January 2016

28.5k hands.  76hours. 375h/hr

So January is over already. I've had a good routine and an ignited passion for poker that I haven't had since the first 6 months of switching to HU a few years ago.

 Because of a planned holiday to Mexico (for our fiends wedding), I decided to start the month off only playing 200nl. My thinking was I wanted to "take it easy" somewhat and did not feel like going away for 10 days stuck a couple of grand. After the first few days I was pleased with how things were going and how I was feeling so I decided that I would extend this plan to the end of the month. I found it refreshing to be free from the dynamic where losing a couple of buy ins at the highest stakes (often £500 and sometimes £1000 if I felt brave/stupid) would affect how the session would plan out. It seems much less stressful playing one stake, this could be because of the lower swings or perhaps with all the betsizing being the same it is easier for me to concentrate.

I got a decent start and was happy going down to London with Claudia for 2 nights, then flying with the rest of the wedding people to Mexico for 7 nights. We had a great time although the food at the hotel left a lot to be desired. We will not be going all inclusive again.

Then when I got back I managed to get straight back into poker mode, playing shorter session has been key, although when I have slipped up and tried to play much longer than 2hrs I have had bad results. This has happened when losing and also when trying to cram in hours when I know I have stuff on later in the evening.

I have still been playing mostly day time hours, with the occasional early evening session. I have noticed a definite difference in the games - they seem to pick up around 1pm and really start getting good around 4.... who knows how good they are late at night!

I've actually been amazing at how soft some of the 200 games are. I am playing 3 sites mostly but even during off-peak hours I am much happier with my potential earnings than I was at HU for a long time.

I have been enquiring about coaching but have had some stupid communication errors that I will need to sort out.

I am going to play another 2 weeks minimum at 200 then think about moving upto 400 ( perhaps completely or perhaps just adding good 400 tables).

Been very good with gym and diet for the most part - it is all helping keep in the zone for poker.

January = +£6,696

December 2015

34.7k hands. 106 hours. 327h/hr

Total profit = +£3,005

Month started off very well and I was up £6k after about 8 or 9 days. Then it was a little bit up and down, twice I found myself playing very long sessions when I was down and chasing - I can't afford to be doing that these days.

I lost a little confidence for sure and it will take some solid sessions and study to fully recover. Though the monthly results are helped dramatically by SKY where I made a nice profit.

Looking back on the year poker took a back seat and I was focusing on planning our wedding, looking for houses, the actual wedding, the honeymoon, getting mortgage, buying the house, getting the house upto standard and then finally moving in. On top of this I was playing a ridiculous amount of 5-a-sides as well regularly going to the gym. This has been the most exciting and amazing year of my life!

That's not to make excuses - I'm still relatively happy with my results. No doubt with more study and focus I could have done better - but almost everyone will be saying that at the end of the year.

I feel proud to still be doing OK at this daft card game and determined to do well and enjoy playing throughout next year.

I still have lots of savings despite forking out £125k for the house then countless more £k's for spark/plastering/decorating work. Not to mention the Wedding and honeymoon - plus a holiday to Mexico in January.

In some ways it feels like my goal has changed - in that I want to get back to constantly learning and improving my game, but in other ways the goal is still the same - make as much money as I can without sacrificing (too much!) quality of life and quality of relationships.

I am going to play the first week of January then we are away for about 10 days in London then Mexico. I am planning on getting coaching when I get back, probably from Zazano who is one of the only 6m coaches game I respect. I will talk to him about things that I have on my mind - should I be using a GTO solver etc.

I will also draw up a set of goals again and an overall plan of action. This will be done after Mexico as I don't see much point in getting coaching or setting goals only to be away for 10 days after a week.


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
NOVEMBER = +£3,742
DECEMBER = +3,005

TOTAL =  +£58,030

November 2015

21.8k hands. 92 hours. 236h/hr

Total profit = +£3,742

Mostly all 6m, actually lost a chunk  playing HU at start of month.

So this month was kinda disjointed with moving house and again needing to stop start my sessions without much warning etc etc. I'm surprised I managed so many hours worth of play. I did play a lot on SKY and PTR which doesn't track hands.

Been watching a lot of videos and even actually did some other work off the table - it wasn't much (just getting to know my own ranges in different pre flop positions - basing them on a few different winning regs stats from rPTR) but it helps to have something to concentrate on at the tables.

I feel it will take another couple of weeks to get fully settled into the house by Claudia and I are really happy with it, it has taken a lot of patience and years of hard work from both of us. It has been some year for us.

Feeling motivated.

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
NOVEMBER = +£3,742

TOTAL =  +£55,025

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