Live / Online / Life

This week Blazin-Aces had there Christmas festival and every night got a great turn out with the €250 & €100 events both selling out. I played four of the events and came 2nd in the Tuesday night event (€30+10 scalps event) and Won the Friday night game (round of NLH & PLO). For some reason almost every player in the tournament bitched about the round of Omaha but yet when they double or treble up they love it. When we got down to the final 3 players we were the only 3 that actually enjoyed the tournament, not because we got in the money but because we enjoy all forms of poker. God help us if it was a H.O.R.S.E event..!!!

On the online front I played a few small Ipoker tournaments and cashed in most of them and Played a bit of PLO cash on a few accounts I had balances in. I plan to clear them all out over the next few weeks and just play the one Ipoker account as I don't see the point in playing an account with inferior rake especially with cash games. Its just throwing money away.

Regarding my 2009 PLO cash challenge I'm not sure if I should just Play Ipoker or also play Fulltilt as I find that on Ipoker every day its the same players and there is very little new names popping up. Maybe I should play both..!!! I just don't know. If I play both I can't see myself moving up levels on both sites as quickly as I would only be putting in half the hours on each.
I was also a bit mad thinking of moving up levels with 35 buy In's, so this will now be 55 with the 5 used for taking shots upwards..maybe still a bit mad but hey, God loves a try'er.

On a personal note 2009 is only a few weeks away and this means starting back playing golf and trying to get fit. Not overly looking forward to playing golf in the middle of the winter but I used to enjoy it years ago so I'm gonna try and get back into it. The getting fit bit scares the hell out of me as I haven't done any exercise in 10yrs and I'm so lazy, but I know it has to be done so maybe that part of the blog will be more fun to read than the poker side. 2009 is a big year for me also because I have a planning application in to build a new house on an amazing site I own overlooking the river and its set in a forest. The only problem is that its costing a fortune due to some idiot in the local planning department that thinks I need to put in a new road that is 1.3km and will cost €60k. The main road is only 100m away (and would cost €5k) from another entrance but it "techinally dosent fit into there regulations". People wonder why this country is in such a mess....idiots like that is why.

Anyway that's all for now, got to do do some Christmas shopping.

A new beginning

Ok. I’ve been thinking about doing a blog for a long time for a number of different reasons.

Firstly I suppose to give me some focus and take poker more seriously. My thinking behind this is if I have a blog and am truthful about it then I don’t want to embarrass myself so I would take things more serious.
Secondly I’ve have been playing poker for3 yrs now and for the first 2 and a half quite profitable live cash 28/30 winning months. I always seemed to have a good bankroll management and focus for live cash games, but as the economy started on a downward spiral the live cash games dried up in Waterford and I decided to try online. Also I much prefer Pot limit Omaha to Hold’em and could never seem to find a regular live Omaha game. Anyway I made a few deposits on a few different sites and was up and down like a yo-yo until I blew my online bankroll with total tilt, moving up levels that I just cant afford to play and the more I lost the higher I would go until I go BUST. I then decided to play PLO with the intention of grinding for 8hrs a day, 6 days a week to get a good income from rakeback along with any profits I made. I done this for 12 weeks sometimes playing up to 16hrs a day and never getting bored as I find the game addictive, as you get so involved in every hand you play unlike NLH. Anyway to cut a long story short I got a 2k deposit up to 50k in the 12 weeks. Again I moved up levels and tilted after a few bad beats donking off most of my profits from pure tilt. I would play 4hrs in the morning and then 4-8hrs in the evening just to get my hours in for my rakeback, my problem being I never once had any aims or goals when I sit down, I just wanted to put in the hours and make as much profit as I could without knowing where I wanted to go with this. So after dumping too much cash with tilt I have decided to take a break and set out a plan for the coming 12 months and treat it the same as I would treat any business I ever had.

I recognise that I want to play poker for a living.

I “think” that I can.

But I also understand that I need to have a life aside from poker and that It can’t take up your life, as I found myself eating, breathing and sleeping poker for too long. So I need to structure poker around my life and not my life around poker. I also need to understand what I want from poker. .......
I want to set a goal for 2009 and reach that goal while also having time to enjoy life.

So the PLAN: From February 09 (holidays and few tournaments in Jan)

-To play PLO cash online starting off at level 1 and reaching level 6 or 7 by the end of 2009
-Level 1 $.50-1 / level 2 $1-2 / level 3 $2-4 / level 4 $3-6 / level 5 $5-10 / level 6 $10-20 / level 7 $ 25-50

-Buy-in rules (which many will disagree with) Minimum of 35 to move to next level and if I drop below 30 I move back a level (so I use 5 buy-ins to take a shot at next level).

-Less is more. Less hours and more effort and focus into the time I do play.

-STOP TILTING.

-Withdraw only if ahead of my monthly goal and also use rakeback for living expenses.

-Play some golf and also get some exercise (healthy body= healthy mind etc,).

-Update blog at least once a week.