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

November 2013

22.0k hands, 65 hours, 338 hands/hr

Lost £500 on SKY.

Barely breakeven month, taken upto over £1k thanks to rakeback.

I struggled again with routine and focus. It's been a lot more difficult to find very +EV matches and it is dangerous to be playing long matches vs good players just to get tables or hands in. I've been cramming in hands when I should probably have quit and I've been playing a lot when my mind isn't really in it.

There are many factors contributing to my poor results the last few months, and hopefully I can address them and try to take control of the variable that I have control over.


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


TOTAL = £71,048