Well, it's been a while to say the least.

So much has happened since my last blog, infact so much has happened I'm probably gonna forget to even mention some things. First of all let me say sorry to some of my students and friends in the online poker world, I know it seemed like I completely dissapeared off the face of the earth for like 2 months and I got a few worried emails and stuff, but don't worry I'm ok! I've had some really great times where I have really been ejoying myself for the most part, but there have been a few bad times aswell and all of it mixing together is making everything kinda crazy at the moment.

First of all I guess I should mention that my computer got some crazy virus or something, and due to certain things happening (which I will mention later) I didn't get around to fixing it for over a month, which means I played no poker. This was a big change to my daily life, as I would say usually poker and general spending time at my computer used to take up most of my day.

So what happened? well first of all I had a pretty bad car crash, luckily I was alone in the car and nobody was seriously hurt, I just got a few bumps and scrapes, it was really wet and I wasn't exactly driving too slow. It made me realize how lucky I am and that I've got to make the most of everything though. I am really lucky at the moment to be able to do just about whatever I want.

Anyway, somehow I managed to walk away from this....





So umm yeah that happened.

I've also met someone who I think is pretty special and alot of my time has been spent with her, but I'm not quite sure whats happening between us, we have been taking things quite slowly and getting to know each other as she has just come out of a bad relationship. I'm not quite sure that she's fully over it yet though or will ever be so I'm trying to be understanding and giving time but whether we will get really serious or not I'm not sure and it's confusing me and messing with me a little if I'm totally honest. I hope it works out though because I've totally fallen for this one but at the same time trying to not get too close incase things don't work out and I'm left broken.

So apart from them things I have just been really enjoying myself hanging with friends and stuff and doing some really cool things, my friends are really great and I'm lucky to have such a caring group around me. I've been to some great new places and had some new experiences that I never thought I would. I've been to quite a few events recently, probably the best being Oasis' homecoming concert in Heaton Park, Manchester. Probably one of the craziest concerts and night of my life, we managed to get right to the front and it was an amazing performance, unfortunatly being at the front means your last out, and with 100,000 people there that can take a while so we missed our train home and ended up basically on the streets of a city I didn't know all night while we waited for the next train the next morning. I did make it home eventually about 20 hours late though!

So with no poker being played, and the travelling and enjoying myself aswell as the need to buy a new car, the bankroll has taken quite a hit, so much so that it's the lowest it has been since probably the beginning of 2008. In the last week or so I've started to get back on track and grind again, I'm still getting back into it though and I still don't feel fully comfortable. For this reason and the fact that any free time I have I need to grind I have decided to stop all my coaching for now, I will finish off any sessions already booked (unless the student wants to have their money back instead of the sessions, I won't be offended) and then that will be it for a few months atleast, I need to work on my own game and I cannot guarantee regular sessions.

So basically I need to grind to continue to pay for the crazy next few months I have planned! I actually have very little time free and with poker my only source of income I really need to grind in the days I have free. This weekend I'm off to Glasgow for a concert for the weekend and then on the 29th June I head to Barcelona for a week to see the opening shows of U2's world tour. So next week I'm hoping to get my head down and grind a ton, but I do have some parties and stuff I have to attend so how much I will get done I'm not sure! After Barcelona I do have about 2 weeks free though until I leave for Greece for 10 days, so that is where I plan to get some serious playing done.


So yeah, I think I kinda rambled on abit there, not much else I can think of I don't think, I'm sure I've forgotten something though...hopefully I have a good week and make some nice profit next week though, I'll try and keep you updated. Hopefully the next blog won't be two months away,


Enjoy life and good luck,


Dan

So it's been a while since my last post. There are a couple of reasons for this,

Firstly, at the end of Feb and beginning of March, I was running really well and probably playing better than I ever have. Not wanting to curse myself I didn't post a brag blog. Well anyway about halfway through the month things didn't go too well. I moved up and instantly bombed, like -10bi under EV, but ok whatever. I moved back down and since then it's continued run bad, but at least it's costing me less at the moment. Overall though I'm very happy with how I've been playing and the next few month's could be very good for me.

I'm still not putting in enough effort and time into poker, even though I don' t have many commitments and should have plenty of free time, I just don't. The last few month's I've spend all my time just enjoying myself. The only problem with this is that enjoying myself costs money, and with me playing less poker this means funds are decreasing. So this month I'm going to have to put in a ton of hands somehow, even though next week is already full of adventures.

Coaching is going well, I have a few new students and sessions are going really well so far and I'm really enjoying it. As for my own coaching I just haven't had time to spend with my own coach, this is another aim for April.

I think I'm going to branch out into some live play, Dusk Till Dawn, the UK's biggest poker club isn't that far from me and I may make some trips there over the next few months.

Hmm.. what else...

Non-poker..

This summer is getting pretty hectic for me, like there are almost no free days where I'm not traveling or attending something from June-Sept. This again is cutting into funds and another reason for me to get playing over the next 2 months. It's going to be a very enjoyable year though.

Hopefully the next update will be in less than a month,

gl in April

Dan x

I was lazy.

/end

Ok, seriously, I got super lazy but I was also really busy.
I played 10k hands and won about 20bi.

I spend 0 time watching vids and learning. This is not good.

Most of the time I didn't play was because I had a lot of party's and events last month and I don't play after a drink. I have a lot of stuff to do this month as well unfortunately but I'm going to try and play in the mornings instead, which does mean getting up and may be a problem.

I will try my best though, hopefully get a few coaching hours in this month as well.

Not much else to report, oh yeah I'm looking for a nice new watch and have about $1k ish to spend, suggestions?

So I really should blog more because if I leave it like a week I forget all the shit that's happened in between.

So I think after the session mentioned In my last blog I had a bad session, but then had 2 or 3 very good sessions, including a great session at the HA tables, even though I know I said I wouldn't play them anymore. They are just too good to pass up.

So I'm doing pretty well this month, but I'm still not getting hands in or time in away from the tables. I have been looking into getting new coaching stuff sorted for myself, which hopefully I can get done this week, hopefully towards the end of the week I will get in a lot of time.

Meh, kinda short but I forgot what I was going to blog about lol

So quick post.

I just played a 1k session and played probably the best since I can ever remember. So sick, my redline went up and I was winning alot of small pots. I was actually running bad aswell like -3bi in equity, but still up a few bi. I did get some of my EV back on the last hand though, I 1 outered someone for the first time in a very long time. I got it in on flop flush v flush and I hit the gutshot straght flush on river. lovely!

Hopefully this will continue into my next session.....

So I played some 6 tabling at the end of the month and I was winning pretty well, the only problem was this is because I was running pretty hot. I seemed to of fixed my blue line, but now fucked my redline, finding the correct balance again is really what I need to get sorted quickly.

Today I played some HA and Holdem, I ran good at holdem but terrible at PLO as usual, so I am now offically banning myself from playing PLO this month. I am not aloowed to play anymore PLO until I watch some vids. For every PLO vid I watch I'm allowed 100 hands. But as I probably wont have time for PLO vids I doubt I will play any hands.

So the running good ended in my last session, where I basically got it in a bunch of times flipping/slight dog (multiple flush draw + pairs/gutshots etc) and lost every one. So now things arnt looking so good.

I feel I played much better in todays sessions though so something might be turning around.


Today I'm pretty dissapointed with myself though, there has been bad weather and snow here so there was no reason for me to leave the house today, instead of dedicating the day to poker I ended up watching films/browsing the net/sleeping....which is exactly the sort of thing I'm trying not to do this month. It looks like tomrrow is going to be more of the same weather though so maybe I will get some hands in.

I also just cashed out a big % of the roll to pay for half of my travel plans for this summer, it's going to be a very busy year! I also took some out to play in a Live tournament fesitval being held this weekend in a casino near here. With all this bad weather though I dunno if I'm gonna be able to make it. I really don't want to be driving down there in the snow.

Oh yeah my stakee finally made me some money, the money in my stars account was a nice surprise this morning..........

Wow, 2 weeks since my last blog, I can't believe it's been that long. I've just been really busy but still managed to play quite a bit of poker.

Overall it hasn't been going well and Jan might end up being a loosing month. I'm not sure what's going wrong, I'm not even running really bad I'm just not winning. I went through HEM and noticed some things that might be causing the problems, which I think I got sorted in my last session but still ended up on the loosing end.

Today I cut down my tables and really focused on every hand, I think I played really well, but the results disagreed with me. I will continue to play on less tables for the rest of the month and see what happens.

So yesterday I was really tired and unhappy about how poker is going this month so I decided to play some 50nl. It's worth playing there just for entertainment value alone. I was actually laughing out loud at some of the lines/plays that some of the so called "regs" were taking. And in my opinion there is still a pretty big gap between 50nl and 100/200nl.

So next month is mega grind/get good at poker month. I've been stuck around the same place for a long time and it's no longer acceptable. Before now I haven't really used poker earnings too much, I mean I have cashed out quite a bit but never had to cash out large sums on a regular basis. My traveling and life plans for this year though now mean that I will require a much larger amount of money on a regular basis. I'm a very lazy person and take great pride in the fact that I don't have to work for anyone, this will not be changing and so poker is going to have to be very good for me in 2009.

I will play out the last few days of Jan and see how it goes. If I don't see results improve then at the start of Feb I'm gonna hire a coach for a ton of hours and get things moving. I will also be putting any coaching I'm doing on hold for Feb and focusing 100% on my own poker.

January has been pretty unbelievable. My results have always been pretty swingy for some reason even though I don't play what I would consider a crazy or manic style, this month has had the worst swings I've ever encountered though.

Yesterday I think I had my biggest loosing session ever, mostly on the HA (half holdem/half omaha tables). Where I didn't run too great and also didn't play too great either. Them tables are just so juicy though and I'm pretty sure I'll be a big winner long term. My PLO game isn't too great but I'm sure I still have a massive edge over almost every player at these levels. So yesterday basically involved me getting the money in on the turn in like 5 PLO pots each 350bb+ as an 80% favourite and loosing every time. I also lost some big NLH hands, because the stacks on the HA get really deep really quickly and things start getting crazy.

I really wish I could graph all my PLO and NLH as one to see the swings, it would look pretty sick, I am so sure that I am down for the year overall, but my cashier disagrees with me, even though I've cashed out as well, which is weird, I'm gonna have to total everything up later.

Another thing that I never do is play small sessions like 30 mins long or something, for some reason I always think to myself I don't have enough time or it's not worth it to get in only 250 hands, but I've come to realize if I did play these small sessions, over a month it would total up to alot of hands,so I'm gonna be trying these small sessions from now on and see how it goes.

It's been a few days since my last entry, I've just been really busy though and hardly played all week after my PLO fun.

I did play last night though and played through the night. I played in the $109 6max 30k gtd on FT and finished 8th for 1k. I played really well and was really unhappy at where I went out, because a few more places and it would of been a nice 3k-5k score. On the last 2 tables though I got fairly restricted because the chipleader was moved to my direct left and he was opening or 3beting every pot. Eventually I picked up aces and he called with JT and flopped a straight :(. Oh well, 1k is still not bad for 5 hours work I guess. I also played some cash and won about 5bi in 2k hands so I'm almost out of my downswing I think.

I am also now backing someone at 50NL, unfortunately in his first week he has run terrible. He's solid though and should prove to be a sound investment.

Outside of poker I am really busy over the next week or so, and I probably won't be able to play poker (or atleast I shouldn't be playing and focusing on more important things).

After todays nice winning day I decided to go out and book a holiday (vacation) with friends, which I pretty much spent my days winnings on. This spring/summer I think I'm gonna be travelling alot. I have 3 vacations planned and also some small trips inbetween which should be fun and cool to visit different places and relax. I'm just hoping that poker goes well to pay for it all!! haha! I'm probably gonna have to invest in a laptop so I can play while I travel.

Now I'm off to hopefully sort out what I need to get done today and then go and watch the football, and maybe get some poker in later, either that or I fall asleep.

Full Tilt Pot-Limit Omaha, $10.00 BB (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($315)
Button ($1505)
SB ($2156.50)
BB ($283.70)
Hero (UTG) ($1167.50)
MP ($1158.50)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A, 3, Q, J
Hero raises to $35, 3 folds, SB calls $30, BB calls $25

Flop: ($105) 2, Q, Q(3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $70, SB calls $70, 1 fold

Turn: ($245) J(2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $200, SB raises to $500, Hero raises to $1062.50 (All-In), SB calls $562.50

River: ($2370) 3(2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $2370 | Rake: $3

Results:
SB had Q, 4, 6, 9 (three of a kind, Queens).
Hero had A, 3, Q, J (full house, Queens over Jacks).
Outcome: Hero won $2370


Now I know this might seem like complete degeneracy, but it wasn't I promise! kinda.....