2006 in Perspective

When reviewing this year it's very hard to see past the last couple of months which have been disasterously bad as far as the virtual felt is concerned. However, I think I'll find this excersice nicely cathartic and maybe I'll be able to put a few things in perspective.

My first post of January was to announce that I was quitting my soul detroying office job in an attempt to play poker fpr a living. That job was crushing my soul and it was great to get out.

February saw me hit my fist ever royal flush. It also brought the job offer that I'd been waiting for some time for so as quickly as I started I hung up my boots as a 'professional poker player'.

March saw little blogging action although I continued to update the Kenya Blog that I started, which was basically a transcropt of the journal I kept for the six months I spent out there.

I also set myself some goals of swelling the bankroll and not cashing out until I hit the $10,000 mark.

April saw my bankroll reach $5,000 and I started playing the $200 tables regularly. Mrs. Pink and I started house-hunting and I dipped my toes into the water of sports betting for the Oxford Cambridge boat race.

In May I got round to writing up about the Oxford Cup weekend which actually happened in April. It was a hell of a lot of fun and if it hadn't been fore getting bad beated by Simon Trumper I might have made some serious cash too.

May was also my first loosing month of the year after I foolishly decided to multitable the $60 turbo SNGs on a mad VIP Points chase.

June brought the World Cup and the WSOP. It also brought a good month at the tables. I won in cash games and I played the PokerStars Sunday Million for the first time finishing just inside the money.

July saw us finally exchange contract over our flat after lengthy negotiations with evil estate agents. My barnkroll also hit $10,000 for the first time.

Two massive milestones occurred in August. We moved into our own flat and the very next day, amidst piles of boxes we celebreated our first wedding anniversary!

We has a well earned break in September heading down to the French Pyreneese. Poker also came back from summer break and so began the massive autumn rush where I simply coudn't loose. I also went on a drunken ramble about religion and a few other things.

The rush continued through October and I came very close to qualifying for the Betfair Asia Poker Tour. I also wrote about the odd mistake that was creeping into my game and about how I was yet to experience any sizeable loosing session at the $400 and $600 tables. Right at the end of the month I witness someone blow through $10,000 in less than 3 hours at the $600 tables.

November brought a couple of nice tournament scores (although the really big one still eluded me). However it also brought a halt to the winning run and was the second loosing month of the year.

December is still with us and fresh are the losses I have endured. I seem to have forgotten how to play. Even when I remember how to play tilt seems to take over and forces me to stick my chips in with the worse hand. My bankroll is now back down under $10,000 from a $19,000 high in mid November (although I cashed out about $2,000).

Putting things in perspective, I've still had a winning year to the tune of $12,000. Assuming I can forget everything of the last couple of months, I still feel that my play has improved.

On a non-poker front it has been an excellent year. I'm ten months into a new job which is more enjoyable than anything else that I can imagine doing and has some very exciting future possibilities and Mrs. Pink and I are now firmly on the housing ladder and are very happy in our new flat.

But I dont think that I am truely putting things in perspective. Maybe poker is taking too much of a front seat. Maybe I should be focusing on other things more. Maybe I should be doing more some music. Maybe I should be spending more time learning Turkish and getting involved in community projects.

I think that a balance is required. I dont ever see poker dropping off the face of my life, because I enjoy it so much and it is a handy source of income, but it can't and mustn't exist at the exclusion of most other activities.

A very Happy New Year to you all. I'll be seing you on the other side.

Gloom and Doom

Yesterday I had another huge beat and tilt induced loosing session. I lost about 6 buy-ins in as many hours mostly at the $600 tables. It was pretty hideous. What made it even worse was that I was supposed to be getting lots of things done on my day off instead of being chained to the computer.

It started off with a few beats which then became a few mistakes which lead on to howlers. Beats included runner-runners. Small mistakes included not getting away from AK on a king high flop and then howlers included getting stacked holding QQ against an obvious AA.

After my November losses, yesterday has put a big dent in my roll. I hope that it will help to put things in perspective at the end of what, otherwise, has been a nicely profitable and progress filled year. Stand by for that ubiquitous end of year achievements and ambitions post.

Something positive came immediately from my loosing session. I took a large chunk of my live bankroll from my "Mikey McD"-like hiding place and splashed out on some Christmas goodies for Mrs Pink. We then went for a Chinese and to the cinema to see The Holiday which was extremely enjoyable as far as feel-good Christmas flicks go.

Online poker for the next while will be in the form of Pot-Limit Omaha. I've been meaning to learn how to play it for a while now. I'm starting out at the $100 tables for now.

Not much else to report.

I'm in the process of ordering some custom clay chips from the Blue Chip Company in Las Vegas. I'll get sound to posting some mock-ups shortly once I've finalised the designs. I'm pretty excited about them. Next I'll just have to ensure that I can get a regular home game sorted!

Salisbury Shinanigans

Saturday afternoon saw the inaugural Salisbury Poker Championship. The event raised money for The Princes Trust, a charity that works with underprivileged kids in an effort to give them a better chance in life.

Despite a low turn out of 22 the afternoon was a success. Having a smaller number of players than initially expected allowed for a slightly more gradual blind structure, which allowed for a reasonable amount of play in the first few levels and ensured that the few stacks whose owners were late, hung-over, lost or all of the above, weren't too depleted when they were finally put to use. As it happened two of the final three finishers arrived after the first break.

Having a small field also allowed me to play. Although I might as well not have bothered. I did very little for the first hour before getting short stacked and finally deciding to pick up a few limpers by pushing all-in with K7 soooted from the big blind. Unfortunately, the player under the gun had limped in with AK and even a 7 on the flop wasn't enough to win me the hand which finished with running diamonds to give her the nut flush.

The tournament was wrapped up by the early evening and the various prizes were distributed. Thanks to the generosity of the poker community the value of the prizes probably exceeded the money raised for charity but the online poker sites will benefit from plenty of free advertising judging by the number of FullTilt Caps and PokerStars T-shirts that were given out. The Gutshot donated a meal for two, wine and tournament entry which was one of the prizes that was given out for first place. How convenient for the winner that he happens to be a dealer there and that they've just revoked the free food and drinks that they used to give their staff!

The evening continued chez Pink with crazy cash game action that carried on past 6am. I've said it before and I'll say it again. There really is no better poker than deep-stacked no-limit. It was a lot of fun. I didn't play particularly well, but managed to end up only 50 big blinds down and considering we were about 800 big blinds deep each by the end it wasn't too significant a loss.

Overall it was a successful day and a lot of fun to boot and I'd like to offer a huuuuge thank you to all those who daonted prizes:












and Barry Greenstein

Good Ridence, November

As predicted, November was my second loosing month of the year. It was a big loosing month too, although considering I was playing a bit of $1000 NL here and there it could easily have been worse. I wasn't playing well and when you dont play well, it's hard to win. Without a couple of nice tournament scores, it could have been much worse so I must be thankfull for small mercies.

Thankfully, December has started in the black which is good for the confidence and good because I'm giving 10% of any profits this month to The Global Fund to fight AIDS. You may have come across the RED conept alread. I've signed up for (American Express) RED. My new mobile will be (Motorola) RED and I've pointed Mrs Pink in the direction of (Gap) RED for Christmas prezzies.

It seems like a great idea and the fight against AIDS is one of the 'global issues' that I care about most. I was close to working on an HIV project for my Maters' year but ended up working on SARS instead. I think that if I'd have gone on to do a Dphil/PhD then I would have pushed hard to be involved in an HIV lab. (Ha, but that would have involved my actually needing to do some work!). Since poker was the reason I stopped studying, it seems fitting that I might be able to use it to help fight the battle against AIDS.

What else......?

Oh yes, on the general theme of charity, The Salisbury Poker Chapionship is in two weeks on Saturday 16th February at 1pm,so if you're in striking distance of North London click here for details. Money raised is going to The Princes Trust, who I also hope to be doing some work for sometime in the not too distant future (more news on that another time, perhapse).

I've been playing the odd bit of live poker recently. I've been to The Vic a couple of times in addition to The Gutshot. There are some very good regulars in the Vic's £100 PL game (£3-3 blinds) but there are also enough bad players if one has the disiplin to pick when one plays.

The last couple of Saturdays I've taken to getting up early in the morning, heading to The Gutshot and picking on the tired and stuck people. The £50 minimum, no maximum, Pot-Limit game with £1-2 blinds and a regular £5 straddle can be very good and very deep by early on Saturday morning. Last week I manged a profit of about £200 and I felt I played well. My one mistake was forgetting to top up the parking meter outside and ending up with a £50 fine. I played this morning and managed to get there while the well known Friday Night Whale was still in session. I won about £200 from him, although ended up slightly down overall mostly thanks to this hand: I saw a cheap flop of 2d4s5d with As3s. I lead £20 into the £25 pot and picked up two callers behind me. The turn was the 5s. I bet £75 and a good, semi-loose-aggressive player raised all-in for another £180. I thought for a bit, decided that he probably would have raised the flop with anything that was beating me, so I called. I'd actaully totally forgotten that I had the spade draw for back up so when he turned over 6s7s, it may have come across as a bit of a slowroll when I tabled my hand. I was too busy appologising to him to notice that the spade on the river was actually the 8 which gave him a straight flush.

Not much else to say. I'll try and stop back and post a bit more regularly.