My Ladder of Hope

I have been thinking about how I can motivate myself to go forwards in pursuit of live game success.

I understand that my personality and the value I place on my bankroll can hold me back when I should be pushing on. I need to devise a method of tracking my progress as well as giving myself targets to achieve so that I don't become stagnant and satisfied with lower levels of success.

So I am formulating, what I call, my Ladder of Hope.

I will be starting on the first rung of the ladder as a Poker Wannabe and I will outline clear goals that allow me to reach a certain rung of the ladder.

So far I have the levels as follows, with some of my initialy thought out targets.

WANNABE - Where I am now!

CANDIDATE
Bronze - Live Bankroll = £1,000
Silver - Finish in top 50% in local tournament (e.g. Dusk Till Dawn)
Gold -
APPRENTICE
Bronze - Live Bankroll = £2,500
Silver -
Gold - Cash in a local tournament
RISING PLAYER
Bronze - Live Bank Roll = £5,000
Silver -
Gold - Cash in a National Side Event (e.g. GUKPT side event)
PLAYER
Bronze -
Silver - Final Table Local Tournament
Gold- Cash in a National Event (e.g. GUKPT)
RISING PRO
Silver -
Gold - Final Table National Side Event
PRO
Gold -
RISING STAR
Gold - Win National Event, Cash in an International Event
STAR
Gold - Final Table International Event
SUPERSTAR - Win an International Event

This is still pretty much work in progress in thinking out what goals I want where, and I will probably add more goals as I think of them ... but you get the idea.

More when I have this sorted out a little better.

Until next Time

Keep it Tight!

Making it in the Live Arena

As a Poker Wannabe I have wanted to break onto the live poker scene for a long time. I have always wanted to be able to rub shoulders with the big names in the game and to pit my wits against a multitude of lesser known good players. -

I want to be challenged rather than grind out 400 SnG's a month for a small profit.-

I want to be drawn to the big prizes and exposure that the live arena has to offer a recognised poker player.-

I have decided that the time to start along this path is NOW!-

I understand that I will probably lose more than I will win - unless I really can make it. That is a price that I will have to pay to find out.-

I know I am not starting from the bottom. I have won local casino tournaments and have won in Vegas in the hotel daily buy ins. I also think I have a better than average grasp of the game ... but this is how I see me ... am I good enough to do it in the real world?-

So starting at the end of August I will be trying to build a live bank roll in which I intend to find out ... -

Rise ...-

or -

Fall ...-

It will be posted here.-

Until Next Time-

Keep it Tight!

Trying to get back to normal

I decided to do a week of work for my usual customer in Truro and stayed at the usual stop ... the Victoria Inn.

Thursday night, Poker Night, I decided again to join in for my third outing at this pub's poker offering.

Unfortunately the entrants have dwindled from about 36 to about 20 but the guys that are left are good eggs.

So with a £5 buy in and two tables to get through I soon won a big pot doubling my starting chips. I had already identified that my table had a loose aggressive on board that was very successful in small pots against the regulars. I also knew he was playing light and wouldn't be able to slow down. So when he all inned for about about 2/3rds of my stack and all folded to me in the SB, I re raised all in with K4os to push out the BB knowing that if I won the pot I could take his role. He duly turned over T6os and hit a 6 on the river to leave me hurt but not out.

Luckily 3 hands later I get JJ and all in ... our loose friend calls and I double back to above my starting chips.

A few hands later I get AA and manage to look like I'm trying to push out the limpers in a multi way pot. I manage to survive a twitchy 3 way pot with the 2 other players that remained and I was suddenly in a strong position.

Anyway to cut a long story short I got heads up with a guy when the blinds were so high we decided to split the £70 pot 50/50.

So in 3 outings here I have won 2 times and 4th once.

Not bad to earn an evenings free drinks ...

Until Next Time

Keep it Tight!

Impossible to put into words!

I predominantly wanted this blog to be just about my poker exploits however sometimes personal life has to take the fore and I feel I have to publish this post before I can continue to move on.

Many unexpected things are thrown at you in life, most of which you can deal with as and when they happen and you are able to carry on as normal.

However when the one thing that is eventually guaranteed for all of us happens to someone very close to you the ability to carry on as before seems to be taken away forever.

It is to this end that sadly my mother eventually lost her fight against cancer last month.

I managed to spend a lot of time with her in the last weeks of her life and I know she was comforted by me being there in helping care for her and to keep her company.

Although we said everything we wanted to to each other before she went to that better place I know nothing will be able to fill the empty void that used to be her support, care and love in a way only a Mum can give it.

You will be greatly missed forever Mum ... more than anyone will ever know!

Quick Update

Not a lot on the poker front to talk about as unfortunately real life has taken over. Between working solidly for the last 2 weeks (with a third to come) and personal and family issues not much time is left for quality poker.

So consequently I have parked my PartyPoker.Fr account at about 1,600 euro's and am playing on small stakes tables to clear a multitude of free bonuses PartyPoker.com has inundated me with.

So here is the lesson:

I still love the game and still want to play whenever I can. I know that when I play I am not 100% focused or am playing tired. So when I play I am better playing at the lower buy in's than before where I can't do my bank roll any serious damage. I am also clearing bonuses which might make up for the edge I am losing.

Don't let pride get in the way of playing at smaller stakes if the conditions to play well are not right.

The main thing is that you play.

Another thing I am doing is investing in more poker literature so when I am unable to play I still can get a poker fix and hopefully improve my game.

So until there is something more to show on the poker front.

I'll sign off ....

Keep it Tight!

The Wilderness Months

Its at times like these that I am glad I don't play poker for a living.

To play approx 500 SnG's and still only be just where you started can be very demoralising.

I think it is even more pronounced because of the flying start I had on PartyPoker.Fr. I turned my initial €150 into approx €900 in about 5 months. Now I can't get above €1000 and have dropped as low as €800 euro .

The other problem I have is that my bank rolling method drops me back down the levels when I am losing and so I am now messing about at the very low stake SnG's again hoping for a run to hit.

On top of this things are not going so well in France and it looks like I will be here on my own from now on. This has left me in a very bad mental state; but if it wasn't for me to be able to throw my time into poker (despite my affected play) then I am sure I would feel even more isolated. At least with poker there is always something there at any time of the day when I need my mind diverting from the real world.

Who was it that said ... ?

" ... you never know your on a peak until you are coming down, and you never know you are in a trough until you are climbing out" ...

Ahh thats right it was .. D.Brent (The Office)

They say poker mirrors life, and with that phrase it has never been more true.

Until Next Time

Keep it Tight!

Party Poker France points problem!

Last month (and going into the new year) I had a bit of a problem with my points status on PartyPoker.Fr.

I had cut it very fine in earning my 400 points to maintain my Silver Status in December. However by playing for about 4 hrs on New Years Eve (finishing at around 8pm) I managed to get my points balance to around 401.5 ... and was happy that I would be able to buy my 50 euro bonus.

However when I logged in on 1st January I found that they had demoted me to Bronze Status.

I contacted them and they stated that I had only earned 397.5 points in December.

I checked my lobby and found that it showed I had already earned 4 points in January despite having not played yet!

So I re contacted them and assured them that the lobby stated on 31st December I had over 400 points.

They stuck to their story but did raise my complaint to another department.

Anyway yesterday I find my status HAS been restored to Silver ... but with no explanations or email contact, which is unusual because I always find their customer service excellent!

However I am very happy with this outcome as my account now sits as it should be!

But it does show that what we see in the lobby could be different to what is happening on their systems.

So I suggest that if your points balance is very close to the next level, take a screen dump. Either that or make sure you earn more than enough points to get your status levels.

Oh and if their is a descrepancy make sure you contact them!

I do like happy endings though!

Until Next Time

Keep it Tight!