Just a short January update!

Well its my first blog update of 2015 and I'm already late with it...... Some things never change!

Hopefully though my 2015 graph will!

Could have hoped for a better start results wise but my EV is an absolute peach so I'm expecting a turn around soon. Absolutely nada of any importance to report from January as I spent 100% of my time in the gym, playing poker, playing counterstrike and watching films! I might do a cheeky film post in the coming months as this is a real obsession of mine and I might actually be able to construct a slightly less boring update!

One interesting thing that came about this month is the decision to get my first tattoo. Im drawing very close to my 23rd birthday now and I've been a huge fan of tattoos for many years but am yet to go under the needle. I've spent the last couple of weeks trawling through what feels like hundreds of British and Dutch artists but I'm hoping I've found the dude for the job! 

This is the work of Dean Taylor from Nemesis Tattoo and I'm hoping he'll be interested in doing an interstellar inspired forearm piece for me. Ill keep you up to date with any news!

Next month I'll be visiting Amsterdam for a couple of days with some friends to celebrate my birthday so expect a trip report and some pictures once I'm back! 

Lastly I've decided to go and play the WCOAP (world championship of amateur poker) event in London at the end of March. Despite the buyins only ranging from 100 to 200 pounds the turnout is pretty impressive and the prize pool is worth a shot. Also I haven't played live poker in months so I'm quite excited to get the rub of the felt again, feel the chips running through my fingers and bust some donks face to face! If any of you british grinders reading this fancy meeting up for some drinks just hit me up on skype or drop a message on this post.

I think that's all for the time being! Back to the grind! Good luck all

Happy New Year! Well overdue update!

Quite often when the new year comes around we find ourselves inundated with the echoes of 'New year, new me', 'A fresh start' or other such clichéd rhetoric that by definition has little real meaning behind it. But the fact of the matter is that we all (including myself) like to believe that a new year is a new start and that anything that passed in the previous year (whether it be 6 months ago or 6 minutes ago) can be improved upon in one way or another(And granted, sometimes it is). The point I'm trying to make out of this slightly pessimistic intro is that for a poker player the turning of 2015 has a real quantifiable meaning to it, At the beginning of January pokerstars wipes the metaphorical slate of our accumulated vpps and we start a fresh. Basically this means I came to terms mid to late last year with the fact that Supernova Elite was out of my grasp (See figure 1a) but now with this fresh slate I have a whole 12 months to try and play enough games and accumulate enough points to make this epic milestone.

(Figure 1a)

This past year hasn't been bad at all though! Despite that slightly cynical first paragraph my years been one of the most successful of my life in many ways. Meeting new friends, travelling to new countries, spending time with my family, making a living from a hobby I picked up almost 8 years ago, moving in with close friends from home. I wouldn't swap a single one of these things to have hit SNE this last year. Sure you have to make sacrifices if you want to achieve something out of the ordinary and a little beyond the grasp of others but I hope (and believe) this year I can strike a balance between those just listed  and poker to achieve all this AND hit the target of SNE. I'm at risk of repeating myself too many times but the opportunity presented to me by pokerhaven is not one that comes around every day and although I've always felt money wasn't the be all and end all to my happiness I do want to reward them for having faith in me and generally putting up with me!

''Thanks guyz''

I haven't updated this page for a while and the reason being was that there honestly wasn't much to report! Last few months of 2014 were a mixture of grinding, illness, and not much in-between but I'm hoping I can revive this blog a little over the next few months with some slightly more interesting posts. I plan to do a fair bit of travelling this year with ambition to play a lot of the live circuit in the UK as well as a few European EPT events (Barcelona, Prague to name a couple) and also visit Curacao again. These trips alone should easily fill my monthly post but the road to SNE and if all else fails the road to the higher stakes should be an interesting one in itself. 

Anyway! I've had a few weeks off for Christmas and catching up with my family so I should get back to work now! I expect to be a little rusty this week so fingers crossed I don't smash my bankroll in the first day or two! A few people commented to me both in person and online over the past few weeks about my lack of updates and I really appreciate the fact that people have noticed! For any of you regular readers out there I'd like to say a big thank you and I wish you a happy new year!

Peace!

Update time. The end of hyper turbos as we know them?

Well! Its been an interesting week for the hypers regs of pokerstars. This week pokerstars introduced the 'Spin & Go' format to their software. Basically this new format involves an initial slot machine style spin of a wheel which decides on a number the prizepool will be multiplied by. Each game the 3 entrants play a hyper (3 minute) structure and fight it out in a winner take all sng. The draw of these games is the possibility of  playing for a massive prizepool with a relatively small buyin. Obviously stars aren't just giving away money so the majority of games the 3 players will be playing for just 2x their buyin. Unfortunately the draw of the big score is enough to drive gamblers and fish alike to this new format and subsequently affect the traffic in other games.

This chart isn't entirely accurate as it's probably a little outdated but it gives you an idea of the potential jackpots you can hit for your money. The new 30 dollar games actually have a 36k top prizepool! I think it's fairly obvious to understand why this added element of gamble has seriously affected the fishpool in other formats and why a lot of regs (especially those breakeven ones who make their money from rakeback) are seriously worried for the future of 6 max hypers. A drop in trafic at all formats from HU hypers to fullstack cash has been reported and we can but wait to see how these games affect our future earnings and volume.

The reason for this new gambling style format? Back in August pokerstars was bought by Amaya Gaming and it was made clear from the start that they meant to introduce social gaming, sports betting and an online casino into the mix. At the time of the sale of pokerstars there was a real buzz and real hope in the poker community that sooner than we'd imagined America would come back to pokerstars.com and we would see a huge increase in the playerpool. This is something that we now unfortunately have to rely on if we don't want this new format to seriously affect our win rates. Amaya obviously want to bring America back into the market as this will be hugely profitable for them so it'll definitely happen eventually although for now we have to put up with the pretty major decrease in traffic almost certain drop in our win rate. 

Imagine you owned a small yet profitable fast food shop and a Mcdonalds opens up next door taking 50% of your business. This is basically what's happened to us in the last week and I think its understandable why a lot of people are extremely pissed off at what Amaya seems to be doing to our beloved pokerstars. With the talk of online betting and an online casino things are likely to get a lot worse before they get a lot better.  

Having said all this, things could be a lot worse! Games are still playable, America will be back eventually, there's still very good money in hypers for those willing to work for it and spin and go's are beatable and extremely soft (we just need to put a lot more time and effort into learning the new format). Another weird 'benefit' to the introduction of spin and gos is the fact that now in certain parts of the day the games are unplayable as little to no fish are about so we're stuck battling reg infected games. The positive to this is that during those hours I'm almost forced to study which can never be a bad thing! Luckily from starting with pokerhaven the emphasis has always been on quality over quantity so we are still going to be beating our games pre rakeback and SNE (100k$) is still extremely achievable next year so in perspective things really aren't that bad. If someone had told me before I started playing poker seriously that in 2015 I'd be attempting to hit SNE and be profitable pre rakeback I would laugh at them. So, enough moaning for the time being!

In other news I moved gym a couple of weeks ago and started again with my old nutritionist and coach John Otis Hollywood http://www.johnotishollywood.com/ with the hope to get silly lean in preparation to gain some solid clean mass next year. The new gym me and my training partner are now signed up at has a full size olympic swimming pool, a sauna, a steamroom and squash courts that I'm now using on a daily basis and I've found this to be of huge benefit to my life with less stress, better sleep and longer and more quality poker sessions. I find swimming in particular an unmatchable stress reliever and just generally a very relaxing way to start the day.

Just a cheeky update with my pre rakeback sharkscope graph to keep things in perspective :) This is starting at the 3.50 level and I hope to be playing 60s-100s by January of next year so rant over! To finish I'd just like to say (and I apologise for my language) fuck you Amaya! Unless of course you bring back America in which case thank you Amaya, you guys are awesome! 

''So it begins, the great battle of our time.''

September Big Month

Just a quick one. 60s going pretty well so far and I'm currently sat at 130k vpps for the year so I figure I might as well try grind out a 70k month and give myself a very good shot at 300k-400k vpps for the year. Earning 12.687 vpps and a cheeky 0.50c rakeback per game at the moment so if I can manage to breakeven (which I hope to do better than) over the 5439 games I need to play its a decent sum of money and for me would be by far the biggest month volume wise to date. I believe it's important for me to start grinding solid hours soon so that when I start my SNE run next year it isn't too much of a shock to the system. Plus, gotta start saving some dollar for Christmas presents and my PCA trip in January!

Also this next month I wanted to try out cutting any stimulants from my diet to see if I could gain any extra edge at or away from the tables. Plus I'm well aware I don't live a particularly healthy lifestyle and I'm intrigued to see the difference this might make.  I figure cutting out caffeine, alcohol and a sugar from my body completely for a month might make a drastic improvement to my energy levels, sleeping patterns, focus and general quality of life. I'm not a big alcohol drinker but I will miss caffeine that's for sure and I've heard its a pretty difficult thing to quit completely but I'm up for the challenge. I'm sure it can't be too difficult!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Last but not least, I've been messing around with cyclical ketogenic dieting recently as an alternative way of losing fat ( http://lmgtfy.com/?q=cyclical+ketogenic+diet ). Basically with my current routine I don't feel like I have the time to train 7 times a week, grind hard, keep a social life AND do cardio so this way of dieting seems to suit me perfectly. It's cheaper than my previous diet, I get to eat foods I genuinely enjoy and I don't suffer from that dreaded post workout meal crash. I found the last couple of months that any substantial amount of carbohydrates basically puts me out of action or makes me feel awful for an hour or two afterwards which obviously is far from ideal. Im really hoping that within 4-6 weeks of this diet I'll be ready to start putting some muscle back on after what feels like an age of trying to drop fat.

During this month I'll revert back to weekly updates to keep me motivated and just to keep anyone who is interested up to speed. One of the main reasons for this post though was to provide a pre-excuse to anybody who wants to do anything this month. I won't be drinking, I won't be eating like a normal human being and I'll be working most of my free time so unfortunately I'll be a little out of the loop till October. Anyway, after taking a few days off visiting my friend in Holland I'm really looking forward to putting in a major grind and getting stuff done this month so I'll keep you updated! Laters!

Supernova Charizard I choose you!

Better late than never! 

Finally hit supernova this week and was also moved up to the 60's so overall a pretty successful few days! 

Pretty exciting for me as I've never hit SN before and I remember the days when I used to see supernovas at my table and be genuinely impressed thinking it was a real achievement. In reality it turns out its really not THAT difficult and although its taken me 8 months to achieve it I did begin the year having just moved up to the 15s and with the final year of university still holding me back. So for me hitting SN for the first time is a real testament as too how much I have improved and learnt this year. But in reality next year I'll be shooting for this 10 times in the hope to hit supernova elite! Should be a very interesting year....

Having saved up my fpps and a couple of bonuses since January I managed to cash out $4875 in bonuses which means this has been the most profitable week to date! $4875 or £2899 is a real healthy sum and I'm inclined to indulge in a couple of treats, namely; 

132 A3 Nicholas Cage art canvas prints

295 boxes of hostess twinkies

7 life size Mr Freeze busts

3 epic Master Chief fancy dress costumes

1100 Starbucks cappuccinos (Most likely purchase)

2 Barrett .50cal replica airsoft guns

4 'Snuggles' giant plush bears

A moderate amount of hookers and cocaine

Orrrrrrr..... pay off my debts, overdraft and rent money

Unfortunately if I'm to be sensible I know what I'll be spending my money on!( Although the Nic Cage prints are of huge investment value)

I do plan on hitting SN again before Christmas so maybe then I'll have the savings to actually buy some cool things.

Think that covers my monthly shitchat so next month I'll update on how the 60's have been treating me! Pretty confident as so far they seem relatively soft as the same awful regs that load 30s also enjoy losing money at the 60s apparently :). Bye for now!

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!