long time.

Long time no update.

Partly cos I just don't have too much to say. Lost $10kish in Oct. Won $17kish in November.

In Bangkok at the moment. Not in great health. Have a bad eye infection. It's annoying me quite a bit actually.

I have nothing to more to add. I'm sure I will when I do though.

Gl

update for Sept

Realllly busy right now preparing to go round the world tomorrow so just a quick update.

Played like 70k hands won $200 or sth. Prob +3k in rakeback? but lost about that staking a friend in the WSOPE.

So just above even.

GL

This is August.

Just ran mindblowingly bad.

1k hands of 25/50. The rest was 10/20. When I hit the lowest point I just said f it, I'll grind some 5/10 for a while. First time in like a year and a half or sth? At times it was just unreal soft.


For the record last month was +55k or something.. the graph just didn't fit in the space (you can always tell by the writing in the top left of a graph).

Productive July

Well, this month wasn't nearly as fun as last month but it was never really gonna be.

I had a shit load of time to grind, being at home for a month. Aside from that I have had an offer accepted for an apartment about 15 seconds walk away from the pier



All being well, that should go through around the middle of August, then I can start renting it out and go abroad. Currently deciding whether or not to furnish it, and am still pretty unsure.


I also went to see a knee specialist who said I had Patella Tendinitis, but with a couple months physio, should be back and ready to play football again which made me very happy.


As for poker, I put in a lot of volume, in fact, I think I've only ever played more than this once, two years ago. Up until the 20th I couldn't put a single hand in past 8pm because of the state of the internet here, I had a great schedule and was pretty disciplined. I am pretty happy with that, though pretty unhappy with the fact I broke my not looking at results more than once rule. I looked twice this month. Gonna have to keep in the habit of looking once or not at all (ideally).




About 50k hands in I was cursing my luck, I was really running pretty terrible (not in the AIEV way, but standard bad card falls, always top of their range, set over set boat over boat stuff). It obviously picked up towards the end and made my month respectable.

Edit: Okay, I dont know how to resize this graph and i gotta pack cos i go to Greece in an hour. Maybe try when I get back.

busy busy busy

This was the poker side of the month. Actually think it was the busiest month of my life. 3 Reports in for the beginning of June, followed by an exam. The World Cup started on the 11th which took up a lot of my time this month, followed quickly by another exam, then the end of uni - followed by a 3 day long constant party, day and night.

This was closely followed by football tour to Slovenia (while England were playing Slovenia in the WC), which was 4 days constantly on the lash. Which meant roughly 7 days straight. Sooooo tiring. Added to that, our flight got cancelled so we all (34 of us) had to get the overnight train to Munich. Created much chaos for everyone around us. Eventually we got a flight back to Manchester then drove back to Uni in a hire car. Sooo long.

After all that it took me about 3 days to recover. Then today I had to move out of my uni house, which took forever, and was a little bit sad.

So, evidently, I had little time for poker. The little I did play, I was happy with. I'll also add to this month, my World Cup bets, which ended:

Spain to win their group $15k at 1/3 = +$5k
Uruguay to qualify from their group $3k at 11/10 = +$3.3k
Denmark to beat Cameroon $2k at 6/4 = +3k
North Korea to finish 3rd in their group (hedged) = +250 euros

Still in play are my Uruguay top scorer bets of Forlan at 9/4 and Suarez at 4/1. One of which looks pretty decent to come in.


So the month's total is probably around $65,500. Next month plan: Fix knee, buy house, go abroad.

gl

Who woulda thought it... North Korea to do well are the best bet of the world cup.

New bets: (Bwin)

1. Portugal/2. Brasilien/3. Nordkorea/4. Elfenbenskusten $100.00 @ 50.00
1. Elfenbenskusten/2. Brasilien/3. Nordkorea/4. Portugal $33.33 @ 150.00
1. Brasilien/2. Portugal/3. Nordkorea/4. Elfenbenskusten $45.45 @ 110.00
1. Brasilien/2. Elfenbenskusten/3. Nordkorea/4. Portugal $49.50 @ 101.00

Elfenbenskusten = Ivory Coast. The others are pretty obv.


Basically these are all the combinations of North Korea finishing 3rd without including Brazil coming last (vvv unlikely).

The lines are so off that I'll likely just be able to hedge in the last game which is Ivory Coast v North Korea, to be certain of a winning bet. I wish this site didn't impose a maximum winnings amount, because I'd be betting really big on this. It's easily the best bet of the world cup so far.

May

I've wrote enough in recent weeks about it. This is how it ended up.

Football bets

This is more for me to keep track than to let anyone know.. otherwise i'll forget.

Spain to win their group: $15k at 1/3 - Victor Chandler
Uruguay to qualify from Group A: $3k at 11/10 - William Hill
Luis Suarez to be Uruguay's top scorer: $250 at 4/1 - Bwin (site max)
semi hedged with:
Diego Forlan to be Uruguay's top scorer: $250 at 9/4 - Bwin

That's all so far.

Warning: Not a happy upbeat post.

Downswing.

Okay, so, despite not checking results, I feel this downswing has hit $100k (you kinda get a round-about feeling of what you are losing, when you are losing it).

My first 6 figure downswing. It feels draining. I suspect if it wasn't over such a large period of time it wouldn't feel quite so bad. I imagine it would be more of a shocking feeling. But this is dragging.

Today I played a short session after a day of revising for exams. It went pretty horribly. In fact results went okay at 10/20 just got killed at 25/50. I think I played very well. I especially made a very good bluff for stacks which didn't work out this time, but I really like it.

The point of this post isnt to dissect any hands. I believe I play very well on the whole. In fact the only point of this post is to moan, so if you don't wanna read about it then i'd stop about now.

This downswing is the biggest I have ever had I'd estimate by around $30kish. The thing is though, it's come at probably the worst time in my life. Admittedly I am now doing a degree so haven't got that pro-poker feel of, "oh shit, i'm awful at what i do, how am i gonna eat next week/month/year" - and you do think that, even if you see people making textbook errors, over and over again. I have maybe a positive to look at, if it doesn't work out (basically if variance kicks me in the balls more times than anyone in the history) then I have something to fall back on.

It's the worst time for me because of a few things. I have exams coming up which I need to revise for relatively well in order to pass with a decent mark. I am looking at houses to buy within the next couple of months. It's hard to imagine parting with a large amount of cash when your net worth is constantly going down. I'm also deferring a year from uni. In which I have to support myself of course by playing poker.

I do have until the summer, however, June is going to be such a hectic month I think I'll struggle to get over 20k hands played. I have exams which I mentioned. The world cup, which is unmissable for a young football fan. It's essentially some of the best times you can have. I also have the end of university 2nd year and football tour which are of similar status.

One of the worst things about a downswing (surprisingly far behind losing hundreds of thousands of dollars) is telling people. People know I play poker which is great, I don't mind sharing when people wanna hear (perhaps even the odd time when they don't when i'm blackout drunk? unsure on that). When someone asks my results and I tell them I lost again. They will ask why etc in an inquisitive way (EDIT: I will add, most of my good friends and family are great with this and totally understand.. wow that's a lot of brackets for one paragraph). I will say every time bad luck, variance, whatever. I sound like a degenerate that is using standard logic to defend his/her bad decisions. The funny thing is when on a brutal downswing you begin to wonder if you are in fact that degenerate. You begin to wonder if you have an edge at all.

I feel like I should wrap this up cos it's closing in on the word count for some of my report works from business this year, and that's really quite sad.

In order to end this on a positive note, though; I'm not that degenerate and I do have an edge.

Gl.

Rob.

EDIT 2: Just finished writing and It felt good to write it. I guess this is what it's here for. Realised when friends are complaining of stress levels regarding work and exams that I really have quite a lot to be stressed about, but relatively i'm not. I'm never really in a bad mood or put little things off that I have to do. I guess this is a [really] good thing.

Coping well!

Been having more rough times recently. Today I logged a short session. Here are some hands:

$10/$20 No Limit Holdem • 3 Players

Generated by weaktight.com.

BTN	$8,876.50
SB	$4,741.25
Hero (BB)	$2,131.25

• Pre-Flop ($30, 3 players)Hero is BB
• 

BTN folds, SB raises to $60, Hero calls $40

• Flop ($120, 2 players)
• 

SB bets $80, Hero raises to $280, SB raises to $740, Hero goes all-in $2,071.25, SB calls $1,331.25

• Turn ($4,262.50, 2 players, 1 all-in)
• 

• River ($4,262.50, 2 players, 1 all-in)
• 

• Final Pot: $4,262.50

• Hero shows
• 

• SB shows
• 

• SB wins $4,260 (net +$2,128.75)
• Hero lost $2,131.25

$10/$20 No Limit Holdem • 3 Players

Generated by weaktight.com.

BTN	$2,155
Hero (SB)	$2,080
BB	$8,634

• Pre-Flop ($30, 3 players)Hero is SB
• 

BTN raises to $50, Hero raises to $170, BB folds, BTN raises to $410, Hero goes all-in $2,080, BTN calls $1,670

• Flop ($4,180, 2 players, 1 all-in)
• 

• Turn ($4,180, 2 players, 1 all-in)
• 

• River ($4,180, 2 players, 1 all-in)
• 

• Final Pot: $4,180

• Hero shows
• 

• BTN shows
• 

• BTN wins $4,177.50 (net +$2,097.50)
• Hero lost $2,080

$10/$20 No Limit Holdem • 5 Players

Generated by weaktight.com.

UTG	$2,321
CO	$2,727
Hero (BTN)	$2,000
SB	$3,589
BB	$2,000

• Pre-Flop ($30, 5 players)Hero is BTN
• 

1 fold, CO raises to $60, Hero raises to $180, 2 folds, CO raises to $480, Hero goes all-in $2,000, CO calls $1,520

• Flop ($4,030, 2 players, 1 all-in)
• 

• Turn ($4,030, 2 players, 1 all-in)
• 

• River ($4,030, 2 players, 1 all-in)
• 

• Final Pot: $4,030

• CO shows
• 

• CO wins $4,027 (net +$2,027)
• Hero lost $2,000

$10/$20 No Limit Holdem • 3 Players

Generated by weaktight.com.

BTN	$2,820
Hero (SB)	$2,040
BB	$8,896.50

• Pre-Flop ($30, 3 players)Hero is SB
• 

BTN raises to $40, Hero raises to $160, BB folds, BTN raises to $400, Hero goes all-in $2,040, BTN calls $1,640

• Flop ($4,100, 2 players, 1 all-in)
• 

• Turn ($4,100, 2 players, 1 all-in)
• 

• River ($4,100, 2 players, 1 all-in)
• 

• Final Pot: $4,100

• Hero shows
• 

• BTN shows
• 

• BTN wins $4,097.50 (net +$2,057.50)
• Hero lost $2,040

That was all in 30 mins or so. Plus additional ones that are just people hitting sets v my overpairs and 2 pairs etc.

Been really rough recently, but I'm finding myself being able to deal with it increasingly well. Especially surprising seeing as I'm looking to buy property - it makes you feel less financially secure knowing a big chunk of your money will be locked away.

Is pretty much an $85k downer at the moment. Can't wait to pull out of it!

Bad times!

End of the month. Put in quite a bit of work, though it's hard when the month goes like it did. It was my worst month ever poker wise. I found out I have torn my cruciate ligament in my knee and today I had an exam which was rock hard. Apart from that my month was fun.. went on lots of trips with friends and stuff like that and the weather has been really good (trying to look on the bright side).







So it was pretty much that $70k downer I had in a couple of days that killed me this month. It wasn't so much that I lost flips or anything allin variance related. More the fact that the wrong cards kept popping up improving my opponents hands over and over again, making my hand 2nd best. I think I've played pretty well, it's been a bit of a blur. I'm gonna be doing a lot of analysing of the hands I played early into May just to make sure I'm not slipping.

I won't be too downhearted. I know of players on my level who are having worse times than this recently.. The variance in this game is ridiculous.

Will take a couple of days off to see friends and family.

Lets gooooooooo May!

Back to uni

So I go back to uni today after a month off. I have played a decent amount of poker.. though, still, probably not as much as I'd like. I've had a great time in the holidays though. Had more BBQs than I can count with friends.

From gut feeling poker isn't going too well this month really, though it just feels like standard stuff. Not sure too much more will be played as I've got an exam at the end of the week, then off to visit family up north.

As everyone likely knows the world cup is ~50 days away. I'm gonna get sooo few hands in during the world cup that I'm going to try and push my edge at football betting (I think I have one). I realise the variance in this is huuuuge, bigger than poker. So really, it's not totally for profitability, I think it'll be fun too.

I've put $15k on Spain to win their group at 1/3 because I thought it was greaaaat value, even if a certain statistical website disagreed. I have ~$11k on Ladbrokes which I haven't used for like 2 years cos their games have always been awful really. So I'll use that as a mini bankroll for the world cup. I'm not sure how much I'll actually be doing, because I'll be very picky about only betting when I spot value. Despite playing poker for a living I'm not actually a big gambler, I like knowing I have an edge and that it's not just a 50/50 flip or whatever. Sooo if I go through that Ladbrokes account I certainly wont be using any more, I'd feel like too much of a degenerate.

Gl for the rest of the month!

Big swing!

I was 27k up for the month. In the last 1.5 - 2 days I've lost $50k.

Not. Fun.

Gonna take a day-ish off, go out in Brighton with some friends, then hit the grind again refreshed.

Gl.

Funny story.

So It seemed the 888 network didn't convert any hands for me in the final half of the month, cos of a software error.

So apparently, that 5k did get recorded. Just was lost somewhere. Along with it was a further 9k.

So last month finished +18k before rakeback. Prob +20-21k after.






Okay, so it's not that funny, but I'm happy. Also Newcastle to get promoted today? Please?



Edit: This means by my estimations (estimations, because two databases have been lost) that I have surpassed $1,000,000 in career earnings (before rakeback).

Gl

Downswinginggggg!

The last 5 days all I have done is lose. Ended +8k (5k unrecorded). Decent amount of hands. I think I'll better that in April. Also 40k above EV was a shock when I looked! Sure didn't feel like it. But then obv, EV is not the only form of variance in poker.

Currently on a 50k ish downswing, hopefully I come out of that soonish. Losing is hard when your sole purpose is playing. It's fine normally at uni, as I have to do other stuff, and can go out lots. It's Easter break now though and I've allocated lots of time to solely play poker, when losing it's tough, you don't really want to play more, then obv don't have too much else to do.

I'm gonna add some annoying points seeing as they're fresh in my mind from the last few days.

• Getting slowrolled in a 300bb pot with Khigh flush, against an Ahigh flush (no paired board)
• Losing with an over-fullhouse to a straightflush, which caught two nice cards on the turn and river.
• Guy being on tilt open shoving $2k with AA, when I'm in the BB with KK.

Enough moaning. Should be a good month of poker. Also going to Joel Robuchon, some football games and a few nights out with friends in random places.

Good luck!