2017 Review & 2018 Goals

Happy New Year. What a year it's been! I started writing this blog post in the U.K whilst resting up after the biggest burnout period I've ever suffered in poker. By the time this post gets published i'll have taken an international flight and i'll be back home in Los Angeles California : )

2017 Reviewed

I logged 1360.75 hours at cash games which was 134.25 hours more than last year. My goal of 1000 hours was surpassed and over 64% of my target volume was at 2/5, 3/5, 5/5 and 5/10 games. My hourly increased by £8.40p overall which is obviously because i played higher stakes. It's too tricky to work out what my winrate at 1/2 was for the year but i know it increased tons. I think i ran really well and improved. If i ran normal i still would have seen an increase of around 1.3BB/hr which is really good. Basically i must have ran ridiculously good because i absolutely rocketed my 1/2 winrate over 690 hours or so. 

After i had visited Los Angeles, California in March/April for a month i was convinced this looked like a good place to relocate to. Then in August i had a record breaking month thanks to the 5/10 Barcelona games. When i got back to the UK it was in a race against time to to finalise plans to move there as soon as possible after the Barcelona trip. It was hard keeping on track with my schedule, making arrangements, putting stuff into storage and getting rid of my UK apartment but am glad i made it happen. It's not all been plain sailing last year though. I actually had a few tough months but that was battling at 5/10 so that could be expected. I had relocated to be around higher games and despite not having great success at 5/10 i'm still on the right track. I have a prop bet that i'll be a 10BB/hr or higher winner at 5/5 and was on track until a really bad patch in December. I'm still not far away though and confident i can achieve this although the results could go either way because the sample is only over 750 hours in LA games.

I ended up only playing 3 MTT events and lost -£286 over 13 hours during an £88, £78 and £120BI. The latter i had the most success but failed to make Day 2. I lost 88 v 66 where i jam 25BB co v bttn call for 22.5BB effective. I'd been jamming tons but still this illustrates how lucrative MTTs are because of mistakes like this. Again i just need to find the right mood and motivation to play more and profit. 

My study of the game has been normal but i need to implement new methods as i'm falling behind the curve when it comes to advanced study. I ended up playing 36% more volume than i'd planned and i feel that although getting volume in is vital, so is study and i'd sooner improve more than surpass annual hour targets so i'm even more committed to improving this year.

My sleep was great all year but because i played more in LA i lost a lot of sleep and disturbed an already imperfect sleep cycle. I'm confident i will correct this during 2018 and improve my sleep greatly. I used ear plugs and an eye mask when appropriate and tracked my sleep with a FitBit app.

My exercise exceeded my targets and i felt really great all year but because i played more hours, lacked sleep and struggled a few times with jet lag i struggled for a few months of the year. All the adjustments together in my macro game will strengthen every area of my goals so i'm again highly motivated to stay healthy, eat good and exercise lots.

I travelled to Los Angeles, California twice and Barcelona once. I spent almost 4.5 months out of the UK so although i didn't visit 5 countries i'm more than happy with my travel. Although i need to explore more in new locations rather than just grind a bunch of hours. LA is huge so i have lots of exploring to do.

Overall I've managed to progress further, stay ahead of the curve and continue to improve my win rate. I've met lots of new people last year and gained some cool new friends. I've become much happier but there's still room for improvement in 2018 : )

2018 Goals

Live Cash Games: Play 1250 hours. Play 50% of these hours at 2/5 to 5/10. Continue researching bigger game locations and look at all options available.

Study: Talk with other players and continue building a network of players to discuss more advanced concepts with. I'm going to start using CREV or PioSolver or possibly both. Invest more time studying the game.

Sleep: Lock down a more regular sleep pattern and continue use of ear plugs and eye mask when appropriate to improve the quality of my sleep. Continue to track my sleep using the FitBit sleep app.

Exercise: In addition to 7-10.5 hours of Yoga and Walking a week complete 2.5 hours of Cardio and Strength exercises.

Diet: I want to be between 74.5 and 75.5 kg. It's probably better for me to be at 75 kg because i tend to be able to play more hours without fatigue at this weight. Make sure my dietary intake is clean and wholesome. 

Social Life: Continue to make new friends and spend 4-8 hours a week doing social activities. 

Travel: Visit 5 different countries.

MTT: Play when I'm motivated and in the mood for the tournament grind. Continue to record MTT stats separate to cash games stats.

GL Everyone

Mat : )

P.S 

If you want to follow me on IG send me a message and a request. I update much more frequently on there. 

2016 Review & 2017 Goals

Happy New Year. I'm a bit late with this entry as i would have liked it to have been in early January but the games have been taking all my time. It always seems hard to go that extra mile with motivation to write after all the effort which i make, but today is the day.
I was going to travel January and take all month off as i sensed being burnt out. After 2 weeks off i returned to the tables and put in a record breaking January. Incredible start to the year with only half a month in the games. This month looks like it could be a record month too, the games have been really good plus i'm on a nice upswing.

Lets look at a recap of my 2016 Goals:

MTT: Play more live MTT when I feel motivated. Play more online satellites to reduce MTT costs. Record MTT stats separate to cash game stats.
Live Cash Games: Play 1000 hours total, at least 200 hours of £5/£10, and 500+ hours of £2/£5. Research bigger game locations in London and other cities. Look at options for relocating once bigger game locations and sustainability of these games are more clearly known to me.
Study: Keep on running simulations to compare the EV of different lines and continue to improve my game.
Travel: Visit 4 Countries.
Exercise: Exercise 3 hours per week, running, swimming, biking, and weights in addition to my average of 3.5 hours Yoga and 6 hours walking per week.
Sleep: Strive for much more sleep by improving my sleep pattern and get a better sleep cycle. Track my sleep with a sleep app.
Social Life: Continue making new friends and increasing my non poker and poker social circles.
Increase Blog Updates: Continue the blog updates and look into other media such as Instagram and Twitter. This will help meeting and maintaining new poker social circles.

2016 Reviewed

2016 was a great effort. I logged 1226.5 hours at cash games which was 198.25 hours more than last year. I played some £1/£2/£4, £2/£5 and 5/5 & 5/10 Euro games in Barcelona rougly totaling around 85 hours so no where near the volume i wanted in bigger games. My winrate increased by £0.89 in 2016. Even though that's almost a 0.5BB/hr increase i still think i can do better at the £1/2 level. I'm hoping i don't get chance to prove my theory correct as i'm currently making plans to log allot of volume at $2/$5 and some $5/$10 in the United States. One plan fell through for a long stint in Miami/South Florida which would have seen me fly out last week. Disappointing that the person i was in contact with didn't seem to come through on our plans for whatever reason, i'm hopeful i can find other accommodation shortly. I have a few contacts in LA now and the games are good there too. It would be nice to visit both places but i may adjust my plan and grind there though if i don't get to go to Miami/South Florida, we'll have to see.

I actual won money in MTTs last year. I only played 13 MTTs. 8 Events, 2 Casino small MTTs and 3 Satellites(2 of these were online). In total i logged 59 hours in all forms of MTTs. My hourly was considerably lower than cash games but still would be classed as a good hourly in a job. I bubbled a final table where £10k was up top. I busted out AQ v AJ all in preflop for 33BB pot. That was the closest i came to a good score all year. £550 there seemed a kick in the teeth for 2 days of MTT poker. That's the thing i hate about Tournament Poker, huge variance and i don't log enough volume to see the sunny side sooner.

My exercise targets were again exceeded. Like last year though i became very drained during the last few months and after my return from Barcelona in September i went from training 15-20 times a month to just 4. I plan to get back on track as i believe it's very important to be super fit playing so many hours of poker a month. It really helps me reduce mental and physical fatigue and vastly improves my ability to stay focused for longer at the table.

My study of the game could have been better but due to more hours logged that suffered a little. I still put the work in but not as much as i would have liked. My winrate reflects an increased ability so i know i'm on a good path. Extra effort is always going to increase your chances of greater success though. I discuss hands now and all other poker things with a very like minded guy from the US. We are from a similar school of thought, although i'd say he is maybe has a stronger grasp on GTO.

My sleep again needs tweaking. Since late September now my schedule has been all over which makes for really turbulent sleep cycles. I monitor my sleep using a FitBit and have taken measures such as wearing earplugs and an eye mask which has had positive results.

I signed up for a twitter and follow all the big card rooms in London. They are very good at updating the game status. I find that roughly every 15 minutes they update their twitter to reflect the game status. I didn't play any games in London, but signing up for Twitter has shown it can be used as a useful tool for information.

My social life has been better but more of an effort needs to be made on my part. It's harder as you get older and having a very odd job and irregular schedule makes it even more of a challenge. 

Although 2016 was good i'm still very hungry for more success. I have thought long and hard about my main aim last year, which was trying to establish myself into bigger games. I still have the same view as last year, that i'm not willing to grind for a maximum of £20 an hour at £1/£2 and sacrifice sleep, social life and health by playing and traveling so much when i could be sat playing £2/£5 or £5/£10. I have confided my deep feelings to a few people very close to me and it's helped me gain clarity of what i must do. There is no question about it, i have to travel to play and potential relocate. I think LA and Miami are great starting points to get a good reference point into the profitability of bigger games. 

2017 Goals

MTT: Play more live MTT when I feel motivated. Play more online satellites to reduce MTT costs. Record MTT stats separate to cash game stats.
Live Cash Games: Play 1000 hours total. Play at least 500 hours of $2/$5 and £2/£5. Play in LA & Miami. Continue to research bigger game locations in London and other cities. Look at options for relocating once bigger game locations and sustainability of these games are more clearly known to me.
Study: Keep on running simulations to compare the EV of different lines and continue to improve my game. Keep on talking with other players.
Travel: Visit 5 different cities for poker.
Exercise: Exercise 3 hours per week, running, swimming, biking, and weights in addition to my average of 3.5 hours Yoga and 6 hours walking per week.
Sleep: Strive for much more sleep by improving my sleep pattern and get a better sleep cycle. Track my sleep with a sleep app. Continue to use ear plugs and an eye mask when appropriate.
Social Life: Continue making new friends and increasing my non poker and poker social circles.
Increase Blog Updates: Continue the blog updates and look into other media such as Instagram. This will help meeting and maintaining new poker social circles.


GL Everyone
Mat : )

2015 Goals Review & 2016 Goals

Happy New Year. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas :)

2015 has been very good for me. I’ve found huge amounts of motivation to grind and study much more. I ended up logging 1028.25 hours of time spent at the table. I’m happier than 2014 as i logged less than 700 hours. I’d say the benchmark for a rough hourly rate is 1000 hours live. Although I've seen my own hourly swing in both directions over larger sample sizes, last years hours have indicated that either the games have been better EV or I've improved as a player. I think it is a bit of both. One thing that skewed my stats for the worse was logging tournament wins and losses in with my cash game stats and not logging the hours spent in tournaments. I lost a considerable amount in tournaments, so obviously if i'd not logged this with my cash game stats, my stats would be even more impressive. Almost £1 more on top of an increased hourly rate by £0.87p. So my true hourly increased by £1.87p in 2015. I’ve been working really hard on my game and I’ve table selected/game selected as good as you can live. I felt pretty fatigued the last 3 months of the year, but if i’d not made so many positive adjustments with exercise and diet habits i would have fatigued sooner. I definitely need to tweak it some more though, my sleep patterns are really bad because of my lifestyle and the environment i’m in at the moment makes it really hard to get a good sleep cycle. This obviously makes it really hard for me to get decent sleep, which is so important for a healthier lifestyle.

Although 2015 has been good, the last few months when I've been fatigued i became a little low. I realize that grinding out £1/£2 is just not worth putting my body and health under risk and creating such a horrible lifestyle. When the £2/£5 weekly game died, this was also a factor to me feeling low. Because of this i am willing to relocate to play higher stakes. Ideally i want to be playing £2/£5 all the time, eventually playing £5/£10 as much as possible if not all the time. I have the roll now to play £5/£10 and have a very comfortable roll for £2/£5. I think i should try to get into these games as soon as possible. The obvious choice in the UK is London. I just don’t see the point grinding £1/£2 for no more than £20 an hour when I can grind £2/£5 for £40ish an hour. So hopefully i can position myself better in 2016.

Goals for 2016:

MTT: Play more live MTT when I feel motivated. Play more online satellites to reduce MTT costs. Record MTT stats separate to cash game stats.
Live Cash Games: Play 1000 hours total, at least 200 hours of £5/£10, and 500+ hours of £2/£5. Research bigger game locations in London and other cities. Look at options for relocating once bigger game locations and sustainability of these games are more clearly known to me.
Study: Keep on running simulations to compare the EV of different lines and continue to improve my game.
Travel: Visit 4 Countries.
Exercise: Exercise 3 hours per week, running, swimming, biking, and weights in addition to my average of 3.5 hours Yoga and 6 hours walking per week.
Sleep: Strive for much more sleep by improving my sleep pattern and get a better sleep cycle. Track my sleep with a sleep app.
Social Life: Continue making new friends and increasing my non poker and poker social circles.
Increase Blog Updates: Continue the blog updates and look into other media such as Instagram and Twitter. This will help meeting and maintaining new poker social circles.


Happy New Year
GL Everyone
Mat : )

2015 Goals/Targets Update

2015 GoalsLets set some goals.I want my goals to be realistic but not too easy. I want to try and find the right amount of motivation to make me grind more and improve my lifestyle. 

Live MTT: Play 8 x £250-£1000 BI events.
Online MTT: Play more Satellites and small MTT to build on my online MTT game.
Live Cash Games: Play 1000 hours.
Study: Watch streams, talk with other players, read strategy and develop my game.
Travel: Visit 4 Countries.
Exercise: 2 hours a weak by running, swimming, biking, and weights. Any other sports welcome.
Social Life: Try to meet a non related poker friend once a week. 
Increase Blog Updates: Each year my content has dropped. 2014 x 3, 2013 x 2, 2012 x 3, 2011 x 29, 2010 x 34, 2009 x 31 and when i started on here in 2008 x 56 posts after lots of previous Myspace poker blog posts. Sure when i was an online pro i could chat dribble all day long with some occasional splashes of gold. You see the pattern that has emerged over the years. I have had so much to blog about the last 3 years but so little motivation to write. So i will pump myself up to write more, watch this space.
Lets have a great 2015 :)

Above was a post setting out some Goals/Targets for me to achieve this year. I'm doing really well this year and I've just had my biggest ever live month since transitioning from online at the end of 2011.

Live MTT: So far this year in backwards order I've played;
September: Sheffield £220 25/25 Series,
August: Barcelona 1100EUR Estrellas Main Event,
April: Nottingham £110 Mini UKIPT,
February: Nottingham Sky £110 Mini UKPC
As you can see I'm behind my 8 MTT target. I plan to play  Nottingham £500 WPT500, maybe Nottingham £2200 WPT Main Event and Prague 1100EUR Eureka Main Event in December to finish the year out. So this will leave me 1 or 2 events short as I'll only play WPT Main Event if i satellite in. I'm sure i could play a DTD Nottingham £300 Deepstack event to meet my target though.
Online MTT: I've not played anything since the UKIPT Main Event Satellites. I plan on playing a lot on Party Poker to acquire DTD Nottingham WPT Main, WPT500 and £300 Deepstack seats through the Satellites that will be running. Also for GUKPT and 25/25 Series Events, the satellites on Grosvenor Online are pretty soft.
Live Cash Games: I'm playing really well with only a few sessions this year that deviated away from my A game. I have a great mental ability to block out negative thoughts and i'm able to gather lots of energy to grind out longer hours. I'm 153 hours away from my target of 1000 hours for the year. This is 97 hours above my quota. My hourly rate is still above last years rate. I'm still doing great for a small sample size at£2/£5, 66 hours/14 sessions with only 2 losing sessions. One was -£80 the other -£800. I  played lots of 3/6EUR and some 5/10EUR sessions in Barcelona which was shorty lived as my biggest live stakes played. Upon my return in a £2/£5 game we had a mandatory £10 then £20 straddles which obviously played bigger than £5/£10 then bigger than £10/£20. This game was mental! We all ended up agreeing to play £5/£10 as it was way too big for most of us. Anyone could have gone broke in this game as the stack depth was not great. By the end of next year my roll will be big enough to play £10/£20, the only problem is in the UK i think it just goes straight to £25/£50. Plenty of time to get hours in at £5/£10. I've played well over 3000 hours now of live poker and just over 2000 of those hours are at £1/£2. I'm very hungry to play higher stakes and I'm always scouting out bigger games.
Study: I'm still studying lots about the game. I'm always thinking about spots now and it's becoming like 2nd nature which is great. I don't discuss that many spots with other players but recently I've opened up with a few others.
Travel: Barcelona was great! Lots of sunshine and poker. The trip was highly profitable. I was very upset with my table draw in the 1100EUR Estrellas Main Event, but believe i put in a notable performance before busting out in a flip spot for a 90BB pot JJ v AK aipf. My friend is going to Berlin for Octoberfest WSOPE Festival. It's tempting but I'm not sure if it would be a profitable trip so I'll probably miss it. I plan to travel to Prague in December for the Eureka/EPT Festival. My target was travel to 4 countries. This would only make it 2 so i'll need to improve my planning skills for next year.
Exercise: I've done lots of weights but my cardio has slipped a little since my return from Barcelona. My runs are scary quick now. I ran 12 days ago and felt really bad, tired, weak and unmotivated. Half way around the run i just wanted to stop, then i got over these feelings and carried the run out only 2 secouds from a PB. This makes me smile so much feeling like that, then almost a PB. I ran yesterday and felt strong and quick. There was a slight headwind but i managed to beat my PB by 6 seconds. Great end to the month for me. Really motivated.
Social Life: I went out drinking last Bank Holiday which was fun. I've started regularly seeing an old friend who doesn't live far from me. I try to drop in on her for a chat every week. We have been drinking a few times and have a few social events lined up for the future.
Increasing Blog Updates: Two in the space of the month, what more do you want Internet people :)

Until next time people. Good luck :)

ESTRELLAS/EPT 12 Barcelona Trip Report

August: Estrellas/EPT Barcelona
I flew out on the 19th and came back on the 28th. I managed to play 35.25 cash game hours at 3/6 EUR and 5/10 EUR games. I logged around 8 hours playing 5/10 EUR which was the highest I've played live before. The skill level difference was much higher as you can imagine.

Apartment Tour

August 20th: First Barcelona Cash Session

If you didn't get to the Casino before 11am you were toast as far as the waiting lists are concerned. I arrived at 11:20am on one of the days. I was 60th ish on the list for 3/6 EUR so i played 5/10 EUR for 4 hours before I was called up for 3/6 EUR. I was at the Casino before 10am every day after that!

August 21st: Estrellas 1,100 EUR Main Event Day 1C
On the way to play the Estrellas Main

I got a horrible table draw. I lost 80% of my chips to the same player. My bust out hand was JJ v AKo for 45BB (16,000 of my 25k starting stack). UTG opens 2.5BB, CO and BTTN peel. I 3B my SB to 10BB, UTG snap folds, CO tank folds and BTTN snap ships which was an easy call off for me. Best hand he shows here is Ts but his range is basically 8s-Js/AJs+AQo/AK. Really annoying to lose my chips to the same player who was really good, like he needed any help winning a flips! The Event made around 5 Million EUR which was crazy. I think is was around 556,000 for the winner, Great value for a 1100 for sure.

August 24th: Estrellas 2,200 EUR High Roller Final Day
My friend Kiat ran deep in the HR and bust out Panka BvB in the HR final day before the bubble. Unfortunately he bubbled too.

I did not get chance to do much other than play poker and sunbath. The Beach is 45 seconds walk from the Casino door. As the trip went on I got into a routine of playing from 9:30am-2/3pm and then chilling on the Beach for a few hours after.

Really good looking Asian girl playing 5/10 PLO. All table had maybe 2500 average. She had just over 7000 in that picture. Beautiful girls with poker skills. I don't find anything else more attractive :)

I found out who this girl was later and added her on Facebook. All these hours spent on Facebook make you a highly skilled stalker ;)

Great Seafood Bar on the Beach Front made for some tasty lunch times

Bad day at the tables. No problem, Beach and Beers :)

 Come on, I'm a guy! My job is to constantly check women out :)

Monste, one of my flatmates. Really nice lady. Miss you guys :)

After a few days I went a chilled at my friends Hotel Sky Pool/Bar area which was cool. Kiat bet me 50 EUR he could beat me 2 lenths(2 x 5metres) in the pool.

The race was uploaded onto Facebook by Danny, sorry guys :)

Guy gets upset when a young German pro tank value bet the river. Maybe 90 seconds thinking. He bet really thin on the river. This guy stated before i started to roll the camera, that he was going to tank every hand. This was his 2nd of tanking. I'm needling him so hard to play UTG when I'm BTTN :)

It was really fun being forced to live a normal life because of the wait list situation. This is only the case around festivals though. Normal Barcelona Casino/cash game action starts from either 4/5PM and ends at either 4/5AM when the Casino opens and shuts. I'm afraid Poker will always be a nocturnal lifestyle.

Overall a profitable trip even including  the 1,100 EUR Estrellas Main Event brick. This has been my 3rd year travelling to Barcelona now for this festival. I will make better plans next year. I got an apartment for 200 Euros but my flight cost £360. If I booked the flight around March it would have been almost £200 less. So I'm learning to plan better and try to save as much ££££ as possible. Travelling is not cheap if you don't plan well. Next year I will go out for the whole festival and either a few days before and after or for some time before or after the festival ends to ensure I actually get a break to relax and enjoy some tourist stuff.

Adios :)

Few Pictures & Mid-Year Goal Update

UKIPT Mini £200k gtd

Friday 10th April

Guys huge stack in Tricketts room. £2/£5 game.

Always in the casino waiting for action :)

Buy In £££

Lets go to war :)

Table snacks

Bad Idea this one. Super messy. Finger food a big 'no no' whilst playing.

Nice smooth ride :)

£2/£5 going well :)

Cash that £££

Live MTT: I played the UKIPT Mini £200k gtd event April 10th. This was the last event I played, other than a live casino competition last month when cash games were not running. This was a £35 event. I came 3rd or 4th for £280 out of 80ish players. In the UKIPT Mini I got a really bad table draw. I'm not going to make excuses though as I should have adjusted better to the table. I think because of this my standard of play was poor. Probably my B game. I had planned to play Leeds 25/25 Series, which I got told by friends was really good. I missed this event because I chose to play a £2/£5 cash game in Tricketts room at DTD. The game was invite only and too good to miss. It was the same night as the Mayweather v Pacquiao fight. I'm 2 events behind my target. It's going to be really hard for me to play 6 more events now. I'm not going to give up though, just need to plan better.

Online MTT: I played a few UKIPT satellites and brought into one mega satellite directly. So I ended up taking £330(3 mega satellites)worth of shots at a £1100 seat seat which cost me something like £140, so despite not going far enough to win a seat I still saved money by satelliting. Yesterday I downloaded Grosvenor Poker to take advantage of the weak player pool satelliting for the £550 GUKPT's and the £225 25/25 Series. There is at least one weekly £550 GUKPT freezeout satellite which is £55. This week it got 32 runners when I last looked at it. It could have ended with more. So that's 3 seats a week for grabs assuming those are the average numbers. I've only played HUSNGS and other short handed MTTs online. Very little volume. I will fire some money into Grosvenor Poker and try to play a £550 GUKPT event before the years done. This should help me cover my Live MTT target.

Live Cash Games: I'm doing very well so far. I'm game selecting like a boss and playing really well. I've been so focused on high value lines and what's the most +EV decision against each player at any given point in the hand based upon what my perceived range is to them and what they think their perceived range is to me. I'm 43 hours over target at the half way point and my hourly rate is almost £1.50p greater than last year. That sounds small but if you compare an online win rate (BB/100) to a live win rate, you would need to multiply it by 3.333 as you only get 30 hands an hour live on average. So that £1.50p is 0.75BB in a £1/£2 cash game, multiply this by 3.333 and my win rate has increased by 2.5BB/100. Or £1500 a year extra. I've also played 8 or 9 sessions of £2/£5 this year. All of these were winning sessions. My hourly rate in these sessions alone is something ridiculous like £87 p/h(if only this were sustainable). I am hungry for bigger games now and am thinking about taking some one off shots at £5/£10. My roll now enables me to comfortably play £2/£5.

Study: I've studied a fair bit and I'm starting to add a lot more Game Theory into my game. I love thinking about spots were my SD is not good enough to call but based on how the hand might play out, some spots I can use my image and turn my hand into a bluff by balancing my river value raises with some river bluffs. I find this really interesting. Say we raise 10 rivers well not all of them have to be winners. As long as we don't have too many bluffs in our range the villain can never call us correctly.

Travel: Yikes, it's Barcelona next month and I've not booked a thing! Better get my skates on!

Exercise: I've just been for a run this evening. I did weights yesterday too. Even got in an hour Tennis session with a friend last month. My times are getting very quick each time I run. I always want to run that bit quicker each time. I'm sure I feel more energized whilst I'm training.

Social Life: The Mayweather v Pacquiao fight was on late one morning and I drove from DTD to a friends house early morning to watch it with a few of the lads. That hurt as I left a £2/£5 game in Tricketts room DTD with over £20,000 on the table. I was playing well but only up a measly £280. I've been for a few dinners with friends which has been nice and I've had a few family get together's but nothing else. I still need to maximize my downtime and fill it up with more social activities.

Increasing Blog Updates: What can I say, I suck! I think all my extra motivation to train, study and play more hours has made me less motivated to blog. This was a small update but it's taken some doing believe me!



My Friends £400 Balloon Kenya Fund
Laura/L.J works as a Valet at one of the casinos in Sheffield. I've got to know her whilst playing poker there. Currently she's trying to raise funds to help her on an adventure she recently decided to undertake. You can read all about that here: https://lauraballoonkenya.wordpress.com/
L.J has received £230 of donations so far and she's closing in on her £400 target. Just £170 away. If you want to boost your karma you could make a donation of any size you wish starting from £1 here:
http://www.gofundme.com/lauraballoonkenya



OK, I'm done for now. I'll leave you with a bonus picture.

I was traveling home after a late night/early morning finish around 7am and saw this beast on the streets of Sheffield UK.