Saturday, November 28, 2009

Battling away

I had a profitable week this week! WUHOOOO!!! Made about $2k before rakeback. Although Im still well in the red for the month it felt great to string together a few winning days and stop the rot! On 871k vpps atm which isnt great. The nasty downswing I had set me back a bit as I was playing lower stakes after it to get the confidence back etc.

The Fitzwilliam Xmas festival is on this weekend and I woulda liked to play the main event which is €500 buy in. Not sure how many there expecting for this but I assume itll be over 100. Cant play it unfortunately cos Ive an old friends wedding on today. Another Saturday with lots of drinking and no poker just the way I like them tbh! I prob wont play live until the UKIPT Galway which Im looking forward to. Decided Im going to play all of these UKIPT thingys hopefully. The English legs are only £500 buy in but there £100k guaranteed so should be good tourneys.

Gonna put in some long hours over the next 2 weeks to get the vpps up before Galway and dont wanna be playing too much over the Xmas. Still no word on who the 25 new online pros on pokerstars will be. All 5000+ supernova and elite players filled out application forms over the past few weeks. I expect them to be announced before the new year but havent heard a date mentioned so well just have to wait and see.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Slogging it out!

Well Im still running like shit online, doing my bollox! Wont say much more about that as I dont like crying and moaning when Im going through a bad patch and it doesnt make for good reading either. But November is well on track to bein my worse ever month online (without rakeback bonuses etc.)

Bein a pretty hectic couple of weeks both poker and non poker. Forgot to mention in my last post that some fucker ran into the back of my precious car! Sittin at traffic lights minding my own business then BANG! Wasnt much of a crash tbh but still managed to do 2k worth of damage to my car. Was his fault obv so his insurance is looking after it. Its in being repaired at the mo but Im collecting it tomorrow.

Big talking point over the past few days of course was the Ireland game. Went to the first leg which we didnt play great in to be fair. Headed to the local for the away leg. I didnt give Ireland much hope If Im to be truthful but you never know. Couldnt believe how well we played in the game! In the first half anyway. Was the best Ive seen Ireland play in years! Although they just didnt finish the chances and then of course we went out in cruel fashion which I wont say anymore about cos Ive a pain in my bollox talking about it at this stage.

Big welldone to Derek Murray who scooped a FTOP last week for around $130k. I cant think of a player who deserved a result like this any more than Derek. Hes bein 1 of the top mtt players in Ireland over the past few years but never seemed to run good when it mattered so its nice to see his efforts finally rewarded.
Another great piece of news for Irsh poker was Jude (j.thaddeus) Ainsworth (who is Derek Murrays close frien btw) bein signed by Pokerstars as a Team Pro. Making him the first Irish member. Finished 13th in Portugal in his first Ept as a team pro, so a good start and hope he keeps it up. Best of luck to him over the next 12 months. Its great to see an Irish player being sponsored by the biggest name in poker. There had a been alot of talk on the poker scene in Ireland over the past few months about stars sponsoring an Irish player following the announcement of the ukipt. Several people asked me who did I think it should be etc. My opinion was it would be an absolute disgrace if anyone other than Jude got it. So well deserved and goodluck mate.

I turned 24! on Saturday. Jesus Im scared of getting old I still feel 18. Went to see Brendan O Carroll which was a good laugh then hit the town. Anyone into films dont go see "The men who stare at goats" cos its the biggest load of bollox Ive seen in a long time! I came out of the cinema angry that Id just wasted two hours of my life watching the bullshit! Go see "Harry Brown" its well worth a watch.

Im on 855k vpps now which is the only good news I can report lol! So Ill finish with that. 5 busy weeks left for me this year. Gotta grind the teeth keep the faith and hopefully hings will improve soon! Thats it for now, peace out!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

The losing continues

Well its been more of the same unfortunately. Played JPs mini WSOP game last Friday.Probably shouldnt have bothered as I wasnt really up for it but played it anyway. Lasted 3 levels, had 2 semi intersting hands which I made bad calls in both and so it was gg me. Saturday decided to watch the David V Golaith fight and get pissed. LOL at the fight. Like wtf! I just couldnt take it seriously it was like something out of a cartoon! I was trying to stay off the drink but when ur runnin like shit may aswell drown ur sorrows.

Online this awful run continues. November is on track for bein 1 of my worse ever months. So far Ive played just under 1500 sngs and am down over $13k!! : ( Pretty awful stuff. Its hard to say how much of this is down to variance, my bad play,games bein so tough. But its rough anyway. We all go through bad spells no matter how well we play but its the consistincy that Im losing at this month that is a cause for concern. Its like Ive suddenly become a losing player.

On the positive I did get the $8k milestone bonus last week which really helped and Im currently on 830k for the year which means only 170k to go. Have to just grind the teeth and hopefully I can pull through this and start winning again.

Heading to the Ireland v France match in Croke park tonight. Gonna be a tough game obv. but fingers crossed we can get a result

Friday, November 6, 2009

Rough week

Well as the title suggests its been a rough week for me. Started off great on Sunday night (which is the end of last week but anywho) by winning a $4.5k package to the UKIPT Galway. Then Monday I recieved my $1200 bonus for topping the bop leaderboard, Tuesday solid uneventfull day, then Wednesday it all went pear shaped. Managed to spunk off just under $5k which is pretty impressive. Its not easy to blow $5k in a few hours playing $60-$235 sngs but I managed it. Played like shit and ran even worse. Yesterday was much of the same blew around $3k. Felt like I didnt play all that bad in fairness just seemed to run unbelieveably bad. So a nasty little $10k downswing to wake me up.

Haevnt had a real bad run in a long long time in fairness and so it was inevitable. I had forgotten how shit it feels to lose. Fingers crossed this doesnt turn into one of them soul destroying runs that dont seem to end. On the bright side Im on 798k vpps and so I get a nice litle $8k bonus when I reach 800k which will ease the pain.

Decided Im goin to play JPs mini WSOP this weekend as I dont feel like grinding much and dont wanna drink this weekend. Its a €350 buy in and should get around 300 players so a decent enough prizepool. A few of the lads are gone to Amsterdam for the Masters Classic. Ive never been to Amsterdam and would love to go sometime. But I made a pact with myself not to do any more travelling for the rest of the year. So goodluck to them! Do the Irsh proud!

Monday, November 2, 2009

October review

October was a good solid month online. Played 2910 sngs which is the most Ive ever played in 1 month and managed to make $4527 profit from them. I also had a few decent scores in the battle of the planets including a 1st place in the Saturn High orbit last week. Managed to grind 100k vpps for the month which equates to 350k fpps, not 500k unfortunately as my elite status expired the end of September. Im now on 777k vpps for the year which means I need another 223k in the last 2 months. Gonna be a busy man

Played the Irsh winter festival last week and managed to cash. Came 36th out of 398 players for €3400. Small cash but still always nice to make a profit. Was delighted to see it bein won by an Irish player. (Michael O Sullivan) Even better he was a Dub. Met Michael for the first time at this tourney and he seems like a sound bloke also a very solid player so well done to him taking home the €143,000 1st prize

Played a decent amount of mtts online in October but with no real success. Made a small loss from them for the month. Played a good few mtts today including the Warm up and a couple of $100 rebuys but again no success. Until my last tourney of the night which was a sat for the IPC in Galway. www.irishpokerchampionship.com
The sat got 76 players with 3 packages. I was lucky enough to get 1 so Im delighted with that. I had planned on playing in it anyway but its always nice to win a seat and have the accomadation etc. sorted

Great to see Pokerstars comin to the Irish Market. This can only be good news for poker here.