February 2015

12.38k hands, 59 hours. 200hands/hr.

Total profit of £10,526.

Playing good and picking battles carefully. Many regs refusing to play and the ones that do are generally good. Some moron-regs still play but never for very long. So mostly been trying early to get action and tables then settling down and waiting for fish. Been finishing up early a lot and going to gym. Playing like 8 to 2 on average I'd say. Still up for debate if this is optimal but it's working at the moment so I will stick with it.

The 59 hours played is defiantly lower that I would have liked but that is reflected in the 10 days that I took off. Went to Liverpool (Merseyside derby) for a weekend and Newcastle for an extra long weekend (6Music festival - Fat Whites, BSP, The Fall, Django Django, Wave Pictures, The Cribs, Mogwai). Was also at rugby Scotland vs Italy yesterday, which Scotland lost in the last minute after leading the whole game. The Celtic 3 - 3 Inter Milan game was also a highlight of the month, this time a last minute equalizer the right way!

Another thing worth mentioning is that I am doing pretty well in Fantasy Football this season. I'm in a few month leagues and not to jinx anything but there is the chance for maybe £1k to £2k profit... could all easily go tits up but been enjoying it a lot this season.

JANUARY = +£7,823
FEBRUARY = +£10,526

TOTAL =  +£18,349

Also been working on that song - which is still a work in progress!

January 2015

88 hours, 17.76k hands.  222hands/hr

Hardly any 6m played but lost 500 there

Playing better and much better routine (playing mostly one session and then gym/football each day)

+£7,823 profit

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