Update Time

Been a while since my last entry.

I guess firstly i'll go into my live tournament. It was a really great experience, and i think i'm a better player for it. I ended up finishing in 30/158 people, 10 spots away from cashing. However i know now that i'm good enough to play in those tournaments. As usual in MTT's it came down to one wrong move on my part.

With three tables left, and after being at a seemingly nitty table for the good part of an hour, i decided it was time to step up the aggression to try and accumulate some chips. Going against my game plan of cashing first, i decided i'd rather take a shot at winning. So i pounded on this table for most of the day, picking up around 50,000 in chips without going to showdown once. So i get ATs in middle position and make my standard 2.5ish raise, i get called from the CO, a really tight player and it's folded around. Now, the wrong move i made started here. I put him on a preflop calling range of most broadway, most decent aces, and figured he's 3betting me with AQ and AK and most pairs above 10's. So the flop hits Axx rainbow. Now i quickly checked with the intention of check/raising all in. That was mistake number two. I overestimated the guy and thought he would play back at me, when in reality he was a passive guy wanting to get into the money. Anyways, instead of bet/folding, i decide to check/raise and get snapped by AKs. After that point i was down to around 7 effective BB's and it was shove time. Ended up shoving A5s from the CO and that same player tanked for about 3 minutes before calling with pocket jacks, LOL.

So overall i had a good time, it was long an tedious at times, and i wouldn't play in another one unless it was something like the WSOP or Aussie millions. Playing for three days with nothing to show for it isn't my idea of a good time. Life is too short!

So in my other poke exploits, i've stepped up to the $6.50 turbos on stars with relative ease. I feel like i'm really starting to crush these games now, but i still have a long way to go. So far this month it's looking promising.

Notice i don't have a red line anymore. Well i'm getting fed up with worrying about it. Everytime i saw the red line dipping i'd rush to find out what i was doing wrong. It means nothing and i invite you to march with me on the first official "People against Hem red line day", starting today the 20th October, 2010.

Also, i recently have around 30 more hours per week to devote to poker. That means more play but more importantly, more study and review. If anyone is interested in getting together on skype to go over specific spots in 9 man STT's let me know.

So with around 11 more days to go before the end of this month, let's set a little volume goal. Let's flirt with the dark side and say i want to have 666 games done before the end of the month. That gets me up around 1200 games for the month, which is pretty decent as i took the first week of this month off.

/ Challenge

Well, the personal challenge is over for me. I was well on my way to competing the goal, with ~700 games completed before mid month, but i've made the decision to move up in stakes. 

It's something i needed to do, as i feel my growth is being stunted by staying at the micro's. I still have numerous leaks, but i'm slowly getting it together. I feel that i've found one major leak in my bubble game that has been causing me to enter the ITM as a shortstack, causing me to have a lot of 3rd/2nd placings. So with that on the way to being fixed, the move up will hopefully be a successful one. 

Results wise, it went pretty well. My distribution is looking aweful, but i've uncovered a major leak, so hopefully it will come back to some normality soon.

So with the challenge cancelled, i'm now "free" to move up in stakes and lower the amount of tables i'm playing. I expect my volume to be pitiful for the next week, but it's a marathon, not a sprint.

I have now played just 15 of the 6.50 9 man STT's on stars, and i have to say i'm feeling quietly confident that i'll be able to beat this level. The standard of play is a lot better that the 3.40's, with a lot more players with "reggish" stats. After some adjustment, and game time, i'm sure i will be fine. The game plan is to play 1000 of these and see how i'm going. If i'm crushing the 6.50's on stars, then i'll be confident that i'll be able to play the 6.50s - 12's on full tilt no problems.

A little unwell

Well the past few days i have been quite ill, no need to go into the finer details, but i was firm friends with a toilet bowl for quite some time.

Only being able to play ~30 games in two days has left me behind pace for this months challenge. The response? You guessed it. Another challenge!

In the next three days i want to play 100 games each day. Yes, i know it doesn't sound like much to most of you online grinders, but for me, 12-15 tabling, that's going to take quite a few hours to achieve. Hopefully this will get me back on track to complete the 1500, as i don't have the whole month, i fly out to play in the live tournament on the 28th, so i need the games done before then. Yikes.

Huge brag incoming.

What a difference 48 hours can make. It's been fantastic to say the least. Fan. Tas. Tic.

Talk to me two days ago and I would have been a bit down. But quietly confidant that after 500 games of solid play, the poker gods would reward me. Reward me they did.

A not too shabby ROI. The great thing about it is i finally feel in total control of my opponants and my own game at every stage of the tournament. And running $100 over expectation is always nice too.

To add to that, i finally made it to a sharkscope leaderboard for total profit. It's been a mini goal of mine to keep myself motivated playing the micro's. It feels nice to say that i'm the 19th most profitable player 9 STT turbos in the world. I don't expect to be on there long, but i made my goal, that's what matters.

Finally, to top of what has been a simply awesome two days i decided to enter a small sattlite tournament for $3 into a $11 rebuy. Normally i don't play in these events, but i had two tournaments going that my stack was dwindling away in, so i decided to have some fun playing a super turbo. I got Third in that tournament for ~$9.00. But my gambling thirst was not quite quenched yet. I decided that i'd spend $11 to buy into the rebuy, only planning to have the one shot at trying to accumulate chips. If i knew what it would be like, i wouldn't have entered. The rebuy period lasting for an hour and a half. I managed not to stack off and accumulate a nice stack of chips after the break ended. Then after some luck, and i mean a lot of luck, i managed to win a tournament ticket to the ANZPT adelaide main event.

I can count at least 4 times where i was an 80/20 dog and managed to win somehow. At one point late in the game going runner/runner hearts to take down a big pot, with my tournament on the line. It was loads of fun, i had a blast.

So, thank you. Thank you poker gods, i will sacrifice a goat now in your honor. Or whatever it is you want me to do. Anyways /Brag

To quote the rapper Eminem, i have to "Snap back to reality", fast.

So, tommorow it's back to the e-felt for some more micro action. Hopefully i can move up after this month, with my challenge still going i want to finish this month, then move to full tilt to take advantage of both bad players, and the excellent rakeback system they have. Plus i also have my first bonus deposit, so i should be on ~50% rakeback for a short time.   Sweet.

A shaky start

Well end of week one. How did that go? Not well.

It's not a big deal, quite common to go through breakeven stretches like this. I feel i'm playing quite well, so with a little bit of luck, that green line will translate into green currency next week.

On the plus side, i'm well on the way to completing the challenge of 1500 games by month's end.

A Challenge

New start to the month for me, and it's time to set a goal. Just a basic volume goal, no strings, but i'd like to run at my usual 10% for the month. Since i still have a day job i won't be able to put in loads of volume, but something achieveable. So i'm planning to play 1500  turbo SNG's for the month, with an ROI of at least 5%. That will also translate into Gold VIP for pokerstars, so a little added benefit/motivation for me.

I also found a major leak in my game today, my mid game shoving was really bad, to put it mildly, so i'm now off to study about 500 individual hands, i hope to be done before 3AM, then work in the morning, yikes.

An introduction

I started playing poker in 2003. I only played a little online, and also in a few live games. Never thinking i'd take it seriously i managed to get my bankroll up to $500 from a little over $50 deposited on Party Poker. As is custom for poker players, i managed to burn all of the $500 in one sitting playing a cash game.

It's safe to say i learnt my lesson cheaply.

Like most, i assumed poker was a game of luck, but my perception quickly changed from watching the WSOP. I saw the same players who religiously made final tables. From there i bought books, watched videos, anything to try and improve my game.

After some success in low limit cash, i decided to try MTT with no success. I soon realised that cash was going to take a lot of effort on my part, so one day i decided to load a 9 man SNG. I was immediately in my element, i didn't know what i was doing, but i could see that these games we're probably the easiest form to learn.

After playing for a solid year, i took a 4 year hiatus from poker. I pursued other life endeavours, but here i am back playing poker again after a long spell. I have to say that i've probably missed the best and most profitable years of SNG poker, but i have a feeling that these games will be juicy for a few years yet.

A month ago, i signed up to Team Moshman coaching. It was a move i decided i needed to make, as my game was going nowhere, i couldnt see where i needed to improve, and i didn't have the tools to help myself. I've been coached for about a month now. His first impression was a good one, i think he may have been suprised at how advanced i was compared to others.

My ultimate goal is to play poker for a living. It may not be 100% of my income, but the end goal is that. I've never been the type of person to just sit back and let things happen. I like to work for myself, and i can't stand having people tell me what to do, when they don't know themselves. So for me, having that personal freedom is big in my life. What poker will also allow me to do is pursue other life goals, i have numerous business ideas, that i simply do not have the time for.

I welcome you to join me on my journey to become a succesful online poker player.

Why?

I never thought i would start my own blog, but here i am.

After reading through the blogs of many online players,  i decided it was time i made my own. I'm basically tired of using Face Book as the place where i talk about poker, so for now i will have this blog dedicated to all things poker.

Please feel free to leave comments, as dialogue with myself isn't half as much fun as conversation with someone else.