my god it pissed me off when playing a $160 game an idiot makes the most ridiculous call and gets lucky.

14players game...6left im joint 4th and 5th with 2400 chips ...300bb and im on the button...it pays to 4

I go all in 2400 on the button and the 8k chippie in the sb calls with Q10off then rivers a 10. Worst call ive seen at that stake for a while and im absolutely livid. Txt in about as much abuse as i can and i know that got to him cos he had no defense for the dumb call. Hope he complains and gets me chat banned, i couldnt give a shit. He had been txting shite in the whole final table anyway and i knew he was dumb but that was so bad. I had played a couple of hands badly 6 handed b4 that but that call just took the piss big time. Hate this friggen game when im not in the mood to play it.

Earlier in a 20euro game got all chips in a 10s,9s,8h board with 10h,9h only to be called by 86s...turn = spade...55% to get something from that pot...chips go in when ahead and no joy.

Great cant wait to play this evening now, fuming is an understatement.

ok its freeroll final day of the month after the last 2 steady days. i know im happy with the profit ive made this month (although a stupid casino loss mid month didnt help, not gonna quote figures but it will be included in the monthly profit as i wouldnt be a true professional gambler otherwise) so anything else today is a bonus so i can relax in the biggies i play.

lost $200 or so on 1,2$nl last night late , couldnt hit a thing and when i did someone hit something better, its like that some sessions.

will post monthly profit as soon as the month is over anyway.

quiet day yesterday was lazy and meant to play nothing but did play $1,$2nl for half hour or so and win £60. Managed to lose that playing live 7 card brag later in the evening (special mention to wayne "44" van rensburg who managed to stay level in a 3 hour session, quite an achievement for him).

Failed to win my 18way play off for a £1000 seat at blackpool today when 44 ran into aa and finished 7th but salvaged some cash winning a $50 28 player later on for $960. Only other play was $2,$5nl level for hr or so level and lost a $27 12 player sub qualifier also. Mayb some more cash play later but we will see.

looks like entry to virgin bloggers freeroll confirmed for 11 May winner gets $1500 WSOP seat in July , gotta b in em to win em. Any fellow bloggers need to email blogger@virginpoker.com for free entry , also 250000 v-points in the prize pool as well.

Knackered

A mixed day , never got going in my $270 afternoon game i had subbed for and finished midpack of 42
Similar results in evening for 109euro,$22 and $109 game, nothing of interest.

Finally the £27 10k guaranteed, 343 runners finished 6th for £500. about £300 up on the day.
Usual mixed emotions missed a coinflip to go 2/34 then was always fighting with a short stack. Got a 20% beat in my favour after to stay in but then to only finish 6th is annoying as i always want top 3 when i get to this stage of any multi. Could be worse i know ive had far too many results in the 10-20th range in last 2 months, at least with 6th there is actually something worth winning.

Good day or bad, tough one.

Hardly played as wasnt really in the mood. So just a few satellites.

Won a $30 into a $270 2moz afternoon (well thats today now), was happy and played v well short handed.

Bubbled in a $25 WSOP to get to the $140 stage. A3 vs KQ wasnt happy 5 go through me 6th.

Only other 10player one 15k in play, $15 WSOP sub again to get to a similar $145 stage. Went heads up 4k vs 11k (300bb). played A game against agressive guy and slowed his agression down then comes the board K102J i hav J2off and reraise him all in on turn called instantly K9off river king for the 9k pot goodnight its 3am and finish on sour note.

Funny how i can be more mad about losing a $15 game sometimes and not nearly the same when im playing a £50 one. Tis the game not the cash i guess.

Mixed day yesterday, started off on cash and lost about £350 inside an hour. Switched off and watched snooker all afternoon to start again later.
Won a sub for WSOP in the evening which means im in a 9 way play off on Sunday 7 May.
KK vs AA for 2nd time running in the 15k. Lost heads up in a ladbrokes sub for their $530 sunday lunch tournament which i certainly wasnt too happy about.

Also played pl omaha hi/lo cash against steve davis in the evening which was fun but it was 10 handed and the cards i got just were not worth getting involved in enough.

Actually would have been a nightmare day if it wasnt for that WSOP final, ill call it level in my head but i think its time to give cash a few days off and stick to multis and stts.

March 2006 was my worst month in terms of profit, only making about £200 for the month.
I know i wasnt playing well and i lost count of the number of late stages i made it in multis before crashing out between 8th and 20th and missing any substancial money.
Overall i knew my luck was even for the month but i just wasnt getting it in the right places for the big money pay offs.

April has started well. April 1st i won a 1% share in Laddies , a racehorse that ladbrokes have bought and as a promotion are giving away shares in. The horse runs on the flat from July to September this year then it gets sold and any cash made is split between shareholders. Its supposed to be worth about £1000 on paper, but its something different and i look forward to following it.

I took a small knock on the 9th April when i finished 2nd in a win only sixpac for a WSOP seat but i only took the positives away and the heads up never got going as 3rd hand it was 88 vs JJ so all chips went in.

I also won a VIP trip to the Newmarket 200 Guineas and to see my horse in training which should be fun at start of May.

Then finally i got what had been a long time coming, a decent cash win in a multi. 3rd/88 runners in a $530 buy in (sub qualfied for $60) for $5500 on ladbrokes. Normally i would be very disappointed not to get 1st or 2nd but the cash was still good and i was the weakest stack when we went 3 handed so wasnt the worst way to finish 3rd.

Anyway i look forward to posting updates as they happen in future as this blog will give me an output for any good or bad happenings.

The only other thing i want to put in this blog are my monthly earnings since i kept records from Nov 2004, i wasnt sure whether to include them but if i put them in then im being truthful to myself and when i have a bad month in future ill kick myself up the ass more to better it. These figures are in approximate in pounds.


Nov 2004 650
Dec 2004 1250
Jan 2005 level
Feb 875
Mar 1700
Apr 3400
May 1975
Jun 4625
Jul 1450
Aug 1500
Sep 5000
Oct 31000
Nov 6075
Dec 2005 10225
Jan 2006 3881
Feb 839
Mar 144

January 2006 was another eventful month for me. I managed to qualify for the EPT in Deauville as well as winning a league to play in 3 events in the Brighton Festival, all to be played in February.

When Deauville came i played well as far as i was concerned but just did not get the luck on the preflop all ins .

KK vs AQ i won
10s vs A3std i lost , he flopped the straight and this was a very key hand as blinds were still relatively low.
88 vs AQ i lost
Ajstd vs 88 i lost
A4 vs A5 i lost and exit the tournament after he hit quads just to rub it in

Obviously the only one above where i was not covering the other stack was the last. The gods were not being any help and it just wasnt to be. I had only just made day 2 and finished just inside the last 100 out of 400 runners. Again i was happy as it just didnt appear to be my week but Deauville was not a great place to visit, far too posh and the casino attitude to customers was shocking. Certainly wont be hurrying back there by targetting any satellites next year.

Brighton was only small in comparison to Deauville with just £100,£150 and a £300 event. Played bad in the first , think i was tired from the drive up. The second i had A7 vs Q10 to guarantee making the money and again no luck. The £300 i was happy with but when my AKstd vs QQ lost preflop all in for a huge pot to probably go top 3 of the remaining 40 or so (about 80 runners) i was weak and soon out A10 vs AK a few hands later.

Being away for almost 2 weeks of the month meant my online profit suffered as a result but the experience was invaluable. I certainly wont be driving as far as Brighton for such small events in the near future but they were free to enter from online so i had nothing to lose.

The CPC really drained me, i was amazed as to how knackered i was when i got back to england, but as i was paid it was worth it.

The rest of december was uneventful apart from narrowly missing out on a seat to the Party Poker Million Cruise in Mar 2006. Again through sub qualifying for $30 i got to a multi of $250 with 850 runners and 16 packages up for grabs, spare cash to 17,18 and 19th as well.

I finished 23rd , i know how to play these multis and its all about getting your chips in the pot first then u shouldnt be called at the late stage unless u r badly beaten. Unfortunately a stack that had me just covered decided to call my all in on a raised pot flop 754 board, we both were in about 13,14/23 left at the time so huge risks were not necessary. He raised me on the flop and i moved all in with JJ ....instant fold for other guy as he still has more than enough chips to probably make the seat. But no he calls me with 76off and spikes a 6 on the river for 2 pair, i couldnt believe the foolish call as we were both almost safe and to even call the raise preflop was bad enough. Anyway that pot would definitely 99% of guaranteed me the seat but it just wasnt to be, move on and take it on the chin.

The Carribbean Poker Classic

This was first taste of offline tournament poker , late night poker ace being just a single sixpac.

Held at the marriot resort in St Kitts i knew this would be a very different experience to anything i had done before in my life.

I played stts out there and 2 multis before the main event. I was in profit for the stts and the experience of the multis was invaluable to someone that never plays live. I also played in 2 finals of their designer watch freerolls which were the omaha hi/lo pl and omaha pl. 5/10 in both which i was happy with as started with joint weakest stack in both and went out for pots to go chip leader if they held up. I also played in the team game for Littlewoods and missed a few coinflips after a lot of nice early cards to only finish in 3rd in my sixpac, again valuable experience.

The main event, i had day 1A rocked it for the first 2 hours and found my 6k stack down the 4k. Also found no real decent cards so i decided to up a gear as i knew my table image was a rock. Had a beer at the break and convinced myself i would agress more and gamble a bit. It worked and i got back to the 6k starting stack by the time the next 2 hr break came. I had a very tough table with some high stakes players and i new that so when 1 or 2 other weaker players came i found myself a bit more relaxed. Key pot for me at the table had to be AKc UTG.

Raised to 600 (bb = 200) . Only the big blind called (a high stakes player) and flop 964 with 2 clubs I knew i would get as many chips as possible in if i was raised on the flop and intended to bet big. I bet 1000 into the pot and he flat called, strange i thought as he had about 5k in total and i had 6k ...pot was already big and i expected a raise or fold, i basically put him on a draw but i knew he could have flopped a set. Turn came , almost perfect card the Ks, my experience during the week kicked in and when he checked to me i did a quick weak check as i knew he would bluff me or bet out regardless of river anyway. River was what seemed a horrible card 9h pairing the top pair flop, nbot what i wanted to see. He bet about 2500 and i had a good think always fully intending to call but trying to see how many chips i had left and also whether there was any tell on the guy as to whether he wanted a call. I called and he mucked instantly , i absolutely luved this as i was able to take the pot without showing my AKc so the guys at the table still probably considered me a weak player as they had no real information on me.

Another key hand just before we split was JJ in the big blind, i was still in gambling mood with 7-8k and when utg raised the 400 bb to 1600 i moved all in for my whole stack. He showed the high staker players to his left when mucking and i instantly announced "show one, show all" to see a KQoff but more importantly to get under their skin which amazingly it seems to do. I used this tactic throughout the tournament to try and pick up on as much information as possible.

When i moved to another table my 10k stack at 600bb wasnt ideal but i was very happy to still be in. This doubled on a 679 board with 66 when a same size stack had KK. My stack was 20k ish and the day off while day 1B played ws invaluable as i was very tired having put so much effort into my game.

When the 2nd day began it was being played to the final table with about 70-80 players running. i wasnt in too bad a position but i fully intended not just to make the money but to go as far as possible. I proved this when i put my increased stack of 28k all in preflop with only AQoff when the blinds were still only 1200, i thought the reraiser was at it and was proved right when he called me with AQstd, i almost hit a four card flush board which would have given me a monster stack but i was very happy with the spilt as i had lost AKoff vs AKstd on day 1A for a 9k pot in the last hour.

I was very active around the bubble time with any middle hands, i was surprised how unchallenged i was and so many people blinded out towards the money. When the money did come they dropped like flies as u would expect as there were so many short stacks.

Anyway made it to the last 15 and was probably one of the top 6 stacks before i called an all in overraise with 77 as i put the guy on AK or AQ and had 30k spare left i decided to gamble as i wanted to get the big stack to guarantee the final table of 6. The pot was for the chiplead about 200k pot but he turned over JJ and with no help i was in danger zone short stack territory.

I then lost a pot against a stack i had covered...about 50k pot JJ vs 88 and became even weaker.
Doubled through but then lost another 50k ish pot again where i had the guy covered with KJ vs J10off. Board in order was K7389 , made good tv at the tv table but i was sick after that flop. I went out a few hands later after trebling my tiny stack , K2 vs AQ sealed my fate of 13th.

I was happy with about £10k but i know my 77 call cost me big, i also know i was very unlucky after that but once you are all in preflop u have to take the consequences if u r outdrawn.

October 2005, the big month

Income remained steady for a few months, particluarly enjoyed the extra time available to me in late summer rather than being stuck in an office all day.

Then came my 2 best days in poker. I had played a $140 sub qualifier for the carribbean poker classic and got through to the $1000 final on a Friday night. Down to 8 players with 6 packages available the cryptologic software failed to balance the tables and i was left on a table of just 3 players. I did not want to collude but it became the only option as we were so shorthanded it would be unfair to play on so the folding began. Later or the next day there was an investigation launched by crypto into the game, i had no idea whether i would truly get a package although i emailed them explaining the software was at fault , not any of the 8 players. I found out a few days later the outcome but in the meantime....................

The following night i had already sub qualified for $70 to the $640 million$ guaranteed on Party Poker, so unaware of the cpc outcome i had to put that to the back of my mind and play what for me at the time was a very big buy in tournament. 8 Hours after the start i crashed out in 5th for $51,810 out of 1727 runners. This was my biggest win to date and remains it currently as well , about £30000 english.

I think it was the monday when i saw on the betfair forum that cryptologic recognised the software failure and agreed to send all 8 players to the CPC at the end of november.

Right having read various blogs regularly which i will post links to when i get round to it i thought it was time i did one for another online poker professional.

Ive been playing poker since Feb 2004 , really got the bug for it when i visited vegas in Apr 2004 and have never looked back.

After six months online i never really lost or won much but then it started to pick up. Alongside my accountancy job i knew i could make £500 - £1000 fairly easily every month from just small stakes stts and multis and thats when i started keeping monthly records of profit in Nov 2004 with the intention that i might be able to do this full time or more likely just part time along side reduced hours at work.

Xmas 2004 i decided to go for it and gave notice to do a 3 day week at work from Feb 2005 knowing i would comfortably make up the difference in my wages. Work knew nothing about poker i just said i needed some time out. I knew that once i put more time to it though there was a good chance the profits would increase and the option of full time poker could come available.

The gamble paid off, the more time i put to poker the more i seemed to make so in the middle of June 2005 i gave notice to finish my office job and become full time from 1 Aug 2005.

To date i have never had a losing month but i know its possible as ive been close lately and play cash more lately which has potential for fair swings as everyone knows.

My first real live poker experience came when i qualified on a freeroll with Party Poker in June 2005 to play on the first amateur late night poker ace show filmed in July 2005 and shown on tv in Sept 2005.

Unfortuately i was taken out by a complete beginner that ironically went on to bascially fluke the whole thing and win. Finished 5/6 in my heat but i will post the hand detail below just to show you how bad this guy was.

blinds 25,50....2k starting stack UTG goes to 200 , i credit him for a hand as hes only been in 2 of the 15-20 hands played so far. i have AK in the small blind (these days i would raise in this position but back in those days i was more cautious especially of missing the flop and being out of position) and decide to just call. Flop is KQ10 with 2 diamonds, scary board for an AK but i still think im ahead. I check he bets 300 , i decide to raise to 800 knowing i can give the hand up if he goes back of the top of me which i would expect from a player with flopped straight , or trips or even the KQ option. He flat calls as a beginner does when they really havent got a clue, i know im probably ahead and i know its almost irrelevant what the next card is i need to stick my other 1k in on turn as the pots just too big. Turn = queen 1k all in, he spends a while thinking then says "easy come easy go" as though he thinks hes behind and calls with Q5std (no flush draw on the flop btw)

It was a good experience and i knew probably the first of many but i was still very gutted at the ridiculous chase he had made.