Disgusting pt 2...

Back at uni, but still going kinda bad! At least I won some money, but as you may or may not be able to see I am $4.8k under expected value today. That sucks cos it makes it around 11-12k under expected value for the last couple of days, which could have boosted the month a lot. There were some really, realllllly bad hands, which I don't have time to post.. but they are horrible.

As it is, I can't really complain. I am up around $33k for the month, having played probably just under half of what I would usually play. Also $33k now = £20.5k because of the pound falling. I hope it continues, really.

This looks like it's the end of my month - I may play a tiny bit more if I can. Tomorrow I have a football match for the uni in Brighton, then am going out afterwards. On Thursday I have an assignment to do and 4 hours of classes, as well as football training and fencing, then on Friday it's a big night out for Halloween at the uni, which will be really cool..

I wont put up my monthly graph yet in case I do play more, but it will get posted.

Gl, Rob.

Disgusting..

Will anotate later..

I'm sick!

I have been pretty ill today (yes again - no idea why?), so played 2k hands in the afternoon (I didn't have class today).

Went well, finished +$4893. I got set-over-setted twice today though, which made earning 5 buyins difficult, though the games were pretty soft. I have no idea why - it was a Monday afternoon!

That puts me at ~28k for the month. A little more of a respectable score coming into the last 3rd of the month. I'm hoping for no downswings, please.

Now I am off out to drink some beers, hoping that will cure my cold? Maybe there is some sort of vitamin C beer I can drink.


Rob

Breakeven week, I guess.

Since last week I think I played 3 days.

The first was Tuesday I believe. That went not so good - in 2k hands I drop 10.1k at 5/10. I'm pretty shellshocked really and just quit. I then realise I have to go to UniSport and pay like £100 to join the gym in order to play football... I was not so happy. So I do that, then get back and decide to play a bit more for the night - I play some 5/10 and 10/20 and claw it back to -$6.5k. I was actually pretty happy about "only" losing 6.5k in the day. I got ridiculously unlucky, it was not pretty!

Then on Wednesday I played a bit and won a small amount - under $2k. I played so little because so much was going on - birthday parties, nights out etc. I also went to Arsenal v Everton courtesy of 888.com - it wasn't great, but probably worth going.

After Wednesday, the next time I played was today (Sunday). I had a Fencing lesson lined up for late at night with a friend from Uni (though she had fenced before so I was kind of anxious about going along), so if I had a big losing session I could stab some people!!

Fortunately I booked a win... just over 6k (was 7k but while typic this I have been playing and lost a little). For the month it's just over 23k which is okay - probably like $1/hand. These are good results, but I really need to put more hands in. Hopefully I will do this week.




I don't wanna miss out on anything
At the same time I feel the need to retreat
Everything is temporary these days
Might as well go out for a fifth night in a row

(The Rakes)

10k day.

I woke up at 2pm ish today cos I had two pretty heavy nights before it. One was in Fabric in London. I got back at 6am, then had a football match to attend in the morning. That sucked. I played kinda well, but didn't actually sprint once I don't think. Then straight after that I went to watch England play and a friend was visiting his girlfriend up here so we went out on the town again.

So got up at 2ish, then decided I would be playing a session today. Knew right from the off it was gonna be my day really. I think I only misplayed one hand today, and that was a bad call on the river in a 3bet pot. But apart from that I was really very happy with how I played. It's not really like I won a tonne of flips either (that's not to say I didn't get on the luckier side of things) but for the most part my bet sizing and general play was good. It also helped that the games were pretty soft today.

For the month i'm around +23.5k which I am pretty satified with to be honest, especially since I have only played around 15k hands. I did have a pretty brutal day where I was down 8k then clawed 3k back before I had to head off to a uni football match. I must say it hit me harder than when I used to lose that amount at home.. i'm not sure why, maybe because I had other things to do and could not play 20 hours straight to get it back or whatever. I'm definitely not looking forward to my next one of those, especially if it's before a lesson!


Good luck.

Rob

Getting money and giving money!

I had half a day free, so decided to fire up a session for a few hours. I played 3.2k hands, it was a pretty crazy day.

Well basically I can't get the image to work (edit: just did.. see below) but in the first 900 hands I went down around -6k.. by the end of the session I was up around 6.5k!

Very happy with how this ended, cos obv I was pretty mad about how it was going. I def felt that I kept my composure while down large amounts, and got on with playing my own game.






Over the weekend I visited a site called World Vision (http://www.worldvision.com).

It's basically a charity site where you give a donation of $30 a month to sponsor a kid from a very poor background. I know poker players who always say yeahhhh I wanna find a decent charity to give to that doesn't take ages to set up. If you are one of those ppl - this is really easy (no kidding, you actually add donations to your basket!). Also under reliable sources found out it's pretty efficient in donating the actual money etc.

So I sponsored a 9 year old girl from Peru with the same birthday as me.. info:

Mary Luz lives with her brother, 1 brother, and 1 sister. Her brother struggles to provide for the family.

Mary Luz is growing up in a poor community in the Latin American country of Peru. Typical homes are constructed of wood, adobe or cement bricks. The roofs on these small homes are made of corrugated iron or straw. Children and their families survive on a diet high in carbohydrates like potatoes, corn, noodles and bread. Peru's terrain is picturesque with its high mountains and deep valleys.

Mary Luz is in primary school and she enjoys mathematics. She helps at home by washing dishes. She likes to play volleyball. She is in satisfactory health.

Apparently they write to you, so that will be fun to see. I always said I'd do it, just guess I decided now I was earning enough money I wouldn't really notice it, but someone else would.

Now if the poker gods want to repay me in karma, thats totally fine with me.



Jin: What's your name?
Mei: Mei
Jin: Mei?
Jin: Every girl here is named after a flower. Why is yours so plain?
Mei: I don't want to compete with those others girls. The flowers here can hardly be called flowers. Real flowers bloom in the wilderness.

(HOTFD)

The start of poker at uni?

I know I said I'd be writing the next few weeks off, because poker really takes up time, and it's time you don't have in the first few weeks of uni because there is so much going on...

..but, I have been pretty ill lately. I went out on Friday to this Shane Warne thing organised by 888.com which was a really really good night. I won a signed cricket ball, and Arsenal tickets, while drinking as much free drink and eating as much free food as I could. I also brought two cricketing friends along to play against Shane Warne, and they loved it, so that was cool. The problem was I had a bad cold (freshers flu?) and it made it worse. I stayed in bed a lot of Saturday, and also played around 500 hands of poker, which I ended +$1300. I'm really unsure as to whether this was a good idea. I felt really bad, and can't have been thinking at my best. I was really bored though, and suprisingly missing playing a lot.

I had a good long sleep and still felt bad in the morning today. I had to go to football trials though which sucks when you feel ill. I got through like 2-3 hours of playing football in the seering heat (prob just under room temperature). Then came back deliberated over whether or not to go out, in the end I couldn't get hold of anyone and felt kinda ill still.. so I decided to play a session.

I played around 1500 hands over 4-5 hours and ended +$3200. Something about it didn't feel quite right. People played worse against me than my results indicate. Also there is one hand that just threw me so much, I seriously had no idea what to do in any way:


$5/$10 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com


Stacks:

UTG		($1065.00)
UTG+1		($2122.00)
CO		($1129.00)
Hero		($4107.00)
SB		($880.00)
BB		($987.00)

Pre-flop: ($15, 6 players) Hero is BTN

1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $35, 1 fold, Hero calls $35, 2 folds

Flop: ($85, 2 players)
UTG+1 bets $60, Hero calls $60

Turn: ($205, 2 players)
UTG+1 bets $165, Hero calls $165

River: ($535, 2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $355, UTG+1 raises to $1862, Hero folds

Final Pot: $2752
UTG+1 shows:

UTG+1 wins $2749 ( won +$627 )
Hero lost -$615.00



Yeah, no analysis, cos, like, I have no idea what to do here, such a tough spot.



My first week of uni has just passed by. It's been pretty cool. There's an annoying factor of living a little bit of a walk from campus with a group of 3rd years. But they seem cool, the room is really new and I'm always elsewhere anyway. I have met lots of new cool people and start my course on Wednesday. I have 3 early starts (is there anything worse for a pro poker player??).


Being at uni around students definately brought up some (problems isn't the right word here, but i'll use it, cos it's nearly 1am and i'm kinda tired and can't think) problems. I was speaking to Brian about this sorta thing earlier:


Hitch says:
well, some of my friends...especially my uni one's think it is wrong that i can make so much money

Robbo says:
that line made me laugh

Robbo says:
its so true

Hitch says:
my friend seriously thinks working at a supermarket part time is tougher than playing poker

Robbo says:
thats clearly untrue. Ask him to lose 10k then see how he sleeps at night

Robbo says:
seriously your friend has a little bit of a skewed perception



After writing that I figured his friend is just a normal person, and probably a lot of people I tell especially young people struggling for money at uni are gonna have the same perception. Being a poker pro is easy, all you do is click your mouse and win a shit load of money while sitting in a nice comfy chair listening to The Thrills (I type that cos I am listening to them, and they are great).

So I'm not sure if I should tell people or to what extent I should tell people about poker. But the more I think about it the more I think it's inevitable people will know. A couple of people know already, along with the facts that I can't lie too well, and I will be getting drunk lots, which makes me talk about stuff I shouldn't!

*one note*: I underestimate playing poker for a living lots, but it's sure as hell harder than working in a supermarket.



"And remember that time when you told me that money wasn't real. Well old man, I'm 42 years old, and I finally realize what you were trying to tell me, so many years ago. I finally understand."

(also Blow...)

End of month.

I finished for the month on Friday. It's been a pretty bad month, but luckily I got in a few decent sessions towards the end of my month (I'm also lucky in the larger sense that I can consider ~26k/month to be bad). I move to Uni in like 12 hours so I'm writing off the rest of this month, and probably the first week or two of October as well. After that though I'll be looking to play as much as possible while still at Uni. It may be hard and also a bit stressful but hopefully I will be able to manage it.

Better start packing I guess...

End of month.

Still getting destroyed.

The last two days have been just the same as the previous 5 days or so before them. Either getting my money in good, and losing, or just getting in crappy spots... and also losing.

I had a coaching session yesterday, for 2 hours. For the first 1 and a half hours we got soooo unlucky. Ran into aces lots, a higher full house, got 2 outered, and generally just got into terrible spots. In the final 30 minutes we clawed some of it back, but still ended down money.

For the month I'm +13k, and will probably only be playing another 4 or 5 days this month. It looks like it is my worst month ever as a pro so far (winrate wise) but the good thing is I actually feel pretty confident in my game at the moment... which is wierd, cos those two things would def not normally go hand in hand.

Over the next few days, I plan to play a lot. Also I have a coaching session on Thursday, which I plan to win a lot of money in... (please?)




May the wind always be at your back and the sun upon your face and may the wings of destiny carry you aloft to dance with the stars.

( I just watched Blow)

Rob