June Update Week 4

This week I'm gonna pretty much bypass poker! Nothing too interesting to report on that front. Volume has been pretty poor this week due to moving house! Think I managed around 25k vpps for the month which obviously is way under what I'd planned for but I did manage to grind out of my horrible downswing from first week and bought my new pc which has already paid for itself. I'm not a fan of goal setting as I've always found it adds unnecessary pressure and the feeling of disappointment when missing a goal can often blemish an otherwise successful timespan.

Like I said last week I've been grinding on multiple machines so I don't have all the results from the last month but I'll post my last 10k games or so for a little bit of closure before I revert back to posting monthly updates.

Thats enough poker talk for the time being anyway! The main news this month has been moving house! Moved in with 3 of my friends from home some of whom I've known since I was about 12. All of them are pretty driven to have a productive and lucrative year so the house should provide a relatively stress free and optimal environment to crush some souls and start my SNE grind next year (very unlikely it'll happen this year now, sorry guyzzz). Just outside of Liverpool city centre with plenty of shops, cafes and other amenities close by it's pretty ideal and for the money were paying we think we've really gotten lucky this year. Photos of the important rooms below!!

Were all big into gaming and films so we've turned the lounge into a bit of a lad cave. 1 of the guys is still yet to move in but when he does we'll have around 700 dvds, a few hundred games and 7 or 8 consoles including an N64 and gamecube. We'll be spending the majority of our evenings and weekends in this room I'd imagine!

And of course no lounge is complete without a 6 foot plush grizzly bear and a slightly depressed looking 5 foot dog #whatdoyougiveamanwhohaseverything

Pretty standard kitchen but plenty big for the 4 of us! Still needs stuff packing away and a little tidy but you get the picture.

And last but definitely not least, my new office space!

Difficult to get a real decent picture as the rooms not huge and my camera is pretty awful but its my first dedicated poker space and I hope to make heaps of money in this spot!

 And everyone needs a grinding buddy! Walt here keeps a watchful eye over my whilst I grind and reminds me there's much more difficult and dangerous ways of making money! Maybe if poker doesn't work out!

Unfortunately poker isn't the only thing to have suffered this last week. Due to some medical checkups, moving and visiting home both gym and diet went down the drain entirely. I'll post a few photos of where I finished my diet for a little comparison but I've actually managed to gain 3 or 4 pounds of pure fat back since these. I'm going away with my family for a week as of Friday but once I'm back I'll back smashing training and diet like never before.

Heres where I started the month-

 And where I finished-

 Not too bad for 3 and a half weeks imo. Dropped around 6 pounds and strength actually went up in the gym. I actually leaned out a little after these photos were taken before I went full yolo with my diet and fucked things up a little. Monthly updates for the rest of the year will be real motivating for me and I guarantee I will look very different in 12 months time.

I think that's enough for now anyway! These weekly updates have actually been a bit of a hindrance more than anything this month so I look forward to switching back to monthly posts. Will have a lot more to report and results both in the gym and at the tables will be a little more significant.

Hope you've enjoyed reading the past few weeks anyway and no doubt I'll see you at the tables or irl in the near future! Laters!

June Update Week 3

No graph this week as I've been grinding on my shiny new pc and I'm updating this on my laptop. Ran pretty awfully again! Managed to break even pre rakeback but I aint no rakeback whore (Specially not at 15's lol). Managed around 1200 games at the 15s so I'm looking at finishing around 10kvpps away from monthly goal. But am happy with how I've been playing and I'm 100% going to hit supernova next month anyway.

This marks the third consecutive week running awfully and is a little annoying I'm not gonna lie. Luckily I feel my mental game is pretty decent and my detachment from money means it really doesn't affect me if I'm losing money but making EV. My expected value at the 15s has been pretty epic so with my new lagless and crash free pc I started grinding the 30's again today with pretty impressive results. So however much I might bitch things could always be worse! Could be this guy.

Fingers crossed I just make a million buyins this week and have enough money for my flat and a few Ferraris. We'll see next Monday!

Training this week has gone very well! Again, dropped a couple of pounds and apart from one off day training has gone from strength to strength.

 Not the best photos to be fair. Was very early so lighting was poor and was a little flat as I hadn't eaten in around 9 hours but measurements and scales confirm the diet and training are still working well.

Thats enough rambling for this week! Last update of the month next Monday then back to monthly posts as this is a little tedious. Will see if I can end the week at a high! Good luck at the tables!

June Update Week 2-

Slightly more positive this week. But only slightly!

Due to my laptop deciding to lag and holdem manager deciding to crash every 20 minutes I dropped down to the 15's to grind out some variance free cash whilst I waited for my new pc to be built. I managed a sub parr 1133 games with the majority of those at the lower buying so vpps this week are barely worth mentioning (think I managed 4k vpps or something silly like that). Started grinding the 15s at the bottom of the downswing and thanks to the consistent stream of whales and bad regs practically throwing money at me I didn't have to overly rely on my shoddy laptop and rebelling holdem manager to make correct decisions. 

 Im going to have to do some serious grinding and put in some mega volume at the 30s this month if I'm to hit supernova now and moving into a new house at the end of the month is only going to hinder that. BUT, there is still hope! My new pc arrived today and once I have it set up I should be able to grind the 30's till my hearts content completely lag and crash free! Hopefully will grind my way out of this horribly downswing too and end up in profit pre rakeback which would be ideal. If only money grew on trees!

Im only two weeks into my weekly updates and I've quickly realised that I have very little to actually blog about. I will continue to update once a week for the remainder of this month but after that I'll resume my monthly posts as I really don't live an all that exciting life right now! I hope in the coming months I will be able to write about slightly more interesting and less poker related topics which Geo3gs does in his blog (see blog list on the right) providing a lot more entertaining and educated reading than my seemingly endless chitchat and minor meme obsession. I am actually interested in other things beside poker and the gym so watch out!

One thing that I do enjoy to blog about and will continue to update semi regularly will be my training updates. This week has been another cracker to be honest. Once again I've managed to gain strength and lose weight, I've really gotten used to my new sleeping schedule and lifestyle and I'm very much enjoying everything at the moment. Who needs money when you have your health!

Down another couple of pounds this week and dare I say looking a little leaner? Am quite interested to see what I can achieve physique wise in the next two weeks with my diet and training on point.

 

Heres my graph for the first two weeks of the month. The worm is poking its head up a little as my coach likes to say! By the end of the month this graph should fingers crossed look very different! 

In other news, this week me and my friends from home finalised our new house in Liverpool and we move in on the 30th of this month. Soon as we've moved in and settled I'll post some photos!

Anyway, I really have to start setting up my new pc now! Im a real technophobe so this should be fun........

Good luck at the tables this week and I'll be back in 7 days! 

June Update Week 1-

Start as you mean to go on Things can only get better!

So my first week playing full time goes a little something like this....

I have to say I have been running horribly this week, both in card distribution and bad beats. My EV actually isn't all that bad. I hope I can grind back into profit in the next week or so otheriwise I will be grinding purely for my bonus which is a little frustrating. But thats poker!

Managed just under 1.4k games this week and just under 9k vpps which puts me a little behind pace which isn't a worry as there's plenty of time to make up those vpps over the coming 3 weeks and hopefully I might even move up to the 60s before the end of it. Due to my downswing this week I spent a little more time than usual studying and also took an extra half day off due to tilt (something that on the whole I am very good with but this time got the better of me).

Rent money is still number 1 priority but I'm sure I'll have enough cash for somewhere in Liverpool by the end of the month. Shouldn't be a problem.

In other news, I decided my laptop isn't up to scratch any more so I've decided to fork out for a new pc. It should pay for itself within a week or so and it'll give me a huge advantage over my opponents compared to what I have now. Nothing fancy though, just a custom build pc that fits all of my needs until I can afford a serious gaming laptop or a serious gaming pc.

As I'm doing weekly updates now I don't want to go into too much detail about poker as there's very little to say and I don't want to bore. But to summarise;

1379 games

-3207 dollars profit

Around 55 hours playtime+study

On the gym front things are going a hell of a lot better! Really eased into my new busy schedule and training and diet have gone extremely well. Ive dropped a couple of pounds this week with my strength and energy levels actually increasing.

Am a little fluffy in these pictures as I've just eaten and drank a load of water so not great for comparison but I'l find it interesting to look back nevertheless.

Not much else to report this week! Just about to load my first session of the week. May the poker gods be with us all! 

June is goals month! Time to be productive!

So after a relatively low volume month (around 5.5k games) I feel I've re-accustomed myself to long hours and grinding early mornings so this month I plan on playing and studying around 240 hours as I want to hit my first supernova of the year and also grind out my rent money for my new flat. As this month is gonna be extremely busy and hectic for me I feel its important to plan my week and stick to my plan rigidly. Schedule for the next 4 weeks is;

-Up at 4.30 to go to the gym

-Back by half 7 to eat and get ready for first study session of the day

-Study till 9 then grind around 300-400 games till 6 then final study till 7

-Couple hours relaxing and catching up with flatmates then bed between 9 and 10

To recover fully and not burn out I'll be taking Wednesdays and Sundays off from training and only grinding Monday to Saturday.

I now only need 40k vpps to hit my first supernova so at 6.44vpps a game I'll only have to play a little over 6k games but if all goes to plan I'll have moved up to the 60's well before then and hitting this target will be a walk in the park! As I'm moving to a new apartment early next month this is really going to help me as I just need to break even to be able to afford rent for the next few months thanks to the bonus. I'm also saving up for a new laptop just for poker so hopefully will have some funds left over.

 As mentioned in my previous post I'm going to get back into shape now uni is out of the way and I have a little spare time. I also think its extremely important to keep physically active in some way when grinding long hours and sitting at yours desk for over 60 hours a week. The last couple of weeks of uni where I didn't have time to grind, study AND train I found myself living on a diet of Tesco sandwiches and coffee for breakfast lunch and dinner which is definitely -EV for both poker and mental and physical health.

So this month I have a really intense workout schedule and a diet which should slowly start bringing me back to my previous glory. Fitness and dieting has been a major part of my life for the last 4 years but due to extreme yoyoing thanks to both injury and work I'm in pretty poor shape at the moment (See below).   

Like I said, pretty poor shape especially considering how long I've been training for. But I plan on getting lean enough in the next 12 weeks so that I can clean bulk year round and keep abs!

Anyway, just to keep me on my toes and motivated I'm going to update my blog weekly till the end of the month. It'll give me something to work towards and look forward to a little and will also hopefully provide some interesting reading to look back on once I've moved into my new place.

Best get back to the grind now! Update same time next week! Good luck at the tables!

Achievement unlocked- Leave uni a professional poker player

Well! Its been three long years but as of today I am no longer a university student........

I can't lie, there have been very enjoyable elements to uni and I'm extremely happy I moved down to Liverpool to 'study'. I've met some great people, had a hell of a laugh, learnt a lot (not necessarily in the classroom) and ultimately I've ended up achieving my number one goal and my long term dream of leaving university a professional poker player. The idea of being a 'professional' rather than a semi professional is really neither here nor there. The only difference between what I'll be doing now to what I've been doing the past 5 or 6 months is I'll be playing a lot more, hopefully making a lot more money and I won't have any stress relating to extra workload. The real gift is that I don't have to finish uni looking for work and I'm lucky enough to enjoy what I'll be doing for a living for the foreseeable future.    

Leaving my final exam today I felt both a sense of overwhelming relief but also extreme excitement at the thought of what the next few years might bring for me. Although I do have lots of goals and ambitions for the coming years I would really like to be able to slow down a little and both enjoy and appreciate what I've got and the freedom that my job brings. I feel I've spent the last couple of years wishing away my life and having hit my most important target I don't want to simply set another and wish away my life till I hit that. Living with or close by to very good friends of mine this year I am going to enjoy myself as much as possible and not take for granted the situation I'm in.  I don't particularly want to write a long post right now as I'm in lying in bed in preparation to watch face/off for the second time this week as a celebration.

I would like to say though that from now on every 1st of the month is blog update day! Now I have plenty of free time I will be updating my blog at least once a month and considering I am no longer writing results orientated posts I decided to start also writing about another passion of mine in the gym and fitness. I've really been yoyoing with diet and training for the past 3 years thanks to a slightly overwhelming work load (and maybe a little bit of partying) but some time next week I look to start getting back into shape with the intentions of hopefully competing on stage one day (I have a long way to go I know). I wont post half naked selfies right now as I've just had a celebratory meal and I'm a fat bloated bastard but as of the 1st of next month I'll be posting photos and updates on how training has been treating me. I'm sure most people really aren't arsed and would rather not see said photos of me but it's really something to motivate me and keep me from sinking back into old habits or losing my drive.

Also, I really cant finish this blog post without emphasizing how grateful I am of my family, my friends and my employers for both giving me the opportunity to achieve this dream of mine but also keeping the faith in me and supporting me for the last few years chasing it. Both of my parents have been extremely supportive and understanding (eventually... dad :) ) of my 'career' choice and I am forever thankful for that. There's no doubt that without their help and general interest in what I do I would not be where I am today. I also can't ignore the great influence my friends have had on me, not just for getting me into poker in the first place, but again always being extremely interested and genuinely happy for me of which I really do appreciate. Lastly but not least I have to thank my boss' again for giving me the opportunity to prove myself and for seeing potential in me. I hope to do you all proud!

Anyway! Enough for now! Mr Cage is waiting.

Incase you were wondering the 30s are going really well for me at the moment and with a couple of alterations and eureka moments I had this past week I hope to really get my grinding cap on and move up to the 60s asap. Charizard and Supernova Elite await!!!!!!!!

Curacao trip report- Unintentional life brag

Sometimes a picture tells a thousand words.

Safe to say the trip was an overwhelming success! Poker-wise and vacation wise everything was super enjoyable and lucrative and as of Friday I have been moved up the stakes! This means I have the potential to earn a very reasonable living after university if I stick at this buy-in level for the year(but we have bigger plans!) 

The last three weeks have absolutely flown by and I have met some awesome people that I hope to stay in contact with for a very long time to come. I feel very lucky to be a part of such a like-minded yet diverse group of individuals who share my passion and interest for poker and I could't have asked to have joined a better stable. 

Beer+study= Results (bad results are technically still results)

The real masters at work

Birthday set-up

Birthday was a really interesting day!! Spent the whole day on mini Curacao (a little island off the coast) to snorkel, chill on the beach and swim with turtles. Spent the whole day in the sun loving life and enjoying a well earned day off from the daily grind. On the journey back the boat we were travelling back on decided to serve rum punch and although most people had one or two glasses maximum, as it was my birthday I decided to enjoy myself and subsequently drank 7 glasses in the short trip back. Safe to say by the time we moored I was a little drunk and a few beers and a swim in the pool later I was KO'd in my bed soaking wet at around 9pm. Although I missed the opportunity to party on the evening of my birthday we eventually made it out a few days later and had a hell of a good night in the nightclub 'Bermuda'.

  

Now back to business....Thanks to putting university and gym on standstill for the last 3 weeks I'd hazard a guess that I have played, studied and improved the equivalent of around 6-8 weeks back home so this has been an incredible opportunity and keeps my dreams of SNE alive for 2014. Spending three weeks away in the Caribbean has led me to realise how how much my life has changed for the better over the past 5-6 months and for that I'm super grateful. I still have a long way to go to realise my full potential but I have already come such a way since starting and things can only improve. I have worked hard over the past couple of years to realise this dream of mine to become a professional poker player but now it is finally coming to fruition I feel extremely lucky and for lack of a better word ''blessed'' to be where I am today surrounded by good friends, with a supporting family and a bright future 'working' a 'job' that I love.

                       

Anyway, enough soppy shit and no more boring poker talk! I didn't take a crazy amount of photos to be honest as we spent the majority of our time in or around our house grinding and studying anyway! But here are a few of the photos I did take....

                       

Our grinding friend

Secret to success- 3 hours daily meditation (rocks essential)

                      

The watermelon master

I'm a little gutted to be travelling home after such an enjoyable vacation but as I mentioned earlier this has really put things into perspective for me and I figure the next 6 weeks or so completing university will fly by and I have the rest of my life to look forward to. Thanks for reading, will keep you posted on how the 30's treat me!

And more importantly! Charizard next stake jump. Motivation level 1000