An Idle poker life for me

Still grinding away

2009-05-22T05:36:00.000-07:00

Its several months since my last update. Not much in the way of news, had a couple of months of not playing much, just couldn't raise the enthusiasm. Anyway I think my jaded-ness (is that a word, well it is now!) is wearing off and I'm starting to play more. Haven't been keeping very good accounts, but I think I'm about $500 up for this financial year from freerolls in the main, made $65 on party poker freeroll earlier this week - I was 6th, 1st place was a $5500 package to Vegas would have been nice to get that. Ah well, couple of months when I need to take some chances on a late entry to WSOP, don't rate my chances unless I can get lucky AND get my concentration together.

I bought a laptop and a USB mobile t'internet dongle (with 1G a month vodaphone connection) - one of the reasons for buying it was that I'm fed up with AOL/Ipoker issues. I reckon (with discount on computer) that this extra internet connectivity costs me about £3 per week .... and 1G is plenty for my needs. In fact 100Mb would probably be enough as I can play most of the time using my normal wireless connection. The laptop means I spend more time playing poker with half a brain and watching telly from the sofa with the other half as against sitting in my office with no telly to distract me. Hell, I can now play poker sitting on the loo if I so desire - not that I have so far, but if I ever do have a gippy tummy then I have the technology :-).

Anyway - I'll try and keep this blog more current - promise.

End of Year Report

2009-02-01T12:56:00.000-08:00

Well my poker financial year ended today with a grand total profit of $7772, plus a $10K entry to the WSOP. Not bad, the final 3 months (nov,dec,jan) of the year have been so-so with a profit of $1600 or so (and no losing weeks since Nov 2nd!). One "big" win of Euro600 coupled to a lot of smaller wins, it must be time for me to hit a substantial win again soon. Carried over are two tickets for Virgin festivals (worth Euro150 each) the first of which plats in Newcadtle in April.

Obviously winning the entry to the WSOP was the highlight of the year and that will be fondly remembered for a long time to come. Now that I've actually been to the WSOP my next Poker goal for 2009-2010 dream is to get into a major live tournament and win some cash. To do that I've definitely got to risk more than I do now. My secondary target is to exceed $10K winnings from online poker in the next financial year. Thirdly - I want to play much more live poker, so I'm going to have a virtual £500 to invest in live poker this coming year, the idea is to play through that amount and (hopefully) end the year with more than I started. So I intend to publish some live game stats on here.

The final thing to do is mention (once again) my thanks to Punters Lounge as at least half my profits are due to their efforts in poinying me at value games of online poker. Heres to a good 2009/10 season!!!!

How much the $7772 represents in "real money = Nritish Pounds" is hard to figure, with the fluctuations of the £ versus other currencies. If I take it at todays rate of $1.50 or so to the GBP then it represenys £5000 or so - or (say) £100 a week. This is an acceptable (amazing in many ways) amount for the low risk strategy that I employ. One thing I have definitely noted is that the key to winning tournaments is patience - the amount of money I've not won by jumping in with big bets too soon is large. Patience is highly coupled with mood, I have definite periods when my mood isn't right for playing poker and generally I am fairly sensible and stay away from anything likely to be expensive when I recognise that I'm not playing well because of this.

The profits from my poker represent a nice lot of "spare" money that allows me lots of lifes little extras. I've said it before (and I'll say it again) as a proper job then unless I increase my level of play (and therefore risk) then the pay level is crap (less than minimum wage), but I look on it as a hobby (I still enjoy the game) where at the end off the day I get paid for playing. The money won, is something akin to figuring out what your handicap is in golf - the way I see it I'm a good club player who on a really lucky day might qualify for the county championship and get 3rd place. If i didn't enjoy it I'd stop, I'd probably also stop if I lost money over any significant period.

Dribs and drabs.....

2008-11-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

Last two weeks have a recorded profit of $19 and $95 respectively. Thats not the whole tale, I ended up 2nd overall in the October festival league which gave me a seat in a forthcoming Virgin festival. The seat is priced at Euro150 - but you can only win them and their true value is much in excess of this. Have also won entry yo various other freerolls including the next vroll final and the Bluesq bubble. The winning of seats such as this is a valuable part of my profit plan. Tonight (Sunday) I won $50 from a freeroll found on Blackpool Club poker - all I had to do was sgn up for their facebook group - freebies are there to be found and exploited.

MY chest is giving me a lot of problems at the moment, my lungs seem full of phlegm, maybe I need a visit to the desert air of Las Vegas to survive the winter. Hehehe - any excuse for a visit to Vegas.

So I now stand at $+6184, my overall target of $+7000 by start of february 2009 looks assured and thats not counting the other non-attributed seats I've won to WESOP and Virgin festivals.

[later] just discovered the upgrade of my blog has distroyed my sidebar profit listings .... will attempt to remedy that asap.

A modest week

2008-10-21T06:12:00.000-07:00

Last week was one of those so-so weeks, good in parts. Profit was $70, but I probably have a guaranteed result in the monthly Virgin festival league due to a first and a 7th adding points to my performance in week 1. Since only best 4 count I'm well placed to get something from this.

Ongoing uearly profit now stands at $6070.

I've been playing a lot of Virgin (Boss network) raked hands. Well above the normal numbers I play to qualify for the tue,thu,sun vroll satellites. Aim is to qualify for the bosswide Euro25K game at end of every month, The results from the "el cheapo" fixed limit games I play to achieve raked hands were looking very profitable until I came up against some muppet who insisted on raising everything and unfortunately got a run of luck that was beyong belief. I still ended up ahead but will keep an eye out for this plonker in the future - hios run of luck was too good, almost enough to make me believe that he had a back-door into the software (like the absoute poker scandal). i can't believe he really did because the snmall stakes involved wouldn't warrant it.

Got the final of the Inside Poker pokergod on William Hill tonight (Tuesday) - 40 contestants with (I beleieve) a $10K cruise package up for grabs - heres hoping.

Apologies - I've been slacking

2008-10-13T03:26:00.000-07:00

Its a long time (6 or 7 weeks) aince my last entry. Thats been due to taking a holiday, discovering a browser game called Travian and some chest problems. For several weeks my "work ethic" was even lower than usual and I played very little in the way of online poker. I wandered up to Nottingham and played in the PL WSOP £50 live game but my heart wasn;t in it - mind you I was very impressed with the facilities at Dusk till Dawn and got a free T-shirt :-). Poker seems to be providing a lot of my clothing nowadays!!

Last week my poker improved somewhat and I've done well in the first two Virgin Festival games on Monday and Tuesday. I had an exceedingly lucky 2nd place in one of the "New Littlewoods" freerolls and that gained me $540 and on Sunday (despite Aol mucking me about with network problems) came 6th in the Virgin vroll. Overall I had $+566 for the week and my total year now stands at just over $+6000. With the dollar having improved against the £ this means I'm ahead of last years results in GBP terms - although its all bad accounting as its exceeding hard to figure out exact amounts due to currency fluctuations. Perhaps I ought to start a deposit/withdrawal trail to figure out true profits in GBP.

With the state of the world economies I've started to liquidise some of my assets. I've purchased about 15 bottles of malt whiskey (special deal from Waitrose), converting cash into "trade goods" - now all I need is a shotgun, a years supply of beans and a hideout in the hills and I'm ready for armageddon - hahahaha. Thank god I didn't have a fortune invested in shares - or I'd be bemoaning the huge losses in this blog.

Anyway enough for now. I will try to get back to my more regular update schedule.

Charging ahead....

2008-08-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

Its been a reasonable week pokerwise. The best result was from PaddyPower on Wednesday, the "battle of the sites" where we had a PL knockout to see who would represent PL in a future game. I came 2nd for a profit of $118, pity it wasn't first but I must admit to some luck in getting to 2nd. Head-to-head was against McG and my Ax lost out to his KQ. Overall I ended the week $+145 giving a yearly ongoing of $+5167, but along the way also gained some points which may lead to more success.

I've broken through the 5K barrier

2008-08-17T15:13:00.000-07:00

A reasonable weekly profit of $156 brings my ongoing total to $+5023, beating the $5K barrier. A 1st place in Mondays Virgin Festival league got me $40 plus some valuable points in the league which will hopefully give me some winnings late in the month. Tuesday had a very fortunate 2nd place in the Gnuf $1 baby (a consistent little earner) for $77, Wenesday it was $25 from a new site "The Blackpool Club" for 16th spot in a freeroll, Thursday I was 2nd in the Betfair Annette FR which won me a $212 seat in the Friday $20K tournament - unfortunately I got virtually no cards in that game. Saturday was pretty much a non event and on Sunday my usual Virgin vPoints game earned me 8th place and 1000 points (effectively £10). My stock of vpoints is gradually climbing and instead of converting them into cash I'm saving them with the intent of working my way towards the 50K points required for a free return flight to Vegas - up to 8297 at the moment.

So all in all it was a fairly reasonable week, the biggest disappointment being my failure to get any money from the Betfair $20K game.

My sleep patterns at the moment are exceeding wierd, too many late nights and late awakenings. At least this Thursday I got up (just!) in time for breakfast with Terry and Jake.

No poker this coming Tuesday as its a London pubcrawl. Its a pitybecause Tuesday has more than its fair share of good games. Lets see if Monday can perform well.

I'm going to have a quiet August

2008-08-03T14:07:00.000-07:00

I've missed a couple of weeks reporting profit/loss. I'm definitely in need of a rest - Paul and Pernille's party in Copenhagen (last weekend) was great. Few games of poker there where I cane ahead on the poker games but definitely lost on the drinking games - them Danes sure like their shots - bottle after bottle of strange stuff (like Jagermeister and Fishermans Friend) gave various people headaches. Wimp that I am I stuck to the Toborg and Carlsberg. The hospitality was magic. Paul was just finishing his party room - bar/pool table/dartboard in a room in the cellar - right next to "the dungeon" (Paul has suspicions about the people they bought the house from - hehe), so besides poker we had drunken pool and drunken dart competitions going on till the early hours of the morning.

Anyway to get back to poker profits. 3 weeks figures to record since my visit to Vegas, 1st week was $+113, then a loss of $-8 (no games Friday/Sat/Sunday of that week) and this week a profit of $+89, mainly due to Virgin vroll successes and Virgin cheapskate tournaments. All in all that moves my ongoing years profits to $+4866. Onwards and upwards. At least the reported profits are on track to beat last years totals.

Currently my pokerlust is running low. Got to think of something to revitalise my play - maybe Vegas has spoiled me too much, maybe its just the normal summer lull. Need to force myself to play something other than freerolls.

Back to real life

2008-07-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

I'm back in the UK and (just about) recovered from jetlag. Flying overnight this way is harder than flying westwards. I definitely prefer the UK weather temperatures around 110 are hard to bear - give me the 65/70 of the current English summer.

After going out of the WSOP I got time to do some "gambling". Not real gambling though. Fruit machines are for fools and I only played them with "free" money - Planet Hollywood has a free pull machine in the lobby, having signed up with their players club you get 1 pull a day - I won $5 free slot play - went to the closest machine and ended up with $14 real money which I cashed out. Never bothered with blackjack or roulette (roulette wheels in the European mode of having a double-0 - crap odds and blackjack only payong 6-5). I didplay 3 $80 poker tournaments in Planet Hollywood - a bit of a ripoff as they take at least 25% for the house/dealers - however I made the cas in games 2 and 3 and ended up $400 in profit - yippee. In the 3rd game Runa (Duncan) also made the money so it was a good night for PLrs.

Can totally recommend the fountains at the Bellagio - stirring music coupled to a great visual display. Went round downtown with Duncan, Helen and Ed - Fremont St experience was worth the view coupled to some daredevil late night motorcycle action which really got the adrenaline going. 3 motorcycles being driven round a fairly small metal sphere without anyone crashing was awesome.

Ended up buying quite a lot of clothes whilst I was over there - some really good bargains to be found on the sales racks. Even having spent all that money buying stuff I still came back with a few dollars out my budget. So I reckon the whole thing didn't cost me a bean. A lot of that was due to the hospitality suite provided by Everest - free food, free drink, free internet for a lot of the time - so many thanks to them.

Vegas was good to be in for a couple of weeks but I don't think I'd like to live there ... too many tourists for a start, too many people chqasing the tourist dollar and weather that sucks. If I ever go back there on a proper holiday then its going to be in December to March when the weather is much more to my liking. I've threatened my bro's that I'm celebrating my 60th birthday over there - I'm trying to incentivise them to start saving. Mind you, I do worry, some of them are far too mesmirised by the flashing lights of fruit machines and not as aware of the odds as I am.

Have played very little poker this week, however I did manage a profit on the $1 baby game and eSport have finally paid up ($110) on the league. Unfortunately BikeRadar didn't make it past the semifinals of the Champios League (final game of that tomorrow) so only another $50 or so to come, Still at least I'll be reporting profits tomorrow.

Down and Out in Las Vegas

2008-07-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

Out of Day3 in the first 30 minutes - much as I expected with my short stack. Well at least I can say I went all in against Phil Hellmuth who was sat on my right. He raised the bet to 4,800 I went all in with my massive 21K and the guy on the button (who had fewer chips than me) also went all-in. Hellmuth folded - showing us an A - my 99 versus button's KK - K on the flop and I was down to 6K chips. Late, as UTG I went all-in with T7s and got called and then reraise - initial caller folded and reraiser had AJ - two live cards but there was no result in my favor. Ah well - I gave it a shot - I was only 600 away from the start of the money.

Its been an experience and I've enjoyed it though I'd be very reluctant to do it using my own money. I think you've got to go into day 1 and play loose-aggressive with the intent of getting up through the ranks or going out early, the "real" players here recognise tight aggressive players and rarely double you up.

My biggest complaint about Vegas is the weather at this time of year - far too hot to be a tourist -still in the 90's come midnight. I now have a few days of proper holiday time so its Fremont Street, the Bellagio fountains etc. The Everest hospitality lounge closes today, so I'll have to start paying for stuff .... the several days of spending relatively little money on food and drink has now come to an end but left me ahead of my spending curve so much that I may have enough for a "free" laptop. I'm going to be very interested to see how much the experience here may have rejuvenated my online poker lust .... lets see if I make a little more money online when I return.

Chip and a chair

2008-07-09T13:01:00.000-07:00

Well I survived Day 2 but with only 22K in chips, as I started the day with 15K then I suppose its a sort of improvement - but since day 2A yielded only 40% or less survivors then I think it counts as a setback. Trouble is I don't have enough chips to be able to speculate with semi-decent hands - especially as the big stacks invariably get in the 3 times raise ahead of me when I have position. Means I'm reduced to playing tight hands and when I do go in everyone folds - obviously I have too tight an image.

Day 3 (Thursday) starts with blinds of 1600/800 and antes of 200 - so it looks like I'm relying on a couple of double ups to potentially make the money. $21K for 666th would suit me - so if you are listening poker gods then stick one to the devil by letting good ole me take 666th place (or better). Chip leader finished with 750K chips - which sounds a lot, but is only 35 times starting stack which whilst almost guaranteeing him a money place is nowhere near a guarantee of final table.

PokerKat went out before me with three of a kind beaten by a river straight .... she was "not amused" in a Queen Victoria sort of way and didn't wish the guy who beat her well - just got up and shuffled off. I think there was a guy at the other end of the table who has a reputation - all the dealers said "Hi Chris" as they sat down. About my age (mid 50's +), looking as though he was concentrating hard. He was 5 seats to my right but always seemed to be raising before the flop when I was SB/BB - he got a fair deal of respect. I did catch him a couple of times using my only major option with my stack - All in - and he always folded.

Ed is on today .... started at 12pm - here's wishing him luck. Think Moles in there somewhere as well but didn't see him this morning.

[later} Currently sitting here in the lounge with a glass of wine in front of me, travelled over to the Rio hoping to see Ed with a big smile on his face and stories of a big stack, but the news is he and mole are both out leaving me the only PL rep in the WSOP. I wish I'd had a bet on myself (think the odds were 5-1 for me lasting longest) but if I had of done then I suspect it would have been the kiss of death. Early doors for me tonight though DaMatrix (Benny) did mention a porn convention at Planet Hollywood - Vegas is the city that is always partying - when I was queuing for the WSOP they gave you free sachets of caffeine "uppers" I was wondering whether they give you free Viagra or free penicillin as you enter a porn convention ). I want to be totally aware for my all-in strategy tomorrow - maybe I should try to bribe the dealer? On my day 1 the guy on my left (Derek)kept trying that - "double me up dealer and this $100 is yours" putting a $100 note on the table (Benjamin Franklin?) - it would be worth it for a shot at $21K.

Day 2 - time to get lucky

2008-07-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

Just waiting in the Everest hospitality suite for the start of Day2A - I go in with (I think) about 1700 others with 15K in chips - a lot less than the average - so I need some luck as well as an aggressive (but still tight) play mode.

Am still forming my view on Vegas - its definitely a fun place but a bit too fake and glitzy for my taste. Yesterday I went shopping to a mall on S maryland Parkway, took a huge bus ride and saw some real (non holidaymakers, non gamblers) - the size of Vegas is huge - the gambling supports a huge number of people in service roles. Blackpool on steroids is my best description so far. Too many sad people looking for cheap thrills IMHO - trouble is am I one of them?

Things are so cheap - bought 2 pairs of pants (trousers and 5 shirts for $80 -from Old Navy - a soer of storew on a par with C&A I suspect. If I win the WSOP (or even get to lasr 9) then maybe I'll go shopping to the posh shops at Caesars Palace, the Venetian, or the Bellagio. Payouts start at 666th - wonder if theres any significance in that number - hehe? Possibly Vegas really is Sin-City.\

Duncan (Runadrum) went out towards the end of Day 1D - whilst Ed (glceud) made it through with 29K (or so I'm told).

Anyway - 45 minutes to go to the start - time to try and get my brain in gear. I'm suprised at the fact I'm relatively non-nervous - I think the factor of not paying to enter is a mahjor part of that.

[later} well its dinner break time (after 3 2 hour sessions) and I'm on 35K chips - still the low stack or around there on my table. Getting lots of respect - mainly 'cos I'm definitely playing tight. 2 more 2 hour sessions to go - if I'm still around after that I get to play Day 3 on Thursday ... if I make end of day 3 then it should be about payout time - 666th gets $21K ... I'd be exceeding happy to make day 3 :-).

Currently sitting on my right is Pokerkat - Kathy Leibert - top ranking woman player at the moment ..... see www.pokerkat.com. I wondered why the cameras were so busy at my table .... obviously it wasn't to capture my magic poker movess. I'm really in the big time now.

Free drinks - gorgeous girls

2008-07-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

This is the life. I had a good time thanks to PlayboyPoker and their party. It was, I think, considerably quieter than the Bluff party, no lapdancers, but probably more suited to my taste. The sight of fit young ladies tenpin bowling in 4 inch high heels was quite impressive. One of them (who later changed into proper bowling shoes) was really good (at bowling). I have a suspicion that they were used to slightly raunchier clientelle than the PlayBoy poker crowd that turned up.

And so to my day 1 in the WSOP - 5 sessions of two hours - start at 12pm end at 1:00am - greate fun and I achieved my !st objective to survive Day 1. I did survive but only carryover 15K chips to day 2A (Tuesday 8th) which is a bit less than the average of 40K. I played very tight the whole game - went down to 8K chips whem my AK lost to a slow played AA (who luckily had a smaller stack than me) after a flop of K42 vanilla. Couple of hands later I rescued myself when my 78o (as Dealer) limped in and flop was 8K8 on a family flop with lots of limpers. It all checked to me and I checked - turn was 8 giving me quads and I checked again (5 checks in front of me) - then a 2 or something on the river and every one checks round to me. I'm beginning to think here I am with quads and noone is going to pay me off - bet 2K and big stack goes all-in, I call faster than a speading bullet and the big stack (who has slow played AA) thinks himself unfortunate when I show my 8. I think I played that one well.

The table I played on was a fairly friendly one - with 5 of us staying there all day - nice banter etc. Only drama was in the last 2 hours when a short stacked player threw a wobbly when his 66 in hole all in (A42 on flop) was called by a big stacker holding JJ in the hole (think he was hoping to represent an A) - having lost he went totally psycotic and the table would have scattered if he had a gun. The rest of the table (sponsored players, satellite winners) were a bit shocked - general opinion was this guy had lost too much of his own money and thus went ape. Moral is - if its your own money and you can't afford to lose it then dont play - my philosophy (as anyone who has been reading will know full well) is don't play with your own money.

I've arrived and with my luggage

2008-07-02T11:13:00.000-07:00

I'm in vegas. Not that keen on UA Airways because they charge for in-flight alcohol and took off an hour late from Heathrow which got me very sweaty on transferring for the Vegas flight. Just made that flight, but was worried about my checked luggage making it at the same speed via baggage transfer (my own fault for packing some glenmorangie - more than 100ml liquid not allowed in hand luggage rule). I'd forgotten I had some sun screen in my hand luggage - this made it through Heathrow but when I tried putting it through security at Philly they discovered it and took forever searching till they found it ... with me sweating on the Vegas to philly leg of the flight.

Anyway I got to Vegas, picked up my luggage and was in the Imperial Palace for 8:30pm - they'd upgraded my room to standard from the one at the back (which I suspect they did with everyone so they could close the whole block of Capri rooms down aand save on air-conditioning. I reckon the electricity company serving Vegas would go bust if it wasn't for air conditioning. 107 degrees yezterday.

Just regged for WSOP and got my tickets ....and signed in with Everest and got a bag of goodies :-) thats where I logging in from at mo. Anyway bye for now I'm off to see how BikeRadar did in the quarter finals of eSport Champions league. Playboy party tonight - yum yum bunnie on the menu - hehehe.

The adventure begins ....

2008-06-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

Usual last minute panicking - particularly whether the house is tidy enough for the neighbours to come in and water the plants without thinking I've been burgled. Flight is tomorrow luchtime but tonight I'll stay at my brother Pauls and save on airport parking - all the more to spend on enjoying Vegas. Reports on Punters Lounge tell of lost luggage - mine should be ok as I think it can all be considered hand luggage - which might be wiase with only two hours between connections at Philadelphia.

Got invites to a couple of partys - one from PlayboyPoker doing a party at the top of The Palms in a fantasy hotel room complete with two tenpin bowling alleys and (hoppfully a couple of bunnies.

So ...... byeeee .... my next report will be from Las Vegas.

1 week countdown to Vegas

2008-06-23T06:37:00.000-07:00

Its been a biusy few weeks booking flights, hotels etc. I think I've decided to travel light and come back heavy. Just hand luggage going out which will help ensure that my change of flight at Philadelphia is hassle free. I'll get to Vegas at 10:30pm on Tuesday 1st and with a lack of hold luggage should hopefully be in the Imperial before mid-night. Its amazing the number of things I've had to do to prepare. I've bought a mobile phone (a Virgin PAYG motorola WS377 - triband), the idea being to contact the hordes of PLr's over there by text to figure out where we'll be meeting up for drinkies. Got travel insurance and spending cash - all done online. More details have come in from Everest - they will have a hospitality room at the Rio complete with free drinks - that should save me a few bob - hehe - and they are having a party at Pure, a nightclub is Caesars Palace on the 4th July - free food and drink - hip-hop and techno apparently, somehow I don't I'll be dancing.

I'm still a big kid basically, a lot of people now-a-days dread the "flying experience" - it still excites me, even though I've done it at least 100 times. I even enjoy the sitting round in an airport time - but I'm a nosey so and so and like people watching and you get a fascinating range of people at airports. Travelling, in any form, I think, makes you feel successful, which is why (for me) it's a bit of a high - I think that's because of the constant representation by the media of a relationship between travel and success - maybe I'm not as resistant to subliminal suggestion as I'd like to think. Anyway I'm hoping this is gonna be a great adventure - it would be guaranteed to be that if I make the money stage of the WSOP but should still be even if I don't.

With all the excitement of my forthcoming Vegas trip my poker playing has been exceedingly variable. I won a seat for $100+9 (135th) from a Ladbrokes freeroll celebrating their billionth hand (top 20 got a WSOP place) and managed to pursuade them to move me from a rebuy WSOP qualifying game onto a $6K gtd crapshoot - unfortunately that went nowhere - I was hoping for some (more) Vegas spending money.

I did mean to play some "significant" games but knowing my mental attitude hasn't settled down I chickened out and played the usual cheapo stuff. My profits this week are $+40 bringing my ongoing yearly profits to $+4431.

Adrenaline still pumping

2008-06-18T08:31:00.000-07:00

The $3000 expenses from Everest are safely coralled in my bank account, the flights booked for July 1st and I now fully believe I'm going to the ball (just call me Cinders). It should be a ball for at least the first week because there will be about 10 PLr's there, the four of us who won seats via the Inside Poker route, together with a whole pile of others either just holidaying there or there for one of the smaller side events. So party,party,party. I havent yet found out which of the 4 starting dayys (1A,1B,!C,1D) I've been allocated but my hope is not to be playing on July 4th as I suspect there will be some good fireworks to be seen.

The adrenaline is still flowing, which means my poker is variable at the moment, I've got to practice balancing adrenalin fueled over aggression with good tight play and patience. Its hard playing small value games at the moment as (being well ahead of target for year) I don't care about going out too much. This is in some ways a benefit, as it means that I don't tend to be over cautious when I'm getting close to the money - an aggressive style at this stage of a game is often a way of making the better positions.

So for last week my profit was $+48 taking my yearly total to $+4391 - there's still money to come from the eSport league on PokerRoom as well.

Whoooohoooohooooo - I'm going to Vegas in 2 weeks time.

Yabba Dabba Doo - I'm Vegas bound

2008-06-08T20:03:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Inside Poker Magazine, Everest and Punters Lounge I have a seat in event 54 of the WSOP. Thats $10K entry fee and $3K expenses. This is my biggest poker success so far - by a long way. It should be a great adventure especially as I will be in Vegas together with a whole host of PLrs, 3 of whom (at least) will be playing in Event 54 (aka the Main Event) with me.

I hadn't realised until after I won the prize the timescale of a WSOP event like this. It officially starts on July 3rd and breaks around July 15th (restarting in November). There are 4 day 1's to the event (1A,1B,1C,1D) to accomodate the large field- if you make it past 12th July then its mega-money and my yearly profits if I do that well will go through the roof. I've booked a flight back on the 14th July (although in all likelihood I'll be out long before that) - if by some miracle I'm still in then I'll be delighted to buy a brand new ticket home.

So counting my $3000 expenses my profits this week are $+3070 bringing my ongoing yearly figure to $+4343. Some of you may be shouting foul, that the $3000 isn't real profit as it is going to be used up going to Vegas. My thought is that the Vegas trip is a holiday (in fact it will probably cost more than $3000) and therefore this is valid. The profit I make funds such things as holidays and treats .... so this is indeed an extra $3000 into my finances. I don't count the $10K seat as profit ... but if it leads to me winning some money then that will be counted. The way things are going the declared profits of this idle poker player come next February will exceed last years profits.

Readers (if I have any) stay tuned for more exciting episodes of Philossify's Vegas adventures.

A weekly log

2008-06-02T04:03:00.000-07:00

I got a comment recently (gosh some people actually stumble upon this) asking for more info on the sorts of games I play. Below is last weeks log that should give you an idea of the "cheapo" poker I generally play. It's mainly freeroll or value multi table tournaments playing no-limit Gold'em (NHLE). I occasionally play fixed limit raked hands (mainly on Virgin) to qualify for the Virgin vRoll and suchlike. Other than that I'm fairly unadventurous - I should probably play more Single Table Tournaments (STTs) as these have the potential of being more profitable in terms of $/hr.

M 0900 Bet365 nolose expense=0.00 winnings=8.00
M 1000 Virgin RH expense=2.10
M 1200 Bet365 nolose expense=0.00
M 1900 Bet365 nolose expense=0.00
M 1930 Boss 15000Euro expense=0,00
M 2100 Everest MTT expense=1.00
-----------------------------------------------
Tu1200 Bet365 nolose expense=0.00
Tu1800 Gnuf FR expense=0.00
Tu1930 vroll expense=0.00 winnings=29.00
Tu2000 Gnuf $1 baby expense=1.00
Tu2000 Devilfish 666 euro expense=0.00
Tu2100 Royal Vegas FR expense=0.00
Tu2200 CDPoker Invite expense=0.00
-----------------------------------------------
W 1200 Bet365 nolose expense=0.00
W 1330 Vpoints extra expense=0.00 winnings=1.50
W 1400 Virgin RH expense=2.05
W 1430 Everest MTT expense=1.00 winnings=4.55
W 1900 Bet365 nolose expense=0.00 winnings=85.00
W 1900 eSport Champs Lg expense=0.00
W 2030 Virgin facebook FR expense=0.00
-----------------------------------------------
Th1900 Bet365 nolose expense=0.00
Th1930 vRoll expense=0.00
Th2000 Everest FR expense=0.00 $1050 seat to game 8th June
-----------------------------------------------
F 1130 Virgin RH expense=0.00 qualified for vroll
F 1200 Bet365 nolose expense=0.00
W 1430 Everest MTT expense=1.00
-----------------------------------------------
Sa ----- Birmingham PL --------------
-----------------------------------------------
Su1900 Esport Lg expense=0.00

Some live poker

2008-06-02T03:26:00.000-07:00

Its two week since my last report and the eSport league money ($100 or so) hasn't yet come in, but we are all confident that it will do. The eSpoet Champions league has now started and after 2 games in the group phase (6 games)BikeRadar are top of our group with a consistent 2nd place each week. It would be nice to do well in this format of game since it's free to play and theres lots of money up for grabs.

Last two weeks have been proftable with $+14 and $+120 - though both weeks were interfered with by social events. Although the profits last week were $120 I was also involved in an Everest game (Free roll) where I've won a seat to a game next Sunday where I have a 1 in 13 chance of a $13000 package to WSOP in Vegas. Thats effectively worth $1050, but I only count real available money into my numbers. With the numbers in the WSOP nowadays I suppose (if I get through on Sunday) then it would be like a team from the minor leagues making it through to the first round of the FA cup. Must admit it would be nice to get even a minor WSOP prize and add it to my yearly total. Being a wimp, if Everest had allowed me to withdraw the entry fee as tournament creadits then I may well have.

I was in Birmingham at Barry's on Saturday night for a PL poker meetup. That was great fun, meeting up with all the PLrs and playing poker from 6pm to 2am. Some of the guys stayed there till 7am on Sunday morning - only leaving after a full english breakfast .... but my stamina wasn't up to it. Was knocked out first in the PL trophy game when my trip 9's lost to Kevin "the mouth" Sullivans flush, but made up for it by playing three 10 seater £10STTs afterwards and coming 2nd,1st and 2nd for a profit of £80. That money doesn't count towards reported profits as its fun money (and anyway the expenses were more than £80). The next PL poker meetup is in July at Paul and Pene's in Copenhagen - that should be fun - and theres also a PL race meeting/poker at Stratford (staying in B'ham and doing the Barrys experience again).

The running total now stands at $+1274(after 17 weeks),still lagging behind the results I would like to see .... but as it's "pin-money" I'm not too concerned. To put it in perspective I reckon I saved $900 just for 10 minutes work in switching my water supply to a metered one. If the WSOP result comes in next Sunday then the $3000
expenses will up my profits results immensly - heres hoping!!!!

Back to black (just)

2008-05-18T17:03:00.000-07:00

It looked like this week was going to be a losing one, but a couple of minor wins came to the rescue and the weel ended up at $+21, mind you I am counting a free £10 off CDPoker. Theres also (I think) some money floating around from my team Bikeradar Kings of Poker finishing 4th in the eSport poker league, that money will hopefully get reported next week. It was the end (20 games) of the first phase - starting Wednedsday then its the Champions league phase with 100 teams fighting for $80K in total. All for free - wheeeeee.

Tomorrow sees a couple of decent games, a Bosswide 10K euro freeroll (1000 RG in May to qualify) and a PL 500Euro FR. So (fingers crossed) heres to a god start to the week.

Ongoing yearly total now stands at $+1140.

They are out to get me - Paranoia and bad beats

2008-05-16T11:25:00.000-07:00

My poker life is adrift in a sea of bad beats. It happens to everyone I suppose? I'm being done dirty by bad beats - my normal philosophy on bad beats is beginning to wear thin. Too many times the poker gods are settling nands where I'm 80/20 up - in favour of the underdogm my AQ will always lose to their AJ's, my AA will lose to some dipstick hitting their 64 and achieving a run, my TT all in before the flop will see the 77 find a 7 in the flop. Game after game that sort of cack is happening at the mo. Have I got the stamina to ride it out? At least with my style of play its not costing me any significant money, but the instances of swearing at the screen are getting more frequebt. If I had a cat he'd be getting kicked!!!

So last weeks results were a shocking loss of $11 leaving my runing total at $+1119. At least last week I had the excuse that I was playing badly - this week (so far) I'm $9 down but I think I'm platying good poker - just getting crap results due to bad beats. I may actually end the week up as I signed up to CDPoker and they gave me a free £10 ($19) - they also gave me quite a good package of free qualifiers to play - all of them falling victim to my bad-beat curse. PartyPoker have also given me $50 (restricted) which I an losing rapidly playing $11 6-seater SnG's and getting trashed by yet more bad beats.....

I'm an optimist - so lets look on the bright side, all these bad beats are stretching my luck to one end of the curve .... meaning that the bounce back will be bigger .... come on wheres my big win!!!!!

The dough is rising, is it a yeast infection - hehe

2008-05-04T16:00:00.000-07:00

It was a mouldy old week until a good result on Sunday. Earlier in the week I'd played two cheap 6-seater STTs and came in on the bubble on one (and 1st on the other) for a profit of 30 cents or so, but the bubble finish allowed me to enter the Nluesq bubble tourney on teh Sunday. There were only 32 in it - paying top 5 and a $1000 prizepool - I came 3rd for $160. This made my profit for the week $180 and my ongoing yearly total $1130.

Sunday was also the eSport league game and I played and won my section, and the team (Bikeradar King of Poker) won the maximum team points - all in all a good day. Omwards and upwards.

Mouldy old dough....

2008-04-28T06:40:00.000-07:00

Suprising fact - the only top UK hit featuring mother and son (mum is the keyboard player wearing the witches hat in the video).

Mouldy old dough video

Apologies for the relatively long time since my last update ...

My mouldy dough earning attempts since my last report have all been winning weeks - fairly mouldy winning weks but winning never-the-less. Has been a very low playing few weeks with family committments keeping me away from the tables. So 4 weeks $8.80,$30.50,$182.35 and finally $54.15 - the last week would have been a losing week except for all the free money people keep throwing at me (Paddy Power threw me £10 which I upped to £25 betting on horses and football and then withdrew).

My yearly ongoing is now at $+950 - it could be so much better, I'm getting to a fair number of final tables but just not hitting many 1sts. I think my poker is slowly recovering, as is my stamina - if it keeps up I may one day this year hit a good result.

As some of the results were hit by family stuff. Few Thursday's ago my sister Sue turned up and stayed the weekend. She was back from visiting my nephews place in New Hampshire. Sue's Huband, her boys Brian and Martin, my bro John and his missus together with bro's Steeve and Brian across from Suffolk and it was a good family boozeup. This was immediately followed by taking the grandkids away for half term, a pubcrawl round Pompey and then a weekends boozing in Suffolk with bro's Steve and Paul. More socialising and booze in 10days than I normally do in 3 months - was glad when it all ended and I was able to relax. Lets see if I've got relaxed enought to play a good weeks poker.

Don't you just love free money !!!!

2008-04-02T03:59:00.001-07:00

Last weeks poker was a bit better than average - primarily due to the Poker Trillion win mentioned in my last blog entry - I ended the week £149 up raising my running total to $+674 on the year so far. I think I'm still playing bad poker and that coupled to bad beats is keeping me down - but I'm hoping this week is the start of a revival. I'm feeling much perkier - think Spring has arrived. Trouble is that I'm playing non-caring non-carefull poker 'cos I'm currently so ebullient - also doing lots of much needed housework.

This week (started on Monday, its now Wednesday) I haven't has much in the way of poker success, but opportunity sometimes arrives in mysterious ways. PaddyPower sent me an email a week of so ago telling me I had a £10 bonus in my "Games" account/ I've never been overly impressed with these "Game" bonuses as they basically need realising by putting a wadge of cash through the account using ripoff games like scratchcards and video slots. But, feeling bored I went to my PP account and signed in and I could not find this £10, some sort of cockup I thought and ignored the offer. Today I got an email reminding me about the offer and saying "use it or lose it" - I then noticed that the account name was not the same as the account on PP I usually use for my poker. Investigation shows I have two PP accounts and the second one had my £10 bonus. Now I don't like video slots, so I played the money on Blackjack and Roulette (neither of which count towards clearing the bonus) and got the account up to £16.50. Tiring of this, I decided to investigate what I could do with the money and went onto the Sportsbook and used the account to put £6.50 on Livrpool to proceed to next round of Champions League (the game versus Arsenal is tonite). The fact I could do that suprised me. I went back to playing blackjack and built the account up to £20 - at this point I decided to see if I could withdraw money, and after registering a card - depositing £10, withdrawing £20 I have a free £10 - plus I still have £10 in the account and a £6.50 outstanding bet. Don't you just love free money!!!! All kudos to PaddyPower for a true special offer. It will be interesting to see how if I can get anymore profit from this freebie.

Slow going .....

2008-03-26T03:02:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks have passed since my last post and things have been slow , just over $100 profits in the two weeks with last week nearly being a losing one (only 25 cents profit!). Brings my yearly profit round to $524.

This week has started better with a PokerTrillion win of $125 or so - a nice PL exclusive gae with 500 euros added and a 10 euro entry fee - I came second. With the euro trading at over $1.50 then its a costly entry (by my meagre standards) but since its PLrs and so much added value then its one I wouldn't miss. Came 4th with some real luck, when there were 6 left (it only paid to 5th) I as SB went all in with A2 against Gaf on BB - he had A7 and I looked in bad shape till I fluked a low run for a double up. Couple of hands later Gaf and Washy (two lowest stacks) went all in against Fenners and he fluked a run - voila I'm 4th. Then went out with 66 v fenners AA. Also its the last week of the month and the PL Pokerkings league comes to an end tonight (Wednesday) and I should be in a position for some bonus euros .... so more moolah in this week.

So I;m in a positive mood and feeling less lethargic - think wwhatever bug has been hassling me the last couple of weeks is out of my system. Playing good tournament poker is largely about patience and concentration ... last week I was almost committing pokercide - going in with hands I knew were losers - fish hands. This week I'm playing much better.

Monday was a fresh air day .... off to easter egg hunt with 6year and 3 year old grandkids and frisbee-ing - god I'm out of shape ..... but the exercise (I think) did me good.

Back into the fray

2008-03-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

After the dismal end to last year I decided to take some recovery from the battle and for the last month have played relatively little and relatively cheaply. For a couple of weeks my expenditure was virtually nothing ... playing freerolls in the main and the Virgin v-roll. However my poker has started to expand again, mainly due to the cherries plunked in my path by the good folks over at Punters Lounge.

Have joined a couple of new Boss sites (PokerTrillion and PokerKings). PokerRoom (a site somewhat boycotted by PL) has been forgiven and a whole load of PLrs are currently playing on there in the eSports league. I'm in the BikeRadar (Kings of Poker) team with some good PL colleagues including Runadrum and Telepe), After the first round (out of 20) of league games we're currently 1st - whahey. The next game is on Wednesday with me playing so I'll soon put a stop to us being top.

The bad beats are coming in really strong at the mo, if I go all-in with AA someone will beat me - people rivering me all the time. Ah well, I look upon it as storing up credit in the eyes of the Poker Gods..... with so many badbeats then the balance has to swing back and bigtime.

Anyway first 5 weeks of the new year (started 4th of February) has produced a profit of $423. There was a shock in the first week with a loss of $10 but subsequent weeks were all positive. Theres a new initiative starting on PL early next month where theres a PL "pot" being used to sponsor people to play games that they might not otherwise play (entry fee paid - 50% of winnings to PL/50% back into PL pot) so I will be playing more focus games than usual as the Punters Lounge BPP table will be used to decide who gets sponsored.

Anyway here's to success in week 6 of this year.

EOY goes with a whimper

2008-02-04T10:42:00.000-08:00

Well uts the end of my financial year and it end not with a bang but with a whimper. A losing weeek ($-12) - only he third one this financial year and leaving me with a years profit of $6293. What a feckin' miserable January's play and it is mainly down to me playing crap poker. Too much swinging between over aggressive and over defensive play - I have not been hitting the sweet spot with my game. So a new financial year starts and I will declare $6000 profit and carry over $293 as a base bank for the coming year. "What are my poker resolutions?", I hear you ask.

Firstly - I've got $290 or so tournament credits in Bodog - these are to be used to
play a series of $10+1 tournaments - I have to be playing more "Pay to play" poker and this seems a sensible start.

Secondly - no more "el cheapo" free rolls - the first victim of this is the 0900 and 1200 daily nolose games on Bet365 - spending too much time for too little reward on these. Only freerolls with at least $1 value will be considered and even these games will only be played as a sideline to more serious games.

Thirdly - I still have $400 or so tied up in ladder games - it can't get taken out as money till I play $100 entry fee games - I will do it.

Forthly - Hours of play - no more daytime games - my usual poker day will start at 6:00pm from now on.

Fifthly - Some live games are to be mixed in - more on this later.

Sixthly - Some satellites to be played - aim to win a place at some major poker game.

Right - new rules go into play - let battle commence.

I'd make more working in a chinese sweatshop!!!

2008-01-21T05:51:00.001-08:00

A lousy weeks poker - ended up with a small profit of $14 but my enthusiam and patience had (has?) gone right down the tube. I am playing so badly that I think I need a holiday to reinvigorate my play. Several times during the week I wimped out on games I'd normally play, anything where I needed to pay cash to play just wasn't worth it this week - so lots of freerolls played very badly!

Anyway my ongoing total now stands at $6305 - and (I suppose) a small win is better than nothing.

Playing little winning little.....

2008-01-14T05:15:00.000-08:00

My interest in Poker seems to be on the wane at the minute. So I'm playing little and the little I'm playing seems to centre around freerolls. Results this week of just $47 profit. Ah well, better than losing money.

So ongoing profit now stands at $6291. I need a good result on something to get my adrenalin flowing and the years profits to $7000+ before Feb 3rd.

Bah Humbug continued ......

2008-01-08T13:32:00.000-08:00

I'm playing poker badly still - too much reliance on slash and burn poker (lots of all-ins) rather than considered strategic poker. Part of it was the continuance of the effects of a bad chest probably picked up from some virus before christmas - this is reflected in the amount I "invested" to play - a magnificent $8.60. I thought the week was going to be a losing week (3rd this financial year) but a 3rd
place result in the $1 Gnuf baby got me $42 and left me with a profit of $23.

Anyway ongoing profit for year (ends 3rd Feb) $+6244 - $750 in next 3 weeks to make $7000 for the year.

Bah Humbug ....

2007-12-30T14:17:00.000-08:00

Well Xmas week hasn't been very nice to me with just a small profit of $62. My chest has been playing up and as usual that means my poker playing is bad as the concentration just ain't there. Still a win is better than a loss - so ongoing profit is now $+6221.

Heres to a good New Year!!!!!

Week started well then petered out like a damp squib

2007-12-23T13:32:00.000-08:00

Got back from France and rushed back to get in the 7:30pm Punters Lounge freeroll and came 2nd for $200, then following day in the Laddies $5.50 - beat the team game I came 2nd for a $400 profit. Rest of the wek was fairly indifferent - few hopeful games that went nowhere. I ended the week $+590 which considering I had Thursday and Friday off (pub crawl and dinner with some friends) then its overall a good result. So ongoing total now stands at $+6159 which means I need some more good results if I am to beat last years total of just over $7000 by February 3rd. Of course the dollar is now worth less pounds so I need some really good stuff to make my takeout in pounds more than last year.

One of the more obscure poker networks is rumoured to be in trouble - if so I may lose $78 that I have stashed away in one site...... first time I've suffered and a good reason for keeping on well branded sites like Virgin and SportingBet (both Boss) and Betfair and Ladbrokes, where the poker is coupled to other branded products. If their poker goes bellyup its less likely that they'll not payup on the money front.

Better than your average week......

2007-12-17T14:04:00.000-08:00

Last week was a short one as I went over to Framce with a couple of my bro's for the weekend. So the week nearly finished on Friday at 4:00 pm - having just finished a final HU game on Virgin to make my 15 STTs in order to qualify for the 10Wk tourney - the final HU made me exactly even across the 15 games and leaving me $+69 up. Luckily I decided to have a quick go using my brothers computer on the $10 nolose bet365 game and even more luckily I came first for a massive $130 profit bring my weeks total (for a short week) to $+199 and taking my ongoing yearly total to $+5569. Expenditure for the week was a lowly $75 so I'm still falling far short of my targetted expenditure level - however most of my profit comes from free or extreme value games - when I do expend I'm not seeming to get any return!!!!

Anyway for a short week I didn't feel this was a bad result.

Grind, grind,grind......

2007-12-09T14:37:00.000-08:00

One day my luck is going to really come in and I'm going to win some big bucks. At the moment I'm often getting close to the money and then wham a bad beat takes me out. Ah well this week I made $+167 on a very low expenditure of $21. The expenditure figure is not truly representative of the "risk" I took as it excludes cash games and this week I played an awful lot of Fixed Limit $0.50/1 6-seater tables on Partypoker in order to make a $25 bonus they gave me. All in all the profit on PartyPoker was about $50. I don't count FL cash games as history says I never lose on them at the level I play, so they are not risk,

Looking at my log - most of the profit has come in from Fixed Limit cash games - grinding away for a $32 bonus on 32Red (plus another $20 earning the points) and the monthly $25 bonus off betdirect. Only real contribution from tournaments was $20 for 8th in the V-roll staellite today and that also qualified me for end of month final.

Anyway a week of grinding away at RH now takes my total to $+5370. This means in theory I should risk over $500 in the next week on tournaments - no way jose, there are too many Xmas freebies going on where I can earn money at little risk. Life goes on.....

Good profits - bad luck week

2007-12-03T10:50:00.000-08:00

Last week was quite good profitwise with a $200 win on GNUF (thanks to dobbin on PL for pointing me towards the value series of games) and $140 from Paradise for the euroliga series of games. Overall profit ended up at $286 from an investment of about $90. But it was a week of unbelievable bad beats in some key games. Ah well - can't complain at the profit level so ongoing total is now $+5203 - meaning in theory $520 to be spent in next week - no way can I really risk that much!

Trying to spend more.....

2007-11-25T15:16:00.000-08:00

Well my experiment on trying to spend more on my poker (and in theory make more) never came to much. This week I "risked" $92.60 playing poker, which is a big increase on last weeks measly $26. Most of the extra risk was due to playing 15 $3+0.15 HU games on Virgin in order to qualify for their 2nd weekly final in the 10-wk series (will be played wednesday). Certainly I chickened out to an extent on playing lots of money MTTs and STTs, but in my defense I was feeling fluish part of the week and Friday was a day off.

My income from the week was $147.80 which made my profit $55.20 meaning that my ROI was 60%. However there is still unaccounted money as I came 19th in a €2000 invited freeroll (with 1400+ players) - but so far no money has arrived. I am haranging SportingBet support by email but they seem useless - next its a phonecall. Its a pity their support is so crap as they are a nice little earner on the whole and an exceedingly good PL approved site. Next week I'm expecting €100+ for my Euroliga games throughout November.

My profits includwed $18 of free bonus money from Playboy poker. Biggest disappointment was my dismal performance in the Virgin 100,000 V-points game.

So profit increases to $4917 ..... which under my new rules means I have a target spend next week $490 or so. I have to play 7 MTTs to qualify for the week 3 final of the Virgin 10-week series..... so if I start by making then $10+1 MTTs thats $77 accounted for.

I also won the lottery this Saturday ... £10 only so no buying a house in France.

Vaguely OK

2007-11-18T17:19:00.000-08:00

This week (full details in previous post) was a little shortened due to being at my aunt and uncles for Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. Never the less I made +$111 to bring my ongoing profit up to $+4862 ... which means if my cunning plan is to come to fruition and I play a "proper week" then my expenditure next week should be around $482 with hopefully a measurable increase in profit at the end of the week.

A weekly list ......

2007-11-12T02:00:00.000-08:00

I've decided to have a "detail" week.

Heres a list of the games and results for week 12th November to November 18th. Start of next week (November 19th) I plan to instigate a blitzkreig regime where I force myself to put out money to the extent of 10% of muy ongoing winnings playing poker ... idea being that if I'm an above average player with an above average strategy then I should make a decent profit ... if I don't then I'm either going down the tubes skillwise or have invalid strategies. In order to get through the money then I suspect its lots of STTs and I suspect 5/6 person ones will suit me best. May even venture into NL cash games.

Anyway the list which will show what low cost games I'm playing ....

Time	What	--Outlays--	---Income---
M 0900	Bet365 nolose	...0.00	...0.25
M 1000	Virgin FL	...0.00	...2.50
M 1200	Wingows MTT	...1.10	...3.60
M 1200	Bet365 nolose	...0.00	...0.75
M 1900	Bet365 nolose	...0.00	...0.00
M 1900	Laddies FR	...0.00	...0.00
M 1940	Bodog FR	...0.00	...0.00
M 2030	Para Euroliga	...1.45	...0.00
M 2000	BSq IP GUKPT	...0.00	...0.00
M 2130	Paradise 50Up	...0.00	...0.00
Tu0900	Bet365 nolose	...0.00	...0.00
Tu0935	CBet turbo STT	...5.00	...0.00
Tu1200	Bet365 nolose	...0.00	...0.50
Tu1300	Para RH < /td>	...0.00	..-3.30 RH loss
Tu1410	Titan MTT	...3.30	...0.00
Tu1835	Beat the Team	...5.50	...0.00
Tu1900	Laddies FR	...0.00	...0.00
Tu1900	Bet365 nolose	...0.00	...0.00
Tu1930	V-Points	...0.00	...0.00
Tu2000	HillyFish FR	...0.00	...0.00
Tu2000	PPP $1000 FR	...0.00	...0.00
Tu2030	Para EuroLiga	...1.45	...0.00
Tu2130	Paradise 50Up	...0.00	...0.00
W 0900	Bet365 Nolose	...0.00	...0.00
W 1000	SkyPoker FR	...0.00	...1.00
W 1200	Bet365 Nolose	...0.00	...0.00
W 1700	Wingows MTT	...2.75	..30.00
W 1200	SkyPoker FR	...0.00	...1.00
W 1800	Bet365 Nolose	...0.00	...0.00
W 2030	Para EuroLiga	...1.45	...0.00
W 2130	Paradise 50Up	...0.00	...0.00
W 2200	Wingows MTT	...1.10	...0.00
W 2230	BetD+Virg RH	...0.00	...6.45
Th1500	Virg RH	...0.00	...-3.10 RH Loss
Th1900	Bet365 Nolose	...0.00	...0.00
Th1930	V-points	...0.00	..61.00
Th2130	Para 50up	...0.00	...0.00
Th2200	Wingows MTT	...1.10	..16.40
F 0900	Bet365 Nolose	...0.00	...0.00
F 1145	BetFred STT	...0.25	...1.00
F 1200	Bet365 Nolose	...0.00	...0.00
F 1300	BetFred STT	...1.20	...4.20
Sa1400	V+Para RH	...0.00	-4.00 RH Loss
Sa2030	Para EuroLiga	...1.45	...7.35
Sa2130	Paradise 50Up	...0.00	...0.00
Su1930	V-points	...0.00	...0.00
Su2000	Virgin 10wk	...0.00	..10.70

Total Income: $137.30
Total Outlay: $26.10

Weeks Profit: +$111.20

Observations:
Even though I'm using the 09:00 no-lose tourneys as an incentive to get out of bed in the morning I suspect its not cost effective time unless I play other games at the same time - this is when I need to be earning my raked points for qualifications to 50Up and V-point tournies. If I had wireless and a laptop then I could stay in bed - hehehe. In fact the $2 nolose tourneys are ones I must play with a cavalier all-in at the slightest excuse if they are to be anywhere near viable.

My FL raked hands games I mark as $0 investment - this is because of historical reasons - I win overall hence I see them as "no-risk" with only profit/loss to be relevant.

Time spent often doesn't correlate due to playing multiple events at once.

Qualifiers I always treat as a loss (unless spare money for outside qualifications) and then markup as a FR entry if I win seat.

Analysis:
Its obvious that my risk per week is nowhere near my intended 10% of ongoing yearly profit ($475 is 10% at moment). How can I expect to win significant amounts without upping my outlays (of other peoples money of course). Sure if I stick to lots of cheap value games and freerolls then I'm going to make a profit virtually every week ... however it will probably be a small profit.

Slim Pickings...

2007-11-12T01:51:00.000-08:00

No not the Country and Western star .... but my profits this week. Just $+25 for the week .... due somewhat to crap play - am still playing too impatienly especially when I get to the important latter stages. Anyway this takes me to +$4751 - I'm going to be hard pushed to make $7000 profit this year if I don't get some decent wins soon. I must start to play more big money games with $10+ entry fees. Suspect some of my problems is having a mindset reinforced by my daily dose of fixed limit raked hand games qualifying for 50Up and Virgin V-points games - this (I think) leads to me being too loose in big entry MTTs.

Fair to middling

2007-11-05T01:52:00.000-08:00

A modicum of luck led to a $151 profit this week. This included €30 profit from a PL HU tournement on Virgin where I came second to Gaf, a win from a Laddies $500 freeroll and $25 from BetDirect monthly bonus (plus another $25 or more earning the bonus). So ongoing profit now stands at +$4726. I still need to improve my concentration and patience as this is where I feel I'm losing out in many MTTs.

Saved by the Bell (again)

2007-10-28T16:54:00.000-07:00

Nearly a losing (-$5) this week ... but the last game I played in saved the week as I got 1st for $45 in a Wingows $2.50 game that ended just before midnite. Its been a frustrating week with bad beats galore - two bubbles in the 50Up and 13th in the Virgin V-points final. So I end up $+40, better than losing but not much to bring my running total to +$4575.

Still making elephant food.......

2007-10-21T14:02:00.000-07:00

Made $57 peanuts this week .... including $20 off a Playboy Poker offer,$15 from tonights V-Roll and $5 from qualifying for the 50Up. It was a slightly short week as I was off to Birmingham on Wednesday for the Punters Louge racing and poker meetup - a good time was had bt all - never made any money from the racing (as usual) but made about £30 from the poker. The poker winnings from Barry's don't count as thats fun-money. Its my own fault in many ways as $57 is a great ROI - I'm just too much of a cheapskate to spend enough to make more. Besides being too attached to my money, I think because I have enough money for my needs I don't feel the need to take any risk. This week I thinl my final table play could have been improved and my playing of middle-pairs, also on certain games I'm going all in before the flop with good hands when I should try to maximise my winnings by playing a smaller raise.

So ongoing total for my financial year is +$4535.

A little better ... but not much

2007-10-14T16:14:00.000-07:00

This week was basically a tale of two profits .... the $25 bonus from the end of last weeks BetDirect raked hands plus coming 2nd in the Thursday V-roll for 5000 V-points worth £50 ($100), Nice thing about the V-roll win is that it also qualifies me for the end of month 100K V-points game (£1000). I'm still trying to get into the 50Up final by playing paradise raked hands -keep getting bad beats (tonight my KK beaten by A9o).

So total for week $113 meaning year now stands at +$4478

Another boringly bad week

2007-10-08T13:16:00.000-07:00

My usual start-of-month freerolls that I qualified for earned me nothing - so I reverted to poker whoring to ensure a profit by going for the $25 monthly bonus for 100 points on BetDirect. Ended up the week on 85 points but with $41 profit (which means an early profit next week for 15 more points). The competition on $0.25/0.50 fixed limit on BetDirect seems easy. So $+41 brings my yearly profit to $+4365.

Back from holiday

2007-10-02T09:58:00.000-07:00

Got back on Tuesday last week - profits to Sunday a measly $57 bringing total for year to $+4324. This week might be better as I have a few qualifier freerolls to have a go at.

A short week

2007-09-14T17:38:00.000-07:00

This week is officially over - as from tomorrow I shall be on holiday for a while. I'm $+11 at the moment so start my break $+4267 for the year. Tomorrow I'm off to Watford where I'll meet up with some PLrs for a live get-together. I don't count the results in these as part of my poker profit/loss account - they are plain fun. We'll probably get a couple of £10 games in, before I have to do a Cinders and disappear at midnight so I can be ready to catch the ferry Sunday morning.

Yet Another last game of the week result....

2007-09-09T15:23:00.000-07:00

Its been another mouldy old week .... came into the last game of this week $+44 after degrees of suffering and bad results (mind you I don't think my play this week has been up to par). All todays freerolls wnt badly .... think it was largely me playing badly ...

After leaving the Paradise 50Up game I decided to "invest" in a $2.50+0.25 game on Wingows - got to the final table, indeed the final 6 - with payouts beginning at 5th. I was somewhere in the middle (3rd/4th alternating) and playing very tight hoping to get a payout - when doh! my machine locks solid - Blue Screen of Death - reboot and cant connect to net, shut down normally and restart again .... taking all of 5 minutes (an eon when the blinds are big). get back on and unbeleivably theres 5 on the table with me laying 4th. Then I get some great runs of luck (KK v chip-leaders AK with K on flop doubled me up and into the lead). Anyway action continues and I win the game and receive $46.

This takes my winnings for the week to $+87 and an overall ongoing profit of $+4256, all these low weekly profits are starting to take their toll on my end-of-year projections. I need a big win!!!

Forward movement

2007-09-02T17:05:00.000-07:00

Well its a week since my last report and by recent standards a slightly more decent week with $+117 in profit. I avoided the Laddies $20+2 game on the Monday (a jinx game if ever I saw one) and started with a small win on Wingows poker, a site I hadn't visited in a while. Other features of the week were coming 2nd in the Wednesday £1 challenge PL game, getting a 5th in one of the Virgin V-point satellites for 2000 V-points (£20 or $40) and other smaller wins at Wingows. Biggest disappointments of the week has been my performances on Bodog where I'm gradually whittling down my $T without any conversion into real ones.

Anyway $+117 means that the running total is $+4169.

The coming week being the first week of the month has some of the usual qualification games to get through - BlueSq bubble and (I think) SportingBet 50Up final. Plus Virgin have donated some games to Punters Lounge with prizes of getting into real live games in the near future. So my target is to get more than $+117.

Desultry poker....

2007-08-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

Lost $18 last week and currently $4 down this week .... I feel I'm n the doldrums again with nothing much working out right. Any 50-50 shots or even 70-30 shots seem to go adrift at the moment. Ah well ... must console myself with the fact that the losses are relatively small. This week I had to resort to betting on the Arsenal v Man City game (free £10 bet) to get my losses down ... shucks thats what I call desperation... using football batting (betting on dumb animals as I oft refer to it) to stabilise my losses where will it end!!

Punters lounge mates Chess and RandR did well yeterday on a freeroll final that they reached - $100,000 and $10,000 respectively for 1st and 2nd in the New World series on SportingOdds (now SportingBet) ... and Gaf got $1000 for 10th ... just shows whats possible. Congrats to them all.

Anyway a couple of late Sunday games to play to see if I can get this week into a small profit. More to follow.....

Well came 9th in the V-point satellite for 750 V-points ($15) and qualification for the $5000 freeroll early next month - so that makes me $+11 with the Paradise 50Up still to play. I could claim to be unlcky coming 9th as my AA lost to a fluch after all-ins before the flop - having said that I did get lucky myself with AKs verus AA earlier in the game, so I suppose it evened out - if I had have won that AA then I would have probably made top 3 as I would have trebled up.

... 9th in the Paradise 50Up (again) for $3 - so profit this week of $+14 - which makes my running year total $+4052 with only two losing weeks this year.

A measly week

2007-08-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

Despite playing exceedingly badly I managed through a 4th place in the bet direct Friday game to come out $+40 ahead for the week- unfortunately thats about all that can be said about a dismal poker week. So running total is $+4056.

$4k profit reached

2007-08-06T06:15:00.001-07:00

This week I made $+70 - better than lossing I suppose but a bit disappointing as I got nothing out of the 50Up final (265th) or the BlueSq bubble. Didn't play much as usual during the week as I was up in Liverpool for Friday,Saturday and most of Sunday celebrating my brother Brians 50th birthday. But the $70 does take my profit line to $+4016 - roll on the next thousand milestone.

Woe is me .... but relieved also

2007-07-30T10:09:00.000-07:00

Last week I wondered what I had to do to have a losing week, well this week I found out. Ended the week $-27 of which $-22 was due to my usual abysmal Ladbrokes cruise league perfoemance. So, I've broken the chain of about 24 consecutive winning weeks with a relatively small loss. I'm relieved in some ways as it means I don't have the pressure of getting yet another winning week in the bag to contend with and can stop playing so "safely". So the ongoing year total is $+3946 .... lets see what this coming week provides.

What do I have to do to have a losing week?

2007-07-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

Entered Sunday evening $-30, having had a lousy poker week .... playing exceeding crap (few days off as I didn't feel enthused) and getting bad beats to boot. By mostly sheer luck I managed to come 2nd in the V-points freeroll for 17K V-points, and since each V-point is worth a penny that means I won about $340 to make this a good week at $+310 and my running total for the year now stands at $+3973 - yippee. So my run of non-losing weeks continues......

It was an exceeding good result as it also counted towards the BPP as it was the PL focus game. On the final table I was well supported by lots of my poker pals... it really makes a difference - I wonder if all that will power being exercised in my favour tips the odds. If I keep thinking like that I'll end up like those sad guys in the bookies that try and whip the horse home using pure mental power.

Woe is me..... followed by ode to joy

2007-07-15T12:21:00.000-07:00

"Infamy. infamy they've all got it in for me"

Looks like I'm in dire straits - may have to post my first weekly loss for this financial year. Due to the combined effects of lethargy and crap play I'm currently running $-4 for the week. OK, I've got a few raked hands on BetDirect to take forward... but raked hands aren't the same as money in the bank. Currently playing the Virgin freeroll and even though the motivation isn't in me at the moment may have to play a $5 STT to see if it will drag me out the mire if Virgin doesn't come up trumps. ... may as well end up $10 down or more if I have to have a losing week. More to follow on this sad and sordid episode.....

Well in an attempt to recover from my losses I went to Poker333 and simultaneously played two $2.5+0.25 10 player STTs - by some great play (hehe) and flukiness I won both for a total of $19.50 profit. Saved from the dreaded losing week - can now finish for the evening safe in the knowledge that this weeks profit is $15 - not a lot but winnings none the less. Chose Poker333 as I was attempting to demote it from current to "dead" - just shows....

So ongoing stats for year are $+3663 up - with $366 to risk. Here's to my lethargy departing and a better week this week.

Slow start to week.......

2007-07-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

This week has (so far) been relatively uneventful. Small losses on Monday and Tuesday (there was no Laddies $20+2 cruise league for crew this week - captains only) offset by a "free" $8.40 from Paddy Power. They gave me a $2.20 SnG token and I won the 6 player table. This sets me at $+3 this week .... but I'm still in the $1 challenge game as I write (its the break). Also qualified for next months Bubble tourney on BlueSq.

Highlights later this week are the Friday 13th $13K game that gives you your entry fee back if you lose.... nice promotion from 32red/BetDirect. In fact Friday will be a BetDirect night as I'll also play in the $750 poker points game.

I currently don't feel enthused ... be it poker or other things ... need something to jog me out of my current lethargy.

A wind is blowing.......

2007-07-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

Movement today as I come 2nd in the BlueSq bubble tournament - $250 profit for an easy qualification. Also qualified for the $5000 50Up final early next month. Noticed a $20K points game on BetDirect at end of month and have added it to the diary - methinks I shall be playing lots of raked hands between now and then :-)

This evenings entertainment is the standard Laddies $1000 freeroll and the Virgin V-points tourney. More later......

Ongoing profit now stands at $359 - so its going to be a reasonable week!

... well nothing much occurred in the rest of the evening (except the usual bad beats) so its $+359 for the week. This means that financial year total stands at $+3648 .... onwards and upwards .... to infinity and beyond.

In the doldrums.....

2007-07-07T05:15:00.000-07:00

I am becalmed .... no favorable poker wind is blowing in my direction and I am surviving purely on the hard tack that is provided by poker sites in the form of bonuses. $-47 down on poker results. But, due to $25 monthly bonus off BetDirect, bonus $50 off Paradise (not the SO one), and a free $10 off Absolute (they haven't seen me in a while) that means I am $+42 for the week. I need the money (joking - although all contributions gratefully received - hehe) as the alternator on my car needed replacing and it was expensive (I'm very attached to my money) .....

The alternator went on Tuesday on my way back from Cheltenham, in a little Wiltshire village which luckily had a garage ... decided to be adventurous and go back and collect the car by public transport .... it was easier than I thought as a train to Salisbury and a half hour bus ride got me there - it is good practice for the far distant future when cars will either be hideously expensive to run or I'll be too over the hill to drive one - though I suspect by that time they'll all be robotic anyway and I'll be able to read a book whilst waiting to get to my destination.

Currently playing BetDirect 0.25/0.50 fixed limit games as they have a special promotion for 777 - it being 7/7/7 - $77 if you get one with either 77 or 7 in your hand ... closest I came was rag 7 in hand - no 7 on flop and I folded - of course the software jokingly puts up a 7 on the turn and a 7 or the river. I console myself with the fact that I was playing the correct odds.

Am now off to a beer festival in the New Forest.

Got $77 from the BetDirect offer - which (after a few losses)means I am now $+109 as a running total.

Late results for last week.....

2007-07-03T12:17:00.000-07:00

Results or last week are being posted late due to technical problems (alcohol poisoning from the Punters Lounge trip to Wolverhamton races - hehe). Just got back home from this really enjoyable event - racing, poker, drinking etc, - lost (as usual) at the races and the casino - but not a lot. Very interesting time at the live poker venue where 36 of us competed for the Punters Lounge Cup - I came about 18th. Only spoiler was the alternator going on the car on the way home - 20 miles away in a little country village - luckily I got a friend to pick me up and the car is now sitting in a small garage just south of Tidworth.

Turning to financial matters I ended last week $39 up - mainly through the kindness of Sporting Odds bonuses for positions in the two monthly leagues. So running total for the financial year is $+3428.

Left a sub to play the Laddies cruise league game but he wasn't successful thats a running total for week of $-27.5 as I'm in a $5+50 focus game tonight - being the first week of the month I should be able to overcome that start in bonus from BetDirect.

Reasonable end to the week

2007-06-25T06:51:00.000-07:00

Ended last week $79 ahead - due to coming second in last nights Paradise league game ($25+) and making my bonus of £10 ($20) on Bet-on-Bet. The league game result was useful as it means I may well make $50 or more from my league position - two morw games to play on Tuesday and Thursday, Tonight its the Bet-on-Bet RH loyalty game and the Ladbrokes cruise league game - I'll need to deposit on Ladbrokes to make this one (ggggrrrrrr!).

So total for year so far is now $+3289 with a fall back of $2960 and a risk amount available of $329. The run of no losing weeks this financial year continues.

A profitable start to the week

2007-06-18T15:11:00.000-07:00

Came 6th for $65 in the BetOnBet RH freeroll (it cost me $37 to qualify as reported in last weeks figures), however I effectively paid $7 to enter the laddies cruise league game where I came nowhere. I say effectively because I made $4.50 from a PokerStars bonus contribution and another $10.50 from a couple of laddies SnG games to mean that the normal $22 was reduced. Am now in the sorry state of having 97 cents left on laddies so I may have to reload my accounty to make the next game.

Running profit for this week stands at $+58.

1st in Paradise Champions League saves the day

2007-06-17T14:15:00.000-07:00

Thought I was going to be down tonight but a great skillful recovery (ok a lucky recovery) meant I made 1st in tonights champions league game so another $32 to the good - brings my total for the week to $312, Its not been that successful a week when you consider I'm counting $315 I didn't even have to play poker for.....

But this brings the financial years ongoing total to $+3210 with a risk amount of $320 and a fallback position of $2890. Its nice to have broken the $3000 barrier.

Saved by the 50Up

2007-06-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

Lost $11 today, it would have been $41 except that I won $30 for 1st place in the 50Up, Losses were mainly incurred qaulifying for Mondays Bet-on-Bet loyalty game by playing Fixed Limit $1/2 Hold-em, however there may soon be $20 or so from completing my initial deposit bonus on there. Also looks like I'm going to qualify for SO "Beat the Rush" weekly final tomorrow 4:00pm - getting good value from playing raked hands on SO.

Ongoing weekly total is $+280.

So-so

2007-06-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

Decided to count my $315 on bodog as real money - at least it makes sure I'm up on the week! Thursday and Friday were much of a muchness - lost $5.50 on bodog tournament but made the money back (and some other losses) by getting 3rd in the 50Up tonight for $12.50 - this also qualifies me for the monthly final early next month.

So my rolling total for the week is now $+291.

Returned from Paris

2007-06-13T11:18:00.000-07:00

Last week I ended up $+173 on the week, mind you it was a short week as I went off to Paris on the Friday morning. I left my trusted clone to play a Bodog game sponsored by Rounders radio that I'd qualified for, but for some reason it was cancelled. Looks as though they are going to give eCredits to all the qualifiers ($315 or so) which can be used to play in tournaments - will only start counting this as real winnings when I use it (and win) ... but if my belief is right and I'm better than Joe average then the $315 of credits should yield more than that in cash. Watch this space.

This week I'm currently $24 down, $22 of it from the Laddies cruise league game where my clone only managed 94th - when only the top 50 get into the points, Lets see what the rest of the week gives me.

A reasonable start to the week ......

2007-06-04T15:36:00.000-07:00

Luckily someone reminded me that the $2500 50Up final was on tonight and I squeezed into 6th for $162.50 - also got 39th in the Laddies league game which got me $38 ( a profit of $16) . So running profit for week is $+183,

A disappointing Sunday.....

2007-06-03T14:45:00.000-07:00

All my dreams shattered - nowhere in the $100K gtd, 70/110 in the Scotish final, 17th in the V-points freeroll, nowhere in the BlueSq bubble or the William Hill $2500 freeroll etc. etc. Think I was playing a bit so-so, but not that bad! Never mind back to the usual games next week - lets see if my fortunes will shift.

I was talking to a friend recently and referring to my poker as "like playing golf as a hobby but they give you a little money on many occasions" - using that analogy I feel that I'm slicing the ball at the moment - I need to mentally visit a poker clinic and adjust my game.

So I end the week $46 up - wehich is totally due to whoring for bonuses, ah well its better than losing - at least I've maintained my record of no losing weeks this financial year. This coming week is a short one as I'm off to Paris next Friday for a few days.

So rolling financial year total is $2725 with $272 of risk money to play with. Tomorrows big games are laddies league ($20+2) and the BetOnBet loyalty "freeroll".

A funny old week

2007-06-01T06:30:00.000-07:00

I've been losing little bits of money all week playing poker but have started winning at cheapo fixed limit again. main profit last few days has been bonus orientated. Found Canbet had given me $10 (think it was for joining) and have built this up to $23 (playing no-limit cash game) - have also got bonus $25 from BetDirect and bonus $25 from Dream - couple this to $25 for the SO league (15th) and that leads to an overall profit of $88 over past few days which gives me a running total so far this week of $+73.

Have a $750 freeroll (poker poinst coming up tonight on betdirect and then Sunday gets really interesting - lots of big games ($2500 freeroll on William Hills, $240+10 Scotland final on Virgin, $100+9 $100K Gtd on Virgin - heres hoping Sunday is a lucky night.

Mainly holiday......

2007-05-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

Was on holiday most of last week so only made $+8. Takes my profit track up to $2679 and means my risk money is now at $268 with a backstop of $2411.

This week started effectively today and I'm now $-15 for the week, but have a $100+10 entry to the Virgin $100K game on Sunday as I finished 1st in todays focus game - which also gave me BPP points.

So near to Vegas.......

2007-05-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

Found a game I'd qualified for on Poker Satellites. 63 entrants - one prize = 3 days and 3 games in Vegas worth $10,500. Got to final table, virtually all PLr's and ended up 4th (last hand was my AK versus teaulc's QQ). Bugger!!!!

Really grand game though. PL (Sir Auron - teaulc - alan) went on to win it - well deserved.

Finished the day another $5 to the good thanks to a 9th (QQ lost to KK) in the Paradise league. So I end the week $+56. Takes my profit track up to $2671 and means my risk money is now at $267 with a backstop of $2404.

Was also disappointed in the BetDirect $50K freeroll (actually cost me $5 for the addon) where I went out to a badbeat on the river (My trip 10's versus 2 pair). Jamie did well though playing my brothers account (he's in Holland at mo) to get $60 by just making the money.

Resorting to desperate measures .....

2007-05-19T15:42:00.000-07:00

In order to ensure that I maintain my record of winning weeks then I had to bet on the ManUtd/Chelsea final. BetDirect had sent me an offer - bet £25 on the game and if I lost then they'd give me a free £25 bet on the Champs league final. So I bet £25 on a draw after 90 mins (it was 0-0) at 2-1 - that won me £50 ($9517). In order that this £25 bet was safe I also bet on who would win (even if it went to penalties) by joining ToteSport and taking advantage of their bet £50 and get a £50 bet free. So I bet £50 on Man Utd to win at 10/11 and the free £50 on Chlesea at 10/11 - unfortunately you don't get your stake back with the free bet, so I lost £5 or so on this ToteSport scheme (but I'd offset that with a £5 bet on Chelsea at 2.1 with Betfair) so never lost nought. If ManUtd had won then I'd have had another £40 profit. What a complicated way of avoiding the chance of losing money!!!

Anyway, with this somewhat dubious practice (betting on dumb animals - i.e. footballers) I have now made it back to profit this week of $+51, with only tomorrow to go then its hard to see this being a losing week, even though my poker playing has been somewhat crap. IMain reason behind the crap poker is that I've put myself on steroids this week to try buck the hayfever affects.

Picked Graham and Chris up from Bournemouth airport on their return from Italy - they had a really good time with side trips to Pisa and Florence. Plans for the trip to Holland with Paul and Jamie are now firmed up so next Thu-Mon should be fun.

Anyway its an early night for me going to bed just before midnight.

All the fun of the fair......

2007-05-17T15:13:00.000-07:00

What you lose on one ride you gain on another.....

Not much in the way of results on the MTT front, however the cash game on Virgin is keeping me even. So now am $-38 on week and the raked hands on Virgin will hopefully contribute to some more reward from the Scottish game in terms of a qualification to the 10-person PL final - long way to go yet though.

As promised Joe switched my Helsinki bos final to a Scottish one which gives me another shot at making it to Edinburgh for a live game towards the end of June.

Need some results if I am to avoid this being my first losing week of the year.

Bad start to week......

2007-05-15T17:49:00.000-07:00

This could be a bad week .... at mo $-39, $22 due to no result on the Ladbrokes cruise game and about $15 of the rest down to losses on Virgin cash games. Is this to be my first losing week of year ... will I have to put some money into a poker site ... WATCH THIS SPACE......

Trying to get them to switch my $240+10 Helsinki game into a Scottish Game as the dates are good for me. Joe at Virgin is helping with this. If I'm forced to play the Helsinki one on the 20th (and I win) then I can always pocket the expenses and try and palm off my seat to a PL'r for a percentage of the winnings.

Qualification.....

2007-05-13T17:06:00.000-07:00

Saturday and Sunday have been a little disappointing in that I need to record $17 lost over the period - leaving the week to end as $+287. Overall this weeks results are not bad, particularly when you add in the theoretical $250 that the quaalification to the Boss Helsinki game on 20th May represents. Unfortunately if I play this game and win a $4800 package to Helsinki then I'm a bit stuffed as its when I'm going to Paris with my aunt and uncle. So I'm asking Boss/Virgin whether they will be nice and give me the $250 instead - which would be a good start to next weeks results - we'll have to wait and see.

Results mean I'm $+2615 on year and have $261 risk money available. The risk money suggests that I should really be playing $10+1 and up MTTs and upping my level of cash games - mind you I only generally play cash games for MTT qualifications.

Mid week blues - Friday news......

2007-05-11T15:51:00.000-07:00

Tue, Wed, Thursday not much to report ... lots of playing low value fixed limit cash games with a small loss. But this evening managed a reasonable result (6th for $48.75) which means I'm now $+304 for week. Roll on Saturday and Sunday lets see if I can do even better.

Had a lot of hayfever this week - meaning I've been sleeping badly and not getting out of bed till mid-day - hoping the rainy weather at the moment will cut down on the tree pollen.

On a roll.......

2007-05-07T15:59:00.000-07:00

Mid evening I was thinking "this looks like a bad start to the week". The first Laddies cruise league game was a massive opportunity missed - came 380th or so, so no points and was looking at reporting $20 down on the day. No-one else on the teams got any points either so I was in good company.

The BetOnbet loyalty game came to the rescue as I just scrambled a place on the final table (kippe6 was there too). I was happily sitting on the final table with a low stack, glad to be getting any money (10th paid $15) and hanging on watching the others kill each other. When there were about 6 left (and $65 gtd) I started to get lucky and eventually managed (with vast luck) to get first place for $300. So running total for week stands at $+280 - Yummy!!!

As an example of how lucky I got, I went all in (as BB and next to lowest stack I think) with KK and lowest stack called me with 77, Joy and Happiness I thought until flop comes down AA7, now I'm in trouble ... but luckily the river was an A making my full house better. Its good to be dishing out the bad beats for a change.

... and I do do better....

2007-05-06T14:29:00.000-07:00

getting a bubble entry on $1 blue square STT paid off as I just won the Bubble tournement and raked in $400 .... couple that to 3rd in the Paradise league and suddenly this week is looking good. Now $+514 on the week .... that's more like it.

[later] the 50Up provided me with 3rd place - $12.50 and entry to next months 50Up final.

So final total for week is +$526. Yippeeeeeeeeee.

Could do better ....

2007-05-05T16:47:00.000-07:00

Could do better .... was what it used to say on my school reports. Last couple of days have been losing and then winning. Coming 3rd in the Bodog/Rounders Radio game ($5+0.50) won me $28.80. Fenners was first and it was the PL focus game. That win and $5 from the 50Up on Sporting Odds turned my losses around. Mow another $12 up - meaning my running total for week is $+81.

Tomorrow (actually today, Sunday) I've got the BlueSq bubble $1000 game to play at 16:30 ... so a chance of winning a little more before the financial week ends.

Spent a lot of today cleaning out and re-arranging my kitchen cupboards. It came as a shock to me to find the amount of dirt that accumulates in them - traffic film on the vertical surface. Now much more space in the kitchen!!! I need a scrubber (anyone remember Up Pompeii) this housework is not for idlers like me.

MTTs no joy - cash games fine

2007-05-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

My two MTTs this evening (60Up final and $1 Challenge game on SO) produced nothing, however $0.50/1.00 fixwd limit on BetOnBet proved (after an initial scare) profitable to the tune of $21. I'm now $+69 on the week and have quite a few points towards next Mondays BetOnBet $1000 freeroll (and a few more points towards my initial deposit bonus).

Some bonus dosh.....

2007-05-01T13:43:00.000-07:00

Got in early on the BetDirect monthly bonus of $25 (for depositing $25) and have already made my 100 raked hands. Also came 10th in the $3+0.30 league game on Paradise (new month just started) for a small profit - so am now $+49 up for week - a better start than many weeks.

Been badly damaged with AK a couple of times recently and have been reconsidering how I should play the "Big Slick". Important thing to remember in MTTs is that until the money stages or if you are short stacked then you want to avoid 50-50 events especially where loing means you are out of the game. Therefore if someone raises significantly in front of you then you should assume a pair, unless of course they are short stacked in which case they may have anything. Also, if you raise (typically to 3*bb) and some re-raises following you then most likely they have a pair and you should treead warily. Blanket following to all-in with AK is to be avoided.

If its Monday it must be BetonNet

2007-04-30T07:04:00.000-07:00

BetonBet are sponsoring a Punters Lounge series of games for next 6 mondays. £2+0.20 to enter with a $1000 pool split between top 20 players at end of series - a must play situation if ever I saw one. Also on Mondays on BonB they have a $1000 freeroll for 100 rake points - so this afternoon I've been playing the $0.50/1.00 limit hold'em games to qualify. Raked hands are a bit harder to get than on BetDirect (which is in the same group) hence the higher level games. Happily I got my 100 points and won $23 in the process! Looks like I'll be trying for the 100 points every Monday as if I get 400 points I get a bonus of $20 as well.

A little result

2007-04-29T12:07:00.000-07:00

One of my raked hands freebies came into the tune of $45 for 16th from the Monthly $5000 game on BetDirect. Was hoping to make final table where the money started to get bigger but $45 will do. With $2 from other stuff that means I'm $53 up so far.

[20:10] In a dilemna - currently doing well on the Virgin freeroll, but the weekly final for WSOP qualifiers starts soon..... the Virgin game is focus one as well. Currently sticking with Virgin game till brreak. Unfortunately I can't run both at once. [later] ooops - its ok was the final just the weekly final - final is on 20th May. So I can concentrate on focus game.

Did well last night in my first bodog game - where I came second in a freeroll to gain loads of points going towards qualifying me for a place in a final which could lead to a WSOP place.

Lost the MKOP monthly final on Betfair ... must qualify for next months as theres some decent prizes.

Finished 16th in the Virgin game so remain $+53 for the week. Means I'm $1800 on the finacial year and have $180 risk money available.

A slight downturn ......

2007-04-28T03:39:00.000-07:00

Lost $11 on the PL focus game - it was of those nearly but not quite games where I had some decent luck early on but none as it came up to the bubble. Final hand was against b'stard who had been stealing my BB, when he went all-in I took a stand
with my A9s, he showed JTs (diamonds, same as me) and then caught a T.

So now running at +$6.

Lets hope for some results today and tomorrow otherwise it could end up a break even week or thereabouts.

Another day, another $8

2007-04-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

Grifting away earning a few dollars from raked hands play plus $4 from the Poler Satellites freeroll. So ongoing total now $+19, a few qualifiers and points freerolls coming up over the weekend will hopefully boost that.

I keep mentioning "making a few dollars" on raked hands play, heres some thoughts and observations. Basically I've been playing fixed limit $0.05/0.10 cheap tables on prima sites (BetDirect mainly). My main motivation is to collect rake points so I can compete in their (IMHO) good value points freerolls. An example is the Friday $750 game which costs 75 points to join, but you need a few more points as its rebuy/addon (or R&A as its sometimes known). I play on the 6 seater tables, preferably when theres 5 or 6 people in total. BB when it comes round is 5 cents, SB 2 cents. On betdirect every hand you participate in that takes a rake (basically whenever a flop is dealt) is worth half a poker point.

What amazes me is that there are so many players playing so badly at this level that virtually every session I play I make money, considering the 5% rake then I've obviously discovered a secret play formula or (much more likely) the other players are often crap! So whats the formula I hear you ask. I'm not telling - do you think the inventor of Coca-Cola would tell you his - well no way are you getting mine. Suffice to say it centers round fairly tight and conservative play - with it I seem to average about 7% to 10% ROI per hour, not a fortune at the stakes I play, but if you could do that consistently on (say) the stockmarket then you'd be very happy (and very rich).

I'm beginning to wonder whether the players at higher levels of fixed limit are anywhere as bad. I did have a spell on Betfred that was quite profitable playing the $0.50/1.00 fixed limit and must admit the opposition looked fairly crap.

Trundling along

2007-04-25T05:10:00.000-07:00

Am $+11 on the week - nothing spectacular. A small win ($9 profit) from a $3.30 satellite where I came 6th and got the left over money - top 5 got seats in next stage. I don't generally play satellites - only played this one because it was the PL focus game. More small profits from the cheapo fixed limit cash tables on betdirect, which I'm playing in order to gain raked hands for their poits entry freerolls which I feel are good value. One of these on Friday, another on Sunday.

Had some difficulty getting BetonBet to accept a deposit - they seemed to think I was American - probably something to do with AOL. Anyway all sorted now, in good time for the forthcoming PL "special" league thats going to be playing on that site.

I've not got the urge to play expensive poker at the moment, maybe its a case of not needing the moneyy - not that I'm overly rich or anything - but I've got enough to go on with and a few extra bob accumulates in my bank account evry month. So I'm playing lots of freerolls and value games. If I keep this up I'm not going to beat my profits from last year. The aforesaid is one of the reasons I'm interested in playing in the forthcoming series of Laddies games as part of a team - 20 games over 20 weeks at $20+2 a pop might improve my winnings schedule.

Very little poker this weekend

2007-04-22T02:59:00.000-07:00

I'm in Cheltenham this weekend at my aunty Dot's - so very little poker been taking place. Got back on Sunday and only played one freeroll on Celebrity Poker. The free $10 I got from them is now lost.

Overall this week my profit is $42. Could do better. Theres an interesting chance of getting involved in a team league series of $20+2 games on Ladbrokes. The prize for the league winners (after 20 games) is tickets for all 4 team members to the Ladbrokes poker cruise - a $5000 bonus. It would be nice if we could win!

Whilst in Cheltenham I set my Uncle Leo up on Celebrity poker and got him his free $10. He's since made a small profit on raked hands and today's £250 freeroll that he qualified for - not bad for a 76 year old.

Failure in bloggers freeroll

2007-04-19T15:43:00.000-07:00

Tonights main feature was teh $2k freeroll sponsored by Punters lounge. 43 entries so nearly $50 value for free - unfortunately the cards weren't running and I came 38th or so. Ah well, you cant win em 'all.

VoiceOfJoe on PL pointed out a special offer in this months issue of InsidePoker = basically download celebpoker (anothe boss site) send in an email and $10 is credited - no raked hands to play. Sure enough less than two hours after emailing them $10 appears. Together with a little profit from cash games that brought todays winnings to $12 - so now $52 up on week. Slowly creeping up. Celeb poker have a $250 freeroll on Sundays - 20 raked hands to qualify, easy peasy as the rules are exactly the same as on SportingOdds any rake at all counts provided you are in the hand for some money.

Fixed limit profits..... MTT losses

2007-04-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

Was about to withdraw some money from Betfred when I noticed I had a $5 bonus that could be earned playing raked hands. In order to qualify for rake points on betfred the rake needs to be $0.25 or over - which means the pit has to reach $5. So had to play 0.50/1.00 fixed limit. Anyway managed to make a decent profit of $15 or so whilst getting closer to my goal of the bonus $5.

Spent $10+1 entering the Betfair Maxim "King of poker" game. The Betfair software behaved atrociously with disconnect after disconnect for everyone. Anyway I hung in and was disappointed to be 14th (out of 53). The game paid to 9th - however the first 15 qualified for the 100 person MKOP final (qualification worth over $30) - so that was a bonus. Betfair have acknowledged responsibility and with a bit of luck my entrance fee will get refunded,

Overall today I'm $+2 - so now $12 up on week - but lots of qualifications for future games.

[later] - feeling un-sleepful I decided to return to Betfred and make my $5 bonus. IMHO the bonus is hard to make on Betfair as it requires 250 points to make $5, but you do get points even when you don't contribute to a hand. So I suppose the best way to get points quickly would be to sit at a wild NL table and play very carefully. Luckily the players on my 0.5/1.0 limit table appeared to be idiots and in the late night session I managed to make $12 profit and the last 60 points for my bonus in less than one hour. So thats another $17 profit and nice Betfair refunded my entry fee for last nights "disconnections, disconnections" tournament - so weekly profit now running at $40 - thats more like it. Rest of the week I hardly have to pay for any games as I have quite a few good ones on tap for free. Tonight its the PL bloggers $2000 freeroll on Betfred,

Finally qualified for the 50Up final

2007-04-17T14:48:00.000-07:00

I've been playing fixed limit raked hands on Sporting Odds (Boss) specifically to get into the 50Up each night - a $100 freeroll requiring 50 raked hands which I can earn virtually risk free in an hour or so. There were 81 in it tonight so the value of the freeroll isn't really that big (just over $1) - however if you make the top 5 then you get enterd into the $2500 50Up final at the beginning of the following month and the value of that entry is quite good. Anyway tonight I came 5th - which won me a welcome $8 and that valued entry.

At the moment I'm $+10 on the week , but must admit to not playing any MTT money games this week (other than a single $1 game) yet. If I'm to make some real money this week I'd better play a few games with an entry fee. Last weeks semi-decent profit result was partly due to bonus whoring and theres not a lot more of that around at my cheapo low risk level till start of next month. Having said all that I do have a few "qualified" games in the pipeline including the 75 poker points $750 game on Friday and the $2000 Punters Lounge bloggers freeroll on Thursday.

Probably the best poker forum in the world......

2007-04-17T03:52:00.000-07:00

This is unapologetic blatent advertising for a website that besides being a source of profit for me is also a repository of friends, amusement and education in my idle poker life. Of course I'm talking about Punters Lounge (see the links on my side pane).

I reckon PunetrsLounge (PL) is responsible for at least 30% of my poker profits through their identification of value freerolls and bonuses. I've dabbled with other forums before and none of them hold a candle to PL.

This Thursday for example they are running a $2000 freeroll for all PLrs who have a blog and point to PL from it. So far only 28 entries - it will probably max out at 40 or so - thats $50 value!

Social wise, the banter and poker advice on PL is (I find) second to none. Generally everyones always pleasant - the occasional handbags at dawn event is handled well by the moderators. We even have the occasional get together (Racing at Wolverhampton in July is the next event) with copious fun (and the odd poker under the influence game).

As I said, unadulterated advertising, but all true. If you are reading this and don't believe me then join up - its free......... what you got to lose. Oh it also supports those poor unfortunates who believe they can make consistent profits by betting on dumb animals (horses, footballers, big brother contestants....etc).

A small result.....

2007-04-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

Made $120 from a freeroll on William Hill (7th) and $13 profit from a game on Absolute ... so today has been quite good. Also think I qualified for a final with WSOP places on absolute - played in about a months time.

So profit today $+128 (lost $5 on raked hands) making grand total for the week of $+265 - can't be bad. So now up $+1705 on this financial year and my backstop now stands at $1535 giving me $170 of available risk.

Grinding away....

2007-04-14T15:16:00.000-07:00

Grinding away at the game, like some old burlesque stripper. Another $23 today - mainly from a ladbrokes freeroll using the 100 poker points I earned from fixed limit cheap cash games a couple of days ago ($13.75 for 6th), coupled to $8 for 5th from the Poker Satellites standard freeroll. So weekly profit now running at $137 with tomorrow to go.

Tonights Punters Lounge focus game was a forum challenge on absolute where I came a passable 187th out of 2000 or so - started paying at 50, but at least I'll get a few points towards my PL ranking.

Invite to a Poker Rebellion freeroll for tomorrow came came in - due to my participation on some of their league games on Wingows. Will get password in post.

Friday 13th.....

2007-04-13T14:26:00.000-07:00

Noticed a Friday 13th $5 game on Laddies with $500 added - entered - came 20th which was just in the money and made profit of $12 - running weekly profit is $114.

Bonus money .......

2007-04-12T16:26:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night was a bit wishy-washy - came nowhere in Tikay's tournament so that was $11 down amd nowhere in the $1 Challenge either. The night was rescued by an email from Titan (most of my email ids from poker sites ... I wonder why) which because they were missing me gabe me two tokens - one for a freeroll later this month and one (value $2.40) for a free go in their Dirty Dozen sut'n'goes, I came first in the Dirty Dozeb game and got $12 - so ended Wednesday $+33.

Thursday, I read a post on Punters Lounge pointing me at a Ladbrokes offer - deposit $50 get 100 player 100 player points and they give you anothe $50. It took about 1 hour playing the fixed limit $0.5/1.0 tables to get the necessary points making $5 in the process. PL also pointed me at a $2500 freeroll on Canbet - so downloaded another client - came 56th and got $10. Coming 8th in the PokerSatellites $100 freeroll made me another $4. Only loss was the $3 league game - so $66 profit bringing the ongoing profit for the week to $99.

Ongoing profit now $+102 after a late night Dirty Dozen where I came 2nd.

Wonderful wonderful Copenhagen

2007-04-11T04:47:00.000-07:00

Last financial week (ending Sunday 8th) I didn't play much - largely due to not playing Tuesday (London pubcrawl) and Thursday thru Sunday. Thursday thru Sunday I was attending Paul and Pernille's wedding in Copenhagen. Paul is the prime mover behind Punters lounge and Pernille (or Pene as we tend to call her) joined Punters Lounge about a year and a bit ago and true love ensued after a couple of PL get togethers.

It was a great time, with much drinking and celebration. The wedding itself was in a magnificent stately home somewhere near Ringsted, but the party started on the Friday when large numbers of us flew in and congregated in Copenhagen. Many of the Punters Lounge regulars where there - Sue and Steve (malou and 6ooner), Andy and Sam (Valiant and PocketLady), Jeffers (all the way from Melbourne), Heniek, Ronay, Brian (FriskyFitz) and his girlfriend Stella to name but a few. A very eclectic lot - but IMHO really nice genuine people. Friday night there was a lot of boozing in "The Irish Rover". I finished about midnight (partypooper that I am) and slept reasonably well in the hotel.

Saturday morning, after breakfast, we all transferred to a coach and travelled to a new hotel (The Scandic) at Ringsted - and then having unpacked onto the wedding itself. The bride (of course) was gorgeous and Paul scrubbed up reasonably well. I meantime wore my DJ and did a fairly good impression of Les Patterson (hehe). The wedding dinner wnet on from 5 to 10:30-ish with a wonderful firework display - the drinking and dancing then went on (for some) until 4:30 am (what was the point of paying for a hotel?) - but I snuck out at 2:00 am and was in bed for 2:30. I drank a lot of booze over many hours and find nowadays I flag easier than I used to. Back to Copenhagen on the Saturday morning (after brunch at the castle) where Paul and Pene let us use their apartment as a lay up until time for the 6:00pm flight home. Such hospitality - Paul and Pene I love those guys (which for an antisocial codger like me is really saying something)!

Anyway back home on the Sunday and the end of my (financial) week. I'd left $13 up, but luckily for me my brother Paul had added $10 to it (due to signing onto my account rather than his) so last weeks results were $+23 - better than losing!.

This week I'm currently $+35 - mainly due to a "free" $25 from BetDirect under their monthly bonus scheme. Tonights main event is the monthy Tikay tournement on SO (Boss) - good value at $10+$1 as it has added money and a bonus for knocking Ticay out. Its a PL regular game with often half the field being PL'rs.

Having got back from Copenhagen my chest has packed up somewhat again - its' probably hayfever (f*ck) but its definitely affecting my stamina. House currently looks like a tip - I need to start winning enough to employ a house keeper!

A disappointing Sunday

2007-04-01T14:44:00.000-07:00

Disappointed with my results today - ended the day $13 up - was hoping for much more as I had several good value games on the book. Usual tale of right decision- wrong result. Winnings mainly due to 10th spot (£10 counted as $19) in the Virgin 100K airmiles game, Ah well......

Total for week is now £318 - so have readjusted figure - Total so far £1417 and backstop is now $1275 which gives me $142 in "risk" money.

A few dollars more.....

2007-03-30T14:46:00.000-07:00

Now up another $20 due to 40th (out of 700) in a $3000 guaranteed $5.50 tournament on titan (it was the Punters Lounge focus game) and $5 for 7th in the SO 50Up. So now $+305 on week.

Some success on Laddies

2007-03-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

Profit for week now $+285 after 5th in a $5.50 value Laddies game where I came 5th and got $138.12 plus entry to a later game (10 Players - $500 Prize pool plus a $100 bounty) where I came 2nd for $150.

A big thankyou is due to Punters Lounge for pointing me at this one.

Thats more like it!!!!

Disappointing Sunday

2007-03-26T04:15:00.000-07:00

Loads of games on Sunday - mostly free and not a result. Worse .... in the final game, the TalkSport freeroll I royally f***ed up at the very end. Top 30 qualified and I came 34th due to a rush of blood to the head and going all-in with a pair of jacks. It really pi**ed me off - 3 hours of play ruined by 1 drop in concentration.

Anyway I eventually ended the week at +26, so have revamped my stats and I can now go $-110 before chickening out of none overlay games.

Monday has started badly - $-2, mind you I am trying to put pokerstars into dead folder.

Getting even

2007-03-24T16:31:00.000-07:00

Managed to get back to even for the week by putting $25 into DreamPoker, who then gave me $25 which put me slightly ahead. Spent the ahead, by investing it all ($5.50) in tonights Boss 23:30 game - lets see if I can emulate last weeks result.
In order to fully fix the $25 bonus I need to play 100 raked hands - but for playing the necessary raked hands I should get into a freeroll week tomorrow.

[later]
Well the Late night Boss game comes to the rescue again. 8th this time (out of 147) making my ongoing profit this week $29 - looks like I've successfully defended my non-losing week record (this financial year) once again as tomorrow is mainly free games.