Leatherbaz

Date: Tue, Mar 2, 2010

No-one is around on Skype to volume brag to, so you guys are getting it... played over 4,000 hands today (and 2.5k yesterday). Making $150/day just in rakeback is nice.

ZERO tilt/fatigue/autopilot quits... pure focus, all 8-tabling.



Sick durrrr 7-2 bluff, nicked from Andrew's blog.

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High-stakes hiatus

Date: Fri, Feb 26, 2010

^ RJD2, who's DJ'ing here next weekend... yessssss. Go listen to Deadringer if you've not heard of him, great music to grind to.

I've finished playing for the month, it wound up being my worst ever month as a poker player... I started out stuck around $15k in the first few days across just 2000 hands of $5/10 and $10/20. Shifted down to mid-stakes for a bit and never really get enough volume grinded out.

It's made me re-evaluate things with poker, where I was at, where I'm at now and where I want to be. I moved up to high-stakes last summer after an awesome couple of months and just haven't got much going since then. I've had a lack of stability, a lack of volume, and a ton of variance.

Over the last few months I've swung down around $25k in 60k hands (-$20k all-in ev). While this is pretty standard for these stakes I've come to realise that there might be a better way for me to go about things! Playing low volume and game selecting well at higher stakes games worked for a while but it's not fun when the variance turns negative and can stay that way for 4-5 months.

After talking with Ben I've decided to drop down in stakes to work on playing his style of high volume, low variance play. I have withdrawn a bunch from my bankroll and shifted down to $1/2 to start out. I'm incredibly comfortable with my game there so it'll be the best place to concentrate on the mindset/routine/presence stuff we're working on.

I've had a taster for where my game is going and it's blown my mind. The difference is HUGE. I feel like my poker career is starting again here and I'm really pumped about working on it. I'm already playing way better now than I ever have and I can see things progressing a lot in the near future.

For now it's hard work and enjoying the ride.

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Blitz well

Date: Thu, Feb 25, 2010

I only just found out who this guy is... but go read this when you want a laugh, this guy is insane!

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♥♥♥ $$$

Date: Fri, Feb 19, 2010

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Action

Date: Sun, Feb 7, 2010

It's sweet being a professional poker player. You can keep your own hours doing whatever you want - whenever you want. The only problem is that you usually end up doing a whole lot of messing around and not enough of the things you actually want to achieve.

I've come to realise that routine is important to those who excel in their career, life and pastimes. I've always been resistant to routine but a lot of sources have led me to believe that I'm missing out. I'm now settled in Brooklyn, the first time I've settled anywhere in over a year... I've got a workspace set up, a gym membership. It's time to make this work.

My challenge is to stick to this schedule for the week, I can then revise and adjust it or even dump it completely. I'm sure a lot of the scheduling will need tweaking but I must complete this week before making any changes.

What I want my new routine to achieve
A base of high-quality poker hours while balancing with the rest of my life. I don't want it to be restrictive, in fact the whole point is that I schedule everything that I want to get done. I want to available to go out every night without feeling restricted by poker or guilty about not logging hands. I want to schedule time to work on areas I'd like to develop; like music, learning languages, online business ideas, etc.

Next 5 days
10:00 - Wake, rise immediately, open blinds, eat healthy breakfast while responding to emails, clean and organise workspace to declutter mind.
10:30 - Poker study. Analysis of marked hands from the day before and/or analysis of a reg using HEM.
11:00 - 90min poker session.
12:30 - 1hr at the gym, shower, dress.
14:00 - Lunch
15:00 - 90min poker session.

I've then got a bunch of other separate personal development things mapped out which aren't really related to this poker blog. The idea here is to get down a solid schedule for putting in high quality hours or poker.

The poker sessions
Each 90min poker session roughly equates to 600 hands. In the average month knocking out 24,000 hands during weekdays isn't going to be enough but these will be my base hours. I'll be aiming to grind more when I'm available on weeknights and weekends to take the hand count past the 30,000 mark.

The point here is that I don't feel guilty when I don't work on weeknights/weekends and instead feel accomplished that I've worked effectively that day. You know the feeling you have when you get a good amount of work done combined with a workout that day... you go out at night feeling awesome. I want that every day.

At the start of each poker session I'll prepare by outlining goals for that particular session - mostly related to mental game. This is something I've covered a lot with Ben and we both feel is really important. During each session I'll be logged out of all messengers, my phone will be on silent and won't allow myself to check email/fb/etc. It'll be pure poker play focussing on practising awareness throughout.

So that's it... Outlining the details here will act like a contract to myself and I'm telling a bunch of friends in real life too so I have more people to call me out if I don't put enough effort in. I'll post back at the weekend with my thoughts and how I've done.

Louis CK rocks!

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Ivey on ESPN E:60

Date: Fri, Feb 5, 2010

Or watch it bigger here.

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Hoboken, NJ

Date: Tue, Feb 2, 2010

NY Apartment Hunting
I've had a lot of fun apartment hunting in over the last week. The variety of people and apartments here is just really amazing. I've viewed custom lofts with bedrooms suspended from ceilings in Brooklyn, places 2 blocks from Central Park in Manhattan, sick rooftops with panoramic views of the Big Apple in Queens. Not to mention a basement apartment in Brooklyn next to a Rounders style illegal card game that recently got busted by the cops!

I loved Williamsburg in Brooklyn I immediately decided I had to live there. It's really chilled, massive indie-rock scene with loads of live music, lots of cool restaurants/bars and only 3 subway stops to downtown Manhattan. I'm moving into a big 2-storey loft apartment this week, huge room with lots of space for my poker/music setups. Roommates seem great, girl studies psychology, guy is a nurse and comedian by night. Looking forward to getting settled there for a while.

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Delayed in London = RUSHPOKER!

Date: Mon, Jan 25, 2010

Waiting on the gate opening on my flight to JFK, playing some Rushpoker on FTP. It's perfect for messing around with in this type of situation, wouldn't like to grind it though. Having a gameplan to stick to and not adapting to the table/players just isn't anywhere near as interesting to 'real 6max'. I'm constantly thinking is it even worth my time playing this hand? where I clearly have some small amount of EV... which feels kind of leatherassy and lame. Real 6max is just way more intersting but this is definitely a cool alternative for quick poker - a quick/easy blast.

So yea, will arrive in NY around midnight tonight and taxi it over to Hoboken where the yearlong American adventure begins. Looking forward to hanging out with Mark, Dan, Dave and co. See you at Christmas, UK!

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Last weekend in Edinburgh

Date: Thu, Jan 21, 2010

Poker Education
Had coaching with Ben for the first time a few days ago which went really well. He's doing a great job of finding the biggest leaks in my game and helping me work towards plugging them. I feel like I've got a long way to go again, but that's a good thing. I have a lot of drive to work on my game at the moment and am enjoying having a coach to give me focus on where to improve.

For me right now coaching coupled with hand analysis is just so far ahead of any other form of poker education. I think it's almost a waste of time for me to watch poker instructional videos. I watched the latest aejones video last night and got very little out of it. Not a knock on anyones videos - especially not ae's! - but I'm hoping to pick 1 or 2 things out of a video when I watch it which just isn't worth the time compared to hand discussion on areas of difficulty.

I'd say that once you know how to play really well preflop there's almost no point in watching sweat videos, as that's the majority of what comes up. Postflop spots don't come up often enough and when they do instructors generally aren't good enough at explaining their thought process (Bobbofitos and DrGiggy are two of the best at this).

I think poker videos are fantastic to take you up to the point where you can play preflop really well. After that discussing postflop spots that trouble you with a more experienced player is by far the fastest way of improving. Either that or being a genius and working everything out yourself.

The next time you go to watch a poker video - if you don't have any of your own hands to review - open Holdem Manager instead and spend 45mins going through shown down hands from regs you play a lot with. Think about lines, if you like some of their plays, if you don't, discuss spots with a more experienced player. If you don't know a more experienced player hire a coach or even use forums (higher levels than you currently play at). But even without those you'll be amazed how much you can figure out yourself and how much you learn about other regs games (how bad they all are).

Sites
I've been looking to split money across sites recently as traffic on Cereus can be poor at times and irritatingly iPoker doesn't work in the USA. I'd recommend pokersites.com for anyone looking to branch out. I wound up sticking some money on Bodog as it feels pretty similar to Cereus, I'll play a couple of tables on each when traffic is low.

Beer o'clock
Last few days before leaving are pretty packed, I'm excited. Got a table booked at a Japanese restaurant in Edinburgh tonight for food with friends then beers and a home game. My bro is coming down to Edinburgh on Sat night and heading out on the rage, hoping to catch as many of my friends as possible. Family dinner at my aunts on Sunday, then fly out to NYC on Monday.

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Online poker sites matching donations to Haiti

Date: Sun, Jan 17, 2010

Mark Doyle, BBC News, Haiti...

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Back in Edinburgh for a couple of weeks

Date: Wed, Jan 13, 2010

Travelling
After a trek down to London and a visa interview involving me carefully navigating around the fact I play poker professionally I somehow managed to come out with a yearlong visa for the USA! Flying out to NYC on the 25th, thanks to Mark for hooking me up with a place and will sort things out from there. Vague plans to visit Montreal and Toronto closer to the summer but I'm gonna make NYC my home for early 2010.

Coaching
I'd like to welcome Steven from NY to my coaching, we get started over the next couple of weeks. Looking forward to working with you dude.

I've also decided to take on a new coach myself, next week I'll be starting work with Ben a.k.a. Boywonder from Stockholm, Sweden. It didn't take much thought to hire him after having previously checking out his epic 2p2 posts and more recently watching his new Leggopoker video. I've got a good idea of what I'd like to get out of the coaching and I'm confident Ben can help move me up to the next level as a professional.

Pokering
After a full month off from poker I got back to the grind down in Manchester and things just didn't really go well. I struggled to get motivation for a bunch of reasons and with my mind elsewhere a lot I just wasn't on my game. Back in Edinburgh now with a good desk setup and a bunch less tasks on my plate so I'll be kicking it off again tomorrow night.

I've been thinking quite a lot about where poker fits into my life priorities right now. I feel like it's considerably lower than last year with other things increasing in priority. Given that I got so little grind in last year and want to increase that this year it's not working out too well at the moment, so I'm going to have to do some work on balancing my time. Not sure in which way yet, we'll see... and we'll see how coaching changes this too.

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Bonjour des Alpes Françaises

Date: Wed, Jan 6, 2010

Snowboarding holiday is going sweet so far. The difficulty curve on snowboarding is crazy, it's super tough at first. Day 1 was brutal, my body was destroyed with fatigue and battering from falling after it. Took the next day off and chilled out in Meribel, spent most of the day drinking coffee and playing pinball.

Zak/Jack and I upgraded to a new place (pic from our balcony below), got a lot more space than the first one we were in. We can ride to the slopes directly from our front door! Had a flatwarming poker tourney in the evening. The 3 of us were the last 3 in out of 12 runners... rigged!? Jack took it down in style pairing his Jx hands twice in a row in all-in pre pots against me... Ahhh!

Yesterday I got a new board (163 instead of the puny 153 I had first day). It was a TON more stable which is awesome, picking up a lot more speed and falling a lot less. Tougher to turn though, working on that a lot at the moment.

Had a skier crash into me from behind at decent speed. Was going through a pretty narrow forest run and she tried to cut up my left side at decent speed on a super tight bit, went into and over the top of me... fortunately neither of us were hurt!

We had what turned into a party at our apartment last night, with a ton of beer and Zubrowka drinking 'til late. Good times. I would up waking late today and opted to chill and sort out some stuff on the net rather than hitting the slopes.

Pub quiz here tonight then 2 days left, gonna try to board as much as possible and get turns nailed on steeper slopes. There are hundreds of runs to get on across the three valleys, this place is really awesome.

Been doing a little bit of USA planning.... Thinking about just heading out to NYC in January instead of Miami. It'd be a lot easier and I'd really like spend some time living there. If anyone knows of an apartment/room on the go around NY/Hoboken type areas, or anything really pls gimmi a shout.

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2009

Date: Wed, Dec 30, 2009

My first year as a poker pro went pretty good. I'm enjoying the lifestyle a lot, didn't get sick of poker and am excited about 2010.

The best part of the year for me was travelling. I managed to visit 12 countries... Scotland, England, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Macau and Japan! I'm very grateful to be able to use poker to fund my travelling and plan on capitalising on it a ton more next year.

2010 poker goals? More quality grinding time, more volume. I only averaged 20k/month hands in 2009, it's one of my 2010 goals to up that to 30k/month. Other than that it's just continuing to move forward with my game in whatever I feel are the most effective ways. No other real goals other than busting out 360,000 hands in 2010 at mid/high-stakes.

Partying tomorrow night then will be in France until the 9th, then Manchester to catch family, London to get my USA Visa, Edinburgh to see family/friends then back to the USA mid-January.

A pre-emptive Happy New Year and may you all keep pushing forward in 2010. Play well and prosper!

1:20 is sick

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Headed home for Christmas

Date: Wed, Dec 23, 2009

Long time no updates, I've been busy doing some travelling in the USA.

Photos from New York, San Diego and Las Vegas!

I just want to straight out say the USA is fantastic. It's been so nice to spend a bunch of time here after coming from the overpriced and incredibly overrated land of Australia. American people are just WAY more friendly than Aussies... shout out to all of the great people I've met during my time over here.

So I've decided to get a 10 month multi-entry Visa for America next year. I absolutely LOVE California and New York and would love to spend time living in both.

Rough plans are to fly into Miami in January and stay there for a few months before heading over to New York to live for the summer. Also high on the list of places to spend time are Vegas, Chicago, The Bahamas, Hawaii, Toronto and Montreal. Thinking about buying a car for the year and road tripping around. Will see how things work out, I'm real excited.

So I leave NY tomorrow, arrive back in Edinburgh on Christmas Eve to spend time with my family, New Years Eve with friends then fly to the south of France on New Years Day on a snowboarding trip with a big group of people. Will get back into the UK mid-Jan and if all goes to plan fly back out to the USA soon after.

As for poker... I've not played for the last week and don't really plan on playing for the rest of the year. I'm pretty much done for the year, will probably do a year review and goals for next year post over the next week.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Oh... and go see Avatar in I-max 3D, it's magnificent.

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