So ended up playing Fifa last night until all sorts of hours which really didn't help for getting up the gym this morning. Woke up at 10, sent Kev a text knowing full well he wouldn't reply..... More sleeeeeeps. So ye, wasn't the best start. Finally dragged myself out of bed around half 11 and feeling guilty forced myself into going for a run. Even picked up some fruit on the way to snack on in the 5 minute breaks rather than sweets and shizzle. I'm not sure what it is about that 5 minute break, but I ALWAYS need to snack on something.
March 1st
Games played: 200
Profit/loss: +475
Hours: 9
Cashes: 30
So I made a good start to the bet. I really had to force myself to grind it out however. It's funny how a swing can play on your mind. You start to second guess yourself in the most obvious of spots. Like as extreme as today, I was thinking maybe college wouldn't be a bad idea again. It probably wouldn't, but for now. Fuck that. Dream.
I dropped tables down today, and had 20 going constantly all day. I don't think it made much of a difference however results would obviously suggest other wise. I think I just ran a little better on FTs today, which may have had something to do with me tightening up a little bit on them. It's something I need to get better at in mtts and 180s alike. Changing gears and toning down the aggression.
Yet again I have failed in an attempt to keep this blog updated. After this post I'm going to keep the entries short and sweet, and hopefully daily so I it easier to keep updated.
So the last two months.....
Poker wise it hasn't been great to be honest...
January
February
I also played my first decent sized liveament this month. Played the UKIPT down in Galway, buy-in was 770e. I had a seriously good weekend, although it wasn't the greatest poker wise again. I played alright, made two mistakes which in the end pretty much cost me making day 2. Bust in the last few minutes of day 1.
I was going to do a full blown trip report of Galway but..... Nah.....
Cliffs;
- Marc is a tall German
- Marc wins monies in 109s
- Fintan does a better German accent than Marc
- Fintan can't handle his drink and shouldn't be allowed near places he used to work drunk
- Hungover, with 20 other poker players = Mega hang over the next day.
- Credit Card roulette is the way foward
- When you've picked up girls, start taken numbers
- Some people are just not what you expect them to be (Mement and p3cr4)
- Old womiiiinz can check raise rivers as bluffs too.
- I owe 2+2 for introducing me to a lot of cool peeps.
- Aces on the river hurt.
I might write a full trip report sometime, but I couldn't really post it here, as I'm not quite sure who knows about this blog etc.
Anyway, so yer. For the first time I find myself in make-up. It's really shit timing, because my contract with 'Gavarov' was just about to be up and have a few different options. One of which was grinding it out on my own. The idea appealed to me after seeing the likes of Marc, Jono and Corry grinding. They all did it on their own at one point at least. I think it could be an important learning curve.
I've decided rather than allow myself to get buried in make-up, I'm going to hit the grind hard for the next 2 weeks and hopefully clear it in 180's. I actually started it in the last 3 days, back at the 2s because havn't dabbled in them in a while. 500 games, dropped 250 buy-ins. Solid effort.
Props to keep me going:
1. And most importantly, volume vs Marc. Marc is 2 for 2 in volume bets vs me. And I can't let him make it a wash. So terms are, I have to play 2500 games in March. If I play more than 2500, he has to pay for a return flight to Malta for me, if I play less I have to pay for a return to Dublin for him.
2. To clear make-up by Friday week. This is vs Abe. I only have 8 days of playing, so this one is looking pretty unlikely but I'm going to grind as hard as I can and I might play mtts on Sunday or possibly next Thursday to try and make it. Loser has to go into the Mttc and announce themselves as the best 2s player to ever play the game and offer 1 hour of coaching to first to claim it. We will also troll the shit out of several members of the community so it could be quite fun :) Awice, shen etc...
3. Profit for exclusively 2s. It's on 2+2, $200 winner takes all. I'm not sure how wise this is as I havn't played 180s lately, but looking up the people I'm vs stats I'm pretty confident. Here's a link where you can follow this bet - 180s 2s bet.
I've joined yet another gym, but this time it's local so I really have no excuse but to go. Kev's a member aswell so should help in getting each other to go. Might think of a prop bet there aswell. Like I said diary from now on, gym and poker will be updated daily.
Other problem with the bet is going to Bristol in 2 weeks, (day bet ends with Abe) so will be taken 4 days off. But who cares. At me you come.
Ok, so I failed epicily last month in my volume bet. Ended up with about 1600 games, after racking up about 1300 in first 10 days. If it wasn't for the live bink would have been a pretty bad month. Here's Decembers graph anyway.
Made $1/game so overall was pretty meh.
Kev got home from Ibiza on the 24th, and really didn't help my aspirations to grind the shit out of the rest of the month. Didn't spend more than 12 hour sober from when he got home until the 2nd of January. So now I got that out of my system got to put the head down and grind.
Marc is given me a chance to win my money back, same terms. Need to get 3k games in this month. 6 days in and only got 650 games in so it's probably just going to just be a monthly bonus all year long for Marc. Only reason for the lack of games is I have been concentrating more on Mtts and 3r 180s, rather than just F/O 180s. Really enjoying been back on the Mtt grind, however I have developed an AWESOME talent for punting stacks. Should only take small bits of review here and there before I'm crushing though!! I might dedicate one day to play 6max hypers, 1k of them in a day. Just to spite Marc :)
Anyway, goals.
Short term goals (January):
- 3k Games.
- 1.5$ game (Going to be tough after start)
- Min 1k mtts and 3rs
- Get back into diet properly.
- New programme in gym - keep going every 2nd day.
Long term goals for 2012:
- Play up to 55s daily by end of March.
- Have a 5 figure score.
- Play live at least once a month (live-pro ldo)
- Get grind pad with Kev/Marc.
- Play absolute min 25k games.
- Go on more adventures. (Min 2 continents and 5 countries)
- Win more monies than Kev. He's a solid few K ahead of me already (No passenda!!!)
- Start enjoying updating this and not doing it for sake of it!!
Adventures!!!
Going to make sure I get my adventure on this year more than anything. Going to Bristol on the 27th this month. Kev, Taz and myself. Staying with randomers Kev met in Ibiza. Good buzz. Then going to Malta for 4/5 days on 10th of February over to Marc. Flying back to Ireland with him and hitting UKIPT Galway!!
So, ye. I was all up for the mega grind this month. Then I broke my laptop screen. Sighz. Was 1300 games into the planned 3k just over a week into December. It is now the 20th. And still on 1300 games. So I have two choices. Play approx 200 games/day as I will be taken off Christmas Day obv. Or ship Marc $$$.
Also due to my laptop been broke missed the $10m guarnteed Sunday Million. However, because I knew anyone decent would be playing it. Wandered on into the Fitz to play the mid-month and shipped it for about 1750. Liveaments :)
Not sure what the plan is yet for these remaining 1700 games. If going to make up it need to cut out the drink between now and the end of the year. Hmm.. Will update end of next week along with new year plans.
Yer. That's all I've done this week. Griiiiiiiiind. Well on course for 3k games this month. At 925 after 7 days so unless I get really lazy I should make it. Profit wise isn't going as well as I would have liked. Started off well but last 3 days have gone pretty terrible in 180s. Think overall for the week I was about break-even in 180s, however binked my first mtt for 'Team Gavarov' in a small $5 1000 cap so at least there was some profit to show.
UKIPT sats are now up on stars for Galway, really want to Sat into that after missing the last Dublin one due to my 21st. Marc (Rowniwn on stars) is flying over from Malta for that one. And while he's over going to check out some apartments in the City Centre, just to have as a grind/party pad for 5 or 6 months. Would really help my game to move in with him for a few months, as he is crushing it as of late. Up to 4th on the tlb (tournament leader board), would be pretty sweet if he were to bink that. I'm apparently 70th on it, didn't even know 180s counted towards it so was a nice surprise. Maybe with all the regs taken Christmas off if I keep up the volume I could push for top 50.
Also on track in regards to the gym, going every second day with Kavnagh now. Diets going good to except, got a Blue in skerries yesterday. Nom. Best chicken wings in the world. Fuck yo Nandooos. Although... They do get pretty good advertising!! Glglgl..
Ok, so I haven't posted anything here in quite a while. A lot has changed since my last post. From now on I'm going to use this for keeping track of goals, with small bits of news here and there.
Since the last post however, I've gone back to college and........ Dropped out again. It just wasn't for me. I went back to the same degree I hated in the first place. Was probably one of the most retarded things I've done. O well I'll learn. I do plan on going back again, really want to do an Economics degree. Was the only subject I was ever interested in, in school. However that's all for another time.
So for now, Immma grind. And going to have to grind hard. Gave up the job, and have moved back home. So for once I really have no excuse. Nothing to stop me playing 3k+ games per month. I've entered into a 6 month backing deal with 'Gavarov' stables. They took a chance on me, due to my utter lack of volumme on Stars, but hopefully it's going to pay off.
November Graph
Need to get the finger out and really start grinding, had some college things to sort out this month. Also had to work for like four days. So from on here no excuses, just going to griiiiind.
December Goals:
- Min 3k games because have a bet with Marc, although would prefer closer to 4k [ ]
- Min $1.50 per game. [ ]
- Min 5 hours per week review alone. [ ]
- Min 10 hours joint review with Brian, Chav, Marc etc. [ ]
- Min Gym 3 times per week. [ ]
- Implement new diet except 25-31st [ ]
Will update weekly from now on at least on how I'm doing game wise etc.
It's been a while since I updated this. Funny enough, it's also been a while since I was backed. It seems when I'm playing for someone, I tend to be more active in all aspects of life. Anyway, I'm going to list what I feel are the good and bad points about playing backed or playing alone.
Good
- First and foremost, you are essentially playing risk free. There is no financial burden when you hit the tables. I feel this will allow many players to play their best game all the time, whereas sometimes if someone is losing they can't help but constantly worry about their bankroll. I also like that someone is in charge of your ABI and the highest stakes you can play. For someone who struggles with bank roll management from time to time, this really helps.
- I find when I'm playing for someone I'm far more motivated. I want to get up and play. I remember a particular Sunday where I was having a terrible day, deep runs that had no end product where the story of the day. If I was playing for myself, sometimes I'd just pack it in for the day, however I had a min number of games to play so I had to continue. Several hours later, I had my biggest score of the year so far = profit :)
- When you enter a staking deal, you normally are becoming part of a stable. It really helps to have poker contacts, people you can bounce ideas around with, discuss hands and talk about poker in general. My last staking deal had a really good skype group where we would try to do weekly meetings, to review HH etc. Just even having people to sweat you when you make a deep run is cool. If you can get into a staking deal that provides coaching from a top player, it obviously sweetens up the deal because coaching is clearly quite expensive otherwise. Ranging from $50 an hour to $150+
Bad
- May as well start with the most obvious downside to been backed. Not receiving all of your winnings. I've never had to receive a top up while been backed. Admittedly it was over a lol sample, about 1k games in total. This is one of the main reasons I'm not sure if it is better to be backed or not. When you ship an Mtt for 4 or 5 figures. It can be very tough to hit the transfer button and watch anywhere from 30-70% of it vanish from your account instantly. I understand you may not have been playing the tournament if wasn't for your backer, it still doesn't make it easy. And I will say this now, if you are the kind of person who wouldn't send the winnings, never get backed, it would ruin your name in the poker community forever.
- Been too eager to impress. I always really wanted to do well for people once they had put faith in me and backed me. A good friend of mine went on a pretty sick downswing a couple of months ago. While he wasn't suffering financially, the pressure of trying to win money for his backer was getting to him in my opinion. If your HHs are getting reviewed regularly, you might not go with your instinct in certain spots, due to been paranoid it looks like you are spewing and just pissing away your backers money. Of course your backer won't want this because they put faith in you and back you to beat the games they are putting you into.
- There is the chance you will get stuck in a deal. If you get buried in make-up, unless you have the money to do so you can't buy out of the deal. Which means you have to play yourself out of make-up. Unless your backer drops you, but not many people like to just accept defeat on large sums of money. There are other ways out, like getting another backer to buy your make up etc, but you really should think about it before getting into a deal.
So overall, I'm not entirely sure what is better, and I really think it comes down to each individual. For now I'm going to play alone. Grind out a bank roll and hopefully progress through the stakes alone. At the moment I'm also looking into possibly paying for coaching, as I really think you need to get it if going to improve to another level. I will just say, if you have decent stats and are a winning player, don't just jump into any deal. Shop around, push backers for a better deal, ask for 5% more of yourself if you win 'X' amount per week etc. Winning players are what keep backers going, so don't let them take advantage of you.
Also I can't finish this post without mentioning my mate Brian Byrne. He got picked by Alex Wice, one of the best, if not the best 180 man grinder in the world for free coaching for 2 months. He reckons he can turn Brian into a baller, earning $100/hour. It will be so sick if it happens, wish Brian nothing but the best of luck, and if you want to follow the thread do so here -Brian's progress thread!
