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.

EMOP Lisbon and hanging out with Devilfish

I got back from Lisbon in the early hours of this morning. It took 10 hours to get from portugal to England which is just a joke. I can't really complain about the trip though. I one a package online for 20euros and cashed in the tournament for 2.3k euros, which about $3k. The tournament played pretty soft as expected but on my first day I had a pretty tough table with some online mtt guys and devilfish to my left. I thought I managing to cash was an outstanding effort really as I was card dead for most of the tournament and limited spots to steal. I always managed to do enough to be around the average stack or just below.

I think the most memorable thing about the trip was hanging out with Devilfish. At the table apart from 1 other guy we were the english guys at the table. we spent the best part of day 1 chatting which helped past the hours when i was card dead. he told me so many funny stories about Phil ivey, phil Hellmuth and the mouth who he said is a bit of nit when its comes to nights out. He gave me his phone to show me some jokes and have a look at some pics. One pic was fergie from the blackeyed peas sitting on his lap taking a pic of them together!....i may never was hands after touching the same phone as her.lol. Its was also cool that he wanted to eat dinner with me as well at the break which i thought was really cool.

winning a Battle of planets ticket

Last week I started playing the $16 18mans again. I got off to a really good start and managed to get on the BOD leaderboard. I won $110 for 6th which was a nice added bonus and a chance to win 12k when I the chance to play the BOD tourney. At the moment I mixing the $6 and the $16's when playing my sessions which are obv are bigger swings. I trying to to ignore the bad sessions because this downswings are to be expected. All I can do is play correctly and keep forcused.

Last night I was watching the EPT Berlin robbery which got me thinking about when I visit Lisbon. Obv the money is no where near the same but surely the security is going to be alot tighter now. At poker tournies the security is so soft I wonder how no one has tried it before. When I went to watch the WSOPE in London there £850k on on platform with one unarmed security guard next to it.lol.

Haven't really got much more to say but thought I should try and keep this as update as possible.

learning curve of 2010

For the first time these last 2 week since maybe mid december I am feeling like i'm enjoying playing online poker again and have the burning desire again to play online poker again. I've always wanted to play online poker but I guess now I feel like I have a purpose and remembered why I wanted to play poker professionally. Maybe I was running so bad online,winning money play live poker and I wasn't short of money. Running bad online almost became the norm and getting up early in morning and getting volume lost importance for me.

This year so far I have been travelling alone to poker tournaments in Europe, which has given me plenty of time to be alone with my thoughts and analyse my poker career path.I think in Vienna I realized how playing live poker is easier money and another form of income but not so frequent. In Dublin I remembered the most important thing...grinding online poker. Having these large periods of time alone I learnt so much about myself and how to keep myself disciplined and focused on my career. Its so easy to get lazy or find excuses for doing other things.

At the start of 2010 several people said 2010 was going to be a big year for me.I believed them then and I still believe in myself now. I am sure I have learnt more about myself and what it takes this year than the last 6-months of 2009. I will never let myself lose the importance of getting in volume again even when I am running bad. I will also remember that online is my bread and butter.Playing live and travelling is secondary.

A case of being more professional

Since just before I went to Dublin I have thinking about my online and how I should be disciplined and professional about it. I have always had a problem with the amount of volume I play. I guess I always ran ok and that meant I was always had enough money to survive. Its not until a ran bad I realized that I had picked up some habits and a bad mind set. I always knew volume was key to making a living from poker but I guess I was just being lazy. Its funny that my coach mentioned the amount of volume I play and what I should be playing yesterday,which got thinking in more detail today.

Playing poker for a living is like running a business and the only way to make money is play. I have always known this but now the preacing has to stop and I have to put this words in action more often. I was thinking about my goals that I wanted to achieve when I first started playing the 18mans and how I was going to achieve them. I must remember these goals and carry on pushing towards them. I know from watching other people play and looking over my HH's that I have a good knowledge of the game but I must put this in practise.

Ages since last blog so a lot to say!

Its been a while since I last blogged here due to fact I kept putting it off. 9 days ago I got back Dublin which on Poker terms was a nightmare but to be honest the trip ended up being more of a holiday. The side event I was doing got due to unexpected amounts of entrants in the main event. Which I felt ok with in way because I wasn't feeling to good the first night. The second night a played 300euro event and only lasted a couple of hours.AA cracked by 99's and then hit a set of 4's and I guy hit runner runner straight. The final night I didn't want to play as there weren't enough entrants in the tourney with 3 other events already started. So I ended up spending the weekend doing the tourist things in the City and watching Arsenal lose....again.

Last week I decided I want to play some bigger live tournaments and carry on travelling. So I was keeping an eye on the european poker sites for any worth while satties during the day and found 5euro rebuy step1 with 5 runners into a sunday final(200euros). I decided this was to good to miss and jumped in it, the players being so bad I took it down and made the final. The sunday final had 8 packages with 81 runners which was so soft it was unbelievable. 3 hours later I won a package to go to Lisbon for the European Masters of Poker. The package consisted of 1.1k buy-in 350 spending money and 4 nights accom. With over 90% of the field being qualifiers from 2and 5 euros buy in tournies I know I going to have a big edge over most of the players.

This month online has been some what of a rebuilding job after a poor jan. I so disappointed with my volume from jan that I want to make sure I had a reasonable amount volume in feb. I started the month running ok then i hit a bad patch...thinking oh no not again. After speaking with coach and studying alot more the couple of days have been better and things are looking up!

If anyone is laking inspiration at the moment, Vertek has got some must watch videos on his blog which will def help.