11th April 07

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

The holiday challenge is still sitting somewhere in and around 70-75% complete. I had a little down turn at the end of last week and despite a horrible start to last night I managed to turn it around to be in profit for the evening, albeit just a little. I didn't play any poker over the 4 days of Easter as I took the time to relax and enjoy being off work. Unfortunately, there wasn't a great deal done in the flat either, but it is slowly but surely getting there under our current working system.

I'm really starting to struggle at work! Boredom and lethargy have a strong grip over me now and I just can't bring myself to care a toss about planning. I spend 90% of my day either typing emails, reading about or thinking about poker. I can really see the light at the end of the tunnel with pro poker but I'm just so impatient and frustrated at this miserable 9-5 drone experience. I calculated that after tax and national insurance I bank £12.80p for every hour I work - I'm pretty confident that with the help of rakeback I can beat that comfortably through poker at my current level (NL£100/$200). At the level above, which seems to be just as beatable, I'd expect to be able to make considerably more than my job! The problem is bankroll! Realistically I need a minimum of £10,000 to attempt full time play at NL£200/$400 and even that would be pushing my luck a little. I don't think with 50x the buy in there is even close to a realistic chance of ruin but it is a small enough amount that a heavy swing could seriously affect my mood, attitude and faith. If I could miracle £6-7000 from poker I'd honestly hand in my notice tomorrow but now isn't the time to make any rash moves. I've worked hard and waited a long time to get my chance at it so now is not the time to risk all that by leaping that little early without final preparation. When I take pro poker on I must be winning at NL£200/$400; over a reasonable sample; have 50x the buy in as a minimum; the flat must be finished; and my social life more settled and balanced. Patience and rational thinking are a big part of poker and now I have to demonstrate those skills to myself - the fact that my average hourly rate for all of 2007 is 3x what I earn at work should not influence me to risk it all when a few months more hard work will layer in a lot more security and certainty.

I'm definitely going to try and keep the blog going and return to making more regular posts (as soon as the flat is finished). It's a useful tool and I enjoy dipping back in and out of it to see my thinking and progress week/months ago. Considering I've not had the luxury of being a complete part-time poker machine (again, flats fault) I think I have to view my progress since I started the blog as really encouraging. I'm well on my way to cracking a number of key goals and I think my initial aims of a $20k bankroll, $55+ per hour win rate and beating NL$200 will all have been smashed by varying degrees by the blogs first birthday. Perhaps I'm getting carried away but my gut instincts tell me that this year I've been moving all the pieces into place for the big show and it all seems to be coming together. Successfully switching up to NL£200/$400 and getting 15+ buy ins ahead at that level is going to be huge milestone. Not least because the rakeback at that level alone should be more per hour than what I earn at work!!

Finally, I'm sure I've talked about multi-tabling before in the blog but for those that don't know I had a go at 8 tabling Pokerstars around this time last year with fairly poor results. My game became ultra tag-bot and very easy to predict to such a degree that I didn't make money. I had only tried to take on 8 tables because there was a spate of 'how many tables can you play' type threads on poker forums, etc. I realised that keeping up with the Jones on table numbers is utterly stupid and dropped down to a number where I felt I could beat them and not play a poor game. That number for long enough was 4 but of late I've been so comfortable with my game and my style that I've been playing 5 and on occasion 6 tables. I think with more practice 6 tabling will become my sweet spot and adding 50% more tables should really boost my overall profitability per hour. As I said, this is just one of the small things that are happening in my game that cumulatively are bringing it all together.

P.S. Just a little horror story for you: Last night I put £100 onto a NL£200 table to try and 'take a shot'. It was going well and I was still around £100 when I found AK in an early position which I raised to £8 finding one caller from the blinds. The flop is Ks,9s,5d and I'm checked to by villain. I fire a continuation bet of $15 and villain calls and then checks when the turn brings a 6h. The pot stands at around £48 and I have around £80 left. I put him K10-KQ a flush draw and obviously regard a set or K9 as 'possible'. Not looking to muck around (I don't have a bankroll for this level) I push my stack and he calls with 96o and holds. Considering I started the hand half-stacked - thus he doesn't have much implied odds - this hand was particularly annoying! I've twice taken a similar 'shot' at NL£200 with a £100 stake and both times I had AA cracked, one of which times was by AK on king high flop. Looks like I'll be grinding my way to that £10,000 bankroll 3bb/100 at a time then...

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