[Insert funny and witty diary title here]

[AJR14]

LOOOOL

http://www.goal.com/en-sg/news/5098/sleague/2013/10/20/4344772/former-blackburn-boss-steve-kean-to-lead-dpmm-in-2014

He must have got bored of waiting for a top 6 job! I saw a post somewhere else that hits the nail on the head for me:

‘Not the glamorous job he was hoping for. The fact that no one here would give him a job speaks volumes for what people in the industry actually think of him (despite the media spin.)’

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The missus binked 1k at the bingo yesterday. Nice result! Why is AJ with an 82 year old i hear you ask? She is actually younger than me. It must be a Yorkshire thing  . 

My only foray into the whole world of live bingo was towards the end of an afternoon that started off as a couple of pints and ended up as 2 lads causing havoc in a room full of middle aged women. The low point being a request for the bingo caller to slow down as they were definitely going too fast for amateurs who had some seriously impaired vision. Never again!



I have to stick this goal up!!



Great goal and Arsenal are looking really good at the moment, what a difference a signing can make. No matter how ugly he is  . It was only recently (after the Villa game) some Arsenal fans where claiming crisis of Pompey/Coventry proportions. How to be dramatic eh . I don’t think they will win the league, think they will have one or 2 periods of bad results when the honeymoon period finishes but it is good to see a good footballing team playing well. 

Talking of crisis! United struggling isn’t a surprise. Big changes and lack of signings have left United looking very average at times. Will be interesting to hear how long people think Moyes should have. I like seeing managers get time (surprising when supporting Rovers) but how long do you give him? What would be the tipping point? I think they will turn it around but it will be a pretty big ask to win the league from here.

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I’ve not really played poker this week. I took the day off right at the wrong time. It’s meant every time i have logged on since the day off i haven’t been feeling it and logged off half hour later after making some questionable plays. I’m planning a big week at the tables, i need to get the points to make priority which will be easy to do but i need to get back into grind mode to do it.

The week of MTTs finished with a decent cash in the Primo. With a bit of luck i could have made a deep run but it wasn’t to be. So i ended with a profit for the week and the backer got some cash back!! I do feel like I’m close to a big bink, hopefully i am and it comes soon.


Record of the Day: Joy Division - Love will tear us apart.




Not normally a fan of covering classic records but i do like this Jose Gonzales version. There are some decent videos of him playing it live as well.




GL all!

[acegooner]

LOOOOL

http://www.goal.com/en-sg/news/5098/sleague/2013/10/20/4344772/former-blackburn-boss-steve-kean-to-lead-dpmm-in-2014

He must have got bored of waiting for a top 6 job! I saw a post somewhere else that hits the nail on the head for me:

‘Not the glamorous job he was hoping for. The fact that no one here would give him a job speaks volumes for what people in the industry actually think of him (despite the media spin.)’

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The missus binked 1k at the bingo yesterday. Nice result! Why is AJ with an 82 year old i hear you ask? She is actually younger than me. It must be a Yorkshire thing  .  

My only foray into the whole world of live bingo was towards the end of an afternoon that started off as a couple of pints and ended up as 2 lads causing havoc in a room full of middle aged women. The low point being a request for the bingo caller to slow down as they were definitely going too fast for amateurs who had some seriously impaired vision. Never again!



I have to stick this goal up!!



Great goal and Arsenal are looking really good at the moment, what a difference a signing can make. No matter how ugly he is  . It was only recently (after the Villa game) some Arsenal fans where claiming crisis of Pompey/Coventry proportions. How to be dramatic eh . I don’t think they will win the league, think they will have one or 2 periods of bad results when the honeymoon period finishes but it is good to see a good footballing team playing well.  

Talking of crisis! United struggling isn’t a surprise. Big changes and lack of signings have left United looking very average at times. Will be interesting to hear how long people think Moyes should have. I like seeing managers get time (surprising when supporting Rovers) but how long do you give him? What would be the tipping point? I think they will turn it around but it will be a pretty big ask to win the league from here.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’ve not really played poker this week. I took the day off right at the wrong time. It’s meant every time i have logged on since the day off i haven’t been feeling it and logged off half hour later after making some questionable plays. I’m planning a big week at the tables, i need to get the points to make priority which will be easy to do but i need to get back into grind mode to do it.

The week of MTTs finished with a decent cash in the Primo. With a bit of luck i could have made a deep run but it wasn’t to be. So i ended with a profit for the week and the backer got some cash back!! I do feel like I’m close to a big bink, hopefully i am and it comes soon.


Record of the Day: Joy Division - Love will tear us apart.




Not normally a fan of covering classic records but i do like this Jose Gonzales version. There are some decent videos of him playing it live as well.




GL all!

To use a poker expression in a vacuum yeah it does sound pretty petty of Arsenal fans to be going for the manager after one game.

But looking at things over a 10 year period and see what has happened to the club, the stadium and football in general you can kind of begin to understand why soo many Arsenal fans became disillusioned this summer.

10 years ago Arsenal where all conquering, the best side in the history of our club had been put together by our genius manager and even the likes of manure couldn't live with us that season. To go a whole season undefeated will probably never be repeated again in my lifetime by any team. We where sold a vision by the club that to continue our domination (and to stave off the likes of chelsea who had just been bought by abramovich) we needed a bigger stadium. Rather than go for the rich sugar daddy approach we would build a solid club on the basis of sound financial management. All of us trusted the club because we knew highbury just simply wasn't big enough.  We had David Dein pulling the strings in the transfer market and Wenger was doing what he does best manage the team.

Since then we have had Silent Stan a billionaire not quite with the financial clout of Abramovich take over the club, with a minority shareholder Usmanov who is valued at many times Kroenkes net worth. In this period, the club have stagnated to the extent where we sell our best players each summer (until this summer when we didn't have a world class player to sell) and we have tried to replace them with players of lesser quality. The results on the pitch have been for all to see, how does the song go "x years and no silverware". To be honest that doesn't bother me as much as our inability to compete in the transfer market and put out a side that can compete with chelsea, man utd and now city. The whole idea of moving to the emirates was to make sure we could bring in world class players, and out of all of the clubs mentioned we as fans pay more for our tickets than any other clubs fans in the world.

Take this as an example, I have just purchase one ticket for a mate vs chelsea in the premier league, the ticket is lower tier behind the goal and costs £62 plus booking fee. That is the cheapest ticket available for this fixture, most of the remaining tickets are over £100, some are over £200. Just simply looking at this fact and go back to the beginning of this season, once again we overcame forces of darkness over at WHL to finish in the top four last summer by the skin of our teeth. Again we are told there is millions in the kitty to go out and get players, we have a bungling manager and board who cant handle transfers in the same way Dein used to and we get a kid in on a free transfer and an ex player who left in acrimonious circumstances. Come first game of the season we have the Spuds spending £100m plus (I must say they did buy quality) and we have spent zilcho. So we play Villa, the ref is horrific and we have a stinker it wasnt just one game, it was the culmination of several years of decline that could have been prevented if we hadn't been so cautious financially. The fustration just poured off the terraces and was aimed at the manager, who by the large had been pretty much immune from the criticism until last season.

Wenger controls the club, he has far too much power and until we need someone at board level like David Dein who can tell him when he makes mistakes rather than Gazidis who is just a yes man on £3m a year. I really hope the purchase of Ozil is a watershed, our squad is very close to competing with the other big clubs. We have a series of very difficult games coming up lets see how we get on this will be the true test.   

[AJR14]

LOOOOL

http://www.goal.com/en-sg/news/5098/sleague/2013/10/20/4344772/former-blackburn-boss-steve-kean-to-lead-dpmm-in-2014

He must have got bored of waiting for a top 6 job! I saw a post somewhere else that hits the nail on the head for me:

‘Not the glamorous job he was hoping for. The fact that no one here would give him a job speaks volumes for what people in the industry actually think of him (despite the media spin.)’

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The missus binked 1k at the bingo yesterday. Nice result! Why is AJ with an 82 year old i hear you ask? She is actually younger than me. It must be a Yorkshire thing  .  

My only foray into the whole world of live bingo was towards the end of an afternoon that started off as a couple of pints and ended up as 2 lads causing havoc in a room full of middle aged women. The low point being a request for the bingo caller to slow down as they were definitely going too fast for amateurs who had some seriously impaired vision. Never again!



I have to stick this goal up!!



Great goal and Arsenal are looking really good at the moment, what a difference a signing can make. No matter how ugly he is  . It was only recently (after the Villa game) some Arsenal fans where claiming crisis of Pompey/Coventry proportions. How to be dramatic eh . I don’t think they will win the league, think they will have one or 2 periods of bad results when the honeymoon period finishes but it is good to see a good footballing team playing well.  

Talking of crisis! United struggling isn’t a surprise. Big changes and lack of signings have left United looking very average at times. Will be interesting to hear how long people think Moyes should have. I like seeing managers get time (surprising when supporting Rovers) but how long do you give him? What would be the tipping point? I think they will turn it around but it will be a pretty big ask to win the league from here.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’ve not really played poker this week. I took the day off right at the wrong time. It’s meant every time i have logged on since the day off i haven’t been feeling it and logged off half hour later after making some questionable plays. I’m planning a big week at the tables, i need to get the points to make priority which will be easy to do but i need to get back into grind mode to do it.

The week of MTTs finished with a decent cash in the Primo. With a bit of luck i could have made a deep run but it wasn’t to be. So i ended with a profit for the week and the backer got some cash back!! I do feel like I’m close to a big bink, hopefully i am and it comes soon.


Record of the Day: Joy Division - Love will tear us apart.




Not normally a fan of covering classic records but i do like this Jose Gonzales version. There are some decent videos of him playing it live as well.




GL all!

To use a poker expression in a vacuum yeah it does sound pretty petty of Arsenal fans to be going for the manager after one game.

But looking at things over a 10 year period and see what has happened to the club, the stadium and football in general you can kind of begin to understand why soo many Arsenal fans became disillusioned this summer.

10 years ago Arsenal where all conquering, the best side in the history of our club had been put together by our genius manager and even the likes of manure couldn't live with us that season. To go a whole season undefeated will probably never be repeated again in my lifetime by any team. We where sold a vision by the club that to continue our domination (and to stave off the likes of chelsea who had just been bought by abramovich) we needed a bigger stadium. Rather than go for the rich sugar daddy approach we would build a solid club on the basis of sound financial management. All of us trusted the club because we knew highbury just simply wasn't big enough.  We had David Dein pulling the strings in the transfer market and Wenger was doing what he does best manage the team.

Since then we have had Silent Stan a billionaire not quite with the financial clout of Abramovich take over the club, with a minority shareholder Usmanov who is valued at many times Kroenkes net worth. In this period, the club have stagnated to the extent where we sell our best players each summer (until this summer when we didn't have a world class player to sell) and we have tried to replace them with players of lesser quality. The results on the pitch have been for all to see, how does the song go "x years and no silverware". To be honest that doesn't bother me as much as our inability to compete in the transfer market and put out a side that can compete with chelsea, man utd and now city. The whole idea of moving to the emirates was to make sure we could bring in world class players, and out of all of the clubs mentioned we as fans pay more for our tickets than any other clubs fans in the world.

Take this as an example, I have just purchase one ticket for a mate vs chelsea in the premier league, the ticket is lower tier behind the goal and costs £62 plus booking fee. That is the cheapest ticket available for this fixture, most of the remaining tickets are over £100, some are over £200. Just simply looking at this fact and go back to the beginning of this season, once again we overcame forces of darkness over at WHL to finish in the top four last summer by the skin of our teeth. Again we are told there is millions in the kitty to go out and get players, we have a bungling manager and board who cant handle transfers in the same way Dein used to and we get a kid in on a free transfer and an ex player who left in acrimonious circumstances. Come first game of the season we have the Spuds spending £100m plus (I must say they did buy quality) and we have spent zilcho. So we play Villa, the ref is horrific and we have a stinker it wasnt just one game, it was the culmination of several years of decline that could have been prevented if we hadn't been so cautious financially. The fustration just poured off the terraces and was aimed at the manager, who by the large had been pretty much immune from the criticism until last season.

Wenger controls the club, he has far too much power and until we need someone at board level like David Dein who can tell him when he makes mistakes rather than Gazidis who is just a yes man on £3m a year. I really hope the purchase of Ozil is a watershed, our squad is very close to competing with the other big clubs. We have a series of very difficult games coming up lets see how we get on this will be the true test.   

it was all meant light hearted Ace! I knew you might read so thought i would stick it in.
 
FWIW i totally agree that Arsenal have ballsed up for the last few years regarding transfers. Badly

Players leaving >>>>>>>>>>>players incoming.

Some pretty poor replacement choices left you way way behind. 


The signing of Ozil just shows the huge benefit of going out and getting a big name. It doesn’t just help because of the obvious quality he brings but it lifts the whole team, fans and makes some players step up. You just need to look at Ramsey and what it seems to have done for him to see the full benefits.

I still think you need a few more before you can consistently compete through a full season, i may be proved wrong but a few injuries and a bad run of form for one or 2 may show you are still behind the rest. Going in the right direction though, which after the villa game is something i didn’t think i would say this season.

[AJR14]

It’s been a while since i last updated. I have had zero motivation to write. No idea why, it’s just something i have avoided so thought i would give it a go today. Gonna put a few records on as well.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Snow (Hey Oh). Love these guys. Prob the one band i am gutted i havent had chance to see live yet, along with Arctic Monkeys.


 

I have to start with my favourite goal i have seen in real time. Could you imagine if one of the big name players bagged this!! They would wax lyrical for years. That may be my smaller club paranoia though. Just can’t help feel that if Messi/Rooney bagged this with their wrong foot it would be seen everywhere for years. 


ENJOY!!



Cant believe that is the only one i could find with replays etc. arghhh



Poker has been going slow. After the couple of week’s heater i had when i literally couldn’t lose i have now had a period of having very small losing sessions. No big loses, just 1 buy in loses consistently. Bizarrely i would prefer to have one or two big loses rather than consistent small loses. Can really drain the confidence, especially when you already feel your game may not be good enough for that level yet.

It can get pretty frustrating at times. I don’t feel the regs at 50nl are very good. In fact, some are pretty poor and the losing sessions just prove to me i just need to put some work in and i should be ok.

I have a renewed determination to beat these games. I’m in the process of creating a pretty detailed structure for working on my game. In anything i play/do i always want to be above average at it (the best if possible) so that will drive me on to work at making a lot of money. Grinding form 4nl up to 40nl i rarely had to work on my game. You could sit down and barely think to be able to beat the games. 50nl is the first level i have encountered where i feel that that just won’t cut it. I have to work harder, and i need to improve a lot of my in game thinking and strategies. I will do it, i will beat these levels and the structures i have in place will hopefully make 2014 a very big year for me.

If anyone has any good articles, videos, websites or whatever that they feel helped them out in any format other than Sit and Gos then that would be highly appreciated.

So what is coming in the future? Well i am still comfortably rolled for 50nl BUT if i lose a few buyins again i am going to drop back down far earlier than i normally would while i work on my game and just pick and choose when to play 50nl for a bit. I was going to move down last week but i decided to lower the number of tables i am playing to 6 for a while and see if that works. I have played 2 sessions with 6 tables and ended in an overall profit. Only small though and it was one session profit one loss.
 
Ice Cube - Check Yo Self





Rovers are a bit of a worry at the moment. I’m not the most dramatic fan and i usually just shrug a lot of things off but a huge loss and mounting debt being announced is not the best news. It wasn’t a shock to any Rovers fan or anyone that pays attention but the size of it and (unless we get promotion which is very unlikely) the real lack of ways to reduce/stop the losses means it isn’t looking great. Transfer embargos have already been mentioned from people high up at the club. For that to be mentioned to fans now must mean that it is a VERY real possibility. I will always hate Venkys for what they have done. I don’t think it’s been with malicious intent which some fans feel but their incompetence has really fked us up. Can you believe that Rovers was seen as one of the best run clubs in England before they stumbled in? They got rid of one of the best people to run the club in John Williams, possibly the biggest mistake they have made over all the other mistakes. That and the hiring and the inability to fire Steve Kean.

I do feel fans could maybe do a bit. I totally get why people stay away from the rovers at the minute, a lot are boycotting because they don’t want to give money to the Venkys. That notion, with the financial news that came out at the weekend, really is harming the club as well imo. I’m not saying it is fans fault at all, Venkys have put us where we are through extremely   poor management but surely filling out Ewood, and buying merchandise will help the club financially before it is too late. It wont turn our financial mess around but it will help slow it down. Venkys can come and go whenever but when they do go we will have a club that has no money, no gates and will look a very unattractive proposition for any investor. That is if the club survives. I feel a lot of fans need to forget about the idiots who have took us on and help the club, which is bigger than just the Venkys.

I will have a season ticket for the rest of my life as long as it is feasible for me to get there. I just hope that i don’t witness the total destruction of the club in that time.

On the pitch it is a bit brighter however. We aren’t playing great but getting some results which is a good sign. I don’t feel we are good enough for playoff spots but in this league you never know. With some key players to come back from injury anything could happen and it may have to. All the noises coming out of the club are pointing to a disaster if we don’t. 


Leftfield - Open Up




Hve to stick an Arctic Monkeys track on after mentioning them earlier

From Ritz to Rubble

[Jac]

Great result last night mate

Rams are going up by the way

[AJR14]

Great result last night mate

Rams are going up by the way

haha tyty Jac. Much needed result.

Just realised i haven't updated here for ages. Will prob start it back up for the new year.

Derby looking good for a playoff spot at min thought Ssshhhteve would be good for you. Hopefully we make a late charge to join you in the playoffs. Never going to happen though.

[AJR14]

Happy New Year all.

I decided a while back to start this thread again but cut out a load of the pointless waffle and keep it mainly poker. I thought the best time to restart it would be for the new year so here it goes.  

2013 review.

If you would have asked me a week ago to review my year I would say it was disappointing. I felt like I had wasted a number of opportunities, thrown away some money needlessly and not progressed like I wanted to. My volume has been down when playing and I have took a large amount of long breaks.

I’m just at the end of another break now, obv decided to start again in the new year.

After setting myself a 10k target for 2014 I realised I bet I wasn’t far from that this year so decided to check. It turns out altogether I had a 12k year on Sky. That was a big shock, especially when I felt it was a bad year so that news has sent my confidence sky high. It does bring the rather tilting thought of where I could be if I didn’t have to withdraw. Unfortunately nearly all of those winnings have been withdrawn.
  
I finally got my sharkscope in the black on Sky with a 2nd place in the double guarantee Primo at the end of the year as well. I had sold 50% of the week’s action so it’s not as much of a big score for me as it sounds but it’s still a v big score. In fact it’s easily my biggest ever score, far surpassing my previous £200 MTT record. One big target for 2014 was to get the scope in the black and I managed to achieve that before the year started.

2014 is gonna be a big year.

Confidence is very high going into 2014 (as I’m sure it is for everyone) but it is a little bizarre for me when considering just before taking my break confidence was low. The break has given me time to look at myself, analyse my poker and look at what I want from the game. I really believe I am close to making the breakthrough that I want, to get over that line is down to me and the work I put in. If I become lazy I will just stay around doing the same things, playing the same levels and making less and less money as time goes on. I’m determined not to let that happen and to make a real push for it. Hopefully 2014 will be the year. If not, I will probably write the exact same sentiment next year.

A few goals

I want to be playing 100nl+ by the end of this year. Anything else I will consider a failure.

I also want to start making inroads with my MTT game. I had a decent score a few weeks ago and it’s wet my appetite for more. I’ve already signed up to a couple more sites for them and will be signing up to 2 more v shortly.

I’m aiming for $50k profit over the year. Seems a pretty huge target and was originally aiming for £10k figures but when i realised i had broke that point this year i upped it to this number. Seems too big but you need goals

I also want to play more live. I played for the first time recently as a birthday gift and enjoyed it. I particularly enjoyed knocking out the family member who bought me in . So I’m going to try and satellite into some decent live events and also look at hitting some live cash tables.

 
If I can eradicate my discipline and tilt issues throughout the year it will give me a real chance of achieving my goals.


Hope everyone has a great 2014 and wins a shit load of cash!! and if anyone has any questions just fire away.


Nirvana - About a Girl

[AJR14]

The 50k target was meant to be $50k not £ as im going to be playing a lot of sites so hopefully its easier to keep it $

[AJR14]

Not sure how i came out of my first session back unscathed.

KK>AA 4 times...Happy new year

Set over sets and some smaller kicks in the goolies dished out by the dealer made the start of the New Year uncomfortable. Goodbye enthusiasm, i knew you wouldn’t be here long.


I managed to claw a lot back and finish under 1 buy in down which is a cracking result in all honesty.


Sky decided to put up the leader board for the promo they are running. I was 7th. I allowed myself to get a little carried away with that fact and completely forgot about the inevitable mistakes that would be outed. Every promo is littered with them, from little things like spelling mistakes to bigger things like wrong leader boards. In one promo someone won a fiver and hadn’t even played one hand when playing hands was the way to get tickets. Astounding skills. Anyway I’m now 17th, a whole 10 places away from my original place lol.

[AJR14]

Pretty dissapointing last couple of days. Not played well, anyone that has sat with me will testify to that. Not the start i had hoped for. Its not that bad but feels worse because i had built up the start of the year in my head, something i should stop doing.

Standard spot for me = he never shoves with anything i beat, EVER....call, tilt and repeat

Much work needed.

I dropped down levels earlier than i was going to. I set myself a 10 buyin shot at 50nl to start the year and decided the sensible thing to do was drop down earlier than the 10 buyins. I dont mind doing that, i will be back soon.


Quote of the day
Player A: fu ck
Player A: why do my hands never hold up
Player B: weak arms?



My first big MTT Sunday today. Playing a load over 3 sites. Hoping for some big wins. GL to everyone else playing today.

Pulp - Common People

[Jac]

Wp today AJ

You keeping it or going down the eBay route?

Was close to calling  your small blind shove  with about 8 left. Thought it was really close. With the blinds getting so high I wasn't 100% sure I could fold my way there.

Worked out for us both in the end though, so who cares 

[AJR14]

Wp today AJ

You keeping it or going down the eBay route?

Was close to calling  your small blind shove  with about 8 left. Thought it was really close. With the blinds getting so high I wasn't 100% sure I could fold my way there.

Worked out for us both in the end though, so who cares 

Lol ye wp Jac, glad we both got one. Looks like I'm gonna end up keeping it, was thinking of selling it after Lambert telling me I'd get 500+ but I think thats optimistic so thinking gonna keep it.

That small blind hand felt like it was a massive hand for me in game, shoved with nothing (think it was 54o), thinking that if you fold I had a big chance of winning the ps4, thankfully you did lol. Thought there was a high likelihood you would fold anyway cos you were the bigger stack on the table.

Really fast structure wasn't it? It all felt normal then next minute it was shove or fold. Don't know what happened on other tables cos you came back with triple the stack you left with lol. Didn't think I had a chance at the beginning, after I run a 4 bet bluff around the blinds and got shoved on. Completely unnecessary but thankfully it didn't cost me.

WP again and another congrats on the new arrival.

[tikay]

Good morning - what better time to revive this moribund Diary - think you shipped a £1,500 Sky Poker Jackpot bonus last night, 1st in the Main & 3rd in the Mini?

Main - £4,741.50

Mini - £218.92

Jackpot Bonus - £1,500.

Very nice indeed!

Congrats.

[AJR14]

Thanks Tikay!

Been hunting for that 1st Main Event win for a while so to do it the same day I FT the Mini is a huge bonus.

Really good result for me. When grinding cash the game can become monotonous but a deep run in an MTT just brings back the excitement that first made me play poker. I still haven’t slept, impossible for me after that. I’ve had a couple of decent cashes in the past but getting the 1st win got me buzzing.



While I’m here I may as well do a quick update for anyone that is interested as we are practically half way through the year and I did post my goals in here.


As shown above I managed to have a decent night and win about 6.5k for the night. That’s now took me to the same amount of profit I got in the whole of last year, hopefully the numbers keep growing.

At the beginning of the year I was a struggling 50nl player always flirting with having to drop down levels after withdrawals and losing, eventually moving down and then regrouping for another shot. I hate having to admit defeat so I started to work hard on my game and have had a few sessions with a coach which has now helped me turn my results into steady and consistent profits at 50nl whilst flirting with 100nl.

100nl was always the target when starting this thread and I was rolled for it before yesterday but always backed out of going for a full shot and just added one or two tables. Well, looks like it’s now time to have a crack at it. I feel confident; I have played the players and have nothing to fear. The usual, tilt and poor decisions need to be kept to a minimum though. 


I set a $50k target (£36kish) for the year and am now 1/3 of the way there. I’ve got half of the year to go to get the rest target. A few more MTT wins would certainly help.


Don’t think I am going to start this up again proper,  there is only so many times you can write about online cash grinding before it becomes quite repetitive so I always put it off. It's not because of bad results, the year has been very good but it's just hard to write anything worth reading. I may start again soon though, especially if I add more live games into the schedule.

Groove Armada - Suntoucher




Band Of Skulls - I know what i am.

[AJR14]

Decided i was going to wrap this up before the end of 2014 but why change the habit of a lifetime and do things on time.

I started this thread at a time where i was struggling with a lot of things outside of poker and also felt my poker was stagnating. I needed a way to focus on poker and after seeing friends have successful diaries, i felt that starting my own would help. The thread did help a lot so I want to thank all readers and contributors, it does mean a lot.

I have stopped the updates as i felt it had run its course and I’m only doing this as I’m a little OCD when it comes to things being unfinished and iirc I did put my aims for the year in here so felt it needing wrapping up.


I made a big decision during the year and finally decided to play poker full time, initially it was just a hobby and whilst unemployed i put off job searching as i was making money from poker and enjoying it. It then got to the point of me asking what i want to do which can be a tough question to ask when you have no clue. I decided to do what i enjoy, not many people will say they enjoy their work, so to pass up an opportunity to make money and enjoy doing so would have been stupid for me. Going full time hasn’t really changed anything from before but it has finally given me a direction in life and now I can’t ignore the off table work as much as I used to. If i was going to go for it i had to do it in a way that wasn’t the lazy option. That was the only criteria i set myself. If I’m going to try and build a career from the game then i have to work as hard as i can to get there.

Click to see full-size image.

So, i haven’t looked back at the target i set for the year but I’m sure it was $50k. The target was always very ambitious and i never really expected to get there so it wasn’t really a surprise when i didn’t. Unfortunately, i only managed to break half of the target so was a fair way out but i was supposed to include far more MTTs than i did. A $25k year from cash and MTTs is still a great achievement for me when you consider i had £3 in my account a few years ago and it has shown progression from 2013 which is pleasing. 


The plan for this year is more progression; i’m not the sort of person to be happy with sticking at a level when there are opportunities to go further. If i can get further on by working hard i sure will work as hard as i can. I wouldn’t have chosen this profession otherwise.

I’m looking to play a lot of HU SnGs at times where cash is quiet or when the games are poor. MTT volume is certainly going to be upped as well on all sites. I would love to be able to get onto the Sky leader board for the year but feel that because I’m only likely to be playing main events that that may not be achievable even though I wasn’t overly far off this year with my lolvolume. I’m still continuing with cash, I’ve been putting in a lot of work on a lot of different aspects of the game. I have always worked hard but when i had a poor run for a couple of months this year i delved far deeper into simple fundamental parts of my game that i had never considered before or just felt  was standard. The result of the hard work was a very good end of the year and a build up of confidence that will hopefully get me playing 100-200nl very soon. Hopefully. I could play now, but the gamble has drained from me as i have got older. I suppose that is a good thing now i am playing full time.


Away from poker i had some pretty good news as well, I’m going to be a dad for the first time this year. Was a scary prospect at first but now I’m really looking forward to it and the missus will make a great mum which will make it easier for me . It will be a challenge as I can barely look after myself but one i will enjoy. I’ve also been asked to be best man for mate I’ve known for over 20 years. Very honoured but shitting bricks haha.

I hope everyone’s poker is going well and i hope the poker gods treat everyone well. Thanks again for all the help and replies on this thread, it is very much appreciated.

AJRockets
Over and Out