me a p.m

Cos can vouch for me  that this is a serious offer

Kl, cheers for the offer, i'm hoping i won't need to take you up on it!

hope you dont either buddy! but the offers there all the same, if it comes to it! glglgl

Cheers.

£100 up after a 7 hour spell. Not bad as it is prof but in the last two hours i was dead in terms of tiredness.

Woke up at 6am this morning so it has been a long day, would assume i won't be making as many mistakes as i did tonight, on Sunday when i next play, as i should be well rested.

Could count at least 5 mistakes localised to how I made the wrong shove as i should have waited just a little bit longer as it just wasn't right. Was moving in a bit too early with poor hands pre flop and the fact i did this was shown up tonight in deadly fashion.

Also with the tiredness came me not keeping on top of the tables i was playing and looking to stay afloat without getting into the awkward sub 25 big blinds stack, where it becomes awkward to raise then fold to a re raise.

Very happy though that in this state i am still booking a win and can't wait until sunday. 

lolz

I've been reading this since you started but only lurked until now. Dominos is the guvnor of that there is no doubt, however it is also fucking horrendously terrible if you're trying to eat well. If you're going to eat one make sure you lump it all down in one day and then get back on your plan. Also don't eat it the day before you weigh yourself as you've no time to get it back off.

I myself have always been partial to a nice old takeaway and when I was living on my own in London think I managed not to cook for over 3 weeks once. If you are eating really well all the time then your body gets used to it, I got told that a nice old cheat meal once or twice a week shocks the metabolism and stops it settling into a routine.

Good luck with the weight loss buddy, it's a hard track to get on but once you're in a routine it becomes easy and I'm sure you'll do just fine!!

Thanks a lot.

Yeh I have found it quite easy losing the weight tbh, I think if you go cold turkey for a while as you said the body gets used to the healthier foods so when I had the pizza I didn't feel all that bothered about it. I should have just made a brown bread sandwich. Helps I think that I am muscular despite the fat as the bigger your muscles the more calories they burn so with me eating less fat I am losing it all very quickly.

May well just do extensive dumbell work to get most of the fat off then when I am slimmer hit the treadmills and do some agility work. I have a problem with my knees atm and feel I should leave the running until I have less weight as I feel I am destroying them with any activity too arduous. I am actually wicketkeeping tomorrow which is going to be awful for ky knees but I will brave it and do a warm up and warm down.

The goal is to be at my ideal physical shape and fitness by Xmas and ignore what weight I am because I may be a fit and lean 17.5 stones but according to a body mass index I would be overweight.

The heavier you are the easier it is to get off. Chicken, Steak and Lean Mince are all great protein sources. Sweet Potatoes, Rice and Pasta good carbs. I've been dieting since January, I lost about 24lbs up until Easter and then got lazy. Chuck Vegas into the mix  and I'm back up a stone :D

Up until now I've not really counted my calories and just relied on the scales every week. Now I'm actually counting all my macros going forward so I can be a lot stricter with everyone and actually work out my ratios of Proteins/Carbs/Fats. It's a bit of a pain until you have your foods listed but it's easy enough once that is done.

I've been aiming for weight but a few people I've been talking to have said they generally prefer to go by the mirror and bodyfat % as opposed to weight. If you want to get the fat off quicker then cardio is king, try some cycling or rowing if running is too heavy impact on your knee. I don't do any cardio because I can't and for that reason I have to be even stricter with my diet. Probably worth going to see a physio about your knees if they're causing you problems, it's always better to nip these things in the bud early and not letting them get out of hand.

Yeah that's what people who I've been speaking to who are bang into this stuff say. Bodyfat and mirror are the way to gauge what kind of shape you're in. Good luck at cricket tomorrow anyway and with the Dominos avoidance exercise :D

nice one marky, am hoping to stay strict and revel in the new physique and the buzz i will be getting from it!

Started a grind early today, and feeling good, have had 8 hours sleep so feeling fresh and i feel well on top of the tables i am playing. Making sure to keep on pushing my stack around in terms of raising with 40 bbs more and c betting flops even when i have missed just to keep afloat without having to see a showdown.

Would like to say you should never go against your instincts even if everything else is saying you should continue on in a hand. Will explain it later but basically everything suggested i should have done the thing i did do which turned out to be wrong because he had it, but my instincts were shouting fold and i just suppressed the feeling.

Won't make a habit of doing that and will see what happens when i listen to my instincts exclusively as soon as they pop into my head in certain spots.

Will be updating this tonight as results come in, exciting stuff. My readership surely now on tenterhooks.

we sure are. gl today mate

You too man, do a killing if you are playing

6/7 that has $500 up top, i really am playing the small tourns btw, but slowly and surely with this br rebuild

And the rest is no where near anything interesting atm

came 4th in that for $100 shoved 62os with 5 bbs utg towards a bb that had a similar stack and would normally fold without a hand. If i let the blinds hit me once more i would have no fold equity whatsoever, with 5 bbs i was cutting it fine, the big stack dealer found KK and it was curtains.

seems a bad shove mate, you had 62o!

indeed, may have technically been a bad shove, 5 of us left, only available shoving pos was that there and i thought any two cards was good enough as the added impetus of having fold equity on a shove meant i would rather go now then have 4 bbs next hand, a crap hand, and forced to fold when someone shoves on my bb. High likelihood teh bb i was shoving into would fold, so if i did collect the blinds i still had a fold equity shove in my arsenal for one more round.

I think i may have been ul that the guy picked up KK tbh, but probably a poor move.

ah jeeeez, 200 down, feel quite funky so have stopped regging, still in two relative biggies ans three other nice sized tourns, so i could well still break even or get some prof. Gonna have to do a mad dash to the kitchen for food and water as that may be what is doing me over here. So under prepped!

order a couple of Dominoes and a giant bottle of coke. treat urself bud :)

Ha.

I have instead opted for a glass of water and a glass of fanta zero, with a brown bread turkey sandwich and a banana and feel pretty good now. Still my concetration levels have been dire though and i have been in and out of watching tv and haven't taken proper control over all these tables, a little amateur really. Using this post to check myself and get back on top.

I am £300 down atm as i started to reg on after i felt better, and have 5 tourns on now with 4 more to come. So 9 in all to try and break even as i want to call tonight a non event really, damage limitation. However i am not backing myself to even do that, maybe after some nice AA>KK i can get back into this but i am feeling pretty indifferent atm. ARGH!

Last 4 now and still £300 down.

Head has not been in the game today and even if i do win to break even or be in profit, i am studying what my routine was tonight and what i have done and strive towards improving everything so i don't play like this again.

Being harsh on myself because i think i need to be to be disciplined in trying to improve, something i have always not bothered with and is probably why my br has fluctuated so much in recent years.

Still positive, don't take me wrong as throwing all my toys out of the pram, i am just taking control of how i can improve and eventually get as close as possible to the perfect grind.

I feel like it is actually impossible to get perfection by the definition of the word, but you can try and get as close as possible. Playing for 8-12 hour spells, of basically just sitting and expecting myself to play every hand correctly across around 12 tables average is close to idiotic. There will be times i am squirming to get up and just do something else and i will need to just keep concentrating as best i can.

I think i will need to occupy myself with something more than music while playing because everything sounds the same eventually or just make sure before every session i have a new playlist to listen to because re-listening to songs can become a drag.

I might try audio books, to help keep my mind focussed as maybe listening to a story will have me wanting to listen on and on and all the while i am finding it easier to play tourney poker alongside.

Whatever i do i have to try and make the sessions as bearable as possible and be as comfortable as possible so i can become engrossed on the tables i am playing. When i do i feel great, feel in control, and it feels like all the hands are being played through me but sometimes i just am involved in grinds like tonight where i feel i am playing through obligation and am not really bothering too much.

So exercise, healthy eating, comfortable grind station, entertainment mid grind and trying continually to learn more about these MTT's and br management should make things easier for me and i think i am doing myself a disservice until i am putting in good effort across those fronts.

Speech over. Probably talking a whole load of crap anyway!

Was down £230 for last night, and deciding best not to play today to have a break. So to a mates to watch some monday night football, then to a 24 hour pool hall for some billiards after. Sweet.

Saw my thread continue to fall in the rail forum and thought i will put a stop to that with this and continue to bore you.

Started to reinvest across a few sites tonight.

Not sure what i am laying but all of the tourns im entering are low buy ins so i am comfortable. Will work that out later along with the amount of profit i have made later (positive thinking yeh).

May update tonight as results come in, but i am pretty sure you don't care and i don't blame you.

are you still keeping to your 5% rule in terms of buy ins?
GLGL with the grind

cheers man

Nope i don't believe i am. I think its more like 10% because i am in the lower stakes and hopefully my increased ROI in these levels should justify the extra 5% increase. If it doesn't just move down i guess.

Down tonight.

Don't know by how much because i haven't looked at the balances out of annoyance but it is nothing too harrowing and i also didn't play that many tournaments because i wasn't feeling the best.

I am concerned about my endurance playing these games, it is becoming a bit of a joke.

Before say for the last three years, i could quite happily sit in front of the computer for 12 hour sessions and keep relatively high concentration throughout, but now it feels like i am hitting old age. I cannot play poker any more with the routine i have of only doing poker in the day. Rolling out of bed, eating some food, preparing food for teh grind and then sitting down for a 12 hour stretch. What i will need to work out, and will note on these entries shortly is the very best prep to do a grind and to feel on top for as long as possible.

Will be a trial and error thing until eventually in my 18 hour day of being awake i have crammed in all i can do to make the big 8-12 grind as easy as possible. Obv this is mainly by exercising and eating well in the times not playing poker but i need to see how much i should be running/weight training when i need to grind to make sure i am not too tired or too underworked. I am going to give you entries of how i feel each day after trying something new to improve my concentration levels through the grind and tell you what works for me and what doesn't.

Going to be pretty boring i know but it is what it is. Hopefully it will help others grind more effectively as i try once and for all to eventually have the perfect set up to grind and to have no excuses afterwards of feeling too tired or i just weren't feeling right. When this routine is set up i will be chomping at the bit to be playing as i will be continuously buzzing, but at the moment i am limp. So best not to play now for a while until i really am prepared to knock some heads on the virtual felt instead of wanting to call time 20 mins in after an early beat hits me a little too hard emotionally and i throw all the toys out of the pram.

Won about £1000 tonight.

(Btw you have probably seen the length of this post and been immediately put off from reading, comment me if you need me to half and half this across two posts to increase the allure of less reading. K cheers ty.)

It means i can move up to much nicer limits.

Got the prof by winning two tournaments outright for £650 and £550 each in a 350 and 100 man tournies alike.

Got redic lucky in spots but it wasn't through any false play on my part just that hands held and when i rightly shoved all in and got called by better, i caught up.

Heads up in one of these tourns i was 240k versus the other guy's 1.3 mill and i got 3 hands in a row and it went all in pre flop each time at 10000/20000 blinds for me to take the tournament down. 88>A3 AJ>A7 and AK>A8.

Heads up in the other tourn i became 2/3 chip leader and got it all in with him having 12 bbs with KJ and he calls with AJ, board runs Q10249

With the difference in prof between second and first costing me £500 if i lost in both, these instances of good fortune may be just what i need to sensibly start my rebuild.

Before these two tourns completely changed the profit outlook of the night i was relatively glum i must say. Very unhappy with my performance. I am a little out of touch with the mid game in tourney poker nowadays and finding it a little hard to adjust to the influx of the min bet.

It happens all the time, whether it be if the bb has called your raise and open min bets the pot. Sometimes this is a cheap way to see if you are interested but with the favourable pot odds is he luring you in? Does he just want you to rr so he can call, making you commit so much more chips than you wanted then on the turn check to you to bluff more chips off, so effectively is he playing super weak looking for the rr from you? Or is it a cheeky feeler bet whereby any resistance from you he is done with the pot.

The min bet from mid pos when you are on the dealer as well can be a little confusing when you have a hand like AQ, and the raiser has 12 bigs at the start and you have about 10 and you have no real idea whether to reshove as you have no prior info on this man. I am not properly accustomed to this. Also i think i just need to make sure i am not too spewy at the start of my game in a tourney

Should get the HUD set up but i think this is continually going to be the thing i always say but yet never sort out, gonna develop notes on players though and log hands so that if Holdem manager does magically work one day i can have the hands imported so what i am doing now isn't wasted.

I changed my set up today btw.

I was on my 15.4' laptop and on the sofa with it on my knees playing 12/13 tables, glasses at the ready because the tabs are so small! The family just walking by asking things like hows it going or are you winning and i just say its alright instead of boring them with the logistics of it all.

"I can't tell just yet until all tourns are finished"

is my response sometimes and when my dad hears that from me he's quite often of the belief i am losing and covering my tracks, quite often the case tbf! Need to sit them down one day and explain exactly what goes on in an MTT because both of them still think its all a little bingo-ish, again they are not too far wrong!

I changed my grinding set up today btw. Location, as i explained as i am normally in my room with the two external monitors attached but also i added some eye drops before the session. During the other sessions i was becoming really irritable and was just thinking its because of stress or me not being able to properly deal with tilt or whatever, but then realised i was blinking a lot and my eyes were always sore. Put some drops in for dry eyes and had no such concentration problems tonight and can say i was doing well in staying in all of the games, but obv admitting im a little rusty and in need of revision and possibly that HUD to be set up! ha.

The seating is also different obv, with my desk chair atm my back always hurts as i am scrunching forward and annoying myself in that way which makes me more susceptible to tilt and my arrangement with the desk and desk chair is awful tbh. Its automatic annoyance before i even start playing. With it though i can play about 20 tables if i am calm enough to do so, but i never will be if im always slightly disgruntled!

Think i am sticking to the sofa for now as i am comfortable and more than able to withstand the very long grinding hours, as soon as i have an atmosphere like that with my desk and external monitors i could be a little bit dangerous. However, thus far i have never been too comfortable there so my results and concentration have been a little bit all over the place.

If you think that my over analysis of the very littlest of things is a little bit too much and its a sign of a lack of girlfriend especially on a firday night, you are very correct. Maybe with some more money and a much better physique, which is coming along very nicely because i am a stone down from when i started and getting fitter, I can go ahead and attract the pumtang.

Hi Ant,
I love your diary probs because i play ssmtts again mainly on euro sites but not the same number due to working as well and really want you to do well but i am concerned.
I know you feel your playing too low in stakes atm and this is not YOU but your last posts have been about disappointing sessions one where we lose $230 in one night and then on the back of one night where we profit$1000 immediately we want to step back up.

As you are finding your feet again on the perfect grind are you not better staying the level you are and build br a bit more before you step back up??

Cheers eso.

Well I just have more money now meaning I can add the 22f$ to  the very low stakes I am playing. The $10r I still cannot afford and thus won't be playing. Every time i have had a rise back up the stakes I haven't bankroll managed properly but now I am making sure I will. This involves finding out what the br is, then looking at what 10-5% of it is and make sure I don't surpass that in buy ins for the night.

It is best I divide that amount by the amount of tourns I intend to play and then try to stick to that as the average buy in. I am taking the Michael a little by pushing at playing 10% nightly but hopefully it works out alright for me.

You are right to be concerned btw because previously I have just thrown caution to the wind and just gone a little mental with what I have played after a nice session, but for no longer. If I think there is any future in this at all I have to contain the demons telling me to play higher too soon and then hopefully bask in the glory of a much more comfortable roll in the near future. Plus I cannot stress the importance of these eye drops which have calmed me because Im basically no longer a stressed mess playing because I am no longer constantly uncomfortable.

Also this may sound like complete bull, but I am making sure I never get carried away again with any night's results. The only reason I will have a very good night is because I was lucky with variance so I will never take for granted nights like last night because I know how hard it is to play long hours with no result. I did have a few fist pumps though yesterday I must say. Won two tourns in one night twice now and long may that continue!

Oh cool i thought you were gonna be adding 50f and 100f straight back in. Avg buyin thing looks sensible and sure it wont be long before your moving up again.

If you dont mind please pm me your s/n for sites so i can look out for you and rail sometimes.

$1775 up tonight

Pretty much pwned all of tonight. Made the money across a lot of tourns which always feels nicer than getting just one huge saviour win.

Didn't keep to the br plan i have stringently i was swaying a tiny bit towards 15% of my br being played tonight, maybe 20%, i dunno. I have to make sure i realise my outlay each night and get out of the habit of just registering what i think will be ok, and actually make sure what i am doing is ok.

Played for 12 hours straight. 14.00-02.00 and was 8-12 tabling mostly, not sure of how many tourns. My best cashes were $650 in second place and a $550 in another second place, but i also min cashed in a biggie for $300 when i satellited in for $15 and i had various final table appearances that got me up into the profit.

Nice work buddy, glad that you're starting to kick back into gear and maybe it's that healthy eating giving your more focus ;)

Believe it or not I had a macdonalds for lunch!

nice work, let me know the secret of winnning mtt's on a sunday pls! kindly appreciated :-)

:) Sundays are normally awful. Debating wheather or not to blow my mates off tonight to play poker instead because I'm on a roll I shouldn't really look to stop.

Well I'm at a mates and about to consume my body weight in pizza. Had a baaaaaaaaad couple of days on the careful calorie front. Gym tomoz.

$837 up tonight

Did well but faded towards the end. Won two tourns, albeit small ones. Feeling good. Going to be including $33f into my grinds now so this should start to get really interesting.

Starting a grind for tonight now.

I am getting rid of nearly all of the turbos as i always seem to disregard how to play them properly when i have all of the other standard structure tourns on the go.

Including more 6 max because i won one yesterday and came second in one the day before and generally just am a much better 6 max player.

Gone back into my room to grind where the two external monitors are because i want to play more than 12 tables and i can't really do that on the laptop alone. Trying a stiffer chair to help my back out.

Don't look to me if you want an interesting blog, look elsewhere, atm this is just me taking care of business. :)

Knew this comment would come back to haunt me.

As i said i went back to my old grind station in my room today and my back was killing me throughout because of the stance i have to adapt because of my desk and chair. This led me to be slightly stressed throughout play and i wasn't concentrating as well as i could have. I registered for about 14 tourns between 18.30 and 20.00 before i realised to gtfo of all the rest because i wasn't in the right frame of mind.

I also realised that i had no food prepared for the grind which was a rookie error, as i had just had a haircut and came back at 6.20pm and all i could think about was getting registered for the 6.30pm tourns and when i did that 3 tourns soon became 6 or 7 by 7pm then i was in a position where i couldn't move all night. Think you all know what happened next.

In my haste i ordered a dominos pizza. Now, i did so in a bit of an angry manner as i wasn't very happy and i think that is why i called in the first place as it was a comfort food order. I probably could have taken the 5 mins hit to make a sandwich and come back to playing but no i get suckered into the £9.99 buy any pizza any size deal which i did, but when you go dominos you have to also buy chicken dippers and their cookies as well. GG waistline.

I realised i had made a mistake 2 slices in and thought i will eat as much as i can tonight to put myself off pizza for the rest of my life. This logic is clearly for the win obv. I now lie in bed with redic indigestion and i hate my life. Any guesses to how much of the large pizza 6 chicken strips and 4 cookies that i had eaten before i could take nor more?

Realised tonight that i can never really use a desk chair for any sort of poker play because my back can't handle it. I need to be in a really soft sinking chair and in a leaning back position to really relive the lower back. The sofa chair i have in the other room really is super comfortable and something like that is what i need to be grinding from because when i am on that i seem to have no excuses about any of my plays, i am just contented and playing some awesome poker. I then have to have a shoe box to elevate the laptop higher on my lap so i can see the poker tables clearly.

In the three nights on the sofa chair i have won £2500/$4049 winning 4 tourns and cashing heads up twice and other high final table spots. I was playing 12 tables as if i was playing one such was my comfort and control and i was really enjoying myself. However when i am back at the desk i am erratic, i make plays i shouldn't and i am always quick to find an excuse about something.

Well now i know for the first time that i need to be sitting on a chair similar to the one in my living room and need to try and build, or get someone to build a custom desk around a low lying sofa chair that can support a laptop and two external monitors. I have tried just using chairs to have around the sofa chair to hold the laptpop and monitors but they are annoyingly too far for me to comfortably see the tables. I need something to be holding the monitors quite close to my face when grinding so the tables are clear to see and most importantly i need them on eye level. Very hard to get when you are on a chair so low.

Maybe i can look into higher seated sofa chairs and still try to use my desk set up? I don't know. All i do know is that i can't play more than 12 tables with the current set up i have with the sofa chair as i need the external monitors to support more and would like to know in that comfort how many i could play well. Got a lot of work to sort out on that front before i next attempt a 16 table grind, but until then i can comfortably play on 12 tables, so definitely not the end of the world.

My love for the game has been revived recently because of the comfort i have been getting on that chair, of which i have mentioned a redic amount of times in this piece but i want you to know about it because i hope for great things with it. Its sooooo comfortable, i just never want to get up when i sit on it. It is something that has been missing in my life and now i have found it i feel complete.

You looked into those hospital type trolley desk things (I think I mentioned these a while ago on here ????) that have adjustable height and could slide under the sofa.  also, what is wrong with your back ? would getting fit, doing some yoga help ??? It would defo help with the state of mind if nothing else.   However, do pizza's get covered in that shizz that makes them morish ?? As I'm also a sicko for pizza once I start.....It is the food of the gods imo !!!!

The other thing from the above....Why the Fk rush to start ??? not like there aint enough tournies gonna kick off.  rushing is a back thing.  I have really tried to stop that myself and even tougher as my sessions are short and 180 manners anyway (I work and play evenings), but I would prefer to play an hour less but get a run in and some munch in a relaxed manner rather than not exercise and eat something shit just to eat.  No idea if that actually helps my poker playing, but I feel mentally better for it.

GL with the grind....Get a proper life/poker schedule imo, including meals and exercise and even say a 3 hour window in there for chilling or summin.

BTW, imo, a schedule is up there in importance levels with most things in poker yet is probably the most overlooked

Sound advice.

Yeh before you did mention the hospital desk thingy and i took that on board but quickly got back into old habits. I have a back condition btw that sort of can't get that much better however much i exercise but i do need to make sure i don't further aggravate it but that is all i seem to be doing. I need a chair that won't have me in pain while i play, and i need to set it up so that is what will happen. The soft chair is amazing as i forget i even have a problem, but with nearly all other desk chairs i notice my back immediately and it is always playing on my mind, making fast decision making much harder and my poker multi tabling abilities much worse. It is funny how i am only realising now the importance of the perfect set up for sound poker play. Before i wasn't really analysing what worked and what didn't but now i know what will work i just need to set up how i can make it happen.

Getting a schedule is crucial but i don't have one just yet and i am not keen to get one with me retaking half my degree course for the next academic year and me not knowing what days i will need to be in and how much time i will need to give myself to properly study. I will find out later this month. The main reason i am retaking is because i had the problem with scheduling. I wouldn't be on top of anything so eventually i wasn't doing anything to the ability i have got. I am making sure now not to make the same mistake.

Rushing into playing is also a shit idea, i agree. I am making sure if i am planning to play for 12 hours straight, like i am capable of, i am going to have all of what i need within arms distance so i can eat/drink and give myself the energy needed to maintain high concentration levels for a very long period of time. I am basically trying to crack the nut of the perfect grind and realise i am starting from a little behind everyone else with my back problem but i could well be in front of others with how well i play loads of tables for long periods of time. I know not that many people can hack the computer screen for that long a period and to know that i can which is always a plus.

Even with that though it has had its pitfalls. With the amount of time i play and have played in the past i have reading/computer glasses and also when the glare from the computer gets too much i get another pair of sports sunglasses over the top to help me concentrate. As well as the computer makes you blink a lot less i notice my eyes dry very quickly which makes me irritable and so i have recently been adding eye drops to help out. With all things in place along with the chair to help my back out it means i need't have any lingering annoyances and i just concentrate on pwnage.

http://www.google.ie/search?q=kneeling+chair&hl=en&rlz=1C1AVSX_enIE400IE400&prmd=ivnsr&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=nuhgTqDTJoi1hAfskK0f&ved=0CI4BELAE&biw=1081&bih=767


might be worth looking up?    test first ofc but could be what you need

Nice one will have to give it a test try.

I am off out soon to watch Ireland take on Slovakia at my local Irish pub. We really need to win as we are joint 1st with Russia and Slovakia and with Russia away to come we need to get these three points to try and secure second place and if a mini miracle happens we could then go onto Russia and get a cheeky 3 points. I am Irish descent and have always felt more associated towards supporting Ireland over England. Can't quite put my finger why i consider myself more Irish than English, when i have been born and raised here, but when it comes to football there is no choice for me.

I faintly remember at 5 years old the reaction from the rest of my family when Ray Houghton scored that beautiful lob against Italy in WC 1994 and how we all went crazy. Similarly i remember the pain of going out on penalties against Spain in the world cup of 2002 knowing that was our real shot of getting a shock semi final entry, especially if Roy Keane could have dealt with staying on with our team that year! The massive highlight was obviously Roy Keane's goal in the last minute against Germany in the group stages to make it 1-1, i can remember watching it at home, seeing the goal go in, which was orchestrated from only a hoof up the pitch and proceeding to open the front door get into the middle of the road and going completely mental.

Jason Mcateer's goal against the Dutch when we won 1-0 at Lansdowne road in 2001 was a big deal as well, remember going completely crazy in a pub for that one. The whole game we were being pummelled and the team we beat on that day had Van Nistlerooy and other world stars but we kept them goalless to knock them out of the world cup before they even got there.

Would have to say that is not my favourite feeling as an Irish supporter. It came from a game i doubt any of you could have guessed and that was with France at the Stade de France where Thierry Henry decided to play his own form of Gaelic football and proceed to cross the ball to Gallas who then poked home to knock us out.

I was desperate to get to watch that game live in the stands. I had applied for an away end ticket but soon realised that i had norfolk enchance as i had gone to no away games previously. I then looked online at the home end and saw a couple for the third tier in the home stands on a ticket reseller site and decided to buy them for myself and my sister to go and watch.

When we got into the stadium i have never felt an atmosphere like it just before kick off, it completely blew me away. 80,000 odd all cheering. I am used to the noise at Selhurst Park but this was something to behold, real spine tingling stuff. Adding to the fact that Ireland needed to win on the night after being 0-1 down in the home leg, it was always going to be a stereotypically tense Irish affair as it always bloody is!

I was surrounded by the home support obviously and i was definitely a little bit nervous about concealing my Irish identity, going to the point of wearing a jacket over my green jersey just in case it got a little rowdy inside, but just before kick off there was absolutely no chance of that and i took the jacket off with aplomb whilst standing making sure they all knew where i was sitting. Never before was i anticipating a match on this sort of level and i was buzzing. There were also some Irish fans scattered all over the section i was in so there was a bit of distant head nodding of recognition from afar as we were planning to do the impossible on the pitch and get something from the night.

Now this next part is a feeling that has never been matched at any point of my life and is going to be where the bar stands in terms of the best moment i have ever experienced. Feeling really nervous and edgy as i always do in Ireland big games, when Damien Duff evaded France's right back and ran down the line i thought, right, he has a free run here this could be tasty, when i saw he had cut it back to Robbie Keane and he was getting a free strike at it i thought wow this could be good, all the time i might add expecting something to go wrong. Then i see him side foot it into the corner of the goal at a agonisingly slow pace but the accuracy was perfect and i saw it go into the net.

Now. I looked straight over to the linesman thinking this can't be real he must have his flag up, completely ignoring the fact Duff had played the ball BACKWARDS to Keane, and after those two seconds of initial shock and confirmation it was a goal i roared a shout that i have never matched since.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS

YESSSS   YESSSSSS   YESSSSSS    YESSS     YESSSSSSSS

I just continued to shout that over and over. I was on an aisle seat and ended up about 5 rows down from my seating going up and down the stairs completely off my head. My shoulders were hurting from the excessive and aggressive fist shaking. It felt like i was the only one in the stadium celebrating the goal as when it went in the fan noise quickly turned to silence. I could clearly see the Ireland fans going crazy in the distance and it was muffled cheers as our supports allocation was so small and the France fans heftily outweighed us. I felt isolated but that added to the thrill i was literally in enemy territory and basically doing the windmill to all of these French fans. It was a total disregard of where i was, and i seemed to get absolutely no trouble. Mainly because i think at 6'3 and edging towards 20stone when a man like that goes off his head you let him do his thing and don't get in his way. It was the best thing i have ever experienced.

The rest of the game was just hard toil to deal with. Ireland squandering golden opportunities to finish the game within the 90 mins and we eventually lose. I never really did care too much about the Henry incident because i would have probably done the same in his position, but regardless of that i want to share with you my top 4 moments that really hit home.

4. YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXauYVy_dws

3. YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePNST9aczFI

2. YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFQOoSUbnBs

1. No need to watch after 1.10 YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8NN_vry88w

Not sure how much i am up because i haven't added it all up yet.

Deffo at least break even and thought i did alright tonight. came third in two tournies which was slightly annoying considering the pay jumps but i know if i keep plugging away it will all come good in the end. Enjoying it and hopefully won't be too long before i have a comfortable roll.

Deciding now that I need to take logs on all expenditure and make sure I make savings where I can so that I protect my prof and can save more. I waste the most money when going out and am currently having my br stay still as I pay for silly lifestyle expenses.

Tempted to get on the water on all nights out and to eat well at home on a budget and avoid restaurants full stop. Takeaways need to gtfo aswell.

Hope amatay and Greekstein a safe and fun trip aswell btw!

Yeah I generally waste most of my money going out, as opposed to staying in  :P

Right. You have opened up your thread to a whole lot of pain from me :p

Haha

Just watched my bro play centre back for croydon fc. They're in the combined counties premier division. 8 leagues away from the premier league just to let you know :). The standard really isn't that good and I know I can slot in if I was fit and I have the first real impetus to train very hard so I can make a shot at it. I'm 22 and think young enough to turn the negligence of my body around, get rid of the belly overhang that actually can be lifted up and down and see what it is like to be nimble.

The ability to run without ruining my knees on impact, the chance to get from one place to another without waddling, the chance to see my cheek bones. Tonight has hit me hard. I really want to get out to the park and just do shuttle runs and the sort and improve my agility and just keep at it until the weight and my movement improves until the evidence of my slothful past is behind me.

I sound down on myself but I'm not. I'm just now determined to make a shot at serious football to see how far up or how low I can go and never have a nagging question hanging over me into old age of what if?

On the poker front I went to the opticians for an eye test and they told me I have been using the wrong glasses all along for poker. I was prescribed distance glasses instead of reading ones and always thought my bad concentration levels and irritability was coming from something  and when those new badboys come in I should be more content.

Have had a small winning session on Monday btw, and will be blogging more about that when I have my routine up and running by the end of the month when I get my uni schedule. I will be going much harder at grinding then and I can't wait until I play without an excuse to turn to because my preparation is spot on.

Also off to Leeds on Saturday supporting palace and hope for all the best and for this dream start we have had to continue.

Playing a high end grind tonight with my bankroll

It is going to be a layout of about 1/5 of my poker bankroll. Playing less tables though so around 9-12 only at a time and not getting crazy with any more. The nature of the tourns as well is mainly 100-200 entrants ones where i could hope to reduce variance as i won't be playing the 1000+ ones.

Playing a lot of 6 max as well as my results in these tourns are just drastically better than the full ring 9 and 10 seaters. I think this is because my mid game is poor in the full rings in not manoeuvring my 20-30bbs stack well enough and not putting in enough 3 bets in position. However if i get a run of cards and develop a comfortable stack of 40+ i am often very good at pampering this stack with coy plays, but lower and i tighten up a bit too much until i only have 10 bbs left and i am then in a lot of trouble.

My final table game i feel is my best element and i think playing 6 max most resembles the sort of aggression you need on a final table to thwart your opponents. The way i will combat my mid game lameness in the full ring is to just be aware of my stack dwindling and push my stack around in spots i don't normally do but could well work. Always looking for the non showdown route for chip nurturing. Also i get put off by the amount of players on the table in the full ring games as its more dangerous to be aggro as its more likely someone has a hand.

I know i said i was going to wait until i got my glasses in to grind but I'm ill disciplined and think i should be okay. Saying that with only three tables atm, if i see at 6 i am struggling, then i will unregister from all the rest of the other tourns.

How did this go Ant? and how much did u layout in the end? - What was your highest buy-ins etc?

Cheers for the interest. I am not sure how much exactly i laid out. I know that i got rid of most of the grind after 8.30pm because i was getting restless. I had a 7th place finish in a $33 entry 6 max and got $180 back and i think that was my only cash. Highest buy in was a $55f but this was a one off as the tourn in question i have a big roi in and is a very nice value shot.

The $180 cash was unfortunate as i had Q10 and raised into the bb from the dealer button and he called with just us two to the flop. It came 1086, he checked, i raised, he reraised and me knowing he knew i like to be quite aggro thought that he was just trying to make a statement with less than Q10 so i re reraised all in and he called with 89 and he got there. I know i have given you nothing of blinds or anything but i cba to remember that.

Would have left me chip leader in a 6max tourn and i really would have pushed the accelerator down to keep my domination going, and i would like to think i would have won the $900 1st place. Weren't meant to be though and beats like that don't really affect me at all, it is only when i get my money in bad that i always look to find out what it is i did wrong in my judgement making.

Not sure if i was up or down last night but do know that i am down on my overall monies about $400 since last week, and i have probably spent about that in what i have been up to. So would say i am around break even for the last weeks play. If you are wondering how i worked that out i keep a list of where all my money is and just update it when i can be bothered, so it took me a week to do this which is pretty unacceptable really. Need to do a massive overhaul of my organisation and am now going to bore you with how i plan to do that.

I am now deciding not to play again until i make a list with different sections defining each tournament I'm interested in. Probably going to be the buy in, what site, time, how many runners predicted, blind structure notes (time they go up, starting stack, how the blinds go up under what increments). General feelings on the tourn (have i done well in it before, do i feel i have a good edge in it, do people in this tournament like to limp strong or weak, am i generally in the know about what to do to certain types of bets because this varies greatly from site to site), layout of the table/site nice enough for me to feel comfortable in a grind with and anything else which i feel is pertinent.

Want to do the above because i notice that i feel disconnected from certain sites and the styles of play on there. This is because i sometimes am used to a winning formula on one site and transfer it over to another but realised i do a lot worse with it. I need to have a decent study of each tournament i enter because i know at the moment i am dead money in some but am great money in others, and i don't want any dead weight messing up my profitability which i know it is doing right now. So i need to make sure every tournament i play i know exactly how to play it as profitably as possible.

I can then log my results of each tournament and a little section for notes on how i think i played in it, and if i am not happy with any of my plays or if i feel i blinded down too easily i can look to change that with future plays. I can also have a look that if in 10 consecutive sessions i have failed in that tournament then maybe its not for me and it needs to be dropped especially if i feel i am being outclassed rather than unlucky through variance.

With this i can then tally all the tourns i plan to play in a night, total the buy ins up, if it is way too much i need to get rid of some or draft in some lower buy in ones. Will need to update the BR after each days play as well to keep fully on top and will also do a similar list for my life expenditure. This is pretty low at the moment because i get mates rates from my parents fro rent, who i live with, but i seem to not be taking advantage of this by fucking about way too much with silly purchases. Will be making a list again of where all my monies go and where i can make cuts and always be looking for ways to keep as much money as possible!

The main drawback for me is always getting takeaways which are expensive, especially Indian's/Pizza. Also getting ciders on a night out at £4.00 a pop can add up quite quickly, with club entry and the sort. Also acting the big man and getting rounds can just hurt but i do this rarely as i normally go much slower than my mates with drink so they can gtfo.

I am probably going to be shocked about how much cheaper my food bill will be when i decide to use the kitchen to cook instead of using my phone to order.

Need to get my set up on point as well. I need to find out what chair i can use at a desk that can help with my dodgy back and not piss me off. Often when at the desk i am moving too much because i am unsettled which aggravates me and then anything can happen with my grind, just completely erratic. Been given good advice by readers of this blog about different chairs and set ups but i have to find out what will be best and need to look into where i could go in person to try new setups out, maybe in desk shops or something. I am not sure. I do know that i could probably purchase a chair online and if i don't like it i could send it back and i might just keep doing that until i get a perfect fit with the desk and chair.

It might be the case that i can't deal with sitting up right at all for too long, such is the annoyance i have with my back and if that is the case i would need to get an elevated sofa chair where i can sort of recline, but be surrounded by the monitors so i can play on more than 12 tables. It is a headache but i need to put the work in to get the setup right and make sure that it is so good that the comfort i get from it will make me want to grind all day everyday.

I think this overhaul of how i deal with my finances/setup will really have me on top of things and make me much more confident when attempting a successful grind as i have no lingering doubts about anything and i can just concentrate on my game play and look to start owing people. Its the legwork that is needed for a nice steady rise to a comfortable bankroll, which i don't have yet, but with all of this work and a good study of my gameplay, i can get there eventually. I just want to make sure i am doing all i can to make this happen.

Nice post, I'm sure if u put your mind to it, u can achieve what u want, As long as u climb that mountain steadily, then u are highly unlikely to come toppling down from it, so take your time and be sure with what's right for u.

Maybe look at doing spreadsheets, I find these are really easy to keep track of different comps u play each day, and easy on the eye to.

I think u can get a massage chair online, but I think it's pretty expensive, if you can affors some sort of chair like that, I would probably vear to amking that 'one off' purchase, and quit take aways for a couple of weeks, to justify spending that amount of money on one thing, having said that, it sounds like a major element in your game in order for u to play the best u can, so I would seriously consider it.

U talk about different sites, obv I know u don't like saying your names on here, but what sites do u play on atm, and which ones do u prefer?, If u were only allowed to play on 2 sites maximum which ones would they be and why?

Really hope it works out for you, keep this updated

gl

dreenie

If yr not playing til u decide yr schedule and the games, why not watch some of the games from mid late stages and see if u can get a feel and make notes whilst watching ? (if that is not in yr plan).

Good luck on the fitness.  If yr pretty overweight, it should fall off to start if yr eating better, drinking less and doing exercise where u aren't already.  Maybe sign for a lower league team where u can get a game to start ? extra fitnes work and will start to imrove yr touch and get u back into it.  also, and additional weight loss thing.

And if u like it, drink mainly water, fridge it a bottle for the start of a sesh. 

Good luck with it all

Figured now i can only play 12-14 tables max and will only register for tourns that accommodate this.

I also have the perfect setup finally, pretty ingenious i feel, despite it looking ramshackle. Picture(s) to follow soon.

Today i won a tourn for $550, but have otherwise registered way above my br because i was in very high spirits today and am failing a little bit. Have 15 tourns left for the night, 12 of which i am playing now.

Disappointed with a couple of my plays today, but hopefully i can recoup now.

You retired ?

where's the pics ?

^^ yeah how u been getting on Ant?, you been winning lately? Hope your well m8

Sorry about the delay in updating this guys.

I have been sorting some uni stuff out and have sort of only been playing poker sporadically.

I have had some nice binkages recently though, the best of which included a $2700 up night which has really made my BR somewhat comfortable for the games i would like to play. Progressing carefully though.

Also, I realised that i cannot play a low buy in, say $22 with 300 runners or more that has something like 15 mins blinds. It takes about 7 hours if you do win in taking it down and the amount of concentration you have to give to play these types of tourns could be better invested in playing a higher buy in game with a lower amount of entrants to enhance immediate profitability chances. Plus it kills to have played for 5-6 hours and only get $22 back for your efforts (min cash).

So i have decided to implement a strategy for the time being that i will stick to and then reassess, in playing satellites into tournaments of $100+ knowing that i am good money amongst others i am vying with and also knowing that if i do qualify for the target tournament i will be playing that with all the firepower i have got because i know that serious money is at stake even if i am to min cash. This gives me a massive impetus to stay concentrating all the time and always, hopefully, be sweating a nice cash on a nightly basis.

Along with this I am going to have my bread and butter tourns that I consistently get results in. These tend to be games with blind structures that support action and I am always feeling involved when I play in these. I get annoyed when the game is playing too slow, but as annoyed when it is too quick, but the middle ground is something nice. This is normally 10-12 mins blinds and a starting stack of say 1500 or 2000, normally anything over 3000 chips to start and say 15 mins blinds, makes me want to gouge my eyes out before too long and eventually has me tilting across the board in all tournaments I am in. Perhaps I need to work on my patience, I don’t know! However that blind structure I do absolutely fine in if the buy in is quite high and there is a lot to shoot for. The slow $22 games and below are now well and truly gone from my schedule.

Sorted the setup and I am finally proud of it. I have found a way of making my desk chair good for me to sit on for long hours by having pillows to support, and that means I am in a much better position to use two monitors to grind. I am hopeful I will eventually accustom myself to 16 tables but I have never got around to playing this as I have always had a problem with something. The only problem that remains is eyes with the computer. I have always had a problem with looking at a computer screen for any length of time and noticed that wearing tints or shades help a lot, but sometimes they don’t with my eyes going funky on me. Mainly in getting red and irritable and having to deal with that when multiabling is literally your worst nightmare and ridiculously stressful knowing you have a big outlay on the go but are failing to properly protect and nurture it.

Been trying eye drops for dry eyes, a glare protector for the computer screen, adjusting the brightness/contrast setting, wearing glasses for a very small prescription and having some sort of shades on. I have done all of these things but never at the same time. I am going to prepare for my next grind like a military operation so I can finally not be annoyed that I am not even entering the games well prepared in this way. Hopefully doing all of the above at the same time will quell the eye problem and if it does I will be ecstatic.

Picture of the grind set up I have now is very much like the one I posted previously on here, so I needn’t bother with that.

On the weight loss front I have decided to make a crazy bet with my younger brother who is 18 and a semi pro footballer, with an athletic build and about 14stone and 6’2. I decided to bet him that I will beat him in a 100m sprint 5months from now. I weigh 20 stone plus and have an inch on him, so by the looks of things I need to shed at least 5 stone to have any chance, and I don’t even think that is possible in the timeframe. I have always been an athlete in a fat man’s body though and did have a promising semi pro goalkeeping career ahead of me before injury tainted that at 18 and I basically went on the pies ever since and my weight has yo yo’d since then.

Using it as an impetus to get me out jogging and to really get me fired up to not embarrass myself because I did announce this bet on facebook which was met with so many comments saying I haven’t a chance that I found it inspiring to make sure I prove that I can give my bro a close race. The money I set to lose isn’t important really, I just want to have a noticeable weightloss and I want fitness levels to be improved to something like they were before. My hope is that when I get through the crap early stages of not being able to run for too long without resting, and develop better muscle endurance, I can be using my exercise time to burn more calories quicker, which means if the weightloss starts slowly with me it will probably pick up as I get fitter as I will be pushing my body harder and harder to be primed for the race.

The bet is his £50 to my £25 and as soon as this went up on facebook, Greekstein chimed in with  “you're drawing dead. Want another 50 quid on with me? I'll lay 2/1” Cheeky so and so. I negotiated 2.5/1 and the bet was on with him. Even though realistically this is a 10/1 shot for me anyway, maybe even longer odds, but I want these unfavourable conditions to spur me on even more.

This post is a biggie, but there was a lot of stuff to cover and I always over explain things anyway. Should be more concise with my updates on here but that wouldn’t be me, so if you are kind enough to have actually read the lot then fair play to you and I will try to carry on feeding your weird taste in blog entries.

tl:dr

btw Eamon gonna burn you in that race

Taking some time off to revise some of the maths involved in tourn poker and looking at shoving ranges and how to be a good loose aggro player. Then hopefully adopting it across around 12 tabs.

Finally got the hud to work but now have to configure it, not going to start a grind again until it is up and ready and looking forward to playing with more info on players.

Had a bit of a shot this last Sunday btw and its forced my hand to take prep more seriously and so starts my overhaul now, trying to leave no stone unturned and gonna see if it helps me at all. Bring on the mad binks imo.

Noticed recently despite having a positive ROI in the games I'm playing, I'm still getting annoyed about what to do in questionable spots. When they arise it can mess up the flow of how I am playing on other tables. So I am going to get studying online to see if I can shine light a bit on the maths I need to know in order to be comfortable making different types of moves.

Will give you one for example, how likely is it that I will hit a favourable flop with 78suited? One that has my percentage of winning probably around 45%+ against different types of ranges from the oppo? Or knowing when the percentage chance of me bluffing all in on the turn is favourable according to flop and turn texture, hand ranges, chip stacks and his likelihood to see right through me. Some maths I am foggy over, and I am gonna do some rummaging online to try and put my mind at ease with every spot I can come up against.

I know poker hand calculator will give me an idea about this, along with pokerstove for hand ranges and having the HUD will help build a character profile, but I need to put the revising in to make things easier for myself.

I will put up what I found interesting about anything I have come across. I know this must make me look like a noob but I'm still winning anyway, just want to win more :)

What you find sir ?

Anything of interest ?

Mainly that i am well and truly out of my depth in a lot of the games. What i find myself doing is playing well when i have a deep stack late on in tourns and i only have 3 tables left and i go on to get a high finish in this spot. As i have fewer tables to concentrate on and i am able to make a few mistakes with different moves with my big stack but ultimately i get more chips. I think this sort of scenario is what is getting me my positive ROI, the ability to save the leaks i have when i am multi-tabling, by my play late on in tourns that save the rest.

I lose too many chips early on in a tourney when i get open raising and have about 4 callers behind and see myself having to give away a lot of my cards. As well i don't react well to any sort of 3 bet assuming that it is strong a lot of the time. Mainly because i play a lot of softer tourns where this is the case and other sites where players do this all the time, and its hard to gauge what to do when.

I have the HUD half set up now in that i can finally open HEM, its logging all the histories i have in stock, i just need to sort out the HUD settings. This should be great once i get it going and i also need to watch more training vids because i am still unsure about certain spots. What to do with a 20 bbs stack is a biggun, if i get 88 from mid pos and i can open it is a weird spot, as if i min bet and get three bet, im not sure what to do as the oppo is surely going to call the AI over the top and likely have me covered and adversely what if i get two callers behind, i basically need to make a set.

I don't float nearly as much as i should in position and i don't 3 bet that much in position without the nuts, i don't double/triple barrel bluff too much and also because i don't do it too much i wouldn't know how much i would need at my stack to do all of this effectively with what blinds are in play. I think for me to try out and test what plays i think would be optimum in what spot, i would need to be playing low stakes for me, so i am not too scared about losing and would need to have the HUD set up.

Then i just need to make sure im not playing too many tables and hopefully bob's your uncle and i develop a much better game. The main problem with me is i play too many tables and play too poorly automated on all. I think i can only go back up to 12+ when i actually know how to play tourn poker as well i should, having better knowledge of all different spots and never halting mid game perplexed by a spot.

Looked up the maths in poker and can't believe i was so foggy on them before, namely what are the chances of certain hands hitting by the turn or river. I already knew how to calculate it but i wouldn't be able to do it on the spot with so much going on, so i have put a lot of revision in and now know all from the top of my head to help when multi-tabling. Also it helps me in what sort of hands i should be calling with pre knowing their ability to catch up by the turn or river against the premium cards or what not.

Need to make sure that i don't go back into old routines and just load up all the regular games, because i am not playing them properly. Need to play less tables, try new things out and hopefully learn how to play more effectively.

what networks do u play?

Pokerstars, DTD, Will Hill, Party mainly.

i see i might start doing something similar to you thats all. grinding aroll on dtd atm and its going well atm


just wanted to see what sites ur grinding on cos i think we might play similar schedules

probs abit lower than u tho

Ah nice. Had any big scores on there recently?

not big big
1k
 lots of 300-500 range

Well there is only one tournament a week on there where you can get into 5 figures, so you are doing well. My perceiving of big means 500 scores, i only ever play tourns with a max 1st place of at most about 1500. Only ever had a highest online score of $7500, which is pretty small considering i have been playing tournaments solidly for 4+ years, but i think that shows you how much i only ever really play the small fields and with that score anyway i think it was a 140 manner 90 cubed

My confidence is rock bottom at the moment, need to get the enjoyment back from the game, that will only come when i get my head around the changing dynamic of tourn poker. Trying to relive the olden days when things were much simpler, 3 bets meant they had it and the min open bet just never happened. Need to get with the program or be left behind!

I'm prone to throwing the toys out of the pram btw, probably will shut up moaning with a bit of kind variance.

what tourney gives u 5 fig score? the 50k head hunter thats only 7k FTW but its a good tourney that

Just realised the last message was blank, was just going to day 7000 euros is close enough to a 5 figure score when converted to $.

I'm decently rolled atm to play all the low - medium stake tourns I want, but I am to watch some training bods and sort the hud.

Off to watch the palace tonight aswell, if we win its our best start to a campaign in 6 years, up the eagles!

*training vids. Predictive text!

9/44 in a 55f on pokerstars, name anup returns if u fancy a rail, would love the $2k bink!

out 2 from the bubble with QK<A6 9 bbs shove. ouch.

Search player name "anup returns" on pokerstars if you wanna see how to mess up a 15/214 with $13k ish FTW

72/83

and out in 60th!

Finally playing a grind that i feel i have a great edge in and have been winning consistently. Will be interesting to see how i get on over a very long sample, but i have a clear strategy now with the tourns i play and i am very comfortable.

Made sure the tourns i play are of the same ilk because before they all had different structures and i was playing turbos like slow structures and slow like turbos too often and i would be making confused plays.

Made things simple and i am enjoying it. Think i might be happy because of a bit of kind variance though, so i can only really judge if i have picked a good grind after 6 months maybe.

Being careful with the bankroll which is great and my upbeat outlook about this new grind is rubbing off on the play. Been climbing up the limits pretty quickly and have myself playing 55 dolla tourns as my average. Will post up how days get on without trying to make it too boring.

I set the line at 4 sessions before you completely change everything again

i'll take unders

lol good stuff.

in more detail its me playing only quicker structured tourns, 5 mins blinds and the sort with steep blind increases. have tried playing pokerstars turbos but i find these too slow, do like their 2x turbo rebuys and hyper turbos though and despite the 82 dolla ones being a bit rich im adding them to my grind because they fit right into the type of tourn i wanna play.

probably a reaction to me not being the best poker player tbh, wanting to avoid the slower structures and deep post flop play to just hurl my chips in pre flop and make wide calls to those i feel are at it. i hope to build my roll up in this way and only go back to the slower tourns once i get to the bottom of my leaks because i am pretty terrible. probably a lot to do with my patience and if this improves the likelihood of me changing my grind once again, lol, is quite high.

gonna put up how much i am wagering each night along with how much i cash for, and any leaks in my play that i can improve for the next day.

Ur gonna go broke pretty quickly playing hyper turbs if you're not rolled to play them. Very high variance

You've played 1000's of games. How is just playing more going to help you fix the leaks you admit to?

Why don't you actually do something proactive away from the table to get better?

I'm being proactive away from the table with my game as well as playing the turbos side by side. Can afford to do this because my turbo game is pretty good and I think I can turn a profit in them. I have been in the last two weeks, small sample I know but if I look back at the years I have been playing the structures built around pre flop play is where I have made most of my money.

Also means I can carry on turning a profit as I study the slower structures. It's very good that I can just relax and read into hh's and look at forum posts on how to play better without feeling I am still currently playing terribly. Also obviously work on my turbo game as well.

Not playing online tonight, playing live with mates but setting a lot of time today aside to do some poker revision.

dont want staking for cah? mtts ftl :)

Good read.  How is your roll compared to start?  Are you sticking to schedule you have highlighted.  Just read your diary from start today and quite an interesting read, seems tho that you aren't quite settled into a routine yet?

GLGLGLGLGL.

So your playing on stars now ? and the turbo tourneys ? do you mix in the 180s ?

what %age of your roll to u stake anight?

not too sure if i should play on other euro sites or just grind hard and start playing the circuit

As soon as i get the hud fully up and running, which i am committing the whole of tonight to, i am going to experiment on my own some cash games underolled. 4 tabling at first and see what is up. Will probably have to sit in a game for a while though for my hud to have enough hands to paint a picture of anyone but will be interesting to see how much cash has changed since i last tried and failed at it.

Interested in expanding my game theory though, and may consider the staking for a while just for the coaching aspect.

Cheers for the read.

My roll is less than at the start i believe but at no point have i seriously sat down and approached my game logically. Perhaps now i am though. I know now i am not the finished article and i have a number of things to do before i can ever get close. plus there is no such thing as a finished article anyway i might add, because poker players always have to keep learning and adapt.

I'm not settled into a grind yet you are quite right but i think i eventually soon will be with more knowledge of my leaks and each of the slower structured games that i would like to play. At the moment i have a solid knowledge of how to play very quick structured games that play relatively deep. My thought process on that is because for the last 4 years this is where i have made the most money from poker but i wouldn't realise this as i had so many more different tourns on the go. For the past week i have played turbo tourns and turbo rebuys exclusively to great nightly results. This may be kind variance but i feel i have a hold on the games. The coming months we will see what is what.

I am only playing the turbos until i am more adept at all the other forms of mtts, then when i have a working knowledge i am going to make sure i can adapt to different types of sit and go and then cash games, and then after that trying different poker disciplines like omaha and stud.

I am looking forward to the challenge that awaits and making sure i keep my eyes open to all the pitfalls i am going down. Going to give Jared Tendler's book a read while i am doing all this to make my flaws more apparent and eventually get to the promised land of never playing a stressed grind again.

Not just yet nope. I don't quite like the structure of the pokerstars turbos, but i like it when it is the rebuy format of turbo. That is why i am going to load up some 3rs sngs 180's and see how that goes. Then obv incorporate the other games in when i have a better understanding of them. Making sure i go into all the games i play with an understanding that will make me comfortable. Way too often have i gone into a grind with an element of fear from not having a full grasp and then the whole grinds goes to crap.

Looking to stake 5-10% a night depending on what type of tourns i am playing and if i am really comfortable with the format or not. The more money i win hopefully, the closer i can get to staking 5% a night.

Wouldn't know whether to grind the circuit or not, had one luckbox win of £5400 4 years ago, and have failed ever since basically. 

TYVM. You too on your cash adventures.

Loool  obv an avid reader of Monda's diary  ;nemesis;

I know! he moved over to blackjack ages ago.

Lol. I am intermittent reader on everyones blog, in and out, never getting the full picture, much like my own poker game :( No hate intended!

yeah we know i even see you frequenting mine from time to time to bok the bets  ;)
my current hero Monda is now back grinding the sng's

ha yeh i saw it only came 4th by a neck that horse, which was pain. Especially as i had a mate relaying the report of the race to me and embracing the pain he was about to inflict on me verbally.

My new rule with sports betting is to never back anything longer than 6/4 or shorter than 8/11 unless i feel the bet itself has a probability between that range but i can actually get 2/1. Then i am going to record all the bets i do and see if i turn a profit. Going to stick to this until i expand my knowledge about how to properly bet on sports.

There has to be a system no? Watched Moneyball last night, the film with Brad Pitt in which shines light on the statistics involved in Baseball and how using it made a team with no real budget get very close to winning the World Series. Oakland i believe it was. Jonah Hill also makes an appearance as his former fat self.

Talking of fat, i am this. I am going to eat less and exercise more and see what happens. Believe that is the optimum strategy there!

Lol never met you Ant but you are a legend! this diary reminds me of

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/6093/antsdiary.jpg[/img]](http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/6093/antsdiary.jpg) (http://[IMG)

Haha, nps obv.

Cool get in touch if this does happen. Patrick.leonard.ps

going to orange hq tonight with a sawed off shotgun after the internet connections dept. bstrds

tilt plus bad connectivity plus committed to a mass load of tourns i cant get out of = mass murder

if it settles down i might be able to turn the night around, tbh i shouldnt have started playing but here i am. havent moved all day when really i should have got some exercise in. O well lets write this one off.

don't worry lads, bill withers' soothing tones are mellowing me out.

Played bad last night because of my lack of prep, recovered nicely in the early hours though with some nice cashes on pokerstars.

On to today i have a big enough bet on the Stoke/Sunderland double, bumhunting Blackburn/Wigan. Hope it comes in.

Do u sports bet for fun or a way of making money ?

for fun, would say i am quite a bit down lifetime.

I'm sticking to poker and accumulators. Apparently Wigan's first goal should not have happened as it was a soft penno. O well.

Off out on the piss tonight for my sisters bday. Should be a laugh. O Yeh. Went to watch palace against millwall. 0-0. Missed a penalty as well. Bad day.

Haha, FU glenn murray. Your manager obviously didn't research how he missed both pens he took for us last season then.

That lad Barnes won't ever miss a penalty, he has a sound top left corner technique. What I would say to you though is don't let Murray loose at the amex, he will score, he will be a part of the winning team :)

Barnes missed 1 last year.

Haha, he was v good in that game. When he cares he is one of the best strikers in the Champ.

What did you think of Super Chrissy Martin, imo the lad has a lot of talent if he applies himself. Has been quite a devisive figure amongst supporters at Norwich, alot think he is lazy. I am of the other opinion that he is just one of those players that people don't appreciate because he doesn't run 100 miles every game.

Dougie Freedman is a little confused tbh. He has Martin playing centre mid when i would like to see him up front with Murray.

He loves to play a 4-5-1. Many a palace fan would like to see a 4-4-2 but i don't think it will happen. We won't get the best out of Martin here until he starts playing up front with a partner. 

Well probably won't be playing until Thursday now but had a great day yesterday playing the turbos winning in the region of $2500, which has my roll at $12.5k.

Playing a sort of limited grind in terms of choice of tourn if I don't use pokerstars, so I have decided to add the 7 tourns around the 75$ and above mark, and going as low as $2r. I think the plan is to carry on with this grind until the wheels fall off, because I am thriving from the swifter structure, making better plays, enjoying myself more and making more consistent money.

When I have a $50k roll from playing this I look to bring in slower structured tourns but ones where the money is worth the wait so probably min buy in $109, and make the rest up in cheaper turbos.


Up $4500 for the month of November so far, I hope to add to that when i next play, probably in Thursday night.

Up in Sheffield atm and going for a curry in rotherham, apparently a very good curry there so going to experience that, then stay in with a few beers with mates tonight, then out in Sheffield tomoz night.

Think I'm going to a place called viper, don't know if any of u have gd ideas about what to do? On weds night going to Manchester to watch palace at old trafford to rid my 17 away games without a win.