December 2014

15.8k hands, 73 hours, 216hands/hr
+£4,000
6max breakdown: 3k hands, +£1,270

December always seems to be a difficult month for me poker-wise. So although £4k is nothing to write home about I'm pretty pleased with the month. I still don't fully understand why I struggle in December; but I do. It's probably a combination of less action, bad weather effecting my mood/routine, "end of the year totals problem" and the fact that I generally take 1.5-2 weeks off and do more socialising/drinking than usual.

The total for the year is £62k, which I think is respectable for small and mid stakes but there is definitely room to increase that figure.Various changes throughout the recently are leading me to worry about the future of poker, particularly heads up. Over the last couple of years we have lost HU on 888, Everest, Boss, Stars.fr, Winamax. Sites are focusing way more on getting fish to deposit (which is good), but they are really making it difficult to players to be able to profit in many different types of games. Although not much of my action has been on Stars it is extremely worrying the stance they have taken regarding increased rake in many games, especially HU. In a time when players willing to start games or play against someone who isn't a drooler should be being encouraged, Stars new owners have decided to punish these people with increases in rake. Serious reg matches at 100 and 200 have become a death-wish usually for both players, 100 and 200 zoom seem to only run when there are whales in the pool - even then I'm not sure how profitable it can even be - I've left zoom alone for months now.

I've tried various things to play more hands. The problem is with HU if someone is prepared to put in serious volume against me, there is a good chance that they are solid and could well have the edge on this "old timer". It's hypocritical of course to complain about weaker regs not playing me whilst not being will to constantly battle vs the toughest at my stakes. I guess everyone is just trying to make some money. The way it is going though I forsee HU steadily declining.

So I'm diversifying. Having tried learning PLO on numerous occasions I have decided that is a no go for now. I think the best plan for me is to continue sitting HU for 6-8 hours a day (Mon-Fri in general), but I'm going to add in 6m to my morning session, possibly afternoon too if I feel fresh.

Anyway this has been super long. Going out with my pals tonight and looking forward to spending Christmas with Claudia and our families - and not having all the attention of our engagement to worry about this year. Relaxing time.


JANUARY = +£7,300
FEBRUARY = +£2,250
MARCH = +£5,100
APRIL = +£3,440
MAY = +£3,220
JUNE = +£11,690
JULY = +£3,630
AUGUST = +£4,190
SEPTEMBER = +£10,980
OCTOBER = +£3,960
NOVEMBER =  +£2,350
DECEMBER = +£4,000
 
TOTAL = £62,110

November 2014

13.77k hands, 75 hours, 183hands/hr

Played less hands than usual and I'm not sure if it was because of a lack of action or because I took many days off. I played 19 days so that is a little less than usual but action hasn't been great too obviously. Plus I've not been playing small EV matches or fighting for tables too much on MG (like 2 days there). Graph includes ~£400 profit that was caused by a mistake in importing hands in PT4, which is going to be a pain in the arse to fix. Not happy with profit this month but could have been very different if I had won a couple of matches at my bigger stakes on SKY. Sadly I lost to two pretty big fish there. Got to take those chances at higher stakes as they don't come along too often at the moment. Some rakeback will be added to next months totals too.

I've set up HUDs again on 3 sites for 6 max and have played a few small sessions there, if lack of HU continues I will have to add more. Tried PLO again this month and again gave up after 3 or 4 days. That is on the back burner for now.

We had a spur of the moment trip to Iceland for 3 days which was great, as well as our 4th Aberfeldy festival.Other highlights of the month includ watching Scotland beat Ireland at Parkhead, as well as seeing Beans on Toast, Eagulls and Malcom Middelton live.

Joined a new gym which should be helpful witha new routine. As usual can't wait till winter is over.

JANUARY = +£7,300
FEBRUARY = +£2,250
MARCH = +£5,100
APRIL = +£3,440
MAY = +£3,220
JUNE = +£11,690
JULY = +£3,630
AUGUST = +£4,190
SEPTEMBER = +£10,980
OCTOBER = +£3,960
NOVEMBER =  +£2,350
 
TOTAL = £58,110

 

October 2014

26.2k hands, 100hours, 262hands/hr (too many hand/hr?)

Bad winrate on my sites but somehow saved by the untracked ones, plus clearing some bonuses and rakeback I guess. Really haven't been playing my best. Need to get back to basics once again.

I'd have blogged earlier but Interpoker and Betsafe decided to make nearly £10k vanish for 6 days. This has been on my mind whilst playing the first 2 days of the month and I've got off to a not so great start, could have been worse though I guess.

I'm gonna bumhunt hard this month and just accept it if there are long quite spells with no action. I'm going to start by watching some NL videos then if I get a decent run going I will start watching and playing PLO. I will play only on networks tracked by PTR and will only play fish who are over 20bb losers. This sounds terrible but I don't even know if I can beat the rake at low stakes PLO, it will be difficult for sure, so this gives me a better chance to succeed and actually stick with it, whilst trying to improve to be able to play more people.

The new UK licensing laws that affect online poker came in this month. That means no more Stars.fr, Winamax and Pokerheaven. Pokerstars has also increased it's rake for HU. It's redic tbh, short term thinking by their new owners. I won't be battling any regs any more, that is for sure.

We will see how PLO goes and maybe if I'm more disciplined with NL I won't need to think about branching out. But I was thinking of going back to 6m.

Anyway.

JANUARY = £7,300
FEBRUARY = £2,250
MARCH = £5,100
APRIL = £3,440
MAY = +£3,220
JUNE = +£11,690
JULY = +£3,630
AUGUST = +£4,190
SEPTEMBER = +£10,980
OCTOBER = +£3,960
 
TOTAL = £55,760

September 2014

20.6k hands, 90.6hours, 227hands/hr

Less multi-tabling reg matches and generally stricter game selection (turning down 3+ tables in small EV spots). Didn't sit on Micro as much.

I'm actually surprised I did so well this month as for a week in the middle there I was very distracted by the Independence referendum, as well as attending a few gigs in Glasgow (Fat Whites- amazing again), Edinburgh (Mogwai, Franz Ferdinand, Frightened Rabbit and Stanley Odd - YES gig!) and Aberdeen (Twilight Sad). The result of the referendum was expected but was still totally gutting. I was higly emotional going to vote and then even for a few days afterwards thinking about what a great chance we had thrown away.

I ran a lot above EV especially at the start/middle of month and I also cleared a few bonuses and found some rakeback in my Boyle sportsbook account that has been piling up for a few months. So the end figure is higher than I expected. I have been playing well and sensibly all month though.

Been sitting a little higher on a few sites trying to get action at $1k+ but it's been dry for the most part. I think when I get off to a decent start it allows me to sit back a bit and not push myself constantly to get volume in. I'm actually at the moment in the middle of a long run of days (9) playing in a row and I don't feel fatigued at all. It's unusual for me to play even one day at the weekends but the weekend past there we weren't upto much so I put 4-5 hours in each day.

This last week I've finally starting using a computerized spreadsheet to track my results daily (lol about time). It is needed now more than before due to untracked hands on sites that don't track as well as hands played on my laptop.

Anyway. Next month I will continue the same as this, focusing on making $ and not just getting volume as well as not getting into ego wars with good regs. Saying that I did 1 table a few different regs throughout the month and it's def +EV vs many of them, it's the regs willing to multi-table where the edges are thin.

I wrote a song about the vote which sadly is no longer appropriate but here it is anyway.


And a substantially better song about the same topic


JANUARY = £7,300
FEBUARY = £2,250
MARCH = £5,100
APRIL = £3,440
MAY = +£3,220
JUNE = +£11,690
JULY = +£3,630
AUGUST = +£4,190
SEPTEMBER = +£10,980
 
TOTAL = £51,800

August 2014

31k hands, 100hours, 310hands/hr

Must have lost on SKY/laptop ad total profit for month was only +£4,190.

Not gonna write much as it's already 5th and I'm in a hurry to go out. Will sum up the last couple of months at the end of this. It's been frustrating for the most part.

JANUARY = £7,300
FEBUARY = £2,250
MARCH = £5,100
APRIL = £3,440
MAY = +£3,220
JUNE = +£11,690
JULY = +£3,630
AUGUST = +£4,190
 
TOTAL = £40,820

July 2014

27.6k hands, 100hours, 276hands/hr

Had trouble at the start of the month with losing vs fish and semi-fish at $5/10. I didn't tilt or make any terrible plays but it affected my focus, twice I had lost over £1k in the first hour of the day. I cut out the stake and focused and played well. Watched a lot more videos the last week or 2 also, actually focusing on them and trying to think of things to apply during play.

It seems to easy when things are going my way, although I've not had a great month £ wise, I'm happy with how I've been playing and feel more confident playing nearly any reg at 200nl... although I will still not be playing the best ones for any great length of time. My first goal is to make money now and keep improving without adding extra variance and distracting from more +EV spots. 7k hands this month were on Micro gaming, which show I've been battling a fair amount with regs, I'm up £1.5k there but running 2x over EV. Still holding my own.

We had a great 4 nights away my parents and Sean. Climbed another Monroe and did some Canoeing. Went to the Friday of T in The Park and had a great time (Vladamir, Maximo Park, Teen Canteen, Pixies). Fyffes wedding was brilliant too. Was at Celtic game vs Reykjavik game at Murryfeild when we won 4-0. After last nights terrible display in Warsaw we will need something like the same to go through after getting beat 4-1.


Next month I want to remain equally focused and keep playing well and incorporate more ideas from videos into my game.

JANUARY = £7,300
FEBUARY = £2,250
MARCH = £5,100
APRIL = £3,440
MAY = +£3,220
JUNE = +£11,690
JULY = +£3,630
 
TOTAL = £36,630

June 2014

23.9k hands, 108hrs, 221 hands/hr



Very focused and chose my battles very wisely. Much more relaxed and not forcing action is for sure the way to go for me to make money. Need to keep this up next month.


Away from Poker, we climbed up Ben Nevis this month and the stag weekend in Newcastle was good.

JANUARY = £7,300
FEBUARY = £2,250
MARCH = £5,100
APRIL = £3,440
MAY = +£3,220
June = +£11,690
 
TOTAL = £33,000

May 2014

14.78k hands, 66hrs, 224 hands/hr

Had a good holiday and since being back I have bumhunted a lot. I think I've been underestimating how difficult for me it is to play regs and fish at the same time. So going forward my plan is to keep doing what I've been doing for the last 3 weeks, which is avoiding regs, play one long session with small breaks away from PC when I get the chance, plus at least 30 min lunch break (hopefully outside).

Got a Stag weekend in Newcastle tomorrow which should be good. Looking forward to getting back on the grind and being as patient as I have been recently.

JANUARY = £7,300
FEBUARY = £2,250
MARCH = £5,100
APRIL = £3,440
MAY = +£3,220
 
TOTAL = £21,310

April 2014

Well I forgot to check ending balances for April today, so I'm taking the liberty of counting the 1st May towards Aprils totals.

25.6k hands, 96.5hrs, 265 hands/hr (higher than last month - playing MT matches on MG!) (I filtered out a couple of sessions of zoom from these numbers but not from the graph)

It's been a frustrating month. Longs spells of thinking I'm playing great with less than great results, as well as spell of losing confidence.

My grand plan from last month hardly got started, although I do feel I watched a decent amount of HU videos and got thinking about things a bit more. There has been a lack big reloading fish this month, a lot of my volume has been on MG vs regs.

I'm going to be playing one day tomorrow then I'm off on holiday with Claudia for a week in Gran Canaria. I will use this time to relax obviously, but also refocus and look back on my plans of weekly blogs and get that set up. I will actually read that mental game book on my iPad, as well as watch some practical videos.

JANUARY = £7,300
FEBUARY = £2,250
MARCH = £5,100
APRIL = £3,440
 
TOTAL = £18,090

March 2014

27k hands, 104.5hrs, 258 hands/hr (still to high - too much multi-tabling!)

Even on Boyle, up 250 on Laddys and 1.7k on SKY. Over profit £5.1k.

Play next to no PLO this month. I feel my NL game and overall mindset is in more need of work and this is not an ideal time for me to be learning PLO.

I feel like I have had spells this month of playing very well, which is encouraging. When focused and well rested I can cope with most players and can take losing OK. When tired or hungry though, I can't make good decisions at all and that has cost me a few times this month. I'm going to set a daily stoploss next month of probably £1200.

I had my friend Jordan up and had a long chat with him about improving my mental game and overall psychology (he is qualified sport psychologist now! we were at Uni together). He is interested in working more with me and when he saw the rates that one poker psychologist charges he want's to look into doing more!

He suggested I set myself more short term goals. This is something I know and feel stupid really having never outlined before. I am going to set myself 3 daily questions/goals.

These are:

1. Pay close attention to opponents and make as many useful notes as possible.

2. Have a time span set for each session and STICK TO IT (3hrs max). Stop immediately if tired or getting too emotional.

3. Take regular effective breaks (preferably with exercise included)

These are a work in progress and may change. I'm also going to start keeping a weekly log of results. With hrs/day targets as well as a checklist similar to the above but expanded a bit. I am reading Jared Tendler's "Mental Game of Poker 1" and speak to Jordan about it and incorporate that into my weekly logs/ overall mental approach.

On the actual playing side I bought "Barewire"'s Heads Up course for beginners. It's been pretty basic so far but I think it well defintly help my game in some way and after I've watched all 7 videos I will probably buy his advanced series. Good HU content is getting harder to find therse days, so hopefully this wiill help me out a lot.

In April I want to focus on improving day by day, my mental approach as well as honing my actual game through the video series and making more detailed reads in game, as well as some session reviews.

Aside from poker, we are looking into Wedding bands and are going to see a few next week. I want to exercise more and keep playing a lot of guitar and trying to write songs.

JANUARY = £7,300
FEBUARY = £2,250
MARCH = £5,100
 
TOTAL = £14,650

February 2014

27k hands, 110 hours. 245 hands/hr (too high!)

Won 500 on Boyle, 1400 on Laddys and 0 on SKY.

This month I have been trying to add in HU PLO to my sessions. It's been difficult as I'm inexperienced in PLO and it can be especially confusing whilst trying to play both NL and PLO at the same time. So far I am down 6bi (£800) at PLO, with my redline going steadily down.

Looking at this now I'm in two minds about continuing to play PLO. There is definatly a lot more action and it would be good even just for variety to be able to play and win there. So far I've kind of taken the approach of feeling my way into the game more by playing than studying. I have watched quite a few PLO HU videos but inevitably find myself not concentrating fully and tbh I've not taken much of it in.

My NL game could probably use some serious work also if I am going to have any long reg matches vs anyone decent. It seems strategies are becoming more and more mathematic, so I will need to look into using other tool away from the table to go over my and some opponents ranges.

This month I was in Hamburg for my friend Barry's stag weekend, which was great. I also went to see a new band that I like for the first time, The Fat White Family, in Broadcast Glasgow. It was one of the best gigs I've been too, amazing energy from the band and a great audience.

This last week I have found it a little difficult to full focus as I had an injured toe from football. I couldn't sleep with the pain on Monday night so took Tuesday off, it was still affecting me till today, after I finally went to the doctor yesterday and got it drained.

Next month Claudia and I, along with another couple (Danny & Jodie) are going to Paris for a long weekend. Should be fun.

Wedding planning is coming along and we have found the venue, Errol Park House. It's great.

Goals for next month is to keep good routine that I had for most of this month (cycling during lunch break), improve my overall understanding of HU PLO, maybe play a bit of that but mainly focus on playing good NL HU.

JANUARY = £7,300
FEBUARY = £2,250
 
TOTAL = £9,550

January 2014

25.5k hands, 129hours, 197hands/hr

Won £450 SKY, £950 Boyle, £750 Laddys = £2,132 not graphed.

This month I've been a lot more focused while playing and also put a bit more effort into thinking about my game and trying to get it back to the level that it should be. I've got a RIO membership and have watched some Phil Galfond and Sauce HU videos. Both have been really good in different ways, and it helps even just watching and thinking about ideas and how things can fit into my game.

I also tightened up game selection a lot, especially at the start of the month. This meant avoiding all regs for the first few weeks as never playing more than 3 tables, and ideally only two maximum.

I did go through a spell mid month of being a bit of an idiot. One day I was down £1k after a really long first session (9am-2pm), and instead of exercising then probably just relaxing in the evening, I went back on and promptly lost another £1k.

There are plenty areas to improve on, and I will start playing regs again more in Feb. I've added redline and EV lines in my graph as I think the red line is a sign of how well I am playing, especially HU. There will be matches when it is obv OK to have a -VE redline but it still is worth adding to my results.

I haven't had a drop of alcohol since new years eve and I've been exercising at least 5 days a week. Mostly cycles from my flat to Buddon railway or all the way to Carnouistie and back. I've been losing weight at a steady sate of 0.8, 07 then 0.7kh/week and hope to keep that up for a few months, then eventually I will get back into lifting weights (properly this time).

pre rb = £6,753

TOTAL = £7,300

December 2013

29.88k hands, 92 hours, 324 hands/hr (Played some ZOOM 6m and HU)

Lost £1.3k on SKY.

Seems like this story has been told before but I've had another rather shitty December and a shitty end to the year in general. My mindset has not been good with regards to poker, though I'm writing this after a long Christmas/NewYears break and feeling pretty positive about life and poker at the moment.

I proposed to Claudia on Christmas day and she said yes. We will be getting married in Summer 2015.

JANUARY = +£1,930
FEBRUARY = +£2,300
MARCH = +£5,680
APRIL = +£10,080
MAY = +£13,390
JUNE = +£7,810
JULY = +£7,000
AUGUST = +£12,260
SEPTEMBER = +£6,128
OCTOBER = +£3,240
NOVEMBER = +£1,230
DECEMBER = -£2,180


TOTAL = £68,868