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.

Feeling better

Not a huge update but I have been playing a bit more since the last entry. Up a bit, nothing major and haven't made up for my March losses yet. What I am happy with though is the fact I have been wanting to play much more. In the last few days I have been watching some of Seabeast videos on Leggopoker and they really have some good stuff in them. He talks a lot about how you should approach playing, what is the right mindset to have. How to think properly etc and it has really helped hearing his perspective on this.

I would be looking forward to putting a proper month of play in but alas it shall not be happening as my exams start in 12 days so obviously for a period of time poker(and most everything) will have to be put on the back burner and I am going to have to give full concentration towards the exams. I just want to do them and be done with college, well least that course forever so just require 1 last effort to cross the finish line. Hopefully when they are done come end of May and start of June I can really start putting the hands in.

Apathy

I haven't been playing much since the Irish Open. I played on Monday, then didn't play until Saturday as I didn't feel like it and not played since. That really has been the story since I finished the Unibet bonus at the start of March. I am not sure what's happening but it just feels like I have lost some of the passion to play. I have even noticed in last few weeks that I am reading poker forums less and less, example I logged on to 2+2 and start reading a really interesting thread on MSNL about a hand played between a poster and Taylor Caby from Cardrunners. I got 9 replies in out of 160 odd and just stopped reading as I didn't care. It's the same on boards, I am reading HH less and less. I am more interested in an online game I have been playing the last few weeks and reading up on that.

As for why this is happening, it's hard to say. I think it maybe an number of reasons. 1) I have not been getting much exercise and this eats into all aspects of life but I think the lack of exercise has meant I lost some energy. The previous 4 years while I wasn't exactly working out but I was walking to and from my house to DCU twice a day 4-5 times a week. That is an hours walk total and it certainly didn't do me any harm. Now with that gone and my lack of sporting activity means I am less motivated and my days are less structured which results in me being apathetic and lazy. Reason 2) is my general playing area. I play on my laptop sitting on my bed. This is bad for numerous reasons. For one my laptop is small and limits how many tables I can fit on screen limiting my number of hands. It also means I have to use touchpad and no mouse which is annoying and means I can't use a lot of scripts such as bet pot script etc. Another bad point is it's just not good posture and I do believe your posture and general playing area is important. As for why I don't just buy a table with desktop, well there is simply no space to put it. If I could I would have already bought it.
Reason 3) maybe I have just lost interest in general and I have come as far as I want to in poker. I don't want this to be true. I feel there is a lot for me to achieve but maybe I just don't want to do it or least put required effort in to achieve it.

So the question is how do I go about rectifying this if I want to. I think it's going to require a fairly big life change on my part which encompasses more then just poker. I need to start doing sport of some sort. I used to play squash, tennis, GAA, football back in the day and picking 1 or more of those back up would really help in lots of ways. It would keep me fit, give me an competitive outlet other then poker which I can look forward to and give more structure to my day/week. I also need to work on other interests and have generally more plans and things to do. I think ironically giving less time to poker which help me as it will make more focused when I do concentrate on it.

All of this is of course easy to say here, doing it is a whole different kettle of fish but I really feel like I have to. I am entering a crossroads now, I (hopefully) will finish off college next month when I do my final 2 exams. Assuming I pass then my fall back for the last 5 years which has helped justify me not comitting to anything and staying at home disappears and I am left facing the rather scary question of what I want to do with my life. So changes are going to happen irresepective and I think poker can be a part of it and a big part if I really want it to be. It's just a matter of how much.

IO general thoughts and stories

So as I said in my last post I was going to be dealing at the Paddy Power Irish open. It turned out better then I hoped and in general it was a pretty good week. I dealt for 57 hours and pretty happy with the money. General perception from most people is that was a successful and very well run weekend and in general I would agree with that. As much as I personally don't like the CityWest Hotel I do have to say it is a good venue for a poker tournament and Paddy Power do a very good job doing the room up and generally marketing and branding the tournament. The bar area was very nicely done up, with bucking bronco thing, computers set up in the lobby etc but most of you probably already knew that. A few things you may not have known about though.

The treatment of the dealers was a bit mixed. On the Friday which was Day 1b I think the room was very very hot. This was a problem throughout the weekend with the room either being very hot or cold, they never seem to be able to find an in between. Other problem was they were a bit short staffed on the day so it meant we didn't get a break for ages. This caused 1 of the dealers to just walk as she wasn't given a break to have a sandwich. Another one walked later on as she was pissed of with treament (so I was told) and then during the women's tournament 1 0f the floor staff wanted to get 1 of the male dealers sent home because he 1) didn't smile and 2) didn't layout the cards TV style when there was an all in called. I asked a few people and none of us do that for an all in. He was really angry about it and tbh I don't blame him. He didn't get sent home, just got a polite warning but when you have people walking out, people being sent home for not being up to the job and your short staffed then trying to get someone sent home for nothing is not a clever thing to be doing.

This seem to be a bit of watershed moment though as after all this things got much better, we were generally dealt with more respect, they were very appreciative and couldn't thank us enough. There was a nice moment when Liam Flood going on mike after the main event ended and asked the players to give the dealers a big round of applause so I think some of the criticism by the dealers who walked probably went a long way to turn it around.

Another interesting tit bit was on Day 1a, all the players got one 5k chip but about 2 or 3 hours in they were taken out of circulation and not used in Day 1b. I asked why just out of curiosity and nobody seemed to know. I eventually got told by TD he tell me when it was over. The 5k chips were eventually introduced mid to late into day 2 but were never really used all that much. When it was all done I asked David the TD about it he said the reason was they suspected that the 5k chips were being sold off, as it turns out they got it wrong hence they were re-introduced. I am not sure what led them to believe they were being sold off originally and how they found out otherwise but I always think they should use different chips each year to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen but I guess it would be pretty expensive to buy them every time.

1 final story which I found interesting and sort of disturbing. I was chatting to some of the people involved in the production side and they said that some of the players were not putting their holecards on the little window where the holecard camera lied until the very last second. This was sort of annoying them and they went to try and see why. It turns out what was happening was some of the players kept looking around at all the cameras and they picked up on something, when someone had a big hand the camera would zoom in on them before action had reached them so these players wanted to hold off putting their cards into the area assiged so that the cameras couldn't give them away to others at the table. If all of this is correct then that shouldn't ever happen but it is symptomatic of the biggest problem with the tournament as a whole. They whored it out for TV. This is true in both years I have worked at the IO in that they try to run the tournament to suit TV instead of how it should be done of TV being made to work around what is best for the tournament and the people who play in it.

Hopefully they sort out these issues next year and maybe make the structure a bit better mainly because I may try to qualify for it. I am hoping 2009 is my year for playing some big live tournaments.

Away from the IO, my sleep pattern is much better and I woke up today feeling pretty refreshed. I am likely not going to play today but hopefully start up by end of the week and get myself playing and running more like I did in February

The mehness of March

March has been continuing in much the same vein as first paragraph of my last post. I barely played at all this month. My sleep issues continued and my usual ways of remedying them have no worked like before. Twice I stayed up for about 26-30 hours trying to reset the body clock but both times I just end up sleeping for about 5 hours and waking up at 3am. This caused me many problems including the fact I wasn't awake or feeling fresh when ipoker was busy. The few times I have played have well been bad. I am down a good bit this month, I imagine the above contributing a good bit to it. So my move to 400nl has been postponed for a while until I start feeling it again at 200nl and start winning again!

From tomorrow on I am going to be taking a break of sorts from online play for the Easter week as I shall be dealing at the Irish Open in the Citywest. Last year in the lead up to the Irish Open I was really excited by it, this year is different. I don't feel 1 ounce of excitement about it at all. I'm really not sure why either. It might be due to my general lethargicness that I have feeling at the moment and also because it's in Citywest. I really dislike that place for oh so many reasons but on plus side I am staying there so annoying taxi journeys home. I am just looking to get through it, hopefully it goes by quickly and also hopefully being forced to be awake at certain time will ensure my body clock is forced into a more normal sleep pattern so when it's over I can look forward to April and put in some proper time and run more like I did in February!