BIG News

Well, if you have not already heard.  My time with my Team MOSHMAN coach came to an end and I was promptly offered a position on the coaching team as their newest coach.

Needless to say, I snapped their hand off and I am now a bonafide coach, way before I planned to be.  And if Team MOSHMAN think that I have the knowledge and capabilities to bring something to their stable of coaches then that is enough of a tick in the box for me.

So - check this out -  http://www.doubleagentpokercoaching.com/ I am going to see if I can grow a stable of students to get my coaching off to the biggest and best start that I possibly can.  If truth be told, I really enjoy coaching and while it is probably never going to be as profitable as playing. it comes with a lot less stress and worry and more of a warm fuzzy feeling.

So massive changes in my plans this week and what do you think happened to my game with that vote of confidence, I must have been unplayable right?  You could not be more wrong, I am in the middle of the longest losing streak I have encountered for a long time, and I don't seem to be able to get out of it.  Same old story, I have not won a flip for an eternity, I have not outdrawn anybody in a big pot for the same length of time, and playing poker sucks again.  So as I start to ask people to trust in my abilities my form takes a turn for the worse. 

Fortunately we are coming to the end of the year.  I say this because the leaderboards on Sharkscope hold a lot of weight and accountability in the poker world.  While at the beginning of the year I was all over them (well the $15 9man ones, anyway), the middle of the year saw me concentrate my focus onto the satellites for the WSOP and with Black Friday, I ended playing them under that screen name altogether. 
Having set up my new home on Stars, I have no doubt, I will be in the top half of the leaderboard again, if not all the way at the top. Plus this time I will have a nice Team MOSHMAN Coach badge next to my name.

I have made an offer of some free Hand Histories on The Hendonmob.com so you can see how by  following this link http://www.thehendonmob.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=41990

Time to go make some of this money back before I get too many students.  Lucky I got some rest last weekend huh.

Slowing down

  

I have taken the foot off the gas, in poker terms, this week and will again for the week to come.  My brother flew in from the USA on Friday for a flying visit as he left again Sunday morning.  He was only here two nights so we had a lot of catching up to squeeze in.  I miss my brother a lot so there was no way I was going to waste time trying to grind a profit this weekend.  We went out, played some pool, drank some beer and ate indian food which was great.

            

Another reason for the slowdown is the fact that my coaching contract with Team Moshman has 8 days left to run and I have more than met my contractual obligations for the number of games to be completed.  I have learned a lot in the last 16 weeks, more about how to analyse and improve my play opposed to actually playing differently.  I have gained some invaluable knowledge from my coach Mitch and I can only apologise for my 1000 game break even stretch which has hit me recently which has meant I have not made as much money for Team Moshman (and I) as I would have liked.  I certainly owe Mitch a drink or two so hopefully bump you in Vegas soon Mitch.

And to carry the non-poker theme forward.  I am treating the Mrs to a weekend away next weekend and I have promised NO Laptop.
I try to do this once a year when the weather gets colder.  We barely see each other all year long due to work commitments.  Well we never get a day off together anyway.  So with the colder weather due to set in, we should have snow by the end of the month so I heard from the weather man, I whisk her away to a small cottage in the country with an open fire in the living room.  We arrive Friday, I lock the door behind us and we dont unlock it again until we leave again on Monday morning.  We keep the fire lit all weekend, I cook all the food, pour all the wine and beer and we get through a whole load of DVD's, chocolate and a LOT of some other stuff!!!!!!



So with that in mind, I might miss next weeks entry but I am sure you dont begrudge me that.

Storm before the storm

Im already getting nervous, even before my wages are cut and my families well being relies on a few games of cards.
I am putting together some plans and ideas so that the transition can go as smooth as possible.  On a basic level it is thinking about my targets that will get me the $$$ through the door.  I really need to work out the best ( and cheapest) way to withdraw my $$$ and move it about.  I usually go through moneybookers or skrill as it is now known and a bank card, but it has been a while since I have taken any money out of stars and I dont want to get stung with crappy exchange rates etc.

My bankroll is moving nicely towards having enough to play in the $30 games but after a few games in them tonight and the importance of maintaining a reasonable ROI, I am thinking right now that I wont progress straight away and rather bide my time until I have completed a few successful months working semi pro at this game.

I think my proper working hours will probably change around Christmas sometime, so I am hoping I can get serious around January time and make my first cash out at the end of that month.  So if it is January, I will be aiming for,
2000+ games, of which I plan on playing 10% of those at the $30 level and the rest at $15.  This averages out at 66 games a day.  I feel comfortable with that number and hopefully in time i'll see that I can play a lot more than this.  Playing this many would enable me to get Supernova on Stars which affords some nice $$$ bonuses along the way, about $5700.  With a 30% increase in VPPs, this would increase that by another $2600, so i'll be aiming for that as the year goes on.  $8300 before my profits kick in sounds like a good start and something to build on.

I have cut back on my clothing allowance and i'll be stocking up on extra underwear so I can sit around the house most of the day in them.
I have taken note of Daniel Negreanus set up and i'll be employing an assistant, I will set her up a twitter account which will be @Motherinlaw.  I am not a vegan so @Motherinlaw will be making some egg and bacon rolls for me while she looks after the kids whilst I play.  @Motherinlaw is amazing and I guess i'll be seeing a lot more of her soon.

I guess I should make time to get to the gym to huh?

Coming soon - Leap of faith!

Its official, I will very sonn be working part time and my wages cut by about 40%.  If I cannot make in excess of £800 -(not $800).  Even then I will be behind as we wont have my extra poker winnings that pay for a few of the extra luxuries that we enjoy.

Probably one of the bigger leaps of faith I have taken considering the wife and kids depend on me.  I thought this might spice up my enthusiasm and get the guts turning over a bit.
Since this all happened in the last week or so the poker gods thought that they would give me a tester and give me some crappy cards my way,

"A bit worrying".  Not really.  See at the moment 200 games would take me over a week.  So over a week, no profit, move on to the next week, if it happened two or three week on the spin, no great shakes - get paid at the end of the month and think of the VPP's.

With the new "fewer hours at work" me, I should be able to play between 1500 to 2000 games a month, so this little downswing in the graph will last about 4 days and it will be business as usual.

I am certainly feeling the pressure a little bit even before my wages are cut.  A few butterflies in my belly, a feeling I have not felt in a while, hopefully they can give me more focus.  I hope I can cope through the bad times and keep grinding it out.

The nerves increased again in the last few days, the washing machine blew up, spent a fortune on concert tickets for the family and had a dodgy run of football bets go the wrong way.  BUT in the new schedule of things the football bets will be reeled in to the minimal, the family wont go without, i'll make sure of that and I have a fall back nest egg for incidents and accidents.

So I have it all in place, I think.  I have read everybodies accounts on what it takes and what you need in reserve and i think I have it all.

I am not a mug ( I hope).  I can always go back to work full time if I need too but I am hoping to cut more hours or quit altogether at some time in the future.

Thought I might start to blog once a week as my transition into semi-pro takes place.  It might make some interesting reading, I might get some monumental advice from a reader and it will hopefully keep my eyes on the prize.  I will blog every weekend if I can (some might be short and sweet), that way I dont have to blog whore across the firums and twitter and the regs will know that a new post will appear over the weekend or Monday at latest.

In the next post, i'll let you know what my projections are for the future and when the grind will really count as the wages are cut and the pressure mounts.

Just realised, I must have



OMG

I cannot write while I feel this way.  My poker friend who I am coaching seems to be coming along nicely, while OMG my game seems to be falling apart.  Had a 3 day problem with the internet which needed 4 British Telecom engineers to have an input, even if 3 of them were on the phone in India somewhere and I could not understand much of what they were talking about.
All fixed and I set about putting in more volume than ever before, bring on a downswing which has been the biggest for a while and for some reason more painful than usual, especially as I am on the brink of cutting my hours at work to grind more, as my first step to quitting all together.

So all in all, not a great time to be writing about the joys of my life.  Its bloody cold outside, the Mrs is working nights so I have the kids all day while she sleeps and I am bloody miserable.  I even drank alcohol tonight which I usually only do at Christmas every couple of years.

Screw google images, screw poker for the rest of the night and why the hell do I have to wait until 130am to watch Monday night NFL.  Can you guys put it on a couple of hours earlier so we can watch it at a half reasonable time.  I have got so much to moan about right now - Depressed.

If any of you people out there see me in the next week or so (doubtful as I am stuck at home with kids most of time) feel free to shoot me or just walk up and kick me square in the balls, it will cheer me up.

Hopefully i'll be back soon with some cheerier stuff.

Poker coach?

Well, my BR is still creeping up along with my HEM graph.  The dips in my graph seem to be smaller and I feel like I am managing to control the variance a little better, if that is possible.  I mean I am not aggravating it with tilty play.

You may remember a little while back I began to coach my boy (age 11).  I did post some information about it in a forum somewhere, 2+2 it I think, and war broke out with two armies of FOR and AGAINST slagging each other off as I ducked for cover.  For those of you who thought it was a bad idea, you will be pleased to know I have knocked it on the head, for now at least, as he has started big school and I want him to study hard.
This has given me a tiny bit of free time which I am now using to teach my first student so I guess I am officially a poker coach.

Strictly speaking, it is more of a trial poker coaching arrangement.  A buddy of mine has followed me for a while, read my blogs and asked my advice.  I always do what I can to help anyway but when he asked for some further time and effort in exchange for cash, I agreed.  I tried to evaluate the time that I will spend coaching him and work out how much I would have won over that period if I had played at the tables myself and charged him that, which we are both happy with.   I also agreed on a NO WIN NO FEE basis, but he is pretty good already so I dont see this being an issue.

Things have started well and I am putting in lots of work and ideas that I have picked up from my coach.  I have completed a couple of hand history reviews and already had a one on one session with another one planned for tomorrow.

If this goes well I am hoping to open the doors on my coaching career.  Dont get me wrong it will only be SNG's as my cash game and MTT strategy suck right now, but hopefully by the end of next year, I can get a couple of students and take it from there.  I enjoy being coached and I have enjoyed passing it forward so who knows. 
My aim for next year is to get on the Sharkscope leaderboards.  I dont feel this will be too hard as long as I play a reasonable amount.  I would almost be on there now, if my play was not split between FTP and STARS, and I have only played for about 5 or 6 months this year.
If I can sort out my work schedule, I should also be able to attain Supernova too, so I should be in a good position to advertise as a genuine, proficient coach, if that is the route I decide in taking.

Being a Poker Player Aint Cheap!

Well, it has been a while but things are going pretty well.  I have been working with my SNG coach now for 8 weeks and have learned a LOT.  Most of it has been how to properly analyse my game and that of others using HEM which is invaluable.  This is improving my ICM skills and post flop play and its paying off.

I am still grinding the $15 SNG's but not too any great volume which is disappointing.  I have the last two months at 750 games and 500 games.  While it felt like I was putting in lots of time, the real grinders are managing 3000 per month, which is just way beyond me unfortunately.  I am maintaining close to 8% ROI which I am pleased with but I have gone down to just 6 tables.  I find that when I am playing 9 or 12, I have a bad run of cards and suddenly I am doing my tits, wheereas when I play 6 tables, I notice my downswing sooner and rest for a while before my next set.  Do need to get back to 9 tables at least though.

I am heading towards my target of $2500 before I head up to the $33 games but I have had a lot to pay out for from my bankroll over the last couple months.

Being a Poker Player Aint Cheap!

Firstly, I purchased HEM, while essential and probably the best money I ever spent $100 gone.
2nd, SNGWizard, again essential, again $100 gone.
3rd, My coaching from Team Moshman is on a NO WIN NO FEE basis.  A great deal, invaluable, great coach BUT almost $1000 gone.
Add in a spare mouse, couple of new books and a desire for a new monitor and I'll say it again
Being a Poker Player Aint Cheap!

So to see my BR go from $300 towards the end of July to $1800 now, I feel slightly deflated but in reality, I should be quite pleased.  I have another 2 months on my coaching contract and then after that, I will hopefully see a speedier rise of my BR.

Off to play live at the IPO in Dublin, next weekend.  I have had some good results there last two years with 4 final tables from 6 tournaments but nothing in the Main event and no winners trophy so hoping to turn that around.

All in all