A long overdue update

I would like to apologise to those of you who follow this blog. I haven't posted for a long time and I'm sorry.

The good news is that life is great. The new flat in Bristol is fantastic and I'm really enjoying living hear. I already feel that my game is improving and that the decision to move here was a good one. By surrounding myself with other poker players I've given myself the best chance to be successful in a healthy environment.

My results thus far have been a little disappointing but that doesn't concern me. I'm enjoying playing and have increased my volume significantly since the move.

I'm really trying to stay positive and look forward to next year. Before i can do that however i need to be honest about the last 12 months. I haven't played anywhere near enough poker and still have a lot to work on. I'm pretty much in the same financial position as i was this time last year and that isn't good enough. Just because I'm lucky enough to pick and choose when i play this shouldn't result in an excuse to be lazy and go through long periods of hardly playing.

I set myself some targets at the start of the year and i haven't come close to hitting any of them. I'll admit that winning the WSOP main event was a little ambitious but the other three were certainly achievable. To have failed so miserably is extremely disappointing for me.

If 2012 is going to be different i need to take things more seriously and dedicate a lot more time to both studying and playing. I think I've taken the first step by moving away from London to be amongst fellow professional players. If i can stay focused on making good decisions then i see no reason why next year can't go a lot better than this one has.

Away from poker the last few months have been fairly quiet. I've been in London a lot seeing the girlfriend and been on a couple of holidays. One was a trip to Florence which was very enjoyable and the other was the golf holiday to Okehampton that i somehow managed to win! I really love the annual boys trip and i really hope that we keep it up for the years to come. I was really happy to win but i felt a bit guilty playing off such a high handicap having played so many rounds leading up to the competition. Looking forward to getting down there next year and defending my title!

I'm heading home for Christmas tomorrow and then will probably be back in Bristol for the new year. Hard to say when I'll next blog but i will try to keep it going, certainly think it's a positive outlet for me. Anyway happy Christmas to you all.

Life Update

The last six weeks have been fairly eventful. I've played some online poker, bashed up Broadstairs folk week, moved out of the London Pad and even won a live tournament! I'm now back in sunny Broadstairs whilst a few friends and I sort out a move to Bristol. I didn't really feel like blogging until I had something to write about and I now feel like this is a good time for reflection.

I'll start with an online cash update. On the whole it has gone quite well. I'm up about $10.5K since Vegas playing $1/2 and $2/$4. I've also put a solid amount of hands in which is encouraging. Usually at the this time of year I have very little interest in playing much online but I've been helped out by the shoddy weather.

I took five days off in the middle of August to come home and enjoy the awesomeness that is Broadstairs folk week. This is by far the best week of the year to be back home. The town is packed, the atmosphere is very friendly and the beers are flowing. It also gives me a chance to catch up with some of the boys from school that I don't get to see enough of. I'm going to give a big congrats to my friend Alec 'the boy' Howard for his stellar performance, getting pissed on every night of the week, you are my hero!

As usual the main event of the week was the annual half pint challenge. Now in its 5th year this particular pub crawl is going from strength to strength. 18 pubs, 9 pints, silly hats, flip cup and the Jurassic park theme tune all contributed in making this year the best yet!

The last two weeks in London have been very enjoyable but also a little sad. We've had some great nights out, most notably an absolute tear up in the Venue and my birthday meal at Goodmans. I still can't help but feel a little sad about the closing of another chapter in my life. Living with Tone, Liam, Mike, Brad and Hatz has been great fun and I wouldn't change the last three years for anything. Along with the rest of my friends they've all been very supportive of what I do and living with them has been an absolute pleasure.

Anyway the plan now is to move to Bristol for 9 months before the next WSOP. I'm looking forward to living with other poker players and I'm sure my game will benefit enormously. Just having other people to bounce ideas off and dissect hands with is great, hope I can continue to improve and put some serious volume in over the winter.

Now some very good news. Last week I won a £300 tourney at the international for £9.2K. I'm excited about this result for a number of reasons. Firstly money is awesome, secondly the field was quite tough, it's my home club and finally the structure is very unique for the size of the buy-in. You start with 20K in chips and the blind levels are 90 minutes. This offers phenomenal value for all players and it gives people a chance to play a $10K structure for just £300. It was nice to win a tourney for the first time in ages and the whole experience was a lot of fun. The club has a lot of regs and the banter was flying around. A lot of characters and a very good 3 days of work.

Anyway I'm about done on this one, very solid blog IMO! Not sure when I'll update next but the golf holiday in Okey is coming up so hopefully I can write about getting rid of that Fucking wooden spoon!

Day 3 busto

I just busted out the 2010 WSOP main event. I managed to finally get some chips to play with then lost a 120K flip with AK v QQ playing 600/1200/200. The hand itself is very standard and i think it represents my entire world series very well, double my stack then lose the next important hand i play. This seemed to happen in a lot of the events.

On the whole i'm extremely happy with the way i played this summer, especially in the main event. There isn't much i would change if i had to do it all over again. Unfortunately the reality is that i'm now enjoying a fairly brutal $16K downswing. The plan for the next few months is very simple: get back to England and get on the grind. Looking forward to the next world series already.

Hard Day 1

The good news is that i managed to make day 2. I only have 25 of my 30K starting stack but the blinds are only 200/400/50 so plenty of play left yet. My table was fairly soft with one guy in particular being terrible. The funny thing was the 'Italian stallion' ran his nuts off all day and finished with a 110K stack! I'm fairly happy with my decisions but a little frustrated about how the day went. I felt like i was in so many multi way pots against bad players with good hands but i just couldn't connect with a fucking thing. I really need to stop complaining about things outside my own control though and focus on the positives. I'm playing day 2A on Friday and all i can do is focus on making good decisions and hope to run much better than i did today. In the mean time I'm just going to relax and enjoy the holiday.

Main Event

I'm playing day 1A of the main event tomorrow. It's obviously the biggest and most prestigious event of the year and i'm fairly excited about playing in it for the third time. I'm a little annoyed that the recent downswing has prevented me from having a larger % of myself but all in all i'm just happy to be playing.

The latest side events did not go well. I busted both of them fairly early, one losing a flip and the other with AA v QQ all in pre. Away from the tables Vegas life has been a lot of fun. We've just been hanging out, drinking, watching the world cup and going out a lot for dinner/drinking/crazy shenanigans. A couple of the people in the house have been involved in some really fun situations with the ladies, most notably one William Brewin. Whilst i'm happy to write anything about myself on this page it probably isn't fair to write about his exploits, no matter how entertaining. Anyway i'm glad to report that on a personal note i've been behaving myself a bit better this year. My diet had been appalling and i've done very little exercise but life is good and i'm enjoying the whole Vegas experience, now to go and win the main event!

I cashed!!

I made the money in the latest $1500 event, finished 169th For nearly $4K. It was obviously a bit annoying not to make any real money but nice to have the first cash of the series. I ran really well in the first 8 levels to get up to a very healthy 65K in chips but the lost a 60K pot with AK v JJ. If i had won that pot i would have been i the top 10 going into Day 2. Unfortunately i suck at winning important flips and lost another one in the third level of day 2 to bust.

I'm playing the $1.5K on Monday and obviously hoping to keep my amazing streak alive. It also looks like i'll be playing the main event but only keeping a small % of myself.

0 and 4

I played the $1.5K shootout today and came 4th. I never really got anything going but i think i played fine. Ended up losing QJ v AK in another boring, standard hand. Next is another $1.5K on Wednesday. I hope England are safely through to the last 16 of the world cup by the time i take my seat.

More Fail

Busted the $1K in level 5 today. The hand was a total cooler. I had top set, he had an open ended straight flush draw and got there. It was a 13K pot playing 100/200 so obviously that would have been a nice one to win.

Can't stop losing

I thought it might be a good idea to play some online poker, it wasn't. Lost $3.5K playing 2/4 running like shit and tilting a bit. I can't stop losing at the moment and it's getting hard to take. For the first time in my life i'm hating the game and how unfair the variance can be. I'm 100% not playing online again whilst i'm out here.

0 and 2

Busted the $1.5K on day 1. I got off to a fast start chipping up to 11K from 4.5 start then this happened:

75/150 UTG+1 limps (playing to many hands and not playing them very well). I iso from CO with KQ to 500 playing a 11K stack to his 9Kish, everyone else folds and he calls. Flop AJ10 all spades, i have Queen of spades. He checks, i bet 675, he calls. Turn is off suit 9, he checks, i bet 1250, he calls. River ace, he leads for 3.3K, i call, he wins with A9 no spade. It was quite disgusting for me to lose that one and i never got anything going afterwards. I probably could have folded but it certainly wasn't an easy fold or a big mistake to call in that spot. I'm going to chill for a few days then play the $1K on Saturday.

$2.5K 6-max

I busted playing 300/600/75 when i re-shoved 1010 with 20 bb's and got called by AJ, fairly standard.

I think the overall standard in the tourney was quite high. Of the 15 opponents i came up against only 2 were bad players and 6 or 7 seemed to play very well. I think i played well. I certainly didn't make any big mistakes but i think i made one small one. I basically made a bluff that was fine but I'd just lost a fairly big pot and might have had a tilted image. This is obviously a good time to go for thinner value and not make a big bluff, oh well.

Next up is the $1.5K tomorrow.

Downswing

The last week has been one of the hardest that i've ever had to endure. I've lost $7K and gone through a very wide range of negative emotions. Most of the time i've just been really angry. I'm running so horribly it's sick. I can't remember a run of cards this bad and it's been hard to take.

The worst thing is that i've had to cash a lot out my roll to pay for Vegas. If Vegas goes badly i might have to move back down to $1/2 and i would hate that. I want to be moving the other way and moving back down would be a major blow to my pride. All this just makes the trip even more important. I really think it will define my year and i could very much do with catching a break.

I'm flying out next week and here is a list of the tournaments i plan on playing:


Mon 14th June - $2.5K 6 max
Wed 16th June - $1.5K
Sat 19th June - $1K
Mon 21st June - $1.5K shootout
wed 23rd June - $1.5K
Fri 25th June - $1.5K
Sat 26th June - $1K
Mon 28th June - $1.5K

I really would like to play the main event but I'm going to see how i do in the side events first. I'm not going to play online again in June, think i could do with a month off and just focus on winning a bracelet.

Groundhog day

My last three appearances on the Grosvenor Poker tour have been eerily similar in nature. Firstly i arrive, full of confidence, hope and expectation. Secondly I'm ecstatic to discover that the poker ability of the majority of the rest of my table is somewhat limited.

After these initial discoveries is where the fun starts. I spend the next 8 hours playing as well as i can whilst the poker gods have a good laugh at my expense until my inevitable exit at the end of day 1. The worst thing about it is the seeming inevitability of it all.

As you can probably tell from the first few paragraphs of this blog, my trip to Coventry was not a successful one. My starting, (and finishing) table was again very soft but yet again it was unable to do much about it. The first level was hilarious. I lost with KK to 33 on a J4386. Thankfully i was saved by a retarded opponent who didn't understand bet sizing. Next up i lose 99 to 43 when it comes 633, (he decided that his hand was good enough to defend v my UTG open). Next i have to fold AK when i smash the bus into AA. I the lose 77 twice multi way and then have A8 v an unknown over pair when i fold to his 2x pot bet on an 864. If my opponents were even somewhat competent i would have probably gone busto but all in all i was very happy to have only lost 30% of my starting stack.

I spent the next 7 levels totally card dead playing very few hands. I was able to grind back to my starting stack but unfortunately for me that was all i could manage. I think my exit hand was very standard and all in all i see nothing i could have done differently. Yet again I'm content with my performance but left amazed at how bad the last 2k hands of live poker have been.

Can't believe what a whinny little girl i am sometimes!!

Quick Update

I managed to just about ensure that April was a profitable month. Even though this is obviously good news i'm concerned about my mindset. I've been getting more and more frustrated with poker over the last few months. I'm not sure if this is because i'm bored of playing and in need of long break or because i'm running bad and struggling to emulate the success i had online at the end of last year.

The good news is that away from poker life is great. The flu is gone and the asthma pumps have helped a lot with my breathing. I swam half a mile earlier today and felt fine. I'm going to run a couple of miles later and see how i feel. I really hope i can maintain a healthy lifestyle for a while because i've been letting things slip. No exercise and lots of takeaways make Eddy a chubby boy!

I have a very strong feeling that this week will determine how much poker i play before Vegas. If things go well i could easily get my appetite back and play 30 hour weeks. If things go badly i might end up throwing my monitor out the window!

The end of my live drought

Good news!!! I finally cashed again in a live tournament.

I was home alone last Saturday so i decided to head to the international to watch the Spurs game. As well as being a good poker venue the club also has a wide screen to watch the games and serves good food, easy decision. After a great game and a very important victory for my team i decided to play the weekly £150. Now this tournament isn't great value. The level of play is quite high, the field quite small and the structure is obviously quite fast because it's a 1 day event. Despite all these negative factors i ended up 4 handed and we decided to do a chop. Two guys had about 180K in chips, i had 160K and another guy had 90K. After some smooth talking i managed to negotiate a good deal. The top 3 got £1750 and the other guy got £1450. If the blinds had been lower i wouldn't even think about a deal this generous but at 5K/10K my edge was fairly small so i was just happy to take the cash.

The online situation hasn't changed much since my last blog. I haven't been more than $3K either side of even this month and it's been a little frustrating. Every time i have a good day and feel like I'm ready to go on a rush and make some money i end up losing money in my next few sessions. The good news is that I've been a lot more level headed about it all since my last post and i feel like I'm playing well again. I really hope i can have a strong end to the April and avoid my first losing month since September 2009. I've still never had a losing month playing cash when I've played over 10K hands so this is the record i really want to hold on to.

Unfortunately I've had some bad news about my health. I've been struggling with my breathing over the last few months so i went to see the doctor. After a few tests she decided that i have asthma. My dad and sister have both had it for most of there lives so it wasn't that much of a shock really. I'm not to upset about it and it's nice to have the inhalers on hand to help when I'm struggling to breath. The worst think is that I've had a bit of flu recently which obviously makes things ten times worse. My nose has been completely blocked and this isn't really ideal when breathing is the major issue.

Anyway I've been feeling progressively better over the last few days and am now looking forward to going up to Manchester tomorrow for the GUKPT. I'm playing day 1B on Friday and obviously it would be nice to have a decent run after making the final table last year. I hope the next blog is a tale of victory!

Running out of momentum

The last few months have become increasingly frustrating. My win rate had been slowing down and now I'm struggling just to break even. Although I'm not overly concerned with short term variance i am annoyed about my reaction to it. I'm getting annoyed about really standard shit and getting angry about poker is never good. Sometimes you just need to take a step back and put things into perspective, hopefully this blog is me doing that.

I think one of the best things about losing is that i tend to learn things. Even if it's not learning new things but reinforcing certain things that i might have temporarily forgotten. I'm not going to go into the boring details but there have been certain things about my play that I'm not happy about. The good thing is that i recognise what they are and can take fairly obvious steps to change them.

The Ski trip was loads of fun. We only had 4 days but i really enjoyed everything about Chamonix. The trip also reminded me how insanely lucky i am. For most people a holiday is an important break from work, my whole life is a break from work!

Since my return to London I've not been up to that much. Liam and Ant are both changing jobs and have the next couple of weeks off. Basically that means that i won't be playing much poker. It does mean that i'll be playing a bit of golf, fifa 2010 and ping pong. I played my first round of golf of the year last week and it went quite well. I was crap on the front 9 but played a strong back 9 and tried to think hard about what i was trying to do with every shot, just need to work on the execution now. I also hit one of the best shots of my life on a 150 yard par 3 when i ripped a 7 iron 1 foot from the hole.

Hopefully my next blog will be about my winning $10K in a week but until them some advice; go to the cinema and watch Kick Ass. It's brilliant!

Live V Online

The last 6 months have been fairly consistent. I've been making a good amount of money online and losing a fair bit live. The latest GUKPT was no exception to this rule. After making day 2 of a £300 side event, running KK into AA to bust, the £1500 main event was another dissapointment. My starting table was awesome with fish all over the place but once again i was unable to take advantage thanks to a horrible run of cards. I didn't flop better than middle pair for the first 3 hours but thanks to the structure i was still in good shape. I then got moved to a really tough table and continued to lose every hand i played. I eventually got it in with AJ v AK and somehow managed to win. This immense feeling of being above my starting stack was not to last however and i busted out a few hours later with 99 v JJ on a 865 board. I think the hand was fairly standard. It was certainly a nice feeling to have an overpair.

Ant Forrest and Will Brewin stayed at ours most of the week which was a lot of fun. We basically played a load of 25/50p and fifa 2010. I didn't win any money obviously but it was nice to see the team dropout boys. Will ended up cashing for £4.8K coming 14th in the main. That position really sucks but i'm sure one of us will ship a decent live score soon. On that subject i haven't cashed in a live tournament for nearly a year now. I think i've played about 25-30 which seems quite a lot but when you think about the number of hands it really isn't. I just have to mkae sure when i am playing live i'm playing my best and hope the cards turn for me.

I haven't worked out my exact profit for March but i think i made something like $3K. I jerked so much cash off on stupid things and also lost about $1K staking which sucks. The plan for April is to grind fairly hard then go to the Manchester GUKPT and win that.

I'm going Skiing tomorrow with Juliet and my sister. We're only going for 5 days but it should be fun and i'm looking forward to getting out the country.

The days when it all goes wrong

Why did i mention my winning streak?! I sat down today full of confidence and momentum. Little did i know that it was going to be one of those days when the poker gods take a piss on your face. I lost K10 V KQ on a KKQ10x. I lost A5 v 88 on a A85, lost 3 flips in a row and lost pretty much all the small pots as well. I'm still in a bit of shock to be honest as i only played for about an hour and managed to dump off $2.7K but oh well, shit happens. I don't think i made any big mistakes and these days happen to everyone so i just have to get on with it. I'm obviously taking the rest of the day off and will come back tomorrow fresh and ready to play.
The 11am experiment is still in it's infancy but i slept 5 hours the first night, 10 hours last night and both times did not wake before the alarm. The plan is to sleep at 2am tonight and try to rock the 9 hour pattern.
Shutter Island was a very good film. The acting was excellent and i would recommend it to anyone, 9/10. I'm looking forward to the champions league tonight and i really hope Inter can knock out Chelsea. I know a lot of people always support the English clubs in Europe but i have never understood that logic. I don't like the way Chelsea play and i don't like it when billionaires take over clubs and starting paying silly money to build an all star team who don't give a shit about the club.

The 11am experiment

Leading on from my last blog about laziness I'm now going to write about sleep. We all need sleep to function but exactly how much do we need? Can some people survive on less sleep than others and finally is there a perfect number of sleep hours that allows us to be at are most productive during the day?

My increased interest in the subject has come through observation and discussion. I've lived with Antony 'big tone' Yousefian for the last two and a half years now and i would say he has had approximately an average of 7 hours of sleep a night over that period. I on the other hand would be much closer to an average of 10-11 hours. Now when you start to add that shit up it's a hell of a lot of sleep! I guess without really knowing the affects of the difference I'm really interested in what they might be. Ant is a very driven, productive person though and has simply got use to working and maybe even thriving on a lack of sleep. Comparing the two of us is effectively a waste of time because we're different in so many ways.

A more appropriate case study might be to compare myself with another friend, Joe 'razzle dazzle' Whittaker. Now Joe is a full time poker player as well but he sets his alarm most days and tries to sleep for about 8 hours a night. His sleeping pattern is all over the place but the key variable is the amount of hours which remains constant. In terms of productivity Joe plays a lot more than i do although like me can sometimes lead an unbalanced life. I guess what I'm trying to answer is whether or not the huge number of hours I've spent asleep is having a negative affect on me as a person? I've stopped exercising over the last 2 months and have eaten a lot of junk food. I've also not been putting much volume online but that being said when i have played I've being focused and playing fairly well.

Maybe I've just got used to having a lot of sleep. The human body needs sleep and my own is simply getting all it can. Is there even a thing as having to much sleep?

I realise I've been asking a lot of questions in this blog but that's come from a total lack of knowledge about the subject. I feel like a kid who's trying to work something out for the first time; a bit like i imagine CashyP feels on a daily basis.

Anyway back to the title of this blog, the 11am experiment. The plan is to set my alarm for 11am everyday until the end of April. If i get up before 11am that's fine but 11 is the absolute latest I'm allowed to get up. I'm hoping this will help me in two ways. Firstly i hope to get myself back into a healthy style of living. Getting up early obviously results in more sunlight and therefore more going to the gym, swimming, running, sculpting the guns etc etc. Secondly i want to be able to start answering some of the many questions that I've asked in this post. Will i be going to sleep the same time every night by the end? Can i function on less sleep etc? The best thing about the experiment is even if it turns out i do need 10 hours of sleep a night I'll still be up at a reasonable hour so it's win win for me. The hardest morning is going to be the one coming up, it's coming up to 5am and I'm not very tired yet. Should be fine getting through the day then we're all going to see the new Scorsese film tonight night which I'm very much looking forward to. Overall I'm actually quite excited about the experiment and hope i can stick to it. I think the biggest potential problems are hangovers and late night sessions but I'll try my best to stick it and will be blogging my progress.

Just a quick paragraph on my poker exploits. I've been running really hot for the last 8 days and have made $10K playing 2/4 and 3/6, mostly heads up. I've also managed to avoid having a losing day so really hoping i can maintain the streak as momentum is obviously important in poker. I've been playing close to my best which is also a nice bonus. Peace and love to you all.

Getting into bad habits

Unfortunately this is something i do quite often. The lack of authority in my life twinned with the drinking, the laziness, the gambling and the rest of all that great stuff makes it hard for me to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I really feel like i have a good idea of how i want my life to be. Eating healthy, regular exercise, reading, writing, learning etc etc. The truth of the matter is it's 4am, I've watched 8 hours of shit on TV today and managed to work my way through an entire tub of ice cream. Now i know these are impressive accomplishments in themselves but i think i could be doing better.

It will always come down to the fact that I'm lazy. The worst thing about my laziness is my acceptance of it. I've been lazy my whole life and to be honest I've never really understood why people spend so much time doing things they don't want to. I like to do what i want, when i want and for a large percentage of my time that means relaxing in comfort.

The game of poker has been both good and bad for my natural laziness. On the plus side it gives me something to work on, makes me concentrate and challenges me on a daily basis. On the other side of the coin it's created a way for me to make quite a lot of money with not much effort. I'm 23, have no degree and 'work' an average of 15-20 hours a week. The sick thing about this little story is i make more than most Oxbridge graduates my age and i don't pay tax. I don't want this post to turn into a shameless brag but for a lazy fucker I'm doing OK for myself.

I'm sure a time will come when I'll have to think about making some major changes in my life. When that time does arrive i want it to be through choice and not have been forced from going broke. The idea of busting my roll is petrifying. The scariest thing about it for me is the idea of trying and failing at something. I'm use to mediocrity. I was mediocre at school and I've always been a mediocre sportsman. The reason I'm OK with this is the reason behind it. I never worked hard at school and I've never really worked hard at sport. What i have worked hard on is poker. If i went broke i know my family and friends would help me through but I'm not sure i could ever get over trying and failing at something.

You'll be glad to hear that's the soul revealing, philosophical side of the blog done. I never really plan what I'm going to write on this page and sometimes things just spill out. Back to my recent poker activity:

Live poker sucks! I played 4 events at the London poker masters and cashed in none. On top of that i lost £750 playing cash and another £130 staking, what a superstar! The grand total for the festival came to a loss of £1980 so overall not a good week. As far as decisions go i did quite well. If i had to grade my performance at the festival i would give me a B-. I still pushed a little to hard at times and my timing/live reads were not very good at all. As is the current trend with my live outings i did tend to run into a lot of hands. It's so hard to get momentum going in a tourney when you can't make hands and your opponents keep making the nuts. Really hoping i can save all my run good for one tournament and ship something big.

After a 10 day break from online poker I've been back on it this week. Glad to report I'm +$5K from the first 4 days. Most of that came from one guy on party that sucks hairy man cock. My heads up game is getting really strong and I'm still improving. Planning on playing online quite a bit for the next couple of weeks then I'm playing the GUKPT at the Vic at the end of the month. Hugs and Kisses xxxxxxxxxxxx

End of a swingy month

I'm not upset to the see the end of February. Another cold winter month out the way in which i underachieved at the tables. At least i managed to make sure i finished up a winner, +$5.4K. I've also been playing better since my last post and obviously I'm hoping that i can maintain this.



I've been at home in Broadstairs for the last 3 days and have had a really good time. The four of us haven't spent a great deal of time together over the last couple of years and it's been a lot of fun. We went out for dinner on Saturday to a nice fish restaurant and then for some reason went bowling today with 15 of my parents friends. I scored 106 and 101 but actually bowled quite well and had no luck at all. To make things worse my sister, my mum and my dad finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. Talk about letting the family down! My sister scored 128 and 134, well played!

I went to the driving range with dad on Friday and didn't hit the ball well at all. My swing is a mess and i really need some lessons if I'm going to avoid the wooden spoon in okey this year.



The plan for next week is some good old live poker action! There is a festival at the international and I'm playing in 4 of the events. It would be really nice if i could make 1 final table because my recent live results have sucked! I'm not going to play at all online until the Monday after the festival. I thought it might be a good idea to take a little break and come back fresh and ready to play like a champion. I'll probably blog how i get on at the festival at some point next week.

I wrote this blog on the train back from London:

http://www.gutshot.com/bforum/blog.php?b=764

I think it might be the best thing I've ever written, exploring new concepts is fun!

I should work in Mcdonalds!!

Unfortunately February isn't going very well. I'm playing with about as much intelligence as someone who works in the fast fast food industry and fittingly I'm earning about the same wage. I'm aware that these break even periods are a part of the game for all players and all i can do is work hard and push through. The thing that bothers me the most is my level if play. If i was playing well and losing then i would be as happy as a Frenchman living next to a brothel. The problem is I'm playing badly, to many poor hands, poor sessions and even poor days. One day last week i lost $4K and played fairly terribly. I think i might have made more mistakes that day than i did in the whole of November; an impressive achievement!

Despite my startling lack of consistency I'm still slightly up on the month. I'm -$1K on live poker outings, thanks to a couple of unsuccessful trips to the international and DTD, but +$2.2K overall. Obviously at the stakes i play this number is fairly insubstantial but it's always nice to be ahead. The plan is to try and grind as hard as i can over the next ten days before returning home for my dad's birthday. I'm pretty much in the routine of going home 3 or 4 times a year now and that suits me just fine. I'll probably post when i get home about how the next week or so goes. It would be nice to keep my streak of $10K + months going but in order to do that I'm going to have to have to maintain a higher level of play and stop tilting it off like a mongoloid!

Good month, terrible day.

January is in the books and overall it went quite well. I made $15K online but lost $3K playing live. My volume was fairly decent and i played a lot of solid if not spectacular poker. I'm fairly happy with a +$12K month and it certainly gives me something to build on in 2010.

One particular highlight of the previous month was the birth of Noah Michael Alp. Even though the baby wasn't planned i know Mike will be a great dad and I'm really happy for him. Unfortunately for me the birth of this perfectly innocent, healthy child coincided with the worst day of my professional life. I bent over and took it like a champion on the 26Th January, it was not an enjoyable experience! I lost $4K online running like a fat kid on a hot day and then thought i would party on down to the Vic and play some good old live cash. A very generous £1500 donation later and i was left with that wonderful feeling of disappointed emptiness. I know days like these can happen, they have before and they will again but they still hurt the ego as well as the bankroll.

The other money lost live was at the monthly £300 at the international. I started the tourney playing like a superstar, building the stack up nicely and playing very aggro. I then find AA against Joejoe's KK and obviously we get it in pre. He binks on the flop and I'm left with 30% of my starting stack. I'm in no way annoyed about the hand, just one of those things. I am glad however that Joe went on to win the comp for £7K, well played sir! I even got to watch him take it down at 5am after a heavy night out in Old street for Kips' birthday. The night out was great fun and the Ant and i have both agreed that the Bavarian beer house is the greatest pub in London, what a place for a drinking session!

I'm a blogging machine these days, will try and keep it up.

A cheap failure

The first live tournament of the year has come and gone, unfortunately it ended in failure. The good news about the trip was that i managed to get in via a £150 satellite the night before. The bad news is the satellite didn't finish until 4am and in the main event i ran like shit.

I haven't got that many interesting hands to write about to be honest. My first table was incredibly soft but i was very card dead so i couldn't take advantage. Most of the players were just playing to loose before the flop and butchering their hands post-flop. It still surprises me how soft these fields are but you still need to make hands to take advantage. I eventually busted in the 9th level shoving 13bb's from the small blind with K7 and running into A7 in the big, sigh. Overall I'm very happy with how i played and wouldn't change a single decision i made all weekend. I'll be getting back on the grind this week with a few interruptions; Spurs game on Tuesday, seeing my sister on Wednesday, trip to cheeses' on Friday and the £300 at the international Saturday. I'm also planning on swimming a couple of miles so 12 hours of online poker should be a fairly accurate prediction.

Update

I'm pleased to report that the move up to $3/6 has been a relatively smooth one. I'm +$9K since my last post and looking good for a +$20K month overall. Despite this brilliant news there are still a few things I'm not happy about. The main one has been my general level of play. It's so easy to just presume you're playing well when your winning but this isn't always the case. I've played well the majority of the time but in two or three sessions I've been pretty poor. I really want to continue moving up but i know my consistency has to improve. If i can start producing my best game 90% of the time then i know i can compete at the higher levels. Obviously I'm going to make mistakes sometimes but i just need to keep learning from them.

In live poker news I'm heading to Bolton for the first leg of the GUKPT tomorrow. I'm getting the train up with Will in the afternoon, playing a satellite in the evening and then the main event starts on Friday at 2pm. This is my first major live event of the year so obviously hoping to start things off with a bang. The structure is quite good and in my experience the standard is usually fairly low. I'll probably blog when i get back about some fantastic hero call i made with king high against top set.

Away from poker I'm really starting to get excited about this premiership season. We lost to Liverpool tonight and played fucking terribly but i still think spurs have got a great chance of finishing 4th. The bookies have got Man City as favourites but i think it could be any one of four. Injuries will be a really important factor and from a spurs perspective we need Lennon back as soon as possible. He has been on fire this season and we really lack width without him playing.

I'm going to finish this post with the creation of another life rule:

NEVER BET ON AMERICAN FOOTBALL AGAIN YOU STUPID DEGEN FUCKWIT!

Anyway the Australian Open is on now so I'm going to bet on that instead.

Record Breakers

The year is still very much in it's infancy but i'm already a massive fan of 2010!! I've already beaten a couple of my poker records and the best thing about it was i managed them both in one day. First my 'biggest pot won' record now stands at $2800. I decided to see if i could find a juicy $5/10 game on cake and i couldn't resist when i watched a game for about 15 hands and saw some fundamental errors from a few players and one guy stacking off retardedly light. The best thing was someone soon quit and i was first on the waiting list. Anyway the hand itself was kind of a late Christmas present. I open to $30 UTG with AA, button reg 3 bets t0 $110, tilting mongo ships for $750 and i obviously stick my $1K and change in the middle. The button tank calls AK and the mongo has 55; no sick otdraw and we have a new record. I quit when the idiot did and then realised i had beaten my best ever cash game day, +$4K. Obviously i'm hoping this is a record i will be breaking time and time again as i work my way up the cash game ladder.

On that subject i've decided to move up to $3/6 NLH full time. I've played a bit at this level and a bit of $5/10 also but this time i'm taking a 10 buy-in shot with no intention of moving down unless i lose the whole $6K. In general moving up in the past has been followed by a period of breaking even until i become a steady winner. I'm seeing it as a challenge and this has to be seen as a positive step. Personally i find poker just as much about the competition as about the money and this is the main reason i'm still in love with the game. My own game has come on a lot at $2/4 and i'm hoping i can maintain this self improvement as i work towards achieving my annual goals.

I'll post when i either lose the $6K or update my progress at the end of the month. At the moment i'm +$10K in January so let's all hope the good times continue!

A mediocre year

We've reached that time again. The passing of one year and the transition into a new one. A good time for reflection, analysis, forward planning and hope.

All things considered i'm disappointed with 2009 from a professional perspective. Here is a quick review of my various results:

ONLINE CASH:

This was certainly where the vast majority of my 'work' hours were spent. I made $75K playing mostly 200 and 400nl, Hu and 6-max. I'm fairly content with this return but not over the moon. In all fairness i hardly played for 4 months of the year so the figure could certainly have been higher if i had managed more than a rather pathetic 250Kish hands which in poker terms isn't exactly high volume.

ONLINE TOURNIES:

I'm a little surprised that i actually has a losing year in online tournies but when you consider my volume this really was always going to be a possibility. I only managed around 40 tournies in an entire year which is obviously fairly laughable considering how profitable they are for me. Anyway i lost $5K.

LIVE CASH:

Only played 3 sessions all year and it was all quite low stakes. I made about $1k.

LIVE TOURNIES:

Oh dear!! Lost quite a lot of my own money in these bad boys and quite a lot of other peoples' as well. Lost approx $11K of my own money.



You don't have to be a genius to work out that gives me a +$60K 2009. The low point of my year was GUKPT Manchester where i played an awesome tourney, took the chip lead into the final and ended up finishing 8th. The highpoint has been the last two months online. I've been playing well, running good and have made just over $30K which has kind of saved my year from being a bag of shit. I'm also happy to report that i've improved as a player this year and this is something i'm obviously looking to continue with for as long as i'm playing for a living. I've also really worked hard on my Bankroll management and have never felt close to going broke at any point. I had to move back down to 200nl when i got back from travelling and even though i knew i could beat the higher limits i swallowed my pride and grinded hard.

Personally the last year has been fairly awesome. I'm just a really positive, happy person most of the time and i'm not one to take how lucky i am for granted. I have a great family, fantastic friends and a lifestyle that i just love, happy days!! I had an amazing time travelling with one of my best friends and also a great month in Vegas. Whenever i hit a low point with poker i just try and remind myself of these things and it serves as a great way for me to relax and stay positive. The year certainly ended with a bang with a little get together round our house. It was only about 30 people but i had a really good time and it was much better than going out for new years which tends to be an expensive anti-climax most of the time. Highlight of the night was our friend Bestie getting to drunk to stand by 8pm, getting naked and then being put to bed, i love that man!

Anyway that just about rounds up the year and the only thing to do now is look forward to 2010. Here are some goals that i'm shooting for:

• Make $100K from online cash games.
• Be beating $5/10 at a solid rate by the end of the year.
• Make the final table of a major live event.
• Win the WSOP main event.

I've also added a couple of rues that i will be trying to stick to:

• No drinking the night before a live tournament.
• No playing online before 5pm if i have been drinking heavily the night before.
• No listening to music when playing live, (amazing how much you can miss).

My general plan for the year is to play quite a lot of online cash over the next 4 months. I'll be playing all of the GUKPT main events in this time but won't be playing live apart from that. By the end of April it should be a little warmer so i'll be coming out of hibernation. I'll be looking to play more live tournies and maybe some £5/10 live. I'll then be smashing up Vegas for 5 weeks in the summer and preying i can do better than last year. Break even one time!!! After the series i might do some travelling for a month but i'm not sure yet. The contract is up on the house in september and i'm almost certain i will not be staying in London. I'd love to live overseas but i'm the laziest man alive so this could be a real hassle to set up.

January tends to be a fairly shit month in general but i've never really minded it. I'm going to be getting plenty of sleep, drinking lots of tea and hopefully win lots of $; let the games begin!