A Long Road Ahead

[pleno1]

Hey j always assume this is a sky poker Reg and not you when I see it in unread topics! It's good reading.

Downswings are amazing. So many regs quit/play worse or let it effect them. The fact you can downswing and still play a lot, study and want to do well the right way means that downswings are absolutely amazing for you and you're really lucky they exist.

A lot of guys will go drinking for the week, you started studying more, a lot of regs will start unregging after the Sunday million, you kept on regging and won 30k

<3 downswing.

Good things happen to good grinders.

[rfgqqabc]

I arrived in England last Friday and had a relaxing evening talking with my parents and sister, having a good catchup about life. I found it quite interesting we all just stood in the kitchen and spoke for about 2 and a half hours. No tv, no electronics, just good old fashioned talking. Saturday was a family friends 21st, a young man who feels like a younger brother to me. Or it was the case until about 4 years ago when he managed to shoot past me in height. We don't talk a tremendous amount but it is nice to know someone is there for you and you are there for them. I had a really enjoyable evening having a few beers and a few ill advised tequila shots, a drink I find hard to stomach having drank it by the bottle with an ex girlfriend. Lots of family friends about and one of my mates turned up on his way into town, having been at another friends do. It was great to see him and we are really close, again we don't talk as much as we possibly should but I think we are both content with our own lives and just happy to grab a beer and enjoy things when our paths align. We tried to meet up a further 3-4 times this week but have really struggled due to him working and my poker play, despite me not playing a tremendous amount. Sunday I woke up fairly early with a bit of a sore head, and despite planning on getting some more sleep, I just ended up messing about in the morning doing a variety of things like reading, talking to horses, catching up on the news and so forth.

Poker is a funny game. I don't really think I played my best overall on Sunday. I got in a stupid argument with a horse who had played very little recently, but I went about it in the wrong way. I meant to just make a little joke about it but I did it in a chat with my other horse and a friend of ours and that caused a much bigger kerfuffle than necessary. I did managed to clear this up Monday morning, and I think we are in a much better shape because of it. I feel like I'm one of the less overbearing backers around and you do hear about some absolute horror stories, but both horses are friends of mine and I think we struggle to compartmentalize things a bit. It does have the added bonus of meaning I don't worry about being scammed at all. If I was scammed, losing a friend would probably hurt more than the actual $ involved.

I struggled to concentrate and kept finding myself reading facebook or 2+2 and not maintaining focus. This was partly due to focusing on lowering table count, an epiphany both Pads and I had at somewhat similar times. I had a few deep runs and managed to go from 13/14 in the Crocodile to 2/9 for the FT. Unfortunately, as per in this tournament I had a rather brutal exit. Having induced a reg to raise my potsized river bet with Q3 on a2934 in a limped pot bvb having rivered the straight, I was feeling really good about things. The next hand the sb (q3o guy) 3/5bs 88 into my AK, despite a guy being sat with 6 big blinds and he wins a sizable (god this word looks wrong)  flip. Very next hand I get AKo in vs AKs, where i probably make a similar mistake to the guy in the previous hand by not 3bet shoving and 3bet calling. My reason for this was losing the previous hand might make it look like I was tilting but particularly vs the player in question its probably still a decent mistake. I got 9th for 960 or something, a rather painful exit when there is 10k up top.

Regrouping after this was pretty hard, I felt kinda flat. I had a few stacks but morale was pretty low. We'd just about gotten into the money in the bigger 162 and I managed to make a few hands. I possibly butchered one vs a reg, getting K4o in over his bvb 2.5x, but it just didn't make sense to me for him to open to that size. He had Jacks though, one of the most reasonable hands to do this with, but I flopped a King and held. Not too long after I found AA, called a jam and a rejam and held vs KTo and Jacks again to go 1/130 or something like that. I managed to maintain this sort of stack until the f2ts, with about 36 left I had close to FT average due to an above average set of cards and winning 5 allins in a row. I was feeling really good, I pulled off somewhat of a weird bluff with a bluffcatcher that I thought was really good, but then sent it to a few people and Pads immediately got back to me to say it was horrible. 

I felt much more aggressive than my previous sunday runs and definitely made a few "yolo" moves as the field was extremely tough when we got into the final 50 or so. In the final 27 I counted about 23 regs, 2 ok players and 2 unknowns! A huge contrast to the week I came 17th when the field looked absolutely amazing. I came into the ft as 3/9 or so I think and kept up the battling. With 6 left, I pulled a really silly bluff where I felt like my opponents bet size was fairly strong but never actually nutted, and I went for the big play. I'm sure I picked both a bad hand in my range to do this with and a very bad river size, especially on one of the cards I should maybe check. This was annoying and I felt like I'd blown up a bit. Luckily, I won J8hh vs A6hh on kh822h to survive, and then won AQs vs JJ to put myself in a decent position. Not long after a HS reg made a fairly questionable play for the 3rd time at the final and jammed KJs from the big for 24bb into my open when there was a tiny stack about. I held with AK and had a great stack to continue the pressure. I managed to keep chipping up from this excellent position to be in, but when we got down to 3 handed my run of cards slowed, and the guy who came into the ft 1/9 and held onto his stack won a few pots off me and koed the 3rd place guy. It was about 6am and we quickly did a chop with myself holding the slight cl, so I'm counting it as a win despite losing the flipfest afterwards. Somewhat surreal to have your biggest winning day of the year on a day when I would rate my performance early in my session as fairly weak. Lol mtts.

I've spent most of this week reviewing hands and watching some coaching videos. I played a session on Wednesday and decided to not reg all my schedule at the start and I actually decided not to reg more as I was going to have a coaching session with Elliot Roe (the mental game coach) if I'd finished at around midnight. I again struggled a bit with concentration but I turned this around by verbalising my thought process outloud for an hour or so. Anyone watching over my shoulder would have thought I'd gone off my rocker! Its obviously something I'm going to have to battle through, having been a 20+ tabler and then dropping to 8-12 or so it is only natural I find my mind wandering a bit. With 20 tables you don't really give yourself time to think about much else other than the hands you are in but with 8 you sometimes can find gaps. Hopefully I can improve on this and I moved my session with Elliot to today in a little while. Its something I'm really looking forward to. Wednesday went fairly well, I managed a bunch of cashes and deepish runs. I came 10th in the Crocodile again, losing a pot for 2x 2nd place with 86cc into Ac5x on Q2c4c3c when a weaker player min 3bet my open. I managed to just lol this one off however and I certainly had my share of luck in the day later on.

A bunch of o8 cash has been running recently so I played some 10/20 and 5/10 . The games weren't that special and two regs actually said at the table that the Russian whale (who i thought had just improved a lot) was actually a shared account with two obviously different playing styles. Bit of a weird situation. I won on the and lost small on the but it was an interesting experience nonetheless and good practice for the 5k o8 in Barcelona that I'm probably playing. I did get lucky late on, as I was checking the lobbies, managing to spot a rare white whale on PS at 75/150 LO8. This is not a game I'd normally play but I grabbed a seat and watched a few hands before joining in and running outrageously good. Twice I won pots at showdown when I felt like I had missed and was expecting the $ to go the other way in pots vs shortstacks. Pretty hilarious and although a second table was running, the one I'd gotten on broke when he bust so I just booked the 20BB win, in a game I'm not sure I should be in. Pretty fun though and its always weird playing against the HS legends you see in the lobby everyday. I can take most off the poker bucket list now, although playing Isildur in 6m LO8 probably wasn't quite what I had in mind!

I did a review with Vernon the other day and had a lot of fun. We spent a couple of hours reviewing one of his deep runs and I think we both got a lot out of it. I'm quite happy to have spent this time preparing off the table and although I'm a touch concerned I haven't played much online this month, and won't do with being in Barcelona, its not like I have been wasting my time. The stopping smoking has got a lot easier, I rarely feel any desire to smoke at all apart from right before I go to bed. It is tough after a few beers though I must say. Went to watch Doncaster Rovers vs Leeds last night and I really enjoyed the game. Football fans are fairly tilting people though and I'm just not sure if they genuinely believe what they say. Leeds had a red card in the first half and it was an absolutely awful challenge that ticks every box for a red card. 2 footed, over the ball and completely out of control, but Leeds fans were still complaining after the game about it! Crazy. The biggest tell should have been the complete lack of protest from all their players and manager. I also heard Paul Robinson said Leeds were the better side. He may be correct in terms of actual ability but after the red card they barely managed to string 5 passes together and I don't think they managed more than 2 shots in the 90 minutes after the Red (including extra time). We did struggle to break them down and we weren't exactly amazing, but its amazing to hear a commentator could say such a thing. *Disclaimer* This is something that got shouted down by a fan sat just behind the gantry where they were filming the pundits, so it is a little hearsay.

http://www.skysports.com/football/doncaster-vs-leeds/stats/339504

lol.

[rfgqqabc]

The session with Elliot was predictably very good. We addressed some of the things I mentioned in my post on August 10th and delved a bit more into everything. I really enjoyed the experience and I expected things to be a bit more awkward, particularly for a first time session, but I found myself being very honest and relaxed even before we got to the hypnotherapy stuff. I pretty much snapped his hand off booking 9 more sessions and I'm having another on Tuesday to discuss live poker as it wasn't something we particularly touched on this session. I found out a lot of interesting things about myself and I'm looking forward to see just how big of a change this will make both to my poker and my life as a whole. I couldn't recommend him highly enough. 

[BorntoBubble]

really enjoying this picken and think it will be something good for you to look back on over the years also1

[rfgqqabc]

Hey Guys. My second (and likely final) Trett’s Genting Tournament is now only twelve days away on Saturday 29th August and with a hectic few weeks ahead for Newcastle poker I’m hoping I can pack Genting out again. So as a little incentive I’m offering all players (and non-players for that matter) a £20 free roll, all you have to do is share this status/post/event and tag me if anybody has any questions and/or queries which I will promptly answer. I’m under a lot of pressure from the management at Genting with concerns the £10,000 unconditional guarantee won’t be met, I don’t share these worries but it’s given me more motivation to get out there and build the numbers. My previous event in January had 96 entrants creating a £14,400 prize pool, this was without a guarantee so hopefully the £10,000 guarantee will attract players from slightly further afield like Edinburgh/Teesside etc. So please everybody share this event, encourage your poker friends to play and prove (which was why I spread my initial event in the first place) that with the right marketing and advertising that there is room for a regular £100+ tournament in the North East. The winner of the £20 free roll will be drawn and announced on the day after the buffet break around 5:00pm, completely free to enter just share the event (or this status) and your name will go in the hat. You don’t need to be present at Genting to collect the £20, I will hold on to it until I next see the lucky winner.
All players last time agreed and complimented me that this was a fantastically ran tournament, with live tournament updates and a professional photographer you instantly get a festival style feel for only a £165 buy-in. I have listened to the players and improved the already fantastic one day structure by adding five levels and extending the final table clock to 40 minutes (see flyer in the event for full structure). I treat all my players as guests and not just patrons of the casino, as well as the complimentary soft drinks offered by the casino I make regular walks around the poker room welcoming my guests with complimentary chocolates including roses, quality streets, heroes, ferroro rocher’s etc. All players who get in the money will be recognised by The Hendon Mob and winnings will be added to their total earnings with the lucky winner receiving a commemorative trophy, celebratory champagne and a box of Thornton’s chocolates. All players receive a complimentary gourmet buffet dinner after eight levels served at 4:10pm, this is until 5:00pm and the end of the buffet is also the very last opportunity for all new and re-entrants to take their seat. With a 12:00 noon start it promises to be a great day from start to finish, with I’m sure lots of fiercely competitive poker being played battling out for a minimum of £10,000 but I’m convinced will be considerably more.
Get involved everybody and please share, share, share and encourage everybody who intends to play to click going on the event to help give me an idea of numbers on the day so I can prepare dealers and buffet. Any questions and/or queries comment on this status/post or send me a private message and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
DON’T MISS OUT

If you ever read this Dan, don't put me in the sharerers freeroll. Poker in the northeast will always have a place in my heart. I was at a good friends wedding on Saturday and it was so great to see everyone and have a couple of beers. Such a good bunch of lads and lasses.

Drive home earlyish, got some sleep and then had a great tea with the family and some friends. Yesterday's poker went pretty well, won nlo8 weekly, 5th in 82 o8 pko and 2nd in the megako on 888 with the lions share of the prize pool. Had a fairly deep run in the Sunday Challenge on 888 after rivering a 2 outter. I thought it was a sign and kept chipping up but lost a very weird flip late on where I should perhaps fold.

I kept my table count low as previously spoken about and it just meant I felt so comfortable all session. I think I made a few mistakes but I made what I thought was the correct decision in the moment so I'd rate my performance fairly highly. I didn't play very big for a Sunday really but I don't mind doing that when I'm not in the mood. I don't really know why this is, maybe being close to out of it on sharkscope is having a detrimental effect. I might be winning on there for the year, not 100% but it is larger irrelevant of course. Streaks are self manufactured. I was on skype a bit too much but it's not like wasting energy on facebook, it's more discussing poker but that can be done post session. Something to work on. Interestingly, €uropean and I spoke briefly and he just said, gtg gonna focus fairly quickly. I'm sure Elliot would have been pleased.

Pads setup teanviewer yesterday so I spent a long time railing that, learnt some things and its always fascinating to watch him at work and be able to ask different questions. I was feeling shattered about 3am but I decided to man up and keep railing/discussing as it really is a great position to be in that a lot of regs would kill for. I also railed the 215r and 109r to completion and took some notes on future opponents. Not sure on the plan for today, dog bloody woke me up so I'm feeling tired. I will definitely get a run in though and maybe do some 5card h/l work. Think I'm sold up for Barcelona now and the excitement is building!

Thanks Callum, it a nice to get some feedback, I do feel like I'm talking to myself sometimes and I thought it means get just be the content of online poker being dull. Perhaps it was.

[tikay]

Hi Adam,

No, you are not talking to yourself - I read every word.

I had planned to reply to a couple of your long posts last week, but I never quite got round to it.  I've been trying to re-start my Diary too, but so little time, & so much to do.

Congrats on the deep runs & win yesterday.

What is your dog's name, & what make is it? You don't strike me as a dog person.

[tikay]

The session with Elliot was predictably very good. We addressed some of the things I mentioned in my post on August 10th and delved a bit more into everything. I really enjoyed the experience and I expected things to be a bit more awkward, particularly for a first time session, but I found myself being very honest and relaxed even before we got to the hypnotherapy stuff. I pretty much snapped his hand off booking 9 more sessions and I'm having another on Tuesday to discuss live poker as it wasn't something we particularly touched on this session. I found out a lot of interesting things about myself and I'm looking forward to see just how big of a change this will make both to my poker and my life as a whole. I couldn't recommend him highly enough. 

This hypnotherapy stuff, Adam.

I'm not dissing it, because I have no knowledge or understanding of it, but in what way do you think it helps you?

I know some folks were better able to quit smoking thanks to hypnotherapy, but until the last week or two I've not heard much as to how it can help us play better poker.

I DO get how cutting down the number of tables we play, & cutting out all the distractions (Facebook etc) helps, that's just plain common sense, and even at my level I'm conscious that if I start surfing or chatting on Message during a session, my concentration level dips alarmingly.

[rfgqqabc]

The hypnotherapy title is probably more misleading than useful. One of the early questions I asked Mr. Roe about was whether Hypnotherapists disliked the stage performing Hypnotists, and his answer was a resounding yes. The hypnotherapy part of the lesson and lesson might be the wrong term here, perhaps session would be a better description, was the last thing we touched upon. It is largely used as a relaxation technique that helps people be honest about why they feel the way they do about things, whether this is anxiety at higher stakes, anger at being 3bet or some other emotional issue that directly affects their game play. The best example would be many people who feel upset at being 3bet find they often have unresolved issues of bullying at some point in their life. The hypnotherapy allows Elliot to delve a bit deeper into the mind whilst allowing you to be more comfortable. I didn't or don't have any issues quite like that but after we spent a long time talking about my career, family life and health etc, but certainly was useful to feel so relaxed when we spoke more about the issues. I think the more relaxed you are, the more open and honest you will be. The image of a pocket watch swaying side to side could not be further from what actually happens. I may be wrong in what I say here as it is simply my take on it having spoke to Elliot for two hours once, but I think this is the general idea. We also did some visualization type things which then led to questions about how I feel in those moments. It is something that is hard to replicate and not something you can always share with friends or family, some things can be a bit too personal to share.

The family dog is called Buddy, hes a rescue dog and a Scoodle. He does have much curlier fur than most of the pictures I found online so I won't link you to a photo and will try and take a photo tomorrow. We have had a dog in the house throughout most of my childhood and I've always absolutely loved them to bits. I'm a huge dog person Tikay so your read was definitely wrong there. They are such amazing animals and I love the companionship they provide. Its hard to leave him for most of the year and dogsitting the other week certainly made me consider getting one in Budapest even though I know it isn't really compatible with my lifestyle or a place I'd particularly want to house a dog, despite it having quite a few dog friendly places.

I didn't manage to get any off the table H/L done. I did manage to play some big pots at 10/20 and get it in largely good for the most part. The o8 action is really big at the moment and I'm not really sure where its come from. The games play pretty big and there is a decent pool of players so it might last for a while as its not particularly obvious who the fish in the game is. I tend to sit with the minimum though and think this provides me with a decent advantage. Quite a lot of my opponents seem to be playing far too loose but perhaps they will have the last laugh. Think I won enough to cover my 530 omaha buyin so I can't really complain. I'm not having a good run in that at the moment, and seem to be busting at the first hurdle. I had kinda blamed previous sundays in my head but I felt pretty good today so that is a touch worrying. Probably just variance.

I never used to struggle with looking at facebook or even skype during sessions, its something I thought I did pretty well but I think being unable to because of table count had some effect. I did notice an improvement from last Wednesday compared to both Sunday and today so that is something to be pleased with, although I only played a couple of hours today.

[tikay]

Ahh, gotcha Adam, thanks.

It sounds more like psychiatry than hypnotherapy to me, but it makes sense now. I'm a bit wary of what I would call "passing fads", but now it all makes sense to me.

Good to hear about the dog, don't forget to post the photo.  

I adore dogs, & it was always part of my retirement plan 12 years ago to get me a dog & fade away slowly into the sunset, just me & the dog, but I've kinda buggered that plan up one way & another. I will still get one though, once it becomes practical. As an odd aside, which will make no sense to a living soul, I live quite near the Windsor branch of Battersea Dogs Home, and about once a month Gill & I drive across & spend an hour or two there, fantasising about which dog we will choose when the time is right. She's as daft as a brush with animals, & we take along a bag of "dog treats" & sneakily feed the ones we like.

PLO8 traffic. Well I don't frequent 'Stars & the like, but I've been doing a personal challenge Next Door to increase interest in PLO8, & it's remarkable how much interest there is now in PLO8. Obviously it's very small compared to 'Stars etc, but I think you'd be surprised to know that in PLO8 DYM's, well in excess of 150 run every evening between 7pm & Midnight. I stick to the "bigger ones" (lol) at £3.30, £5.50, & £11, but I can regularly & easily play 50 of them any evening, & I play 5 or 6 at a time. The traffic at the lower levels is even greater.

I actually heard a bunch of good things about Unibet recently, so I had a look the other day to see what PLO8 SNG traffic they had. As far as I could see (I only looked on the Browser version) they don't even run them.  

I looked on Party, too, mainly to give Rob a bit of tangible support, but the PLO8 SNG traffic did not appear to exist.

More & more players are slowly realising that edges in NLH are very hard to find these days, everyone (well a lot) play so well, especially with all the software aids available. However, there are still a whole bunch of players who don't have a Scooby about the correct logic of PLO8, (guess it applies to NLO8 too), so there's plenty of value to be had. And if I can turn a profit in these games, with my nitty ranges, (I am WAYYYYY too nitty) anyone with half a clue ought to be able to do OK in them. It never ceases to amaze me how players will happily risk their entire stack with a low simply to get back what they put in, without realising they are potentially being freerolled.  But I had the low.   Yup, YBA sunshine.

[Pinchop73]

Table looks fun! Good luck this avo!

[rfgqqabc]

Hey guys, I took a somewhat intentional break with updating here, I had a death in my family that I wasn't really sure if I wanted to discuss. It never quite felt like the right time and then wcoop began and its felt really busy. Been an ok month so far ft bubbled the nl sd 2-7 which was a shame. Deepish run in the mil last sunday/monday and 22/30 in the 320 6m going into today. 95k ftw. Been bricky with horses and none coop stuff, not been playing that many as concentrating on the mixed games seems better than jumping in some of the tougher comps, and I don't want to play too many small freezeouts or turbos for no reason. Did ping the .fr supersonic on Sunday for 6.5k Euro, and had a bit of a heater on cash. Games were insane yesterday with 20k+ on 2 5/10 tables. Luckily only 2.4k was mine so I booked a decent win. The fish left with a chunk too so might be game on fairly soon. He wasn't the worst and people played terribly against him imo and then at the end of the session he just called off 600bbs in 3 pots with underfulls. And after all that his even adjusted was a small winner!

I know I wrote fish above but he was an exciting gambler and didn't really tilt at all unlike some of the regs! I'd definitely buy him a pint if I could, he must have some stories. I don't mean to be disrespectful

[Marky147]

Sorry to hear about your family member that passed.

BOL today, and for rest of WCOOP.

[BorntoBubble]

Did i see on FBook that it was your birthday this week?

Belated wishes if so and hope you can be rewarded for a shitty time with some binks in wcoop.

[tikay]

Hey guys, I took a somewhat intentional break with updating here, I had a death in my family that I wasn't really sure if I wanted to discuss. It never quite felt like the right time and then wcoop began and its felt really busy. Been an ok month so far ft bubbled the nl sd 2-7 which was a shame. Deepish run in the mil last sunday/monday and 22/30 in the 320 6m going into today. 95k ftw. Been bricky with horses and none coop stuff, not been playing that many as concentrating on the mixed games seems better than jumping in some of the tougher comps, and I don't want to play too many small freezeouts or turbos for no reason. Did ping the .fr supersonic on Sunday for 6.5k Euro, and had a bit of a heater on cash. Games were insane yesterday with 20k+ on 2 5/10 tables. Luckily only 2.4k was mine so I booked a decent win. The fish left with a chunk too so might be game on fairly soon. He wasn't the worst and people played terribly against him imo and then at the end of the session he just called off 600bbs in 3 pots with underfulls. And after all that his even adjusted was a small winner!

I know I wrote fish above but he was an exciting gambler and didn't really tilt at all unlike some of the regs! I'd definitely buy him a pint if I could, he must have some stories. I don't mean to be disrespectful

Sorry to hear of your bereavement, Adam.

Sounds like you are doing OK on the tables though, especially at those Mixed Games. If I had the ability, I'd only play Mixed Games these days, I find them so much more interesting than NLH, which feels so flat to me these days. (Mainly, I guess, because I made no effort to keep up with the game). If only I could better grasp how to play Limit, I'd be in my element.

When you are playing WCOOP Mixed Games, do you come up against, or know, a lad named Adam Owen?


http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=336344

I got to know him quite well this year in Vegas, we spent a lot of time chatting, & he impressed me greatly, partly because he is so young, but plays the Limit games with such instinctive fluency. Quite unusual for a young English guy.

[rfgqqabc]

Yeah it was my birthday yesterday Callum.

Thank you all for the condolences. I didn't really realise I skipped over the topic so much in the post. RIP Grandma. 89 years is a good innings and whilst I will always miss her, her health was declining and I do think she was worried a bit about the effect of her health on the family if she continued to deteriorate. She had some great stories and always seemed happy and put a smile on my face. There's a chance I write a bit more on this topic as I think it could be quite interesting but I'd need some photos from home and some time to do some googling.

3rd in 2nd chance 8 game. Won big 50 on .fr. 22nd in 320 which was a bit disappointing, especially as i doubled a7s vs AA but a few levels later I cold4bet jammed AQs for 25 or so and lost to AK. Next time. Cash went well again, same guy was back and moved up. After tonight we might not see him again

 Just had another deep run through a horse who got 8xth in the thrill busting AJ<J9o when he jammed for 17bb from utg and the button called it off. Speechless really. Bounties make people do weird things.