October 2015

17.7k hands. 70 hours. 252h/hr

Total profit = £646

Very frustrating month, there was just not enough fishy action HU and tbh I completely went to pieces and was playing constantly with some underlying tilt.

The way HU is going I think it is finally time for me to switch back to 6m. This should probably have been done sooner but I've had a lot of other stuff on my mind meaning that I was happy to coast along having what was supposed to be a variance free income.

There is less of a monetary ceiling for me in 6 handed cash games I feel, putting tons of work away from the table and playing a mathematically orientated style is just not for me. there clearly isn't enough fish action to justify continuing to play HU - and the way things have been going with more and more sites cutting or changing how the HU lobby operates to decrease potential win rates - now seems the time to make the switch back.

HU has been good to me for the most part and at first it was a great new challenge and there was lots of fish action as well as clueless regs.

Some little stats about my time playing mostly HU.
Played April 2012 to October 2015.
43 months.
£271.2k profit
£6.3k average per month
£75.7k average year

Sites that I played on that decided to change HU or limit my ability to play on them:

Boss - closed down
888 - removed HU
Bodog - closed to UK
Stars.fr - closed to UK
Winamax - closed down
MicroGaming - switch to Anon tables then King of The Hill
iPoker - changed system to stop me stealing 12 tables/didn't crack down on Multi Accounters
onGame - ridiculous increase in rake at HU tables
PKR - removed HU
Party - made weak reg hunting more difficult with anon tables till you sit down. decreased my action by allowing just one table showing in lobby per stake
Stars - table cap/KOTH


I already feel much better about poker and tbh it has reinvigorated a desire and drive in me.

I may keep some HU on the side but it will be very minimal and 6m will be my main game until something changes again.

JANUARY = +£7,823
FEBRUARY = +£10,526
MARCH = +£6,645
APRIL = +£2,551
MAY = +£4,568
JUNE = +£6,166
JULY = +£7,190
AUGUST = +£2,725
SEPTEMBER = +£2,455
OCTOBER = +£646

TOTAL =  +£51,282

September 2015

28.4k hands. 70 hours. 405h/hr. (played a lot of PLO50 zoom)

Total profit =  +£2,455

Frustrating month, feeling a bit lost when I'm playing HUNL and was distracted from that by PLO. The games are definatly drying up at HU but tbh I think I've been letting that fact affect my mindset and haven't been very focused overall.

 Stuff with the house has also been distracting and that looks set to continue into next month. Meeting trades people and doing work ourselves but hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.

JANUARY = +£7,823
FEBRUARY = +£10,526
MARCH = +£6,645
APRIL = +£2,551
MAY = +£4,568
JUNE = +£6,166
JULY = +£7,190
AUGUST = +£2,725
SEPTEMBER = +£2455

TOTAL =  +£50,636

August 2015

August 2015 was the month that Claudia and I got married! It was a magical day at Errol Park, it just couldn't have been any better and I feel so lucky to have Claudia, my family, her family and all of our friends. It really is an amazing thing having everyone special to you spend a day together having fun and celebrating our love.

So the Wedding was on 8th and honeymoon was for 2 weeks straight after it, meaning that not much poker was played this month. I actually did pretty decent for such low volume though today kinda ruined that a bit. There was so little action that I decided to play 5k hands of 6m zoom at 200 and some 100. It didn't go well and I ended -£1.3k for the day.

Anyway I kinda enjoyed it till I started losing. Gonna stick to HU for sure for a bit now as I don't need any extra distractions - as we have just finalised payment on the house and will have the keys on Friday. It will probably be the end of September by the time we are ready to move in.

So.

11.7khands,  36hrs played, 325hands/hr (must have been way lower before today)

Total profit =  +£7,190

 JANUARY = +£7,823
FEBRUARY = +£10,526
MARCH = +£6,645
APRIL = +£2,551
MAY = +£4,568
JUNE = +£6,166
JULY = +£7,190
AUGUST = +£2,725

TOTAL =  +£48,181

July 2015

19.3k hands. 72 hours. 268h/hr. (played zoom)

Total profit =  +£7,190

Decent month again. Played good for the most part, had one session when I was tilting my tits off at PLO but luckily it was at $100, I did lose 10 buy ins to some clown though.

I had my stag weekend at Loch Rannoch at the start of the month which was good fun. Have been finding it slightly difficult to concentrate the closer it gets to our wedding on 8th August. Not for any particular reason - perhaps just the thought of not having many more days to play or just kinda "end of term" type thing - like I get at the end of December each year.

I can't wait now for the wedding which I'm sure will be a great day. Then Claudia and I are off to New York and Miami for our honeymoon, I can't wait to see the sights in NY then relax the rest of the holiday.

August will be a quiet month for poker I think, I will need to ease back into playing after all the excitement of the wedding and holiday. To top off all this excitement we have also had an offer accepted on a house. It's in a great location has an amazing garden and it's really homely overall. I'm paying my half (at least) with the savings I have amassed from the previous 6.5 years of poker - it feels great to see all of this hard work actually being for something other than numbers on a screen.

Yes!

JANUARY = +£7,823
FEBRUARY = +£10,526
MARCH = +£6,645
APRIL = +£2,551
MAY = +£4,568
JUNE = +£6,166
JULY = +£7,190

TOTAL =  +£45,469

June 2015

13.2k hands. 61 hours. 216h/hr.

Total profit +£6,166

Decent month overall. One day pissed me off this month when I played a half day knowing that I had to be somewhere at noon. These half day sessions never work out for me, for whatever reason - probably to do with my mindset. So I'm going to avoid doing any more half days.

Most of the month I played really solid, mostly vs fish but also some £100nl reg matches. Feel very on top of my game overall but perhaps my intensity tailed off towards the end of the month. I had a great run of 13 consecutive winning days, which sums up this month - slow and steady profit.

Claudia and I completed our 10th Monroe this month, doing 3 in a day up at Glenshee. Also I had a trip with my friends to Dublin to see Scotland get a 1-1 draw with Ireland. Dublin was a great trip but took a lot out of me.

I've been pretty decent with my gym routine this month and have eaten very well (apart from Dublin!). Quite pleased with the progress I have made.

JANUARY = +£7,823
FEBRUARY = +£10,526
MARCH = +£6,645
APRIL = +£2,551
MAY = +£4,568
JUNE = +£6,166

TOTAL =  +£38,279

May 2015

7.01k hands. 41 hours. 170h/hr.

Total profit +£4,568

Appears that it's gotten to halfway through June with out me making this post. May was decent despite the modest profit as Claudia and I had a great week long holiday to Tenerife.

Nearly all my play has been at HU, as tbh I don't have much time to put into developing my 6m game again. HU action was actually better than previous months, but perhaps it was my more laid back approack to getting volume in that tricked my brain a little bit. I've been also toning down some unneeded aggression in an attempt to lower some variance and I also feel it helps my mental game. It's difficult to pinpoint really but I just feel far more relaxed whilst playing.

We bid on a great house this month and missed out by £300, which was pretty devastating. Wedding plans are coming along nicely with everything booked and I can't wait to marry the love of my life.

JANUARY = +£7,823
FEBRUARY = +£10,526
MARCH = +£6,645
APRIL = +£2,551
MAY = £4,568

TOTAL =  +£32,113

April 2015

22.79k hands. 104 hours. 219h/hr.
8k hands HU, 14k 6max. Plus a lot of 6m on SKY.

Bit of a disappointing month. I jumped into 6max a bit quickly and instead of learning my way back into the game at 200nl I ended up playing a lot of $600 and some $1k. It defiantly takes some getting used to - switching between HU and 6m and often playing both at the same time.

Anyway one day I managed to lose £3.7k, which is in the top 3 for amount I've lost in a day. I don't even think I played particularly badly. I lost like £2.3k and was still feeling good and made it to the gym. Then maybe played a little bad later on in my 2nd session. As often happens after a day like this it shattered my confidence.

Ideally after suffering a setback I would nit up my game selection a lot more and not play any regs or even breakeven-ish fish. But for whatever reason there hasn't been nearly enough HU fish this month to wait around for. Ideally HU is my favourite way to make money (least stress, biggest winrate, good for mental happiness) but realistically it's looking like HU alone won't be enough, unless I'm prepared to put hours into my game and battle vs good regs. Anyway, I've bought the tools to give me a fair shot at getting good seats in 6m games, so I'm going to keep trying to win there.

My gym routine predictably suffered whilst I was struggling but hopefully that is back on track now. Also I had a knee injury that kept me out of football for a week - it's still giving me problems but I got a knee brace and that has helped. I'm probably playing way too much football but I just can't turn a game down - often playing 4 or 5 days in a row. Weight loss has been good this month just judging on aesthetics.

I started taking these BCAA's to help with muscle growth/recovery a few days before my big losing day. Honestly sure they were fucking with my head - I took them for 5 days and started feeling depressed beyond believe and was close to tears one night and couldn't explain why. I'm just glad I did some digging and found out that they have been known to lower serotonin levels which affects mood. I was taking them on top of a protein shake that also included EAA and BCAA, which was probably a mistake on my part - but I'm sure that is quite common and I've seen programs recommend it.

Anyway. Onwards and upwards. I'll be playing as much HU as I can in May as well as trying to get into good $200 upto £300 6m games.

April wasn't so bad, I still turned a profit and I'm still doing OK for the year.


JANUARY = +£7,823
FEBRUARY = +£10,526
MARCH = +£6,645
APRIL = +£2,551

TOTAL =  +£27,545