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.

Sky UKPC(February) & 2015 Goal Updates.

£110 Sky Mini UKPC £200k Gtd Day 1a
Friday 13th February

Last minute rush I hoped!

Ran poor day 1 and lost 300k pot Js v Q9o 10.9BB effective shove v my utg min click when ave ended

500k so this one was pretty annoying but what can i do. Last level of the day too :(

Ended up bagging 207,000 for the final day. 

£110 Sky Mini UKPC £200k Gtd Final Day
Sunday 22nd February.

After 2 levels i was blinding down with no spots. The next level later i found a spot and got up to 309k. Shorty after our table broke. By the first break my stack was 424k 2058/216. 45 minutes or so later Js hold v AQ and I'm at 595k 2058/198 ITM. This table was proving to be a good one, not long later i was up to almost 1.05 million at 980k average which felt nice for the first time in over 9 levels of this MTT. The top 50 seats in this tournament would be awarded £1000 Sky UKPC Main Event seats but i felt now was the time to put the hammer down around this bubble. I ended up running AcQc into AK for 12.75BB effective to bust me out. There was no avoiding the spot. 2058/84 GG. I felt I played the the best i could with my cards.

Lots of chips :)

I played this Final day on an empty stomach so this meal was gobbled up like PacMan :)

Lad i know who plays the same poker scene as me final tabled and ended up winning the comp. I can't remember how much for, £26,000 i think. Well done again mate. Luck box haha.

Congrats Shaun.

Few of my peers enjoying £5 a point at OFC Pineapple. Hate this game, maybe i will learn it and change my mind.

My goals:

Live MTT: I am due to play UKIPT Mini £200k Gtd tomorrow, that will put just behind target. Later this month there are 2 other events I have my eyes set on. One which is 25/25 Series in Leeds which i will almost certainly play, which would put me back on track. If i do well in the Mini it could lead to UKIPT seat for top 50 finishes too. This would put me on 4-5 MTTs at the end of April. Fingers crossed!

Online MTT: I have earned seats for Final UKIPT $165 from $33 and won a UKIPT Mini Seat £120 from $27.50c. I plan to play a 50 Seat gtd UKIPT main event satellite this Sunday.

Live Cash Games: On target, been mega tired this month and took Sunday-to Thursday off to recharge the batteries. I actually ended up playing live cash for 3.25 hours yesterday. So not a clean break but i needed some time to refresh my batteries for sure. Thinking about how tired it makes me grinding live is horrible so i just need to stay fresh and focus on this goal.

Study: Not much effort other than trying to develop a different HU style which can be deployed late stage in MTTs and all the time in Cash HU. Need to invest more time and stay ahead of the curve.

Travel: I've been looking into going to Barcelona for 1-3 months around the EPT. No plans made yet. Because i've become really tired from grinding i'd like to have a reward for myself so i need to push on with this and other ideas.

Exercise: I did some weights on Monday. I tore some muscles which was not good. My left arm only has so much movement now until my muscle rebuilds itself. I need to drift back into this much less painfully. I need to put in 100% more effort as that was the 1st form of training I've done this year! I walk 2-3 times a day on average for 25 minutes a time. But other than this i don't regularly exercise. I need to get back into a routine. I walk because when i had long term back problem from grinding too much live poker it's the only thing that keeps movement in my body. I was told, as all i was doing is sleeping and sitting it's terrible for my body. I'm ok now but i'd love to get back to the fitness level i was in my mid 20s.

Social Life: I went for 1 drink with a mate the other week. It was real fun but other than that, nothing else. I will be going for a drink this Saturday as it's my birthday.

Increase Blog Updates: Sorry! I really can't get the motivation, i really am finding this goal the hardest! I have been making funny little clips of grinding live and some HU where bum hunters sit me out. Maybe i will make a compilation of funny video clips. Got some epic slowrolls, tons of HU denial of action videos and some fuked up live rulings to report. Lots of content to blog but my lack of motivation is keeping my thoughts under wraps for now.



I'm going to wrap this blog up for now. I will update on the UKPC Mini and any other action this festival brings my way. By for now, will leave you with this Gem from the other month.

I had just bluffed an old lady, then the hand before the above hand took place she opens, I 3b, CO jams we both muck. Very next hand she opens TT, I 3b AA, same player jams again, this time he has QQ. Woman calls I jam, she calls. Board rolls out 7TQ as I can see her holding her cards i feel sick and i'm getting ready to auto muck without showing, Que the turn Ace and river Ace :) Excellent dealing, shame they were both shorties :(