Belated Update

I guess you're all wondering how it's going?

I've just been grinding away and have been putting off posting somewhat as I'm not sure I've got anything useful to say.

The pattern of attempted recovery over the last few weeks has followed this cycle:

Get head straight - play well for a day or two - make money - take some beats - play badly for a day or two - loose money - stress - stress as bit more - get head straight again - etc etc.

I haven't wanted to write anything until I felt I've broken the cycle. I can't be sure that I have now but I think my attitude is better. I think I've played well so far this last week and correspondingly the results have been better.

I've been playing some fairly small stakes as the bankroll has been (and still is) very depleted. I've been playing £100 and $200 tables with half stacks.

I've also become somewhat addicted to these new Head Hunter tournaments that Crypto are running. The prize pool is split in half. 50% is paid out to the top finishers as in normal tournaments and 50% is split up and each player has a bounty on his head. For every player that you eliminate you receive 75% of their bounty and the remaining 25% is added to your head. Buyins for these range from £2 to £20.

They are sooooo soft! People play far too loose in an attempt to knock you out and so all your half decent hands get paid off to the max. I've probably plaid about 12-15 of these. I've final tabled 5 times and won two. Ok, so top prize is never very much (I won a £2 one for about £90 including the heads I took and won a £10 one for about £270 including the heads I took) because so much of the prize pool is shared out as bounties, but my ROI in these things must be pretty good. It's just a shame they don’t have more £20 ones.

Incidentally I'd never won a NL Holdem tournament until now. My only ever tournament victory before was in a $20 PL Omaha Hi/Lo comp for about $500. My best ever Holdem results were 3rd in the Party Poker Steps tournaments ages ago for $3600 and 3rd in a £5 rebuy at the Gutshot for about £250.

I've also been playing a spot of pot-limit Omaha Hi/Li and even some Razz to wind down at the end of a long session. I think I've been a small loser in both.

I don't really have much else to say. I guess this is kind of a transition phase for me. If I can properly turn this around and pull myself out of this hole then I intend to give this full time poker lark a proper shot. If things don't pick up much in the next couple of months then I should have an alternative lined up as I've passed all of the selection processes so far for the job I've been applying for.

That's your lot for now. I hope to be able to bring you more positive updates soon. (That's more updates that are also positive rather than rather than more updates of a positive nature. Shite, this is making no sense. What I'm trying to say is that I consider this to be a positive update and that I hope to be able to bring you more of the same soon. Jeees, gimme a break!

Vey Qvick Update, Ya?

Ground it out at the end of last week and manged to put in three winning days in a row.

Been chilling with little Pink who has been in town this weekend.

Decided to chance my arm on Stars tonight with a last ditch attempt to qualify for the WSOP. Just busted.

Back to the grind tommorrow.

Scraping the Bottom of the Bankroll Barrel

It was no Silver Lining. It was just the eye of the storm. Last night I was all too close to going broke.

I did all the things I shouldn't. I played long and late, I played at stakes too high for my bankroll and I tilted after taking a few beats.

I hit a lot of second best hands during the course of the session, but maybe I should have been able to get away from them. Highlights include top two pair against bottom set (twice) and a set of fours on an A24 flop against the small blind who had 35.

But those details are fairly irrelevant. In fact yesterday is fairly irrelevant now. The important thing is trying to pick myself up and grind grind grind to get it back and not go broke.

I know I have a sizeable rakeback payment coming at the end of the month. Now I just have not to go broke in the meantime. It's definitely doable, but I will have to be the most disciplined that I've ever been.

I think my biggest problem is not being able to walk away from the table when tilt starts to set in or when I get tired. It's especially hard when I'm in a hole or when there are plenty of fish at the table.

I think the key to success over the next few weeks will be playing shorter sessions in order to maintain my focus. I do know when I'm playing well and I should be able to walk away when I'm not.

The poker gods were having a huge laugh this morning when they saw fit to oversee the delivery of my latest Frequent Player Point order from PokerStars. I'd ordered it a while ago, but it was chosen that this morning would be the time for it to drop through the letter box. It was a book by Russell Fox and Scott Harker entitled "Why You Lose at Poker"! At least I could see the funny side of it.

I should probably read it ;-)

As for today, things went better. I've been playing the $200 and £100 tables with short stacks ($150 and £75 respectively) and made about £250. For the most part my focus was spot on and I only made a couple of bad calls. I just need to take each day at a time.

In other news, I played in the Oxford Cup on Sunday, which was a lot of fun, but I'll write about in another post as this one's gone on long enough.

Silver Lining?

I posted my first winning day for a whole week today and it's such a relief. I was getting so stressed. It's dificult to say how much of this bad run is horrible luck and how much is tilt. I'd like to say it's about 80/20, but that may be flattering myself somewhat.

In any case, today I played some good poker. I stuck to playing only 4 tables (well occasionally 5) which alowed me to focus and pick up some good reads. I ran reasonable well too and most of my hands held up. It's nice when that happens.

Hopefully I can fall into a groove and things will start to pick up again.

Time will tell.

P.S. I have large WSOP envy. Next year I WILL be there.

First Few Days

I wish I had good news, but things continue to go very shitty.

I've played Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so far this week.

Things started very well on Tuesday. I played well, ran well and put in a nice start winning about £700.

On Wednesday things reverted and I couldn't seem to win a pot. Add to that a couple of dubious plays and a very expensive miss-click, I finished the day over £1,000 in the hole.

On Thursday my luck was even worse, although I'm happy to say that I played well. Within the first 10 minutes I'd managed to get all-in with AA on a J92 flop against 9T and lose. Things continued in that vain for most of the afternoon. I then had the opportunity to pull back to even for the day: I got my stack in, again with AA, on a 5682 board with one card to come against pocket tens. I lost when a ten spiked on the river and that was a £750 pot. I managed to grind about £300 back in the evening session to end the day about £450 in the hole.

So that makes a grand total of £750 lost in the first three days. On it's own that's nothing special, but it's getting to be the final few straws.

The bankroll is much depleted now (~£4,000) and I'm going to have to move down stakes and grind it out on the $200 tables for a while. I can still make a decent living at those tables and I should still get a reasonable amount in rake-back, but liquidity is a touchy subject in the Pink Household at the moment.

It's Mrs. Pink's Birthday this weekend and I've got a job interview on Tuesday (don't ask!) so I wont be getting in too many hours over the next few days, but as soon as there is more news I'll be letting you have it.

Cross all you fingers and toes!