Veeeegas

Only a few weeks now before i fly to Vegas. I'm staying at Encore and plan playing 5 or 6 of the bigger buy in events, not staying for the main, so i'll have to buy some percentages in some friends.

Hardly been playing at all online. Its been going well when i have, and i've been playing smaller (25/50 down to 10/20), as the games are so much easier than even 50/100. I've been running at about 25 big blinds/100 HU in the last six weeks, which pretty unsustainable, but very enjoyable while it lasts.

I've put/am putting a huge chunk of my bankroll into a house in London that i'm doing a full refurb on (basement, gym, cinema room, bar etc). That money will never be going back into the poker communuty :-) ... organising the work that needs doing is far more stressful than poker has ever been. Its a pretty steep learning curve, and i hope the place will be awsome when its finished in around a year. So many decisions to make......

I really now can't afford to go on a high six figure downswing now, but i think its refocused me and i'm playing good at the moment. A big tournament score would be amazing at the moment. Fingers crossed.....

Random Stuff

This post may be a bit waffly.....

I played the SCOOP $5k PLO... no good. I got it all in on the turn with top two and open ender, against middle two and two flush draws, river a flush... pretty standard really. I skipped the $10k main, the time zone for Euro players is terrible unless you get into a rhythm of staying up all night, and i would have begun to tire only 5 hours into the tourney, which would have made it extremely tough to do well.

Getting into the zone. For me anyway, there is such a difference in how i play after i've had a shower, gone to the gym and eaten before i even consider playing. Often my worst days are when i roll out of bed and start playing before i've even grabbed a glass of water. I'd love to see the actual stats, but the difference it makes is huge.

I read the poker forums a bit, but thats about the only poker stuff i ever read. I don't have a HUD (i think thats the term)... don't even know what it is really. I've never read a poker strategy book, i've never studied statistics on my opponents, and never sat out/quit a player even when they have beaten me over a decent sample. I'm a pretty competitive person, and i hate to lose so much at anything, that sitting out against someone just seams so weak so i never do it. I wander if i'd be a much better player if i spent hours studying hand histories, had a HUD running etc. I don't really get how all the big game selectors expect to get any better if they never even play anyone competant.

Durrrr challenge. I've actually considered giving this a go.... the offer of $1.5 million if i beat him, compared to paying out $500,000 is really appealing. I'd definitely do it if i could sell a big enough percentage. I'd guess the worse case scenario would be losing $2 million ish, then having to pay up $500k. I'm way to much of a bankroll nit to take the chance of that kind of loss. It would be interesting, i'm not ruling it out under the right circumstances.

An Upswing

Online poker has been going much better in the last month. Below is the graph of my year so far. I had a really frustrating first 10,000 hands this year, but its been going alot better since that. I've been sticking to a stringent $40k a day stop loss in the last month, which i think has helped my results and sanity alot....