Do you live in Melbourne?

Date: Wed, Sep 2, 2009

If so, can we come gatecrash your house? We're having a nightmare at the moment trying to find a place to rent for 3 months. Everywhere seems to want 6-month minimum contracts, and the shorter contract places are RIDIC expensive. Oh yea and we're leaving here in like 4 days.

So far we've come up with... living in Aus for 6 months instead, hiring a motorhome(the GrindBus) to travel around Aus in, or I guess we could be high-stakes pokertramps living on McDonalds's wifi. Solution pleeeeeease?

Planning Tokyo, booking hotels, etc tonight and tomorrow. Should be hooking up Sumo tickets too, sweeeeeet! If anyone has bar/restaurant/club/etc suggestions please shoot them in comments.

August
Was my worst results month ever, finishing -$5k. The usual running badly, with some playing badly mixed in. I feel like I did a good job of not letting it bother me too much which is really important. Off to a good start so far on September already, which is nice.

Tommy Angelo's 8th DC vid
Fantastic penultimate video to the series. One point really hit home hard with me, I'll try to describe it without completely ripping off his content...

I have sessions where I win 5bi early then end up dropping 5bi just before the end of the session, they make me feel VERY angry. Why? Because according to Tommy the pain comes from the attachment to the money won. If there was no attachment to the money then there would be no anger/frustration.

It made me think for a few minutes about how graphs really don't matter. All that matters is your current focus/concentration (mental state), being able to beat the games you're sat in (game selection) and having enough money to not feel anxious about losing what you have on the table (bankroll management). If you can focus yourself on those things rather than how you're running (the past) or winning your money back (the future) then you'll play as optimally as possible.

To quote Tommy, "If we could just live our bankroll, every single second, no matter what it was, the amount of agony we'd let go of is huge".

I always find that when I have a bad run one of the things I do to de-stress and make myself comfortable is to review my bankroll and long-term results. They always make me feel happier and more confident. I realise I have the skill required, the bankroll required and I just focus on my current mental state.

Anyways I rambled on a bit there, but it's something that really clicks with me. Watch the video, the 'grand delusion' non-attachment related part is fantastic too.

Twitter
Added this on the left bar you'll have noticed! I think it'll come in handy for posting tilted ASDKJASLDKJSALKDJSD updates, random travelling pics, recommendations on videos to watch, etc. So i'll be using it for poker related stuff... which might be weird for the people who already have me added for non-poker reasons, but whatever.

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Round the world trip

Date: Wed, Aug 26, 2009

Flight are booked for my pre-xmas trip, leave in 2 weeks. Super excited! The itinerary is...

8th Sept
** Edinburgh -> London -> Tokyo **

Eat sushi, ride the bullet train, see some Sumo wrestling, get owned at streetfighter by 8 year olds.

13th Sept
** Tokyo -> Sydney -> Melbourne **

Living in Melbourne with Dodgy/Pureklas for 3 months, need to start looking at houses this week.

27th Sept - 5th Oct
Pokernews Cup Melbourne

14-18th Oct
New Zealand for APPT Auckland

1-6th Dec
APPT Sydney

13th Dec
** Melbourne -> Los Angeles **

14 freaking hour non-stop flight. Spend some time on the west coast, hopefully catch LA, SF, Southern Cali and Noel!

20th Dec
** San Fran(?) -> New York **

Do some xmas shopping in NY, eat all the amazing food people keep banging on about, fulfil my life purpose of seeing the Moscow Cat Theatre.

23rd Dec
** NY -> London -> Edinburgh **

Get back home 1pm on xmas eve, win!

I feel really lucky to be able to go on a trip like this... always wanted to go to Tokyo and NY. Def gonna make the most of it and do as much as possible. If you're around at any of the places we're going let me know and we can grab some beers.

Stuck quite a bit at poker this month, 5 days to un-busto my month... big shift for me tonight and got a VIP Aruba freeroll... one time? Gogogogo!

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Back to Edinburgh for a few weeks

Date: Mon, Aug 17, 2009

Been busy a lot over the last 4-5 days; friend's wedding, festival night out'age, then down visiting family in Manchester. Managed to catch a lift up to Edinburgh tomorrow which is sweet even sweeter have shipped a room at a friends flat for the next couple of weeks.

So the plan is... back up to Edinburgh, move stuff over to new place, book Aus, last 2 weeks of the Edinburgh Festival party'age and lots of griiiind!

I've hardly got any poker in so far this month due to a lot going on - but I have done 6-7 coaching sessions. Tried to post a HM graph but it's not running as my internet here is broken, doh. I did unbusto the month (was down $7k now up $1k or something) so hopefully I can keep the upward trend and run up some profits.

Just got done watch the premiere of 2M2MM, it's real good imo... really looking forward to the rest. Krantz and co do a great job of showing all sides of the high-stakes internet poker pro lifestyle. I think it'd be pretty interesting viewing for non-poker players too. You can watch the whole first episode on Pokertube.

Also, another student shoutout... check out Scott's blog, DoggyStylePoker!

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A hand with Phil Hellmuth

Date: Wed, Aug 12, 2009

At the new seven-deuce tables on Cereus...

This is my favourite hand of poker I've played in my life. There were a few others from the session but this one stands out the most. Surely it doesn't get any better than value check/raising Phil Hellmuth on the river? Oh baby! :)

$25/$50 No Limit Holdem
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:

3 folds, PHILHELLMUTH raises to $100, 1 fold, Hero calls $50

Flop: ($285, 2 players)
Hero checks, PHILHELLMUTH checks

Turn: ($285, 2 players)
Hero checks, PHILHELLMUTH bets $285, Hero calls $285

River: ($855, 2 players)
Hero checks, PHILHELLMUTH bets $650, Hero raises to $1,950, PHILHELLMUTH calls $1,300

Final Pot: $4,755
PHILHELLMUTH shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $4,752 ( won +$2,417 )
PHILHELLMUTH lost -$2,335

PHILHELLMUTH: wow
SPIRIT ROCK wins ($185.00 chips).
PHILHELLMUTH: sick ****** ace
PHILHELLMUTH: especially against crazy guy loike U


Life is good :D

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S'update

Date: Mon, Aug 10, 2009

Kicked off the month with 2 really shitty sessions, running terribly in soft high-stakes games and dropping ~$11k in like 2 hours play across 2 days. Didn't really feel much like playing after that and took a break for a while.

Martin(Dodgyken) and Chris(Pureklas) came up to Edinburgh for a few days to hang out and chat about plans to go to Australia next month. If all goes to plan we're looking to head over to Melbourne early September and set up house there for the winter. I've been to Melbourne before and absolutely love it, so I'm psyched about going back to live for a while, it's an awesome city. Been checking out flights, thinking about buying a round the world ticket but got until my new passport arrives to decide.

Until then I'm currently flat-less which is kind of weird. It's grind time up north at the mo, just got set up at my Dad's where I'll be for a few days. There's nothing to do in this town (Auchtermuchty) so I'll finally get back to playing some poker. Put in a session tonight at lower-stakes finishing up around $1.3k. Actually, we do have a sweet electronic drum kit/guitars setup up here, so will be fun to get down to some much needed practise and do some jamming.

Headed back to Edinburgh this weekend for a wedding and more festival fun. The Edinburgh festival totally rocks, loads of great outdoor beergarden venues, tons of live comedy, and clubs have late licenses 'til 6am. Win! Headed down to Manchester on Sunday to catch up with my Mum and family for bit and will come back up for the end of the festival before heading to Aus.

Not taking any more applications for new students. I've started work with 4 guys which is going great, still in early stages but looking forward to seeing them move up stakes and crush!

Gonna go watch new Entourage and sleep. Oh and I know I'm like a month late to the party but The Hangover is freaking awesome.

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Welcome to August

Date: Sat, Aug 1, 2009

When you lose $5,000 in under an hour you just know it's gonna be a good one!

$1,000 of that is due to a bad calldown by me, $4000 of that is due to spastic fucking monkey plays by my opponents who hit repeatedly. I know I should love you donkeys but tonight it has just made me want to break stuff.

There, that feels better. At least I didn't completely waste your time...

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Taking on new students

Date: Wed, Jul 29, 2009

Gay inspirational pic, check! Competitive rate, check! Ability to teach you to CRUSH 50nl to 200nl, mega-check!

My game and mindset are in great shape right now and I'd really like to teach some new students the arts of crushing online poker! I figure the best way to gain attention as a coach is to post recent results and recommendations from students/friends. So here you go...

Last 2 Months Graph

HEM Database Graph (since going pro)

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Wehhh!

Date: Fri, Jul 24, 2009

Played a session just now that really frustrated me. For the first time in a while I feel like I played a few hands badly due to a lack of focus and concentration. I was working on some stuff while 2-tabling, not cool. I really played them like a TAGfish, without putting enough thought into them and quit out really annoyed at myself.

EDIT: Decided to remove a bunch of vent hands that were pretty dull.

When I got back from Russia I felt really excited about getting back into poker and put in some great sessions, including an $11k day(ding!). I moved over to my Aunt's house where I'm at just now, house sitting here for a few weeks while they're all on holiday. Since then I've been pretty unhappy with my work-rate and play. I've played something ridic like 6k hands this month, and 1k of them was in a 4-tabling HU match vs a friend. Granted I was away for a couple of weeks but it's still not enough. I really need to sort my shit out here and get my head in the game, will start hitting the gym next week, hopefully that will help.

Some great poker videos out at the moment. Phil Galfond has put out a 2-tabling Railheaven series on Bluefire and DC are rightly giving NoahSD a ton of airtime. Reall tempted to renew CR too as they're putting out a bunch of DogIsHead. Studytown for me.

Thanks to everyone for responses to the previous travelling post. There has been some progress and I'm talking to a couple of players just now about setting up a house in Melbourne, Australia. Still in the early stages but I think it's really promising. The weather, location and time-zones for poker make it an awesome winter destination. It's possible to catch some APPT from there too, and the Aussie Millions is in January.

If you've not already, check out the 2M2MM trailers... looks sweet. Although Whitelime kind of looks like a serial killer in real life.

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Where to?

Date: Tue, Jul 14, 2009

So I'm in Edinburgh for the next month, but come mid-August I'll have no long-term place to stay. Really just posting here to put my shit out there and see if anyone is in a similar situation, has something available, has some advice, etc.

I'm looking to set up something cool for Sept/Oct/Nov, would like to share a house/apartment with other poker players. Kind of like the 3 months in Thailand earlier this year, but somewhere else. Preferably not a cold country.

Gonna kind of hunt around for a week or so and if I can't find something that works out will try setting up a house somewhere via 2p2.

My shortlist of good places to live Sept-Nov based on climate/fun are currently...

• Seoul (South Korea) ~ APPT in Sept
  
• Metro Manila (Phillipines) ~ APPT in Nov
  
• Melbourne (Australia)
  
• Sao Paulo (Brazil)
• Buenos Aires (Argentina)
• San Sebastian (Spain)
• California or NYC (USA)

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Back in Edinburgh

Date: Mon, Jul 13, 2009

Managed to get home without a mullet, shellsuit or Russian wife!



Pics from my facebook

Some random Russia related stuff...

Had one ridic night of drinking kicked off with awesome Cuban style Fajitas and pints of Mojito at Club Che, then some wierd ex-pat bar with awesome live music which was full of stunning Russian women... that all turned out to be hookers (we think). A taxi ride from some drunk Russian later ended up having to get out after he almost knocked over some guy on the street. The dude lived, and showed us to an unlimited vodka club (for £6 entry lol) where things got ridic messy and ended up with one of my mates going back to our hostel wasted and pissing off everyone in our dorm... while another mate passed out and had to spend a night in a Russian hospital. Ended up getting in the ambulance there and a couple of us sorted things out and crashed in the hospital til the morning. Waking up sleeping on some consultation table in wet clothes after 4 hours sleep in a 70's Russian hospital ftl.

We missed our sleeper train to Moscow by 1 minute! Actually saw the train pull away from the platform as we sprinted for it. Spent a little too much time drinking at an awesome nuclear bunker themed bar called Lenin. Sweet.

Speaking of Lenin we also visited Lenin's Tomb at the Kremlin and saw his preserved mummified body. Pretty surreal, one of the creepiest things I've seen. There were a ton of super serious Russian guards surrounding the tomb keeping everyone moving past the body silently. One of them tapped my arm and told me to take my hands out my pockets, pretty hardcore.

Russian history is crazy awesome, read the history stuff in the guide books we had but will need to grab some more in depth books to read. The revolutions in the 1900s in particular are really interesting, it's incredible the way it's changed over the last 100 years.

Saw some Da Vinci paintings at The Hermitage which was cool, place was insanely huge... pity we didn't have a lot of time in it after queuing for over 2 and a half hours!

Ate at a Russian sushi place in Moscow on our late night which was fantastic. 2nd best sushi I've ever had (to Vegas).

Oh, and the Moscow Cat Theatre is in motherfucking NY, not Moscow! Guess I'll need to hit up NY pretty soon.

I feel like grinding, but got a ton of stuff to sort out. I'm moving to my aunt's this weekend to house-sit for her for a few weeks, that should be cool. Then after that I've not got flat sorted out in Edinburgh, so hopefully something will come up or might head back to to Asia or to South America or something to live for a while.

Poker related stuff to come soon, I'm sure...

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Going to Russia, BRB

Date: Thu, Jul 2, 2009

Leaving for an 9-day trip to Russia tomorrow with 3 mates, it's gonna be sick. My Russian tourist visa arrived today, picked up some Rubles... Good to go!

Flying via Amsterdam to St Petersburg and staying for 3 nights. Taking the Trans-Siberian Railway to Moscow overnight on my bday, 4 nights in Moscow then headed back to Edinburgh. Hostelling it the whole way at like $15/night hostels which should be interesting!

I don't know a whole lot about Russia so not too sure what to expect, really looking forward to it. Will post some pics when I get back. I've heard St Petersburg is meant to be pretty Euro style and Moscow is meant to be rave central for nightlife... Vodka time!

Looking forward to some time away from the tables, I didn't take many days off last month so good to get a longer break now. GL to everyone playing the main event, particularly those I have pieces of ;)

I almost forgot this

EDIT: Will be updating facebook via twitter during the trip so check either for updates if you wish.

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June

Date: Tue, Jun 30, 2009

June is my new biggest month ever, finishing up over $35,000.

It's without doubt my biggest poker accomplishment and typifies the type of month I've always aimed to achieve as a pro. After how May went it feels great to be back on track with the $150k goal for this year. Shows how important it is to keep working hard and moving forward as things can turn around pretty fast.

I started out June grinding $200nl to get confidence back, within a few days I moved back up to midstakes and continued crushing. Picked up a lot of confidence and decided to play some 5/10 and then some higher games. From there just went on a tear and ran really well the whole month. Really happy with my game selection, shot-taking and play overall... although there's still a lot of work to be done.

I'm gonna take note of some of the most important things I think I learned this month, I reckon it'll be useful to read back over in the future and might be useful to some of you guys too...

Mental Awareness, Confidence & Goals
Being able to gauge how confident/happy/risk adverse I am at a given time has been important for selecting my goals for that individual session. If I'm low on confidence then I like grinding lower to regain confidence and book a win. If I'm high on confidence then I'll take on higher games.

I understand that for some people making a goal of playing X amount of hands in a month at a particular stake is useful to give them structure and help with volume, but I feel that it restricts your ability to adapt based on you current state. For me, keeping daily/weekly/monthly goals flexible is a much better way of achieving my long term goal of making as much money possible.

Changing and updating my goals throughout the month based on how I'm feeling and how things are going has really helped me keep as motivated as possible. There are a ton of scenarios which make this obvious to me. Here's an example: You told yourself you'd play 40k hands this month, but there's now only a week left and you're only 20k hands in. If you keep the 40k goal then you'll likely subconciously have the attitude that you won't make the goal anyway and slack off telling yourself that you'll play more and do it next month. I think it's better to reset your goal... look at your schedule for upcoming week and create a realistic hands target to keep your motivation (and volume) as high as possible.

Another slightly different example... You set yourself the goal of playing 2,000 hands today but 500 hands into the session you're down 6 buy-ins and on raging monkey-tilt. Is it still realistic to get those 2k hands in? And is it best for your long-term? Unlikely... so change your current goal to returning yourself to a confident/positive state of mind as quickly as possible. Don't beat yourself up about losing money and not getting your hands in, look at the big picture. If you get back into the right state of mind quick enough you might even still get another 1k hands in for the night.

Back to confidence a little... I've also found that my confidence level at the poker table can be improved by improving my overall confidence at that given time. Working out, going for a run or playing sports are all great for this... physical activity increases confidence and positivity a ton for sure. I've also found that eating well has helped a lot, eating big meals before sessions is a big leak too.

Wow, I'm turning into Raptor a bit :S

Tilt and Quitting
Keeping mentally aware while playing has really helped me to make fantastic quits all month and play my A game as much as possible. I can't remember any time in the whole month where I played tilted, even if there were good games. I can remember getting tilted... but I realised right away and made a solid quit, same with when I get tired. I really can't stress enough how much mental awareness has upped my game over the last month. I seriously think it's had a HUGE affect on my winrate, thankyou Tommy Angelo.

Working Environment
Another thing I think helped this month was having a good working environment to play in. Got a desk setup in my room, 2nd monitor and it's been nice and calm/quiet here with de-tilting furry cats to pet. Much different to Thailand where I didn't have a good calm workplace and found it difficult to concentrate. Been thinking about heading on to the APPT trail in a couple of months - not to play the tourneys but to grind high-stakes live cash and hang out - but I'm beginning to think that having a more stable workplace might be a lot more profitable. Hopefully I can find a compromise as I really want to travel.

July
Headed on holiday with a few mates at the start of the month, then moving when I get back... so might not be a whole lot of volume. I'll be continuing to branch out to both FR and HU NLHE. A few reasons for this... better game selection, benefitting my overall game and keeping things interesting for me. I'm really enjoying learning HU at the moment, the DogIsHeadsUP series on DC is without doubt some of the best poker instruction I've ever watched. Dude is mindblowing.

I understand it's important not to get ahead of myself... not to expect too much of future months and to keep working hard. I feel confident that I can stay on the top of my game so long as I stay mentally aware. I'll make sure to keep my head up if next month doesn't go as well.

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Some hands from yesterday

Date: Fri, Jun 26, 2009

TY to everyone for the congratulations on my last post... can hardly believe how this month is going, very happy! I feel like I should give you guys some content after just blatantly posting a brag graph lol. Here are some of my fav high-stakes hands from yesterday, in the order they went down. Hand #5 is my biggest ever pot at cash game pokers.

Totally addicted to The Yeah Yeah Yeahs 1st album at the moment... if you've played a bunch of Rock Band you should recognise this!


All at $10/20, converted at weaktight.com.

Hand #1
Learning HU at the moment, as you can see I'm pretty excited about having a gutter. I think a double barrell here is good. I know villain will call 3bets with broadways, suited connectors, pocket pairs, etc and he's gonna peel the flop a lot.

Stacks:

Hand #2
Villain is the mark at the table, he 3 and 4bets very loosely and calls too much, hand plays out pretty standard.

Stacks:

Hero (CO)		($3021.00)
BTN		($4198.00)
SB		($2660.00)
BB		($3379.00)

Pre-flop: ($30, 4 players) Hero is CO

Hero raises to $60, 2 folds, BB raises to $190, Hero raises to $580, BB calls $390

Flop: ($1,170, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $700, BB calls $700

Turn: ($2,570, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero goes all-in $1,741, BB folds

Final Pot: $4,311
Hero wins $4,309 ( won +$1,288 )


Hand #3
Villain is a very very good HS reg. I'd been 4betting him light a couple of times and got to showdown on a $600nl table we're also playing on. He quit both tables after this hand :)

Stacks:

Hero (CO)		($4077.00)
BTN		($3694.00)
SB		($2673.00)
BB		($2796.00)

Pre-flop: ($30, 4 players) Hero is CO

Hero raises to $60, 1 fold, SB raises to $230, 1 fold, Hero raises to $620, SB goes all-in $2,673, Hero calls $2,053

Flop: ($5,596, 2 players)

Turn: ($5,596, 2 players)

River: ($5,596, 2 players)

Final Pot: $5,596
SB shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $5,364 ( won +$2,691 )


Hand #4
Pretty standard cooler, at least I gave the money to the fishay and not some reg. After this hand I dropped all my tables and chilled out for 10mins before deciding that I was cool to sit back in.

Stacks:

BTN		($2623.00)
Hero (SB)		($6548.00)
BB		($4061.00)

Pre-flop: ($30, 3 players) Hero is SB

BTN raises to $70, Hero raises to $255, BB folds, BTN raises to $785, Hero raises to $6,530, BTN goes all-in $1,838

Flop: ($9,173, 2 players)

Turn: ($9,173, 2 players)

River: ($9,173, 2 players)

Final Pot: $9,173
BTN shows:
Hero shows:

BTN wins $5,264 ( won +$2,641 )


Hand #5
My biggest ever pot at cash game poker. CO/BTN are both strong LAG regs. SB is the mark at the table, VERY loose and aggro.

Stacks:

CO		($4706.00)
BTN		($3931.00)
SB		($6283.00)
Hero (BB)		($4481.00)

Pre-flop: ($30, 4 players) Hero is BB

CO raises to $60, BTN calls $60, SB raises to $260, Hero raises to $680, CO folds, BTN folds, SB calls $420

Yea, $760 would have been better.

Flop: ($1,480, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1,000, SB goes all-in $5,603, Hero goes all-in $2,801

Villain is really loose/spewy postflop so I've go no option but to cbet and go with it on that flop. Felt sick when he shoved but clicked call before I could talk myself out of it. The money goes in and he has JJ.

Turn: ($10,884, 2 players)

At this point I had actually stood up and walked away as I couldn't watch lol.

River: ($10,884, 2 players)

Final Pot: $10,884
SB shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $9,080 ( won +$4,599 )


Hand #6
Final hand that took me up to the $10k is vs one of my favourite DeucesCracked instructors. He's very aggressive and very good at hand reading. He's 3betting a ton 4-handed, although way too much OOP imo. This shows why position owns deepstacked! Pretty sure there's no reciprocal value as he'd have played it the same way vs me.

Stacks:

CO		($2192.00)
Hero (BTN)		($9098.00)
SB		($3643.12)
BB		($4792.88)

Pre-flop: ($30, 4 players) Hero is BTN

1 fold, Hero raises to $60, 1 fold, BB raises to $200, Hero calls $140

Flop: ($410, 2 players)
BB bets $255, Hero calls $255

Turn: ($920, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $655, BB folds

Final Pot: $1,575
Hero wins $1,573 ( won +$463 )


Started using Twitter to rail the WSOP action, it's pretty cool. I'm Bazclef, feel free to add to I can follow your updates too.

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The gods descended from the clouds and proclaimed...

Date: Thu, Jun 25, 2009

... Bazclef, you will run like the flaming demon-jesus for ALL OF JUNE!

[x] First five figure day!
[x] I got up 3 hours ago and am now drinking beers. Winface.
[x] Games are still good but whatever, I'm booking the win!
[x] Am probably now doomswitched.

I'll post some hands and actual content later, one of the hands was almost a five figure pot ($9.1k I think)... for now, celebrationtown!

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