reviewing 09 and looking forward to 10.

I haven't really been playing at all over Christmas holidays. I decided it was time just to a break from it and get ready for having a big 2010. Earlier this month I was pissed off things weren't going my way this month but i hadn't had really bad month for a long time so maybe it was due.
Looking back at 09 I have come along way and learnt so much about Poker and what it actually takes to make a living from Poker. In the jan-feb I was playing $27-$38 18mans and doing ok but i realized that hadn't built a my career on solid foundations.I then went looking for a coach for some advice and found Vers. Vers got me playing $6,$12 45mans and was making good money. In August i managed to a win a live tourney for £1300/$1800 which then paid for my holiday to Florida. When I got back from Florida i want to play 18mans in the morning as the $45mans weren't making enough money for me and $12 weren't filling up. This is when I got introduced to reasons14 and he has also taken my game to another level.With coaching from this two very good players/coaches i have seen an amazing transformation in my game.(theres still plenty of room for improvement). The only downer this year was i wasn't really happy with the results that I either wanted or showed the true reflection of where my is atm. The result were just ok.

2010. targets:

To make +£30k for the year.
To get up to playing $27,$38 and $60 18mans
Start staking on PTP
To win a live tourney in Europe +£100 buy in
Travel Europe more overall
To have my own place buy/rent.
retain Supernova status on Stars
(I want to add to list but yet decide what)

bye notts..hello vienna

Well i have decided against playing Notts this weekend and instead I am going to tackle 3 tournies in Vienna,Austria in Jan. Two 100euros and one 200euros which i am selling stakes off. At the moment I have sold 35% of the 50% planned. I'm really excited about it because its not just a chance for me to play 3 tournies abroad for good money but its also going to a be great adventure/holiday to a new country. I want to start to conquer the live tournaments in Europe and England more in 2010. 2009 was a good year for me playing live so I feel this is another form of income. I am trying to win a seat at the moment for the European masters in Gran Canaries for the end of jan. The sat's are playing so soft its ridiculous. Most of the players are sat winners as well. So I should have a good edge going into the tourney.

Online this month has been shocking. I guess everyone has bad months and this is my first month down since feb. Ok i know i had months where i haven't made much but thats been because of my volume or holidays etc. I guess i have to be patient at the $16/18mans as it has been to a slow start on them. I can kill the $6/18mans but if i am to improve my game and make good money I must play the $16's. I'm playing well at the moment and I am just getting ridiculously unlucky.

Happy Christmas!

looking forward to Nottingham

This month to put nicely has been the worst month for a long time for me. The Only thing that I have got to look forward to this month poker wise is the £100 Nottingham that I ft last month. I might do some other smaller buy-in live tourneys as well but with Christmas coming and the need for a new laptop I know i can't go mad.

I'm still being staked but I have been moved down the $6/18mans due to my bad run. I have always been someone who likes to be moving forward so going back the $6/18mans is liking banging my head against a wall. Trying to make a living at the $6/18man is possible if you get in a good volume and on your own bankroll but if you are being staked its like playing $1 or $3. I think the most frustrating thing atm is I know that I have the game and confidence to beat the $16's and I was so determined to break even this month which is coming harder to do at the $6's.

I'm looking for to my xmas traditions this year with my friends. we all go to this massive shopping center this weekend, xmas eve is a Chinese meal and boxing day with have big party which is always awesome.

I was planning to play football/soccer this weekend but its now snowing so maybe not.lol

At least I have Supernova rackback.

I pretty sure that December is going to a be write off. I am in a bigger downswing that I ever thought was possible at 16s/18. I never understood the saying with sport teams "they have forgotten the winning feeling"..I do now. I think i have only had the one winning session all month and its become the norm that I finish a session down. I am delighted atm with a break even session.. You don't have to a be a poker expert to see that i playing well and getting bad beats in most tourneys. The only motivation for playing this month is getting the Supernova rackback. I think otherwise I would want to top of myself. putting in volume is so hard when running so bad.

I am trying to set goals in my life that don't involve poker at all. I have always been guilty of getting tunnel vision on something and forgetting other important things. I really want to learn a language but I haven't decided which one yet and I been watching a sport on tv for a couple of years which that looks really fun,cheapish to take up with funding and you don't need to playing the sport from an early age. which is the case with most sports. I don't want to say the sport because it i don't do it then I look like an idiot.lol

regroup and start again

Well I started the month with the biggest downswing for the amount of games played in my career. Its really strange, its almost like everything you have learnt and studied means nothing. When your AA's,KK's,QQ's etc are losing more than winning along with losing when you have people crushed and then losing every coin flip. I don't think anyone can plan me for not wanting to put to big sessions in.I know people will say "play more and get out the swing" but it can really suck the motivation out of you and then you just end up playing not focused. I have taken the day off to forget about it and do something completely different. I am staying positive and confident as much as possible in which is probably my biggest test so far.Since I turned pro I have realized it's not all about turning on laptop and firing up a couple of tourney and seeing how it goes. What makes a pro is someone who stay focused and motivated through the downswings,plus be able to pick themselves up day after day of sick beats. Along with the fact that one month you may not make hardly any money at all.

I watched the World Cup draw today which is always exciting. Its funny watching it and seeing what it means to so many countries and people. Its the only sporting event in the world that can be every country involved to a stand still...apart the US. England drew US,Algeria,Slovenia. I'll take that.

thinking positive

I haven't played tonight but I have been thinking about what has happened this month. looking back i believe its important to take the positives out of any month, regardless on whether your having the best month of your career or the worst. For this month I have seen more improvement in game for sure which is giving me more confidence even if I have a bad day....honestly. I am playing at higher level(the 16's) which is exciting for me knowing its possible owin same amount of money in one day than I could in one week at a boring office job. I am also happy....now at running deep in a live mtt which brings my live winnings to +$2k over last 4-5 live tournies which is always a nice bonus on top of online grinding.lol

I think i am going to set some goals for December and make sure I stick to them. To often i get side tracked or start making excuses for not hitting them and then they lose all meaning. Maybe a nice reward for myself is in order if i hit them but i have yet to decide what. Last month I was disappointed in my volume even though I felt like a played a lot. This might be because I was playing more sets than before and getting yourself set mentally 3-4 times a day to grind a set is worse than doing to 2 3 hour sessions in one day...in my opinion. So even though i'm not going nuts and playing +3k games amonth, I think 2k is good amount to target.

Final table @ Nottingham

I have been meaning to add a new blog since the weekend but I been a having a lazy week...again. I played the £100 Nottingham on Sunday with my brother and I managed to get to the final table. The was field was almost a sell out with 271 runners. It played pretty soft with the exception of about 10 good players. Even though I finished 9Th I took down £500/$850, I went on to the final table 2ND in chips and had real good chance of taking down the £8k/$14k. I felt really sick the way I went out and when i was handed the £500 it really could of been £10 at the time, it really couldn't mean less.(now I feel more content with it). The way I went out, i pushed from the cut off with A9 against the three short stacks they all folded and then the dealer saids call..... I'm like wtf!!! the big stack has limped under the gun and was hiding his cards under his hands and big sleeves!!! i was expecting to see a massive hand but it was 10's!.he risked 2/3 of his stack on that call. It held and he went on to win the £8k. I had been awake 18hrs and focused for the best part of 15hrs after a big detour drive to pick my bro up from north London. So maybe if i was more focused i may of been able to see that trick. I checked thehendonmob.com which is like sharkscope for live players and the guy had $1million in tournaments and a wsop bracelet! Maybe that was dirty a trick he picked up in vegas.lol.

Online has been going well lately in $16/18 man so i can't really complain about things to much atm,

16/18's, playing Nottingham and others.

Since the start of November I have been grinding the 16/18's which I feel now this is the least I can play since the improvements in my game. I have been really surpised how weak the 16/18's are at the moment. I have played at 27,38's and 16's before this month but i don't really remember. I have admit I have only played 600 games this month which really isn't a lot considering we are at the end of the second week of november. I know I am avoiding some of the good regs due to the hours that i am playing but still i am aware of only 5-6 good regs. I am not saying I am one the best at 16's, i just expected a lot more good regs. I am playing a lot of my games atm at 7-11am UK time for the reasons being that this is softest time grinding and if i decide i want to put in a big volume one day i still have the afternoon or evening to play.

I have decided this month that i am going to start playing live poker more often again. Before i started grinding online this year i really considered myself more as a live player due to the fact i had more successful results to my name. There is tourney in Nottingham next weekend £100(about $140) where the winner takes about £6-7k. i also live about 15 min drive from a card room which has a tourney every night and they play really soft. I managed to win the £60 85 runners in August and took down £1300 which about $2k... i think. When it comes to live poker i really have a big choice of places to play. obv Nottingham which is about 2 1/2 hurs drive.(they have £300 tourney first w/e of every month. winner takes £28k.(+$40k about) that has ept winners and wsop bracelet winners in it... so you are looking for a challenge!!!. Living close to London there obv the Vic(home ept london) plus 5 other casino/cardrooms of the top of my head. With some many live tourneys i can really cherry pick. I understand since playing poker for a living i must use all my resources available to me and if that means playing live then so be it... it will be fun!

End of the month

Well October wasn't a good month regarding results overall and i am glad its over on that side of things. There has been a lot positives to take from the month though. I've been getting staked from the 9th oct and getting alot more coaching. This has brought my game on a long way in a short period time. My confidence is back on a high where it was about 2 months ago plus I now know that i can beat the 6/18's without playing well everyday now.

From the start of next month i am moving up to the $16/18's which I am excited about for two reasons. 1. I will be able to make alot more money now obv. 2.i am a step closer to achieving my goal on 18 man's.(to be grinding the 27's and 38's).
I think I am more confident about where I am at the moment in my poker career because I have improved so much over the 3-4 weeks. Previously I had coaching on 45's and was grinding the them pretty well for a couple months but I think I started to create leaks in my game and then started to doubt my decision making. Looking back at it now I now believe I have resolved the leaks and I shouldn't of doubt myself. I was just running bad at times.

My motivation is back as well which I believe is helping my game improve a lot more now than maybe back in September. I am a strong believer that a positive mental attitude will bring more success to any one's career or life. Since I have been getting staked this has helped me actually sit down a play, where before I was getting lazy and doubting myself. The other day I watched a Will Smith inspirational clip on Vertek's blog. It was awesome and I recommend that you haven't watched it, you must. Its really helped me and I will def watch it again soon.

One of my best friends has been written off sick from work for weeks and I doubt if he is going back. He wants to be a poker pro and grind online. The first month has had its highs and lows. He won a $3 rebuy for $6.4k and picked up a few some cashes. On tournament winnings for the month he sitting on $4.6k. Unfortunately he has a soft spot for playing medium stake HU's cash games where he is a losing player atm. It would be cool for him to become a poker pro but atm he breaking the rules to build his career on solid foundations. He plays very low volume, miles outside his bankroll so if he loses it's not even worth thinking about. I think if he was able to have good bankroll management, stop playing sng's, high stake cash and insisting on playing Russian roulette with his bankroll, I believe he has the talent and game to be a very successful MTT poker pro.

Away from the tables

I haven't played as much as I should have the last couple of days. I have been trying to sell my Mum's car she left me last year, which has been a right pain to sell. It's a nice car but for some reason I can't sell it. On wednesday night I played football(soccer)and for the first week in ages I had an average game. Being a goalkeeper if you have a bad game everyone will always tell you. Luckily the team we played weren't great and the rest of my team had a good game. last night I meet up with some friends for drinks and watched SAW 6. Watching it last night I couldn't help feeling "same shit different day". I think it will be the last Saw I watch as it just getting stupid now.

I did manage to play for 3 hours before I went out yesterday. I played about 60 $6/18 mans and made about $300 profit. yeah I ran pretty hot.lol.

I don't think I will play today either. I'm pretty much where I want to be regarding games played this month. There's football on tv I want to watch and then I'm going round a mates later on. If there is time then I may watch the NFL game at Wembley but I doubt I will.

keeping focused on the long term goal

At the moment I am grinding the 6/18's and taking some time off from the 12/45's. I am currently being staked and coached at the 18's which I mentioned in my last post. To be perfectly honest the 6/18's are the most exciting to play and the financial rewards aren't amazing either. I understand though to become any good at playing these I must start from the bottom and build my way up. My main goal at the 18 mans is to grinding the 27/38s. Every time I sit down and play a session I think about where I want to go and what I want to achieve. This really helps me with motivation on days that I am not really feeling it but I know have get in my volume.
Taking 10 minutes out before you play and thinking about short/long term goals, timescales etc. can really change an outlook on a days play.

When it comes to 18 man I am really excited about the future and how my game is improving. I think my game is improving quickly thanks to a very good coach who is always willing to discuss situations and HH's. If anyone was asking for a quick sum up on the 18's I would prob say "work in progress". I did play at the start of the year some 27/38s and ran like god. I think after 150 games I was $1.7k profit, which i know is a small sample of games but even so it some positive experience to use when I get back there.

I must admit I am missing playing the 12/45s at the moment, even though it has only been two weeks.lol. I miss playing the good and bad regs which is sounds a little because if you speak to anyone about an ideal table is full of fish.I find if I am playing a reg their usually a little more predictable and their not going to try any crazy plays as their prob multi tabling unlike the fish at the table.OK there are good regs might call me lighter but there are a lot of regs(nits) at $6,12 that struggle to adapt to other regs pushing ranges and call off to tight. plus if I get to knock out reg/rival then its always a nice feeling.lol. I have had a quiet a few exciting $250-$700 days at the 6/12 45's which have yet to happens at 18's....watch this space lol.

The secret of success is to know something nobody else knows.

This is my first attempt at doing anything like blogging so bare with me on this.

To get you up speed I am 24 year old "poker pro" from Surrey, England. I am living/chasing the dream depending on what you call a poker pro. I Currently play low stake 45 man and 18 man tourneys on Pokerstars. I have recieved coaching from two well known online poker players which have made some amazing changes to my game.

previously I have worked as an Estate agent in Guildford,Surrey. I worked there for 2 and half years where I didn't realize until the end of job that it was actually taking over my life.
In June 08 while in holiday in Spain my Mum Died. It was the worse thing ever in my life and I hit a new low. Shortly after this I decided I wasn't happy with my quality of life and quit my job for poker. I have been playing poker ever since and living with a lot more positive outlook on life.

Today I want to make sure I get in my volume on the 18 mans. Since I have been staked at the 18 mans I have found my discipline at getting in the volume has improved, which has always been my weakness. Hopefully after a reasonable day yesterday my bad run has come to a end. I've got up early today so I should be able to get in my required amount of tourneys and still have time in afternoon to look for a new laptop and get few others things done.

I think for my first entry that will do!