Statistical anomalies

Hey guys,

Just experienced the worst "run of luck" I've ever experienced. It costs you a lot of money when you run the nut full house into quads and set over set constantly, and never have the reverse cooler. Looked at my HEM database and am really pleased with how I played during this down-swing. Its really annoying that this has happened in month one its set me back in profit ville. Unfortunately I am still losing from my high point but not by too much- winning over £1k this month atm with this sick downswing, feel as if I've been robbed should be winning £2-3k min.

Life is good, got a new monitor and my number pad arrived- which has drastically improved my concentration. Probably should have played more poker this month but the better half was off and with valentines day and what not it is hard to justify full days of work. I guess this is the bonus about poker- you have more flexibility.

All this time off has meant I'm a behind schedule in concern with the points required to get the $4k cashback bonus (320k points). ATM I've made 150k titan points and its over half way through the month. The shorter month and spending time at theatres, museums and exploring town, have in combination thwarted me. I guess I'm fine with this as long as I work hard next month- I mean I can always buy the 1.75k bonus now if I need money.

In other good news I made diamond (highest loyalty status) for this month a week ago and so far in the last 3 days I have been the 5th biggest winner at 100nl, so I guess coming 1st in week one of this month wasn't a pure fluke. Obviously in week two of the uber downswing I didn't feature. Currently I'm battling in the gladiator leader board (rake-race) even with my less then stellar hours this month I'm currently 6th- pays $280 at the beginning of next month. I figure that this month the highest I can reasonably expect to finish is fourth which would net me $450. 

Life good poker ok.

Take care

Poker education

Hey guys,

Ok we all think we are great poker players however, when we think this we fail to improve. I'm really keen to carry on studying and improve my game to keep up with the competition and increase my edge. To help me do this I have just signed up to a poker training site. Figure this is well worth the money.

Its taking ages to make a training video library- however I expect this to pay dividends in the future. So I have taken time out this morning to do this and watch a video or two and run some errands.

In terms of other tools and software, table scanner and note caddy are scheduled in for next month (not worth having them unless a meaningful database on poker clients currently played on is generated). This will mean I will have basically every piece of industry leading software at my disposal. Using them effectively will be key to maintaining and improving my win rate in the short term as well as the future.

Take care.

Life balance

Hey guys,

Been thinking about hobbies so I don't get disconnected from the general population. Really want to play cricket again and I think that the team aspect and banter derived from this will enable me to lead a more balanced life. So I have been looking for local cricket clubs. Also I really want to get my driving license done once and for all- so got to budget for this in the coming months.

Take care

The quest for data to get power

Hey guys,

So I have played on Titan for a week and a half. The goal for month one was to attain the highest loyalty status on the site (diamond), buy the $4000 cash back bonus for life expenses which will last for two months and build up a good database of 150k+ hands for the Ipoker network. I thought for month one I wouldn't be over ambitious on the profit side and settle for breaking even, whilst generating a database. As game selection and reads in the coming months resulting from this will have a good impact on my win rate. After all information is power.

In terms of what has happened, I've had a couple of bad sessions however, so far I have won $1750 or £1.1k so overall its going better then expected I guess. I have played 85k hands in this time and have been 16 tabling 50/100nl.

Got lucky on the 2^nd of this month and hit a Royal Flush before anyone else that day so got $50 from Titan, which was pretty nice.

Titan are doing a promotion which rewards the biggest winners with cash prizes. Unfortunately I did not know about this and didn't opt into the scheme until a friend of mine told me I had won it. Obviously its nice to see that I had apparently won the most at 100nl over this time period however, unfortunately I didn't get the money. Obviously I have opted in now and hopefully I will get something from the three other races.

In terms of Titan points I have made 80k so far which means I am on target for my 4K cash back bonus (320k points) and will get the 120% multiplier at the end of the month.

I also reckon I should win something in the $5k gladiator race every month due to my volume which should net me $200-450 a month. So far I have been hovering between 15 and 7^th so I guess I’m up there with the uber sickos.

Got plans to improve my set-up in the next month. At the moment I have a 20” dell ultrasharp 2007fp monitor and a smaller 17” Packard Bell monitor (kindly donated by a friend). Obv I need to alter my set-up so going to sell my old i-phone 3gs and use the money to buy another 20” dell 2007fp. I reckon 2 dell ultrasharps with a 17” monitor on top will make multi tabling feel nicer and allow me to play longer and harder. Also I guess over the years I've been a bit lazy when it comes to online poker aids as I've seen it previously as a hobby that somehow magically you make money from. Keyboards are annoying when it comes to typing in bet sizing- it cramps your wrist/arm after a while- they are designed for left handed people or something- I don’t understand why the number pad is on the right hand side. Anyway I have ordered a separate number pad along with wrist rest- this will allow me to be more dynamic with bet sizing- feel it its really +ev.

Next month also have plans to make a Party Poker account, the $100 holdem manager store credit is nice and so is the $600 1^st deposit bonus. More importantly multi clienting is really important for game selection and liquidity at weird hours for poker players (e.g. 7am). I think this will give me more life flexibility and will be a step towards attaining life balance.

Take care.

Pontification, Dilemmas and Poker

Hey guys,

I know the internet is saturated with online poker player diaries. Hopefully this one will have some value to it however, its main purpose is to keep a log for myself to look back on in the future, as well as for those who are interested.

Anyway opening gambit aside, as you have guessed I have decided to become a professional poker player. This was perhaps the hardest decision of my life due to the downsides associated with this choice. I guess a good analogy of poker as a career vs conventional employment would be: if we imagine a horse race, with the race track start to finish representing the different stages of life. In the race of horses (people) who are employed conventionally the loser gets to race again another day however, in the horse race of poker players the loser gets shot. Unfortunately this is the grim reality of pursuing poker as a profession and is one I am obviously aware of along with dilemmas stemming from not being a productive member of society. 

Hopefully if all goes to plan I have ideas for the future that I believe poker will give me the financial flexibility to achieve things in the future that I can be proud of, such as setting up an NGO for issues I care about or making charitable donations of money/time to good causes. However, I believe it is easy to pontificate about ethics and morality once financial security is obtained and unfortunately this is something that most people never truly achieve. For now though this is an issue I will have to put on the back burner and address at a later date.  

To me work is something people do in order to get money, soft benefits are also associated with work. However lets assume you won the lottery- most people say they would continue working and are motivated by the pursuit of soft benefits. The reality is that most do not if they actually win.

I believe balance is key in obtaining happiness regardless of your chosen profession- if we work too hard we get unhappy, the same I believe is true if we don't work enough, your brain goes stale and this to leads to dissatisfaction. So I have decided the most important thing in this journey will be to make money and find my balance in life. For the first year or so social balance is probably going to be a little neglected, I’m really lucky I have some really smart friends to talk to about poker and others for moral support. However, I see the first year or so as laying the groundwork which will require working really hard, which I guess is the same as any career. However, I do have plans to take up a hobby or two in the future to meet some real world people and obtain life balance through that. Ultimately the goal is to is to I guess lead two separate lives one as the poker player and the second as a normal human with a firewall separating the two.

In terms of other life balance things, eating healthily and exercising are going to be key and are aspects I think many people whatever their profession overlook. To be a poker ninja you obviously have to be in shape, feel good, study hard, put in the hours in online land and leave aside time to spend with significant others/ friends and pursue the things in life that make you happy. The optimum blend of these aspects is to me what balance is.     

So I guess this bring me onto the last question of why pursue poker as a profession? After all chasing dreams has lead many a man to ruin. This we see in the world of self employment a lot with the majority of start-ups ultimately going bust and bankruptcy ensuing. I guess a combination of factors lead to ruin such as deluded self evaluation of ability, luck, unsustainable work ethic and lack of balance in life. After playing poker for 5 years I think I have a realistic evaluation of my absolute and relative skill level, which is always increasing due to study. This has lead me to the conclusion that pursuing poker is a viable option.

So what is luck? I think that this is a concept that is largely misunderstood, and really it is the manifestation of random events occurring. Although there is a luck element in poker and we cannot separate the two totally in a life time- this is however smoothified to a certain extent due to the number of hands we play: giving us a “luck range”. I don't think many people in the real world realise how much luck there is, in part this is due to the fact that humans do not like to feel out of control. Everything is the result of cause and effect that was determined by what I think of as “semi-self-determined chance”: if this choice and others leading from it are good this is what we term luck.

Anyway sorry for the long ramble (more poker stuff next time).

Take care