It's Just a Ride

[VBlue]

Or this Cypress Hill t-shirt, which was one of the less blatant t-shirts I wore at that time:



Not the exact one, similar, but inferior.

[VBlue]

Celebrate Good Times

Come on.

It's easy for people to fall into the trap of using blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and real life talking to bemoan their situation in life, address their shortcomings; in essence to tell bad beat stories.

Psychologically, I was always taught in sales that it is important to celebrate victory.  I never see it as boasting or bragging if someone wants to share their successes in a positive manner.

So, I'm going to take stock in this post and just share some achievements - some small, some larger, as an exercise in appreciating my own efforts, and being thankful for what I have got.

Poker

• Completing six months worth of coaching and using the material to integrate into my game, resulting in identifiable improvements in my game.
• Took three additional coaching sessions with Black Belt pros in targeted subjects and have notes which I can return to in order to put the advice into action
• Continued to discuss mental game strategy with Jared Tendler through his forum and resolve some confidence and motivation issues by completing a Process Model and writing a Poker Mantra
• Played MTTs consistently and returned an ever improving ROI, including two outright tournament wins and consistent ITM finishes and improving on turning deep runs into FTs
• Got to Blackpool and made a profit and booked a second and third trip
• Started to play Speed Poker at 10nl and have teamed up with another 10nl player to play 5k hands per month and work on our games together

Personal

• Been a good Dad and got immeasurable pleasure from the Boy and from focusing on family
• Decided to 'stop drinking' for a while last month and have since drank a pint on one occasion and two pints on another.  No other alcohol.  I am quite enjoying not drinking and cannot see me returning to doing so with any regularity, or getting drunk in the foreseeable future
• Taken up learning Spanish again.  I have been listening to my Michel Thomas CDs to and from work most weekdays.  Puede hablar Espanol conmigo?
• Managed on a tight budget, not let lack of money dictate my mood, and resolved some debt.  Sold my motor last night.  Got a new car on a ridiculous good deal thanks to my Father-in-Law

Sure, there are some other things I haven't got around to yet.  There are lots of other little victories too.  Just a simple difference of perspective can make all the difference.

If you are having a difficult time - give yourself a break and look at all the things you have achieved and decide to celebrate them.  

[VBlue]

Just wanted to add a cliff-hanger, before I write a new entry proper over the weekend:

Lifetime

• Fulfilled an ambition of the last 10-12 years and performed a stand-up comedy set
• Got another ambition of several years ticked off - to be fully confirmed in coming day or two
• Achieved another goal for this year...to be confirmed

[VBlue]

Posting more has been difficult this last two weeks.  The boy has taken up a lot of time and energy.  Since he was last ill with an ear infection and virus he has not settled back into a routine, largely down to our mismanagement.  I blame the parents.  Lost sleep has meant tiredness during the afternoons and attempts at catching up by napping the odd hour here and there when he has been having his.

Good Stuff

I'm going to talk to the compere and organiser of my debut comedy stand-up about getting a second night organised.  I will likely be involved in this one from the start, having sourced a venue already.  I think this needs someone who really wants to make it happen.  As I am so keen to stand-up again, it looks like that will be me.

I am a (not entirely but still) shameless self-publicist of both my old blog, which continues to take a hiatus whilst I find some time to get a website up and running, and my diary here.  It looks like there has been a nice result from having done so, when I was asked last week if I wanted to take on a job writing articles for a poker website.  I have been in negotiation since over rates, volume, and a few other terms and submitted an initial article for review, which was well recieved aside from a few style pointers.  I now have nine more to write in the next three weeks and an indication of more work following.

Final tabled a tournament on Saturday night - the Daily Dollar Rebuy on 888.  I got a huge stack early on.  I love the rebuys as the gamblers in the rebuy period give you opportunities to 3x or 4x your stack, where you are a very strong favourite pre-flop.  Unfortunately, AK was no good vs KJ all-in pre-flop and I exited in eighth, losing a pot that would have placed me third and a very strong chance of another outright win.  I also made twenty-fourth in the 3k earlier in the week to keep my profit line going up.

I had a short Skype session with James, the lad I know from BBP, to discuss our approaches to Speed poker.  We shared some starting hand ranges and discussed 3-betting and 4-betting, set-mining, and playing suited connectors.  We are now both aiming to get 5k hands under our belts and to talk once a fortnight and maybe swap some hand histories in the near future.  The current plan is to keep things simple and defined pre-flop, taking an aggressive line always, with very rare passivity.  One thing that seemed to surprise him most was my line in 3-betting or folding, with much less flatting of opening raises.  One thing I did note was I probably talked too much and didn't give James as much chance to.  I must get better at shutting my mouth and opening my ears on such occasions in future.  I recovered a few buy-ins too in a few hours a the 10nl tables and it felt good to have two consecutive winning sessions.

For this week coming, I have still yet to confirm my other news but should be in a position to do so soon.  It may be a few days or even a few weeks yet though.  Blackpool trip, this time to Genting Casino, for a £25 game on Friday night.  I'm hoping everyone doesn't drop out between now and then as I've had my first casualty today.

Watched Django Unchained on Sunday night - loved the soundtrack, Jamie Foxx was a good lead, and overall like most Tarantino films I thought it was a very enjoyable film.  I think Inglorious Basterds was a better story throughout and Death Proof a little cooler.  However, at 165 mins long I felt I could have watched another hour.

[VBlue]

My First Blog

My first independent blog started in December 2010.  I had been writing a blog-style thread on BBP for maybe up to about a year prior.  From time to time I look back to see where I have come, what plans I had, what I achieved, and what plans I didn't see out.

At that time, I was pretty low, grinding a 60 hour week in the bookies and living with my parents.  However, things were turning around as I had got back with my girlfriend of seven years at the time, and our casual rekindling was escalating into me moving back in after about nine months apart.

I was getting into multi-tabling STTs at $5 level, after going busto due to variance and taking most of three months away from any serious poker playing.  I was using SnGWiz to work on ICM and reading Collin Moshman's book to work on my overall SnG game.

In February I added in some MTTs after my break-even stretch continued at the STT tables.  I won the first one I played a $1k GP F/O.  February through to March saw me start to win in STTs and I doubled my starter roll from December to $400.  March itself saw me drop 30bis when I deposited on Party and could not win, stepping up to $10 STTs.  I signed up for Deuces Cracked and downloaded some MTT videos as I pondered fleeing STTs and leaving a $1k break-even stretch to look back on.  A few near misses to add to my win in February and the boredom that had set in at the STTs were to later convince me.  An attempt at getting a group of STT players from BBP together to Skype regularly to discuss strategy and share hand histories, and a run over 100 STTs of 20% ROI would be a temporary reprieve.

I got myself a nice free $100 to play with on 888 and ran incredibly hot to turn that into $1k by the end of April.  The surprise looking back here was this was my idea to build a website for poker players like me.  It is now May 2013 and I still haven't done this, despite a muted effort last year that never got past a single page Wordpress site.  I had also announced that we were expecting our boy in the November, so life changes were ahead.

In July, I was turning my attentions to live poker - having followed the WSOP blogs in the summer.  I felt that 2012 could be the year to turn to sats and get out more on the live circuit.  Again, it is nearly eighteen months later and this has only just started to be realised with more trips to Blackpool and a few online sat attempts.  I had got around to watching a few DC videos and another Skype group had sprung up on BBP, which was to end in some drama started on 2p2.

The next six months will follow...

[VBlue]

Writing Job

I have now had contact directly with 888holdings and barring completion of some paperwork, will be commissioned to ghost-write some articles for them over the next couple of weeks.  It feels a little strange for a couple of reasons.  Having your writing edited is not something I am used to, but it is helping me understand a little more what copy the sites want and how to shape it for their audience.  Also, being asked to write strategy when I am far from an accomplished player is also difficult to get used to.  However, I realise that it is possible to write beginner level pieces through having decent knowledge, doing prudent research, and that the writing itself is the skill I have been offered the job on the strength of.

Website Business

Another offer which came up from the same source was a chance to get a little deposit in an online account in return for writing a site review.

Firstly, I want the site review to offer something different than mainstream reviews.  I want to talk about what players like me can benefit from - rewards, promotions, player pool and games on offer, and a little about the website and client software.  I want to distinguish between just listing all the available benefits and making it very specific.  If you are primarily a tournament player and only investing, say $100-$250 per month, what really matters to you?

This dovetails nicely into a little motivation to get my website up and running, which follows a similar theme.  I would really respect the opinion of one or two on here, so if there are any players reading this who would like to give me some feedback - it would be better coming from small stakes tournament/sit and go players, who are not playing huge volumes each month.

Please send me an email to vblue@sky.com or catch me on Facebook by PM and I'll send the finished article soon. 

[VBlue]

Weekend

Blackpool

Eventually, the trip to Blackpool was whittled down to just two of us.  This meant that expenses were up a little due to fuel costs - so a £40 outlay for a field of about 55 runners and a GP of £1.5k (with 50 runners conditional) meant the casino added £125.

The positives were a well-run cardroom, good staff, and a nice crowd.  The negative was the structure - with only 15bb average whilst 24 remained.  I had already gone by this stage.

I could not find a bet-size to thin the field pre-break.  With a 25k starting stack and 50/100 first level, players were happy to see a flop regardless of price.  300 was no good, 400 was no good.  I had a cold-deck set-up when I raised something like 800 from the blinds with 66, with a few limpers predictably calling the raise.  Flop came 36x and I raised flop, turn, and river bets winning at showdown vs 33.  At no point did my opponent make a raise over any of my action.

I had about 45k now and held that -  winning and losing a little to stay there.  Post-break I have 75bbs.  AQ pot-sized raise pre-flop could not thin the field and missed the flop.  QQ could not either when I was now 2x the pot pre-flop and still going 4/5 ways to the flop.  The flop of KTx went check-bet-call.  I folded the T turn to a check-raise.

With blind levels dropped to 20mins and leaping from 400/800 to 600/1200 I was now playing 25-30bbs.  I raised all-in over 4/5 limpers with quick folds round to the player to my right who had to call despite knowing he was way behind with K2o.  He held vs my 87s.  I was beat into the next pot by A8 all-in with A9 utg limper calling off and holding.  My A7 would have liked the flop of 77x.  I then got QT in next hand to get called by another utg limper with A9 and that was my night done.  I had probably telegraphed my desire to get all-into be fair, as the lad quickly declared he knew I was all-in and guessed any Ace would do.

Online Series

Unfortunately, these structures are putting me off the 120mile round trip to play a decent sized field within my bankroll.  The Piranha suggested putting the money into some bigger online poker games and I think it's good advice.  I could either put together a small roll to try and sat into some proper UK events, or just play some online tournament series - the Full Tilt MTOPS coming up might be worth a look.  This is a multiple entry, turbo, low-buy-in series and just the sort of thing that would suit me right now, unfortunately extra money is on hold again so I would need to move a little online bankroll around, or hit another three-figure score. The next BBP Ninja series would be another, especially with sats and packages on offer and would give me a little longer to build up an extra roll for.

Cash

I played a couple of short sessions on Saturday and won and lost a couple of buy-ins.  I seem to start by donking off a stack and then spend the next hour or two winning it back at the moment.

I want to continue to play some two hour sessions this week and spend a couple of hours looking through some hand history reports on HM2 to discuss on my next Skype session with James, my BBP fellow Speed cash n00b.

Coaching

I am certainly starting to feel a little stale and that I must make a return to working on my game a priority.  Today is a day to put some plans down on paper and then to take some steps forward this evening.

[VBlue]

Accountability - Coaching & Playing

I'm going to start putting up my schedule on here and try to gain some interaction/feedback.

Tonight, I will have around two hours to do some coaching.  The first stop is to have a look at Equilab, the equity calculator tool over on pokerstrategy.com.  There is a two-part article on the basics of how to use it and how to get the most benefit from it.  I have used pokerstove in the past, but only sporadically and never as a regular part of my post-game routine.

I will then play a BBP-only tournament tonight in an effort to win some or all of my Rewards points to retain my Orange belt status for July.  I am going to try and play at least two hours of Speed poker in addition.  This will be a test to have cash and tournament play running alongside each other.

Tomorrow night - from 6:30pm or possibly 7:30pm I will be playing my regular tournament schedule and the BBP league XX Leg One.

[VBlue]

Learning Lessons

Equity Calculations

I ran through an article illustrating how to use the Equilab tool last night.  Initially, I think this tool is an improvement on pokerstove.  

The user interface a better design.  It is easier to select specific ranges with the 'range slider'.  You can, of course, select and deselect specific hands, select particular suited hands, and use the display 'card removal' when you have a blocker and want to reduce the holdings your opponent can hold because of this.  You can use pre-defined ranges and also save your own pre-defined ranges for future use - such as, "deepstacked BB defence against BU raise".  The 'display combos' tool is also useful for training us how to quickly evaluate potential number of holdings our opponent may have.

A short example on calculating fold equity follows, where we input the flop cards and look out how often our opponent will fold to a c-bet, by removing hands from his pre-flop range.  The next section also shows how we adjust a range through the streets and calculate our equity when facing bets on the flop, turn, and river.

The final section here is very useful in teaching us how to use the tool to expand our thinking about situations by asking ourselves questions and changing the parameters; assessing different flops, changing opponent actions, different starting hands, and what actions we can take differently on each street.

The Scenario Analyser looks at all possible Turn or River cards and then helps us to determine which cards are 'good' for us and which are not, considering our holding and our opponent's perceived range.  Our equity against each possible individual board card is displayed.  We can also set a required equity based on what we expect our opponent to bet on the next street and see which turn/river card gives us that required equity.

Playing Session

First lesson learnt here is that trying to play two tables of Speed Poker alongside a couple of tournaments is ludicrous and I gave up after the second tournament started.

I decided to get involved in a promotion on BBP.  BBP are adding tokens for the ipoker daily $3k GP (which I believe has just been reduced to a $2.5k GP) to a load of their own tournaments and their upcoming league.  I played the $10 Turbo Takedown last night and won it, with a token added.  Prizes for the promotion are then rewarded for no. of cashes you achieve with the token entries.  Top prize for seven cashes, from a maximum of twelve tokens, is a $2.5k tournament package.  I have one token, which if I convert into a cash, will win me some sunglasses.  I have until the end of July to win more.

[pleno1]

So much you can Do with equilab it's actually really complex.
If you want to have a session with a coach on how to maximise it let me know and I'll set it up.

If you leave the 888 gig Holla at me and can sort a writing job out too.

[VBlue]

PM sent.  Thanks Patrick.

[VBlue]

Bouncebackability

How strange it is.  One day you feel the weight of the World on your shoulders.  Everything seems impossibly difficult and there are just questions and no answers.  Then, like a bolt of lightning, the clouds lift and it all seems easy again.

I was largely bored at the casino on Friday night.  Played well Monday night and did a win.  Largely bored Tuesday night and exited the league in 80th and bricked everything else.  I was struggling with everything that was on my mind.

Wednesday morning, I set off to work feeling really down.  By the time I got there, fifteen minutes later it had floated away.  I had resolved to give up poker for the week, but was now raring to go.

With one token won, towards the Twelve Days of Summer promotion) and a potential six more available - I played BBP's Deepstack Mulligan (one token added to the winner) and a weekly freeroll, the OBF, I qualify for (five prizes - five tokens to the winner, four to second place, etc.).  I also reg'd my usual schedule.

I started with the $1.5k which I have already taken down in the few times I have played it.  I had a pre-game review of some notes and reminded myself on how to extract value from these games, generally full of loose-passives, with some overly TAG players.  I had nothing of note to play and busted losing a flip.

A twenty minute break and a few of my other tournaments started.  The OBF had about 50 runners and has some very good players within that line-up.  I bobbed around starting stack never getting going and then made some well-timed 3-bet all-in semi-bluffs to keep me alive.

The Mulligan is a decent BBP tourney which I rarely play, as it is $15+$1.5.  With an extra token added for the winner, as well as belt points, I reg'd.

I got chipped up in the OBF shoving QQ over an utg open and AJs calling off.  Later on when 99 held against AJ I had the chip-lead.  In The Mulligan QQ v TT put me in the chip-lead across both tournaments.

Unfortunately both tournaments ended with mistakes.

The Mulligan saw me open in mid-position with 77 for a short-stack to shove (hand on PHA board for details).  One of BBPs ex-pro players then re-shoved and had me more or less covered.  I called and flipped v AK v AK.  Although I was ahead and with dead money in the pot and considering it a chance to bust the best player at my table, I think it was a mistake. I felt that I was probably flipping and that the call was OK.  It worked out that way.  However, with the benefit of hindsight I can see how I could have been in much worse shape.

In the OBF, shamefully, I fell for the old 'GL' in the chat when someone shoved over my opening raise from the BU and I called with ATo.  I had played such good solid poker all night and been selectively aggressive with success.  It was an easy fold and I fell for the oldest trick in the book.  I hang my head.

So buzzing for it at the moment, I can't wait to get back to another night at the MTTs.

[VBlue]

Finding The Time

To Write

Since I last wrote there has been much going on.  I have been continuing to write three articles per week with more due this Sunday.  They are all strategy articles and have largely been within my own comfort and knowledge so far.  I have had to undertake minimal research to fine tune some points.

I now am being asked to write some slightly higher level stuff.  I think I can still largely write these from my own knowledge, but may have to spend more research time on them.

My process is to write an article in a single sitting, which takes up to an hour.  I then write the next the following day, and the day after that.  Day four I go back to them and edit in one session which takes another hour or two.  I would say then, about five hours work in total for $60.  It's not a great hourly rate, but from small acorns...

To Play

I think I played Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday last week with nothing significant I can recall to report.  Mainly, I just bricked everything.

I have had a nagging feeling recently that I have so many more things I want to achieve at the moment and that playing poker takes priority over them all.  I ask myself if this balance is good for the long-term.  Poker will always be there, so a break would not be so bad.  I don’t make any money, to speak of, by playing.  I am concerned also that variance works in such a way that to play casually the hours and volumes I play will ultimately lead to very little financial reward.

It is nine months now since I turned my attentions back to trying to apply myself as a serious rec.  Someone once told me that they worry about people who plough so much into the game when they are going to realistically see so little back.  I have had fun playing and learning over this time.  It was always mainly seen as a way to put some energies into something with potential to achieve a return.

However, now feels like a good time to slow things down.   I want to pursue more work writing; ultimately I hope to develop some relationships which might lead to a full-time job in the industry.  What kind of job I do not know for sure.  I find that there is no well-worn path that is easy to follow and I have no experience of the industry whatsoever.

To Diversify

My focus is on taking up new opportunities.  I have applied to a well-known poker room to help theme establish and maintain a new forum.  Some of you may have seen the request posted on social media.  My application was well-received initially, so I hope we can take the next step towards making this happen.

I can also then free time to devote to building my own online business, with some passive income initially, and as a further outlet to display my writing skills.

For Family

Parenting Roscoe has been difficult lately.  I’m not going to moan I promise.  It is hard in many ways.  He is so headstrong, so independent, so demanding.  His skin is awful some days.  He barely eats.  His sleeping through is better, but his waking gets earlier.  He won’t take good naps, so gets frustrated and then exhibits some undesirable behaviour because of it.

Despite all this – he is very clever, very loving, full of fun, full of humour, and my blue-eyed boy.  I love him so much, but it is hard to enjoy it at the moment.  Those glimmers throughout the time I spend with him are so powerful though that all your frustrations are gone in a second.  Until they return.

It has been putting pressure on us as a family, with tiredness followed by stress and short-tempers.

To Get Paid

On top of that, my missus is now at the official stage of a tribunal hearing.  Tuesday was the first of five potential days in a court, between now and October.  At which time, it will be nearly two-and-a-half years since things turned very sour with her now ex-employer.

We are pursuing pregnancy discrimination, although the timing of our claim is being disputed by the respondent.  We are representing ourselves as legal costs would swallow up much of any claim we may be awarded.  Hannah is also owed nearly £2k in unpaid holidays and, potentially, further notice pay.   We hope that the £2k owed is cut and dried as she will have to prove why it is not payable, or that she has paid it.  It is payable and she hasn’t.  We have proof.  Of course, I can’t help but be nervous to some degree that we will end up with nothing.

I will continue to write.  My mind bounces, with my moods, off walls and up and down so much I might have a completely new take on life by next time and have become a Buddhist Monk.

[VBlue]

Over two weeks since my last entry.

After almost a month away from the tables, time I took to start another project which I have still done nothing with, I decided to play some tournaments last week.  

I've had a couple of cashes, some variance, some good stuff, and some bad calls.  That covers my play just about.

I have continued to some paid writing work and with the content being all strategy so far it is helping me think about my own game quite a bit.  As a method for learning I would strongly recommend writing an article on it, even if only for your own consumption. Explaining the detail to someone else, really gets you into the nuances, the right way to apply a move, the conditions required, opponent tendencies that you may need to adjust to, etc.

There has been an announcement I have wanted to make for a little while, but had to restrain.  I am now very happy to say that Roscoe is going to be a big brother (and he doesn't even know what that means) sometime around the middle of January 2014.  We lost one before Xmas and had a scare last week following the 12-week scan, which has tunred out to be something fairly routine.

Life is gonna get flipped upside down once again.  Love the family though, so can't wait to complete it with our second and Hannah's third.

Gonna try and get my grind on for 2/3 sessions per week again whilst I have the time and probably come back to the project next year when poker will likely have to take a hiatus for 6 months or so.

[AJR14]

Over two weeks since my last entry.

After almost a month away from the tables, time I took to start another project which I have still done nothing with, I decided to play some tournaments last week.  

I've had a couple of cashes, some variance, some good stuff, and some bad calls.  That covers my play just about.

I have continued to some paid writing work and with the content being all strategy so far it is helping me think about my own game quite a bit.  As a method for learning I would strongly recommend writing an article on it, even if only for your own consumption. Explaining the detail to someone else, really gets you into the nuances, the right way to apply a move, the conditions required, opponent tendencies that you may need to adjust to, etc.

There has been an announcement I have wanted to make for a little while, but had to restrain.  I am now very happy to say that Roscoe is going to be a big brother (and he doesn't even know what that means) sometime around the middle of January 2014.  We lost one before Xmas and had a scare last week following the 12-week scan, which has tunred out to be something fairly routine.

Life is gonna get flipped upside down once again.  Love the family though, so can't wait to complete it with our second and Hannah's third.

Gonna try and get my grind on for 2/3 sessions per week again whilst I have the time and probably come back to the project next year when poker will likely have to take a hiatus for 6 months or so.

Congrats on the news pal. Hope all goes well!