Players Championship, Ashes and MRI's

Last night was the first event in the Players Championship Festival at my local poker club. The event was a £200 NLH freezeout, and with a 50,000 starting stack and a slow structure. With the Ashes finally starting at the Gabba it promised to be a rather splendid night.

This year has been patchy; I’ve had some great results both online and live. I'm in profit across all the sites I play MTT's on online and also live I’m comfortably in profit for the year. May through to September I hit the biggest, longest down-swing I’ve encountered so far playing poker, and so the fact I’m still in profit is pretty comforting. What I'm lacking is a festival win at the International, and a big score at my favourite club. I'm hoping that gets rectified this week.

I'm not massively superstitious person, poker wise, but there's the odd this I like to do. I always wait until it's my turn to act before looking at my cards. I never act straight away when it's my turn. I'm quite impulsive person in life, and giving myself a few seconds to act generally tempers too many impulsive plays. One thing I have noticed is that I’ve never done well in a tournament when my daughter has stayed at mine the night before. I refuse to believe there's any correlation between the two. How can there be?

So last night I arrived early, happy with how I’ve been playing recently and confident i could do well. I arrived an hour before the tournament started, and the place was already busy with a fantastic atmosphere. I registered and drew seat T3. What would turn out to be pretty shite seat on a number of levels. With so many people in the club the place was jammed with tables. I sat at the end of one back to back with a player from the table behind. That would normally be fine, but in this instance it was the only route for people to get through to the corner of the club where the sofas and online area of the club. This meant I had to stand up to let people through probably once every 5 minutes or so. Bloody great.

As I took my seat I realised that I’d also drawn a comically tough table. I had JJ, Kevin Mcgee, Sam Grafton, Fez, a Scandie and two other young ballers at my table. Great. I knew the table would aggressive and it didn’t disappoint with big pots nearly every hand from the start. I was getting dealt complete rubbish, and when finally I was dealt QQ I had to fold on the river. The lady told me she had AA after the hand, but losing a decent sized pot early on still hurt.

After that I was dealt two more pairs in the next four hours. 99 and 44. The most amazing thing was that I didn’t see an ace the whole night!! Not even a ragey ace. That’s the first time ever that i’ve not seen one in a comp that I was in for over 5 hours!! What the odds of that even happening!? I’d been as low as 20k in chips, but had managed to grind my stack back to 45k when I got knocked out. The table folded to me in the SB, I had 14bb’s and rather impulsively just shoved. I knew the guy next to me wouldn’t call unless he had a hand like 77+ AQ+. Unfortunately he had 77, called, and despite me getting a few draws on the flop I missed, lost the flip and was out. Why didn’t I just raise 2.5x and fold when he re-raised?! I hate leaking chips in that was with such a small stack anyway, but it would seem the more sensible this to do. Role on the main event. The atmosphere at the club was amazing, and I can’t wait for the weekend.

So with the rubbish seat draw, a rather cute waitress chucking drinks in my direction :), probably the most aggressive table I’ve played at all year, and being totally and utterly card dead It really could have gone better. I went home to watch the remainder of the Ashes on TV, and that didn't improve my night.

After five hours sleep i'm now sitting waiting for an MRI at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital. I'm drinking a semi-radioactive drink that tastes puke, and i've got an old guy sitting next to me who stinks of BO. Starts in M and ends in arv. The day can only improve from here. I've changed the next night Georgina, my daughter stays over to tonight. I'm not taking any chances with the rest of the week. Takeaway and a film is all that will occupy me this evening.

Rocky, Rocky, Rocky!!

I'm just working my way through the Rocky box set, currently at the end of my favourite, Rocky 4. Jesus some of the quotes are awesome! Cringe.

'During this fight, I've seen a lot of changing, in the way you feel about me, and in the way I feel about you. In here, there were two guys killing each other, but I guess that's better than twenty million. I guess what I'm trying to say, is that if I can change, and you can change, everybody can change!'

'He's worried! You cut him! You hurt him! You see? You see? He's not a machine, he's a man!'

Inspiring stuff!

Anyway, here's a short life update.

I've not played a huge amount of online poker over the last few months. Just a few tournaments on Full Tilt, but no STT’s. On Pokerstars I’m stuck on 81k in VPP’s, and after missing two months I lost my Supernova status. I need to rake the extra 19k in VPP’s by the end of the year or I lose out on a fair few bonuses this year and next. I’m pretty sure I’ll be very fucked off with myself if I don’t manage to achieve SN status for next year. Therefore that’s going to be my goal over the next 7 weeks. I need to play an average of 80 $16 STT’s a day for 40 days. This gives me a few days off which I’ll need as I doubt I’ll be playing much on Christmas day. Although I’m going to be in London for Christmas for the first time in quite a few years I don’t want to spend too much time playing poker!

In terms of playing live poker I’m going to try and limit myself to playing only once a week. Although I much prefer it, it’s just too time-consuming and hitting Supernova has to be my main goal. I’ll be playing the GUKPT Champion of Champions event. I also really want to play the two NLHE events at the player’s championships at the International, but unless I manage to sell 50% of myself then I won’t be doing it. I’ve currently sold 30% so I need to sell another two £60/10% blocks. If anyone’s interested then PM or email me.

I've been out with a couple of girls since I got back from holiday. Both are nice, but I think I like one a little more than the other. Not sure whether she’s that into me really though, we'll see. It's typical that it’s the one you like least seems to be the one who phones and texts me regularly. Anyway, knowing the way I run, i'll still be single this time next year! GG.

Weight update. After a rather heavy week I’ve gone back up to 97kgs. FFS.

Running Hot... For a week anyway.

I'm currently somewhere over the Atlantic on my way back from a weeks holiday in Tenerife with my daughter and her mum. Tenerife wouldn't generally be the top of my holiday wish list, but the weather was fantastic and I had a pretty awesome week. I don't really tan, unless you count going red(der) and then back to white, but at least I didn't burn.

I'm definitely not looking forward to the shite weather at home when we land. The cold, wet, dark weather makes me feel like hibernating, but I want to make more effort to get out over the next few weeks. At least the sunshine has kick-started my motivation to do things...

After a week sharing a double bed with my daughter I can't wait to sleep alone tonight! Being kicked during the night and woken relatively early loses it's appeal after week! I'm looking forward to playing some live poker this week. I didn't think I'd miss it, but it turns out it's only online poker I was losing my appeal for.

I need to sort out some backing issues this week. Since my new backer started I have a 35% ROI, but it appears he wants to stop backing people full stop. It's a shame, but fair enough. I have to decide whether I want to play MTTs online going forward. They can be pretty time consuming, and I might set myself some sort of STT/MTT bankroll challenge instead. I feel like I need to set myself some short term goals to get motivated.

Health-wise I'm having an MRI in a few weeks, but I feel OK most days at the moment. The weight loss program is going OK. I'm under 100kgs again, and I'm sure the more I lose the better I'll feel. I'd like to reach 85kgs by mid December. Just in time for the big woolly jumpers!

Girls, girls, girls.

I’ve been single now for quite a while. To be quite honest it never really bothered me. In fact I was quite happily single. Able do to what I wanted, when I wanted, without recourse has its benefits. After time, when friends are getting married, and couples nights are the standard I started to feel a little lonely. I just missed someone to do normal things with, weekend breaks, going out for dinner or staying in to watch a film. At the start of this year I made it a goal to make more effort to get out and meet someone.

Obviously there were a few flaws with this goal. One, i’ve been quite ill, and so going out drinking wasn’t right at the top of my ‘to-do’ list. This has also meant i’ve put on weight, and with that confidence slides. I’m trying to do something about that now, but it takes time. Two, with me taking the year off work through poor health i’ve been playing poker more than anything else. Needless to say card rooms aren’t really the best destination to meet girls.

The last five girls’ I’ve been out with I met all of them through work. Generally i’ve always got to know girls before anything happens, and not working means that I’m not going to meet anyone that way for the time being. So where do you go to find people? I live in one of the biggest cities in the world, so it shouldn’t be so hard. I know several friends through poker who are in the same boat. Maybe someone should organise a ‘London Poker Singles night’, obviously there’d be more male applicants than female so wouldn't work.

I’ve been out on a few dates this year. All bar one were pretty dull, and I had no interest in seeing them again. The one who I did quite like, didn’t feel the same. Typical. The trouble is I’m picky. That’s certainly not always been the case, but it has been for a while. If I don't 'fancy' someone, then I don't make the effort in the first place, which is pretty poor. I would say that when i’m at my normal weight (and it’s been a while!) i’m pretty good looking, certainly no Brad Pitt, but definitely not ugly. I’m relatively shy when I don’t know a person, which never really helps. Of course being low on confidence over all means I probably don’t exude the glow which would attract girls anyway. A positive attitude is needed!

So where am I now? Nowhere really is the answer! There are a couple of girls i’ve been chatting too who I quite like. One from my local card room and another an old work colleague. I’m not sure if either will go anywhere, but you never know...

Making more effort is the answer. Get in shape, improved health and make the effort to go out and meet people. Then a year from now, i’ll be blogging that the grass wasn’t greener in the first place!

Applications close a fair few years from now.

Well that could have gone better

It’s been a while since my last post, roughly six months. I’m not too sure why I stopped writing, but once the relative routine of making posts goes it seems there’s little chance of me starting again. This time I’ll try and keep it up. I very much doubt many people actually read this anyway, but I think a bit of blog-therapy seems to help put things in perspective, for me anyway. Sadly my gift in life wasn’t creative literacy, so I’m afraid you’ll have to cope yet again with my illiterate ramblings.

Around the time of my last post I was running pretty well. Well up in all forms of tournaments both live and online for the year. Statistically I don’t think I was running particularly amazingly, but after the spell that followed I’d have craved to win 40% or so of ‘coin-flips’. Around April/May that changed overnight online, if someone had outs, then they hit them. It’s amazing how hard it can hit your morale when thing go to shit, I still played the odd STT, but MTT’s I couldn’t face. I had a backing deal online, but with me not playing many MTT and running badly that ended. Still, at least live poker was still going al-right. For now.

My highlight of the year, so far, was down in Thanet. I went down with JJ to play the summer series down there. It consisted of a couple of £200 MTT’s and the £300 main. I played pretty well the whole series, winning one of the GUKPT side events, and ‘bubbling’ the final table in both of the other comps. Considering I’ve played very few GUKPT events this year I feel the 16^th in the London main, and the two other side event final tables is a pretty good return. Sadly illness has hampered me playing too many more GUKPT events this year.

Just finishing off the final table then became a theme for the next few months. At the International it happened in four or five competitions back to back. Sometimes I pushed too light, and others where I just got unlucky. Either way I became the bubble boy. Then came the ISSSP Festival at the International. I played the first event reasonably well, but then in the middle event I was awful, playing way too passively. The main was pretty forgettable as well. After that came Vegas. I was feeling a little unwell going out there, but fine to play poker. I then I proceeded to have a heartbreaking run out in Vegas. I finished just off the money in six events. Not cashing once, and to top it all I became very ill over the last few days. In the end I was glad to come home. The only thing that kept my morale up over in Vegas was winning in all bar one cash game session. This at least made it nearly a break-even trip.

I’ve felt pretty rough on and off since July with my Crohns which probably didn’t help my mood, but the poor run continued throughout the summer. During a four week spell in August/September I recorded the result of all my all-in pre flop ‘coin-flips’ Over that period I lost just over 84%. Even given that statistic I managed to win the £100 freezeout once and final table one of the GSOP festival events. A small relief in an otherwise pretty depressing period. To be honest my health hasn’t improved a huge amount. I’m still on various types of medication, and some days feel like there’s nothing wrong. Other days I feel like total crap.

I’ve missed out on so many social occasions over the last few months because of my health. It’s actually quite depressing in itself. I missed out on going to Ibiza for one of my best friends stag do. I missed out on ‘Chaztival’, a mini-festival a friend had spent a lot of time organising, and countless other birthdays and social occasions. Dismal. I went out on Saturday to a 40^th birthday, my first night out in weeks, and had a great time. Unfortunately I was wiped out by 10.30 and left early.

I’m still single. This is no great surprise. I’ve been out on just three dates this year, and none of them were particularly great. I guess if I don’t go out in the events except to play poker then it’s unlikely that’ll change in the near future! It would be nice to meet someone again, but I guess it’s up to me to make the effort.

Pokerwise there are plenty of upcoming events I want to play. The Players Championship (http://www.gutshot.com/bforum/showthread.php?t=37647) at the International and London Calling at the new Fox poker room. I’ve also qualified for the Champions of Champions on the GUKPT tour. This takes place at the start of December and should have a first prize around the £40k mark. That’ll do.

My form finally seems to have changed direction over the last month or so. I’m backed again online, and am committed to playing MTT’s at least four times a week. I’m playing mostly on Full Tilt and have had 4 final tables and several deep cashes recently. On average I’m still running a 70% ROI on Full Tilt across the year, even taking in to account my dismal summer. I want to ensure I also play live again at least once a week, and actually get out and socialise once a week.

On the health front I've finally given up smoking after 20-30 a day for 16 years. It was actually easier than I thought, though i definitely put on weight. I’ve started exercising everyday to start and get back into shape. I’d like to lose 10kg’s by the start of December. Maybe a little over optimistic, but I weigh 101kgs at the moment so it’s only a 10% loss. Is that a lot over two months?

That’s enough of my drivel for now anyway. I’ll try and update 2-3 times a week, and comments are always welcome.