Got back in the swing of things today after a bit of a baron patch of late. Played fairly early on when there weren't many tables running and they were all filled with the usual mass-tabling regs. Decided to just play 4 tables and absolutely pound on the nitty regs. Ended up playing about 40/33 which was really fun and given the specific table dynamics [everyone playing tonnes of tables super-straightforwardly] I think this was the most profitable strategy. Everyone just rolled over really and only a couple of players adjusted to me at all. I guess this is how you should play if you are an iPoker reg as I here all the regs are super nits there.

As for the rest of the day, I decided to continue playing 4 tables as I was enjoying thinking about things a little more. This really helped I think and I had a very good day in the end winning 3 Buy-ins [5 until two coolers near the end of this evening's session]. I never seem to get that many more hands in when I play 6 tables also as theres far more admin with bringing tables in and out and I feel like I get burned out a lot quicker so I really think 4 tables could just be the optimal amount of tables for me. I know some people can optimally play 24 or whatever but I just dont think thats me. However, maybe I just need to pracftice multi-tabling more. Anyways, Ill stick with 4 for the time being as I really enjoyed building super strong reads on villains.

Another thing I tried today was to reduce my cbet % - Iv always had a really high cbet % of ariund 75 which I think is a bit high really - people could def float me profitably and ck-raising me on certain flops could also be very profitable for them. I decided to check back a few more flops than I would do usually and also give up on pots that I think nail my opponents' ranges. I realy think this worked well as I shouldnt be trying to win so many pots from these station-type guys. Also no-one seems to understand pot control at Laddies so when you check back the flop people often auto-fire turn and river and you can snap them off with your weak top pair.

Take it easy!

So, today I grinded pretty hard [for me]. I got in 2200 hands. Unfortunately, I continued my break even/run bad patch and ended down 1/2 a buy-in over the day having been down more earlier on. I made one horrific play 200BB deep [running a ridiculous bluff vs a fish] but other than that I think I played ok throughout but didnt really get in that many good situations.

On a random note - I was thinking today, as I often do, about poker theories that can be applied to different things in the world. Specifically, I was watching Match Of The Day and seeing Cristiano Ronaldo struggling to find the form he had last season. He would get into areas where you would have seen him score like 100% of the time last year and he will put it convincingly wide. He looks as if he's lacking confidence........he looks as if he's on a downswing!! I'm not denying that the guy is an amazing footballer but I think he was definately running above expectation last season and now needs to 'drop down' and rebuild as we all do when we hit our downswings. To put it more in footballing terms, I think he needs to stop expecting himself to play like Pele every game and realise that he still has a long way to go.

Anyway, thats all from me for now. Take it easy!

So I got a relatively normal day in today volume wise - playing 1477 hands. Unfortunately I had my worst day for a long whiule though losing just over 4 Buy-ins. Always nice though when your EV Adjusted in Holdem manager is positive though. This always makes me feel a bit better after a losing day [a very nice feature of HM that would have certainly helped me stave off tilt back in the old PT days]

The two most interesting hands of the day that Im still not sure how I should have played:

http://weaktight.com/473783
- Biggest hand of the day and I'm still not sure what I should have done here. My equity is good vs a made flush or a set and theres a chance he has worse than me or is just screwing around but nevertheless it seems a bit bad getting it in this deep vs such a passive guy. Maybe I should have just called the MR on the flop and then c/f a non-spade turn but my default is to spew so I did.


http://weaktight.com/473787
Possibly should have got more money in pre-flop and could have led the flop. On the turn I think Im happy getting it in with no real reads on a super fish but still not sure.


Looking through my big hands today I think I did misplay some hands also and in general I was way too aggressive and made far too many marginal plays. I often do this.....forget that all I need to do vs these guys is play solid and get a bout of Fancy Play Syndrome.

Hoping to get a good bit of volume in over the weekend and indeed the next few weeks as I'm off to the CPC in mid-November [I always find its a much more satisfying holiday when you've grinded hard right before you go away].

That's all I've got for now - hope everyone has a good weekend!!

I only had time to put in a little session this evening. I played 792 hands and ended up just under 2 Buy-ins. I played pretty solid throughout - the tables were ok but I have noticed that $2/$4 is just packed with mass-tabling, average regulars at the mo. This is ok once I find their leaks but Id much prefer to have a table full of 40/20s like it used to be.

The session was fairly uneventful all in all. The biggest pot was one where I 3bet AJs vs a guy who calls tonnes of 3bets and plays extremely passively post-flop. I got a J-high flop so bet 3 streets for value. He called 2 but eventually folded the river [prob w/ a very mediocre J or a PP]. Other than that all the other pots were under 40BBs.

The other poker-related thing I did today was to devise a new strategy for how I will stake other players. My starting roll is going to be $20k and I will stake players for up to $1k [5% rule] and for no less than $100. Also, I decided to not invest more than $300 in any one High Risk BAP [such as a big Live Tourney or series of large tourneys]. I think this way I can get the good, slow, steady growth from low risk BAPs with the occasional big score from high risk BAPs all hopefully without going busto.

That's all I've got for now. Take it easy.

So, as the title suggests this is my first forray into the world of blogging. I have never had a blog before but I have been writing a poker 'diary' for myself after every day to analyse my play.

I am a 24 year old professional poker player from Manchester, UK. I have been playing professionally online since July 2007 and it's without doubt one of the best things I've ever done. I started at 50c/$1 and have since climbed up to $5/$10 although currently I am gringing out $2/$4 - $3/$6 on Laddies as I just got 2 new 30 inch monitors [whoop!] so am refining my multi-tabling game. I also have just started staking other poker players and am finding this very interesting too.

My blog will focus primarily on hands I have played that I found interesting [generally through me misplaying them probably] although I will also probably end up rambling on about about anything poker related [or otherwise] that has been going through my head throughout the day.