September 2017

September was frustrating... kept a 2bbev winrate but lost at 200 and the couple of 400 shots that I took. I didn't put in enough study away from the tables again.TBH I'm not sure I was ready for playing 400 and after playing it for a few weeks I've realised that some of the regs there are a lot better than me.
 

Moving forwards I'm either going to get more coaching from someone more reliable than earlier in the year - or perhaps consider a CFP deal (!). I really feel I need to surround myself with good players again or it's becoming pretty clear that I won't be making enough money in the next couple of years to make this sustainable.

January = +£4,817
February = +£2,358
March= +£1,744
April= -£1,196
May= -£255
June= +£1,492
July= +£1,042
August= +£1,512

TOTAL= £11,514

August 2017

So much like all those years ago when I needed to sort myself out with daily blogging it didn't last too long. Again I think it helped me turn a corener with my mindset and my game. I feel more motivated than ever to continue succeeding at poker.

Small problems this month were donking off on Unibet and also squeezing in a 200z session late in the day for no reason other than to get quick hands in. Safe to say I'll be avoiding both in future.

Adding 888 and iPoker to my grind was a good decision also, especially now as there is no rb incentive to play on stars.

There is obviously room for me to improve but I've happy with my 3.99bbev winrate for the month.

It will take continued focus and self control but I think I can keep that winrate - if not better it.

Profit is only £1,428 but the improvement in winrate and just how I feel at the tables means a lot more.

January = +£4,817
February = +£2,358
March= +£1,744
April= -£1,196
May= -£255
June= +£1,492
July= +£1,042
August= +£1,512

TOTAL= £11,514


Off to see BSP in Dunfermline tonight then Electric Fields on Friday. Seeing Arab Strap for the first time... I'm buzzing about that and Frightened Rabbit, Jesus and Marychain and others! Yes!

July 2017

So this is the latest month but hopefully it doesn't tell the full story.

I had a long weekend away in France halfway through the month and I read most of (going to finish this week!) Matt Junda's latest book. I also took it upon myself to (once again) limit the number of tables that I play. I kinda feel that I wasn't strict enough with the tables rule but I have noticed an improvement in my game and although it's a small sample I've got a 4.5evbb winrate over the last 27k hands. I'm obviously aware this doesn't mean much. I've also been using the Primed Mind app which has helped my mindset going into session. All of this plus shorter session (~2hours) has definatly help my game.

I feel like I've been way too lax with all things to do with poker recently. It is very easy to get disheartened when looking at the state of the games not to mention the new changes forced upon us by the once decently rewarding site left.

None the less, it is most defiantly sink or swim time. I need more months like January of this year if there is to be any long term future for me in this game.

I need to get out of the 100nl death trap as even with a decent winrate there is hardly any money there... and really start upping my overall winrate for the year. I think that I have the ability to do so much better and tbh I think it is my mental game that is mostly holding me back.

I tried to keep a public blog last month and just didn't feel comfortable with it. I've decided that for the next month (at least) I will keep a daily blog here, much like I did when I was just starting out  full time and trying to get a foot on the ladder.

I will get money on the full range of sites and have a crack at playing 200nl again as my main game.

I will get daily goals and review each day either at the end of the day or the morning after.


January = +£4,817
February = +£2,358
March= +£1,744
April= -£1,196
May= -£255
June= +£1,492
July= +£1,042

TOTAL= £10,002

June 2017

Shocking lack of updates is ending now.



January = +£4,817
February = +£2,358
March= +£1,744
April= -£1,196
May= -£255
June= +£1,492

TOTAL= £8,960

May 2017

January = +£4,817
February = +£2,358
March= +£1,744
April= -£1,196
May= -£255

TOTAL= £7,468

April 2017

January = +£4,817
February = +£2,358
March= +£1,744
April= -£1,196

TOTAL= £7,723

March 2017

Right, I've been terrible with updating the blog with these two previous months having only been updated now. I was sure I'd written the February entry but apparently not.

I've put a lot of effort into studying various things these last few months and spent £1k on a coaching package from Nick Howard (which was OK but kinda hoped for better - the skype groups were great at first but have tailed off).

Anyway I decided the last week or two to drop all 100nl apart from maybe on Sky when needed as there are sometimes 2 fish per table there. I'm trying to play 6 tables max but will stretch to 8 if games are good. Lets see how this goes....

January = +£4,817
February = +£2,358
March= +£1,744

TOTAL= £8,919

February 2017

January = +£4,817
February = +£2,358

January 2017

£4,817 profit.

78.4k hands, 130hr. 603h/hr  £37/hr.

Happy enough with the month. The first 3 weeks were kind of swingy and I wasn't playing
anywhere near good enough. I looked over some simple stats and noticed an overall lack of intensity to my game. One simple thing was not stealing enough buttons, as well as not defending enough pre-flop as well as on the flop. I've seen how effective calling even OOP with the correct hands can be as there are many opportunities to bluff rivers when they check back. I've felt more comfortable playing OOP in general and I'm protecting my range a lot better.

I have a much more defined game plan regards flop bet sizing. Paying more attention which boards are good to bet 33% full range-ish and which I need to checkback more - protecting the cback range with good top pairs and other hands like draws.

I had some trouble getting my last session in with YOU-MAD-BRO, it was a good 5 session that I had with him but I think I shall move on and get a fresh perspective from someone else. It's either gonna be the Nick Howard "pack" or some private coaching from BenaBadBeat. Both have different appeals.

There was some bad news that Stars is likely going to be taking away the ability to game select at 6 max tables. This seems really bad news for my current routine of getting in good games - time will tell on that one but as always there are other options...

January = £4,817

Decmber 2016

Had a good start to the month then after a big losing day I never really recovered my confidence which led me to make some irrational decisions and perhaps tilt off a good few buy ins over the 2nd half of the month.

I decided to add in 400nl tables on Stars which has kinda saved my month from being a complete disaster (I'm up 6bi there). I did ok at 100nl but completely tanked at 200, losing 14 bi. Sky hasn't gone much better which has resulted in a breakeven month. I just decided to play a session today (27th) because I was in the house and fancied playing more than doing anything else. That cost me nearly £1k.

I fucked my back up by lifting a crate of home brew wrongly - well the hand kinda broke and I didn't want to smash any beer bottles. This isn't really an excuse as it only affected the final week of play and is generally OK when I'm sitting down. It's just frustrating as it has meant that I can't play football or go to the gym, hopefully it is resolved soon.

Going forward into 2017 it is clear that I need to create a more solid plan of improvement as well as a better set routine. I have always traditionally struggled in December so I'm not going to be too harsh on myself as the previous months things were very much looking on the up.

I'm not sure if grinding 100 and 200 on Stars is the best way to going about making money in the future. Some old regs I've know for a long time have been bumhunting the higher stakes really hard and have had much better years than me.

Something to think about anyway.

JANUARY = +£6,696 

FEBRUARY = +£1,143

MARCH = +£1,854

APRIL = +£ 4,921

MAY= +£2,389 

JUNE= +£2,917

JULY= -£1,868 

AUGUST= +£3,035

SEPTEMBER= +£3,020

OCTOBER= +£4,283

NOVEMBER= +£3,728
DECEMBER= +£302

TOTAL= +£32,594

 

November 2016

 

Feel like I started the month playing really well but tailed off towards the end. Not sure why.

More often than not I'm spewing at least one buy in each day and in a lot of spots I've been feeling a little lost recently. I have been watching a lot of videos and coaches have some very contrasting styles - I think I am having trouble integrating them into a solid game plan for myself.

I've done well on Sky this month which is good but Stars hasn't been great. A tired session losing 7 buy ins at 100z didn't help. I'm still up around £2k on each site though obviously there has been far more volume on Stars. I've played a tiny amount on Party and Unibet too and still have money on iPoker though not played there this month.

Going forward I still have a lot of room for improvement on both the technical aspects of my game and controlling stupid urges to make suicidal bluffs in bad spots.

The last 3 days I've been walking Olive and going to the gym before playing which I think puts me in a better frame of mind - if only I could find some time to do some PIO work! I still find the program confusing and don't have the confidence to get really stuck into it. In the new year I will need to start donating more of my focus to that.

 

JANUARY = +£6,696 

FEBRUARY = +£1,143

MARCH = +£1,854

APRIL = +£ 4,921

MAY= +£2,389 

JUNE= +£2,917

JULY= -£1,868 

AUGUST= +£3,035

SEPTEMBER= +£3,020

OCTOBER= +£4,283

NOVEMBER= +£3,728

 

TOTAL = +£32,292

 

October 2016

Great trip to Amsterdam was extended by a day when Claudia's Mum was taken to hospital after the marathon. Scary. Thankfully she's OK now.

Been watching poker coach Nick Howard's twitch stream this week and feel it has improved my game and mindset. I'd considered buying his PIO packs earlier this year but was put off by the price... he has a "pack" coming out in November which I might finally invest it.

I really do need to remember to fight for all small pots and also in the big pots to cut my losses and give up when called for.

 

JANUARY = +£6,696 

FEBRUARY = +£1,143

MARCH = +£1,854

APRIL = +£ 4,921

MAY= +£2,389 

JUNE= +£2,917

JULY= -£1,868 

AUGUST= +£3,035

SEPTEMBER= +£3,020

OCTOBER= +£4,283

 

TOTAL = +£28,564

September 2016

JANUARY = +£6,696 

FEBRUARY = +£1,143

MARCH = +£1,854

APRIL = +£ 4,921

MAY= +£2,389 

JUNE= +£2,917

JULY= -£1,868 

AUGUST= +£3,035

SEPTEMBER= +£3,020

 

TOTAL = +£24,107

August 2016

Lots of hands but not lots of great play. £3k after rb and untracked sites isn't too bad for a "bad" month.

Some more study and improvement is much needed though.

We climbed my Mum's final monro this month as well as Electric Feilds festival (Colonel Mustard&... , Admiral Fallow, Twilight Sad, Teen Canteen, Honeyblood, Field Music, Fat Whites, Sweaty Palms).

Plus a weekend away with Claudia and a night camping with mates.

Olive is coming on great.

JANUARY = +£6,696 

FEBRUARY = +£1,143

MARCH = +£1,854

APRIL = +£ 4,921

MAY= +£2,389 

JUNE= +£2,917

JULY= -£1,868 

AUGUST= +£3,035

 

TOTAL = +£21,087

July 20016

Had my former flat-mate and one time poker player staying with me for a few days in the middle of the month. It was tilting to say the least and I never really recovered from a downswing that started when he arrived.

Don't really want to say too much about this month, just hope to do a lot better in August.

Had a fun few weekends and made my first all-grain beer on my new "proper" brewing system.

JANUARY = +£6,696 

FEBRUARY = +£1,143

MARCH = +£1,854

APRIL = +£ 4,921

MAY= +£2,389 

JUNE= +£2,917

JULY= -£1,868

TOTAL = +£18,052

June 2016

JANUARY = +£6,696 

FEBRUARY = +£1,143

MARCH = +£1,854

APRIL = +£ 4,921

MAY= +£2,389 

JUNE= +£2,917

 

TOTAL = +£19.920

May 2016

No graph as upgraded to windows 10 and Poker Tracker is so terrible and their support so bad that I gave up trying to re-configure my database and switched back to Holdem manager. I'm OK with this as I think HM is the better software anyway, PT4 was good for running hundreds of HU tables but that's about it.

I had a decent start in May then after a few losing days had a bit of a crisis of confidence. I added in the $100nl tables on Stars to increase volume and had a decent end to the month. Still £2-3k months aren't really going to cut it so hopefully improve on that, be it through playing better or having a stronger mental game.

JANUARY = +£6,696 

FEBRUARY = +£1,143

MARCH = +£1,854

APRIL = +£ 4,921

MAY= +£2,389

TOTAL = +£17,003

April 2016

25k hands, 101hrs. 247h/hr (though played more on UniBet and SKY).

Decent month. Had a few tough days after getting Olive, our new puppy. She is a bit more settled now and it has been easier to grind.

JANUARY = +£6,696 

FEBRUARY = +£1,143

MARCH = +£1,854

APRIL = +£ 4,921

TOTAL = +£14,614

March 2016

51.5k hands.  129hours. 400h/hr

 Another annoying month. I'm kind of confused as what to focus on - the in depth PIO based strategy which I find very difficult to get my head around - or the "solid", if perhaps not the highest EV and maybe more easily exploitable strategy. I think in April I will try to play less on Stars and will play only 200nl on other sites.

The untracked by PT4 sites especially I seem to do better on. Also it's an old stupid habbit but I think I don't respect playing in $ enough. It's utterly idiotic and tbh I need to fix this ASAP. Like I am way more willing to run debatable bluffs on $200nl - it's either because it's lower stakes or because the $ value dosent mean as much to me as playing in £. Just writing this again is kinda embarassing.

So April I'm going to focus only on 200nl and some £100 to help fill tables early morning. I need to cut down on needless spew which is the main thing holding me back I think. Also I'm going to set a strict limit of 8 tables. I think I may resize them in such a way that reminds me that 8 is my absolute limit - meaning if a better table comes up then I MUST ditch the worst table.

I realised when I was stopping today that I spend most of my playing time still actively looking for better tables. This is obviously a good idea to some extent and is needed if I want to make any more playing at the time of day that I currently play at - but it definitely takes away some intensity and focus from my actual play. Limiting myself to 8 tables may help with this - it's just I'm always on the lookout for a mega-whale and have a major case of FOMO!

I've been chatting to one former HU reg that has started playing 6m again - we have discussed the possibility of a Skype group but nothing has went any further. It's difficult because I don't know how much I have to offer other people and I'm not sure what direction I want to go with "study" at the moment.

There is a lot of talk about the "future" of poker and how long people will be able to make money playing. It is difficult to say and there is really no point worrying about it - as many of the changes happen gradually and the ones that don't are out of our control.

For this reason I think if I am beating even the 200nl games for a decent clip then there is very little point in devoting 100s of hours of study to learning this new PIO-based style. For sure there are elements that I can add to my game that come from Solvers - but I think for now I should just concentrate on getting in good games and playing winning poker at the tables.

Lets hope my performance on Stars, 888 and Party pick up - as those are holding me back quite a bit.

I really think with the right mindset I will be able to do well at 200nl. One quarter through the year and I'm at just under £10k, meaning a £40k year... which wouldn't be great but would not be a disaster anyway. I have less expenses now that I bought my half of the house (also not getting married this year!).

JANUARY = +£6,696 

FEBRUARY = +£1,143

MARCH = +£1,854

TOTAL = +£9,693

 

 

February 2016

53.9k hands.  124hours. 434h/hr

Had a good start to the month but then perhaps started taking things for granted, as well as concentrating on some of the wrong things at the table. I kind of forgot what was working well for me in January - when I was just trying to keep things simple - especially vs regs. The games around the 200nl stake play very tight at the moment - not what I was used to when playing HU and back in 2013 when I used to play 6m. I need to keep reminding myself that it is not massively +EV to get AK in from any position any more. Other stuff like that can happen, especially when you have been running bad or are not full focused on the tables.

I finally got some coaching this month from someone who play much more theory based than I ever have. I feel this has gone well so far (3/5 lessons in), but after the first lesson or two I was maybe applying a few concepts wrongly or not as part of an overall strategy. I still have a lot of work to do on that front, but hopefully I can start putting things together.

I bought the PIO-solver software that is the new trend just now, and I think it is probably a must have going forward. I do need to put in more hours using it, but as has always been the case for me I would rather play than study.

It has been a difficult second half of the month but I'm still positive going forward into March.

I will need to start setting more study based goals I think and start taking a more analytical approach to improving my game.

Outside of poker it wasn't as an eventful month as the last, though I do go through to Glasgow on Friday to see Fat White Family. It was an amazing gig, they really are special live. Their 2nd album came out this month too and again it doesn't do them justice compared to live. I also saw Supoermoon and a Glasgow band called White this month, both were enjoyable.

I have also started a new hobby of homebrewing. The first batch of American IPA has been in bottles for 10 days now - it tastes OK-ish at the moment but is due to improve and be drinkable in 3 weeks and best in nearly 3 months. I have another Pale Ale fermenting as well as a Belgian Dopple - both from extract malt kits. I'm a bit concerned about both of them for different reasons - I wasn't as on the ball with them compared to my first brew. Time will tell if they are OK. I also bought a sick BBQ and made some lovely food. Who cares if it's still winter? Guess it's the first day of Spring tomorrow so it might be more acceptable!!!

Anyway,

JANUARY = +£6,696 

FEBRUARY = +£1,143

TOTAL = +£7,839