Ante Up For Africa

San Remo EPT came and went and now the crew are all in Monte Carlo for the big Grand Final. I arrived a couple of days ago but most of the TV crew and a lot of the journalists came straight from Italy after an Italian Championship that happened right after the EPT and so people are utterly exhausted. You can see the ‘end of season lag’ on people’s faces and I’m feeling it a bit myself as well! I’m glad I got to go home, even if it was only for a couple of nights as I never sleep as well in a hotel and the extra two nights rest is going to help A LOT this next week. 

There are some interesting faces here already signing up for the Main Event which starts today. I bumped into Andy Black and Michael Greco yesterday and some of the celebrities who flew over for Ante Up For Africa are staying on as well to play. I got to interview all the celebrities and gauge their poker knowledge. The event raised over 250000 Euros for the crisis in Darfur and it’ll be televised at some point as well. There was a lot of banter and funny chat at the tables so I’m sure it’ll be entertaining to watch As a teaser, Kirsty Gallagher was there and utterly gorgeous, smart and funny (and tiny!), Pepe Rainer charmed absolutely everyone and was refreshingly down to earth. I tripped over my words when I met the actor who played Smith Jarrett on Sex & The City and I asked the rapper Nelly if it was ‘getting hot in here’… Well, when would I get a chance like that again? And the highlight for me was meeting James Kyson Lee who plays Ando on Heroes. I’m a big fan of the show so it was great to be able to chat with him and, once again, I can confirm that he was a real lovely guy. 

I was totally prepared to have to deal with showbizzy type celebs but in truth, everyone was pretty damned nice and there weren’t the big egos that I expected. Nelly did have an ENORMOUS body guard though and that made me giggle. 

So now it’s the Main Event for Monte Carlo and the grand final for season 5. It’s been a busy year and it’s so strange that it’s coming to an end now. I’m going to miss everyone but catching up with my friends at home is top of my list of things to do when I get back, and I really can’t wait. 

The sky is falling, Poker and Monte Carlo…

I have been on a bit of a hiatus from playing poker the past week or so. I got back into playing some the past few days and won 50k or so, but I played terribly. I forced myself to play the past few days because some of the best games I have ever seen running were going.

I always see people post about “how tough poker has become”, “Two years ago the games were so soft” or “how unbeatable the games are today”. People love to make excuses for why they are losing and they never want to admit it was because of their own play and decisions. They also remember things much better than they were. I personally think the games are as good at the high but not nosebleed stakes now as they were two to three years ago.

I think the nosebleed games generally run around a few people and are still good when they run, but run rarely because they revolve around so few players who have lost large sums of money.

Hopefully what I just wrote doesn’t come off as condescending. I understand why alot of people blame things outside of their control for their results. I look back to when I was struggling with learning PLO. I thought I was getting coolered time and time again and there were days that I wanted to blame variance. I generally didn’t and some days where I did I would really analyze my game to see it usually wasn’t variance. I realize looking back, I wasn’t the unluckiest person in the world, I just wasn’t that good at PLO.

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I have been winning alot of money recently and I am getting really complacent with my game. I am already up over 1 million dollars this year, while winning at 9 bb/100 and I am getting a bit bored with poker. I feel a bit unchallenged. In a kinda sick way I enjoy when times are tough and I am struggling a bit.

Its coming really easy for me right now after alot of struggle and my focus isn’t there. I am trying to remember back to the times when things didn’t come easily for me in PLO and I had to really work on my game so I have more appreciation for whats happening now. I don’t want to be playing on autopilot, I want to play my best at all times.

I don’t know what I am going to do about turning my focus around. This has happened to me many times in the past and I usually just end up playing really bad poker until I lose alot of money. I would obviously like to avoid that this time, so I will probably not play unless I really want too.

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Tomorrow I leave for Monte Carlo where was singed up to play the 10k Euro Main Event, 25k Euro High rollers event and the 5k Euro PLO event. Unfortunately the PLO event was canceled because of some dispute with the Monagasque government. I don’t know what events I will end up playing as I don’t want to force myself to play if I am not in the mood. I may just take it easy and relax for the week.

Check Out Brian’s Online Training Site – CardRunners

A third of the way there

To quote Nick Weallthall from a recent edition of PokerPlayer, ‘There’s nothing sweeter than to be on a bloody great heater.’

Dear reader(s) if only all months were as good as April has been then this challenge would be like value betting a calling station when you are holding the immortal nuts. I’ve continued to run above expectation on Stars and have run at least somewhat decent on Full Tilt. Add in a quick $1585 profit player hyper tubo six man satellites* on Stars (the ones to the Nightly 100k, they run from about 0.20 to 1.40a.m) and you get a $7144 uptick (wiiiiiiiiiiiii)

For the next four weeks I’ll be grinding away on BoylesPoker playing $10-$50 sit and gos, had my first session on there last night (my username is durrrrballs if you want to sharkscope me to see my progress) and was down a few buy-ins. I got a $600 first deposit bonus (won’t count towards challenge totals, as my Full Tilt rakeback isn’t) and hopefully i can make about $1-$2 game and still add $2000+ of so to the challenge total. Will still be playing a bit on Stars/Tilt on my days off from Blackbelt but not a lot in total.

*Online sit and go expert/coach reckons the max attainable roi% in these hyper turbos ($54 buy-in, top two win a  $162 seat, 4th – 6th $0) is about 3-5%. Currnetly i’m running at 5% over a 934 sample size. I;m keeping these stats seperate from the mtts/satellites stats as they’ll skew everything.

With all that being said here’s the maths bit:

Cliff notes – on track (just) to reach target

Monthly/Yearly totals

April: (mtts etc)

Buy-ins total $15485

Profit $5559

Roi%: 35.8%

+ $1585 in hyper turbos = $7144

 

Yearl Profit:

(profit to March $10,011+$7144) = $17155

 

So a third of the way through the year and i’m just over a third of the way to my target. However with Summer around the corner i’ll likely play less in July/August than i normally would and December is always a funny month. So that means June and September through November will be key, hell i for one would welcome the April showers to continue throughout the year.

 

Next blog will be a recap from the first BlackBeltPoker training session which takes place Tuesday 28th April.

San Remo EPT…

…is rather nice actually.

Lovely little town in Italy on the northern coast – bizarre place to have a major poker tournament.

Incredibly they got 1200 entrants for the tournament which is way more than anyone was expecting but they managed to cope. Luckily most of the players were either Scandanavian or Italian so the field got reduced pretty quick.

EPT live has been fun to do as ever – hope you guys enjoy it; feel free to leave comments here.

On my travels round Europe this season I have confirmed that you can basically get by in any foreign country by learning please, thank you – pointing very accurately and being good at charades. Also ‘taxi’ seems to be the same word everywhere – genius.

Off now to get some more Tiramisu ice cream- if it ever comes to England my waistline is history.

A Lifestyle Choice

It’s been a frustrating month for poker. I feel like my PLO is still improving quickly but I’m having one of those annoying spells where the results haven’t caught up and I’m just breaking even over 12k hands this month.

To ease this and other pain I recently got a PS3 and massive telly. That’s right I’m buying happiness – what of it?

Last weekend I finished Killzone 2. I do have a problem with games and gaming generally – I find it really hard to stop them until they’re finished. When does poker finish again?

The people who say video games are responsible for people being violent are so wrong its not ture. The complete opposite is true. I can honestly say that the ability to pop on Killzone and butcher several people at close range with an assault rifle has stopped me wandering out onto the street and taking a shovel to a couple of strangers several times in the last couple of months

Finally put me in the ‘that Susan Boyle audition’ is the most amazing piece of TV ever camp. Just genius on so many levels. If it didn’t affect you stop reading this now and check for a pulse.

Post Dublin

So I had a good Easter weekend

First of all, thanks to everyone who watched the feed and commented and sent their best wishes and luck. I really do appreciate it. It blows me away really to have so many people behind me, wishing me well. I feel like I won a lottery and at the same time, I feel like my game is improving and I’m generally getting better at the poker. I think because I learned how to play basically in public, playing on the TV tables at Poker Night Live back when I didn’t even know if a flush beat a straight, that I’ve always felt like I have a lot to prove. Particularly as Nick is the one who taught me and has mentored me through my journey as a player.

And now, what a damn result!

I think the whole thing is still sinking in. I flew straight back to London the next morning for work and spent the day in the studio doing stuff for the EPT and didn’t really have a chance to think about it. Over the last few days, I keep having these ‘blimey’ moments that really stop me in my tracks. Realizing that I won a fair bit of money, I went shopping of course. Except, of course my mother taught me well and so I went to the Farmer’s Market in Brighton and bought cheese rather than hitting the shoe stores. Nice cheese though, if that makes a difference.

And now, it’s back to the job and we’ve got San Remo and Monte Carlo coming up for the EPT and then the season is over. After that, who knows! It’s a great summer stretching out in front of me. Hopefully I’ll be playing at the WSOP and of course I’ll be there railing as well.

But thank you all again. Really. I’m just…. overwhelmed.

Kara

April Update

So far April has been going really well, im about another $2.3k closer to my target and am running at 36.5% ROI which is good for me.

Now to the interesting stuff I’ve been selected to do the grading process at Black Belt Poker which you can find out more at blackbeltpoker.com. It’s an honour just to have been selected among the 50. There are at least three GUKPT champions doing the grading and a lot of quality players most of whom if not all play for a living. In fact i may well be the only one doing the grading who’s job isn’t professional poker player.  The grading involves playing four tables minimum for six hours a day, five days a week – or an average week for me . I jest of course I only play for five hours a day! 

Anyway so gg free time and social life for the month of May, but although the sacrifices are high so are the rewards. I’m not sure what i can and can’t say regarding the specifics of sponsorship deals but of the 50, eight players will become brown belts. These players will be the faces of BBP, they will get a serious monthly sponsorship package and a large WSOP sponsorship package.

I’m determined to give it my best shot and learn as much as i can from the weekly workshops that will be held and  learn as much as i can from the talented players that have been selected. It’s a cliche but i feel like i’ve already won something, just to be picked among the 50.

Bring on the grind.

Rich and Nick Podcast – Show 3

Welcome, listeners, fans, friends, Romans, countrymen – yes, even those of you living in the country – to Podcast Show 3! In which you can enjoy Rich and Nick’s musings about:

• Chinese duck
• Nick’s big porn TV
• The film Watchmen
• Rich’s life being destroyed
• The stupidity of chocolate bar names
• Andrea’s ‘relaxed’ work ethic
• Norwich Union or Aviva?
• Kidnapping men’s genitalia
• Is sorcery a viable career path?
• Anger management classes
• The mental Mayor of Kiev
• Are world leaders secretly childish?
• Nick’s fight over pan-fried salmon
• Rich’s fight over duck and ginger

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (23.8MB)

Some 100/200 and 200/400 hands

I just got back from Ireland, which was a great trip. The tournament was really well put together and smoothly run.

This month is going great for me. I am up 310k, 80k from tournaments and 230k from cash games. I am also nearing the million mark for the year. Hopefully I can make the 40k I need to this month, but it may have to wait till May. Whats great is most of the money I have made has been at 25/50. I haven’t just ran hot at the nosebleeds which feels great for my confidence. I am only up about 100k at 100/200-200/400, which is alot of money, but not alot compared to the limits.

I put in a quick 100/200 and 200/400 session yesterday which netted me 90k. I feel so confident in my PLO game right now. I have put in so much effort and its really starting to pay off. So many situations are 2nd nature to me now that would have required alot of thought six months ago.

A 140k pot where my opponent is drawing almost completely dead. Hard to do that in omaha, but I did get a very lucky flop…

http://weaktight.com/989819

Over setting my opponent…

http://weaktight.com/989821

I hate the way I played this. I think I should have flatted turn and river, and as played I really think the river is a check fold. I am really disappointed in my play in this hand.

http://weaktight.com/989824

Check Out Brian’s Online Training Site – CardRunners

Easter weekend

I had no eggs, did not attend church and did play 6k hands of online Omaha…weeeeeeeeeeeeee

I ran at 7bb/100 playing 1/2 which is really pleasing. I haven’t played enough 1/2 hands yet to be convinced of how well I’m beating the game but I feel really comfortable at the level and there are enough weak players to mean picking up easy money isn’t a problem.

If everything goes to plan I’ll take some shots at 2/4 next month. I’ll post some hands here at some point – not sure how many of you will care as its Omaha but you’re getting em anyways!!!

Of course I know none of you care about me right now – what can I say about Kara.

Her result in the Irish open was just phenomenal and added to her amazing tournament record. Theres not much I havent already said about her after her deep WSOP run but frankly I couldn’t be more proud of her. From the first week she worked in the poker industry shes been determined to become a good player and shes getting the results to prove it. Im sure it hasnt sunk in for her yet – as it hasnt for me – its such a great result.

As many of you know I once taught Kara how to play – now I fear when we meet at the table it’ll be like Darth Vader and Obi Wan…’once you were the teacher….

One final thing I would like to point out how clever of her it is to win a boat load of cash just a few days before my birthday

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