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!
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
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!
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!
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
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!
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!
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
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 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.
Sunday, 14 March 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
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
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
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