This blog was initially designed to be following my first year as a poker pro and grinding elite. But as im sure anyone who has tried going for it before knows, its a massive grind. So ive given up. Definatly wont make it this year.

Instead i decided to play some on euro sites and try and beat some bigger stakes games instead of grinding out the short stack filled 400nl stars games. This has been going reasonably well and ive put in decent volume at 5/10 and 10/20 with a fair few shots at 25/50 and 50/100 and have run good shipping my first 20k month last month.

Also recently secured a live tourny backing deal allowing my flatmate and I to play a bunch of tournaments in Australasia and also a full schedule of Holdem events at the WSOP (yay!) This is the first year i can play wsop and i my online tourn results are pretty rubbish due to never cashing in anything with over $200 buyin, so im absolutely stoked to be in this situation for the wsop.

Just went down to christchurch for the NZ poker champs, went into the final table with the chiplead, but ran really bad on the seating draw getting the only good player at the table on my left, who i proceded to double up twice before losing QTdd to Q9o on a KdTx7d flop and busting in 6th.

Pretty gutted because it wouldve been a cool title to win, but in the overall scheme of things it means nothing. Especially with vegas coming up and im gonna prob ship the big one.

Leaving NZ for vegas on the 27th of May, looking forward to it, but also gonna be hard being away from my awesome gf for 7 weeks. Hopefully i can come home rich!

Peace,
Joe

Spent the last 3 nights at Kai Iwi lakes, camping and such, was really good spending some time with family and friends.

Day after i get back, my poker flatmate (one is travelling, one was here in Auckland) decided he was leaving the flat and somewhat quitting poker to do other things, he's been struggling keeping sne pace this year so it didnt come as a huge suprise. He left later that afternoon and im really not sure what im going to do for the next 3 weeks till the other flatmate gets back. Didnt really fancy living on my own. But i guess ill get alot of hands in? we'll see

He's still paying rent for 3 weeks, but now we have to find someone new to live with us, preferably a poker person. Anyone keen?

So playing a session at 2/4 this evening and there is a guy on 2 of my tables shoving every hand, he's sitting at a 5/10 table. End up getting deep vs him and this crap happens. He'd been open shoving and stuff a fair bit too,

Biggest hand ive ever played by about 3X

Party, $5/$10 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $3,575.50
BTN: $3,824.25

Pre-Flop: Q A dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN raises to $30, Hero raises to $90, BTN calls $60

Flop: ($180) 2 Q Q (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $10, Hero raises to $170, BTN calls $160

Turn: ($520) 4 (2 Players)
Hero bets $450, BTN calls $450

River: ($1,420) 5 (2 Players)
Hero bets $1,150, BTN raises to $3,114.25 and is All-In, Hero calls $1,715.50 and is All-In

Results: $7,151 Pot
Hero showed Q A and LOST (-$3,565.50 NET)
BTN showed 5 5 and WON $7,399.25 (+$3,828.75 NET)

May you all run better than me,
Joe

Been losing a fair bit lately, mix of getting coolered and spazzing in dumb spots. Its really hard to play good and put in lots of volume, seems like i can only do one at a time.

However when im losing i put in alot of volume. So im 4 days ahead of SNE pace now.

Looking forward to a couple of days away from everything.

Heres two hands from today which i thought were pretty funny.

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

UTG: $522
MP: $260
CO: $533.10
BTN: $209
SB: $408
Hero (BB): $503.70

Pre-Flop: K K dealt to Hero (BB)
3 folds, BTN raises to $8, SB calls $6, Hero raises to $36, BTN folds, SB calls $28

Flop: ($80) 8 A Q (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($80) J (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero checks

River: ($80) 3 (2 Players)
SB bets $372 and is All-In, Hero calls $372

Results: $824 Pot ($3 Rake)
SB showed 5 5 and LOST (-$406 NET)
Hero showed K K and WON $821 (+$417 NET)

This hand i had just come back from disconnecting (never. use. wireless.) so it posted my bb and sb. i was expecting the btn to iso me really really wide, but worked out pretty well anyways

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

BB: $493
UTG: $413
MP: $206
Hero (CO): $552.20
BTN: $420.70
SB: $413.60

Hero posts $6
Pre-Flop: K K dealt to Hero (CO)
2 folds, Hero checks, BTN folds, SB calls $2, BB raises to $24, Hero raises to $66, SB folds, BB calls $40

Flop: ($132) 8 8 4 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $80, BB raises to $429 and is All-In, Hero calls $349

Turn: ($990) 8 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($990) Q (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $990 Pot ($1 Rake)
BB showed A 2 and LOST (-$489 NET)
Hero showed K K and WON $989 (+$502 NET)

Peace,
Joe

So its been a full 7 days as a full time poker player, and its going well,

35k hands of 400nl.
10k profits which had me as biggest winner at 2/4 this year, sick brag.
25k vpps (2 days ahead of sne pace)

This kinda volume is pretty unusual for me, with the most hands i played in any month last year at around 40k, so hopefully i can keep it up, i dont really have anything better to do at the moment so i guess ill grind it out.

Going away on tuesday for a few days with family and friends, will be good to have a short break, i always find i want to play/play better when ive had a bit of a break.

Peace,
Joe

SNE Pace is 10960, i have 11804 = Happy

Really didnt feel like playing today. Hopefully that will change tomorrow.

+6700 so far in cash games, actually managing to run decently this year.

This hand sums up my year so far. Run goot

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

BTN: $400
SB: $402
BB: $757.60
UTG: $1,065.25
MP: $463.20
Hero (CO): $849.60

Pre-Flop: T Q dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, MP raises to $12, Hero calls $12, 2 folds, BB calls $8

Flop: ($38) 8 9 J (3 Players)
BB checks, MP bets $24, Hero calls $24, BB folds

Turn: ($86) T (2 Players)
MP checks, Hero bets $58, MP calls $58

River: ($202) J (2 Players)
MP checks, Hero bets $120, MP raises to $369.20 and is All-In, Hero calls $249.20

Results: $940.40 Pot ($3 Rake)
MP showed T T and LOST (-$463.20 NET)
Hero showed T Q and WON $937.40 (+$474.20 NET)

GL at the tables,
Joe

Never written a blog before, so it will likely be quite dull, i guess im mostly just going to use this as a place to post stuff for myself so i can see it later... but we'll see how it develops.

So yeah, 2010 has just begun, my first year "pro" or full time.

General Goals for the year:

- SNE
- min stakes 5/10 by end of the year
- $360k total profit (500k nzd)
- Find hot GF
- Determine whether or not i can win at PLO

Day 1:

Started off with my first session and kept pace for SNE (2.7k vpp) 4k hands and 3.5k profit making it my biggest day ever for cash games. Hopefully a sign of things to come

Peace,
Joe