C C C C Changes

So since my last entry there has been a lot going on mainly down to my brother. He came into my room and calmly told me he was moving out the next day and I could have his room. This matters because of the relative sizes of the room. My room is tiny. It's around 10 feet by 8 foot and so small that when we got the house evaluated we got told that it's too small to advertise it as a bedroom. All this means is I've always had to make do with using my laptop for all my computing needs which is sub optimal for numerous reasons including screen been too small so struggle to play lots of tables, no mouse and no where flat to place laptop, uncomfortable seating positions as I have to sit on my bed etc etc. My brothers room on the hand is much bigger and like a pretty decent sized bedroom so I pretty much straight away start planning exactly what I want for it and I must say I want a lot.

So in the past 12 days or so I have purchased the following desk, leather chair, super now monitor, desktop along with seriously good speaker system, mouse, keyboard and a printer/scanner, I have also gotten new phone line upstairs so I have easy access to broadband. I have spent just over 2k but I think it's well worth it. Pic of it is below (minus printer/scanner which hasn't arrived yet)



This week has been a struggle putting it all together. It took me 2 days to build the chair and table and encountered all the usual problems when you have to assemble items such as this but with a bit of help I got there in the end. It also took me good 2 days to transfer everything across. To download all the stuff I need, to re acquire all the licenses for all the proprietary software I own etc but I have pretty much completed everything that needed to be done. There is a point to all this though, I am not just gratuitously spending money just because I can. 1 of the big reasons I think I struggled grinding out hands is because of my previously terrible set-up. I struggled to fit a lot of tables on screen. It is hard to be comfortable when sitting on my bed so I found it hard to get long sessions in. So simply put I have no more excuses any more. It's up to me to be able to put the hands in. I think 30k a month should be a minimum requirement.

On the poker front, I haven't been playing all that much due the above but I have been playing a bit and I have been doing well. I have decided to start mixing in 2-4 along with my standard 1-2. I feel it's time I start moving up but to begin with I think it's better to mix it in and get used to it and gradually go from playing or 2 tables to playing 5 or 6. So far it's been going well. I have played 5000 hands at both levels and up around $1900 total. I am pretty pleased with how it's gone and think I played decently and handled the tables. So far, there hasn't been anything particularly difficult. Tables have been nitty although there was 1 crazy table when a hand didn't go by without a 3bet and fair few 4 bets. Overall though with good game selection I expect to be reasonable winner at those stakes on ipoker. From Monday on though I want to get 15k hands in before July ends. If I run well then a 5 figure month is on the cards but I will see how it goes.

In other news, Tour De France started last Saturday. I have been following it but not to same extent I have done previously, the drug scandals have really hit the event hard. The ironic thing about the whole cycling doping scandal is the reason you hear so much about it is because their testing procedures are so stringent. If you put those in place in other sports especially the 4 major North American sports I bet there would be an scandal of epic proportions that would be up there with what has happened in cycling. On to a wholly better note last Sunday seen 1 of the greatest sporting duels I have ever watched when Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final. It was just an incredible match; 5 sets long, longest mens final in history and John McEnroe called it the best tennis match he has ever seen and seeing as his match with Bjorg in 1980 is often quoted as the best, that is good enough to me. I don't think any other sport has 2 people or teams as good as those 2 and I felt privileged to just watch it all. So yeah, I enjoyed it.

The WSOP main event is on going and as I type this Hawk Eye from boards is chip leader! while cardshark is still in the running. It would be fantastic if either of them got to the final table in November so good luck them but for most people they have completed their trip to Vegas and after mulling over it so long I am glad I didn't go. I have been reading a fair few blogs and 1 of the common themes is the grind of vegas and how much it takes out of you emotionally and bankroll wise. Everyday there are multiple 4 figure buyin tournaments been held at various casinos along with big money cash games and I can see how it is so easy to take a big loss. Giving the state of my bankroll and how much money I would have probably spent; going on a bad run could have put me in a bad way; to the point where the 2k I spent on my new system is small change. I feel that next year I will be in a much better position financially to go to Vegas such that even if things go for the worst my bankroll will not take a huge hit percentage wise.

Speaking of blogs I have been reading Valor's blog in particular with interest. Something that pleasantly surprised me (although he will not be happy with) is the mistakes he is making. He seems to make a lot of the mistakes I do, this oddly makes me feel better about myself as if Valor does it then me doing it is less of a problem and not something only confined to me(if that makes sense?) So while it's constantly trying to improve yourself is obviously vital; making some of those errors will not necessarily stop me moving up and beating higher levels. I also seen him advertise his coaching services, what he is offering sounds exactly like what I need so I am going to try and aim for to win a certain amount which I can put towards getting him to do some coaching for me. This hopefully give me more motivation to play hands

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!

Good start back

That's my graph for the last 7 days. I am pretty pleased with how things are working out in general. I started off slowly, On Wednesday which is middle bit of the graph I played really badly. I was really unhappy with myself after that but I reviewed through the hands and made some conscious decisions of what I need to do to improve and played much better for the rest of the week which the graph shows. I think I was still a bit rusty thought when starting off. Now I have to say I am running pretty good. I can think of 2 or 3 times when I got an underpair in and hit the 2 outer etc but still aside from that I think I am reading situations well and making a lot of good decisions. Today didn't go that great but I just reviewed through the hands and pretty much all bar 1 hand was coolers or standard flips etc so I am not too worried by it.

I am playing on Devilfish Poker and it's been going pretty well. Software looks a bit like some of the final year projects people out of my course could do but it does have seem pretty nice features such as box you tick you keep you topped up at all times which is sweet. The standard is pretty poor. You get the usual donk who just donates to you but the site is absolutely full of tagfish. People playing 23/13/2 etc. I really don't mind playing at a table full of them cause I can just dominate it and run them over, they are really easy to read and I pretty much always know where I am at in a hand. Some of the downsides are player liquidity due to B2B being 16th biggest network overall. When I was going for the bonus I thought I would be playing on Boss a lot but turns out that is cardroom2 and to really get the big rb deal you need to be playing on B2B. The other major problem is only Pt2 supports it and even worse PAHUD doesn't work on it so I have had to revert back to Gametime which is rather painful as it is not a patch on PAHUD or HM hud but I should get around 54-55% rb when you include the signup bonus and combined with poor quality of player then it works out pretty good. I'd certainly happily take 4 weeks of winnings like the ones I have above that's for sure.

In other news I watched the finale of lost last night, not going to spoiler it or anything but I really enjoyed it as per usual. It's so annoying that it is off the air for 8 months now. It is by far the best show on tv by a country mile at the moment imo. Euro 2008 starts next week. But in general not much on tv which may not be a bad thing. It means I can grind it out. I am hoping to get 30k hands done for the 30 days. That should ensure I get everything I need for the various bonuses. As for the rest of summer from a non poker capacity. I have nothing planned as of yet. I always assumed I would go somewhere abroad as there was lot of plans for things but nothing has come to fruition as of yet. I think it should go abroad at least once. I mean what is the point of winning lots of money if I don't spend on it anything afterall.

The end!!

Exams are over \o/

I think they went ok, bit touch and go on whether I get what I need but I think I should do. Once I get a pass then that is all I need. The degree means absolutely nothing to me. When I started college way back a long time ago. I had certain goals in mind for what I wanted to do and achieve by the time I finished. Not 1 of them involved getting a good degree. See back when I started I was a whole lot different then I am now and for the worse. I needed to "improve as a person" That sounds too much like what a self help guru would say but I can't think of a better way of putting it. I think every goal I set myself I have achieved. So while coming out with a pretty worthless degree in an area I have no interest in working in may seem a failure to some people and understandably so. I look upon it differently. I set out to achieve certain goals and I got them and that is all that matters to me.

So after my final exam I dossed around awhile and got home for the champions league final. I was up for Chelsea as I am firmly in the ABU camp and have been so I can remember. The first 25 minutes were awful, very reminiscent of the cup final last year but once Ronaldo scored game started for real. It turned out to be a pretty good final. The best one since 2005 imo. Chelsea were the better team overall on the night but they couldn't put United away when they had the chance and that usually costs you. I feel sorry for Terry, I can't imagine trying to deal with that.

Still a few things which annoy me. When there was a big brawl and Ray Haughton goes "nobody likes to see this" stfu and speak for yourself. I *love* seeing brawls, they are great, the more the better. I think I speak for 95% of people when I say that, seriously who doesn't love seeing a good punch up? 2nd thing which is sort of a function of the first point. Drogba's sending off. While I don't blame the ref for sending him off I think the biggest problem with football is the ridiculous rules Fifa and Uefa lay down. The fact that a little slap like this is seen as an automatic red card is so retarded it's incredible. It was a nothing incident, at best it should be a yellow card. This is an area football have it so wrong while rugby union have so right imo. You watch a Heineken cup match, you have a a bit of punch up, ref talks to them and tells them not to do it again and they both shake hands. That is the way it should be done. Red cards ruin games, the more it happens the more it takes away the spectacle of the game and it's happening too much and I sick of it!
So more brawls and less cards, that's the way forward!

So on to poker, being looking around for a few deals. Devilfish poker has been launched and they have a pretty good deal where you can get a 53-54% rb deal when you add in everything including signup bonus and rb. I think it will be good for me to do something like this for a few reasons 1) I think it would be good to start on different network, fresh start and all that as Devilfish is on Boss network 2) I perform better when there is a signup bonus as opposed to rb. What I mean by that is if I get 50% in rakeback which corresponds to €1000 or get a signup bonus which I have to complete in 30 days and that too is the same as 50% rb and €1000 then I am much more likely to get it with the signup bonus because the feeling of having to play a certain amount of hands otherwise nothing is so much more motivating. This is true of the Unibet bonus I got in February. I played more hands in 19 days then I have ever had to before or since just to get it. It's the same motivation when I have 2 days to go to an exam etc. I just need that pressure of having to play to really put the hands in. There are a few more deals around as well which I am looking at so hopefully I can really motivate myself for the summer and really put the hands in.

April - Quick graph

So here is my graph for April
By no means nothing special, still it's far better then March in every respect. I become much more aggressive so I think I am likely making way too many spewy errors where I bet when I shouldn't do etc but I am trying to work on it and think long term it will turn out good for game. I am happy that I am making money in non showdown pots as I am trying to work on that. I think what I need is just to play consistantly day in day out. That is what I did in february for the Unibet bonus, I think if I can do that then it would really help.