FML - More MTT shafting

There isnt anyone who likes a bad beat story but this one is comin anyway! I am deffo gonna take this MTT down one day but this is my latest soul destroyin beat in it. The tourney is the $7.50 turbo on stars an averages about 1200 runners an this chip leader pot was with 15 left an $1.7k FTW. The guy was a maniac as cogs will tell you because he was railing. It was obvious he was isolating super wide with ATo being pretty much the top of his range in that spot, he had showed down some very suspect hands. So sick.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5320818P

1st week of elite

Hey Fish

Last week I was given the amazin opportunity of joining Rainmans elite team of students. We get to work super closely to the likes of Bodeye2, johnnyhilldo and not to mention the man himself MI_turtle. We also get the chance to go live in california an meet eveyone for a weeks intenseive training which is just going to be the nuts. Nicks been fantastic this week and is always on hand to answer questions about diffucult spots etc an how we could have played hands differently. Last night nick was 13 tablin MTT's an still managed to find time to look at a spot from one of $12/180 FT/s.

One thing is I really feel alot more confident now when playing the $12s and I genuinely feel like the best player at most final tables I make. I am learning to jab my way through them alot more an turning alot more FT appearances into wins which feels good. I am also mixin low buy in MTT's an the daily $7.50 turbo on stars hs got my name all over it soon. My last deep run I lost a big pot with 16/1125 left. My exit hand was sick an for a chip leader pot an $1.4k for the win. 3 limpers an I punish them by shoving with 18bb an AQs on the button, the SB & BB come along with A9s & JJ an the A9s flops the nutz an its gg me, FML.

Lastly can I just say a big congrats to the boss yesterday as after my session I railed him to victory on the $8+r Final Table. Its was so funny as down to 3 handed nick had 1million chips and the other 2 had 6mill and 5mill respectively. Nick asked did they wanna look at number an the chip leader (so confident he would win) said he wanted to take it down for his 1st 5 figure socre. Which ok is fair enough but you still have to win it against one of the best MTT players on stars haha, neeedless to say Nick politely wished them good luck the owned their souls an took it down.

Here's my results monday to monday from my 1st week on the elite team. The results are nice but the easy part was doing it the hard part will be emulating it week in week out, but am gonna give it a good fucking go

A little something for the doubters

Hey Guys

most reading this know the game but there will be an still is people reading who think they are unlucky, online pokers rigged, its impossible to beat that many fish etc etc so am gonna stick my neck on the line an admit up until 4th jan 2010 I knew a little about this game maybe a bit more than a little but this graph will show me I didnt know how to make money, so really I knew nothing because thats what this game is about

The arrow is a little out but it basically indicates when I met Nick an his team and before that was about the 3200 game mark and at -$1.5k in 18 months, after it well you can see for yourself, 2500 games at +$4.5k in just over 3 months but yeah pokers about luck, online pokers rigged an I was the unluckiest person alive until I actually learned the game an all that chaged!!

back officially as a poker pro and 2010 goals

Hey Guys

Sorry it's been a while with no post but only really hit the tables again full time on monday night. This week has been my most enjoyable yet to date were poker is concerned and made me realise its what I want to do. I managed a total of just under 400 games an a profit of $2k since monday. Yesterday I managed 111 $12/180 turbos in a day an believe me it was exhausting but enjoyable. Nick has also given me alot of his time on skype this week which has been good. He is watching my final tables live an giving me advice after them and going over tough spots with me. He believes in and ecnourages me which is nice and it gives you the confidence to keep going. He is worker and a half an its excellent to have him taking time like he has this week to help me. The mentality part of my game is improving vastly to. I believe if I keep working at my game and improving I can get to a minumum of $3 per game profit at the $12s but could achieve up to $5 and my aim is to play 2k per month minumum. I will no longer be playing the $2s an will be playing $12s and above only.

Goals:
Since I am going to be doing this shiz for a living from now on I have looked more into the stars rakeback system. Well tbh I never, Pud from over at Betfair did and told cogs who emailed me it all over but its not bad. My aim is to get platinum star next month which should be easy as I only need to play 1364 (less if mixin the $36s) games an its then the equivalent of 23.5% and at the moment I am getting an equivalent of 21% as gold star however my main goal is to make supernova by 31/12/2010 and I am goin to do it no matter what and I will be earning 33%

I also plan on playing alot more MTT's, preferably turbos an hopefully learning Nicks strategys behind them as well as my own game. I managed a deep run in the stars $11/7.5k this week, it got 1100+ runners but I couldnt win a flip for a top 5 pot with 29 left when my JJ was not match for QK/AK all in preflop, sigh but I feel an MTT score is around the corner as I have come close so many times. No one is willing to work harder than me this year so hopefully I will be rewarded.

Lastly but not least I want to make a top 20 appearance in the shakrscope leaderboard for 54>180 man sometime this year and a top 10 in the stars TLB 1 month would be amazin. I know these are tough goals but I am now surrounded in a team with, not only, some of the best players and most succesful proven online poker players in the world but also alot of players that are gonna be the future of this game we all love to hate so if David can go against Goliath with a stone???

I am not gonna be one of these poker players who sits infront of a PC 100 hours per week and hopefully I'll be that good I wont have to. I enjoy life an the good things it brings which is why I am doing this and I am a very sociable person so I am goin to work out some sort of schedule. Its gonna be hard tho because the games run better at nights. However its could involve simply hammering nights sun night - thurs night an havin fri-sat off but we'll see. The other side to coin is that the games are soooooooooo softer during the day so maybe I could play a little less but win as much. I will do some proper experiments over the coming weeks an see. I do know 12 tablin you can get 100 games in 7 hours using only the sync breaks. I have no qualms playing 12 hours a day 4 days a week though.

I will leave you with my graph to date since starting the course as its 7.30pm and I have 100 games to play. I will be blogging alot more. This graph is frustrating as if the personal problems that I had didnt come this would be so much better and I would be so much further.

badcallthat is back

Hey Guys


The situation is resloved an basically pokers what I want to do. I will be back at the tables pretty soon. I have emailed Nick and asked him can I come back on the course and hopefully he will accept me back. If not I will still be back at the tables from monday. I will be re rolling at the bottom so will start grinding the $2.20/180 and $3.40/45 on stars and will be lookin to play a bare minimum of 600 games per week

I am coming back more focused and more determined to crush this game beyond belief

Good Luck an stay out my way

Badcalllthat

Leaving the programme an poker to

Hey Guys


I have had to make a tough decision to leave the course. Its nothing to do with the game itself but basically I have problems and situations in my private life which require 100% attention and I cant give 100% to the course so I felt it would be unfair on both Nick & Allan to continue coaching me.

They are great guys and I felt confident enought to tell them my situation and their response opitmises what they're about. They basically wished me all the luck in the future and they hoped I got everything sorted. They also told me they would welcome me back on the programme at any time an that I was well on my way to earning a very good living off poker. So really its a shame but it doesnt even come close to being as important as what I need to do

People do say 'never say never' so who knows but I very much doubt I will pursue poker as a career in the forseeable future. I do have a message to anyone out there who has aspirations of being a professional poker player though. You really need to understand that the game takesover in the early run. You have to put so much dedication into it its unbelievable. Dont think these players who are winning thousand make an easy living. The likes of the Rainman programme can teach you everything except the psycology of the game. This is something you have to master yourself and belive me it isnt easy, 200 buy in dowswings hurt. You sit there grinding for 10 hours an just receive beat after beat after beat. It aint rigged, you aint unlucky its called variace and will always be there and if you cant handle it you cant win, period. If you let the beats affect your game, you miss +EV spots, you shove in -EV spots and just generally be all over the place. If there was no such thing as a river card we would all be millionaiires quick so shut the fuck up moaning about them cos they are there. Maybe we should invent a new game infact take the 'R' for river of then end of poker an call it poke, same no river, simplessss

Despite all the above I believe I could have beat this game an a 48% roi over my 1st 1500 game aint bad so who knows, but for now its being put to bed. Thanks to everyone who followed and a big thanks to cogs who really helped me get my head round the psycology of the game. I doubt I would have done well over the 1500 games without him helping me with that part all day everyday and we have had some laughs. Only really met him through this an RTR but spoke millions of times on skype an he's a good lad. I will continue to blog about any odd MTT's I play or just general poker an sport. I enjoy it.

Good Luck at the tables fish
Garry