Sticking with it

Thanks for all the positive comments on my last post and i am hopefully doing what the title of this post says.
I am really determined to stick with the same thing without change, win or lose for the forseable future.
When i make no changes i win, when i fook about i lose...SIMPLES!!

On Saturday i am out in Liverpool on an all dayer, having not been out for months, like buses, you wait for ages for a one and two come at once. Our usual christmas night out from work is in Liverpool on the 4th December (less than a fortnight later). Typically with our works doo we start around 2pm and this year it seems to have attracted loads of interest and there are people from all round the North West turning up and staying in hotels so it should be good. It will be the usual script no doubt with a few of us die hards left at about 2.30AM....trolleyed!!!. I think last time i was out i ended up walking to the Circus casino at about 2am looking for a game...thankfully none were running!!

I have been thinking about doing a post for ages now about how i got into poker and gambling in the early days so hopefully this will be my next one. Probably titled "Rossi Origins" i will track back ten years to the early days, the games i played in and the people i played with. Looking back over the successfull times right through to the recent year long downswing that has tested me to the limit.

Training has been going well and i have got a good disciplined mix between diet/cardio and weights. Like everything (especially my poker game) it requires patience and an aim to play the long game when hoping for expectations and results to happen.

Gonna get back to the grind and get to work on that forthcoming post........lol!!

Fustrating game

OMG i am getting so pissed off with poker. I sit for hours and hours and play well only to be screwed and end up down.
Playing a solid aggressive game at the moment and am just getting nowhere. My bankroll is at $290 (even though i have had $220 in rakeback this month) because i am down about $30 playing tornys and $120 in cash.

The cash games i have gotten greedy in and moved to a 10 buy-in rule and got raped at NL$25 missing every race and getting 2 and 3 outered. So i have gone back to NL$10 and a 20 buy-in rule which i need to stick to. It really is a fooking joke. Also no more tornys apart from freerolls with FPPS and any torny tokens i win.

Any notion of making (withdrawing) any profit from poker is a long way off and its gonna take a serious grind/load of work to get my bankroll up to a decent level. I think it will have to be about $5k before i make any withdrawls and at the moment that is miles away. I need to stick to a 20 buy-in rule as i cannot afford to bust this roll coz i aint really got any more money to finance poker with at the moment.

The training and diet is going well at the moment but the urge for a McDonalds or a pizza/donar kebab takeway is growing stronger all the time. (like smack to druggie LOL).

the new start.........

After starting again halfway through October with only a $250 bankroll i havent really played all that much. What i have won grinding cash i have lost on the sng torny tables. The amount of bad beats in tornys is frickin redic and i suppose you would have to play loads of em to beat the varience.

My cash game ($0.05/$0.10 NL 6-max, 4 tables) is going ok and i am pretty much dominating it (you f*cking should be Rossi!!), however lady luck is keeping me pinned down atm. Yesterday for example i was 4 buy-ins down, and my all-in $EV (expected value) was 4 buy-ins under which backs up what i am saying.

However there is no stress and with perseverence and patience i should be able to gradually move up the limits. Gonna stick to a sound 20 buy-in rule and really concentrate on improving my game and adapting to and beating the limits i play.

Away from poker i have started training hard again and started my body-building diet the other day. If i dont focus on eating and training 100% i just end up just doing half hearted sessions in the gym and eating like some couch potato!! (McDonalds every other day!!)

Back to square ONE (a bit behind to be honest)

The title of this post says it all. I suppose i am busto, although it is somewhat my own doing. During a downswing of over a year my bankroll was all borrowed money and i was gradually losing it. If that happened i always said to myself i would quit and pay the rest back before i lost it all, and thats what i have done.

No longer can i play (and keep losing) money that isnt mine (credit card) so i have withdrawn all my bankroll from all poker sites and paid it back onto my card.

When i first started playing poker the thrill and enjoyment was building my bankroll up knowing it was all mine. Somewhere along the line i got greedy and tried to play at higher levels than i should of by borrowing extra $dough to build up my roll. When i first started taking online poker seriously (after a few months of wasted lost buy-ins) i turned my original £20 into $3500 in about a year and just missed out (a $16k package) in going to the EPT final in Monte Carlo (if not for a sick bad beat when 3 handed). However that original bankroll & success/enjoyment has also been lost in the downswing.

I have started again with a deposit of $250 (this time from my own money!!!) and never again will be putting any money into poker!!!

Hopefully i can get the enjoyment of poker back with no stress, and i will be playing more tornys again.

Steve Holden informed me that the RPO Liverpool festival is on the week after next at the Circus Casino in Liverpool city centre.
With work restrictions (and having a small bankroll) i am gonna try and satellite my buy-in to the £100 event on the Tuesday. Any other bloggers gonna be there??.

Today i missed out on $322 in a torny. I won an FPP satellite on Full Tilt for a $26 torny token, and then used that in a 30 player MTT where the top two got a $322 buy-in (to which i would have cashed out). Unfortunately i came 7th after getting raped once i was on the final table.

Back to the micro's (for the time being) LOL

Playing well & f**k citroen

A couple of posts ago i mentioned i had taken my car into the garage for its MOT and service and they found a problem with the EPS/ABS unfortunately it would cost over a grand to repair but they were arguing over the warrenty date. Well these clowns really took the piss and my car was in there for over a fortnight and it took me to have to go down to the garage/showroom and have a go at the guy sorting it out, to actually get anything done.

Basically a week after my car had been in the garage the guy rings me up at home and says that Citroen still wont honour the warrenty. I explain again that I brought my car into Lookers Citroen garage and the fault diagnosed two days before the warrenty expired and if they had messed up sending the paper work to Citroen in time then it was their fault .During the week i made loads of phone calls to Lookers and no-one ever got back to me or rang me when they promised they would. Basically the guy was just fobbing me off and said i could contact the Citroen complaints department and try and sort it out with them.....yeah right!!! (he must of took me for a fish!)

I told Mrs R to get her coat on as we were going down there as i had just about had enough of been fobbed off for a week and i was starting to TILT!!
On arriving at the dealership and seeing the guy behind reception i gave him a load about him fobbing me off for a week and how it was their fault they had messed up and that i didnt care if Citroen paid for the work or Lookers garage paid for it as it was there f*ck up. It was funny as out of the corner of my eye i could see various male memebers of staff stop what they were doing as if ready for a kick off!! LMAO! However i was carefull not to swear and did my best to make the guy feel like a tosser.

After a load of ranting things started to get moving (what a coincidence!!?). I asked for a courtesy car as their messing about had left me without a car for a week and it was gonna be another week at least before everything was sorted out. The guy tried to say it would cost me £10 per day for the courtesy car (which turned out to be a van) for their insurance....yeah right, another rant and i got them to waver the charge.

Suddenly the guy found the original paper work (WTF!!) with the date the fault was diagnosed showing it was before the warrenty had expired, and sent it to Citroen who then approved the work.
I eventually got the car back after another week. What really fooks me off is that if i was some old lady who couldnt argue back i would have been fobbed off and had to spend over £1000 of my own money on a fault that should be paid for under the warrenty of the car.

Well for all readers of this blog who live in Liverpool avoid "Lookers Citroen" who advertise as Liverpools only Citroen dealer (maybe thats the reason they think they can fook/fob people off). In fact just fook Citroen off all together......end of rant!!

All has been going well recently on the poker front and i have been playing a tight patient game that seems to be working. I have sort of fooked the challange off but am still aiming to get my bankroll to $10k and sticking with the same rules.
However about six months ago i loaned my mate $1k (to play poker with) and the other day he paid it back into my Full Tilt account so i have just left it there which gives my FT account a $2k balance. So am playing $0.5/$1 atm.

Baby Jake has got a cold atm so keeps waking up throughout the night which leaves myself and Mrs R somewhat tired. Especially the other day when i had to get up at 5.15am for an early start at work!!

Whilst i had the courtesy van i made out to MRs R that i really liked driving a van and was thinking about getting one. I kept telling her about all the benifits of owning a van and how popular i would be with people wanting to put stuff in the back of it. LOL i was firmly told i wasnt buying a van!!

Still managing to grind it out, with the help of a few red-bulls!!

An awesome video clip

Just read "BurnleyMiks" blog and seen this awesome video clip linked to his post. Dont want to hijack someone elses post but i had to put this on here for my mates/readers of this blog to take a look at.

The gangster film Snatch (which i think rocks) mixed with Stars Wars is classic, the re-dubbed voice of darth vader had my LMAO.



Pokerwise nothing much happening and am stalemate with the challange after getting shafted every time i try and move up a level.

SUPER TILT: my new 5 monitor set-up is no more after one of the monitors fell over and cracked the screen-and typically it was one of the best monitors i have.....ffffss

My SAD mate

Throughout all my downswings i have constantly talked to my mate at work and we constantly talk the talk about bankroll management and how to be patient etc etc.
Well i have not seen my mate the last couple of weeks as i have been off, but I always see what tables he is playing on to see how he is getting on.

Well i gotta shame him (although wont name him!), he is meant to playing $0.05/$0.10 or $0.10/$0.25 and hasnt got the bankroll for anything else. Three days ago i caught him sitting on a $0.5/$1 table and subsequently tried to urge him off the table in the chat, unfortunately i was ignored!!. However last night i caught him again, and he probably didnt know i was watching.

Here is a hand that shows playing way above yr bankroll can turn you into a right fish and end up losing a months profit in one silly hand.



I tried to get a hand replayer to work but couldnt so i will describe the fishiness

Pre-Flop the button raised to $4.50 to which my mate called (fair enough with 66)
Flop. My mate opened with a $10 bet (fair enough again i suppose bluff to take down the pot there and then, but fold to any resistance)
The other player folds and the btn raises to $30
Here it is an insta-fold but for some reason my mate min raises to $50...WTF
The btn insta-shoves all-in and instead of only wasting half his stack my mate calls for the rest of his stack.
The turn is a 6h which gives villain the nut flush and my mate the chance of scabbing a full house that doesnt happen on the river and never will when you are playing shite well above your bankroll.
The button was gob-smacked as my mate instantly left the table, and the btn even typed WTF in the chat obviously as bemused as me.

I know you will read this mate (although i aint named ya, you know who you are), WTF are you doing after all we talked about.....wait until i get back into work LOL.

Yesterday i dropped two buy-ins and insta dropped down a level (following my bankroll challange rules) back to $0.10/$0.25. (arent i a smug tw*t).

laters

Enjoying poker and doing ok

The challange is now back on track since i decided to make it a 10-buy-in rule. Although probably not recommended in any poker text books i still have some strict rules to stop it going pear-shaped. It is however keeping me fresh and feeling like a challange every time i sit down for a session,rather than just a fooking grind.

Have had a good day today and was able to move upto $0.25/$0.50 and did ok at that level too. My game is a lot better these days and i am playing with no fear and extracting max value if i think i am ahead rather than just chickening out.



I thought i wouldnt make ironman status on Full Tilt this month (which would mean i go back to month one and loose seven continuous months). However i will be able to acheive it with no spare days left.

Baby R is ok although still a bit wingey, however after what he went through it is to be expected.

On Thursday i took my car into citroen for its MOT and service (which it passed) and was told there was a fault on the ABS/EPS. The women behind the desk stated the 3 year warrentee ran out on Sunday (the 27th) so she booked it in for this morning and said as long as its booked in it wont matter if the work takes a few days.
Anyway when i rang this afternoon to see if it was ready i was told the problem was pretty serious and over a £1000 to repair. The guy also said the warrentee ran out today and the women made a mistake. He did say it should be no problem but would ring me on Monday (i left the car there) to confim. IMO it was booked in on the day the warrentee ran out (so should still be covered that day) and it was the citroen womens fook up for telling me it ran out on Sunday (i could have booked it on friday if she had given me the correct date). And also they discovered the fault on Thursday, maybe i am worrying about nothing but dont like the thought of a £1000+ bill.
To be honest if that is the case i will just fook it off (after giving em a load) and part ex it. It has just passed the MOT so it is road worthy. LOL

I am off work this week on leave so should be able to get a good few hours poker in.

Baby R doing ok

Just got back from the hospital and was really happy to see baby R doing ok and sort of back to his smiling self. The operation on Friday went well, but it was sad seeing the little fella hooked up to morphine drips etc. He his wearing a huge plaster cast from his stomach down to his ankles which keeps his hips, which were dislocated and have now been put back into the sockets, in place.
The cast will be on for approx eight months, although there will be visits to hospital to replace it as he grows but fingers crossed everything will continue ok.

Whilst all this has been going on i have been on nights at work this week and hardly had any sleep in the last few days. Tonight is the last night shift thankfully.

Due to all this i havent really played any poker and obviously my mind is elsewhere.

I think i am going to speed up the $250-$10000 challange after a few peoples advice and am now gonna add any rakeback to the pot and also really vamp up the rules and gonna implement a crazy 10 buy-in rule (drop down a level on 8 buy-ins). This should add a bit of excitement to proceedings and hopefully let me spin it up. I will see how things go anyway.

Right off to work.......

Back to square one

Not played that many hands but the challange is back to square one as i have dropped about 11 buy-ins..WTF cant even beat $0.05/$0.10??. This game does my f*cking head in, maybe i am just shite at it.

I am on nights at work this week and baby R goes in hospital tommorrow and his having his operation on Friday so he will probably stay in a few days longer.

I had a spare monitor in loft so i bought a lead and connected it up so i have 5 monitors on my computer LOL. Though what differance it makes to my game??!!

Anyway gotta go to work......

The game goes on

Its just a computer game is my new mindset, firstly in my challange to turn $250 into $10k and hopefully continuing in the future.

Anyway, "the computer game score" is now at $410 so i am gradually moving onwards and upwards. (started at $250 and can move up a level at $500)

The things i am implementing in this challange are what i am going to hopefully carry on throughout my poker career as they change my mindset from that of a tilter/spewer!!

:4 x tables of six-max
:20 buy-in rule to move up a level, drop down if i drop to 18 buy-ins.
:start a new level on a new day.
:if i drop 3 buy-ins then move down a level for the rest of that day.
:only withdraw rakeback (coz i need some wages!!), but also so i stop in my mind playing for cash i can withdraw, and just treat the results as buy-ins/or points.

Full Tilt are giving away a $50 bonus this month if you play for 25 days of the month, even if it is for a couple of hands. This will come in handy on the early days of the challange and hopefully push me over the $500 mark so i can move up a level, although I am hoping to have done this before i get the bonus at the end of the month.

Got a busy weekend at work coming up so wont get a great load in, gotta be up at 5.30am on Sunday and Monday...doh.

I started this new challange over a week ago and i have really been enjoying it. Even playing at $0.05/$0.10 has been interesting and it has really helped me move away from the making money mindset and just playing good poker. My stats have been the best i have ever done and it has really got me thinking about my game again rather than just playing on auto-pilot.
I remember reading some blogs of the guys that tried to qualify for the blackbelt poker sponsership and had to grind it out a lower levels which for a lot of them wasnt as easy as expected.
Granted there are loads of fish at the lower levels, but these days even the fish know a fair bit of strategy due to the easy access to magazines/forums/training sites available these days. I just wish i knew back in 2002 in my early days on VC poker on the old tribecca network, what i know now.......

have a good weekend

Bankroll challange continues

I am currently playing well and have got myself focused into the challange. I left $250 in my Full Tilt account and the challange is to get it to $10,000 using a 20 buy-in rule in 6-max NL cash games.
The first day went well and i was 7 buy-ins up, although i then lost most of this on a bad run whilst also playing a bit shite.

Cutting down to 4 tables i quickly got it all back again and am playing well. If all you wanted from poker was say £300 per month extra income then you could easily do this playing $0.05/$0.10 all month with no pressure (i will bear this in mind if the challange goes pear-shaped LOL).

I will not be depositing (unless i go completley bust) or withdrawing any funds from my bankroll and am 50/50 about whether i should include rakeback or not in the challange. I am due $300 next month from all the $0.5/$1 i played this month, which would instantly put me up a level. Originally i said i wouldnt but not sure now, any thoughts.....????

Going out tonight into Liverpool with Mrs R and a couple of friends, it should be busy as this weekend is the "Matthew Street Festival" (or Beetles/music festival).

Day 1 of "Rossi's bankroll challange"

(see previous post for details about my challange)

Day 1 went great and i ran like god. LOL maybe because i didnt care about the money value and just concentrated on my game. Or maybe $0.05/$0.10 is full of fish?!!

Thanks for the comments on my last post. I actually feel focused and fresh and definately in the mood for poker. In fact today has been one of the best i can remember.
I have struggled with my mindset for a long time and it has really f*cked up my results over the last year. I AM GREEDY and MONEY ORIENTATED, end of story.
Because of this i think my game has suffered and i have been too scared of losing to really play properly or get the maximum EV.

On my challange i can forget about the money (or making it to withdrawl to my bank which is what f*cks me up) and just concentrate on moving successfully up the limits playing well.
I am gonna withdrawl any rakeback i get which will mean a little cash going into my bank, and it also means my bankroll will only increase from winning at poker. So now that i know i will not be getting my grubby little hands on any bankroll $$$$ i can pretend they are just points on a computer game.

any way here are my stats from today and even though i ran way over EV i am pleased with me running successfully at 20/18/3.3 playing 8 tables.



My BANKROLL = $319.88

(started at $250 and i can take a shot at $0.10/$0.25 when it hits $500)

Good month gone BAD, and a new challange

Well the last two days have been the worst ever as i have gone on a massive downswing and am down 15 buy-ins. Dont know what to say really apart from i feel like i have played well and been super fooked. This sort of shows as my HM stats show i am at least $700 under EV (expected value).

The stress of this is starting to get to me as even the most patient of people cant keep getting f*cked in the ass. The pressure to make actuall $$$$$ is doing my head in and probably affecting my game.

I have decided to go back to square one and set myself a challange that i can do, without the pressure to make loads of $$$$ to withdrawl each month.

A bit like Chris Fergusons bankroll challange, there is now ROSSI's bankroll challange.

I have taken all but $250 out of my FULL TILT account and am gonna start a 20 Buy-in rule playing 8 x tables of NL six-max.
When i am able to move up a level i will only move up on a new day so i have time to focus and think out strategy and not rush into things. I will move down a level when i drop to 18 buy-ins.
This means i am gonna be hitting the 0.05/0.10c tables (WTF!!) and trying to build from there.
Any rakeback will be removed and put into my bank account, so i can just concentrate on playing and anything earned will be from actually winning at poker.
Hopefully by going back to the beginning i can improve on my game and find and sort out any leaks, and regain a good mindset.


I will also be updating my progress on here every couple of days.

wish me luck..

Plymouth,dongle,boat trip

Sorry i have not posted for ages but i have been busy and then went on a week long break to Plymouth.
I managed to pull that losing first day of the month mentioned in my last post (-$500) back to equal before i left so I was pretty pleased with that.
Myself, Mrs R and baby R and the in-laws went to Plymouth for a cheap break staying at Mrs R's cousins house who is out of the country at the moment on duty in the Navy.

It was ok but it didnt seem as much like a holiday staying in someone elses house. A slight misunderstaning by the mother in law left us having to stay in a hotel on the first night as the house wasnt to be vacated until the next morning. We stayed in a Premier Inn which was nice and after a few drinks and a meal i deciced to play some poker on the mother in-laws laptop once everyone had gone to bed. It was £9 for 24hrs wifi access which although was a rip-off i managed to make about $150 profit in an hour and a half so it was ok.

Hungry for more poker once we got to Mrs R's cousins house i attempted to get her broadband working but failed due to no-one knowing the wireless incription code for her house network. Not to be put off decided i would nip to the local Comet store and invest in a dongle.........WHAT A LOAD OF SHIT.

I signed up for a dongle with 3 which was a 24 month contract at £15 per month and advertised speeds upto 3meg.....cool i thought, i will definately get plenty of use out of that.

On getting the thing back it managed speeds of about 35kbps which was just pointless and was like playing poker on dial-up. The most speed it got upto was at 2am when it reached 200kbps!! Stupidly i carried on and donked $400 over two days tyring to 6-table on the laptop. To be honest it didnt really disconnect on any hands and i was just cold decked. Luckily you could take it back within 3 days and cancel the contract....which i did!!

I chilled out for the rest of the week and forgot about poker and went on some day trips to Cornwall and had a few bbq's/ales in the house.

On one day we all went out to a small Cornish fishing village called Mevagissy. As usual myself and the father in-law (aka "anti-social") went off to mooch round the tourist shops and have a few pints whilst the women did their own thing and we arranged to meet them in a couple of hours.
Nearly as soon as we had left them we noticed a fishing boat that was selling boat trips was about to leave and on the spur of the moment we thought f**k it and jumped aboard.
I couldnt resist taking another short video whilst on the boat, as i know the regular readers of this blog have enjoyed them over the years.



Mrs R and baby R stayed down in Plymouth whist myself and anti-social drove back yesterday, as i was in work today and he didnt want to stay down there without his drinking partner!
They are coming back next Wednesday so i am stuck in the house for a few days, so I will be hitting the poker tables and hopefully grinding out some results.

Tonight i have played just short of a two hour session and finished +$256 which is good, I would like to have stayed on longer but i am at work in the morninig and feel a bit knackered.

SH*T start to the month

Today was the first time i have played this month as i was out on the ale at the weekend.
After twenty minutes today i was $320 in profit, and was like wow, get in...
However 4hrs later i finished the day -$485 and am fooking pissed off. Wont be playing tommorrow as i am stuck in work on a 12hour shift.

So have it all to do again, things never go smoothly for me, although i was the same amount down last month and managed to finish in profit, plenty of playing days left though....switch on Rossi!!.
Just wish i had turned the computer off for the day after 20 minutes and actually recoreded a winning start to a month!!!

fffkkkksss!!!

Julys rollercoaster results

Here are my stats for July, it has been a rollercoaster really and i finished break even in cash games after been -$450 at one point and +$300 at the most and yo-yo'ing in between for most of the month.

ONLINE CASH: +$16
ONLINE TORNY: -$26
LIVE TORNY: -$42
FULL TILT RAKEBACK: +$250 (paid on 13th July)
FULL TILT BONUS: +$220 (cleared 21st July)
OTHER POKER INCOME: +$50 (paid on 1st July)

TOTAL: +$468 (+£282)

Although i was break even playing there were a lot of positives about the month, obvioulsy the fact i was in profit after a bad 12 months is good. I let myself down at one point in the month and dropped $500 and also lost about $80 playing Omaha8b. So improvements to be made there.

I noticed a blogger who at the start of the month lists his poker goals for the coming month and then at the end of the month checks to see if he acheived them or not which i thought was a good idea.

AUGUSTS GOALS:
Stay on Full Tilt poker for all cash games.
Only play 4 tables.
Finish the month in profit.
Go back through hand histories after sessions to review my biggest winning/losing hands.

Away from poker, baby R has got his date through for his operation on his hips and will be in hospital for a couple of days starting on September 17th. Hopefully the swine flu pandemic wont affect anything. I would rather just cancel the operation and wait for it all to pass if there are any risks involved, we will have to wait and see what Alder Hey hospital advises.

Off out shortly on another all dayer in Liverpool, staring at about 3pm for hopefully about 12 hours of drinking!!

In the middle of August i will be going to Plymouth for a week long holiday with MRs&baby R and the in-laws. Mrs R has a cousin in the Navy who is at sea for the rest of the year and is letting us stay in her house for free. So we will be able to have cheap days out in Cornwall which will be nice if the weather is ok. The mother in-law has said she will take her lap-top so i can keep my hand in at poker whilst we are there!!!

Off to get ready for some serious drinking!!!..............

mid July stats

I havent really played much in July unfortunately, probably about 14hrs or something like that. However i pledged to put my stats on here for all to see.



-$101.42 six max cash ( 4 x $0.5/$1)
(+$114.88 earned in rakeback to be paid to me next month)
-$42 live torny (G-Casino Bolton)
-$27 online torny
+$249.49 Full Tilt rakeback received 13th July
+$50 other poker income received 1st July

= + $129

Not much in profit but after the last few months any profit is good. If you look on the graph i went 4.5 buy-ins down and in the past this is when i would have started swapping and changing things. However i stuck at it and things improved.
Hopefully i can put a lot more hours in for the rest of July and get some decent profit. I will shortly be paid another $200 from Full Tilt when my mid-year bonus is earnt.

The WSOP is over until the main event final table in November. Phil Ivey getting two bracelets and making it to the main event is awesome and just laughs at anyone who says poker is all luck.

I have been doing well in the gym recently and trying to mix weights/circuits/runs in order to try and bulk up but also cut up well. I have removed chocolate and other kinds of shite food from my diet and it is gradually starting to make a difference.

good luck at the tables.

EDIT: Saturday morning: just finished another night shift midnight through to 6am. Couldnt get much going but managed to finish +$70 and earned $45 in rakeback. Knackered now so gonna sleep, going out for a curry tonight with some friends so no poker tonight.

£20 rebuy at Bolton Grosvenor

Went along to the G-Casino in Bolton last night with a couple of lads from work and played in a £20(+£5) (1 rebuy allowed) NL holdem MTT.
The casino and poker room was nice and pretty much the same as the G-Casino in Manchester that i have been to a few times.

The structure of the torny was good and there were 103 runners and i didnt need to take the rebuy as at the break i had a stack of 26k and the blinds were only at 100/200 so i felt it was pointless paying another £20 for 6k chips.

I always wear shades when i play live poker, a present from Mrs R a couple of years ago and it always gets a comment when playing these small tornys.
This time at my starting table the local gobshite regular was a fat c*nt chewing one of those white plastic fake cigarettes.
After about five minutes of sitting down he made the comment "you look really stupid wearing those" to which i quickly fired back "yeah thats coming from somone with a piece of white plastic stuck in their mouth" which got a laugh from the rest of the table.
I managed to get a really loose image going on that table, but in a lot of these live tornys some of the players are so poor, their bets are all wrong and you can pretty much narrow down their range so when its deepstacked you can isolate people and raise up with small connectors etc. Anyway i was involved with plastic fag man a few times who couldnt believe some of the hands i was raising with when it came to showdown. It wasnt too hard to build a stack on that table.

Unfortunately i didnt get the chance to change gears and exploite the loose image i'd created as i was moved tables and for about an hour was completely card/situation dead. Eventually in the push/fold stage i doubled up with 88 vs KJs but then when down to 5BB i shoved on the button with 67 only to run into AA and that was that, 25th position from 103 players at about 01.30am.

The cash games running looked good as they were NO-limit as opposed to the Pot Limit games run in Manchester so i will probably play in those next time i go to Bolton and not bother with the torny.

Online i have only had a 45 minute session on the 1st of July and played really well and was $65 in profit. Like i said there will be NO changes in July!!!!

A nice new month

I'm glad June is over poker wise as it has been another car crash, but looking forward to July to adhere ot all my new rules and will be sticking to just one thing in July rather than swapping and changing things.

Baby R went into AlderHey hospital for his op yesterday and was given a general anesthetic today to try and manipulate his dislocated hips back into place. Unfortunately it wasnt successfull and he is going to have to go back when he is about six months old and do it again but this time they will have to make an incision in his grions and do it from the inside. They had told us it probably wouldnt be successfull so we didnt build our hopes up. Baby R was ok throughout and didnt really notice he had spent 24hrs in hospital!!! Mrs R stayed all night with him last night and i was there the rest of the time. It was hard watching him get the general anesthetic and going to sleep then having to leave him in the operating theatre.

This Friday i will be hitting the live arena again. A couple of lads from work are going to the G-Casino in Bolton, which has a £20 (1 rebuy + 1 addon) NL holdem MTT running. I havent played live since November at The Vic, so should be good and i can always hit the cash games if i get knocked out early.

Anyway I'am glad Baby R is ok and am optimistic about July.

Night shift diary

As i mentioned in my last post i was gonna do a long night shift last night and keep a diary as it went, here goes:


NIGHT SHIFT DIARY JUNE 21st 2009

19.15hrs

Gonna start the shift shortly, decided to start early then I can get a break or two in and still play for at least 8 hours.
I went for dinner with the family for fathers day and got home about 3pm so decided to have a kip for a bit to hopefully recharge my batteries. I have just had some tea and am gonna crack open a can of redbull to keep me firing on all cylinders.

Today is the busiest day on all the poker sites and as I write this there are just over 92,000 players on Full Tilt and approximately 60 x $0.50/$1 NL full ring games going on so plenty to choose from.

20.50hrs

Having a quick break, I’m currently $5 down, nothing much has happened, ran KK into AA against a shortish stacker for a $50 pot but that is about it. Playing at about 14/12/6 so need to open up with a few more hands I think.
Put baby R to bed as he was fast asleep downstairs with Mrs R.

22.30hrs

Had another quick break when Mrs R went upto bed, I have got the baby monitor in the conservatory with me, though baby R hasn’t been asleep all day so he should hopefully sleep through until after 5am’ish.
In the last hour I had AA vs JQ all in on an A high flop for a $137 pot, but those winnings wittled away so I am currently $30 down. After that hand I didn’t get any decent hands or situations. My VPIP is still at 15 which I feel could be a bit higher so gonna have to concentrate on opening up more hands.
Just put on Classic FM on the computer to keep me company now that I am all alone in the conservatory and it is deathly quiet, and also the longest day off the year so it is still fairly light outside.


MIDNIGHT

Starting to feel tired actually although its probably in my head, I should get used to this and I cant believe it has taken me so long to actually do a proper scheduled ‘shift’ at the poker tables after 9 months of so called semi-pro. My mindset is a lot better and I feel more chilled out and definitely a lot more patient. I think this is definitely the way forward, not necessarily doing night shifts but scheduled planned shifts at some point in the day.

Pulled a bit back during the last session and am now +$62 so hopefully heading in the right direction but it only takes a suckout to loose a buy-in and be back to square one (actually lower than that!!) . Played 920 hands now and my stats are 15/12/2.5 so not too bad.

Just cracked open another can of redbull!!!

02.20 am

That redbull must have worked because I feel fine now and raring to go. The last session went well and I am now +$170.
Playing four tables feels good and I can really concentrate on hands and opponents. I have datamined stats on most people and make a note on how many tables each player is at which is a great help when assigning a villain a hand range. Most people seem to fit into the following catorgries
SHORT STACKER
MASS MULTI-TABLING REGULAR
MULTI-TABLING REGULAR
ONE/TWO TABLE PLAYER
ONE TABLE MID to HALF STACKER
MULTI-TABLING SHARK THAT HAS MADE $thousands

Knowing how many tables a villain is at combined with HUD stats over a good range of hands makes it so much easier to work out if your ahead or not.

Baby R is still fast asleep (fingers crossed) and ClassicFM is keeping me company. Its now dark outside and deadly silent, the hoodies on our estate that I could hear earlier must have long since gone to bed……only degenerate poker players up at this hour!!!

Quick toilet break and back to the tables, after each break I have been sitting at new tables to mix things up a bit and not get to stagnate.


04.15am

Built my winnings upto +$220 but after a couple of big hands that I had to lay down I have dropped down to +$90. Its getting light outside and the birds are singing, don’t feel that tired, I just think at this hour your mind is telling you that you should be tucked up in bed!!!


0.4.45am

Decided to end the session as I don’t feel like I am now playing my A game. Havent had much and I have finished +$80 and $26 in rakeback. I think as I dropped from being $220 in profit down to about $80 I was starting to play a little scared, as I knew the shift was nearing the end and I didn’t want to end up finishing down after putting in all the hours. This is the wrong mindset hence why I ended the session.

So $80 + $26 = $106 (£76)

Its light outside the birds are singing and I think I can hear Baby R waking up.

If things had gone a little better it could have been nearer $300 in profit but I aint complaining as I feel I played really well and finishing in profit in poker is the main thing however much it maybe.

A year long downswing!!!

Not posted for a while because i have still been pissed off with my game, or to be more precise myself. Read a couple of posts/forum posts about downswings and to be honest i have been on a year long downswing, ever since i applied to reduce my hours at work. That was last June , where the previous 3 months had all been winners and by the half way point in June i was up $2.2k, everything was looking great.

Ever since then i have been on a massive downswing with only 3 small winning months in the last year ( 5 losing months were less than $500) which is just shite. Everyone including myself know the reason for a lot of this 'wasted' money is me swapping and changing things and trying mad new schemes. The pattern of this behaviour usually goes something like this:
Play well but get unlucky/CHANGE to something which deep down i know is wrong but i get greedy then WASTE more money/CHANGE back, play well but get UNLUCKY/ CHANGE again.....and so the cycle repeats itself.

I dont want to rant to much on here because everyone has heard it before, but i felt by actually writing it down, and then stating on here an exact plan of action i will hopefully more obliged to stick to it, so here goes:....

PLAY NO MORE THAN 4 TABLES AT ONCE
STICK TO MY BANKROLL MANGEMENT RULES
FORGET THE MONEY/PRETEND ITS JUST POINTS
NOT BE MONEY/RESULTS ORIENTATED, JUST FOCUS ON GOOD PLAY.
ACT LIKE A PRO rather than a NUGET
TRY AND PUT IN PROPER WORKING SESSIONS OF AT LEAST 3 HOURS.

Starting from next month i am gonna post graphs/stats of my play and results on here so i will hopefully feel more accountable. If i know everyone is gonna see how i have been playing then it will hopefully stop me from doing all the BAD stuff!! I will post my results every half month, starting on the 15th July. (this month is another car crash!!)

The stupid thing is when i actually do all these things i play well, a prime example is a small session i put in yesterday afternoon playing 4 full ring tables. Regardless of winnings i think the stats on my play are pretty much optimal and as good as you can get (any comments welcome)



If i could play like this all month there is no reason why i cant have $2k profit months. Instead of throwing money down the drain by keep swapping/changing things because i am on tilt.

Live pro Steve Holden did a good post yesterday about playing online poker which has a lot of truth in it. poker is a cancer post

A documentary here that i found via an american pros blog about a online pro from a the USA, the guy is a typical computer game Nerd!! but has made over $2 million plaing poker online. Online Pro documentary

The other day i blacked out most of the conservatory roof as now that the hot sunny weather is here i cant see my computer screen due to the bright sunlight and glare on the screen. I ordered some blackout roll from this firm and it has worked pretty well. Prior to doing this i was only able to use my computer after about 4pm which was no good.
Last night myself and Mrs R went out for an indian meal with the in-laws but this morning i have the usual "ringo sting"!!

Above i stated i wanted to do more proper working sessions so on Sunday (cleared by Mrs R) i am gonna prepare myself for an eight hour night shift from about 21.30hrs to approx 05.30hrs. Throughout this i am gonna keep a small diary of how i am doing and feeling as the session progresses which i will put in my next post. Now that i have mentioned it on here i will feel more obliged to take it seriously rather than just saying fook it and going to bed!!

wish me luck.....

Been a while

Its been a while since i last posted mostly because i have been busy looking after Baby R, and poker during May was shite and i was well down, again due to me changing things and messing about.

Hopefully things are looking up this month as i am playing a lot better and have cut my tables down to 4 so to make sure my game is better. Why i keep making the same mistakes time after time really pisses me off. Hopefully no more (and yeah i have said that so many times).

The World series is on at the moment in Vegas, i had 2% of Amatay in event 7 but the fish didnt get anywhere apparently.

On Saturday i went out on an all dayer in Liverpool on a works doo, although i had a good laugh i didnt really enjoy the drinks, same old stuff probably, and then felt rough as fook on Sunday.

Baby R who has been in a harness to try and solve his dislocated hips now has to have an operation on July 1st, they will try and do it under ansethetic without actually cutting him but failing that they will at a later date have to do it again but make a small incision in his groin so to work from the inside.

I am off work now for two weeks on summer leave so hopefully i can put some hours into playing good poker and not donking off money left right and centre.

Will do a better post later in the week, with some aims and new rules i have implemented.

zzzzzzzzzzz

Baby R is four weeks old on Friday and i cant believe i have gone for so long without much sleep. I was always the one everybody laughed at, at work for sleeping all the time or lying in each day until dinner time.....what a shock to the system!!

Because Baby R was breach and weighed 11lbs his hips are dislocated and he is currently wearing a harness to try and correct it. However we have been to the hospital again today for another scan and they dont think its gonna work so he will probably have to have a general anasthetic and get his hips put back into the correct position and will have to wear a cast for upto eight months. Apparently its good to sort this out whilst they are really young and everything will hopefully be back to normal once the treatment has finished.

Pokerwise i am a few buy-ins down playing cash and still feel there is something missing from mygame, probably need to open it up a bit more. I have cut down tables from 12 to 10 and this makes a big differance in be able to assess situations and make better decisions. There are still 10 days left this month and i am off work until next Thursday so hopefully will get a good load of hours in. Last night i was playing until 2am with Baby R asleep next to me, so Mrs R could get some sleep upstairs without been disturbed.

I went back to work last Thursday for a few shifts and because i havent been training have lost approx 1 stone in weight, which is mostly muscle pump/etc and got the piss taken for turning skinny LOL!! Will have to hammer it again soon.

Gonna get some more hours in before Baby R wakens...............

FTOSP satellite & baby watch

Its been a long day today, mostly because of being kept awake by baby R who has for some reason had a really restless day. Starting at 3am-5am then 8am-11am. He then went out for his first outing with Mrs R and the mother-in-law, giving me a few hours at home alone.

I had a $26 torny token that i had won using FPP's two days ago, and decided to use it in a satellite (a torny where the winners get entry into a bigger torny). The FTOSP is on at the moment which is a fortnight period/series of big buy-in tornys on Full Tilt which attract lots of pros and pay lots of money. Tonight is FTOSP event 10 which is a $330 buy-in NL holdem event. I decided to play a $26 satellite for this, which was 112 players with the top 8 getting a $330 seat.
Three hours later i finished in the top 8 and got the $330 seat....ship it!!

However my plan of some early evening sleep was short lived (approx 10 mins..lol) when Mrs R and baby R arrived home and baby R was in no mood for any sleep. He cried his head off for about an hour and there was no consoling him (he was fed & changed & winded!!). Ine the end the mother-in-law (what would you do without em) came down and bathed him and finally settled him. Mrs R looked zonked out so i have just sent her to bed (9.00pm) and I am in the conservatory with baby R in his pram (the method we used to finally get him to sleep). I was tired myself but as I write this i am drinking yet another can off red bull.

I also made the decision not to play the FTOSP event and unregistered my buy-in and kept the $310 (had to pay 5% commission to convert torny dollars back to real money). The torny started at 11pm and was really deep stacked and would it take until the next morning (not that you would complain $250k for the winner!!). Plus i am a bit down this month so that puts me back on track, so it was still a good result. It has improved my confidence in torny play as i havent done anything for a long time really and thought i was always destined to be unlucky!!

On another note, some more shootings in Liverpool last night, this time in a village near where i live. Three pubs that myself and Mrs R and our friends frequently drink in over the years found themselves targeted my morans. Sky News

right will hit the cash tables for a while with the company of baby R.

Dial a Dealer

I’m a huge fan of casinos. In my mind, there’s no better way to spend a few hours than to play some hands of blackjack, or a couple rounds of poker. Consequentially, when my mate invited me over to his place for a casino night, I was absolutely thrilled. My invite, however, came with a catch: I needed to find a dealer to handle the games.

That’s where Dial a Dealer came in. What an incredible service! I thought I was going to have a tough time finding a qualified dealer for the night. I mean sure, I go to casinos, but I’ve never asked the floorman where they hire their dealers or anything. It’s not like the yellow pages lists occupations next to names and numbers. I had no idea where I’d find what I needed.

Luckily, all it took was one Google search for me to land on dialadealer.com. What incredible service! The premise of the website is to provide a place for freelance dealers and croupiers to link up with event hosts. It’s a full-service listing of who’s who in the UK dealer scene. I couldn’t have found a site tailored more perfectly to my needs.

Here’s how it works: A dealer posts their info onto a personal profile, which lists their competencies, their hourly rate, and their service areas. A portion of the profile is dedicated to a free-form service pitch as well, so that you’ll know exactly what to expect from each dealer. Dial a Dealer is a lot like a dealer-specific Facebook, matching up croupiers with employers. It’s incredibly convenient.

The Dial a Dealer interface features a really handy casino hire search function, allowing you to filter out dealers’ profiles based on the geographic areas in which they’re willing to work. There’s also a dealer feedback section on each dealer’s profile, on which comments from past customers are posted for all to see. What better way to judge the fit of a dealer than to hear direct, unfiltered service reviews from those who have employed him?

Needless to say, Dial a Dealer saved me a lot of time and effort. I’d recommend getting a listing on the site to any dealer who needs work, as well as hiring a dealer from the site to anyone hosting an event. From a dealer’s point of view, it just makes sense to grab a listing on an authoritative, convenient dealer listing that’s growing in popularity daily. From a host’s perspective, there’s no better place to find a qualified dealer for a decent price.

I know I’ll be using the service again in the future. It saved me time, stress, and money- the mark of a good service in any industry. Dial a Dealer receives my stamp of approval! Go to dialadealer.com to check it out.

Goodbye to the Micros

Many thanks to all those who commented on my last post and wished us well with Baby R. We have managed to get the chaos kinda sorted out now and are getting used to getting up three times a night with Baby R.

On the poker front i have decided to invest some money into my bankroll in order to go back to playing at a higher level. It has been good playing at $0.10/$0.25 for the last couple of months and has enabled me to get used to multi-tabling, however at that level it kinda isnt worth putting in hundreds of hours for not much return, especially as i have to take a couple of £hundred out each month to make up my wages. At that level there is no real chance of increasing your bankroll if you are making withdrawls each month.

So i am now rolled to play $0.5/$1 comfortably and will be again 12 tabling full ring, which i am now very confident at after all my practice at the lower levels. Another positive thing about this is on Full Tilt i am now earning approx $12 in rakeback every hour, and racing up the Iron Man status rankings, just got to make sure i win overall as well!!

The first day i was expecting to run bad, coz that is just typical of my luck when i start something and after 15 minutes i ran into this hand!!.....figures!! (I'm Hero!! click play to see the hand)



Anyway I managed to pull it back during that session and not tilt which was good. Gonna go and grind in between feeding and changing baby R at all hours and looking after Mrs R.

good luck

Baby R

What a long week this has been....... Baby R (11lb boy) born Friday 24th April at 13.40hrs.
It all started last Thursday when Mrs R was due an appointment at the Liverpool Womens Hospital for her 10 days overdue check-up. The examining midwife was pretty sure the baby was head up (breach) and quickly sent us for a scan, which revelaed this to be the case. So Mrs R was sent to the ward to be kept in overnight and booked in for a c-section the next day. It is still a mystery to us all why the other midwifes that have examined her over the last couple of months didnt notice this? wtf??

I came home on my own on Thursday night a mix of emotion and exitement/anticipation for the next morning. It was weird being in an empty house and leaving Mrs R in hospital, i tried to grind eight cash tables to pass the time but my mind was not in it and after half an hour gave up and went to bed.

Friday morning i was in the hospital at 8am after stopping at McDonalds for breakfast first, Mrs R wasnt allowed to eat anything so i thought it would be kind not to eat in front of her LOL.
We had planed for Mrs R to have an epidural and remain awake during the c-section with me with her so we could witness the birth, however this didnt go to plan.

We were taken to the delivery suite and i was left to wait in a "Fathers room" whilst Mrs R was prepared for surgery. After a long wait a doctor came through to me and informed me they couldnt get the epidural in and Mrs R was really upset and was asking to see me. This instantly caused "my hayfever to kick-in!!" as i was gowned up and taken into see Mrs R who was lying on the bed distraught with loads of doctors/nurses around her. I quickly re-assured her and was then taken out and told it would take half an hour or so. It was really horrible seeing her in so much stress and i chose to go outside and get some fresh air and phone the mother-in-law to let her know what was going on.

On returning to the delivery suite i couldnt find the room and when i asked a nurse she said i shouldnt be in there and tried to take me out to another waiting room even though i was telling her that my wife was actually in the delivery suite. She didnt seem to understand me and luckily the doctor i had spoken with earlier came up and said "congratulations your a dad". The nurse quickly apologised for the mis-understanding and i was lead back into the "fathers room".

A midwife informed me that Mrs R would be in theatre for another 40 mins or so, but that Baby R needed a hug, so i was introduced to my son for the first time who i then cuddled and talked to for half an hour and did my best not to drip a ton of snot and tears all over him!! We were then taken into the recovery room to meet Mrs R who was mostly out of the game for the next half hour.

We were eventually taken back to the ward although Mrs R was drifting in and out of sleep for the majority of the evening so i was left to text/ring everyone. The in-laws all came to visit and unfortunately we all had to leave at 8pm as visiting time was over. It was really hard to leave Mrs R as she was wired up to drips etc etc and little baby R who was snoozing in the cot next to her bed.

There was no way i was able to go home alone after all this exitement and emotion so although i was knackered me, my brother and my mates Ian & Phil went out into Liverpool to "wet the babys head". We got back in the early hours and unfortunately i had got the hic-ups so took various peoples advice of drinking vinegar and drinking water upside down as a cure. It worked but only after i had vommitted at the back of my garden shed.

I was back into the hospital on Saturday with a hangover which quickly went as i was handed Baby R to look after and then finally on Sunday night we all allowed to go home.

As any parent will know the first night at home with your first baby is an experience, everything is foreign to you, and if like me you have rarely ever held a baby never mind change it and fed it then it really does come as a shock. The next couple of days were complete chaos as we gradually adjusted to baby R's routine and tried to get the house in order. As Mrs R has had a c-section she has to rest for approx six-weeks so i have been doing all the cleaning/cooking etc etc hence why it has taken me until now to write this post.

The Mother in Law has been a great help and at certain times we have let off a sigh of relief when she has knocked on the door and lent us a hand. I will have to lay off the Bernard Manning jokes about mother-in-laws for a bit!!

I also want to thank my mates (who i know read this blog) who have been constantly texting me for the last few weeks to check on our progress and see how we were getting on i.e Ian, Tay, Peachy & Raynor, and my brother Baz.

Right better get back to the chaos, hopefully i will find time at some point to get back to the tables

yawn, yawn

Still waiting, i made a mistake on the last post, Mrs R is booked in tommorrow (Thursday) not today, she got the date wrong, probably as in her mind she wanted to go into hospital a day earlier.
I dont know if they are going to induce her tommorrow or book her in for the day after/weekend, although it can only be a matter of days away now as on Monday she will be a fortnight over her due date.

We have been doing all the things that everyone says you should do to bring on Labour and nothing has worked yet i.e long walks,hot currys, hot baths, hot sex (well that is an exageration!!) . Went out for dinner today and then for a walk round Croxteth Park, check out the recent ghost footage caught on CCTV outside Croxteth Park that was in the news last week.

Played two hours yesterday and grinded out $50 profit, should have been $100 but some slutpig hit a two outer on the river to steal a $50 pot from me.

Seen this hilarious clip linked to a few poker blogs so i thought i would put on here, it really hits home to how most of us poker players feel.......on most days!!

Found this funny advert for Full Tilt Poker whilst on Youtube, Phil Iveys poker face .

and still waiting..................

Another week on and we are still waiting, Mrs R's due date was a week ago and so far no movement. She has been booked into the hospital on Wednesday this week in case nothing happens beforehand.

Pokerwise, plently of play but not that good results. Had a couple of really shit days this week, one of which i lost 7-buy-ins ($180). Have really been working at my six max game and hopefully things are picking up and i am playing better. Yesterday i was $100 up and the day before $60 so my main aim for the rest of the month is to finish in profit, although probably wont get as much time as the month goes on for obvious reasons.

Mrs R has gone to the Bingo tonight with the mother-in-law, they keep telling me the jackpot is £10k but so far they aint come close LOL.

I had a couple of sessions on Pokerstars yesterday (as opposed to Full Tilt), there is no rakeback on Pokerstars which is really crap, otherwise i would probably play there all the time. Not sure what the commen opinion is though, Are the Pokerstars micro cash games softer than on Full Tilt??, seemed a little bit like that to me yesterday but not played enough to really tell.

Off to get some more hands in before baby R arrives.......................

Still waiting.............

Well tommorrow is Mrs R's due date and so far we have just been waiting. I have been off work this last week and it has been good to be at home with Mrs R and all we have done is a couple of jobs around the house each day and then just monged out (making the most of it!!)

Pokerwise the month started crap, due to me trying to play above my bankroll (wtf?!!) and even though i only lost 3 buy-ins, because it was at the higher level it hurt a bit. I have also moved back to six-max tables again as opposed to full ring, but am still multi-tabling. Due to six-max been faster i am only playing 10 tables as opposed to 12, however it still works out that you get more hands in per hour. My results have stablilised and i have pulled some back, and with the months rakeback payment i am only down $100 so far this month.

Gonna continue with six-max as there seems to be a lot more shit players ready to pay you off than at full ring which is full of NITS (someone who is very tight and plays few hands). Dont get my wrong my six-max stats are pretty nitty compared to some but over ten tables i am getting paid off a lot by letting players bet into me quite often with weaker hands. Got screwed yesterday for a $60 pot when i got it all-in on the flop with the nut straight and villain hit perfect runner-runner to get a full house, but what can you do against that?!.

Also played two deepstack MTTs on Friday, one using a $26 token that i had won on Full Tilt and the other a $11 MTT on Pokerstars. Got busted out of the Full Tilt one when my QQ couldnt beat JJ aipf (all-in pre-flop) although i didnt really get going in this one.
The deepstack torny on Stars seemed to suit my patient style, it was 30 min levels and a starting stack of 5000 chips so it was a long ride. There were nearly 1400 players and i got knocked out after SIX hours in 132nd for $8 profit (lol for fooking six hours). However i was in the top 5 when it hit the money with 200 players left and was looking good when i was aipf with KK vs AQ which would have put me way ahead in first postion, only the slutpig hit a A on the river and i never really got going again. It was $2.4k for the winner, $1.6k for 2nd and so fourth so could have been a good payday (my fooking luck in these things is shite). If i get time (probably not for a while now) i might look into playing in more of these events as they really suit my style.

Gotta mention fellow blogger Yorkshire Pud whose Mrs has just had a baby last Monday, congrats mate. He did a post last week about the labour and the subsequent sleepless nights. His report on the labour got me feeling nervous!! and i even got Mrs R to read it who didnt say much, just smiled in a way that said "DOH, cant wait!!"

Hopefully my next post will detail our new arrival, until then we'll just be sitting and waiting.....

Ladies Day

On Thursday i finished work for a month a half ready for Mrs R to give birth to baby R. However it would have been rude of me to miss an all dayer that i had previously booked. A group of lads from work go to Aintree every year for ladies day, which is held the day before the Grand National. We had tickets booked since last year so Mrs R insisted i go (who was I to argue!!).


My mate Sean from work was staying at my house so we started on the ale at 10am and predictably were the only ones left some 15hrs later at 3.30am the following day. I even managed to finish £10 up at the races so couldnt complain. I am not really into picking horses so i left it to Sean who was betting £20 per race to pick our bets out.


At about midnight we'd had enough of drinking so headed into the new Circus casino in Liverpool city centre and managed to get ourselves into a cash game that was running (£0.25/£0.50). It was a bit of a farse really as it was just one table the casino had allowed people to open and deal themselves. There were a few sat down and two lads turned up who were obviously playing as a partnership and pretending to be pissed and raising everyone out the pot so they could win it between them. It was so funny this one clown pretending to be pissed and not knowing how to play poker, whilst wearing cuff links with pocket Aces on the them!..wtf?!

I ended up about £39 down as all i got dealt was rags, so we fooked it off as it was obvious what was going on. One big negative factor about playing 12 tables at once online is that when you end up playing live it is so boring and you end up playing hands in positions you would never dream of on the internet. I felt sober but i suppose all that drinking must have taken its toll.

The grand national was good to Mrs R who had a cheeky £1 each way bet on the 100/1 winner Mon Mome, although she will be sharing the £125 win with her mother, still good though.

Poker wise i finished equal for the second half of March so the results stay the same as published in my last post.

The local hoodies have been at it again in our street, the house two doors down from ours, the tennants moved out because they have had enough of the hoodies using their garden/fence as a cut-through. So i decided to cover the top the fence in anti-vandal paint and nail the flimsey side gate to the property shut, however there wasnt really any point to it as it only lasted a few hours. LOL (c*nts!). Some little twat completley smashed the back gate!

However it does seem to have stopped big groups standing on the fence for hours in the middle of the night, that anti-vandal paint is horrible!! I actually saw the estate agent who is managing the property for a landlord, so told them what was going on and that they would need to do something like brick the fence up otherwise no one is ever gonna rent/live there for any long period of time. Vigalantes are the way forward me thinks!!!

Whilst looking at baby names and their meanings i was glad to find the name Neil means "CHAMPION"......get in!!

Nights finished

Finished my set of nights on Monday morning which was good, although 7 consecutive night shifts gradually takes it out of you, god knows what i would do if it involved any kind of graft!!.
Didnt get that much poker played in the afternoons, after i finally woke up i only tended to manage about an hour each day and am pretty much equal so far for this half of the month, so plently of graft at the tables to do until the end of March.

Played a sng satellite last night on Full Tilt using 1800 FPPs (points gained whilst playing) where the top 3 get a $26 token. A "red" Full Tilt pro was also playing, although why he was playing such a small game i dont know, when i checked he was only playing two other tables.
The pro in question is a guy called Lee Watkinson who is a WSOP bracelet winner. I unfortunately came 6th when my QQ was beaten by a flopped straight, Lee was a big chip leader when i left the table.


It is always good to play against named players as i suppose it ups your game. Anyway off to put in a ton of volume on the micro stakes tables, where you definately wont find any named players!!

Half monthly review

Thankfully no more desperate toilet incidents since the last post, although my confidence in driving home from work was a lot less for a few days!.
I mentioned a few posts ago how i am splitting the month in half and taking some wages twice per month as it keeps me more focused and stops me losing it all at the end and not getting any kinda wage. From now on i am gonna post my results for all to see, good or bad, which will hopefully motivate me further (so i dont look such a Fish!!)

I havent played that much over the first half of March due to all the decorating i have had to do ready for April when Mrs R is due.
This is the second month on the trot that i have actually stuck to the same thing (mulit-tabling full ring) and i am gradually doing ok, dropping to $0.10/$0.25 (with a $1000 bankroll) was hard but in the long run i had to go back to basics and will hopefully be able to mould my full ring game and eventually move up the limits properly.

Anyway here are the results for the first half of March: (click to enlarge)

I played 15983 hands and was $101.59 in profit and also got the months rakeback payment of $86.39 , so a total of $187.98 (£135). I also won 2 x $26 torny tokens on Full Tilt using FPP's (points aquired for playing) but didnt manage to get any payouts in the tornys i used them in.

Not that much really but it is steady and hopefully now i am laying some good foundations into my full ring career. I will probably withdrawl £100 for wages for this fortnight and leave the rest in my bankroll so it will gradually increase. Using my bankroll rules i cant move upto $0.25/$0.50 without a roll of $1500.

Tonight i start a week of nights at work, although i am on reduced hours i still do a full set of nights and then the extra hours gained are taken back over the rest of the shift pattern. I will be able to get a few hours poker in each afternoon and then we get a week off after a weeks nights. An added bonus is that my mate Phil who lives round the corner is also on nights with me so we can share lifts and hopefully get in the gym every night. The mother-in-law is staying over at our house this week to keep an eye on Mrs R, although she is still a month off the big day.

all good at the moment, thank fook all the painting is finished!

another hangover/a near-miss/grinding

This post covers the previous week as i have been fairly busy and not got round to posting. Last Saturday i went out again in Preston and had a good piss up with a load of people from work, luckily i wasnt working the next day this time and allowed myself to mong out at home and ride out the hangover.

The near miss wasnt pleasant, i came out of work last Wednesday at about 8.00pm and whilst walking to the car got that feeling in your stomach that you need a shite!! Unfortunately it takes me 45mins or so to drive home to Liverpool and i have to go on 3 differant motorways. Anyhow i dismissed these faint rumblings and got into my car and decided to ring Mrs R on the hands free whilst i drove. However these feelings became stronger!!

I ended the phone call by joking (lol) that i wouldnt make it home and we laughed, anyway a few more miles down the road i was starting to panic and decided to pull into a BP garage, but unfortunately their toilets where out of order.......even more panic. Not to worry i thought, i was about to get onto the motorway, surely there would be some services on there?.........this option quickly faded out once i was on the motorway when i read a signpost stating that the next services on the M6 where in 25 miles.....doh, my exit onto the M58 (to Liverpool) is about 5 miles.....now i really start to sweat.

Once on the M58 the sickening realization that i wasnt gonna make it sunk in and i new i needed to go or there was going to be a very unpleasant accident in my pants/car!! I pulled up onto the hard shoulder, stuck the hazards on and climbed up the embankment which turned out to be thick with brambles/nettles and god knows what. It was way to late to care about that as i just about managed to drop my trousers and let rip......jesus christ it was like turning a tap on!!

I squatted there for a moment in the cold crisp air of the night hoping that a passing traffic police car didnt pull up. Luckily i had a handkercheif with me and I hadnt splashed any of my clothes, although i stung my hand/arse and leg on what ever plant life i had disturbed. Not what you need at night on the way home from work, suprisingly I didnt really fancy the beef burginion tea that was waiting for me when i got home.

Poker wise i have continued to grind the 12 tables and although I have not played many hours i have made a small profit. I will post my results at the half way point on the month.

Hangover from hell & 12-tabling

Not at the same time thankfully, couldnt play poker the way i was feeling on Sunday or Monday. Last Friday was my birthday so a night out in Preston on Saturday was organised, unfortunately I was in work on Saturday and Sunday........but who cares right!!??.

Well after getting in at 4.30am and being in work at 8.30am i cared!!, the differance a couple of hours can make, from swigging double vodka and red bulls and a red wicked chaser not giving a fook about work or the morning after, to arriving in work still pissed with a hangover from hell kicking in was definately at both ends of the scale!.

It was to everyones amusement that i smelt like a brewery and carried my water bottle everywhere trying in vain to re-hydrate myself.
My mate Sean managed to bag himself an early dart at the end of the day (going home an hour early), i tried everything to get him to let me have it and some unsuccessfull bargaining ensured. I offered $25 and 50% of my $26 torny token of Full Tilt, where as the lowest he would go was a stone cold $50!!.....fook me i wasnt that ill as to pay £37 for an hour extra in bed!! As it turned out i managed to run that token into a $75 token but then bust it in a 45-man sng when my QQ ran into AA early on.

It has taken me a good few days to fully recover and thankfully i am not back in work until tommorrow. I have continued to 12-table $0.10/$0.25 full ring and despite having some good results it has been quite swingy the second half of the month. I keep having to remind myself to calm down a bit and be patient so hopefully i can work on that but at least i am not down.

Looked on Pokerstars the other day as it is a while since i have been on there and couldnt believe the amount of players now on that site, nearly 200,000 at about 10pm, who says the credit crunch is affecting everything.

I have continued the decorating and have now started the spare room which will be a nusery in the not too distant future.......April the 13th is the due date so its creeping up quite quickly now.

The hangover wont be a too distant memory as i am out in Preston again on Saturday this time with the lads from work, though thankfully i am off this Sunday.
I had to laugh today as i went to the doctors as i have just moved practices and they do a new patient reveiw i.e bloodpressure/height/weight the usual stuff. Everything was ok until the nurse asked about my alcohol intake. I said i didnt drink at home and only went out a couple of times per month or every two months depending (seems good upto now!?) , she showed me some chart and asked me how many drinks/units i consume when i do go out, LOL it then went off the scale!! Cant see me stopping the occassional all day bender though!!, getting em in before baby R arrives.

Anyhow back to 12-tabling it, i seem to be getting it sorted and making some kind of profit so looking sorta good.

DIY Rossi

Hardly had a spare moment the last week, hence the lack of posts. I have been busy as fook decorating ready for April when Mrs R gives birth. First off we are decorating our bedroom and then the spare room to make into a nusery. I forgot how much i hate painting but the end result is good and there hasnt been too much swearing!!

Not played much poker really as i have been to busy, but when i have played i have stuck to grinding it out by multi-tabling $0.10/$0.25 Full Ring. It is a big drop down in levels from what i have been used to but at least there is no stress involved and i will have to build my bankroll back up before i move up.
I have also decided to split the month in half and make a withdrawl (winnings dependent) half way through the month and again at the end. Hopefully this will make me focus more and also not let me lose it or try and move up a level too soon, as i usually have a tendency to blow up during the second half of a month!

I withdrew $155 the other day as my wages for the first fortnight in February, it should have been $200 but i purchased "Holdem Manager" (discount for being a Cardrunners member) for $45. Still it was good to make some kinda profit and have some wages even if it is only £110, but hopefully i can improve on this over the next fortnight.

It is my birthday on Friday (32) but unfortunately i am working, although I might be going out on Saturday as it is also my mates birthday this week and we usually have some sort of joint doo.

Back to decorating .....grrrr

A positve post...........wtf!!!

Crikey a positive post at last!! . Many thanks to all those who left comments and encouragement on my last post, especially Amatay & Yorkshire Pud, when your feeling pissed off and demoralised it really helps to get some positive feedback. Also sound words from my mate Ian & Baz last week whilst we were on the piss round Liverpool, obviously before we became too pissed to hold any kind of coherent conversation.

Having paid off a load of debts etc, i only started the month with a bankroll of $850, which forced me to drop to the micro stakes and will stop me having any more big losing months (unless i go busto!).
I have taken everyones advice and stopped playing just one table and have decided to go back to multi-tabling full ring games (8 tables) and grinding it out. (i wont be changing AGAIN!!) With only a small bankroll i have had to drop to playing $0.10/$0.25 and get back to basics.

I have tried multi-tabling before but never given it a fair crack of the whip, and previously i have played too high a level and when i have lost a buy-in or two given up. If you are gonna multi-table it is normal to be up/down a few buy-ins each session so you gotta go with the flow. A full ring multi-tabler whose blog i have followed for a long time kinda gives me hope of what could be achieved, in fact even a small % of this guys success would be great..... VIZER

Anyway so far so good this month as i am in profit by 5.5 buy-ins upto now ($140) plus i swapped some Iron Man medals on Full Tilt Poker for a $26 torny token which i used to play an 18-man SnG, finishing 6th for $57 profit. Also this months rakeback payment hit my account today which was $172, which means i am up about $370 (£255) so far for February. Not gonna count my chickens yet, just keep grinding away, but it does feel good....and less stressfull.

Hopefully gonna go to the cinema tonight to watch Valkyrie , hopefully Mrs R wont mind another war film!!

glad to be smiling!!

EDIT Played again tonight and won another buy-in.

another nightmare month

The title of this post says it all. The month couldnt be much worse, about $1000 down, i wont bore anyone with the bad beats, and together with a couple of shit decisions things have gone on another downturn. Things were looking promising last month as i thought i had turned it around and it was good to have a winning month finally.

However maybe my game selection could of been better, starting the month at $1/$2 which with hindsight was too high and i was playing scared, and i didnt really fare any better at $0.5/$1. Hours of playing well only to see it all lost on a bad beat or a careless decision.

I have recently decided to pay off all debts; loans, credit cards (apart from car/mortgage), and paid up front for some DIY stuff on the house (new windows/nusery) rather than add any more onto our mortgage. With the current economice climate what it is I decided it would be wise to cash in an ISA , and i have also only left myself with a $1000 bankroll so i wont be able to play higher levels in future, i will be hitting the $0.25/$0.50 tables for the considerable future.

I have been on reduced hours at work now for the last 4 months and havent really made back fully from poker what i have dropped in wages (£395 per month) upto now. However i am saving £100 per month in fuel and the extra time available is worth it if i can just make a couple £hundred per month from poker to tied me over. My three-quarter wages are still £21k per year so it aint that bad. However if it aint working in the next couple of months i will consider going back to full time. It would be a shame if that happened as it will be better to be at home more come April when Baby R has arrived.

The stupid thing is i play well most of the time and if i can just avoid the "greed" decisions and lack of patience at times then my results should dramatically increase. I have struggled like this for the past couple of years now and just wish i could get my mindset right............maybe i am just a FISH?
(Get a grip Rossi, PATIENCE, PATIENCE, PATIENCE....NO GREED!!)

Off out into Liverpool tonight for a piss-up which i am looking forward too, and then on Sunday my mate is fitting new UPVC windows to our house, i am shite at DIY so will be doing any lifting/carrying/passing/brew making that is needed!!

Going to get a hair cut now for tonight and will be probably go for a run, though it is blowing a gale and freezing outside (ha ha punishment for being a fish!).

Break-evenish

I'm about evenish for the month so far, probably about a buy-in down ($200) at the most, i have been putting in a fair few sessions including some late night (3am) affairs but have mostly been unlucky when it has come to the big pots/situations.
I lost a $300 pot when my set over set lost when villian hit quads, and also a $200 pot when my AK couldnt beat A2, plus a couple of others that i cant remember.

Had a plus EV move today in Argos, when i returned some curtains, last week i bought 3 sets for £45 and only needed two of them so i took ONE back. However the cashier at the returns desk didnt read the receipt properly and refunded the full £45 back to my card, who am I to say anything in a credit crunch!

Gotta mention the pilot who successfully ditched the stricken airbus into the Hudson river in New York this week, and saved everybody on board. Awesome and it was the first successfull ditching of a commercial airliner after take-off in 50 years. (glad i am not flying anywhere anytime soon!!)

Gonna play in the 2nd RTR league match tonight after getting knocked out 21st/22 players last week. I think it is a $5 rebuy this week, so i will hopefully do a bit better this time.
EDIT: came 13th out of 15 players, i hate tornys..........stick to cash games!!

Getting used to playing in my new poker setup (recently moved into the Conservatory), although i can hear every move outside in the garden and on the nearby road. I suppose its kinda cozy!! (not pictured above!!)