Do we have payouts for the HR?

Just been told these are the payouts:

1st: $30,555 (£20,000)
2nd: $18,333 (£12,000)
3rd: $12,222 (£8,000)
4th: $8,610 (£5,636)
5th: $6,875 (£4,500)
6th: $5,500 (£3,600)
7th: $4,582 (£3,000)
8th: $3,821 (£2,500)

Top five also receive a $3,500 WPT UK seat.

There's a table here with Ludovic Geilich sat next to David Peters and at the opposite end of the table is Ben Warrington and Charlie Combes. Combined live and online winnings in excess of $18 million! Pretty ridiculous for a £500 buy-in!

Rumours circulating that Amaya are set to buy bwin.party for £1.2 billion.

Just played and busted the Casino Employees event 144/876 with 90 paid.

Structure was terrible. 3k starting stack and hour levels starting at 25/50 then 100/200, 100/200/25a, 150/300/25a, 200/400/50a, 300/600/50a, 400/800/75a and not sure after that because I busted! Good fun though and proof that poker isn't anywhere near dead, especially tournament poker.

Will be there around the same dates so see you there for some drinks or a dinner somewhere!

Defo up for that.

Not confirmed, but everything crossed that I'll be there.

Have you applied for Media Creds yet? Accreditation opened 2 weeks ago. Guess Poker News do all that for you though?

It's on my to-do list for tomorrow. That and make sure my Esta is still valid!

[Viva Las Vegas]

Viva Las Vegas

So I have provisionally accepted an offer to go and work at the 2014 World Series of Poker with PokerNews. It's going to be a long, hard slog because in addition to the live reporting work I will have to maintain the UK site too. I'm going to be there from May 27 through July 7, which the Mrs is delighted about. She actually is. I'm sure she has wild parties while I am gone.

This means I am probably going to fly out May 24-25 and that gives me around 2 months to get my arse into gear and build a Vegas bankroll. The amount of work I will be doing leaves little time for anything else, but I still want to be able to go on the lash or play some poker on my days off without the cost affecting the Mrs and my boys back home. So, I guess the plan is the same as 2013 and that is to grind the titties off the 180 man games, throwing in some other MTTs at Stars and Full Tilt in the hope of a bink.

Which of you fine people are confirmed to be out there?

Kind of neglected this little corner of the internet, mainly because I've not been playing much poker.

After a relatively standard downswing, I lost all concentration and focus and started to play like a total tool and dicking around in games where I had hardly any edge at all -- think the Expresso games at Winamax and Twister on iJoker.

The mental side of things, and not just in poker, has always been an area where I struggle so I will be going through the Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2 again, stopping moaning about downswings and losing and getting back to doing what I do best and that is donking around in micro and low stakes MTTs.

I hear you on the "working from home is hard mkay" front. I've done this for five or six years now and it is really hard to keep yourself motivated when you're in your own house working.

I had a meeting in Leeds a few weeks ago and was genuinely excited about going into an office for the day and seeing actual people! That said, the drive into Leeds city centre during rush hour made me vow never to get an office job ever again!

[Operation Build a Vegas Bankroll]

Operation Build a Vegas Bankroll

Until today, I hadn't really made any plans for Las Vegas and the WSOP. I went to Sin City for the first time in 2013 and spent five weeks there working as a live reporter for PokerNews. Since the 2013 WSOP, I've only done one live reporting gig and that was in the godforsaken place of Milton Keynes.

Today I emailed my boss and asked if I am in his plans for reporting at the WSOP and he replied to say I am. After clearance from the Mrs, it looks like I will be heading to Vegas this summer -- well in a couple of months.

I have two choices:

• Hope the reporting deal is good and spend six weeks in Vegas
• Go out on my own steam for 2-3 weeks

The first option means I will be working an average of 5 days from 7 and having to do my other PokerNews work. Last year I rarely started work before 7:00pm so I had plenty of time to do my "normal" work and play some cash games on the strip. This option also means that my flights and accommodation are paid for, which is a huge cost for a fish like me.

The second option means that I would have to stump up some money for flights and accomodation, but I would be able to spend 2-3 weeks playing low buy-in tournaments and cash games in Vegas and be able to get the odd day's work if I wanted. This would also mean I would need a much larger bankroll as I'd be playing more.

Regardless of what option I end up with, I need to get my grind on to build a roll for crushing the $1/$2 and $1/$3 cash games and to play in a few of the low buy-in tournaments out there. I'd love to play in a WSOP event too, but unless I sell plenty of the action or manage to bink something online before heading to Vegas this is unlikely.

Which of you fishes are heading out this summer?

www.lingscars.com  no really, it's meant to look like that.

Also bear in mind that you will get creamed if you go over the agreed mileage limit.

Is this real or some sort of wind-up?

[LOL Variance -- Or is it?]

LOL Variance -- Or is it?

The 180 man turbos are starting to royally piss me off, actually that's the wrong term to use because I'm not angry at all, more frustrated by how things have been going in 2014.

I grinded quite a few of these in April and May last year in an attempt to build some funds for my Las Vegas bankroll as I was heading out as a reporter for a month. Everything went to plan and I made some moolah, which is always nice. Towards the end of 2013, I had a minus 10% ROI over 500 games, took a two month break from them and started mixing them into my schedule in 2014.

So far in 2014 I have a minus 14% ROI over 630 games. I've been going through key hands and I am sure it is variance because had a couple of hands actually held or villain not had the top 1% of his range when I shipped in my stack then this post would not even exist. For example, last night 4-handed at the FT an an $8, guy shoves 9bb from BTN with K7, I call A7, both flop a seven and he rivers a king. The way the stacks were I would have essentially locked up second place, instead I bust out soon after in 4th.

It seems every crucial spot has been like that for the past couple of months. What do I do? Just grind through it? My average buy-in is about $4 and I have over 500 buy-ins so I'm not afraid of going broke just yet, but would like to stop bleeding money at some point!

Played my first session -- if you can call 12 tournaments a session -- since playing in the UKPC Main Event and really enjoy it. Being seated with some legitimate stars at the UKPC made me realise how nitty I have been in some spots, so I opened up my game last night and really enjoyed myself, despite it being fruitless.

Had my QQ held against AK for a top 25 stack, I may have had another $3r final table to my name, but alas 298th was all I could muster.

I'm in two minds whether to ditch Stars and focus on smaller sites. I love everything about Stars with the exception of the ridiculously large field sizes. That said, I think I'm being a little results orientated as February has been completely ballbag in terms of results and I'm getting owned left right and centre, even in the 180s.

Pretty ridiculous weekend all round! Congrats!

Busted 91st in the Sky Poker UK Poker Championship Main Event with 81 places paid, was so wanting my first Hendon Mob flag -- wanted it more than the monies! Here's the cliffs:

• Played Day 1b
• Had Anton Wigg to my right all day, Richard Milner (GPS Stoke champ) to my left and Steve Watts to his left. Zimnan Ziyard joined to my right and when he busted he was replaced with Ludovic Geilich!
• Somehow ended with c.34k
• Day 2 had Barny Boatman to my right -- bloke's a true legend
• Doubled through Barny with 77 vs AQ
• Won a big pot with TT vs AJ
• Won another decent pot with TT
• Lost a decent sized pot with AhQh when I opened from the button and called a three-bet from the BB. BB leads queen-high flop, I call. Turn completes a flush, he bets again and I call. River is a blank, he asks how many chips I have (85k) and he bets 36k which is more than pot. I tank fold and he shows KK.
• Next hand after the one above, I open CO with JJ and BB jams all-in for like 60k! Says "I think you're on tilt." I call and he shows AJ with the ace of hearts. Board fucking four-flushes and I'm left with 10 bigs.
• Manage to get a few 3b shoves through and am sat with 25bb
• Drop to 10-15bb as bubble approaches
• Habitual limper woman limps UTG, Bulgarian guy who has isolated her everytime isolates as per and I 3b jam 12bb with pocket sevens. Limpers sigh folds, Bulgarian checks his cards -- I think he may have a KQ / AT type hand when he does this -- and calls with KK! Not even a sweat from board, FU.
• Hung around DTD for a bit drinking cider
• Went back to hotel around 730am!
• Got kicked out of room at 1:10pm as check out was 12:00pm
• Some how made it home without dying
• Slept from 5:00pm until 7:00am

Learned so much this weekend that you wouldn't believe. Made a few mistakes, but I am aware of them. Also managed to hold my own on a difficult starting table on Day 1b. Had the JJ vs AJ hand gone my way, I would have sailed through the bubble and beyond. Such is life.

Going to bink something online to make up for it!