ROSSI poker

LIVERPOOL FC

2012-01-28T14:48:00.000Z

KNOCKING MANCHESTER TEAMS OUT OF CUPS JUST FOR LAUGHS!!!!!

D'LITES

2012-01-27T17:31:00.002Z

My brothers latest magic video. Apparently he has been dazzling people at our workplace with this latest trick, here is a quick video he has done of it.

MUCH HOOLE POKER CLUB, GAME 2, review

2012-01-24T09:56:00.001Z

Last night was the second game in the MUCH HOOLE OLD BOYS poker club. However all the leaderboards restarted for 2012, so this was the first game of season 2. This by default made Boatdrinks76 the SEASON ONE winner even though we only played one game in 2011.

Anyway onto this years game, the format was tweaked to make it a rebuy although we still didnt get the blind level time/starting stack sizes quite right as the torny still went on a bit long. The next game will be organised in March so that should be perfect with a few tweaks.

The game kicked off at 8.45pm and had an excellent 9 player turnout, including two honary members of the club... ROSH & SEAN.

The first player to get knocked out was Bilyboybanjo who unfortunately had only just got home from work and just decided not to rebuy during the rebuy period and left the torny, which was a shame but i am sure he will bounce back in the next game.

The rebuy structure was loads better and kept the game more aggressive and built up the final prize pot. 7 players took the $3 add-on at the end of the rebuy period and battle commenced.

i knocked browny out in 8th postition, by out kicking our jacks

Next to go out in 7th, was boatdrinks76 (season 1 champ!!) who was short stacked for a while

magicbrian out in 6th, no match for a straight flush.

online poker pro Rosh was next out in 5th despite being chip leader for most of the early stages

Tay was out in 4th unlucky to be in the bubble position, but it was the first time he had ever played poker online so he did ok.

I was out in 3rd, short stacked AIPF ahead but it typically didnt hold. I had previously lost a massive pot to the boy Dewing that i maybe shouldnt have got so involved in.

Sean went out in 2nd, this hand was AIPF, and had a pretty sick outcome thanks again to the Pokerstars RNG!!!

So after an epic comeback (though he says he never went anywhere to comeback from!!) and despite being shortish stacked, NEIL DEWING (aka Furious Joe) is the winner of the first club game of 2012 and sits (for now!!) at the top of the leaderboard.

The season 2012 leaderboard so far.

SNG update

2012-01-15T19:08:00.000Z

Apologies for the lack of updates over the last couple of days. I have still been grinding, however i have stopped recording results for the purpose of the seven day challenge. With only just starting to grind SNG's at New Year i think it was naive of me to try and record some meaningful stats over just seven days. There are loads of different types of SNG (6,9,18,45,180 man games in a variety of formats), and i think i need to mess around a bit to find my niche.

I had two bad days playing the fifty50 games and to be honest i think they are a bit "gambley" and are a bit to robotic. I have since been playing the 18-man SNG turbos and have had better results and get slightly more VPPs due to the higher rake in these games.

I have still been grinding my ass off but i think it will be better looking at the results at the end of the month to have a better idea of my progress.

A couple of years ago (when my bankroll was a lot bigger) i purchased a program called SNGWizard, i had long since forgotten the license code, but a quick email soon rectified that.

Th program goes through all your hands and calculates where you have made mistakes in push/fold situations (at the latter part of a SNG) and really goes into depth about the ICM/chip equity of hands in certain situations. I have been going though all my hands and seeing where i made mistakes and hopefully learning to play a more optimal game. There is also a practice simulator included that tests you in any game situation you want to practice.

A couple of screenshots show what you can do:

here it shows the hands from an 18-man sng today. the ticks/crosses showed whether i made the mathematically correct ev (expected value) move when in a push/fold situation.

when you click on a hand it goes in dept into the maths behind it. Here showing i made a mistake by not pushing 83o in blind vs blind situation. According to the program i had an 0.10% edge in this situation. Very slim but over time when you get to learn +ev situations better your overall winrate should hopefully increase.

I am going to continue grinding for the rest of the month before i publish my results, i aim to reach GOLDSTAR status on Pokerstars and hopefully finish the month in profit at the tables.

SNG challenge day 3 (of7) review

2012-01-13T13:43:00.000Z

Day 3 was by far the worst i have had since starting to play SNGs (which was only New Year), I just couldnt win a game for love nor money. It got that bad i was starting to wonder if the Pokerstars RNG (random number generator) had gone wrong!!!! The amount of crazy beats is unbelievable when you play tornys. Dont get me wrong i am on the good end of a lot but it almost doesnt seem possible that so many 2 and 3 outers get there on the river, however yesterday i was not on the good end. In fact most of my 50/50s didnt get there the expected 50% of the time!!!

Probaby trying to see how you get on playing SNGs over just seven days is a pretty inaccurate sample. Reading pro SNG players blogs they talk about varience and breakeven patches lasting months. I dont think i am doing loads wrong, and certainly no different than last week when i won for six days on the trot, so i will keep going. As the saying goes "I've started, so I'll finish".

DAY 3

tornys: 129
winnings: -$98.68
VPPs: 154

CHALLENGE OVERALL

tornys: 346
winnings: -$97.13
VPPs: 393

SNG challenge day2 (of7) review

2012-01-12T10:38:00.000Z

I woke up at about dinner feeling knackered from staying up until nearly 3.00am on Day 1. A visit to the shops and a can of monster energy drink and i was ready to go at about 2pm.
I had hoped to double the volume of day1 but unfortunately i didnt manage that. I played in the afternoon until 5.30pm when Mrs R and boy R came home.
I couldnt start another session early in the evening as we were due a visit from the local vicar who was coming to sign some forms for the boy R to get into primary school. It is actually for the nursery year in September (the year before proper infants school). However he stayed until about 8.30pm (WTF??!!) and we still hadnt had our tea.

So after all that i only started playing again at 10.15pm and didnt plan on having a really late on as i have to look after the boy R the next day.
However things went a lot better today and i continued to work on some concepts/strategies that i am beginning to notice/pick up.

DAY 2

tornys: 117
winnings: +$29
VPPs: 128

CHALLENGE TOTAL

tornys: 217
winnings: +$1.55
VPPs: 239

Hopefully i can continue on Day3 with the play i finished with on Day2!

SNG challenge day 1 (of 7) review.

2012-01-11T13:26:00.000Z

The 1st day of the challenge was really just the first night. During the daytime i had to look after the boy R so obviously i couldn't really play then. I sometimes manage to play for an hour when he has his dinner time nap but still knackered after nights i opted to join him.

Once Mrs R came home i started a session between 6pm-7.15ishpm. I couldn't have got off to a worse start playing 32 tornys and being -$37. Every 50/50 went against me and in quite a few tornys i couldn't even fade two outs.

I returned to the felt about 10pm and things carried on as before and at one point i was -$65. I did consider quiting rather than ending up tilting. However i decided to preserve for a bit telling myself that it was only variance and i wasn't doing much wrong.

In the end i pulled it back (and quit about 2.30am) to only -$27 after 100 tornys. So the challenge is off to a slow start both in terms of volume and results.

I am off all day tomorrow on my own so i intend at the very least to double the amount of tornys i play and l hope variance will be a bit more on my side.

DAY 1

tornys: 100

winnings: -$27.45

VPPs: 110

CHALLENGE OVERALL

torny: 100

winnings: -$27.45

VPPs: 110

7 day SNG challange

2012-01-10T13:45:00.000Z

I am still really hyped up about playing the SNGs and now that i have a week off work following my nights i thought it would be a good idea to see how many i could practically grind in a week and what sort of ROI (return of investment) i could get.

So i am going to do a 7 day challange starting today and see how many of the $3.50 SNG turbo fifty50's i can play. (Pokerstars)

I read a post on 2+2 poker forums about someone thinking of playing them for a living by trying to grind 10000 in a month with a ROI of 5% (which i think is totally acheivable playing the $3.50's) which would earn him over $2k (with bonus' included). Now obvioulsy you wouldnt play the $3.50's if you were playing for a living (maybe to small a stake) but still it is food for thought.

Anyway i am going to hit it for a week and see how i get on, though i dont think i will be able to achieve 2500 games (pro rota of 10k games per month). But it will be worth it for me just to see how i get on and it will hopefully build my bankroll and give me a load of practice at grinding these type of SNG's.

I will update this blog each day for the next seven days (showing my progress from the day before), so stay tuned to see how i get on..............................

Red Bull......tick

late nights.......tick

success................fingers crossed lol

ReBorn!!

2012-01-08T17:41:00.000Z

This week i have been on nights at work, we do 7 night shifts (approx 19.45hrs-07.00hrs) and then have a week off. To be honest i am knackered now and have my last shift tonight.
I have managed to play poker for a couple of hours each afternoon and have been playing the $3.50 turbo fifty50 SNGs (see last post about moving to playing SNGs).

I have only managed a play about 50 each day which is a small sample but it has been going ok and i am quickly getting into the grove of multi-tabling these games.
It feels like my poker interest has been reborn and that by starting playing a differant type of game its like i have found poker all over again!!!

So far i have played 228 tornys for $74 profit. Hopefully next week when i am off i get really get grinding and play at least 200 per day. I am especially looking forward to next Friday/Saturday/Sunday nights to see how fishy the games can get.

New Year, new direction

2012-01-05T18:07:00.001Z

So recapping, i started my bankroll again in October with $50 and going into the new year i had gotten it upto $280. However a 10 buy-in loss on the 1st & 2nd JAN put me back to $180.

Meanwhile Pokerstars decided to change the way/amount they give out in bonus' on cash tables, so being the NIT i am it would have meant losing about 30%.

I have been toying with this idea for ages now, and seeing as i haven't seemed to really get anywhere over the last couple of years playing cash games, and now that the bonus' have changed i have decided to stop playing them and instead move onto playing SNG tornys instead.

Pretty big decision i know but i have messed around with sngs over the years, have a pretty good knowledge of ICM and whilst this bankroll is still in its infancy it seemed like the perfect opportunity to change, and learn as i go!!

I have been playing the $3.50 fifty50 turbo SNGs the last couple of days and being messing around with all the settings on TableNinja/Pokerstars options and Holdem Manger/HUD and seem to have got things as i like them. My HUD is pretty different to anything i have seen on blogs etc so i will see how it goes (later post).

Today was my first day of playing some sessions and i played 66 game (approx 16 games at once) and did well, although a small sample it is a positive start. I finished almost $40 in profit and earned more VPPs than i would have done playing the same period on cash games.

My only goals for 2012 is to build my bankroll, make profit on the tables and achieve Supernova status on Pokerstars.

Another magically appearing child

2011-12-27T19:16:00.000Z

Brian Ross magic, christmas video 2

Where did they come from??!!

2011-12-22T13:34:00.000Z

My brother Brian (the magician) , making his kids appear for Christmas!!!

TY Nathan Williams

2011-12-21T15:04:00.002Z

In my last post my bankroll was at $250 and i was taking a shot at NL$25, however i lost two buy-ins and moved back down to NL$10 and then lost a furthet 8 buy-ins so my bankroll was back down to about $120 which meant i couldn't play more than about 8 tables of NL$10 (leaving a couple of buy-ins behind). A bit pissed off with some of my plays i decided to read through Nathan Williams book "Crushing the Microstakes" (which i reviewed in my last post).

I made loads of bullet points on my virtual notepad and have now got them permanently on my desktop.

Here is a copy of my notes made during reading "Crushing the Microstakes":

3-bet frequently with AK, AQ, QQ , JJ
unless some NIT opens in early pos.

3-BET   3x original raise size IP
            4x original raise size OOP

call a fish with speculative hands IP
look to 3-BET/FOLD majority of time.

only 3-bet for value the majority of the time
2%-4%

4-bet only AA KK except against maniacs
don't 4-bet bluff

4-bet 2.5x yr opponents 3-bet

set mining = opponent must have at least
                   50BB for you to call

C-BET about 75% of the time

DON'T c-bet OOP against a FISH or SLP
          on a wet co-ordinated board

AF <1 hesitant in calling a river bet
        2 mostly river betting for value
    3&4 hard to tell
    5<   maniac, call pretty wide here

(bets between 50-75% of pot on river)

NO SLOWPLAY (unless quads or better)
biggest losing mentality is people who think they need to keep players in the pot and don't want to scare them off.
WIN by ruthlessly shoving my 2pair+ hands down their throat!!!

KEEP YR DECISIONS SIMPLE

DON'T BLUFF AT MICROS (i.e a bet made on the turn or river with AIR)

WHEN YOU GET RAISED ON THE TURN (when you bet the flop) it is almost a nut hand, so if you cant beat 2pair or better FOLD)

RIVER RAISES ARE THE NUTS!!!

MAKE SURE YOU DRAW TO THE NUTS

NEVER FOLD KK preflop apart from against a big NIT

I also think at the Micros that if you treat every villians opening bet as a minimum of AQ (unless from a fish/maniac or a villian on the BTN) you cant go far wrong and wont waste money calling to light or get yourself into trouble on further streets.

I managed to make a few adjustments to my Holdem Manger HUD and now i can play 18 tables without it lagging or crashing (before it crashed at about 14 tables). I also copied the HUD layout/values from the book plus Nathans bet slider options.

I then decided to drop back down to NL$5 so i could play 18 tables and tbh i have not looked back. I have been crushing NL$5 for over 10BB/100. (although not over a huge sample:approx 6k hands).
The other day i managed to win 8 buy-ins which just goes to show you that Nathans techniques work.

I also hit my 45k VPP milestone bonus of $50 and cashed another $25 FPP bonus which put my bankroll back upto $230. However this time i am going to carry on grinding NL$10 until my bankroll is upto about $550, which will be better suited to take a shot at NL$25.

I have just finished an hour session at NL$10 and was good for 2-buy-ins, so a big THANK YOU to Nathan Williams and his awesome book. Please dont read it, like i said in my review i want to keep those secrets to myself LOL.

poker book review: "CRUSHING THE MICROSTAKES" by Nathan Williams

2011-12-11T19:32:00.004Z

I recently received an email from Nathan Williams (aka BlackRain79 on Pokerstars), asking me to write a review of his new poker book "Crushing the Microstakes". I have followed Nathans blog for a while and to be honest was in awe of his results and dedication at the tables. He is a professional online poker player from Canada, and also an instructor on the poker training site www.dragthebar.com.

Nathan became infamous for playing millions of hands on Pokerstars at the micro stake full ring cash tables and earning almost unbelievable amounts of cash at NL$2 & NL$5 stakes plus superb results at higher levels. If anyone could write a book about these stakes then it is Nathan and what he has to say should read by any poker player wanting to improve their online game at these stakes.

A glimpse of Nathans lifetime winnings (not including the huge amount of bonus' he will have earned playing all these hands)

A lot of microstake players (myself included) often find their way into joining one of the many poker training sites and watching the videos created by high stakes players on how to improve your game and win more $$$$. The only flaw that i have noticed in doing this is the fact that many of the highstakes players have probably never played in such small microstakes games or if they did then it was a long time ago.

In the ever changing world of online poker what is relevant today, wasn't a year ago and probably wont be in a year or so time. Some of the things your NL$200 pro does in his games are sometimes not as successfull in the micro stakes games such as NL$2 & NL$5 and in fact if you try and copy their style at the micros you may well end up leaking money.

Such is Nathans experience at the microstakes and the fact that he still plays them on a daily basis means the content in this book hits the nail right on the head and nowhere else will you find a book more dedicated towards Microstakes Full ring cash games that includes so much up to date and successfull information.

From your recreational player who has just started playing to your mass multitabling reg grinder, reading Nathans book will transform your game and most importantly of all YOUR WINRATE.

You can find out how to purchase Nathans book (which is a steal at $29) by visiting his blog.
I would write some more positives about it, but from my own personal point of view i DON'T want anyone to buy it, i want to keep his NL full ring microstake secrets all to myself.!!!!

Good start to December

2011-12-08T17:57:00.000Z

]

My start to December playing NL$10 continued where November left off, playing well and winning.

My bankroll is upto $245, with another $75 due in bonus' in the next couple of days. So shortly i will be taking a shot at NL$25 and hopefully i can continue to get some good results.

Another new thing i have started is to make a weekly rota of when i intend to play poker, writing down in advance my session times and length and then sticking to them. Cutting out all the time i mess about doing other stuff and waste time should nearly double my table hours without really noticing it.

Here is a hand from today that i got coolered on despite getting all the money in on the turn. It was against a reg. I typed in the usual "FML" into the chat, to which he replied, "why would you ever raise there on the turn?". It got me thinking have i played this wrong or is my thought pattern wrong in the hand.

I figured i was going to get paid off big time by the villian having a King, however i suppose in hindsight i should have just called and let him get it in with the rest of his range. If he did have a king i was getting paid of anyway. Yeah he was right....i f*cked up.

Superb progress (and run good!!)

2011-11-30T01:18:00.003Z

As regular readers of this blog will hopefully recall, at the beginning of October i withdrew the majority of my bankroll leaving myself just $50 (and starting a new HM database) and the attitude "no more of my money is ever going into poker". I set myself a disciplined 10 buy-in rule and have gone from there.

My progress so far: (since the beginning of October)

+$115.38 table winnings

+ $10 bonus

+$50 FPP bonus'

-$3.30 torny buy-in (Much Hoole old boys torny)

I have won at the tables for the last seven days which has really rocketed me through the NL$10 boundary ($100-$250). Especially tonight's awesome run good which saw me profit 4.5 buy-ins ($45) and also Sundays bit luck:

On Sunday i was down about a buy-in all day and getting annoyed with yo-yo-ing around the -$10 mark when i managed to take down a 3 way monster pot. (thanks to ROSH for watching,commenting)

HAND REPLAYER

Here are my stats from this month, 4 winning days/6-losers/7 winners. I think this alone shows how poker can be down to mindset/tilt etc.

Under my rules i can move upto NL$25 when my bankroll hits $250 however i am going to be conservative and hold back slightly. If you noticed on my cashier screen i am about 75% of the way through earning a $50 milestone bonus which in turn will give me enough FPP's to cash in another $25 bonus. So i intend to stick with NL$10 until i earn those bonus' and hopefully run at least equal which will give me more of a cushion when i move up.

Full support to all those in the civil service (UK) on strike today.

When the government decides we can have a day off for the royal wedding, it doesn't damage the economy. But when public workers decide to strike for a day, it costs the UK economy half a billion pounds! Please copy and paste in support of the public service workers

NEED A MAGICIAN?? (new website published)

2011-11-27T10:56:00.006Z

www.BrianRossMAGIC.Blogspot.com

1st MH old boys club game REPORT

2011-11-22T00:29:00.001Z

The first Much Hoole Old Boys poker club torny was played tonight using Pokerstars excellent home game feature.

Beforehand i wondered whether or not anyone would bother to register/play, but my worries were soon eroded as nearly everyone was as keen as me for an online reunion and the chance for a good laugh with a bit of poker thrown in.

So a pat on the back for IAN, STE, BROWNIE, NEIL, BAZ and myself for making the effort to get together and relive the old days.

Even before the torny had seated my phone received various messages of support , like the one from Browny saying he was going to rape my bankroll.....and pretty soon into the game he was telling the table how he wanted to rape something else LOL (and that wouldnt have left me sitting very comfortably!!!)

In hindsight i made the structure of the torny a little too long as most of us had work in the morning. But the $3 buy-in was worth it just for the laugh, and the banter was pretty much constant right from the off.

Browny who hasnt played too much poker was the first to be knocked out after about an hour and a half, but stayed around for a good while longer to continue the banter.

Brownies exit hand , unluckily running a set of 2's into a rivered straight

Ians exit hand, it was getting late so "the boy lard" kept going all-in with ATC. However he was doing pretty well up until this point.

Neil Dewings exit hand, pocket TT on a dry board was no match for the magic of Brian hitting his set on the turn.

The majority of my stack was wiped out against my brother, his all-in bet on the river looked a pretty much standard call..........maybe not....thats magic!!!

I managed to claw some back and doubled up vs Stevie (boatdrinks) with QQ vs JJ, but it was no good as my two pair was garbage compared to the magic of a set of Aces

But in the end even the magic of Brian wasnt good enough to hold out against an overcard.

SO CONGRATULATIONS TO BOATDRINKS76 (STE EDDY) FOR WINNING THE VERY FIRST MUCH HOOLE OLD BOYS POKER CLUB TORNY.

It was a great evening of entertainment and i hope to organise another one in January once the hustle and bustle of christmas is out the way.

GG lads.

BRIAN ROSS MAGIC: 1st Promotional Video

2011-11-18T22:09:00.001Z

My brother Brian's first promotional video for our new magician website (still under construction), we will be doing weddings/parties/corporate events. Looks pretty cool in my opinion and just goes to show why he is banned from dealing in any home poker games we have!!!!

MUCH HOOLE OLD BOYS POKER CLUB

2011-11-02T12:56:00.003Z

For a while now POKERSTARS has had the feature to allow you to create your own poker club and manage its membership and allow you to create your own HOME GAMES for just you and your friends to play.

So i have a created a club called MUCH HOOLE OLD BOYS POKER CLUB, dedicated to all the lads who used to play poker in the Smithy Inn, back in the day. Due to us all been married etc and living away i thought it would be an excellent opportunity for us to all get together (online) say once a month and play a friendly game of poker ($3-ish buy-in). I have created a player friendly format (lasts a good while for your money) and we can all have a laugh whilst playing using the chat feature.

The first game ( and hopefully one of many depending how successfully it goes) will be played on MONDAY 21st NOVEMBER at 21.00hrs. The club has plenty of functions including our own leaderboard, the ability to create a wide range of tornys games.

All you have too do is goto www.pokerstars.co.uk and download the software and create a real money account (if you havent got one already) . Then in the lobby goto HOME GAMES and find the MUCH HOOLE OLD BOYS POKER CLUB, the ID is 32599.

THE INVITATION CODE IS: Smithy Inn

You will then see the tournament listed, just click on it about 5 days before (upto the start time) and you can register.

You will have to fund your account to play as the buy-in for the torny is $3.30 . I think the minimum deposit is $5 (£3). Dont worry you are ok using your bank card as POKERSTARS is a global company and yr details are completely safe.

I have emailed all your facebook accounts/ texted most of you/ any questions or querys leave me a message on here or on facebook.
Come on lads lets bring back the old days lol.

THE INVITATION CODE IS: Smithy Inn

Honouree members allowed at my discretion.

Brian Ross magic: Baz doing the head drop trick for Halloween

2011-10-31T21:17:00.000Z

My brother Brian (a magician) doing the head drop illusion for halloween.

Poker progress

2011-10-18T22:21:00.002+01:00

On my last post i mentioned i had withdrawn all of my bankroll from Pokerstars apart from $50 which i intended to chill out with and just try and build it up playing less tables. At the time i didnt want to mention any new plans or systems as regular readers of this blog know i have made more comebacks than Frank Sinatra!!!.

my bankroll a day after the re-start at the beginning of the month

So rather than say anything i just cracked on with it and started playing between 6-8 tables of NL$5 six-max NLHE and just chilled out. My only rule is that i will move up with 10 buy-ins and move back down with 8, pretty much a freeroll with the $50 so i figured what the hell lets try and spin it up. After just over half the month my patience has paid off and i have doubled my bankroll (without any bonus')

So now i am gonna go and chill out and play NL$10 and work towards building my bankroll upto $250 (where i will take a shot at NL$25). Looking at my cashier screenshot you will see my FPP points at 1563, when i get that upto 2500 i can cash it in for $25 and also i will be working toward earning the VIP stella reward of $50 which i am currently 30% of the way through. These bonus' will be a lot of help in increasing my bankroll upto the next level.

I have also had a change of heart when it comes to listening to music whilst playing poker, over the last few years i have stuck to listening to Classic FM but sometimes that seems to make me feel over relaxed especially during evening/night sessions. I have now started listening to dance music to liven things up a bit and boost adrenalin, well that and a can of MONSTER energy drink!!!

LOL another IMPOSTER!!!

2011-10-08T23:00:00.000+01:00

Another attempt at replicating my training photos. lol, nice one Tay!! . Having said that if i had Jodie Marshs' boobs...........................................

IMPOSTER!!!

2011-10-02T20:19:00.000+01:00

On my last post i talked about my training and got a mixed bag of reaction from the photos of myself that i posted.. Even as far as "what a mong" in the comments section. Obviously the poster of that anonymous comment must be packing the beef and ripped to shreds!!

Another reaction to my post was an IMPOSTER sneaking into my conservatory when i wasnt home (with the help of MRs R), and try and replicate the pictures.

Nice try ANTI-SOCIAL!!!!! lol

Poker-wise, things have been getting me down a bit and i dont seem to be getting anywhere despite playing ok. I have taken my roll off Pokerstars, albeit $50 which i am gonna chill out with and try and work it up. The constant hours and hours of play for fook all have been stressing me out and i cant be arsed atm.

Back in training: on both fronts.

2011-09-23T14:03:00.000+01:00

Pumped up and ready for the sun!!!!

Early this year i absolutley battered my training in the run up to our trip to Benidorm. I was hitting the gym twice a day sometimes and eating well/loads plus taking loads of supplements and really made some progress. However upon my return from Benidorm (in July) i have been lazy and had a long rest from intense training. Having been off work for the last month hasnt helped, however i am back in next week and so the training/diet will return. As it happens my mate has just booked the flights for next years Benidorm trip, we are going in May this time to celebrate his 50th, so all to train for again!!

Photographs courtesy of Mrs R

On the poker front i have also gone back into training and re-subscribed to the poker training site Cardrunners, mostly to watch the videos by Ronfar3 who turned $500 into probably about $half a million$ since 2008 and is a brilliant poker tutor. Watching his full-ring poker videos has already changed my game and persception of decision making at the table.
However lady luck has not been on my side so far this month after 70k hands and i am an incredible 18 buy-ins under All in EV (the mathmatical formula used to take the luck factor out of your ALL-IN situations and show what your Expected Value should be). Anyway there are 8 days left of the month so i am hoping things swing back in my favour.

HOLIDAY REPORT: bluffed by & slumming it with a Worzel!!

2011-09-14T12:37:00.007+01:00

The gates to ~~Austwitz~~ , i mean our holiday home!!

We got back from our holiday to Somerset on Friday, which was a day earlier than originally planned as everyone had had enough. To be honest we were totally bluffed by the website and thought we were going to a luxury cottage on a farm with its own separate garden etc etc. Here is the site which advertises the luxury farm cottages but tbh there wasn't any luxury. Reading the website it makes out that the cottages are set slightly away from the main farm and that each one has its own private garden......yeah right.

The video below which was taken about half an hour after we had arrived sums up our first impressions. Mrs R and the mother-in-law had gone shopping and left myself and "Anti-social" (the father in-law) to have a look round!!

The family who were booked into the cottage next door only lasted three days before making their excuses and going home, but we slummed it. The wildlife was good though and the boy R thoroughly enjoyed himself walking round the fishing lake and feeding the chickens. We christened the farmer who owned the place as "WORZEL" which amused us all during the week. To be honest i think Anti-social who himself is a wildlife fanatic changed sides and became quite fond of Worzel towards the end of the week.

Anti-social: a wildlife enthusiast!

The place didn't even have a bath, the boy had to make do with a laundry bin to get washed, with the help of the mother-in-law..............it was my turn for a bath next!!!!

Like i say the grounds,scenery and wildlife were ok and there were various webcams scattered about the farm that film live feeds of badgers etc for the website (which we sadly have watched since returning home). Anti-social insisted i went badger watching with him one evening so i filmed the proceedings and even managed to capture Worzel on video. The video was originally quite long so i have cut it into two shorter parts so to only capture the funniest moments lol.

We stayed and slummed it out for six days and i suppose if you turned a blind eye to all the chicken shit and the layers of dust in the cottage it wasn't too bad. As the week went on though we kept discovering how much of a con the website actually was, even the washing machine broke after 3 days!!. We had days out to nearby Minehead, Barnstaple and Cheddar Gorge which were also ok.

Here are a couple of short videos that show the gardens and wildlife (with my own blend of commentary obviously!!)

Oh no i have turned into a WORZEL!!

Plans for September

2011-09-02T00:52:00.001+01:00

I finished work the other day for nearly a month (back in on the 27th Sept) which is always a great feeling. On Saturday we go off on a week long break to Somerset (not the beach type holiday depicted in the photo above!!). We have rented a cottage on a farm with the in-laws which should make for a nice relaxing break.

Pokerwise i am mega exited and focused. Last month i worked on my full ring game and although finishing the month only $68 in profit (after bonus') the last few days saw me make about 5 buy-ins in about 8k hands whilst 24-tabling NL$25.
I went onto PTR and checked out how the biggest winner at NL$25 full ring on Pokerstars was playing and how his stats differed to my own : Some player from Uraguay called "AnnaClaren" who last month played 250,000 hands and won over $2k, plus at least $1k in bonus' which is pretty cool playing only NL$25.

With the changes to my game made, i hit the tables and noticed the difference almost immediately and as i have been playing with a 100 buy-in bankroll i have been able to play without even worrying about the $$$ swings involved. Like i say i won about 5 buy-ins in the last 8k hands last month and today although breaking even i felt i played pretty good. The graph below of todays hands shows how the swings/short term luck can come into play. (the red line showing what i would have won if the luck factor was taken out,i.e the EV expected value). What was also good was I went nearly 4 buy-ins down without even blinking and letting it alter my gameplay or mindset. I played well, got my money in good and exploited my opponents......its been a while since i can say that!!!

When i get back from holiday i am going to batter the volume and hope to make some decent $$$$ (for NL$25). I am still Platinum Star on Pokerstars which should help increase the bonus' i get for playing loads of hands. However i will be glad of the week long break beforehand....no computers and no poker!!!!

Tilted by a fly!!!!!

2011-08-24T01:04:00.001+01:00

Its 00.45hrs and i am trying to play a late night poker session, its nice and peacefull, i have got Classic FM playing in the background and i am about a buy-in up in profit so all is good. Well nearly everything. Half an hour ago i was disturbed by what was to become (and still is at the time of writing) my arch night-time nemisis.....a frickin big annoying horse-fly thing.

The fucker first came to my attention when it buzzed right next to my face making me jump which made me miss click on a table ( i think i folded QQ preflop DOH). Shortly after the cheeky little bastard then lands on my screen, i try and hit it with my hand and end up missing and catching the "not so funny" bone in my elbow which causes me to miss even more hands.

I cant take it anymore and sit out on all my tables, i roll up a newspaper and stand still in the quiteness of the night waiting for the little c*nt to show itself, five minutes in and after a few skirmishes i have a better plan. Turn off all the lights, open the back door and let it fly away......five minutes later i think it has worked!!! I come back into the house, shut the door and put the lights back on only to see it sat above my head on the ceiling, at this point i am sure it is laughing at me. BANG, i go for the kill.....but miss......doh its flying around again.......land you little fricker..........

I cant start another session (of poker, or anything else!!!!) until i know its dead so i am going to go and stake it out.

ROSSI vs FLY................

Night ramblings/ The story of my carding past

2011-08-05T15:55:00.000+01:00

(warning: long post ahead!!)

Just sat here on nights bored so thought I would write a blog post. We do seven night shifts and then have seven days off. Although it can be a bit tiring as the shifts are eleven hours in length and on some nights you have to press wall “buttons” every half hour which are located in various areas to show you have been there as opposed to sleeping all night.!!

Poker wise, towards the back end of last month I messed around trying a few new things out with my game and hopefully I can stick with these things that I have decided to implement for the rest of the month and grind some hours at the tables throughout August. I have again spent some time just watching professional player Frosty012 playing and am trying to implement some of the things I have observed and the advice he has given me (via the comments on his blog) into my game.

I have only managed 5 hours of play so far this month due to my shifts but seem to be playing pretty solidly (stats wise) although at the time of writing I am 2.5 buy-ins down after about 5k hands, which basically means nothing over such a small sample size as if you take a couple of coolers (very unlucky hands) out of the equation I would be in profit. I am just going to try and stick with all of these concepts and game play choices for the whole of the month and assess the results come the 31^st August.

I am only playing NL$10 at the moment with a bankroll of $1150’ish although if I get it over $1250 (50 buy-ins) by the start of September and feel I am playing well I will move up to NL$25. The main thing is no pressure and even better news for me is that Pokerstars are running a “VIPMADNESS” scheme this month whereby you can achieve a VIP status 10 times faster than usual, so I will easily hit Platinum Star status by the end of the month and keep it until the end of September which will mean a lot more bonus $$$$.

For the last two years i have been meaning to write a post about how I first got into playing cards, and seeing as I am sat here with time to kill I thought I might as well do it now…….so here goes.

I joined the British Army when I was 18 years old (1995) and stayed in it for three and a half years and it was during this time in my life that I first got a liking for cards. When I used to come home on leave there was always a 3-card brag game going on each night in the village local pub, it was nothing hardcore just a group of mates playing 20p bets to start with, although it was NL and sometimes things got slightly carried away. I will mention my mates who were regulars in the game and who are all still mates today as I know they read this blog occasionally ( Tay, Neil, Ste, Browny, Ashy, Ian, Baz).

Other people came and played from time to time and for a while the game became so regular that we used to take over the small pool room at the back of the pub and use the pool table as a carding surface. It was back in the day when you could smoke in pubs and that seemed to add to the atmosphere and I am sure there were a few cigars smoked back then by us all. We always played well after closing time, so much so that on one night the Landlord locked up the pub and went to bed. However it didn’t take him too long to hear voices downstairs and creep down thinking he was getting burgled only to find us lot still playing.

I tended to do very well at 3-card brag and usually made a small profit as it was obvious after a bit if you kept going blind (not seeing your hole cards), which meant you paid only half the bet of a player who had seen his cards you tended to end up more in profit. Also if you had more money you could afford to bluff other players off hands more, which worked ok as I had a job and most of the other lads were students.

However I came a cropper on one occasion as another lad, called Brian, who was older than us and who was also working and had more money always used to go blind and ramp up the stakes at every given opportunity. During one session I ended up with a hand that spiralled into us putting £50 in each only for me to lose. 15 years ago when I was only getting £550 per month wages, losing £50 in one hand hurt a bit.

However whilst not on leave my army mate Peachy took me for my very first visit to a casino, in Manchester, and I loved it straight away. Beginners luck really kicked in for me and I finished about £150 in profit from the roulette table.

After about a year in the army I was posted to Northern Ireland to a place called Lisburn, which was to be my home for the next two years. There was still trouble in Northern Ireland back then and there wasn’t very many places we could go to socialise outside the camp and we tended to do most of our drinking in the NAAFI run bars inside the camp.

My camp/barracks in Lisburn, Oct 1996, bombed by the IRA two days before i arrived.....phew!!!

I shared a room with four other lads and for some reason our room became the Mecca of high stakes carding action. Our Sergeant was a big time gambling hustler (also an ex jockey) and the game we played was shoot-pontoon. This game as anyone who has played it will verify can quickly become high stakes. Our Sergeant, and a couple of us to some degree used to almost press gang drunken squaddies up to our room to play late into the night and these games where fairly big compared to peoples wages. At that time most of us were getting about £750 per month (you used to get extra for being in a dangerous theatre of operations) and soldiers where sometimes losing half their months wages in one night.

Now I used to pride myself that I was always sensible and strict on bankroll management and I used to play and bet small and take advantage of the bigger bets going down and the craziness of the other players. In shoot-pontoon there is always a banker and in this position you have the potential to make more money. However in this game when you won the bank, some of the hustlers would offer to buy it off you for £5 or £10 in order to win more money off other players.

I always bet small, made money off selling the bank when I got it and hardly ever had a losing session. I was happy making £20-£50 per session playing like that rather than win/ lose £250+. These games were going every weekend and with drunks getting press ganged into the games and other degen squaddies losing £hundreds per night there was always loads of profit to be made. We even used to have afternoon games at the British Legion club in Lisburn town centre although the pots didn’t get quite as big as everyone was a lot less drunk as it was early on.

When I came out of the army I ended up in a shitty security guard job for a year or so before I got my current civil service job and a few of us (Neil, Ste, and my bro) used to hit the casino in Southport about four or five times a week. I think our record was about 3 different times in one day!!!

None of us had much money but we loved hitting the roulette and blackjack and spent hours trying to come up with systems and methods to beat the tables until finally we realised it was a waste of time. Each of us had good times/bad times and loads of laughs in those regular visits to the casino. It still brings a smile to my face when I think of us all singing “oh no were off to the O (casinO)” in the back of my bros car on the way to Southport. Or my mate who firmly believed that “he was DUE (a big win)” every week.

For a while I was working in Southport (near to the casino) and I came up with a system where I would go into the casino and put a £25 chip on either red or black. If I won the first bet I would immediately cash in and leave, if I lost I would just keep betting £25 until I was £25 in profit and then cash in and leave. It worked a treat for weeks and I was starting to make more money doing this than my shitty security job and for a while I considered jacking the job in and just going to the casino. However one afternoon it came crashing down as I didn’t stick to my rule of leaving as soon as I was £25 in profit and I ended up losing about £400 in an afternoon which was more than half a months wages…….I was pretty sick and gave up the scheme!!!!!

poker game at my house: oct 2005

Into 1998 we were still playing 3-card brag when the film Rounders came out and this was like the shining light to us all, although no-one knew how to play poker. It didn’t take us too long to figure it out though and then NL holdem had taken over for ever!!

Unfortunately I didn’t quite have the success to start with as I did with brag or pontoon as it was my mate Neil who quickly figured out aggression was the way forward and he was really hard to beat and was definitely the biggest winner of our games back then. With my mate Ste being the tightest player amongst us, I think his opening bet range was like the top 5 hands and that was it!!

Poker game at Tays: July 2005

We played poker at every given opportunity and every Thursday we played in the afternoon at one of our homes knocking back cans of ale before going into town, legend days (if you are reading this boys let me know if you fancy it again at mine for an afternoon of cards as a slice of nostalgia, then into Liverpool). We also used to do this (prob 1998-2001) on Ste’s uncles canal barge in Lancaster, get pissed all afternoon playing poker on the boat and then go into Lancaster and get stuck into the student girls!!!. Again the saying “BOAT DRINKS” brings a smile to my face.

Suddenly we found that poker had found its way onto the internet and we started playing $3 and $5 sngs on VC poker whilst all chatting on msn. Again my mate Neil did the best back then quickly turning $10 into about $700 or so in a couple of months. My mate Ste’s screen name on VC poker was “BOAT DRIMKS” as he miss-spelt “drinks” and you aren’t allowed to change it once submitted, nice one lad!!! I don’t see Neil and Ste as often now which is a shame and I miss talking poker to them, I’m not even sure if they even play anymore.

Another win for Rossi?!!: July 2005 (shit i have aged since this photo!!)

Once I met Mrs R and moved into my current house (2003) I continued playing online poker although not really getting anywhere but equally not putting that much time into it, football manager was still the most regular thing on my computer back then.

I took poker a bit more seriously in about 2006/2007 and managed to turn $30 into about $3500 and was coolered out of a $16000 package for the 2006 EPT Monte Carlo, I really (stupidly) thought I was destined to become a poker pro. However the careful bankroll management that I had always practised in the past got lost somewhere along the way and over the last couple of years I managed to lose those winnings and more besides. I constantly changed things, became greedy, chased stuff and haven’t been patient. On the occasions I have been patient I have won but overall I am currently down from playing online poker (being honest!!).

However if I can conquer my demons and return to that discipline/patience of those early days I should be able to grind out profit each month and eventually/hopefully return my lifetime poker results to $$ EVEN and maybe slightly up!!! (go back to the top of this blog!!!).

The game aint over yet……………………………………!!!

Here is a video i found from the poker game at my house in 2005:

Benidorm trip report (inc VIDEOS)

2011-07-18T14:07:00.060+01:00

I hate flying!!!!

I have just got back from a lads weekend away in Benidorm (Spain) with a load of lads from work to celebrate one of the lads 40th birthday. Six of us went: myself (aged 34) my brother pictured above in white (32), Coley whose 40th birthday it was (pictured above in blue at the back), Karl (47) , Phil (49) and Langers (53).

My brother and me were the babies (youngest) of the group but the funniest/craziest antics came from Langers who was the oldest of us, although he reckons his mental age is just 10!!. He can whistle really loudly on demand and that was his rallying call all holiday, he whistled and pointed at anyone and everyone and had us crying with laughter for the full weekend. In his younger days he used to be a bodybuilder and compete in shows on stage and still loves flaunting his stuff in front of everyone....he was a LEGEND on this holiday lol!!!

Like on most trips and holidays over the years that i have reported about on this blog i have included a number of comical videos and this trip was no different. The first one was of us sat in a bar on Saturday night and gives a slight insight into Langers' crazy whistling. We actually got thrown out of this bar later as the barman came over and told him to stop whistling as enough was enough and people were complaining!!!. The old ladies at the table behind us were some what bemused!!!

(if you click on the bottom right you can make the video full-screen)

Later on Saturday night we ended up in a bar with one of those mechanical bulls that you can try and ride and see how long you can stay on it for. I managed a respectable 2nd in the group and in this video i captured Langers and Coleys attempt. There was also a ride for the girls to have a go on which was a giant penis, this obviously made for some hilarious and sometimes raunchy viewing!!!

We started drinking on the trip at 6am on Friday morning in Liverpool airport and managed to carry on drinking for nearly 24 hours until about 5.30 am the following day which is a pretty good effort in my opinion. Here is a video i made early in the afternoon on Friday when the sun was out and everyone was in high spirits, especially Langers for who it is never too early to dance and strut those muscles.

After leaving that bar we then proceeded down the large Levante beach front and the ludicrous behaviour continued. Most people in our job (at work) have been described as having a strange sense of humour (probably because of the stuff we have to deal with on a daily basis), with nothing deemed to obscene/rude or embarrassing. And when it comes to applying sun tan lotion some might even see it as slightly gay!!!

Further on down the beach and after getting told to get off the kids climbing frames by the local police we had a quick £5 bet as to who could get to the top of a climbing frame first. Karl managed to win, which we kinda knew anyway because he is mad and doesn't care what he does!! In fact during the stay he came out with some classic quotes. After us drinking for 24 hours the first day and having only about 4 hours sleep we all were rough as fook in the morning and had mouths like sandpaper. We took a morning stroll down the beach front again all drinking water to try and rehydrate ourselves, well all of us apart from Karl.
Apparently he hardly drinks any water and stated "you only drink water when your drowning" and "water is for plants". Whilst we were drinking water he was necking cans of San Miguel!!!.......he is just an animal!!! lol

However it didn't take the rest us long to get back on the ale again and we all spent the whole of Saturday afternoon drinking whilst sat in the hotel pool. As a change from the lager and red bull & vodkas we had drunk for 24 hours previously we decided to try some different drinks and managed to talk the pool bar girl into serving us slush puppies (with crushed ice) with either brandy,gin, or vodka in them. They tasted nice and we necked them for about 5 hours whilst lying in the pool.

Our behaviour got slightly more boisterous as the afternoon progressed and at one point a women complained of our behaviour saying "there are kids in the pool you know".. Karl actually replied/shouted "Shes only jealous as she has more hair on her face then on Rossi's arse!!!"
To be honest i would have thought kids would have found it funny me getting smashed on the bare arse with a metal drinks tray and then slammed over the head with it to knock me underwater (Jackass eat your heart out). I think it made the lads laugh when out of the blue i just said to Karl "eh mate smash me over the head with that as hard as you can lad"!!

Karl did that to me about five times mostly on demand from other people and it was pretty hilarious and it didn't hurt at all really apart from a red arse, i nearly drowned from laughing so much. Half the holiday makers sat round the pool were laughing at us whilst the other half frowning at us haha.... who cares lol. Coley managed to let himself fall asleep at one point on a sun lounger next to the pool, though he wasn't asleep long before getting sprayed with a water gun and then Karl dragged the the sun lounger with Coley still on it into the pool...wakey wakey!!

We all moved further down the pool as the afternoon sun gradually moved, until all that was left was a jacuzzi with two old foreign women in it. However they soon got out when Karl ran over and threw himself in head first nearly hitting one of the old dears accross the head with a stray foot. As they were getting out Langers tried to lend a helping hand but was nearly shoved out of the way in anger!!

Karl: winner of the climbing frame bet and general bad poolside behaviour.

My brother, Langers and Coley

Coley,Karl and Phil

On both nights we ended up in Cafe Benidorm, which is open from 7.30pm until 7am every night of the week and we just had a really great time and anyone who hasnt been to Benidorm really should try it out.
It was a brilliant trip and a superb laugh and i cant wait until we do it all again next year for Phil's 50th........bring it on!!! nice one lads ty.

Poker ramblings

2011-07-07T15:34:00.001+01:00

Last week Full Tilt Poker was shut down after losing its gaming licence in the follow on from Black Friday in April. Unlike Pokerstars it did not reimburse the American players money, and following on from this i cannot see how the brand can "bounce back". There was talk of some European buy-out but i personally think the brand Full Tilt is dead in the water. The actual software could be a good buy as there was nothing wrong with that (2nd only to Pokerstars imho) but the whole thing would have to be re-named etc etc.

I thought it was a clever move by Pokerstars to offer a $100 reload bonus the day Full Tilt shut down in order to sweep up any players who played on full tilt and were now looking for a new home in which to play poker. It seems to have worked as the traffic on Stars has increased ever since.

Pokerstars have recently improved there player note taking system and you can now assign loads of colours to player notes. This couldn't have come at a better time for me as my HUD will not work with 24 tables up and to be honest i sometimes feel like it gets in the way and you need at least 500-1000 hands minimum imo for the stats to be meaningful anyway. So I use the table scanner on Holdem Manager to first off see how many tables someone is playing at (useful to initially find out who the regs are) and then once they have played over 500 hands i assign a colour to them dependant of their player type. I have used these colours for years anyway on various Huds/databases etc so i didn't have to get used to learning what each one meant before i played. Its definitely easier to see a player type instantly when multi-tabling than having loads of stats/numbers flashing and changing all over the place when your 24-tabling.

Full Support

2011-06-29T22:47:00.001+01:00

Full Support to all those on strike 30th June 2011.. average workers against being f*cked over.

When picnics go bad!!!!

2011-06-20T16:06:00.000+01:00

As the weather was nice and sunny today we decided to have a day out and a picnic and drove to Delemere Forest in Cheshire. Being a Monday morning it was almost deserted which is just the way we like it. There is a nice walk there down a country track with picture-esqe views of the countryside and sprawling fields to look at.

As it was getting towards dinner time we decided to put some coats down and eat the picnic we had brought with us. It was really tranquill, with a nice view, the sun was out and Mrs R had made her usual trademark superb picnic. I actually quoted when this picture was taken "it doesnt get any better than this does it!".........well actually!!??

About 50 yards down the track from were we were sat was a cross-roads and as i was lying there i noticed a bull walk up accross the cross-roads and head down the path (away from us at this point). Assuming there was a farmer somewhere behind i thought i would wind Mrs R up and said there is a bull walking there on its own!!

However the bull turned around and starting walking up the track towards us. At about 40 feet away we both realized that there was no farmer and the bull (a full grown adult) had obviously escaped...doh. There was no where for us to go especially with a toddler and all our picnic stuff still there. It was one of those situations where you think "oh shit this could turn nasty".

With the bull about 20 feet away and closing i quickly ordered Mrs R to pick the boy up and for us to stand very still behind the tree as i knew bulls responded to movement (too much discovery channel!). So with no other option we stood still behind the tree (seen in the photo above) whilst the bull slowly walked past about 4 ft away from us. However the boy R thought it funny to make loud moo-ing sounds despite us trying to gag him. The bull stopped next to us wondering what the sounds where and eyed us up and down (for what seemed like an eternity!!) but thankfully wasnt too interested in us, and continued to carry on walking up the track.

Whilst quickly gathering our stuff up i managed to take the above photo, however we werent out the woods yet as the bull made a u-turn and started to walk back. This time we werent hanging around and the boy R was immediately strapped into his buggy and we were off. As we made our escape various farmers and forestry commission workers had obviously been made aware of the bulls escape and were going to deal with it.

"I aint afraid of no bull...moo moo" The boy R

Cars the movie, 10k hands in a day, strike action.

2011-06-15T11:22:00.005+01:00

"Cars" is a frequent request in our house these days. Now to those without a car mad male toddler in the house you may not know exactly what i am talking about. Well "Cars" is an animated film about a racing car (pictured above) called Lightening McQueen and The Boy R has watched it more times than i have watched Rounders or The Italian Job!!!, he literally watches it about 3 times per day each with as much anticipation and excitement as the previous showing.

To be honest my viewing count of the film is quickly adding up and I actually am now quite a fan!! Much to our delight the sequel is now been advertised as coming out in mid July at the flicks and we have decided this is going to be Boy R's first outing to the cinema. The sad thing is i am actually looking forward to watching it and have downloaded the trailer from youtube as the Boy R makes me put it on about 10 times per day. Here it is below and i think you will agree it looks pretty cool for a kids film (maybe i have been brainwashed!!)

Cars2 Trailer.

Yesterday i put in a record amount of hands in one day, 10171 hands to exact and it took me about six hours. This is the amount of volume the online pros put in every day so i just wanted to see what it would be like to do it myself. I played from about 14.30hrs-19.00hrs and then the rest after 22.00hrs, it wasnt to bad to be honest and if nothing else i racked up loads of VPPs.

June the 30th seems to be gearing up to be a mass co-oridinated walkout/strike of loads of various public sector unions, my own included. Over the last few days unions returned their ballot results and they have voted massively in favour of strike action on June 30th. It affects loads of differant jobs/sectors but the proposed pension reforms have united everyone to take action.
I know the (right wing) argument is that there is not enough money in the pot and private sector pensions are not as good but regardless of that, as an individual (which is my argument) are you really gonna just sit there and accept getting F*cked up the Arse regardless of your political views.

There was a calculating spreadsheet going round work the other day and if you typed in your salary/years left etc it showed what you would be losing.
The figures for me are i would have to work 7 years longer, pay £75 more per month and would lose £65000 from my overall pension when i did retire at the now new age of 67 (which is again ridiculous for some jobs, i.e imagine a 67 year old prison officer/police officer/fireman...haha).

Like i say regardless of whether you work in the public sector or the private sector or whatever your political views you are not just gonna say "yeah thats ok because the country is in debt" or "yeah thats ok i am not bothered". I think its is fair to say anybody in the right mind would be bothered if those kind of changes were going to be imposed on them. And i think thats why the strength of feeling is so strong amongst people in various jobs that otherwise would have no links with each other.

And just to be clear i am not too interested in politics so am neither a lefty or a right winger just an average working person with a family to support, but one that is not going to just roll over and have my pants pulled down with out doing something, even if in the long-run nothing gets changed anyway. In my job its actually been made illegal to strike which puts an interesting slant on proceedings. However i have just noticed our union have said we are going to hold "protest meetings" on that day so maybe that is their way round it. No one wants to go on strike, certainly everyone i talk to and myself included but what is the answer??!!

EDIT: It was actually pointed out to me that last month our union (POA) balloted its union members and they voted in favour of NOT GOING on strike, so there you have it, i wont be going on strike after all. (i was on leave at the time of the ballot!!). However like i have said before it is not just the pensions in our job that are getting hit but staffing levels/safety levels/pay etc etc but hey ho..........

May progress

2011-06-01T00:07:00.000+01:00

So i finished May $101 in profit, though i was kind of disappointed as i was about $300 up at one point but i suppose profit is profit and the bankroll challange moves in the right direction (slowly).

I played about 60k hands but the profit came from bonus' in the end but who cares lol. Just going to keep working at it and be patient.

Alternate Pokerstars sound files

2011-05-20T23:17:00.002+01:00

(Ignore this post if you are not into Poker or play on Pokerstars)

I have been meaning to post this for about two years but it was only the other day when i was watching Pokerstars on another computer that i realized that i use differant sound files than the crappy Pokerstars originals.

When i first started playing online poker in about 2001/02 we (my mates Neil,Ste,Ian and myself) played on VC Poker on the tribeca poker network. The whole platform has changed (for the worse imho) but back then the graphics and sounds were cool. Looking back when we first started there were 650 people playing and after a few months i remember us been amazed when it hit over 1000.

I have found a picture of a table from how it looked, and at the time for some reason i went into the files and saved all the sound files (i.e check/fold/bet etc etc). I am really glad i did because years later Pokerstars (where i now play) brought in the feature where you can customize the sound files.

I have labelled my sound files to match the Pokerstars ones so it is really easy just to save them somewhere then go into the Pokerstars client (options/sound settings which brings the above menu box) and just replace them.

I know there are loads of graphic MODS about for Pokerstars but i have not heard of any sound ones.......and these are way better imo. Here are the download links if you want them:

https://rapidshare.com/files/1425844567/bet.mp3

https://rapidshare.com/files/1802488849/card_dealt.wav

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https://rapidshare.com/files/1389169807/Fold.wav

any donations from high stake regs would be much appreciated lol !!!!!!!!! Pokerstars username: Neil Ross

the original VC Poker

7 winning days on the bounce!!!

2011-05-15T23:27:00.002+01:00

Ok the money shown in the above picture isnt relevant but for the first time in ages i have been in profit (on the tables) for the last seven days running.

As regular readers will know i started fresh with a $100 bankroll just less than a month ago (post Black Friday 18/4/11) and with the winnings shown above and half the SCOOP bonus cleared plus some FPP bonus` and stella rewards earned and cashed my bankroll now stands at $330 which i am pretty pleased with.
I am using some pretty progressive bankroll rules whilst mass multi-tabling NL full ring (whilst staying disciplined!!) and together with some slight tweaks to my game it appears to be working so far.
I have probably jinxed it by posting this but what the hell, i am on a freeroll now from my original $100 so WTF!!! , .......onwards and upwards towards $10000!!

Its been a while!!!

Bankroll challange progress & Baby R

2011-05-10T23:41:00.001+01:00

(checking out what Baby R looks like ready for his first trip to the casino poker room!!)

Post Black Friday i withdrew the majority of my bankroll leaving only $100 in Pokerstars with the aim of multi-tabling it up into a decent wedge ( I've got $10000 in mind ?! lol).
I havent played too many hands but have been stuck around the $200 mark, under $200 i have been playing NL$5 and above NL$10, however this time i have been very discplined about moving up and down levels.

Its been a case of move-up, move-down, move up etc, tonight i made two buy-ins at NL$10 that has put my bankroll upto $220 so hopefully i can be lucky and get another couple of good sessions in that put me well and truely away from the moving down marker.

I asked Baby R to sort out my accounts and come up with some new bankroll rules!!

On Friday i went out in a place called Chorley for a leaving doo for someone at work. Myself and my mate Phil stayed in a Premier Inn as it was too far to travel home at the end of the night. However, although a good laugh, having been used to drinking in Liverpool we were left slightly disappointed with how quiet and small Chorley was, and we were back in the room pretty early eating kebabs. And again for me I toned down the drinking and had no hangover the next day, which makes it two nights out on the trot now!!!!

Work is looking more doom and gloom as the weeks go on. The threat of privatisation is looming in the shadows and staffing levels and safe working practices seem to be getting cut at an alarming rate. As well as the the treat of privatisation the rumour of compulsary redundancies lurks in the not too distant future and plans are already under-way to change our pensions which drastically f*ck us in the a**, basically making me about £50k-£100k worse off if i carry on working until aged 66 as they plan, rather than 60 under my current terms and conditions.

Running this bankroll upto a decent level in the time we have left until the worse case happens couldnt be more important and this time i dont intend to F*ck Up lol.

To the current government.........F*ck off you "Thatcherite Bastards"....................

I bet Baby R could make up better government policies, go on young Rossi sweep out the Tory tw*ts.

I wasnt intending politics to take over this poker post but I was just feeling f*cked off with how things are going, especially at work, where i have given 12 years loyal service ( edit: attended for 12 years!!).
And i am sure i will get a few comments from all the right-wing readers of this blog but what the hell!!!

Note to self, stop refering to Baby R as "BABY" R now that he is two years old. From now on he will be known as the BOY R.

A new challange!!!

2011-04-28T10:36:00.002+01:00

I mentioned in my last post how i had withdrawn most of my bankroll (£350 lol) back into my bank account for spends following Black Friday and some tilt issues.
That left me with about $106, and what to do next?

There have been some big leaks (both gaming and mental) in my game when multi-tabling so i wanted to have a go at addressing those whilst still giving myself the chance to move up if i am playing well. So with only $100 i have had to start a 20 buy-in rule playing NL$5.
For those used to Pokerstars, you will notice i am on the verge of a $50 stella reward and not too far from $25 in FPP value, so with a bit of play i should be able to move up.

My new style of play seems to be working and after just over 2k hands i had a graph going in the right direction. (up over 7 buy-ins)

With the Vpps earned i redeemed the $50 stella reward and $25 FPP bonus and now have a bankroll of $200 ready to try and repeat at NL$10 (will move back if i drop to 18 buy-ins).

Anyway there is no stress so i am just gonna keep going and see what i can spin it upto. I have the $200 SCOOP bonus to clear throughout May which should help.

Away from poker, the weather has been superb and i have been using it to try and get our garden looking good, so far i have nearly finished painting all the fences.....fooking boring or what.

On Sunday (easter) it was Baby Rs 2nd birthday and he really seems to be growing up. He has now mastered walking and his talking is getting better by the week, unfortunately also his mood swings as the "terrible twos" seem to be kicking in. He is absolutely mental about cars and this was his birthday cake. Coming from Liverpool i hope he doesnt progress his interest in cars towards the Scouse trade of "motor theft" LOL.

Games easier post BLACK FRIDAY?

2011-04-22T22:23:00.002+01:00

A week on from Black Friday (see last post), and the word on the grapevine is that the games have become softer since the Americans left. From what little i have played this could possibly be true as there have been a few more spewtards on my tables, though too small a sample to be accurate.

As with most "rest of the world" players i jumped on the bandwagon and withdrew most of my roll from Pokerstars last weekend. However this was only half motivated by the FBI's actions, rather more my shit mentality and discipline of late leading to mindset TILT. However now its seems its business as usual (apart from yanks) for Pokerstars and the player funds are safe.

On a good note (for my bank account) i am now £350 better off (in real terms) , which i am gonna save for spends on my Benidorm trip booked in July, and i have left myself $150 in Pokerstars to try and spin up whilst chilling out and takeing a breather to re-focus.

Here are some funny cartoons depicting life for American online pro poker players before and after Black Friday, taken from a 2+2 post. LMAO

There are loads more cartoons on the 2+2 post , lets hope the situation gets resolved eventually for the Yanks.

F*cking Yank government

2011-04-15T22:08:00.002+01:00

A bad day for poker all around the world. Today the FBI seized the domain names for Pokerstars,Full Tilt and UB. This was the message when you try and to go to the websites, and apparently if you are a United States player.

The sites are still up and running for the rest of the world to play but the you can immediately see the drop in player pool from about 280k players to about 205k players (at the time of writing this post).

I think this has been coming since the UIGEA first hit in 2006, and for the time being things for the Americans look very uncertain and it will certainly affect the rest of the world, the French and Italians already play in a seperate player pool, and other "KNOB" governments around the world will no doubt be watching with interest. GOD BLESS THE UNITED KINGDOM lol.

Basically the American Government dont like sites outside their country making money and them not being able to control it and tax it. Pokerstars makes like $1.5million per day and are based outside the USA, so i am sure they will get the domain name back shortly. However i feel very sorry for all the USA based poker players who for the time being wont be able to play, especially the online pros.

Lets see what happens, dont see Pokerstars going anywhere anytime soon though.....fook you USA government, obviously its ok to bomb and kill people all over the world for oil but not for your own people to play a card game in the privacy of their own homes with their own money LMAO!!!

Ladies Day

2011-04-09T17:33:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I went on our annual day out to Aintree racecourse for "Ladies Day" of the Grand National. The weather was superb, probably the niceset day of the year so far which was good.
There were probably over 50k people attending again and it really is a superb day and obvious why it is the number one occasion of the year in Liverpool.

I left the betting to my mate Sean again, but on the day we really ran bad and didnt get a sniff of anything, i think one each way bet came in which only paid our stake back for that race, and that was it for the afternoon. Some of the other lads where hitting 25-1 winners but oh well. I only bet £5 per race anyway to be social so only ended the day £40 down so it wasnt too bad.

Sean: no luck this year in picking a winner

Drinking wise i really toned it down yesterday (see some previous posts) and we still managed to hit Liverpool City Centre afterwards, however today i dont really have any kind of hangover whatsoever which makes a change from the 3-day comas i have put myself in after the last couple of all dayers!!!

We got home at about 1.30am and felt pretty much sober so decided to fire up a couple of tables for a short "sweat" session (someone watching you play/discussing play). It was quite interesting to be honest and its amazing how you can disect hands when you you talk them through. We also talked about my poker in general and I will mention on here how much appreciated and helpfull my mate Seans constant support is/has been over the last few years......cheers Lad.

Mrs R picked the winner of the Grand National again today, that makes it 3 out of 3 for the last three years, nice one, i think she will be picking our bets for next years ladies day.........Sean your fired mate LOL!!!

Goodbye March!!

2011-03-29T20:15:00.001+01:00

And that sums up March, i didnt stick to my rules and it went Pete Tong!!! I have had to leave the deposit i used to get the Pokerstars $150 bonus in my account (which is about what i was down overall for the month) which is pretty shite. Basically playing NL$25 $ NL$50 when i should have been observing my 100 buy-in rule and only playing NL$10.

So i will be going into April with just over a $1000 bankroll and sticking (this time, for f*$ks sake) to NL$10 and hopefully i can copy what i did between Sept2010-Jan2011 whilst playing NL$5 which was sticking to all my rules and post a profit each month and move up properly to the next level even if it takes six months of work.

The only decent thing is about March is that i hit Platinumstar status on Pokerstars which i have never done before (see last post).

In September i aimed to play each level for about six months and hopefully make 100 buy-ins so i could move up to the next level. I suppose i am only one month (seven months since September), behind with that plan now, which isnt too bad. However in reality i have wasted about two months pissing around (which is my major TILT issue) as i my bankroll hit the $1000 mark in January, so from now on i really do just need to be disciplined and patient. I WILL get there in the end LOL.

In April i have a week off on leave at the end of the month, and i have got the annual trip to Aintree to go to on the 8th for Ladies Day of the Grand National (the Friday is the best day imo), with my mate Sean from work and a few others. However i will curtail my drinking somewhat this time as i dont want to be out of the game for three days afterwards. This will probably come as good news to my mate Sean who last year (whilst trying to drink with me in a round) ended up completely paraletic at 10.30pm and we ended up coming home rather than hit a packed out Liverpool City centre. I am sure we will make ammends this year!!!

Pokerstars VIP levels, how much they are worth

2011-03-22T19:10:00.000Z

I just noticed on the Pokerstars website they have now done a breakdown of how much each VIP level is worth.
This post is mostly aimed at none poker players who read this blog and probably dont realise what i am talking about when i say "Silverstar" or "Goldstar" etc etc

In the picture below the right hand column shows how much you earn in bonus/FPP value if you acheive that status each month/year. In laymans terms if you play a certain amount of hands of poker and breakeven in profit at the tables you will earn.............($$$$ see below)

So when you hear me say there are players who breakeven at poker and still earn $130,000 per year, now you know how.

A good nights work.

2011-03-18T16:03:00.005Z

That was the result of last nights session from 11pm - 3am, +$100 profit. 4 buy-ins at NL$25 that i was playing.
Its funny when your back is against the wall and you are down for the month you seem to spend alot more time working on your game (well you should be anyway).

I have really been putting the effort in this week, watching a few videos, watching some higher stakes games, going through some hand histories of higher stakes players on PTR and generally thinking about how to play certain spots.

When i was 24 tabling over the last few months i hadnt been using a HUD.

For non-poker players a Heads Up Display uses stats from all the hands recorded in your poker data-base and displays them (in a user determined layout) on the poker table next to your opponents in real-time whilst your playing a game, so you can see how various players PLAY.

The reason i hadnt been using it is that my computer is now over 4 years old and with that many tables up (stacked) it makes my computer LAG which makes playing impossible.
However i have messed about and found it can handle 14 tables fine, so i created a basic hud layout and have been using that on 14 tables. Also playing less tables has allowed me to spend more time thinking moves through.
To be honest NOT using a HUD in this day and age is probably a bit daft especially as i am a bit of a stat geek and have spent countless hours over the last few years getting to know Pokertracker and Holdem Manager (poker databases) like the back of my hand.

Some of the hand histories i have been studying belong to 22 year old poker pro Frosty012, who is a sound guy from Canada who over the last year or so i have had loads of banter with over the internet, tbh mostly regarding his drinking/sh*gging exploits rather than poker. But on his blog the other day i asked him a poker related question (for once!) and he took the time to answer in depth which was pretty good of him. Here it is below and it has helped me this week with the work i have put in on my own game.

ROSSI said...: just reading back over yr blog mate, yr very first post you say you lost $4k over the summer of 2009 then made 2 changes to yr game and then you won ever since. What were those two changes mate??; March 15, 2011 8:38 AM
frosty012 said...: Yeah, I'll try and touch on this more when I get around to writing up the 3rd post about my poker story but basically I was doing 2 things wrong: 1) I was playing everything as a "system." I would only open XX from early position/late position and always fold specific hands to 3bets, play pocket pairs the same way etc. Just a terrible way to play obviously but I thought it would be profitable since I was playing so many tables-nope. 2) Made some key changes in my bet sizing: When I first started playing I would make it 4x from every position everytime...I changed it to making it 4x from every position except the cutoff/button/sb, in which case I would make it 3x. Today, the raises have gotten smaller on the whole and I tend to make it 3x until I get to the CO and that's when I start min-raising. People are raising smaller than they used to because everyone is figuring out that people are folding at a similar frequency anyways so you can steal for less, maintain pot control etc. My advice would be to play some fkn micro MTT's and try and get good at them. Seriously, like I said a couple of posts ago, I played the $8 2R1A for fun and won it in my sleep. The fields are so soft and the payoff is great...use your FPPs to play some satellites to the Sunday 250K then unregister for the T$ and play a bunch of micros that don't have huge fields (like 150-500 people is good). I don't think cash is the way to go until you get like a $2K bankroll and can take advantage of earning a decent amount of VPP's...but either way, you should be able to crush the mircos and build a roll pretty.; -; - Last week Frosty was intervied by Pokerlistings.com and they did five minute video interview whereby Frosty talks about his quick rise to "fame" in online poker and how much money he makes. If you are reading this post via facebook you can watch the video on youtube by clicking on this link Tyler "frosty012" Frost. . Pretty awesome and shows what can be achieved if you are discplined and work hard. He has actually now been signed up by Pokerstars as a "team online pro" which is further evidence of his skill and composure - - - - - - There is still a fortnight left of this month so i am hopefull with continued good play i will be able to rescue the month and finish off on top. I am working over the weekend, just been off a week but then am off for another week and a half. I will leave you with this hand from last night, i run sooo good. (facebook link) = - -

Poor discipline

2011-03-14T01:31:00.002Z

Yeah i have NO discpline. I stupidly decided to play NL$50 well under-rolled and it went pear-shaped! despite the good start (6-buy-ins up) i then proceded to drop to 11 buy-ins down before i pulled the plug.
So am currently in a hole and need some work to get back to even stevens for the month, by grinding a load of bonus' and hoping for some winnings at the tables. Should be able to acheive it as i have already earned $300 in bonus' and FPP value so far this month.

The only positive is that i will probably acheive Platinum Star status, but that is shite with what i have wiped off my bankroll. However i have a load of time off work this month so I have plently of time to try and grind it back to level for March.

Plenty of work to do.............................

Feb stats/the Lake District/Carlise Utd/sickness

2011-03-01T01:09:00.001Z

Long post ahead due to my being on a week of nights/holiday.

FEBRUARY STATS

Firstly its the end of the month so i will begin by going through my stats for February. The big question for the month is: "Is LESS actually MORE?" . Well i started off 24 -tabling NL$10 and went 18 buy-ins down ($180) which is shocking and there was definitely something wrong. To be honest i have thought this for the last couple of months.
So i decided to cut my tables down to 12 and try and spend more time making decisions on hands and have time to think about them and apply various situation based strategies rather than just play on auto-pilot for a given hand (which is was a big leak).
Another leak i identified, by watching some higher stakes games is that i was not controlling the pots enough and ploughing too much cash into losing situations.

As the new structure on Pokerstars has appeared to make the games "easier" (see this link), i decided to play NL$25 which when 12 -tabling i have found easier than 24 -tabling NL$5 and NL$10. On my graph below i have highlighted how many tables i was playing which makes it very easy to see what i am saying.

The stats:

+$11.11    Table winnings, 40k hands
+$10          Stella reward (2250 vpp milestone)
+$10          Stella reward (3000 vpp milestone)
+$10          Stella reward (4000 vpp milestone)
+$50          Stella reward (5000 vpp milestone)
+$58    FPP value (3000vpp x 1.5fpp x 0.012c + 165vpp x 2fpp x 0.012c =$58)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
$149.11    TOTAL PROFIT   (+£92)

Not too bad seeing as i was down for most of the months play and didn't play for nearly half of the month. However i am looking forward to the grind in March playing exclusively 12 tables at NL$25.......hopefully a profitable month to look forward to.

THE LAKE DISTRICT

When i finished my week of nights last Monday i had a quick sleep at home and drove to the Lake District to meet Mrs R and Baby R and the in-laws who had been there since the Saturday in a two bedroom apartment on the shore of Derwent Water near Keswick.
It was good to get away and we had use of a pool/jacuzzi and sauna at a nearby posh hotel, which seemed to be empty/ish every time we booked to use it which was great.

The mother in-law had acquired a back pack which had a seat for baby R to sit in, as i am the one who does all the fitness/weights i was the one assigned to carry it. I didn't mind as Baby R loved it, and we had a couple of good walks whilst we were there.

On the Tuesday night myself and the father in-law (aka anti-social) drove an hour up to Carlise to watch Carlise United vs Exeter City. Its the first time in about ten years that i have been to a football match and i really enjoyed it. Anti-social supports Carlise Utd, even though he is a scouser, its a long story involving being a football hooligan in the eighties!!!! To get myself up for supporting Carlise on the night i put a £12 bet on Carlise to win at 6/5 but they ended up drawing 2-2 despite having a redic amount of chances to score in the second half.

When we were in Keswick we got to ride on an open top bus through the hilly lake district country-side. It however turned into a death-trap type roller coaster ride as the bus driver must have been a homicidal maniac and drove as fast as fook down country roads leaving us to dodge branches of trees that were over hanging from the roadside. How one of us didnt go over the side, or the bus crash i will never know?!!

Also whilst out walking anti-social again lived up to his name and was caught in the woodland in a somewhat dodgy position.......just looking for badgers apparently!!! (well that excuse works for Conservative MPs lol)

At the beginning of the week Baby R picked up a stomach buy which left him with sickness and diarrhoea for two days. Unfortunately at the end of the week i also caught it (FML!) and on the Friday morning we came home (a day earlier than planned). I was in the toilet in the apartment about four times before we left and was sick in the back of Mrs R's car whilst going down the M6. Good news for her was that i managed to be sick in an empty plastic bag, bad news for her was that it had a hole in the bottom!!!!........urghhh!!!

Oh well back to work on Thursday (going through the motions Lol), also back to grinding on the tables, i feel like March is gonna be good!!! (I am also now 34 years old.........doh!!)

Changes....

2011-02-14T12:54:00.001Z

No I haven't broken my diet and started hitting McDonald's again! But i am Lovin the new cash game structure on Pokerstars. Currently most of the short stacking tables have vanished and a server restart this week will hopefully banish them forever. On a number of poker players blogs the opinion seems to be the same, so far things are looking good again and the games feel different, back to the good old days of 2007 as someone quoted. So hopefully win-rates (well mine) can increase, as more fish are guided to the tables we play on.

As stated in the last post i was struggling at the start of this month, however taking the advice of Frosty012 who left a comment on my last post i did a bit of studying and spent some time watching some of the regs on the $1/$2 games. I immediately noticed some huge leaks in my game and have hopefully made some changes to address them and things have improved straight away, so hopefully that can carry on.

I start night shifts at work tonight for the next seven nights and then I am going to the lake district for a week with the in-laws so i wont get that much more volume in for the month. Maybe i will get a couple of hours in each afternoon once i get out of bed and then on the last weekend of the month i will perhaps get a few sessions in.

If i can get another 1500 VPPs this month i will earn $80 in Stella rewards and about $60 in FPP value. If i can get my table winnings to even or better than the month will be a result and i will go into next month as goldstar status again ready for a hard grind in march/april.

On Friday night i was out in Preston with some lads who i grew up with (Tay,Browny,Neil and Ste), it was a great night although i drank like someone out of control (again!!) even buying myself side drinks outside the main round......crazy.
However it has taken me three days to recover (the same thing happened at Christmas), where i seem to have had more of a hangover than usual i.e pains in my kidneys/liver and completely dehydrated for three days!! , in fact completely fooked for three days, i couldnt even eat for 48-hours!. In my 16 years of drinking i have never had the hangover of the last two/three times i have gone out!!! WTF?!!

I love going out but dont even feel pissed when i am out despite drinking an amount that would probably put an elephant down. For my own health i have decided to make some life changes and from now on i think i am only going to drink the odd bottle of lager/pints of shandy and NO spirits. I might get some flak (although to be honest i only go out once every couple of months anyway) but fook it, there is no way i ever want to feel like this again and being out of the game (life) for three days is ridiculous (and doesn't impress Mrs R!!). I never drink at home anyway so i wont be missing to much.

Mrs R`s biological father drank himself to death a couple of years ago (aged 50) and my good mate and father in-law "anti-social" has liver problems because of drinking and i have seen how bad he gets when we have hit it hard in the past, so i am gonna take this as a warning and just drink the odd beverage.....and hopefully no more pains or hangovers. :)

I am 34 next Sunday........is this the shit that happens when you get older??? WTF?!!!

Struggling at the new level

2011-02-07T00:57:00.001Z

Since moving upto NL$10 at the start of February i have really been struggling. Although 10 buy-ins down aint too much in the long run if i lose another 5 buy-ins i will have to move back down to NL$5 again :(

I feel like i have been playing ok, just getting screwed every which way, but i think the thought of having to move back down is having a negative outcome on my mindset and putting me on tilt.

Gonna just have to grind, and if i have to move down so be it......................

I have got a week off from work now, then 7 night shifts at work and then a week away in the Lake District, so this week will pretty much dictate how the next couple of months are going to pan out. Maybe the new structure on Pokerstars that kicks in on the 10th might help, I will have to wait and see.

F*cking poker FML!!!

JANUARY - review

2011-01-31T23:55:00.000Z

I think January is a crap month for everyone, and I include myself in that for this one. I just couldnt get into at all.
There was rumour on the grapevine that Pokerstars were going to make some important changes to their cash game structures and this was announced late in the Month, with the full changes been implemented on the 10th Feb.
In a nutshell (for readers not really into poker) they have made it that people cant buy-in really short on the cash tables (a hinderance to us full stackers) , and they have also simplified the games menu in the lobby so that players all play in the same type of games rather than a whole load of differant structured games at the same level, i.e all the recreational players will be hopefully directed to the tables that the majority of us grinders will be at (.....waiting!!).

Also the fact that i was probably going to move up a level on the 1st of Feb didnt help my mindset or that after about 10 days into the month i knew i wasnt going to hit Goldstar so i kinda gave up on the grind........bad mindset and attitude i know!!!

The bottom line:

-$67.97   Table winnings from 39k hands
+$41    FPP value (1790vpps x 2fpps = 3580fpps x 0.012c = $41)
+$10    Stella Reward (750vpp milestone bonus)
+$10        Stella Reward (1500vpp milestone bonus)
+$30    Blog advertising (Sunshine poker rooms)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+$27.03 TOTAL PROFIT (+£17)

In a word "GAY" !!!!   (especially the big downswing right at the end)

Five months ago i started with a $500 bankroll (using a 100 buy-in'ish rule) at NL$0.02/$0.05. After five months of solid grind (well 4 and this month lol) my bankroll is at $950 which i am happy with. Under my rules i can now take a shot at NL$10 at the start of February.

In my mind at the start i had a 2.5 year plan where i hoped to rougly move up a level every six months (doubling my bankroll each time) and by the end of it i would be rolled for NL$200 ($20k). Hopefully a fifth of that work is done..............................................still a long way to go.

I made some fook ups at NL$5 both in play terms and mindset terms that i can hopefully avoid during my time at NL$10 plus the hopefully better structure of games that are now getting implemented might also help. Anyway I am just gonna grind on and try and be patient and hopefully I will not get off to a bad start and have to move down levels straight away.

In February i am on leave for a week from work which i will take advantage off. However a week of night shifts and a weeks holiday to the Lake District will hinder my volume levels during the second half of the month.

Also this month i turn 34...........(awld get!!)

The way forward (in pictures)

2011-01-19T23:40:00.000Z

I'm too tired to write a long blog post about my journey forward in poker and what i perceive to be the way forward. So i have detailed my vision in pictures.

Stick to all my rules, (a screen on my desktop with the wallpaper consisting of post it notes of all my rules)

Stick to all of the above rules and play like a robot.

Actually that ain't the kind of robot i want to play like!!!, try again:

I am well bank rolled (100 buy-ins) and probably have a bigger bankroll than at least 80% of those playing at my level, so no more NIT, gonna give these muthers a battle at the tables.

And be down right ruthless and take no prisoners:

Mixed with a lot of:

AND

Should hopefully lead to

Or maybe i am just talking:

Goodnight all, 12 hour shift tomorrow and i am:

Mid month

2011-01-15T23:58:00.002Z

Pokerstars.Fr is a bit of a fail as there are not enough tables to get 24 up, and i dont want to play 6-max again really. So i will fook off trying to get the deposit bonus and stick with the main site. There is no point in breaking my rules or playing a different way than i have been just to get a bonus especially as it will take me a lot longer and probably put me on tilt.

Really need to stay motivated at NL$5 and just grind out the hands until the end of the month when i can take a shot NL$10.

A big shout out to my mate Browny, who has had an extended stay in hospital. Hope you get sorted soon mate and i will come down for a few ales with you and Tay when your upto it again.

Needing a kick up the a**e

2011-01-09T13:41:00.000Z

I've not had the motivation poker wise so far this month, I just cant get into it for some reason. I have only played 15k hands and am 3.5 buy-ins down. I don't think i will achieve Goldstar this month, but i had planned to move over to Pokerstars.Fr in February and spend a couple of months clearing all the deposit bonus on there worth about $1180 (previous post). With that in mind it is really irrelevant what VIP status i achieve this month as i wont benefit from it next month, maybe that is stopping me grinding a lot.

However if don't pull my finger out i wont get my bankroll to the level i can play NL$10 which is where i wanted to be before playing on Pokerstars.Fr. So i need to get my head down for the rest of the month and start grinding hands.

However when it comes the the gym and my new diet i have been motivated to fook which is good. Since new year i have switched from my all the crap you can eat diet to a bodybuilding bulk up diet with loads of small meals (protein, carbs, supplements etc) per day and all the crap has gone........i.e fast food, chocolate, fizzy drinks (even my red bull addiction has gone!!).

In the gym i have been uber motivated and even after a week i feel great, more energy, pumped up and raring to go. I am pretty lucky that i have the body metabolism that quickly responds to all this so hopefully the difference in a few months will be noticeable.

Even when i am in my eating crap mode (of the last couple of months) i have still been hitting the gym, so its not like i was doing nothing.

Gonna go and try and transfer my enthusiasm onto the poker tables.

December stats

2011-01-02T16:30:00.000Z

Happy new year to all the readers of my blog.

A bad run in the last couple of days of December meant my bankroll wasnt big enough to move up a level to NL$10, so I am gonna have to stick it out at NL$5 for another month longer.
To be honest it is probably for the best in the long run as this way i should be (with some decent January stats) be well rolled for NL$10 come the 1st of February and then never (fingers crossed) have to play NL$5 again.

Anyway my stats for December.

the graph (full ring)

The bottom line:

+$6.22 table winnings
+$72.09 FPP value (3001 VPPs * 2FPPs/VPP * 1.2c/FPP)
+$30 Blog advertising, paid direct to my Pokerstars account (Bidibot)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+$108.31 total profit. (+£70)

This leaves my bankroll at $910 going into January so hopefull i can have a good month at NL$5 and never look back!!

I am not setting myself any new year goals apart from sticking to all the rules from my last post and working hard......................

Solid Foundations

2010-12-28T12:43:00.002Z

In September when i was at a crossroads in poker, either give up or pull my finger out i went back to a $500 bankroll with a 100 buy-in rule in mind, 24-tabling full ring NLHE on Pokerstars. The intention was to practise mass multi-tabling, sort my head out, and move forward with a "professional" approach.

On my desktop i have got virtual post-it notes with a list of rules on them that i have amended throughout the last four months (sometimes after making the odd mistake) and once on the post-it note i have been sticking to them rigidly and i feel they are gonna give me solid foundations as i progress (in the correct direction this time).

I have listed them below (with my explanation as to why they are on there), and maybe some of them will help other grinders with their game.

RULES

Don't Play after a 11 hour shift from work. (luckily i only work 29hrs per week)

When i have done a 11 hour shift in work which also excludes an hour and a half travel plus a session in the gym at dinner time, i am usually knackered when i get home and although the temptation to play is there, past results have shown it to be a negative move as i cannot properly concentrate.

Don't look at the overall cash result (winning/losings) until the end of a session.

This took me a while to do as in the past I was too results orientated (usually due to poor bankroll management) . When looking at results throughout a session it can affect your game and decision making, usually in a negative manner.

Only play a maximum of 12 fast tables out of the 24 tables.

This has been added through trial and error over the last 4 months and anymore than 12 fast tables becomes too much for me to properly concentrate.

Play no more than 24 tables.

Although the maximum amount of cash tables allowed on Pokerstars is 24, there seems to have been a glitch recently whereby you can sometimes play more. Although tempting especially when trying to hit a VPP target, i have decided to stick to a maximum of 24 so my game doesn't suffer.

Don't play between the hours of 8.00 - 13.00 hrs Mon-Fri (UK time).

I have found the player pool on Pokerstars to be at its lowest during this period, obviously there are less fish and the games are tighter so i feel it is minus EV to play between these times. Also i want to use the time in a morning doing jobs/training and being with Baby R and Mrs R so it is also a lifestyle rule.

Turn off all chat options on the table.

It is very easy to become distracted or tilted whilst reading some of the table chat going on, so this is a very simple rule to stop that from happening.

Only play Full ring NLHE cash games.

Easy to try and change when on tilt or on a bad run, this is a big area that i have failed on in the past......not any more!!

Always buy-in with 100 Big Blinds ( and have auto-top up activated)

So i always start a hand with a minimum of a 100 Big Blind stack. I have tried shortstacking in the past (epic fail!).

Bankroll Management, based on a 100 buy-in rule.

I have fooked up in the past with Bankroll management, but i play best when i don't have to worry about the monetary value of the sessions i play. 100 buy-ins at Full ring is very conservative, but when you don't want any risk then i feel it is the way forward.

Only move up a level (of game buy-in) at the start of a new month.

I feel moving up as soon as you hit a target for me is negative and has no structure, the more buy-ins you have (by playing until the end of the month) when you move up makes it less of a chance of having to move back down again (see below rules)

Rules for moving up/down a level: If your bankroll drops to 90 buy-ins move back down a level. If at the end of the month your bankroll is between 95-100 buy-ins move up and take a shot at the next level at the start of the new month.

Obviously if you move up with 95 buy-ins you have less of a cushion (90 buy-ins) before you have to move down. In the past i have tilted when i have hit say 100 buy-ins on the 20th of the month (knowing i cant drop below that 100 buy-ins for the rest of the month or i cant move up) and it has made me play differently/tilted for the remainder of the month. By being able to move up at 95-100 buy-ins cuts this out and leaves me able to play my A game until the end of the month without having to worry as much. Plus the extra FPP value/bonus gained would make it worthwhile. If you drop to 90 buy-ins you must immediately drop down and are not eligible to move up again until the start of the next month.

(On another post-it note:)

PSYCHOLOGICAL RULES

All you need is one buy-in profit per hour

I usually play about 1500 hands per hour, so this is a 3.3ptbb (or 3.3 BigBet per 100) winrate, which is pretty good. I try keep this in mind and it cuts out me doing stupid things and spewing money.

Check, Fold, Check, Fold, Check,Fold

ok to use these buttons and not spew off cash when you don't need to (see above rule)

Don't set targets you cant control.

You cant control how much winnings you make so don't make targets that will tilt you when you don't achieve them.

Targets such as hours played, VPPs earned can be controlled and are a far better target to set yourself.

Forget about my own Stats.

I have spent years pissing around on Holdem Manger/Pokertracker with stats and took far too much notice of how someone says you should play or what your stats should be. I have wasted loads by trying to play how a forum/training site/book says you should..........so f*ck it. I have my own ideas about poker and am gonna stick to them from now on. (LOL!!)

A big pot needs a big hand.

As Dan Harrington says in his cash game books, a big pot needs a big hand. He says a big hand is set or better. Its very easy to spew money by not paying attention to how big a pot is getting or has the possibility to get. POT CONTROL!

Last night i had another good session and was up 5 buy-ins profit which has put the bankroll up to $920. I am gonna put in some grind this afternoon and tonight to make sure i hit Goldstar status again for next month. Hopefully i can continue to run good for the last few days of the month.

Bar Humbug

2010-12-25T00:26:00.000Z

Merry Christmas to all the regular readers of this blog, thanks for clicking in week in and week out during the year.

Today all the fish seem to be in a giving mood and after only about 2hrs of play i was 5 buy-ins ($25) in profit.
On the last but one post i mentioned playing six-max, but have now decided after a few days of trying it out, not to bother. Playing 24 tables of six-max is too much/fast and when i "started again" in September it was meant to be a "Full Ring" adventure hoping to maybe emulate some of the success of Frosty012. So i will be sticking to that ( I've purged any six-max hands from my full ring bankroll challange).

I am feeling pretty good about my full ring game at the moment to be honest and have not had a losing session over the last few days:) (probably speaking too soon!!).

I went out for a meal with Mrs R and baby R this afternoon which was nice and we have got a special chrimbo day breakfast planned for in the morning before going over to the in-laws for the rest of the day. I usually go for a drink on Christmas Day with the father-in law (aka anti-social) but when i texted him the other day he said in typical fashion that he couldnt be arsed lol!!....Bar Humbug.

I am in work on Boxing day and the bank holiday Monday but I will still be grinding (at poker!) at night time.

Anyway have a good one.

Snow Snow Snow

2010-12-19T13:46:00.000Z

Well on Friday the snow hit Liverpool and with typical luck just as i was supposed to drop Mrs R in town for her Christmas doo. In hindsight we shouldnt have even set off but as it had only been snowing for about half an hour we never gave it too much thought.
It took us an hour to get to where she was going as the snow was coming down thick and fast, but it was my journey home again which was the nightmare. It took me two hours and the "grace of god!!" to get back home.

The roads in Liverpool city centre were gridlocked as the snow came down, taking no prisoners. Traffic lights were completely ignored as it turned into every man for himself. To get back out of Liverpool (in the direction of where i live) it is a mile or so of main roads all going up hill, and this was just a disaster.

The going up hill was just terrible as cars where sliding all over the place and breaking down and it really was a case of just going for it and hoping for the best. To make matters worse i had Baby R in the car with me, dressed in pjarmas and a coat and on a couple of occasions i thought we were either gonna have to abandon the car (as some people where doing) or that the car was actually gonna give up on me. We were reving like fook (prob about 5000 revs) in 2nd gear just to try and get the car moving (uphill on snow/ice) and the smell of burning stank the car out so much that i had to open the window!!.

At one point there was a narrow gap to get through as cars had broken down and this gap was quickly closing as a car was sliding back down the hill towards us. It was foot on the accelarator, wheels skidding, car schreeching like fook, the smell of something burning, me praying and Baby R making car engine noises because he loves cars and thought it was great........ one time, one time............ Thankfully we got through it and left bigger cars than ours (i was in Mrs R's 1.2 hyundi i20) broken down and skiding backwards.
Nearer home we even got pelted with snowballs (makes a change from bricks!!) by a gang of hoodies, but by that point we didnt care.

Baby R (20 months old!) loves cars, his first word was "car" and all his toys are cars and every time he passes or sees a car he goes wild. Now most toddlers his age love watching Cbeebies etc etc but Baby R's favourite video is this 3 minute clip on youtube and every meal time he insists it is put on about five times over and absolutely loves it!!

Here is Mrs R's trusty car that didnt let us down, and to Baby R it is every bit the same as the cars in the above video!!

Here was my attempt to get off the drive in my car. I didnt get very far and at this point the car was stuck and needed the neighbours to push it !!

Baby R's outside toys are out of action but who needs them when he is now a "rally" star.

Mid-month review / zombie grinder / a french plan!

2010-12-15T17:57:00.004Z

I'm not sure where to begin (long post alert!!).

I had a slow start to the month because of a night out/recovery time and a few long shifts at work, but i have managed to pick up the pace a bit and also had a change of direction (dont worry I've not broken any rules!!)

The month so far: (as identified in the above graph)

1. grinding NL full ring and not getting anywhere really, actually getting boring lol

2. I had a nightmare session where i lost about six buy-ins over only about 1500 hands, this included 4 times AIPF with KK when i came up against AA. After not getting anywhere playing full ring last month and then the same thing happening going into this month i decided i was sick of loads of full ring,nut peddling nits so i had a brainwave (lol). I decided to have a go at playing six max (24 tables).
Now this experiment has gone well so far, and i am amazed at how much easy money there is to be made at six-max as opposed to full ring. Now i am only talking about NL$5 for now but the difference is almost unbelievable. People are trying to bluff with AIR alot of the time and getting AIPF with a wide range (as opposed to AA all the fricken time!) and also chasing draws left, right and centre.
Obviously playing 24 tables of six-max is harder than full ring due to there been more hands per hour on the table (approx 100 as opposed to 60). However all the practice i have had so far playing 24 tables of full ring with fast tables thrown in has left me in good stead, and i am manageing it without any problems (no fast tables included yet at six max).

3. The pink 'x' marks when i started playing six max and so far (although as yet a small sample) it has gone well. It also means i am earning far more VPPs per hour than i was at full ring which also means more bonus's :)
It equates to well over 2000 hands per hour ( zombie grinder i think is a term used!!)

I should easily acheive Goldstar again this month, but i have also set myself another target which i think i have a 50/50 chance of acheiving. I have currently earned 1300k VPPs of the next 5000 VPP stella reward which would give me a $50 bonus. All VPP counters on Pokerstars go back to zero on January 1st so if i didnt acheive it before the end of play December 31st i wouldnt earn any bonus.
If i can do this and manage to run good there is an outside chance my bankroll could hit $1000 and i could move upto NL$10 on January 1st which would be awesome, but i am not counting my chickens just yet.

Due to legal restrictions in France, and the government there being greedy (more tax) they ammended their gambling rules so that French players can only play on French pokersites. Pokerstars responded to this by opening up a French verison of its pokersite, www.Pokerstars.Fr which is a stand alone site/player pool that the French can play on.

However yesterday whilst reading BurnleyMiks blog/RTR forum i found out that players based outside of France can open an account on the site providing they are in the EU and have a validated bank account.
The French site doesnt have as many players/games as the main Pokerstars site but still gets over 100k players at peak times. Your pokerstars.fr account is seperate than your normal pokerstars account and any VPPs earned would be just for the .FR site.

So yesterday i opened an account on the pokerstars.Fr site and am in the middle of validating my bank account with them.
What is attracting me is the €500 first deposit bonus. I have decided when i move upto NL$10 i am going to try earn this to help with my bankroll building. NL$10 is going to be a particularlly hard level to move up through as to get to NL$25 (100 buy-in rule) i would need to increase my bankroll from $1000 to $2500 which is 150 buy-ins at NL$10, as opposed to having to earn 100 buy-ins to move up through most other levels.

I have been calculating how much earning that €500 bonus would be worth, here are my workings out. (actually carry on and earn 12500 VPPs to get the goldstar 25k FPP bonus)

+€500 first deposit bonus (10k VPP needed to clear it)
+€120 stella rewards (first six upto 10k VPP milestone)
+€240 FPP value (goldstar bonus for 25k FPPs)
                                (you need to earn 2160 VPPs to clear this bonus earning you another
4320 FPPs at goldstar level)

+€50 torny ticket (purchased using the above 4k FPPs)

€860 ($1145) gaurenteed in bonus's. plus a €50 torny ticket.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think playing NL$10 i would get all this in about two months (you have six months to earn the first deposit bonus anyway). I probably also would still be able to acheive goldstar on the main site.
On the main site in those two months i would earn $100 in stella rewards. Plus on both sites they may well also do a new year deposit bonus. So in two months i could potentially earn over $1500 in bonus' playing NL$10 and be able to move up again, even if it took 3 months it would be a result.

I left a comment on the RTR forum discussion about the .FR site forum discussion

On with the "Zombie grind" (grinding thousands of hands like some kind of zombie lol)

Hangover = Behind VPP pace!!!

2010-12-07T20:09:00.000Z

On Friday i went out on an all-dayer into Liverpool for our work chrimbo doo, and have been suffering ever since!!

The amount of ale supped was ridic, we started on pints of bitter, then bottles of lager and then about 6.00pm (it seemed later!!) we hit the redbull and vodkas. I was in a round with my brother who these days cant drink as much as me, and every time it was my round i bought him a single vodka instead of the double that i was having (he thought he was on the same as me). It helped him last the duration and he was gratefull, but it did me no favours at all!!

Saturday and Sunday were a complete write off, and by Monday i was still a bit ropey, and now i have started to come down with a sore throat/cold....doh. So hardly any poker has been played and the next two days i am on 12-hour shifts at work so I wont be playing after those which will put me about 5 days behind VPP pace to hit goldstar status again. On a positive note though i am off work for a fortnight after Saturday (apart from one shift before chrimbo) so I should be able to hit the tables hard and make up any lost time.

I have currently only played 13k hands so far this month and am 2-buy-ins in profit, plus i also got $30 paid directly into my Pokerstars acccount for some blog advertising so things are looking ok.

Off to find some sore throat sweets and sympathy (lol none here!!!)

November review

2010-12-01T00:11:00.001Z

I have just finished a session at 11.30pm tonight and finally acheived Goldstar status for next month. I have a 12 hour shift at work in the morning and would have preferred not to have had to play as late, but i do leave things to the last minute.
92000 hands played for November which is a record for me, but it has been good practice setting myself a VPP pace to aim for.

Anyway I am too tired to write much, so here are the stats.

Overall stats for November:

The graph:

The bottom line:

-$61 table winnings (91898 hands)
+$50 Stella reward (25kVPP milestone)
+$50 Stella reward (30kVPP milestone)
+$49.53 FPP value (3002 VPPs *1.5FPPs/VPP * 1.1c/FPP)
+$16 blog prop bet.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
+$104.53 total profit (+£67)

I was a bit gutted about been 12 buy-ins down on the tables but couldnt string two winning sessions together for the second half of the month. I was about 2 buy-ins under EV overall, but about 6 buy-ins under EV at the euro tables. When cashing in my stella reward (30k VPPs) i noticed (how i missed it last month i dont know!!) that i hadnt cashed the 25k VPP milestone bonus so having them both this month helped with overall results.
Hopefully i can acheive Goldstar again in December, i start the month on Friday with an all-day session in Liverpool on the christmas doo from work which will no doubt be a messy affair lol. When i finally recover the grind will start.

Nearly at goldstar

2010-11-23T11:48:00.000Z

This month i have already put in a record amount of hands (for me), 73,000 in total so far and I am pretty sure i will acheive Goldstar on Pokerstars this month as i am currently still about 2 and a half days ahead of VPP schedule. All this volume means i will clear a $50 stella reward in the next couple of days which will increase my bankroll. It will also mean i will clear about $50 in FPP value too by the end of the month :)

Like i mentioned in my last post i have been messing around with playing styles this month, and i think i have finally found the style that will beat NL5&NL10 (thats all i am concentrating on at the moment). I dropped to about 10 buy-ins down this month at one point, but since i have implemented this new style into my game over the last couple of days i have pulled back 4-buy-ins. Hopefully i can go on a bit of a heater between now and the end of the month and finish in profit.

Looking back to when i played on Full Tilt i found i had saved screenshots of these poker players names that i found amusing:

Fooking cheeky bastard, we all know there is only ONE Rossi!!! God knows who this barvarian imposter is?!

Fair enough i suppose, gaint pandas are well known for taking a while when they "get down to it", now we know why they are so worn out!!

Nice!!

Here is a TV advertisment for Pokerstars that made me laugh ( I noticed it on another blog this week) so I thought i would put it on here in case you havent seen it. Apparently it has been banned!!!
If you are reading via facebook, click over to my blog or click this link direct to youtube

November - mid month review

2010-11-16T12:05:00.001Z

This is the second royal flush (with two of the cards in my hand) that i have had in the last three days, this time taking full spoils from the table. However i dont seem to be getting anywhere so far this month, despite putting in a fair amount of volume (my record amount after halfway through a month). It feels like i have constantly been screwed though overall EV is about evens. Looking at my stats i have been well and truely shafted at the euro tables and about 8 buy-ins down on those (EV should only be be 4).

Overall graph Nov 1st-15th

Overall i am only 4 buy-ins down after some swings of about 5/6 buy-ins up and down, so no major concerns there. Like i said in my last post i am trying to acheive goldstar status on pokerstars this month and am currently about 2 days ahead of pace for that. I have got two 12 hour shifts in work this week and have a rule about not playing on those days because i am usually tired so its probably -EV, so that will put me back equal on VPP pace. I am fairly confident of hitting goldstar, which i feel is pretty good when only playing NL5.

I hope some of the full ring grinders that read this blog can advice me what sort of stats they acheive when 24-tabling. I have mostly been playing a really nitty 10/8/1.8 and I've also done a bit of experimenting at 12/10/2 (which feels a lot more aggressive!! lol). My WTSD stat has been a bit to high i think at around 29% which means i am not folding enough and paying people off. Some sessions i get it to around 24% which feels more solid. Also what CC (cold call) stats are people getting. I remember watching a Brian Townsend vid on Cardrunners a few years ago and he said anymore than 2 was bad, but mine is about 4.
Any input will be much appreciated.

The grind goes on.........(in comfort!)

2010-11-11T19:07:00.000Z

On Monday myself and Mrs R (and baby R) went to IKEA in Warrington for a look round and to see if there was anything we needed. IKEA for anybody who doesnt know is set in a huge warehouse type building with a pre-determined shopping route for you to take with your trolley. Along the way in the office furniture department i spotted a few comfy looking computer desk chairs and tried a few out. The chair i had currently was a ten year old 2nd hand thread-bare thing that does nothing to support my back/posture during the long hours sat playing poker. It had been on my mind for some time (and after a few other online-grinders had mentioned comfort in their blogs) to get myself another chair. My new £115 chair (above) is superb and really comfortable and allows me to sit with much better support for all the hours i spend per week on the computer playing poker.

When we got to the end of the shopping route there is a restaurant and as it was about dinner time and i was starving (no man vs food urges!!!) we decided to get something to eat. There was an area next to the restaurant where you could leave your trolley (with yr shopping in , pre-payment) whilst you had your meal. I placed our trolley at the end of a group of trolleys and joked to Mrs R how annoying it would be if you came out and your trolley had gone!!!!........fast forward 40 minutes and a meal and myself and Mrs R came back to retrive our trolley only to find the f*cker has completely vanished. The only thing to do was to do all our shopping again at a fast pace ( you have to follow a pre-determined route) trying to remember what we had purchased the first time round...FML!!!

On Wednesday we went to Martin Mere which is a national trust area for birds/ducks etc on a natural wetland near Southport. It was £20 to get in which was a waste really as baby R wasnt in the slightest bit interested, and it was freezing. Next time he will be going to the local park and like it. As you can see on the photo below there was a differance in emotions between myself and baby R!

Today we have been to the Trafford Centre to do my christmas shopping early. I cant really be arsed shopping let alone Christmas shopping (especially not in November), but its all done and i can leave it all to Mrs R to wrap etc.

Onto the poker, like the title of this post says the grind goes on. I have set myself a target this month of acheiving Goldstar status on Pokerstars which is quite a hefty amount of play when your only playing NL$5. It basically equates to about 60 hours of play (playing 24 tables at once) during the month but i should clear about $50 in FPP value and also get a $50 stella reward bonus. Acheiving goldstar status which lasts to the end of the following month will mean in December i will earn 25% more FPPs than my current silverstar level for playing the same amount of hands. As of last night i was on pace to acheive this (having earnt 1000 VPP's out of the 3000 required), after playing 32k hands so far this month. As for actual winnings i am currently only 2-buy-ins ($10) in profit as i have swung between +$25 & -$30 over the 32k hands this month. I even had this hand which i think is only the second time in my life that i have ever had it, didnt really win that much though:

Tonight i will be getting on with the grind and trying to make sure i dont fall behind VPP pace, which is good practice for setting bigger VPP goals in the future ( i.e SN...even SNE!). When i get a break from poker i will be logging onto the new poker bonus bidding site www.bidibot.com and trying to bag myself some cheap bonus'

Also good luck to a lad from work, Dan Curran is playing in the £1050 buy-in main event (after winning a £50 satellite online on bluesquare) of the GUKPT at Blackpools G-casino tonight and hopefully will make it into the money stages this weekend.

ROSSI vs FOOD!!!

2010-11-07T10:49:00.002Z

If your reading this post on Facebook, it would be easier to read it directly from my blog so you can watch the short video clips that document this post!!!

Myself and Mrs R have been watching the hilarious food documentary "Man vs Food" which has the host, Adam Richman going to various towns/cities in America exploring the "big food" culture/choice available before facing off against a pre-existing eating challenge at a local restaurant.

Now i am quite well known amongst friends for being slow at eating, and after watching an episode one night recently Mrs R inadvertently laid down the gauntlet by saying "Rossi, you would be crap at doing a challenge like that".........and it all began lol.
She bet me £10 i wouldn't be able to eat a 12-inch pizza, large donner-kebab, large Mcdonalds strawberry milkshake and a dairy milk chocolate bar in 45 minutes. We documented the challenge in these three short 2- minute video clips, showing the start,middle and end of my challenge and who eventually won.......ROSSI or FOOD!!

Later on after that challange i was that bloated/dehydrated that i didnt feel like playing any poker. Instead i went on the new website bidibot.com to try and bid my way to a few poker bonus' to help with my bankroll building.

OCTOBER - review

2010-10-31T23:25:00.001Z

Another month gone by, its scary how fast time seems to go these days. October was the 2nd month in a row that i have stuck to my plan, and its another month that i am in profit. My plan to start at the beginning and practice all aspects of my game whilst slowly building my own bankroll is going to plan i think.

I didnt think i was going to get very many hands in this month, with the way my shifts at work were and also a quick trip to Benidorm thrown into the equasion. However i decided to add some fast games and some euro games (the currency being in euros as opposed to the standard $$ games) into the mix. I figured i might as well start practicing now, and have settled on allowing myself at least half the games being fast, as after a few experiments anymore than 12 fast tables and it was starting to go too quick for me to properly concentrate and make decisions. In actual fact i got nearly as many hands in as last month when i was off work for the whole month, so i was either lazy in September or what i feel happened which was that i managed my time and sessions a lot better. My results at the euro tables have been superb but as it was only over a small sample it was hard to tell if they were fishier or that i just ran good.

Anyway here are the monthly figures.

Table winnings (50k hands)   : + $59.48
FPP value:    + $25

TOTAL                                        + $84.48   (+£53)

So nearly 17 buy-ins profit after 50k hands which i am pleased with and that leaves my bankroll at $660. The FPP value will get added sometime during November as it will only be coverted and paid into my account when it reaches $50. I am also half way through earning a $50 stella reward, so i am going to aim to clear that before the end of November and maybe push for say 80k hands. I am off on a weeks leave the week after next so that should help pump up my volume.

I recently found a website called Bidibot.com which allows you to bid for all kinds of bonus' on various pokersites. So i think i will spend the rest of the evening tonight seeing if i can bid myself into a few bonus bargins.

Nearly another month gone...........

2010-10-21T22:20:00.000+01:00

I cant believe how quick time is going and its nearly the end of another month. The hot sun of my short trip to Benidorm was a distant memory this week as i got up for work at 6.30am the other day and had to scrape frost off the car window.

Talking of work, George Osbourne revealed the huge public spending cuts this week and the Ministry of Justice (which my civil service work place comes under) was one of the hardest areas hit with cuts of 25% in real terms...........basically meaning there are gonna be some big changes ahead that arent good. If the redundancy/packages come out in the next couple of years and i manage to be patient and build my bankroll into something decent........................!!

Played about 27k hands so far this month and am about 5 buy-ins in profit including FPP value. I keep swinging up and down and have really been trying to iron this out for a more even results graph. To be honest i havent had much time to play this month with the way my shifts at work have been and going away to Benidorm, but I have managed to squeeze in a lot more hands by trying to manage my time better.
Hopefully i can have a good run for the rest of the month and get my graph to slope evenly upwards.

I figure it will probably be the start of February when i will be able to move upto $0.05/$0.10 (my bankroll needs to be at $1000). Currently at $618. Another two $50 FPP bonus' cashed, another two $50 stella rewards. And last year Pokerstars did a $150 new year reload bonus so i figure they will do the same again, plus if i can get some good results actually playing poker rather than being a 'bonus whore' , i should be ready to play NL$10 by FEB 1st........now thats patience LOL

Good luck at the tables for the remainder of the month................

Benidorm

2010-10-12T19:35:00.000+01:00

On Thursday myself and my mate Phil, went on a two day piss up to Benidorm, and stayed in a posh hotel which was located near the "strip" with all the bars open until 7am most nights lol. It was also a street away from the beach. I expected the weather to be better than rainy cold wintery Liverpool but never expected it to be boiling hot like the middle of summer when we are in October.
We swam in the sea and got sunburnt sat outside a pub all day on the sea front. Unfortunately the trip was over in the blink of an eye but we had a superb laugh. We even managed to catch the infamous "sticky vicky" in one pub doing her regular routine. To be honest watching a 60 year old women naked on a stage pulling various objects "out of herself!!" wasnt the nicest things to see!!

I managed to capture in a minute long video how hot it was on the beach last friday (my language needs to improve lol).

Pokerwise i have hardly played at all this month with going back to work and going away on the ale. So far i have played 10k hands for about 3-buy-ins profit. I dont think i am going to get that much volume in this month as my shifts at work arent the best. However i really do need to improve how i manage my time as i could get a lot more volume in if i just focused more (i.e no faffing around on the internet, less tubegalore!! etc etc).

Phil: my drinking partner in crime enjoying one of many in Benidorm!!

September review

2010-09-30T23:44:00.002+01:00

I was back to work on Wednesday after a month off on leave, and it was shite getting back involved with the "rat race" LOL oh well.

On the poker front i didnt do as well as i had hoped at the start of the month but i suppose on reflection the whole point of dropping back down to a $500 bankroll and only playing NL$5 (100 buy-in rule) was to practice and get things right eventually.

Here are the stats anyway:

Table winnings (58k hands) : -$72 ($20 below Expected value)

WCOOP bonus cleared : +$60

Pokerstars Stella Reward : +$50

Pokerstars 50bill hand bonus : +$20 ($50 - $30FPP value to buy)

FPP value : +$26

TOTAL +$84 (+£54)

So basically i was a bonus whore (earning more from bonus/fpp's than playing) but i can take some positives away from the month as regard to my poker. I have identified some pretty big leaks and hopefully they should be easy enough to get rid off. Basically I'm being too tight pre-flop and not getting away from hands (overpairs etc) which means i am spewing money, usually on the river (which means i end up stacking off or losing a big pot). I went onto Pokertableratings.com which is an independant website that tracks every players hands and one of the features is that it compiles a report showing where it rates your strengths and weaknesses, for me it pretty much showed what i had identified already but i still got a decent score so hopefully it is positive and i can improve these areas and start making a profit.

My bankroll now stands at $600 (started at $500) so i am just going to be patient and keep on working on my game and hopefully move up (NL$10 when it reaches $1000).

On another positive note, this is the first time in over two years that i have actually stuck to the same thing all month (long may it continue). Regular readers know what a fooking acheivement that is in itself!!!!

On Thursday next week i go to Benidorm for two nights (2 all-day benders) with my mate Phil who I work with and lives round the corner from me, plus a few others from work. Should be a good laugh.

Cornwall

2010-09-23T00:29:00.001+01:00

Gutted I am now back home from our holiday in Cornwall, there were a load of us that went, Mrs R, baby R, the mother and father in-law (aka anti-social) and the brother and sister in-law. We all stayed in a log cabin which overlooked a valley and had a hot-tub on the decking in which to sit and admire the view. I spent the majority of evenings sat in the hot tub admiring the view and drinking cold ales.

It really was relaxing and most days were spent wandering around various fishing villages/towns, to be honest myself and anti-social spent a few hours drinking the afternoons away in various pubs whilst we let all the women go shopping.......sounds good to me!!

The weather was something else too, whilst apparently the rest of the UK was cold and raining, Cornwall it would seem took on its own weather system which made it feel like we were abroad and on a couple of days we even got sun burnt.

Now anyone who has read this blog for a number of years knows i have done the odd holiday video with usually "differant!!" commentary. Now on this occasion anti-social had brought a proper video camara, and one afternoon whilst some of the in-laws where in the hot-tub the video camara was randomly thrust in my direction and i was told to film. On the spur of the moment i thought i would pretend to be a "swedish porn film director" and proceeded, much to the dismay of the in-laws (and the couple sat on the decking in the next cabin!!) to shoot my film. I tried to do what i thought was a Swedish accent but i think it is a mix of pakistani and some other random languages....... (if your reading this via facebook you can click this link direct to youtube)

On one of the days me and the brother in law went for a game of golf (well an 18-hole pitch and putt). Now i cant play any game seriously without a bit of a wager (for some reason my "A" game comes out with a bit of a bet). Anyway he proceeds to tell me how "shit hot" at golf he is, how he plays every week and is going to destroy me, especially as i havent even hit a golf ball for about 4 years. Anyway we decide to bet £5 per man, and i demand (and am easily given) a 5 shot handicap. So with £10 to play for it was a really superb game and until the 17th hole i was winning without the handicap. But i blew up on the last two (the hardest) holes and won by one shot (including the handicap) by making a sweet 2 foot putt to take the £10.......ship it!!

Whilst walking into Tintagel one day we passed this road and couldnt resist taking a photo of myself and anti-social. Whilst the camaras where out some "Worzel" (our nickname for the Cornish locals) was sat in his garden with a bizarre look on his face, i wonder how many times he has seen this happen?!.....

It was a good holiday and everyone seemed to have a good time, especially Baby R who loved all the new sights and loved exploring the log cabin.

So back to the poker grind, and i have played about 45k hands so far this month and am currently six buy-ins under EV (expected value if the luck factor was taken out). However all the bonus' on offer this month on Pokerstars have made it worth it and i am probably about 25 buy-ins in profit. I will do a review at the end of the month.

Whilst we were away and probably with all the talk of swedish porno shoots and also because she had not been able to get in on our "the butts" photo the sister in-law must have felt left out, because i am sure she was trying to persuade me to make another film.........maybe not??.......Arse!!! lol.

Not only was the weather in Cornwall different than the rest of the UK, the village of Tintagel it seems also has a different set of morals than other places......well compared to LIVERPOOL anyway.
Whilst walking into the village (past "The Butts") , a couple of people left items on their garden walls to sell, however they didnt "man" the items but rather left a price list and an empty jar for people to leave their money in and take what goods they wanted to buy!!! Now living in Liverpool we were all gobsmacked by this, i mean the whole lot would have been robbed and the jar thrown back through the persons front window.....I want to move to Tintagel.......fooking scouse b*stards LOL.
For the American/Canadian readers of this blog Liverpool has got a bad reputation for being rough, full of gangs and every Scouser (person from Liverpool) being a thief!!!