March Review

Table Hours - 69.5
Hands - 65k
Table Profits - -$6622
Bonuses - $4148
Net Profit - -$2474


OK, so I ran really bad this month. The red line in the graph shows my expected value (ev) which is what I should have won according to probability. But thats not the important issue here - despite the runbad, my game over the last 65k has been at best, breakeven.


Breakeven is still winning though? or is it?


Don't listen to what anyone else says about running breakeven. Sure, you can get Supernova Elite or 2x SNE and make six figures running breakeven or even at a slight loss on the tables, but I don't see how healthy that can be for your mindset in the long term. Besides, no one can deny that #winning feels downright good! Last year I told some of my poker friends that I'd put my Supernova Elite chase as my primary goal, spending more time grinding and playing poker at the cost of spending time improving. I did exactly that, but I also said that I'd spend more time in 2011 improving my game. And I'm not just talking about improving my CAP game, it goes much more further back than that, back to the fundamentals of poker itself, and my thought process when I'm making decisions.

Its been something that I've been told time and time again, both by my friends in poker and outside, but I refused to listen to them. I was telling Seb yesterday that even Jason, as bad as a coach and person he was, recognised that fundamental flaw in my game. He tried to help me fix that issue, but I don't take being shouted down at and being berated for it, too well :) And because I've never bothered to address the issue, it has severely affected my game until now.


A matter of perspective


Its a matter of perspective of the way we view things and other people in the world. You know the common sayings, 'stop comparing yourself to other people' (i.e. keeping up with the Jones's), 'stop moaning you have it quite lucky compared to people in Africa' etc. You could say that about everything in your life, theres always someone better off than you and someone worse off. Even so, that shouldn't stop you from trying to achieve greater success in the long term. Its human nature to aim for gold, to be the best, whether we get there or not isn't the point. And this is exactly how I feel. If this year turns out to be like last year, i.e. I make SNE and six figures again, but not improve, then in my opinion I've not accomplished anything. The money won't make me happy.


You can't do it alone

Especially in poker, you'll hear time and time again that those who make the most and quickest progress are the ones who constantly talk poker with like-minded people. Not only is it key to improving your thought process when discussing hands, but also the motivational aspect of talking to those who are of a higher level of thinking and success will help drive you to work harder. Whether thats through a study group, or hiring a coach (which you should always view as an investment if you're taking poker seriously and not a cost) or just talking with poker friends, networking can open doors which would otherwise be closed.


Don't get complacent - the best piece of advice that was written in my high school leaver's book, written by a classmate who unfortunately, I have forgot. And that's what's happened as reflected by my first losing month since mid last year. The good news is that I've taken the first steps to finally fix this fundamental flaw in my game. That's all I'll say for now!

Mid Month Update

As per usual, this month started off really bad. I don't know why, but its always happening. After a week in, I found myself down over 3k, running bad because my all-in ev was around zero (this basically means I should've been breakeven). So time to take a few days off, we drove out to Bath - home of the Roman natural thermal spa . We did the usual sight seeing, and also spent 4 hours in the Thermae Spa. Lucky for us it wasn't that busy on a Tuesday, and the weather was great so we spent almost 2 hours at the rooftop spa:

I definitely recommend that anyone who's currently stressed out from their jobs or whatever, spend some time there! So relaxing :)

So now after that mini-break, I'm back to grinding on the tables, feeling motivated again. I have about 3 and a half months before I fly out to Vegas for the Main Event, so I really need to get a move on with both Supernova Elite and learning a bit of tourney poker before then. As I'm behind pace for my targets this month (I don't even want to think about pace for 1.5x SNE!!) and also because the number of fish at NL400 seems to have dwindled abit since the changes, I took the plunge and started mixing in NL600 tables into my grind. So far its going ok, theres not much difference to the NL400 games except the pots and betting structures are a fraction bigger. The regulars are mostly the same as NL400 and the fish too, they are just as bad as they are at lower stakes, except they have more money to lose :)

In other news, I've recently been buying alot of things online, a friend mentioned that I had developed a bout of 'retail therapy' to ease my runbad on the tables, but I disagree - sure, I bought alot of games for my PC and X-Box recently, but they are there for when I need to cooldown from a really bad poker session. The kinect I bought, was for the purpose of shifting some weight, and being a bit more active. I've also spent a fair bit on computer stuff, namely a new Steelseries Xai mouse:

A new PSU for the PC that I initially bought in Macau:

A 60gb OCZ Vertex 2 SSD:

A Logitech G510 Keyboard (awaiting delivery):

The point I'm trying to make is, all the above stuff is for 'work', i.e. poker. I needed a decent 2nd backup mouse (I already have a Razer Imperator) to replace the Deathadder which started double-clicking randomly, causing me to lose money on the tables. I got so fed up with trying to fix that damn mouse that I binned it and got the Xai. You need a reliable and comfortable mouse, if you're gonna be grinding lots of poker tables for long hours.

My new PSU actually saved me money, because after almost 2 years of suffering random BSODs with that PC I bought in Macau, not knowing whether it was an overheating issue, a faulty mb, cpu or ram - I figured out that the stupid people at the PC shop had incorrectly built my machine with an inadequate PSU! So now that my PC is stable, I can put on hold my plans to upgrade to the Sandybridge platform, for at least another year - saving up for a house/flat is still our immediate priority.

The SSD was a must-buy too - since I'm running a SQL database and lots of background programs when I'm playing poker, I need a quick and responsive PC. The SSD solves that problem nicely. The G510 keyboard, well, this crappy Razer Arctosa that I also bought in Macau is a US style one and doesn't have a UKP sign. Nor does it have backlight keys. Those excuses alone are enough to justify getting a new keyboard, will all the bells and whistles of the G510.

Not everything I bought was expensive though, I did manage to pickup a bargain along the way, in the form of some G-Star jeans that were on sale for only 15quid, original price 80!

Online shopping ftw!

Vegas Booked, 2011 Goals and why I play poker for a living

Ok, so I initially had planned to do a more detailed blog update on my February results. That was just before I ran super bad and was down 3k after that ridiculous -2k friday, in less than 2hrs! But, as I've been told many times, its not worth bothering dwelling on the past. Therefore, I won't be posting Part 2 of my Feb review :)

I realise through talking to my friends, that its March already, and I haven't even stated what my goals are for this year, or why I've started blogging again. Well, the plan last year was to achieve Supernova Elite (which I did), and from my winnings, buy a house/flat in Manchester. That plan went straight out of the window last December - Yin and I realised we wouldn't be happy up there so we made a decision to buy in London...

2011 Goals
1. Achieve SuperNova Elite x1.5 (1.5million vpps)
2. Be in a position to buy a house/flat in London by the end of the year

Being a professional poker player, besides having its obvious downsides, means that I cannot get a mortgage here in the UK. This means I'll have to save up enough to be able to buy outright. However, the good news is that from gaining SNE last year, we're over halfway to being able to achieve goal number 2. Hard work does pay off.

Goal number 1, I'm very far behind pace currently sitting on just over 140k vpps for the year so far...not even on pace for just SNE x1! So I really need to set a goal to obtain 100k vpps for this month. That should put me just about on pace for SNE, and then in April I can try and get ahead of pace and go for the 1.5 million mark.

Goals aside, I want to explain why I chose to focus on playing poker for a living. There are many reasons, but the main one has to be that it puts me back in the driving seat. I treat poker seriously, like a business. I'm the boss, and how well I do financially depends on me. If I waste a few hours of my time surfing the net, I don't earn anything for those hours. Simple.

I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur in some kind of way, and being a poker pro is probably as close as I can get to running my own business, without the major startup costs and risks. Perhaps in a few years time, I'll save enough up from poker and start my own business, idk what yet.

Freedom - unlike working for an employer, or having other people (i.e. customers) rely on me for opening hours, I can chose when I work, and when I can take time off. I don't have to get up at 7am to catch the packed bus, train or tube to work. I work at home.

I find that I'm more motivated when I can see the direct results of my hard work. At the most basic level, poker is simply a card game based on math, with the random element of the dealing of the cards defining the luck aspect of the game. This is what seperates poker from chess - in chess, all the information is available to both players - hence theres no luck involved. With poker, the lack of complete information makes the game much more exciting, and attracts gamblers in bigger numbers than pure luck games like roulette or fruit machines. Poker has the correct balance of skill and luck, such that a skilled player will overcome the short term luck element over a sufficient enough sample - this is what professional poker players rely on. Luck is still confined within the mathematics of probability, so the better you can estimate your chances of winning and make decisions accordingly the higher your long-term winrate will be.

Funny as this might sound, I'm not really a gambling person. If you'd known me over 6 years ago, you'd probably know that I didn't play the lottery, and I had an overall negative view on gambling as a whole. That all changed though, when I stumbled upon a way to make profits from wagers that seemed in the bookie's/house's favour. From casino bonuses, sportsbook bonuses and arbitrage, the natural progression was onto poker. But poker was a different beast, it required me to study the game, from the wealth of information ranging from books and magazines, internet forums and coaching sites, to poker coaching. Almost 3 years ago I quit my job, and here I am still in the game. Whilst I'm certainly no expert (yet), I'm more than competent at what I do, and certainly better than I was last year!. You could say I'm lucky that I found poker, but it takes more than luck to survive purely on poker as an income for almost 3 years :)

So where am I right now? Well, this year I made a decision to focus more on improving my game, whilst still putting in a tonne of forum so I can put my Elite badge to the most effective use! Last year I was grinding small stakes no-limit, but this year I made a permanent move to the mid-stakes CAP games, occasionally dropping back down to small stakes when the mid-stakes games aren't so good, or when I'm running bad.
Two months in and overall its going well so far. I'm in a much stronger position both in terms of my poker skill and financially, than I was 12 months ago. Last year certainly was a grind, but this year I'm determined to keep a balanced life between poker and everything else, like going out and holidays!

Speaking of holidays, its been almost 18 months since I came back from Macau, and I've not left the country in the time since! Whilst last Christmas, new years and Chinese New Year all turned out, to put it bluntly, CRAP, I'm determined to make up for it. Already booked are a short mini break to Bath, but the big one will be in July, when I fly out to Las Vegas for the first time, and play in the $10,000 Main Event of the World Series of Poker. One time please!

As a Supernova Elite, PokerStars will be providing accommodation for my stay - I'll be representing them, so hoping to do them proud by trying to finish in the cash! I'm pretty much a n00b when it comes to tourneys, so I'll need to practice and study in the next 3 months if I'm to have any chance of navigating the live circuit. But even if I don't make it past day 1a/b/c/d, at least I'll have the rest of the stay as a well deserved vacation.

Last year, Elites got to stay at the Palms in the 1-bedroom suites, check it out:
http://www.palms.com/rooms/palmsplace/1-Bedroom-Suite

I know PokerStars won't disappoint their VIPs this year ;) I just got round to booking my flights today, and am happy that I can cross that item off my to-do list.

On a final note in this epic long mega blog post, I want to share with you a video of the legendary PokerStars Team Online Pro, Randy 'Nanonoko' Lew. This inspirational video pretty much sums up the reasons why I play poker, and my hopes of emulating some of his success.

F*ck Fridays!

February Review - Part 1

Been a little busy of late so I'll get round to posting a full Feb review later today.

Table Hours - 98

Table Profits - $3796

Bonuses - $5514

Net Profit - $9310

Not a bad month profit wise, but I really didn't put in the hours that I was aiming for. As a result of my slacking, I'm quite far behind pace for 1.5x SNE. Will post my goals for March, stay tuned!