I put in a session this morning that was just over 3 hours. That's pretty monstrous for me. I normally play for between 45 minutes and 75 minutes ish in my session. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come because I feel like I've worked hard on confidence and being able to put in hands, and I hope I have no problem sitting down and grinding from now on.

I have no idea how I'm doing for this month, and it feels pretty good. I haven't checked any results/cashiers in a couple of weeks now. My plan was basically to play until it's obvious I'm doing well and winning, or until one of the sites stops letting me auto-reload. I'm hoping I'm on track for the former, but we'll see! I'll most likely check on the 28th to see how I did.

I'm sitting here waiting to go to my parents' for food. I'm so hungry right now. I didn't eat before my session, and by the time it had finished it was too close really to eat before dinner at their's. It better be good. Later tonight I have a couple of friends coming round to watch Lost, and hopefully neck a few beers.

I decided to study and play PLO today in celebration of Scoot reviewing my video. I thought his video was excellent and really enjoyed it. I'm very grateful that he agreed to do the video. It obviously helps that it was my (questionable) play that he was analysing, but I thought he did a great job of explaining how to think in spots rather than just what to do in the specific situations. I've also played pretty poorly at NL this morning and yesterday so now seemed like a good time to play some PLO.

Oh by the way, you're all welcome for any money I donated to you at 3/6 or 5/10. And if you're that guy who I sucked out on with the K4s then sorry - just think of the Sklansky bucks!

I think I actually did pretty well at PLO today. I'm not certain because Full Tilt kept crashing on me so I've had to request a bunch of hand histories from them. I posted a couple of spots I wasn't sure about in our PLO forum so go check them out and make me better.

I have a couple of friends round tonight. Probably just going to play Xbox and drink a couple of beers. That'll do me though.

On Saturday Rob/Patonius came over to mine. He was kind enough to sweat me and see what he thought of my current play. We discussed a bunch of postflop spots after the sweat, and it was really useful for me. I want to thank him again over here for taking the time to help me out. Later that day I took him up to Dusk Till Dawn and we picked up Will/AKmaert (I think) on the way. The plan for me was to grab dinner with those two there and then go meet up with a friend to watch another friend's band play in Derby. I had to queue up to get in, and I was seriously confused about how to sign up because some people were telling me I needed to do it on the internet first, so I ended up ditching them like a true nice guy and grabbing food with my friend. Apologies to them both for leaving so quickly, but next time you're going I'm in - and I'll make sure I'm signed up in advance.

So I got to my mate's place which is only 5 minutes away. We set off to grab food, but the football had just finished and everywhere around his place was jammed. Most places had people queuing out the door. Then the guy who was playing in the band told us they were starting an hour earlier, which meant there was no way to get there and get food (which was essential as I'd not eaten all day), so we ended up not going to that. Instead we grabbed some beer from the supermarket and ate at Hooters once the football crew had died down.

Oh, we also went to this pub with caves out back where people play guitar or whatever. They had some weird guy with a didgeridoo who really wasn't very good at all. He seemed like he wanted to be a weird hippy type super interesting cool guy, but in reality he just seemed stupid and like a wannabe. We were asking him about cyclic breathing, and he gave us this demonstration which was hilarious. It basically involved him blowing into the didge for about 10 seconds, then stopping and breathing in, and then doing it again. Not exactly impressive!

We ended up just going back to my mate's and watching a film. I fell asleep super early though like I always do right now. I think it's because I'm getting up earlier and playing more. On Sunday I just hung out there until the rugby had finished and then got back to mine just in time for my friends coming round to watch Lost (every Sunday). I actually haven't enjoyed the new series that much. I think a lot of these series have started to get too abstract now. Prison Break is a classic example. I've given up on that now, and I might end up doing the same with Lost. 24's where it's at.

Hopefully I'll be grinding a lot in the next few days.

I've had a bit of a break through with putting in hands at 5/10. It was a mixture of a few conversations I had with people. I spoke for a while with my "real-life" friend Tom at the weekend about poker, and he made me realise I should be playing more and trying to earn as much as I can while nothing else is going on. Then I spoke with Noel and he effectively called me a ****head and told me to stfu moaning (I think that's what you meant/said). I also spoke with booshiet from Stars and what he said made me realise I should just play and go from there rather than worrying about things before they happen.

So I've been playing quite a lot. It's not really happening for me at the moment, but I'm just going to put in a ton of hands and see what happens. I can analyse things better once I get a load more hands in. I had a rough day today and made my friend Ian laugh. He asked about my plan or something and I told him that I was just going to keep playing in the Stars games until it stopped letting me reload. Sadly, that was actually my plan.

Tom (real-life) and I ended up deciding on going to Rome for our break. We'll go on Wed March 4th until the Sunday providing his work agree (which they should).

I've also been listening to a band called the Travoltas a lot recently. I think they're dutch, and they're like a punk rock Beach Boys or something. I heard some stuff by them years ago but never really explored it. I'm really enjoying it right now. If anyone's ever heard of them you should go back and listen some more!

I just booked my ticket to come over to America. Boom! I'm flying into Vegas to stay with my friend Vanessa on April 16th, then heading to Petaluma to stay with Noel/peten2toms for a week or so around the 22nd ish. After that I haven't planned what I'm doing yet. I'll be around until mid-May as two of my friends are getting married and I have to be back for it (selfish bastards).

I've sacrificed the stag do in order to make sure I had ample time in America. This disappoints me greatly as the last stag do I went to was last June in Bristol and it was truly epic. This one is undoubtedly going to be more epic, and I won't be a part of it. I text the bride and the groom separately this morning to see if either of them were planning on jilting the other one because then I'd do the stag do and not have to worry about getting back for the wedding. Unfortunately they both seem set on going through with it though.

I'm not sure what I'll be doing from the end of April to the middle of May. I'll hopefully be visiting Jason/LuckySOB in Lake Havasu, AZ. He has a boat on a lake, and a wife who makes a mean Margherita. To fill in the rest of the gaps I'm not sure what I'll do yet. I might go somewhere with John/PuddlePirate on FT if he's up for it. He's doing way better than me though and I think my jealousy might result in his death if I don't improve before then.

Either way, I can't wait to get out there again!

On the Europe trip, it looks like it'll be France or Italy. I'm pushing hard for Italy - I just need to come up with a good place to go. We require the following things - sun, maybe sea, culture, good dining, fine coffee, ice cold beer.

I'm planning on going away for around 4/5 days this month or early March with a friend. We want to go somewhere in Europe, preferably somewhere sunny and with some beautiful people (so we blend right in obv!). If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. Personally, I'd like to go somewhere non-mainstream because I just hate being a follower and going to obvious places.

This is what it looked like when I got up this morning:








It's cold.

Phew, I'm done with January! I'm sat back relaxing with a midday beer (Thwaites Double Century - maybe the best English beer I've tasted). I'm off to a mate's in Notts tonight for beer/films/music/beer/hopefully Hooters wings.

I ended up making just over $6k this month, and I'm pretty pleased with that considering how I felt it went. For the first time in a while I'm going to make a monetary goal for February. I haven't done this for ages because I think they're somewhat useless (if you play well what does it matter, just put the hands in). However, I used to set targets for myself like this back in 2007, and I pretty much always used to hit them. I think it motivates me more or something.

So in February I'm setting myself a target of $20k. I think I should be able to make this, especially if I get back playing (and winning) at 5/10. I think this month's been a good experience for me. I've gone through a lot of emotions. I've cracked open a beer at around 7.30am - blame Noel/peten2toms for this. Damn timezones. I've been a whiny *****. I've whined to my friends in a way that pisses me off when they do it to me. I definitely think I've found some things out about my own mentality and game though, and I expect to have come through much stronger.

To finish here I want to thank people who've helped me out this month. It's been pretty rough for me mentally, and a lot of people are always ready and willing to help me out. Mainly Noel/peten2toms for being awesome and hilarious, Ian/ladymuck for giving great advice and always helping me out, John/PuddlePirate on FT for helping me and listening to my whining, Matt/Probability for being understanding of my needing to take a break despite it messing him around with my video series. There's a bunch of other people who are always ready to listen to me whine and help me out (Brian, Jason, Vanessa).

That last paragraph may be the most wet/emo thing I write, but it needed to be said because I really am appreciative.

I'll try and write something more manly next time.

Since my last blog I've played some sessions of 2/4 and some of 5/10. I've done pretty crappy at 5/10 and it really got me down yesterday. It really frustrates me that I'm not doing well in those games right now. I'm feeling much more positive today though, and I'll probably get back in them soon enough. It's not really bankroll that prevents me from playing them, more confidence. Once I get on a good run there though there'll hopefully be no looking back!

I've had a couple of nice sessions today at 2/4 on Stars. My roll on there sucks right now as I had zero on and I'm only allowed to deposit $20k in a week (which I've done, but I transferred $4k to someone and lost $6k!). So I thought I might grind some 2/4 or 3/6 there to try and build it up a little. I actually think there are quite a lot of pretty decent grinders playing those games. I could be wrong, but I recognise a lot of names from either 2+2 or from when I played 5/10 over there.

Here's an interesting hand. You should all make this play a lot more than you do, believe me. Maybe I'll make a video on checking as the preflop raiser or something. I actually feel like this is something I do pretty well right now!

$2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

MP: $58.10
CO: $400
BTN: $652.05
Hero (SB): $408.60
BB: $400
UTG: $584.90

Pre-Flop: A A dealt to Hero (SB)
4 folds, Hero raises to $14, BB calls $10

Flop: ($28) 4 3 2 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BB bets $22, Hero raises to $70, BB raises to $386 and is All-In, Hero calls $316

Turn: ($800) 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($800) 5 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $800 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed A A and WON $797 (+$397 NET)
BB showed K 5 and LOST (-$400 NET)

Obviously I've not blogged or had a video up for a while now. Well, I say obviously but you might not have noticed or cared. In fact, some of the new guys might not even have heard of me. For now I'm going to be conceited enough to assume you've all missed me, and that you want to know what's been going on.

I spoke with Matt (Probability) a while back and asked him if it'd be ok for me to take a break. I hadn't been doing as well at the tables, and my mindset was pretty atrocious. I had a real downer on my game and ability and I need to fix it. My plan was to take off most of January and just sort my head out. In the end, I was itching to play poker after about five days of my break.

I decided to start back (can I call it starting back after five days?) by playing 3/6 at Party. I don't really every play on Party, so I thought it'd be a nice change of site/pace for me. I enjoyed it and did well in those games. I really hate Party though - mainly because of their software - and by about the 10th I needed a change.

My new plan was to play 2/4 deep on Full Tilt, and that's what I've been doing for the vast majority of the month. I've tried out different styles/plays to see what works for me, and I think I've made a lot of progress in defining my own game. My results there are pretty terrible so far.

There was a 32 buy in downswing I had last week which hurt. I'm going to take full responsibility for it and say that I was playing very well during that time. I don't mind at all though because I feel like the money I've "invested" during this time is going to make me so much more in the next few months as I move back to 5/10. I'm very confident that my current game is going to allow me to beat 2/4 very well. I'll keep this blog much more frequently updated now, and hopefully I'll be able to post some kind of brag graph in the future!

I also decided to take a break from making videos. I think my game had really slumped so it would be wrong of me to put out any sweat style videos. I also think there are much better people at Leggo to be making those style of videos. I play a tighter style than a lot of people, which doesn't make for as interesting a video or as many interesting spots.

What I would like is for people to suggest other types of videos that I can do for you. There are lots of different possibilities, but I like the idea of doing videos of hand reviews using Pokerstove and calculations. I do this a lot for my own hands so I could make some videos on that, or people could send me their hand histories and I could analyse them. I think this is the style of video I'd like to do next, and I'd probably do something like a four part series with a different style of problem each time (e.g. facing multiple barrels, facing check raises, etc...).

If you have any suggestions for topics you'd like to see covered then please let me know. I'd really like to do analysis of common spots that give people problems to begin with.

So I'm back playing a lot and I should be blogging much more now too. I've been pretty embarrassed about the fact that I'm sucking right now, but I've worked through that now and I'm confident it's only a matter of time before I'm back to my old self.