A Long Road Ahead

[rfgqqabc]

Lots of grinding and not a tremendous amount to talk about. Games are excellent at the moment and I'm playing about as big as possible at the moment without a festival going on. I've kept ticking over but not had any major scores, had 50% of another 2 deep mil runs and came 9th in the supersonic losing QQ<AK for a chunky 2nd place stack. I've been having a lot of runs, bunch of fts and wins but not much for over 5k. Today went well and I binked an ept barcelona seat, which is a big relief as I really want to go and make amends for my performance last year, where i played somewhat poorly and then got kings into aces in about level 5. Its the biggest comp I've played before so I've often thought about whether the stakes got to me a bit. Its funny how one tournament out of thousands can stick out in your mind. Binked a wcoop main seat too a few weeks back, so its nice to have some shots in the bank as I will probably be playing fairly small between now and the start of wcoop, this mainly consists of dropping anything consider relatively tough such as the 1ks, but I do have the desire to prove myself at those stakes so perhaps I will look into just selling much more than usual. I have a feeling grinding early on Tuesday and Thursday would probably be the lower variance/higher hourly option.

I'm also battling a poker playing sleep schedule of heading to bed at 6-8am and waking up after 3, which often means I can't do much before I grind and just get into a really dull routine of eating worse and going out and doing less. I made sure to go out last friday and had a really good time at Meat Boutique then having a steady wander over the bridge and into a few bars along the river. The weather was outrageous and the beer was pretty good too. Not having any girls in the party I don't any pictures, so hopefully the review place will do. Bit of a joke it is only 700th in Budapest really, it is a touch expensive compared to some places but the location and decor are way above average too.

I do intend to post more but I need something more to write about, been a bit bummed out about poker after the bot scandal and Noel Hayestings thing, both of which cost me somewhere between 1k and lots at a guess. The PLO bots were extremely good and I had some shots in games around the Noel Hayes stuff, and played many tournament hands with him. I don't really know how many hands I've played with the bots across networks, it could be as little as 1k it could be as many as 50k which is pretty dirty. I've been playing more cash on the underground sites to reasonable success and I may just end up playing a bunch across these in future, as much as I love mtts. They simply can't be around for long and the $ involved is in a very solid situation (both places I know someone who knows the owner/skin owner) and both are reasonably difficult/impossible to find for other regulars.

After next tuesday or so I'll be doing a lot less playing and a bunch more studying, I think having a couple of weeks at 50:50 studying to playing time will be very beneficial. As fun as it is attempting to win money, taking some time out to try and win more money quicker in the future sounds like a good idea too! I've been doing more and more but its time to ramp it up for a while.

Gl at the tables.

[rfgqqabc]

Somewhat quiet week this week. Not played as much poker but I did play a full session yesterday and some cash midweek. Played 5/10 o8 for 5 hours or so on Wednesday, it was a pretty swings game hu and 3 handed but a lot of fun. I definitely felt like I had a big edge but four hours of winning 66+% of pots and not really winning much of note. I played a full schedule yesterday, 2 bowl ft finals and 2 slightly bigger ones for a small winning day. I also won the most in big blinds on cash in question session, despite losing a 1k bb pot I absolutely butchered, piling far too much in top boat into quads vs a regular.

Last Sunday was good, I blinked an ept package and had some other cashes for a good day. 3 handed was a long battle between myself €uropean and another regular, and it really showed me some of the differences between myself and him, and some of the other regulars. I'm trying to go through every spot and just play a little slower in the big hands. 36th supersonic again!!

We went out for a huge dinner on Thursday, 16 of us went to one of the best steak places in town. The meal took forever and was one of the weaker steaks I've had there. It was great to see everyone and I enjoyed going to a bar and seeing a few people who'd been way down the other end. A nightclub visit was mentioned for Friday night but I decided to stay in and cook some meals for the weekend. It's been nice relaxing a bit more.

[tikay]

Lots of grinding and not a tremendous amount to talk about. Games are excellent at the moment and I'm playing about as big as possible at the moment without a festival going on. I've kept ticking over but not had any major scores, had 50% of another 2 deep mil runs and came 9th in the supersonic losing QQ<AK for a chunky 2nd place stack. I've been having a lot of runs, bunch of fts and wins but not much for over 5k. Today went well and I binked an ept barcelona seat, which is a big relief as I really want to go and make amends for my performance last year, where i played somewhat poorly and then got kings into aces in about level 5. Its the biggest comp I've played before so I've often thought about whether the stakes got to me a bit. Its funny how one tournament out of thousands can stick out in your mind. Binked a wcoop main seat too a few weeks back, so its nice to have some shots in the bank as I will probably be playing fairly small between now and the start of wcoop, this mainly consists of dropping anything consider relatively tough such as the 1ks, but I do have the desire to prove myself at those stakes so perhaps I will look into just selling much more than usual. I have a feeling grinding early on Tuesday and Thursday would probably be the lower variance/higher hourly option.

I'm also battling a poker playing sleep schedule of heading to bed at 6-8am and waking up after 3, which often means I can't do much before I grind and just get into a really dull routine of eating worse and going out and doing less. I made sure to go out last friday and had a really good time at Meat Boutique then having a steady wander over the bridge and into a few bars along the river. The weather was outrageous and the beer was pretty good too. Not having any girls in the party I don't any pictures, so hopefully the review place will do. Bit of a joke it is only 700th in Budapest really, it is a touch expensive compared to some places but the location and decor are way above average too.

I do intend to post more but I need something more to write about, been a bit bummed out about poker after the bot scandal and Noel Hayestings thing, both of which cost me somewhere between 1k and lots at a guess. The PLO bots were extremely good and I had some shots in games around the Noel Hayes stuff, and played many tournament hands with him. I don't really know how many hands I've played with the bots across networks, it could be as little as 1k it could be as many as 50k which is pretty dirty. I've been playing more cash on the underground sites to reasonable success and I may just end up playing a bunch across these in future, as much as I love mtts. They simply can't be around for long and the $ involved is in a very solid situation (both places I know someone who knows the owner/skin owner) and both are reasonably difficult/impossible to find for other regulars.

After next tuesday or so I'll be doing a lot less playing and a bunch more studying, I think having a couple of weeks at 50:50 studying to playing time will be very beneficial. As fun as it is attempting to win money, taking some time out to try and win more money quicker in the future sounds like a good idea too! I've been doing more and more but its time to ramp it up for a while.

Gl at the tables.

What are "underground sites" Adam?

Not read this diary before - interesting read. Won't be so remiss in future.

[rfgqqabc]

Sites you might not be able to find through Google. Some might make it on to pokerscout some day. Think of Adjarabet (Georgian site) for example, or winpoker365 (Italian). these are two that I can think of that have emerged from the shadows in the last few years (and disappeared again).

One of the sites I play is invite only and the poker is pretty much like a live casino. I have to screenshot announcements and forward them to my agent.

[tikay]

Sites you might not be able to find through Google. Some might make it on to pokerscout some day. Think of Adjarabet (Georgian site) for example, or winpoker365 (Italian). these are two that I can think of that have emerged from the shadows in the last few years (and disappeared again).

One of the sites I play is invite only and the poker is pretty much like a live casino. I have to screenshot announcements and forward them to my agent.

Suppose it sounds a daft rhetorical question, but the security of your account balance must be a worry?

Presumably these sites have adequate liquidity, or you would not play there, are they standalones or networks?

[rfgqqabc]

Sites you might not be able to find through Google. Some might make it on to pokerscout some day. Think of Adjarabet (Georgian site) for example, or winpoker365 (Italian). these are two that I can think of that have emerged from the shadows in the last few years (and disappeared again).

One of the sites I play is invite only and the poker is pretty much like a live casino. I have to screenshot announcements and forward them to my agent.

Suppose it sounds a daft rhetorical question, but the security of your account balance must be a worry?

Presumably these sites have adequate liquidity, or you would not play there, are they standalones or networks?

Yeah it is, but I give up a portion of my action on one of the sites as insurance with my "agent" and I'm staked on one of the sites due to the difficulty of getting the currency. Its a risk but one I think I have minimized and I think the risk is worth the increased hourly if you keep the account balance low enough for it not to be too painful. Keeping a few buyins in the account is the way forward.

7th in the Megadeep for 3.2 today, played 90 mins 7 handed and eventually get QQ into KK in a weird spot. I went from 6/7 to 1/7 then that took place when I was 4/7 and i bust shortly afterwards QJ<A3o (we started off with an average of 50bb! After 10 hours 30 mins of the comp!)

12th in the Hot 44 and 16th in the 55t reentry for a few more moans. One horse got 13th in the Big 109 for a small loss and one had a really solid day. Got a bit more to write about this stake but I will take some time and write up a proper post.

I did bink another EPT package so it looks like I'm going to play a lot of HS comps this year. Definitely nice to have got another, definitely going to provide some motivation to grind so I can play more comps whilst out there, or enjoy the city rather than being forced to grind online or something depressing. Poker is a lot of fun at the moment, and I'm feeling good about my game but I can also see a lot of room for improvement. So hungry for this, and there might not be long left unless I can reach the top. Listened to a relaxing mix of classical music today and it made the session fly by. As stressful as sundays can be, losing as only annoying me because I'm not winning. I didn't get too upset about any beats until the megadeep, and I didn't let it affect my play then. I feel pretty relaxed about everything, although my mental approach does swing a little bit, I'm confident I can have a great rest of the year. 17 hour work day just flying by, and I look forward to tomorrow.


*(edit: when I say bink, I mean bink!!!!! A4<AK and j7s<AK 3 handed. Got to balance out the moans)

[tikay]

Sites you might not be able to find through Google. Some might make it on to pokerscout some day. Think of Adjarabet (Georgian site) for example, or winpoker365 (Italian). these are two that I can think of that have emerged from the shadows in the last few years (and disappeared again).

One of the sites I play is invite only and the poker is pretty much like a live casino. I have to screenshot announcements and forward them to my agent.

Suppose it sounds a daft rhetorical question, but the security of your account balance must be a worry?

Presumably these sites have adequate liquidity, or you would not play there, are they standalones or networks?

Yeah it is, but I give up a portion of my action on one of the sites as insurance with my "agent" and I'm staked on one of the sites due to the difficulty of getting the currency. Its a risk but one I think I have minimized and I think the risk is worth the increased hourly if you keep the account balance low enough for it not to be too painful. Keeping a few buyins in the account is the way forward.

7th in the Megadeep for 3.2 today, played 90 mins 7 handed and eventually get QQ into KK in a weird spot. I went from 6/7 to 1/7 then that took place when I was 4/7 and i bust shortly afterwards QJ<A3o (we started off with an average of 50bb! After 10 hours 30 mins of the comp!)

12th in the Hot 44 and 16th in the 55t reentry for a few more moans. One horse got 13th in the Big 109 for a small loss and one had a really solid day. Got a bit more to write about this stake but I will take some time and write up a proper post.

I did bink another EPT package so it looks like I'm going to play a lot of HS comps this year. Definitely nice to have got another, definitely going to provide some motivation to grind so I can play more comps whilst out there, or enjoy the city rather than being forced to grind online or something depressing. Poker is a lot of fun at the moment, and I'm feeling good about my game but I can also see a lot of room for improvement. So hungry for this, and there might not be long left unless I can reach the top. Listened to a relaxing mix of classical music today and it made the session fly by. As stressful as sundays can be, losing as only annoying me because I'm not winning. I didn't get too upset about any beats until the megadeep, and I didn't let it affect my play then. I feel pretty relaxed about everything, although my mental approach does swing a little bit, I'm confident I can have a great rest of the year. 17 hour work day just flying by, and I look forward to tomorrow.


*(edit: when I say bink, I mean bink!!!!! A4<AK and j7s<AK 3 handed. Got to balance out the moans)

Appreciate the reply, thank you. Not entirely sure I understand it, or what your "agent" does, (& why) but if it works, I'll not knock it.

Good to hear you don't keep much money on these underground sites. I was reminded of this thread last night when reading a book by Mad Frankie Fraser, back in the day, when LF ("Long Firm" frauds) were all the rage. Essentially, build up trust, then do a runner. Anyway, you seem to be aware & ahead of the game, but do be careful. 

I was going to write "keep your money on established sites, they'll never do a runner" but then I thought back to Full Tilt, & Black Friday. I know it all ended well, but only by the most peculiar set of circumstances.

I was unable to keep up with all the Diaries, & blonde generally, whilst in Vegas, but I'm subscribed to this one now.

[rfgqqabc]

Bit of heat this week with a win in the hot 55 for 8k plus change on wednesday and 4th b162 (5k), 2nd 55r (2.1k) 1st 109 o8 (1.3k).

Ran pretty good everywhere of course which was nice for a change. In both the hot 55 and Big I pretty much heatered my way to an ft stack. Really happy with my play today, I didnt bottle any spots and played some really good poker. I felt a bit fatigued at 1am but feel relatively good now despite 2 hours more play. Bit of a shame in the b162, losing QJs < TT and AA < AJs to bust. The final was pretty tough and whilst I felt comfortable I ran ok with my seat draw and card distribution. The 55r hu was a slog, and I feel like he got the better of me, so I certainly have some work to do there. I have quite a few friends to ask about the spots I felt a bit exposed in so it will be interesting to see what they say.

Always nice to get some heat before sunday, and I've managed to get a decent balance of life/playing/studying this week. I've got a lot of travelling in August and EPT Barcelona coming up, which should have an exciting lineup both in the card room and at the bar. Nice to get some $ instead of the hero. Its been a bit brutal for me with recent swings but I guess I'm somewhat hedged through having accounts in different currencies. I've not played much cash this week, small winner overall I think.

[SuuPRlim]

You have a diary!
Sick.

Don't wanna blow smoke up you but you really have become one of the strongest professional players out there this last 2 years.

Hard work and belief, and then a lil luck at a few useful moments, thats what it takes. You're a great example for anyone trying to start out in poker.

[rfgqqabc]

As I sit outside the gate of Dusseldorf airport, on my way back to the UK after a relaxing week at my girlfriends, I pick up one of my favourite books by one of my favourite authors. Elements of poker  by Tommy Angelo

To give you an idea of how big of an effect poker has had on my life, I will mention that my first copy of the book was paid for by my school. I went to a private school which had an end of the year commemoration day. This Saturday was one of the worst as a young adult. When my parents let me look at prospectuses for schools age 10, I looked for two things. Church and Saturday school. Commen day had both. A long ceremony in church in the morning followed by a lunchtime of mayhem. The school teachers had to make appearances in the headmasters garden. So we were largely left to our own devices but under the threat of real punishment for being caught on the grass or playing sport. Certain areas of grass were banned for an unknown reason,  it was a definite area of contention for my year group. We collectively scored very well on the midyis  tests that predict gcse grades but our actual results were somewhat poor including my own. Luckily I managed to turn this around at a level but we shall leave this for another day. Commen day speeches in the afternoon involved prize giving for various achievements throughout the school year. I was away when  the kids got to choose so I was given a voucher, which went towards my first copy of Elements of poker. I'm fairly sure the front cover was inscribed, I'm not sure if by my mum or whether it was actually given to the headmaster.

Anyway, after a longwinded diversion, I picked up EoP for the first time in a year or so, and even just reading the blurb, it spoke to me.

I've been somewhat down about poker lately. My results for this year haven't met my expectations and this has been something that has played on my mind, as I'm sure I have mentioned previously. Fortunately, I have been struck by an inspirational bolt of lightening and have finally realised that unless I start to modify my behaviour then I cannot become the best in the world. I have largely stopped smoking in the last week and I intend to get back to doing more exercise when  possible. This might be tough during Barcelona as the climate won't lend itself to exercise and the drinking won't lend itself to not smoking but as long as I can keep up the desire to change then I won't let the short term affect me. I'm going to have to drop down a touch. The more I analyse my database and results, the more I realise perhaps I'm not as good as I thought. I have about 12 days before Barcelona begins and I thoroughly intend to spend this time enjoying life with my family, but also doing some real hard work on my game, as I alluded to previously. My volume has been pretty good this year and my results would look quite good if I hadn't played as many hs tournaments. This is just an unfortunate part of mtts and instead of moaning about bad luck this year, I should probably be thankful that they went so well last year. Instead of bemoaning the manufactured streak (the EoP blurb was about streaks) in my head, I need to focus on what I can control and that involves being the healthiest person I am. Smoking is an extremely selfish habit and whilst I was never prolific, it wasn't until I admitted I was actually addicted that quitting could begin as a process. I'm aware it won't be easy and I'm probably choosing a poor time to do so with Barcelona and wcoop coming up.

If someone came to me and detailed my own life, I have a pretty good idea of what I would say to them. Sometimes it is hard to see clearly, but when you look over your own shoulder it can become much clearer. The condensation is wiped  Drop down a bit, knuckle down and study more. My work ethic is good, I've played 4.5k games this year as well as a bunch of cash hands and done some mix game studying. I need to keep this up and just work that bit harder and that bit smarter. I still want to reach the highest stakes. I'm not going to let poker become a grind. It is hard to make a living at this game and many careers reward service and experience. Grinding out my accountancy exams would probably make more long term sense than poker financially but almost certainly not in terms of my own happiness.

I have a lot to be thankful for and sometimes it is hard to remember that. After all, "downswing" itself implies bad luck is to blame. But when I look back I can see the mistakes I have made in many areas. As one of my dad's friends told me after my very first poker session (1/2 limit on party age 15, won 50$) 'as soon as you think you've cracked it, you haven't'

I'm on the plane now with Tommy's words between my fingers. I can feel the excitement in my stomach. I love poker, I love how it's a mental battle. I love the challenge and the competition. It's time to seek out every edge I can and try to make sure I am, and the people i care about are as happy as possible.

As a small aside blonde has become more of a negative to me as time has gone on. I find myself making silly posts I regret. So to Doobs I would like to make an apology. I am doing this here instead of PM as I don't think it would be right to hide away. I chastised in public so I think it's right to apologise in public too. My posts last week were out  of order, and whilst I think some of my points had some merit, a lot of unnecessary anger and vitrol was in those posts so I'm sorry.

I wrote this post from my phone and I did try and proof read it. It's not really my style. Had a good Sunday si I might detail that more later. Grandma's are both coming over though so vino might be involved!

"Success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard for twenty two minutes to make sense of something that most people would give up on after thirty seconds" Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers. (Talking about how long different cultures are willing to tackle math problems for)

[POWWWWWWWW]

Nice post man, keep up the good work

[arbboy]

I don't know you personally at all but I know doobs reasonably well and I was really surprised at your recent ruck,  it made no sense to me.

[aaron1867]

I don't know you personally at all but I know doobs reasonably well and I was really surprised at your recent ruck,  it made no sense to me.

His attitude towards some posters is just not on. I suppose it's all about your friendship with someone, then perhaps you're not going to see it in a light others do.

[arbboy]

I don't know you personally at all but I know doobs reasonably well and I was really surprised at your recent ruck,  it made no sense to me.

His attitude towards some posters is just not on. I suppose it's all about your friendship with someone, then perhaps you're not going to see it in a light others do.

Friendship with whom? I only know doobs to say hi to. Neither of them are remotely close friends, I just thought the ruck was strange from two of blondes very shrewd minds.

[rfgqqabc]

I don't know you personally at all but I know doobs reasonably well and I was really surprised at your recent ruck,  it made no sense to me.

I thought he didn't like me from pretty early on in my posting career and I feel like hes made a lot of small remarks about it. For example in the charity thread he brought up WCOOP, and when doing so mentioned losing 2k. Now perhaps it bothered me a bit more than it should have, because I've been losing, but it just seemed to be a little dig at me. I first just highlighted it and then put the wcoop stuff in bold and a question mark, but then I figured this was silly and to just leave it, but when I saw the post to Pads I didn't feel like leaving it anymore. Whilst Pads can obviously protect himself, I didn't feel the post should be ignored, its just not what blondes about imo. I've been in two minds about this for a while and I'm fairly sure if Doobs doesn't like me then he has his reasons for that and I'm not desperate to be liked by everyone. I think I'm probably right that he doesn't like me, as his comments about me posting something in TFT when I don't really do any sportsbetting at all. I used to be a beard for someone and I still follow what I can on the thread despite not being able to get on, but I'm not just taking info and having my own bets, I just don't really have anything to contribute. I do/did post in nearly every PHA thread since I've been a member, so I feel like its fair to say I do give as well as take from the forum. I'm not sure if that was what Doobs was saying or whether he was just upset at some of the more OOL things I said.


Doobs implied in an early PHA thread about o8, i tried looking for it briefly, that I was perhaps overestimating my ability. And looking back at some of the hands (I open KK64ss utg in one, 9 handed lol) there was perhaps some undeserved ego there.


edit: It could also just be nonsense in my head, or just doobs style. Perhaps he thought it was a friendly needle, but I've always respected him as a poster and been cautious because of what I thought his opinion on me was. I doubt we will ever be best of friends now but I felt bad about it so here we are.