Running Hot

I've made a conscious effort to try and play a lot more poker over the next few months and things have started rather well. I'm +$14K so far this month and obviously loving life at the moment. I'm running really good but playing a lot of great poker, staying really focused and not even looking like tilting at all.


Today was one of my best days of poker ever. I only played 1K hands of $2/4 but ran my nuts off and managed to book a +$3K day:

I know that this hot streak will have to end at some point but if i can maintain this level of play over the next 4-6 months i will be a very happy camper.

Along with playing more poker i've also been thinking about ways to improve my game and most importantly my profit. I'm playing less tables, shorter sessions and i'm even back watching vids on leggo. I've got some financial goals that i would like to hit before the end of February and at the moment i'm well on target.

Not much going on in my life outside of poker right now but for the rest of the cold winter i'm hoping this hot streak can keep me warm.

A few thoughts

I haven't posted anything on my blog for a while so i thought it might be a good time for a cheeky update. I really want to be able to look back at this thing in the years to come and be proud that i stuck with it and maintained a high level of honesty throughout. Anyone that knows me will recognise that i joke around all the time and talk a lot of crap. One of the best things about keeping this page is that i always feels i can write down my true feelings about anything and everything and i really don't care who reads it.



I've now been back home for 6 weeks and on the whole i'm very happy to be back. As expected i had a fantastic time in Okehampton with the lads. My golf was pretty shocking and rather disappointingly i did end up with the much feared Wooden Spoon. My biggest frustration was that i actually started out playing well and thought i was hitting the ball fine. I then started to crumble on day 2 and eventually my putting really cost me. For some reason i've been missing a huge amount of short putts over the last 2 years and it's starting to piss me off. Atleast i really understand the meaning of the old saying, 'driving for show, putting for dough', the trip was an expensive one!! Still can't wait to get back next year and do it all again. The banter was fantastic and at the risk of blowing my own trumpet my drinking performance on the night out in Exeter was world class, i was shit hammered!! Just going to give a quick congrats to my hero Big Cheese for taking down the title for the second year in a row. His last round was superb and even though i don't think Ben is the best golf in the group his mental edge is huge and he is certainly the best at producing under pressure, (yes i do know how gay this is all sounding!).

Unfortunately i didn't play the WSOPE. I was really excited about it but the buy-in was huge and i couldn't quite manage to sell off enough of my action in time. I could have played it but it would have been risking far to much of my own money. Undoubtedly one of the best skills i have learnt as a poker player is bankroll management and i'm proud i was able to show that in this case. I did play the EPT though but things didn't go that well. I had a really fucking easy day 1 table and even though i was card dead most of the day i was able to go on a heater in the last level and move my starting stack of 30K up to 70K. I came back for day 2 full of confidence but i got a hard table and ran bad in big pots. The worst player on the table was running his nuts off and for some reason i was getting really frustrated by this. I was really harsh on him to his face but i'm not proud of how i acted and i actually regret my behaviour. I think it was a combination of things but overall live poker has been really hard on me this year and i think i just needed to let off some steam. I'm not making excuses though and i never want to behave like such a Juvenal moron ever again in a high profile event, i'll save it for the 10p/20p home games from now on. Anyways i busted when i re-shipped it all in with 23bb's with A10, he didn't take long before calling me with KK and once again i was left to deal with another failure in 2009.

I got staked for most of the EPT by my friend Kanu as gutshot decided i hadn't put enough work in to merit them sticking in the £5K. I think that the decision was a correct one as i have done very little for them but the whole situation is getting a bit annoying. I really can't be asked to do the stuff they want me to do but the guy running it is keen for me to still be involved. We'll have to see what happens on this one but as usual i'm not taking things to seriously.

My results online have been swingy but are certainly improving. Things got off to the worst possible start when i got home and i think i lost about$6K in the first few weeks. Since then things have been going much better and this has been aided with a couple of really spewy heads- up opponents that have been more than generous with their contributions to the Ed Roger foundation, happy days! I've set myself a target of how much money i want to make by the end of February and so far i'm off to a great start. I'm planning on grinding as hard as i can over the next few months and am trying to concentrate on maintaining a high level of play over long periods of time. My volume has been quite pathetic so far this year but i'm really looking to finishing with a bang.

Despite the increased volume i'm still obviously aware of the need for good balance in my life. I've been swimming and running a couple of times a week since my return home and am hoping i can stick with it. My diet however has been as crap as ever so this is defiantly something to work on. I've also got some books to read along with 24 season 3 and Dexter series 1 to keep me entertained. Doubt i'll blog again until the end of the year, lots of long hard grinding to do this winter.

Airports are boring!!

I'm currently in the 6th hour of my 15 hour stay at Auckland International airport. We flew up from Christchurch this afternoon and got in at 4pm, our next flight to Hong Kong is at 6am tomorrow morning so we just decided to hang out here instead of going to a hotel. I have to say that airports really aren't that fun! The worst thing is that the computers here won't let me on any poker sites so i can't even grind out the time. My second option would be to get on the source but i'm feeling really groggy right now and the flight is sooooo early. On the up side they do have a number of high quality restaurants to keep me entertained. I've already had 2 Mcdonald's meals and a big plate of chicken noodles. I'm feeling a little full at the moment but i might be able to slip in one more meal before bedtime.
When we finally get to Hong Kong, (12 hour fucking flight!), we have about 30 hours to kill before our flight back to sunny London. Thankfully Juliet has some friends who used to live there so we have a few reccomendations about where to go and what to see etc.
In all honesty i'm looking forward to getting home. I've really enjoyed the last couple of months but there is a lot i'm starting to miss. I also have a ton of cool stuff coming up in the next few weeks that i'm looking forward to. Firstly our trip golf trip to Okehampton should be a lot of fun. I have hardly played this year so i'm really hoping i don't come last. The general banter and gambling should be up to it's high standard though so i'll have a great time even if i play crap.
I think we get back from golf on the 23rd and then i get to play WSOPE main event on the 26th, yipee!! I'vc never played this tourney but am looking forward to it. The structure is awesome and the competitor inside me is loving how tough the field is. In my opinion it's the strongest field on the current poker calender and you really need to play your ass off to go deep in this one, not much dead money out there. Despite this i still think that i can compete and am just hoping to run good for the first time in a tourney this year. Just in case your wondering i have 35% of myself.
After i ship the WSOPE i'm getting staked by gutshot for EPT London. This is obviously another big tourney on the poker circuit and again i'm very much looking forward to playing. Having hardly played recently i'm missing the game loads and can't wait to get right back in the deep end.
I was going to do a quick review of the best things i've done along with the books i have read and the films i've seen on my travels but i think i'll save those for my next blog. I really don't enjoy flying these days and the thought of spending 24 hours on a plane over the next few days is tilting me hard!

Life is good

It's been a while since i put up a blog. The main reason for this is that the main theme of this page is poker. I haven't played a great deal and therefore have limited things to report.

I'm well and truly over the disappointment of Las Vegas. Things went really badly for me out there and although i hate to admit it, i think that i could have played better. One of the hardest things to do is to play your best game all the time, no matter how your luck is. In retrospect i would have done a few things differently and there were certainly times where i played like a tilted Mongoloid.

Despite this i'm trying to take the positives from the experience. I'll certainly go back a better player next year and will be trying hard to play my best the whole way through. I'm also proud that even though i cashed for $0 my bankroll management was really good and i'm pretty much in the same fiancel shape as i was before the series.

As far as online poker goes things have been ok. I was on a $6K downswing in Australia which sucked donkey dick but thankfully i have won that all back now, yipee!! I'm not going to play again until i get back to London and then i'll be grinding hard for a few months. I'll be playing mostly $2/4 hu when i get home but i'm really hoping i can crush it for a while and take a shot at $5/10 by the end of the year.

My last piece of poker news is that i've changed my name on party for the first time in 4 years. I'm now playing under DRC0CKnBA11S which is a reference from my new favourite tv show, Eastbound and down.

Travelling has been a lot of fun so far. Juliet and I flew up to Cairns and then hired a camper van and drove all the way down the east coast. It was about 3000Km but we had 17 days so it only worked out to an average of 2 hours driving per day. The highlights were without doubt the sailing trip around the Whitsundays, the chicken nugget challenge straight afterwards and the smash up in Byron bay. We had a really good group of people on our sailing trip which made it a lot of fun. I also really enjoyed Scuba diving on the great barrier reef and would recommend it to anyone. Even though it's winter over here the weather has still been great, sunny and clear most days so nothing to complain about on that front.

We went out for my Birthday last night which was fun. We went to this karaoke bar with a load of my sisters friends from work, after that we went to a cool bar but having consumed a ton of alcohol my sister was soon removed. She then proceeded to chuck up in the cab on the way home, thankfully he only charged us $30. In London that could have been a lot worse. We ended up getting home very early but i still had a fun night all the same. It did make me miss home a bit though, especially my girlfriend and all the lads. Think one of the main things that i've taken from this trip is that life is much more about people than places. You can have a good time anywhere as long as your with the right people.

Got a flight to New Zealand tomorrow morning at some ridiculous hour. I'm really looking forward to heading over there because i've heard a lot of great things about the place. My sister is coming with us for the first week and that should be fun. We're going Skiing for the first week and then have 2 weeks to make our was up to the North Island before we fly to Hong Kong on the 12th of September. We have a night there and then back home on the 14th. Life is good.

First part done

The good news is that i have made day 2 in the WSOP main event, yipeee!!! Thought it might be a good idea to write up a quick update before day 2 just explaining a few hands.

I basically ran like shit for the first 3 levels, thankfully we started with 30,000 chips and the levels were 50/100, 100/200 and 150/300. If your going to run bad then this is obviously a good time to do it. The first decent sized pot was at 50/100 with AK off (as Cashy will tell anyone i do not play this hand well); i raised to 275 utg +1 and get 3 callers. Flop came A J 6 with 2 hearts, bb checks as do i and the dude in middle position, the button bets 600 which folds out the other two guys and i call. The turn is a 5 and i check call a bet of 1800. River is a 6 which does not complete the flush, i check call a bet 4000 and he shows 65, good start. I didn't love his bet on the river but i think having massively underrepresented my hand i couldn't really fold. I'm repping KK or QQ really well and would expect him to bet a lot of missed draws and bet worse aces on the river for value. I spent the rest of the first level folding, raised AQ, got 3 bet fairly big and mucked pre and gave up on Q3 of spades when i raised and got 3 callers then missed the flop. The table was fairly solid and noone was playing that badly, the young guy on my left ran super hot and seemed to play well. He was opening quite a few hands but instead of getting involved in a pointless lag war in the first level i hust folded the crap i was being dealt, ended the level with 24.5K stack thanks to winning a few small pots at the end.

The second level also failed to go as planned. I felt i had a fairly good feel for the table at this point so i played a few more hands but unfortunately my opponents were making a lot of hands against me and i was being shutdown fairly early. The biggest pot i played was with 75 of clubs when it got folded round to the cut off who raised to 600, i made it 1700 from the sb and he snap called. He seemed fairly nervous and not that great so at this point i was sure he had 99-JJ or AQ, maybe AJ suited at a push. so the flop came 442 and i bet 3000, he called without thinking and now i know he has a decent sized overpair and is calling quickly to actually avoid thinking about the hand. Turn was a 3 giving me a straight draw and i check folded when he bet 5K, at the time i was close to check shoving but i really felt like he would have cry called, somehow managed to convince myself that i have a huge edge in this tournament and shoving into an obvious overpair would be fairly retarded. I ended the level with 19.5K.

The third level saw me pick up some big hands, the bad news was the other players were picking up bigger ones. Twice i raised QQ, got called and check folded an A K x flop. I also raised AQ and folded to a 3-bet and JJ and folded to a 3-bet, both times i felt like they were super strong and both times i was shown KK. Obviously by this point i was steaming a little, nothing was going my way and i felt like a day 1 Knockout was almost inevitable, i then pick up the Ant Yousefian hand 22 and my spirits lift. UTG raises to 800 i call on the button as does the bb. The flop comes with 45Q 2 spades and we check through. The turn is the Q of spades and after the bb check the original raiser bet 1200. I felt he was super weak here and almost defiantly had a pair between 66-JJ or even ace high so i raise to 3600, he calls. The river was the 3 of spades and he checks fairly fast. I felt like i simply needed to win this hand and bet 7000, leaving myself with 7.5K if called. After a horrible 3 minutes he folded, thankfully i had my i've got the nuts face on. This was the only decent sized pot that i won in the first 3 levels and spent the next 30 mins losing a couple of thousand back, finished the level with 24K.

Shortly into the fourth and final level i was moved table and i caught the hot streak that i felt my patience deserved. I managed to win a few pots without showdown and then i raise to 825 UTG playing 150/300/25. The cut off called, as did the button and the bb. Flop hit KJ3 with 2 hearts and i c-bet 1725, the Co folded and the button called, bb folded. Turn was a blank 6 and i decided to barrel thinking that he would fold anything that wasn't a king or better and i bet 3775, he called and the river came another blank 7. I checked and after a while of thinking he checked back, he had Q9 of hearts and i won a big pot with ace high, putting me up over 35K. He was thinking of shoving the river for 11K and the honest truth is my instinct was to call and i tend to always go with my instinct. I didn't think he would bet one pair for value in that spot and thought he would raise 2 pair on the flop, really thought he had Q10 off or a worse flush draw. We will never know if i would have called but i'm 90% sure i would have done. Anyway shortly after this i busted the same gut with AQ v 1010 when i raised and after 1 guy called he re-shoved for 8K total, thought he could have a ton of hands in that spot and i was surprised he was that strong, anyway i won a flip for the first time at the 2009 WSOP. Next i called a bet from the sb with QQ after a guy in mp raised to 1200, (felt he was super strong pre). Flop came Q67 2 flush and he bet 2k after i checked, i then made it 6K and he shoved for 10K more, snapppppppppppppppp!! He showed AA and i won. After that was taking hands for fun, loads of people trying to make day 2 and no one else any good on my table so i ran things for the last half an hour, chipping up all over the place. I also got a bit of coverage from ESPN so would be good to make the tv coverage this year, one time. Ended the day with 71K and about 3 double vodka red bulls inside me. This Aussie on my table thought it would be a good idea to get on it and i wasn't in the mood to turn down $1 drinks. Roll on day 2.

Half empty of half full

There are two ways that i can look ay my current situation: 1) I havn't cashed in a single tourney, I'm spewing off way to much money on shit, I'm having a losing month. 2) I havn't played that many tournies, the main event is coming up, i still have positive expectation in any tourney or any cash game i'm rolled for.

As far as my life outlook goes i think it has to be the second option. I've been running bad in Vegas but i really havn't played that many hands yet and am still hoping that things can turn around in the upcoming weeks. I'm playing a $1500 on saturday and then anothr one on monday so they are my last chance for a decent score before the main event. In the last bracelet event i played things went a little better. I made the dinner break and managed to get up to 18K at one point from the 4.5K starting stacks. Things went badly from here however and i eventually got cold decked before running a shortstack shove into KK. I also played a $330 deepstack at the venetian yesterday and got a guy to stick 130 bb's in pre with AQ v's my AK, flop K 7 3, turn Q, river Q, horrible way to lose but life moves on.

Life in the house is still fun, my diet has been shocking so far on this trip but this was to be expected. Hope to eat better and exercise a bit more when in Australia. Started playing heads up online a bit more and am finding it quite exciting. Think playing every hand certainly suits my style but havn't run that well so breaking even at the moment.

Having Fun

So the bad news is that the last tournament went worst than the first one. I started out really well, playing fast and making a few hands early to get up to 7K from my 4.5K starting stack. From then on however everything went wrong. I ran AA into 86 on a 88x board and lost a bit then fired 3 barrels with J5 on a JJ104K board. Was called all the way down to be shown Q9, nice call on the turn sir!! Finally i ran KQ into AQ on a on a queen high flop before shoving a shortstack 56 into A9, oh well. The good news is that i'm happy with every decision that i have made so far in the two tournaments, sometimes it just isn't meant to be. I'm playing another $2K event tomorrow so hope that one goes well and i can have a deep run.

In other news everything in the house is fine. Just spending a lot of time chilling playing a massive pool tournament and drinking lots of beer. Played golf today and lost $300 on silly betting but still had fun. Didn't play great on the front nine but to my great suprise found some of my best form on the back to shoot 42 which was +7. I also hit 4 or 5 shots with my Sw that were fucking awesome so happy with that.