January

I managed to get off to a flyer winning 7 NL30 buy-ins in 2 short sessions, only to give it all back in an even shorter session 3. Looking back, I can only assume the guy calling off his 210BB stack on a Q 8 4 7 board knew something I didn't about the relative values of J9 and KK.

After about a week, the urge to play returned but I just couldn't face playing cash. Dropping down is fine when crushing, but soul destroying when being crushed. I ended up playing a few $24 turbo sit and go's on Full Tilt for a bit of light relief. Turbo my arse.

When I last played a sit and go in June 2008, first hand multiple knock outs were the norm and if you found yourself still playing after 45 minutes it was because the site had crashed. Now these things are total nit fests/shove fests taking nearly an hour. I lost about $80 over 30 sit and go's before getting board.

I decided to hit the PLO tables and promptly won 5 buy-ins at PLO50 before crashing down to earth with a 4 buy-in loss the next day, followed by a couple of big losing NL50 sessions. After having a crack at a couple of tourneys and some limit hold em, I realised I had turned into a spewing recreational fish.

Fortunately over the last few days of the month I managed to regain focus and finished with a a few good NL 100 and 50 sessions to turn things round.

Cash summary

NL 100 - 852 hands +$489.09
NL50 - 4525 hands (-$112.28)
NL30 - 4008 hands +$60.11
NL25 - 243 hands +$23.89
1/2 LIM - 245 hands -$8
PLO50 - 727 hands +$44.30

Overall, bankroll $10,406.60.

Glad that's over

December finished poorly. Shortly after my last post, I had my worst ever day, losing about 8 buy-ins. I decided it was time to drop down two levels to try to get some confidence back. Since then I have put in about 6.8k hands of NL30 and won about $480 at 11.66PTBB (EV $481), which is encouraging. Most encouraging is that my red line is going up - I didn't realise quite how passive I had become over the last few months.

Overall I finished the year with $9,980.97, which is obviously hugely disappointing given where I was on 1 September. Goals for next year:

1) Win $18k.
2) Play 180k+ hands with a win rate of 5PTBB's+.
3) Move up to 1/2NL by 1 May.
4) Improve my hand reading (think about ranges and the best response every hand).
5) Get some coaching.
6) Final table a $200 buy in tourny (I played less than 5 tournys in 2009).
7) Go to my local card room (it turns out there is a dealer dealt poker club called Duffs nearby).
8) Make the best decision every time.
9) Have a winning year on Full Tilt (because I run like a 3 legged donkey there).
10)Run up a $10 free deposit to $5,000 on Party (strictly, continue where I left off - I made it from $10 to $338.39 last year).

I plan to start by winning $1,000 at NL30 and take it from there.

Good luck to everyone in 2010.

First post 10 December 2009

Starting balance (all sites): $10,369.66

About me. I have a full time job and play poker in my spare time. On average I play about 15k hands per month of NL 100 and NL50. I aim to win about $1,000 per month and one day I am going to use the money to pay off my £250k interest only mortgage.

I ran well at the start of the year, but things have got tougher recently. I have experienced a couple of downswings and have basically broken even over the last few months.

The latest downswing since the start of December has really knocked my confidence. There is no doubt that I am running bad and, at times, playing bad. But I have also lost some confidence in my A game and have become more susceptible to tilt.

2009 Historical balances:

1 January $2,783.94
1 February $3,909.03
1 March $4,357.53
1 April $5,806.56
1 May $7,311.99
1 June $8,573.17
1 July $7,805.24 (First down swing)
1 August $8,782.42
1 September $10,608.46
1 October $11,529.94
1 November $10,140.21 (Second downswing)
1 December $11,201.67
10 December $10,369.66 (Third downswing)

I had hoped to make $10k this year. But it doesn't look likely now. I want to spend the rest of this year working on my game.

Last Post - 9 December 2019

Well it took 10 years, but I finally made it - I have now officially won enough money playing poker to pay off my mortgage - $425,000. This is how I did it. Thanks for reading.