With a losing one and a half hour session at The Hippo just now that cost me £500, I suppose I have to be pleased that I've ended the week in the black to the tune of about £600. With two days to go before the end of the month, this gives me a monthly total, thus far, of £880. Not exactly a monthly-nut but at least it's a profit for the week this time round.
The week started satisfactorily enough with a few reasonable wins and some minor losses but it really took off after a £700 winning session at a £2/£5 table at The Hippo on Friday night. This, thanks largely to a ~£1k pot where my trip Queens with a King kicker held up against my villain's trip Queen with a Two kicker after we got it all-in on the flop. Cruising along with a monthly profit of £1.4k (and a £1.1k profit for the week), I went into the Sunday sesssion confident that I could build on this.
Alas, it wasn't to be as I pondered calling an all-in turn bet of £400 while holding 2 2 on a 2 10 Q 8 board and with £250 behind. Yep, I read the villain for the J 9 all right and with the pot swelling to around £1.2k after I'd make the call, I was getting very marginal odds to make it profitable. After a long tanking session, I did finally make the call but seeing the river hit a Six, failed to make the full-house I'd hoped for. He did, indeed, show the J 9.
In retrospect I only have myself to blame for not properly raising the flop which did show a couple of clubs and which obvioulsy meant it was extremely draw-heavy and crying out for me to bring it in for a hefty raise. An expensive mistake and a bit of a shame. Had the board paired, I'd proudly be announcing that I'd made my monthly-nut and be feeling very comfortable and confident indeed; as it is, I'm falling around £1k short of my target and know that next month is going to be a real slog to generate that extra income. As I've stated before, unless I pick things up in October and November, it looks like the business is going to be a 4-month experimental dabble rather than the long-term business venture I envisaged.
On a positive note, I did manage to put in 30 hours for the week. This means I'll have put in around 125 hours for the month come Tuesday which is satisfactory. Next month, I intend to put in more. I'll do a monthly round-up on Tuesday to sum up how things have gone and then we're off again for the month October!!
Sunday, 28 September 2014
Saturday, 20 September 2014
Week 3: Review
This week has been all about getting the money in good against donks... and then losing hands to appalling oppoonents who seem to get rewarded time and time again. The last three days have been brutal. I know bad-beat stories are boring but here's a few of the worst ones that have happened over just the last three days:
1) I hold AA as a huge fish is spewing badly. I get him to make a huge all-in call for about £200 on a 9 9 6 flop. The turn comes a Queen and the river delivers him his Six as he turns over J 6 for his full-house.
2) I get it all-in pre for my opponent's £150 stack while holding AA. He fancies his chances with AQ of hearts. The board gives him the three hearts he needs.
3) We're at The Vic at a ridiculously juicy £1/£3 table. I hold 99 on a 7 2 10 board and the maniac villain has made it clear that he doesn't like his hand and missed the flop. I raise it up to £75 and he goes all-in for £200. I make the call. The turn is a blank and the river is a King. He shows KQ and I lose about £300 on that hand alone.
The upshot is that I'm starting to see this business more as the "four-month experiment" that I hoped it wouldn't be and less as the more long-term investment that I'd hoped it would be. It isn't as if it's many bad-beats, it's just that when they happen repeteadly while playing intense, disciplined poker they end up being very annoying.
With £1k lost over the last three days, tomorrow will be a day off as will Monday in all likelihood. If Week 4 proves to be a similar story I might despair!
1) I hold AA as a huge fish is spewing badly. I get him to make a huge all-in call for about £200 on a 9 9 6 flop. The turn comes a Queen and the river delivers him his Six as he turns over J 6 for his full-house.
2) I get it all-in pre for my opponent's £150 stack while holding AA. He fancies his chances with AQ of hearts. The board gives him the three hearts he needs.
3) We're at The Vic at a ridiculously juicy £1/£3 table. I hold 99 on a 7 2 10 board and the maniac villain has made it clear that he doesn't like his hand and missed the flop. I raise it up to £75 and he goes all-in for £200. I make the call. The turn is a blank and the river is a King. He shows KQ and I lose about £300 on that hand alone.
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How can you get it in so good, so many times yet still lose so much damn money!? The result is that despite a £600 winning session at The Hippo on Tuesday evening and getting in a good 32 hours of live play for the last six days, I'm down £180 for the week and back to wondering how on earth playing live cash-game poker for a living can ever be a sustainable proposition. For the first 20 days of my business I've earned a measly £270 and I'm getting just a little bit cross!
With £1k lost over the last three days, tomorrow will be a day off as will Monday in all likelihood. If Week 4 proves to be a similar story I might despair!
Monday, 15 September 2014
Week 2: Review
The main focus this week was to move away from logging few hours based on good, short-term results and to move more towards staying on soft tables for longer periods of time. The good news is that, due to said soft tables being in abundance, I smashed this task by increasing my measly 16 hours from the first week to a grand 41 hours in this second week. That's the back of the net right there! The bad news is that after all those hours of play, I made a £20 loss! Not so good.
The main reason for the increase in hours played has definitely been putting myself in the mindset of treating the whole poker thing less as a recreational stab at making a few quid and much more as a serious job that I need to actually "work" at. I've even slipped into a steady routine whereby I've been leaving at around 10PM to start playing at around 11PM in the evenings. I've then stayed until about 6AM, and then walked back to the car to get out of the congestion charge zone by 7AM. I'd then have breakfast, sleep from about 8AM until 3PM to enjoy the main part of the day before heading off to repeat the process again. I'd say that the routine has suited me quite well.
Unfortunately, as mentioned, despite running at an acceptable £360 weekly profit by the end of Friday night, Saturday and Sunday proved extremely heavy-going as the dearth of getting any decent starting hand or hitting any board whatsoever started to set in. My second session at The Empire on Saturday (after a small £90 loss at The Hippo) was really when my hard work started to go out the window. This was when I sat at a fairly straightforward table but with a very loose and fishy French player who I had played against the night before. After playing in and attempting to isolate this French player in many spots - for two and a half hours - he continued to have the winning hands against me time and time again (including AQ < J6 when the board came Q x J J x). The final straw came when my baby-flush lost to his better flush and I left that session £260 poorer.
A quick half-hour visit to a £2/£5 table at The Vic allowed me to spin my bankroll back up another £200 (the table broke up due to players leaving) and I started to see the light again. At 3AM, I then returned for two more sessions at The Hippo and The Empire but just couldn't hit any cards. The former session saw me at a serious table where I was forced to fold QQ on a 345Q2 board after the villain threw in a massive river bet and the second session saw me on a table with a maniac table captain where I just couldn't hit any decent cards.
Sunday offered a glimmer of hope after I left The Hippo at 5AM, £80 to the good after a tough five hour session - but the encouragement proved short-lived. I tottled over for a one hour session at The Empire with the reason being that I needed to clock-in to earn Sunday points for their cash-race MTT freeroll (and to get swiped at 6AM for the Monday points as well).
It's early-doors and I really don't want to get involved in any serious pots but I soon find I've got it all-in on the turn for about £100 while holding 10 10 to a very low 8 9 2 4 board. The river brings a 3 and my villain... yep, you've guessed it... shows 33 for a 2-outer rivered special!
I don't like to admit it but from then on I play a little too loose for the short time that I'm going to be there and chuck away another £100 - probably due to tilt, thus turning my Sunday of poker from a mildly acceptable £80 win, into a morale-sapping £120 loss; a result that turns the whole 40-hour week into a losing one!
3) It beats teaching hands down. Seeing a teacher trudging to work in the morning while I return from working on a business I abslolutely love, means I never ever ever want to go back to full-time teaching again.
In Week 3, my main focus will be in attempting to play more aggressively in order to extract maximum value from my opponents.
Also, as I made the odd poor fold on more than the one occasion, I will be attempting to read my opponents with more depth and not to fold so easily or quickly to their aggression.
I'll let you know how I get on...
The main reason for the increase in hours played has definitely been putting myself in the mindset of treating the whole poker thing less as a recreational stab at making a few quid and much more as a serious job that I need to actually "work" at. I've even slipped into a steady routine whereby I've been leaving at around 10PM to start playing at around 11PM in the evenings. I've then stayed until about 6AM, and then walked back to the car to get out of the congestion charge zone by 7AM. I'd then have breakfast, sleep from about 8AM until 3PM to enjoy the main part of the day before heading off to repeat the process again. I'd say that the routine has suited me quite well.
Unfortunately, as mentioned, despite running at an acceptable £360 weekly profit by the end of Friday night, Saturday and Sunday proved extremely heavy-going as the dearth of getting any decent starting hand or hitting any board whatsoever started to set in. My second session at The Empire on Saturday (after a small £90 loss at The Hippo) was really when my hard work started to go out the window. This was when I sat at a fairly straightforward table but with a very loose and fishy French player who I had played against the night before. After playing in and attempting to isolate this French player in many spots - for two and a half hours - he continued to have the winning hands against me time and time again (including AQ < J6 when the board came Q x J J x). The final straw came when my baby-flush lost to his better flush and I left that session £260 poorer.
A quick half-hour visit to a £2/£5 table at The Vic allowed me to spin my bankroll back up another £200 (the table broke up due to players leaving) and I started to see the light again. At 3AM, I then returned for two more sessions at The Hippo and The Empire but just couldn't hit any cards. The former session saw me at a serious table where I was forced to fold QQ on a 345Q2 board after the villain threw in a massive river bet and the second session saw me on a table with a maniac table captain where I just couldn't hit any decent cards.
Sunday offered a glimmer of hope after I left The Hippo at 5AM, £80 to the good after a tough five hour session - but the encouragement proved short-lived. I tottled over for a one hour session at The Empire with the reason being that I needed to clock-in to earn Sunday points for their cash-race MTT freeroll (and to get swiped at 6AM for the Monday points as well).
It's early-doors and I really don't want to get involved in any serious pots but I soon find I've got it all-in on the turn for about £100 while holding 10 10 to a very low 8 9 2 4 board. The river brings a 3 and my villain... yep, you've guessed it... shows 33 for a 2-outer rivered special!
I don't like to admit it but from then on I play a little too loose for the short time that I'm going to be there and chuck away another £100 - probably due to tilt, thus turning my Sunday of poker from a mildly acceptable £80 win, into a morale-sapping £120 loss; a result that turns the whole 40-hour week into a losing one!
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Still, there are consolations:
1) The tables continue to be soft overall and although this doesn't gaurantee success, I'm postively looking forward to starting the third week tomorrow (Tuesday), to crack that monthly-nut.
2) The entertainment value that these characters supply is enorm. My last session during Saturday night had an assortment of three nutters (two drunk) who helped to make the live poker experience the special thing that it truly is.
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In Week 3, my main focus will be in attempting to play more aggressively in order to extract maximum value from my opponents.
Also, as I made the odd poor fold on more than the one occasion, I will be attempting to read my opponents with more depth and not to fold so easily or quickly to their aggression.
I'll let you know how I get on...
Monday, 8 September 2014
Week 1: Review
So we're one week into running our business and despite not putting anywhere near the right number of hours in and it being extremely "early-doors", it's nice to report that at least things are running satisfactorily on the financial front. On Saturday I was even ahead £900 for the week and considering locking that up and quitting until Monday. Needless to say, after dropping around £150 during that session and another £250 on Sunday, I'm now looking at a more humble £500 win for my first week. That's a "monkey" to yer cheeky cockney chappy...
Anyway, we'll move on...
As mentioned in my last post, my main leak has been allowing results-orientated thinking to seep too easily into my game. Backing off or ducking out of tricky spots while ahead in a session (where I feel I would need to put in large amounts into the pot) has been the main cause for concern. I locked up winning sessions - and effectively hit and run - after just an hour and a half in my first three sessions! Consequently, with just 16 hours clocked up in the first week, this is really not enough time that a "proper" low-stakes pro should put into the £1/£2 live cash-game. Still, although the first week has thrown up these little things to work on, it's a ridiculously small sample size to get worked up over things like profits or falling short on hours played per week. We'll start to get a clearer picture of how the business is going after the first two or three months; until then, of course, it's about upping those hours, sticking to my A-game and not being results-orientated.
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| Weekly-Nuts, Monthly-Nuts, Monkey-Nuts. I'm nuts, you're nuts!! |
Anyway, we'll move on...
As mentioned in my last post, my main leak has been allowing results-orientated thinking to seep too easily into my game. Backing off or ducking out of tricky spots while ahead in a session (where I feel I would need to put in large amounts into the pot) has been the main cause for concern. I locked up winning sessions - and effectively hit and run - after just an hour and a half in my first three sessions! Consequently, with just 16 hours clocked up in the first week, this is really not enough time that a "proper" low-stakes pro should put into the £1/£2 live cash-game. Still, although the first week has thrown up these little things to work on, it's a ridiculously small sample size to get worked up over things like profits or falling short on hours played per week. We'll start to get a clearer picture of how the business is going after the first two or three months; until then, of course, it's about upping those hours, sticking to my A-game and not being results-orientated.
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Closely linked to hours are the days that I've spent playing and with six days played out of the seven, I can't really complain about not getting off my arse to play.
With five jogging sessions completed out of seven days this past week, the exercise regime has been going great and because music is a must for me while jogging, this is thanks largely to the purchase of this set of sport-headphones:
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Bose ® SIE2i Sport Headphones |
Every set of in-ear headphones that I've bought this far has caused discomfort. These on the other hand sit very comfortably, are irritation-free and pack a pretty good wallop in the sound department. Couple this with their sweat-resistant and weather-resistant capability and you've got a pair of sport-headphones that I'd recommend to anyone. I've even increased my jogging distance from 2.75km to 3km and will probably increase that further still.
The diet has been a bit of a mixed bag. I remain alcohol-free and have drastically decreased the intake of red meat. I continue to drink plenty of water and eat plenty of fruit and vegetables. My weakness though is that after exercising discipline at the poker table for hours on end, I tend to reward myself with a bag of crisps or a sugary snack. I also snack on biscuits and cheese too often so this will be something I'll need to sort out.
Studying is vital in poker and this is something I should do more of. In the first week I watched and made notes on three Bart Hansen videos while devoting myself to just two hours of reading. Presently, I'm mainly aiming to go through one or two hands a day from this poker book:
My studying time really needs to increase.
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And that's it. With the parents arriving today for a visit until Wednesday, this may mean I might have to knock poker on the head for a couple of days. Still, regardless of what happens, I'll keep you posted as to how I'm getting in a Week 2 round-up next week - particularly when it comes to getting those hours in.
Friday, 5 September 2014
The First Few Steps
We've all heard the cliche about new businesses opening up and having teething problems in their infancy. Well, after just four days and three poker evenings since the opening launch, I'd like to tackle a teething problem that needs to be addressed. Despite being pretty well-disciplined in the exercise, diet, study and days department - I have to say that getting the hours in has been my shortfall. I know it's very early days but there is something to be said for the phrase "starting off as you mean to carry on."
The issue is falling into the amateurish trait of injecting results orientated thinking during a session; specifically, in my case, locking up a medium-sized profit after just one and a half hours while at a fairly soft table. This has been the story of all three of my poker evenings so far. Personally, my thinking has been all about "getting a good start" but I know that from a professional point-of-view where a decent winrate is important I should definitely be staying longer and biding my time while waiting to pounce on the weak loose aggressives.
To sum up, I should be less like this:
And more like this:
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