Taking stock

I think this is pretty good time to look back over the previous year or so and what I have and haven't achieved in poker and beyond. Why now? Well for one it's just coming up to halfway through the year so good as time as any to do a bit of a review but also because this time last year a significant point in my poker career occurred and yesterday a significant point in my life occurred.

This point 12 months ago I was in Los Angeles, it was where I spent my summer. I worked in Universal Studios Hollywood, it was a chance for an escape to somewhere different and also the weather was a lot better! I and the 2 other people I went over with spent first the few weeks looking for somewhere permanent to live. It was around this point we found an apartment on Hollywood boulevard. It was about a 5-minute walk away from the Kodak Theater, which hosts the Oscars every year. I hadn't been playing poker since I arrived 3 weeks earlier as I was on a public network in the hostel where I stayed and I am fairly paranoid about playing on 1 but more important I was too busy searching for apartments on Craigslist. I never had to really search for a place to live before and I finally understood the stress involved in it. It was not a pleasant experience. Anyway, we found somewhere reasonable and I was free to play poker again.

I'd be playing 25nl on or off since October (lol) In my defence in that time there was 2 spells where I didn't play for at least 2 months due to "final" year and I had only put 25k hands in. This was back in the days when I 1 tabled. I am not sure how I did it looking back. I am nothing if not disciplined. I always bankrolled for higher levels namely 50nl even before I started playing at that level so I wasn't playing it because I had to but I was playing it as I seen it as starting a fresh. I played MTT's previously but I was reading more and more on cash games and finally this post inspired me to make the move
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054920511

But while having the right bankroll is important, being able to beat the level is as important for me so I set upon the idea that I wouldn't move up unless I knew I could beat a level hence my continual grinding at 25nl.

So, what is the significant point in my poker career that occurred at this time last year that I stated at the start? simply put I moved up levels. I made the move to 50nl in July. This was the first of 3 increases in level. In October I moved up to 100nl and in December I moved up to 200nl and being there since for the most part bar the occasional shot at 400nl and 1 week where I moved down to 100nl again. In general I have been very static about what levels I play which looking back I am not so sure is that great an idea. But that is where I am now. I want to be playing 400nl regularly by the end of the summer but I am likely to adopt a more fluid view of levels and play different levels across different sites.

I have been reading a lot of the Vegas blogs seeing as there is quite a lot of people over there due to the imminent start of the main event. I have to say I am quite jealous. A large part of me wishes I went over now. I could have done it. I even looked at flight costs to LAX but I just felt it could cost me too much money and too much of my roll as a lot of my time would have been spent going to shows, visiting the Grand Canyon etc. This has left a void in my summer, which is pretty apt as the rest of my life seems like a void at the moment and the reason is something I hinted at above.

The significant point in my life that occurred yesterday? Well my exam results came out and I passed so I now have a degree in computer applications. As I said in a previous post I am fairly ambivalent about the degree itself but being in college has defined me for the last 5 years. Pretty much everything I have done or not done has at least an indirect connection to DCU and usually it's a very direct connection. I still live at home because my home just happens to be on the very road that DCU is at. I have spent 2 summers in the US working, both times on the J1 visas which I got cause I was a student. The first time I ever played poker was in DCU pokersoc and so on and so forth. I have to face a future not tied to the place and I am really not sure what that will entail. Something else which occurred to me yesterday was I was going through daft.ie as I occasionally do, I have nothing really keeping me at home bar home made dinners and clothes washed (which I admit is pretty handy). The idea of moving out 20,30 minutes whatever away from my house just to share with a stranger really doesn't appeal to me. I mean what's the point? There is nothing keeping me here. I have no debt. I may just leave and not sure if I will come back. I could travel for a while. I could just go somewhere and settle there. I could do both; travel around until I find somewhere. But it would be something. I admittedly have only really started thinking about this so none of this may happen but something has to happen. I am not sure why I am only thinking this now and not a month ago but it's like the results coming out have set a light bulb off. To make this happen I will have to be playing and beating 400nl successfully. I think it's the only way I could make it work and afford it.

So that is where I stand at the moment. Lots of ideas and thoughts but nothing definitive. Hopefully this point next year I can look back and be happy with what happened!

Month in review - TL;DR

The month isn't over yet but I have completed the Devilfish bonus, which I started in the last week of May. So the graph along with 400 hands at ipoker is above. It really isn't too much to write home about. After the great opening week, which I posted about it, all went downhill and in fact I have lost 600 since I made that post which is all pretty depressing. I am running at .75 pt bb/100 over the 30k hands I played so I was virtually breakeven.

So what happened? Well I think my last post covered it pretty well. I am a station. I called way too much and kept calling my stack off continually when I was crushed. I say I lost a good 10 buyins doing this when it just wasn't necessary. I posted a fair few hands on boards.ie amongst other forums and pretty much every hand I posted went along the lines of everyone saying I should fold and I had called and was crushed. I went through my stats and the most striking thing was won $ at showdown was 48 which is pretty low and it basically equaled my w$wsf
(A good thread on what the numbers mean:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055197237)

It's something I was starting to curb near the end and hopefully in the future I can continue to improve on that. As for running bad. Did I run bad? My guess is I did run below expectation (Unfortunately none of the software which tracks that works on B2B) It was a frustrating couple of weeks though. The reason I didn't post an entry last week was because I was just pissed with everything and didn't want to acknowledge it or think about. I took 2-day gap and things improved a bit. In general though it's not an issue and isn't important.

Good parts: I played 30k hands and completed the bonus like I wanted. I did in 27 days in the end. That's the first time I broke the 30k threshold, which is not very much compared to some of the sick stats you see posted on 2+2 et al. The simple fact is I doubt I will be ever 1 of those guys who 16 tables for hours on end and plays 100k hands a month. So to make good money I will just need to play a decent enough level and play it consistently well.
When rb and bonuses gets added I will still make somewhere around €3k-€3.5k which is still pretty nice and more then I made total in my time at Universal Studios last year or roughly half of what I made in 8 months at Vodafone so I have certainly had it worse.

Where to next pokerwise? I am not sure what I will do, I have been looking through bonuswhores as ever, and nothing has really stood out for me. There are some big bonuses out there but rb% they don't work out that great and ultimately that is what I am looking for. So probably just play on GJP a bit, maybe a bit on Devilfish as well until I come across something, which takes my fancy.

Away from poker Euro 2008 has been taken place and it has been a really fantastic tournament. So many good matches and so much top quality flowing football. Russia being the highlight so far. Their match against the Dutch was fantastic and Arshavin looks like the real deal. Turkey has also performed 2 miracle comebacks so it's really had it all. I am hoping Spain or Russia take it down although I have a feeling it will be the Germans who win it all.
I also have to mention Tiger Woods. He is incredible. I was compelled by the US open more so then usual. I watched it from the Friday on. His final 6 holes in round 3 on Saturday were just staggering. 2 eagles and a birdie from the rough, which had no rights being anywhere, near the hole. It those sort of shots which separate him from all other sports men or women. He constantly produces the impossible over and over again. To win in 18 hole play-off considering how bad his knee was is also a testament to his character so yeah all in all I rate him pretty highly.
Another great sportsman continues on his campaign to greatness today. Wimbledon starts today. Go Federer!

Oh yeah this week my exam results come out. Something to look forward to!

That difficult 2nd week

Yeah it's not been a great week. They always say the 2nd one is much harder then first whether it be sporting victories, albums and for me I found it to be true for weeks at this site. As for what has been happening. Well I am running bad. Now I am not going to go on about it as I think people over-rate when they run bad. It happens and is part of poker and with the amount of suck outs I had last week I can in no way complain about it but it is a reason without a doubt.

In general I am still pretty happy with my play for the most of the week. I wasn't tilting, I was feeling calm and think I was doing a lot right. Thursday was a different story. I dropped just over 6 buyins(hands 5193-6700 roughly on graph) and I would say about 4 of them came from me making really bad call downs. For me playing bad is so much more tilt inducing then running bad and I am really disappointed with myself about some of the calls. I am definitely too much of a station at times and it's something I need to work on.

On plus side I had good day today, won over 5 buyins and nearly breakeven over the 2 days.
Overall I am now basically breakeven for the 2 weeks on Devilfish although I will be in profit when you add in rakeback and bonuses that I will eventually get. I am still completely confident I am a winner in those games and are a comfortable one at that. Just need to stop calling down as much!