Back 2 Back 5-Figure Hits

Not sure why but its growing last 4 months:

In poker news Jan is pretty much over bar 1 day. I attempted to play 4x 6max NL100 tables + 4x NL50 FR tables today and I got crushed. Have some tweaking to do in that regard. I will write up the review shortly.

My graph since Nov 1st is one of the smoothest I have ever had:

The Most Ridiculous Poker Hand Ever

An oldie but still so funny

Should I Be Checking Back The Turn?

This is vs an unknown player. People do all kinds of crazy sh*t in 6max and when he calls the 4b oop it is hard to put him on that hand.

7 Days To Go

With only a week to go in Jan my progress is going quite well.

I now play NL100 6max every day as part of my mix but only 1 or 2 ZOOM tables alongside NL50/25. I have played a couple of very short sessions at NL200 but I want to play there more regularly.

My main issue is that I am in love with ZOOM and I want to play there but NL100/200 FR does not run so my options are to move to 6max or dump ZOOM. While I really enjoy 6max it is harder to multi-table as more thought is required at a faster pace.

So, from next month I will mix short sessions on ZOOM adding more 6max tables alongside longer sessions of FR on NL100/NL200 to start with and hopefully moving upwards.

Eventually I want to drop ZOOM almost completely and switch back to normal FR. Lets see what happens.

In the mean time here is Jan so far:

Maybe still an outside shot at a 100BI month

In $$:

Pokerstars VPP Leader Board

While my quest for 400k VPPs in 2013 has got off to a relatively slow start (currently sitting on 14,386 VPPs) some out there are flying and going for the first to SNE.

The top VPP earners seem to be play high stakes sit n gos. Some of the 'hyper' versions of these games have blind levels that only last 2 minutes.

Here are the top players:

Biggest Pot In A While

King Queen Soooted

Pokerstars Set Your Goal VPP Pace Promotion

Pokerstars are having promo where you trade FPPs as a gamble to forecast your annual FPP goal target. While the terms and bonus involved in this are pretty bad, you have to gamble $80 to win either $120, $200 or $300, if you going to hit those targets anyway then it is essentially free money.

The details are here:

While I intend to go for 400k VPPs this year I planned on making most of it in the second half of the year while I progress up through the levels. Therefore I have opted to go for 200k as a target for this promo. I could go for the higher one but I wanted time off in Feb for a holiday and other stuff.

You can register for this promo here:

Death Warmed Up

With most of the UK under snow it is the perfect time to be in grinding away.

I had already changed my plans for Friday and Saturday night but didn't foresee myself getting a pretty bad cold on Thursday.

Grinding has been close to impossible with my eyes and nose streaming. I can barely manage a 20 minute session before having to shut down and go lie down.

My month has gone quite well so far picking up almost 40 stacks:

Spewing My Way Up The Ladder

I don't usually squeeze 54s but when I do I make sure I call the 4bet out of position and stack the villain..!!

6max :)

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

BTN: $127.72
Hero (SB): $100.00
BB: $13.73
UTG: $128.03
MP: $101.50
CO: $107.94

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with 5 4
UTG raises to $3, MP calls $3, 2 folds, Hero raises to $12, 2 folds, MP raises to $21, Hero calls $9

Flop: ($46.00) J 5 T (2 players)
Hero checks, MP checks

Turn: ($46.00) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $19.95, MP raises to $80.50 all in, Hero calls $59.05 all in

River: ($204.00) 9 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $204.00
Hero shows 5 4 (three of a kind, Fives)
MP mucks A A
Hero wins $201.20
(Rake: $2.80)

Pokerstars Bankroll Building Exercise

The way you manage a bankroll can vary vastly from player to player.

Previously my personal method has been to employ a 'float' level according to which stakes that I am playing and then to cash out every time that I hit the 'cash out level'.

The problem with this method is that it doesn't allow you to move up and grow as a poker player.

In the last quarter of 2012 and in 2013 I have been employing a new method. While the new method is not very aggressive it is progressive and I have already played a few sessions at NL200 in the last 2 months whereas I didn't really play higher than NL100 in the whole of last year.

It wasn't long ago that my roll was sitting at around $1,250 and I was going through the worst period in my poker career.

That has all changed now and I am currently sitting on:

My new method is pretty simple. There is no longer any float level and every time I make $1,000 I only cash out $500 and so the account grows and is also padded to cope with any down swings.

When the roll hits $10,000 then I will happily play NL200 more regularly. After that I will just take shots and see where it goes. If I fail the roll will probably stay at around $8-$10k with NL200 as my highest game but if I can take it further then the sky's the limit and I will push as far as I can go.

I am thinking about doing a mini challenge this month so watch out for that one in an upcoming post.

GL All..!!

Should I Buy The Saab?

I've been looking at updating my motor for a couple of months now.

I currently drive a Lexus and am looking at buying maybe a Saab 9-3.

The motor will cost around $10,000 second hand and I have seen a few that are around 5yrs old. I will part exchange the Lexus for around $3,000. 

Do you know any issues with these cars? Have you had an experience with them. How are they for drive and reliability? Would you buy something else? I like BMW 3-series too.

Similar to the ones I have seen but a bit newer:

So, should I buy the Saab?

A Lotta Green Is Always Good

River Rat

2012 Boxing Review

Janvier Jusqu'ici

January so far:

I have managed to bag $100 in Stellar Rewards and a $1,600 FPP cash bonus so I am sitting at over $3k already this month. My volume has been pretty bad and needs to be stepped up from next week.

A couple of years ago I spent a few months learning French and did pretty well. I'm gonna start learning again this year and try to get to a good standard. I did quite well with the chat in Morocco and France when I was out there.

I Get SOOOO Owned By 2 Whales

Had both of these guys tagged 'Yellow' for the whale category and was no way folding to their river jams. They totally out played me :)

I have notes on both of them now...






Thanks for crushing my Day:

$100,000

Its taken a little over 7yrs :) but I have just passed $100,000 in net profit winnings from this card game called poker.

It's probably more of a beat as I read somewhere that the average McDonald's worker makes $17k per year therefore making $119,000 in the same period, lol.

I should probably say though that the first 5yrs of that 7yr period I was a recreational player just splashing chips around for fun while in full time employment. Its only in the last 2yrs that I have played pretty much full time. Even in the last 2yrs I haven't been exclusively playing as I have been busy with other projects too.

A $100k is a $100k which ever way you look at it :)

Next target $1m..... hope it doesn't take 70yrs at this rate

Today was my first day of real grinding in 2013 and it went pretty well and allowed me to pass this 6 figure milestone:

Ballon d'Or Previous Winners

Lionel Messi has just won a 4th Ballon d'Or. He is the first person to ever win that many.

Here are the past winners:

2012 - Lionel Messi (Argentinean, Barcelona)
2011 - Lionel Messi (Argentinean, Barcelona)
2010 - Lionel Messi (Argentinean, Barcelona)
2009 - Lionel Messi (Argentinean, Barcelona)
2008 - Cristiano Ronaldo (Portuguese, Man Utd)
2007 - Kaka (Brazilian, AC Milan)
2006 - Fabio Cannavaro (Italian, Real Madrid)
2005 - Ronaldinho (Brazilian, Barcelona)
2004 - Andriy Shevchenko (Ukrainian, AC Milan)
2003 - Pavel Nedved (Czech, Juventus)
2002 - Ronaldo (Brazilian, Real Madrid)
2001 - Michael Owen (English, Liverpool)
2000 - Luis Figo (Portuguese, Real Madrid)
1999 - Rivaldo (Brazilian, Barcelona)
1998 - Zinedine Zidane (French, Juventus)
1997 - Ronaldo (Brazilian, Inter Milan)
1996 - Matthias Sammer (German, Borussia Dortmund)
1995 - George Weah (Liberian, AC Milan)
1994 - Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgarian, Barcelona)
1993 - Roberto Baggio (Italian, Juventus)
1992 - Marco van Basten (Dutch, AC Milan)
1991 - Jean-Pierre Papin (French, Marseille)
1990 - Lothar Matthaus (German, Inter Milan)
1989 - Marco van Basten (Dutch, AC Milan)
1988 - Marco van Basten (Dutch, AC Milan)
1987 - Ruud Gullit (Dutch, AC Milan)
1986 - Igor Belanov (Soviet Union, Dynamo Kyiv)
1985 - Michel Platini (French, Juventus)
1984 - Michel Platini (French, Juventus)
1983 - Michel Platini (French, Juventus)
1982 - Paolo Rossi (Italian, Juventus)
1981 - Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (West German, Bayern Munich)
1980 - Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (West German, Bayern Munich)
1979 - Kevin Keegan (English, Hamburg)
1978 - Kevin Keegan (English, Hamburg)
1977 - Allan Simonsen (Danish, Borussia Monchengladbach)
1976 - Franz Beckenbauer (West German, Bayern Munich)
1975 - Oleg Blokhin (Soviet Union, Dynamo Kiev)
1974 - Johan Cruyff (Dutch, Barcelona)
1973 - Johan Cruyff (Dutch, Barcelona)
1972 - Franz Beckenbauer (West German, Bayern Munich)
1971 - Johan Cruyff (Dutch, Ajax)
1970 - Gerd Muller (West German, Bayern Munich)
1969 - Gianni Rivera (Italian, AC Milan)
1968 - George Best (Irish, Manchester United)
1967 - Florian Albert (Hungarian, Ferencváros)
1966 - Bobby Charlton (English, Manchester United)
1965 - Eusebio (Portuguese, Benfica)
1964 - Denis Law (Scottish, Manchester United)
1963 - Lev Yashin (Soviet Union, Dynamo Moscow)
1962 - Josef Masopust (Czechoslovakian, Dukla Prague)
1961 - Omar Sivori (Argentinean, Juventus)
1960 - Luis Suarez (Spanish, Barcelona)
1959 - Alfredo Di Stefano (Argentinean, Real Madrid)
1958 - Raymond Kopa (French, Real Madrid)
1957 - Alfredo Di Stefano (Argentinean, Real Madrid)
1956 - Stanley Matthews (English, Blackpool)

Im Lovin' It

Snails Pace January

I am still nursing the new years eve hangover and have hardly played. I was also away for a couple of days. I will probably start some hard grinding from Tuesday onwards. Jan so far:

Lol Omaha + ZOOM Experiments.

I haven't really kicked off my 2013 grind as yet. I set my main goal as getting 400k VPPs with also getting more involved with live cash games. 

Wrt live games I think I will start that from Feb.

Tonight I played a little omaha and it just drives me crazy with the fact that I lose so many hands with the 2nd and 3rd nuts. They ALWAYS have it..!! I think omaha will always be a break from the norm for me and I can't ever see myself switching to that game.

Anyway omaha aside I am still not sure how I want to get to 400k VPPs. My initial thoughts were to move away from ZOOM and back to normal full ring and work my way up but last year I fell in love with ZOOM and it is so much better for me as I like shorter sessions. I can easily play 10 short sessions in a day as opposed to 2 or 3 long sessions on normal tables.

I am doing experiments with ZOOM 6max tables. SO far 6x 6m seems to be the best combo suited to my game. Last year I was playing 9 ZOOM tables (8x FR + 1x 6m) but as FR only goes upto NL50 this combo will not be feasible this year if I want to hit 400k VPPs. So I need to add more 6m.

I am thinking about moving up slowly through the following combos before settling at the one I am most comfortable with.

All ZOOM:

1. 4x NL50 FR + 2x 6m NL100

2. 4x NL100 6m + 2x NL50 FR

3. 4x NL100 6m + 2x NL200 6m

4. 4x NL200 6m + 2x NL100 6m

5. 4x NL200 6m + 2x NL500 6m

If I can get to level 5 above and stay there I will be very happy. Lets see how it goes. If I don't do well or don't enjoy this then I will play 16x NL100 normal FR and move up to NL200.

GL

Race To Pokerstars Supernova Ends In 39 Hours 25 Minutes

The winner of the first milestone of the year has managed to do it in 39 hours and 25 minutes.

He played hyper turbo sit n gos, 50 tabling at some moments to finish fastest.

There are a few awards for the first to these milestones:

December 2012 Review

To put it simply, best month ever..!! I also played the most hands that I have ever played in a month.

I carried on with ZOOM playing 9 tables of NL50/ NL25 as before and managed to win a decent amount.

I also played a few sessions at NL100/ NL200 to experiment for 2013 and the tables were good I have to say. It was probably due to the holidays but I hope they are like that all the time.

The year is over I have made a smallish amount overall but am happy as I spent a large amount of time dealing with other family issues that needed to be sorted while I was grinding. Probably lost around 1m hands due to off table time but it is what it is. 

Looking forward to 2013.

The final numbers for December are as follows:

241,225 Hands Played

24,946 VPPs

+$3,146 (Cash Game Winnings)
+$1,600 (FPP Cash Bonus)
+$2,600 (200k VPP Milestone)
+$20 (FTP DMI Bonus)

--------------------------------------------------------------------

+$7,366 (Total Month)

The Ytd numbers are as follows:

1,669,049 Hands Played

210,266 VPPs

+$3,648 - Jan

+$3,213 - Feb

+$2,023 - Mar

+$2,072 - Apr

+$3,642 - May

+$5,120 - Jun

-$699 - Jul

+$664 - Aug

+$268 - Sep
+$1,175 - Oct
+$3,168 - Nov
+$7,366 - Dec

--------------------------------------------------------------------

+$31,658 (Total YTD) 


A drunken session near the end of the month lost me lots of BIs as I played NL2, NL5, NL10, NL25 and NL50. So the 100 BI month failed.

There's a new level in 2013 so I now have 6 Stars but I'm not Elite :(

Happy New Year 2013...!!