Bulgaria and the business

I thought i should update my blog as alot has happened this month. I won a seat to go to EMOP Bulgaria next month for week so its going to be nice to get away from the online grind for a while. Im still playing poker there a couple of days, but something different. The only thing im not happy about is a connection flight in Vienna. One thing I noticed moving to Prague is that its not easy to fly from. I cant really complain though when my flights are paid for by the poker site.

I have been having a rough time of it this month online. but then this year has been very up and down so far. last month I won just over $4k, this month im breaking even. very annoying as well. It comes at a bad time because i've just started coaching and staking with a good friend of mine Chavarov. I have no financial problems but it would of been nice to have a good month this month. We have both been really surprised by the amount of guys with have playing for us. The money we make from this should take off any pressure that the online grinding gives.

Myself and Chavarov are offering coaching/staking at the 180s on pokerstars. The sessions will be conducted in spainish or english. We use skype along with team viewer/mikogo. Coaching will be 1 on 1 reviewing HH's.

All students must agree to be staked and coached. Not one or the other. If u are interested skype me gavin_555 (czech rep) or chavarov(mexico)

living in prague 2011

I havent done a blog entry for ages due to fact that I have been lazy updating it. Since the start of 2011 I have been living in prague.I decided towards the end 2010 that living in a sleepy part of England wasnt really me anymore. I have always lived in the same as house and just needed an adventure. Normally I dont put things that arent poker related on here but to be honest reading a few other poker blogs, reading"im doing well or doing badly" just gets a little boring.

I guess you could say me moving to prague is poker related as poker has funded my move here. If you havent been prague I recommend at some point you make the trip here. Its a really nice city with friendly people. Its a really small city so you wont spend time running around the sites against the clock. Living here has been a big change with food,language and just the way of life. but def something that I am enjoying.

Poker since I have got here is going unbelievably well. I had my targets and goals set for the year and I know we are only 2 weeks but I am playing tournaments that I wouldnt expect to be able to play for another 4-6months. Its a very exciting time atm and 2011 could be a big year.

Time for a change

Since at the end of last week I have been thinking about where my poker career is going. I was comparing that to my goals that I set out when I first started playing poker for a living. If I look at where it is now I would say...content. Its going reasonable well but if I stay on the same path I know there is ceiling to what I can achieve and maybe not achieve all my goals. I think content is dangerous mind set to have if you play poker or even in life in general. Its just shows your happy to go stale and not improve or move forward.

As people who follow my poker career they will know that I play 18man Sng's. I have been playing these for about 10 months now. Even though I haven't achieved everything at the 18's....far from it, I believe I know what is achievable. I think playing the sng poker is the hardest way to make a living in poker and its def a grind. looking at the players at the top of the 18man game, they are the only ones that making a very good living from them but they also make a lot money from coaching and staking other players so even though they have hit the ceiling they are making money from other ways apart from playing.

I have decided that I am now going to move over and play 180man mtt's and play the 18''s alongside. I feel this the right move for me now. I want to start earning better money so that I can open more doors to me(buying into more live events, travelling and online mtt's) that would be harder to do at grinding the $16 18mans. I'm not knocking the 18mans I will always consider myself a 18man player but for what I want out of poker I need to add something to my game. If I learn how to play the 180's then this will help my game adapt better to MTT's for when I travel round europe playing the live circuit. plus it will also help me fund it obv.

long time without an update

I have been so lazy with updating my blog, its been about 3 months..oopps. In the last 3 months a reasonable amount of things have happened. I went to Munich for a couple of tournaments and I have dropped my staker (sponsor for the people who don't know what that is).
Back in May i went to Munich for a couple of days to play 3 tournaments for a seat in World series. To be honest I actually enjoyed the holiday side of things more than poker. The thing is with Poker in Germany is that its still a couple of years behind everyone else. Its actually illegal or very close to play for money in the casino's. With this in mind there isn't chance for people to play. Most of the players over there are really bad and so are the dealers. some of them didn't have a clue what they were doing which made feel very comfortable. With the poor organisation of the 3 tournaments as well i really didn't give a shit(plus we basically trying to win holiday not money). I was an hour late for the second tourney because i was at the football stadium and then the third tourney i was 2 hours late because i wanted an afternoon nap.lol.
Out of all the places i have visited this year I think Munich is my favourite. If you fancy a sight seeing and shopping holiday I recommend Munich. The food over there has been the best as well, closely followed Vienna.
I had dropped my staker a couple of months ago so that I could go it alone and start making more money. which has been a great decision for me as i really feel things are moving quicker now with my online game and the goals that i set at the start of the year seem a lot closer.

I'll leave it there as I have been rambling but I'll update in couple days with more updates about whats been going on.

A month to forget

April I think will be a month to forget. I didn't run well or even average apart from a 4 hour spell. I don't want to bitch and moan on here becuase its not interesting to read for anyone. Compared to last month I had a nightmare, the only money made this month is from rakeback or from the Battle of the planets. This month I have tried so hard and studied my game trying to find out weather its me playing badly or variance. I guess in a good way I found out its variance but its still leaves a bad taste in my mouth this month. When you are running bad and getting staked it makes it feel even worse because you have to split even the smallest profit.

I was discussing the luck factor with someone a couple of days ago and even though there is more skill than luck in poker, it still has a factor. I play against bad regs everyday that have some many leaks in their game but manage to run 6-8% roi which is amazing considering how bad they are. I consider myself to under achieve at online poker but I also an unlucky player online. If it wasn't for live poker the 6months i don't know where i would be.

I should prob play so more today but I feel so shit about my last couple days. I have something like this in Decemeber. So i must take experience from that I keep positive because if I carry on playing the way I am I will make a good money. I have proven it to myself before.

Munich package and maybe WSOP!

I think its been only been a week or so since my last blog but I have a few things to update on. Last Sunday I won a package to go to Munich which has 3 tournaments with 4 seats for side events for the WSOP in each them. Then those 12 players play for the main event seat which is compared to other qualifiers has unbelievable value in all them. I really looking forward to going to Germany as it will be my forth trip abroad this year because of poker. Obv if I win a seat to go to vegas then that would just be amazing.

Online has been a little strange this month. I started playing sets of 20 SNG at a time and was breaking even which felt like a long time but it wasn't. As I wasn't playing as much the period of time felt long than it was. So I have gone back to playing 2 hours sessions where I usually play around 40 SNG's. Since then things have picked up again and I think I have a chance of good month if I play as much as I have planned.

Today I ran pretty hot and I am now sitting top of the leaderboad with a score that should see me win another ticket to monthly final(battle of the planets). I still haven't been able to use the first ticket I won.lol

quality Vs quantity

I haven't played alot this month, trying to get back in the swing of playing online again has been a little hard this month. Just before I went to Emop Portugal I was playing sets of 20 SNG'S instead of playing 2hours sessions which I was doing before. I think this is how I'm going to construct "my working day" previously I was playing as much volume as possible and maybe not being forcused on every SNG 100%. I think playing now playing the sets of 20 SNG I can forcus on each one alot more. My volume is going to suffer a little more but what I lose in volume I hope to improve on in hourly rate by playing better as just be more conscience of whats going on at the tables. I haven't started the month very well but I feel I am more than experience enough now to deal with a downswing at the start of the month.

Last night I was thinking about my next trip abroad.I know I have only just got back but I like to think ahead and set goals. I am confident that I can win a seat for EMOP Italy for the end of the May but I can't really bank on it. I was looking Kiev in the Ukraine as they have some reasonable tournies in May. Dominican Republic have the world poker showdown at the end of May but the flight is expensive. The only other tournies are in italy 2 weeks after EMOP Italy. These tournies I think are ifs, buts and maybe's. If I don't go away for a couple of months its no big deal.