2015 Diary- Family, Work, Poker and everything in-between

[UgotNuts]

So the hippodrome is a no go this weekend as my id is enough to play but not enough to take the money when I would of taken it down! So instead came down to genting Luton for the DC, couldn't turn down the invite. Need to play more cash games anyway, less variance.

Will post up some hands a bit later, to be flamed no doubt!

[UgotNuts]

I have been reading a lot on various websites on how hard the game currently is, especially the online format. I have read posts stating that the poker rooms should do more to get new players in, do more to keep them to stay and do more. And on the flip side that the Pros should just leave the recs alone and battle it out between themselves and that HUDS and seating scripts should be banned. The “Regs” are also moaning about the games being much tougher than before. I haven’t seen many comments about what the recs can do to enjoy the game more. I agree with the posts that comment on the game requiring much more skill than gamble than in previous years and the game being likened more to a sport then gambling. Sites like Full tilt, Sky poker, Unibet, Party Poker/DTD are doing more to encourage new players and to keep the recs playing by slashing the huge cash games, promoting more on TV, running free roll’s, sign up and reload bonuses. Fact is it’s a grey area and no one has the answer.

Recs don’t mind losing money but they don’t want to lose it at such a rate that it isn’t an enjoyable hobby. Recs have figured out that they are probably not going to be the next Moneymaker and have more enjoyable hobbies now than staring at a screen for 6 hours after work most days, and on Sat/Sunday and neglecting other responsibilities of their life. And would rather go to their local casino and play the Friday/Saturday night tournaments once a month, and might buy in for 50 quid in the 50/1 cash game running for a total outlay of 100 quid. Basically giving themselves a better Work/Family/hobby balanced lifestyle.

Now for the recs who want to pursue with playing poker they would need to either, study, learn, and improve their poker game so they can be more competitive, win a little to pay for those little extra’s or even breaking even (having a cost free hobby) and get that poker buzz back. Or continue to play the game losing at a horrible rate and slowly sinking into a poker driven depression. Hobbies like sport, painting, ect are enjoyed as hobbies because you have the interest and in most cases I find competiveness to improve yourself in some way shape or form.  
Last year was a fun year for poker for me, because I was winning, spending the money on other areas of my life. I caught the bug a little bit. This year I have been practicing no bankroll management, and have been playing in tournaments and cash games far outside my means and have given back 90% of what I won last year in 8 months of this year. Why because I believed I had such an edge that the variance element didn’t matter anymore.

So what have I done about it?

I decided that I firstly needed to sort my bankroll management out. So after some youtube video’s I learned that I would need 100 average buyins for MTTS (Gone are the days of my buying into £220 and £500 tournaments directly), 80 for SNG’s and 50 buyins for cash games. Then I decided I need to specialize in one form of poker, but first of all decide if I’m a tournament player or a cash game player. Then if I wanted to play Mainly MTTS or SNG’S and what format, Turbo or standard.

Next I needed to commit to some training sites, so I signed up to Run it once and started watching Jamie staples and Jason Carvers Twitch Streams to pick up bits and pieces from their games which I can add to mine, and pencil in at least a few hours of training a week. Heck I even inquired if Patrick was still into coaching. And finally I promised I would make one maximum deposit on Pokerstars and the same value on PartyPoker and no deposit again with my own money for a minim of 6 months.

Its early days, 9 days to be exact, but I’m enjoying playing poker again as a rec basically breaking even, having a few deep runs and a final table appearances in the hot and bigger daily events on pokerstars. I guess poker is like all things you get what you put into it.

[shipitgood]

A lot of what folk are talking about is probably quite specific to cash games.

Mtts will still appeal to a wide array of players, they know there outlay from the get go with the chance of a deep run / big bink.

Rio is really decent and twitch is good for free. Was pretty amazing how many viewers watched js twitch last night, no other player can get close to the figures he consistently pulls in. Biggest thing anyone could pick up from him is he keeps it simple, nothing fancy.

Welcome back to the felt, enjoy.

[mikeymike]

good to see you back - fella

are you still using K**********S as your name on stars

[UgotNuts]

Super fast week at work. Just flown by. I'm one of those types who lidless to find the simplest and quickest way of completing tasks, but on the flip side I'm quite lazy and probably only put 45% effort and concentration into most things I do. So when I put in say 80% effort into my working week, what would normally take a couple of weeks to complete takes a few days. Having said that Friday was a drag, found myself helping out the accounts Clarks with the filing..... Forgot how therapeutic that could be.

My Daughter Ivey started school on the Monday just gone. She absolutely loves it  . First week was just half days but she already comes home and falls to sleep within an hour or two, using up all that energy. Logan has also started at nursery and has settled well. I was worried he would scream the place down , but he was taken well to the staff and his new toddling mates.

Fantasy football has started well. In the top 4000 in the Sky sports game and in the top 1000 in the Sun football league. I've joined the Luton getting private league within the sky sports game and am currently 1st and 3rd going into this weeks games. long way to go but if come March next year I'm in a similar position I could take risks to try and get in the money spots in the main games and pretty much lock up the free GPS seat for the winner of the private league. Not too bad considering I started the sky game a week into the season.

Can't be bothered to play any poker today, just chilling watching the football recovering from Ivey's 5th birthday party yesterday.... Knackered. Loved watching Jason Summerville making the final table in the stud 8 or better last night. Drifted asleep watching it last night when it was down to the top 5. Anyone know how it ended up? 

[shipitgood]

Watched a bit of his stream tonight, he said he's had a 3rd and 6th.

He was toiling in the 10k tonight, was a really tough table but he was playing super passive, just dwindling down his stack.

[UgotNuts]

I watched a bit of it too. Wasn't a fan of the non 3 betting hands and having a pop at UK players being too aggressive. It was just lets make a pair and then hold on.

[UgotNuts]

Getting it done, 1st and second in the table! Roll on may....

[UgotNuts]

Have won a couple of seats to the Sunday kick off and the million. Not sure if its better to use the tournament credits from the Sunday Kick off to play the bigger 109 or just play the kick off? Most of the tournaments I play on the Sunday start around 5ish, and not sure I want to be one tabling for a while. But The Sunday kick off is more likely to be softer than the 109?

Any suggestions?

[verndog158]

I wouldnt know for sure, but id say the Kickoff would be more reggy than the b109. Alot of regs would start their sundays off with the kickoff, whereas more recs might be on at 6pm for the b109

[UgotNuts]

Yeah you might have a point there. Saves me one tabling for a few hours too. Going to save the seats until the first weekend of October when I have the week off. Getting to old to play all night and catch the train to work at 7.30.

I'll give away five 1% sweats to this line up below too if any one what's a free sweat on the 4th October, just let me know below.

B109   
215/Sunday mil
82/PLO
B55
B11   
11/SS
B22   
Hot 16.5   
H11
27/PSK
27/PSK T
 

[UgotNuts]

Logan has been teething recently and has caught a couple of infections and a tummy bug over the past couple of months. This has led him to be teary and basically screaming for most hours of the day. Extremely stressful to deal with after a long day at work. I don’t know how Zara copes sometimes. She must have immense patience…even though I think she is losing her hearing a bit from all the screaming, not surprising really. Anyway he has started Nursery fulltime this week and it’s like we have adopted a completely new child. He has a smile on his face, running around playing, giggling all evening, I hope this is a sign of things to come! ,

I’ve been on a Shane version of the slimming work diet the last 4 weeks and have managed to lose 15 pounds. Really excited that I’ve managed to shift the weight. I went through a stage last year where I pretty much gave up ever getting back to any type of footballing level of fitness. Haven’t played for nearly two years now and now have the motivation to get into shape and down the park for some training sessions. Might give a friend of mine from Bedford Town FC a call and see if I can train with the reserves to help in the quest of getting back into shape. Might wait until I lose a bit more weight first and actually learn how to kid a ball again mind.
 
Team building day on Friday , we have some problem solving games to do here in the morning before going to Chiquitos, for lunch(Rice instead of chips for me) and then off to this place http://www.spy-games-corporate.com/. The kind souls of blonde are going to have to help me out with some general knowledge on James Bond as I’m not the biggest fan of them and would like to impress!

[Ransom]

That James Bond thing looks pretty fun actually, though I bet everyone is going to be secretly marked on their strengths and weaknesses by some management type. We had a similar thing with one of my old jobs. It was basically a test to see who was lazy, who was willing to get stuck in, who asked questions and who didn't.

If you want my advice - go full Rambo, shoot everyone in the back and you might get promoted to a board member or something.

[doctorfiasco]

Yeah you might have a point there. Saves me one tabling for a few hours too. Going to save the seats until the first weekend of October when I have the week off. Getting to old to play all night and catch the train to work at 7.30.

I'll give away five 1% sweats to this line up below too if any one what's a free sweat on the 4th October, just let me know below.

B109   
215/Sunday mil
82/PLO
B55
B11   
11/SS
B22   
Hot 16.5   
H11
27/PSK
27/PSK T
 
Not guna beg for the free % but if you wana sell a little pm me and ill have a little bit

[UgotNuts]

Yeah you might have a point there. Saves me one tabling for a few hours too. Going to save the seats until the first weekend of October when I have the week off. Getting to old to play all night and catch the train to work at 7.30.

I'll give away five 1% sweats to this line up below too if any one what's a free sweat on the 4th October, just let me know below.

B109   
215/Sunday mil
82/PLO
B55
B11   
11/SS
B22   
Hot 16.5   
H11
27/PSK
27/PSK T
 
Not guna beg for the free % but if you wana sell a little pm me and ill have a little bit

No need to buy any mate, just looking to give blonde members a little something back. I'll put you down for 1%, if no one else want's the other 4% then you can have the 5% for nothing.