Stop Wasting, Start Winning, a casual players diary

IH8UButler

Quick update  at third of the way through the month - grim results continue, balance has been hammered down to just under £1400, had quite a few bad beats early on which has been frustrating as mostly at higher end of stakes so a few good 20nl sessions were wiped out. Past few days just been autopiloting prob too may tables as well so just bad play/bad decisions.

Not much motivation to play at present, not sure whether to try 2 tabling, swap to another format for a week or so (MTT's/SNG's) for a change or just take a break and come back to play SPT sats. Fortunately dont rely on any poker income must be a massive stress having to keep grinding through a downswing and avoiding tilt etc.

On the plus side work going well at present, off to a conference next week which should be good, need to make time next week to sort presentation out etc, but should be an opportunity for a few jars in the evening which is pretty rare for me these days!

Health drive is ongoing, managing to drink more water and less coffee, also cut down on snacks, stayed up till early hours watching election last night and late again tonight so sleep pattern needs work - might get some better results if not falling asleep!

Will update in another 10 days, hopefully with a balance over £1500!

HENDRIK62

Been reading your updates, I don't play a lot of cash and always find HH and thought processes very interesting......

However the burning question this morning is non poker related, how do you make a kale and spinach smoothie even remotely drinkable?

IH8UButler

In Response to Re: Stop Wasting, Start Winning, a casual players diary:

Been reading your updates, I don't play a lot of cash and always find HH and thought processes very interesting...... However the burning question this morning is non poker related, how do you make a kale and spinach smoothie even remotely drinkable?
Posted by HENDRIK62

Ha ha cheers - my recipie is 3 fistfuls spinach, 1 banana 1 apple and few blueberries plus cup of water and ice. Taste of spinach is maske by the fruit. If using kale add more water and blend really well or it can get a bit chewy! If you want a really disgusting drink I can recommend Huel, a guy I know swears by it but tasted like cold cardboard porridge. 

Experimented with the £10 spin ups yesterday and a good start turned into setting fire to best part of £300. Pretty tilted so fired up some 100nl Omaha and got lucky. Also dropped to £5 spin up table and got up to £135 so almost back to even on the day which feels like a win. Will keep plugging away but if this continues might have to retire from cash and just play the odd tourney, hopefully can keep going till winter tho as games are much easier then. 

Not all bad news as qualified for the last Vegas comp and on course for priority now so some rakeback to offset the losses! Plus taken the baby out for a walk and managed to get him to sleep, so can get a sneaky half in the beer garden down the road before heading back to try and produce some kind of legible PowerPoint for work! 

More next week hopefully! 

IH8UButler

Another week and haven't been that motivated to play, busy at work and had 2 kids birthday parties to organise so not much time for poker. Still trying to make a run on prio, slightly behind pace at 5883 points, not sure if will hit it as been literally falling asleep at the tables this week trying to squeeze volume in! Obviously not good for the winrate!

After a bad run at the holdem tables last week been playing some Omaha, and fortunately running well to bring me up to just under £2k. Barring disaster will have some cashouts next week! Hopefully a few more like this:
Player

	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
xxx	Small blind		£0.25	£0.25	£19.16
IH8UButler	Big blind		£0.50	£0.75	£136.99
	Your hole cards	J 8 2 8
xxx	Call		£0.50	£1.25	£43.90
xxx	Call		£0.50	£1.75	£38.96
xxx	Call		£0.50	£2.25	£32.28
xxxx	Call		£0.25	£2.50	£18.91
IH8UButler	Check
Flop
		8 2 7
xxx	Check
IH8UButler	Check
xx	Check
xx	Bet		£1.25	£3.75	£37.71
xx	Call		£1.25	£5.00	£31.03
xx	Fold
IH8UButler	Call		£1.25	£6.25	£135.74
xx	Fold
Turn
		4
IH8UButler	Check
xx	Check
xx	Bet		£3.13	£9.38	£27.90
IH8UButler	Call		£3.13	£12.51	£132.61
xx	Call		£3.13	£15.64	£34.58
River
		8
IH8UButler	Check
xx	Bet		£7.82	£23.46	£26.76
xx	Fold
IH8UButler	Raise		£39.10	£62.56	£93.51
xx	All-in		£26.76	£89.32	£0.00
IH8UButler	Unmatched bet		£4.52	£84.80	£98.03
IH8UButler	Show	J 8 2 8
xx	Show	7 7 2 K
IH8UButler	Win	Four 8s	£83.00		£181.0

and a few less like this

xx	Small blind		£0.25	£0.25	£83.39
xx	Big blind		£0.50	£0.75	£85.39
	Your hole cards	7 9 J J
xx	Fold
xx	Call		£0.50	£1.25	£59.07
xx	Raise		£2.25	£3.50	£9.03
IH8UButler	Call		£2.25	£5.75	£47.75
xx	Call		£2.00	£7.75	£81.39
xx	Call		£1.75	£9.50	£83.64
xx	Call		£1.75	£11.25	£57.32
Flop
		10 6 J
xx	Check
xx	Check
xx	Check
xx	All-in		£9.03	£20.28	£0.00
IH8UButler	Raise		£38.34	£58.62	£9.41
xx	Raise		£67.65	£126.27	£13.74
xx	Fold
xx	Fold
IH8UButler	All-in		£9.41	£135.68	£0.00
xx	Unmatched bet		£19.90	£115.78	£33.64
xx	Show	A 2 8 7
xx	Show	5 4 10 6
IH8UButler	Show	7 9 J J
Turn
		3
River
		2
xx	Win	Flush to the Ace	£113.98		£147.62

diet fallen off the wagon a bit with birthday cake etc, so need to try harder next week! Off to conference in the week and have school reunion next weekend so not much time for poker but will try and squeeze a few sessions in to keep the prio dream alive. Might be hiting the russian roulettes on 30th I think!

markycash

NH and well played.

Good luck with the prio push.

Losing weight and putting serious volume in at the tables can be a bit of a contridiction. Before I ever started playing poker I was around 11-12 stone, now you can add around 6 stone to that... It is possible but takes some serious discipline.

IH8UButler

Small update, combination of too much work and not much sleep (dummy fairy has visited the 3 year old) has sapped my motivation lately. Played a few sessions on tablet to make the SPT free roll, few ups and downs to lose approx £25 net since last update. Missed prio completely with 7k points again this month, roll at £1940. 

Think I will be abandoning the grind for a few months as just not winning of late, might try again in October time once site is a bit busier. Will prob still play a few sessions and couple of tournies here and there, but next month will just be trying to sat the SPT via the freerolls and maybe the £2 games, hate sats though so not putting pressure on myself, and definitely wont be involved in any sats for cash (or expenses) and likely just buy in on the day, take it as a bit of a punt.  

Health kick also stalled, hopefully can start getting more than 3-5 hours sleep a night might have some more motivation

IH8UButler

Mini update / brag, after unceremoniously busting the free roll nowhere near the money after doubling early doors, tilt regged a £10 SPT sat, and span that into a 1B Seat. Despite this still not sure if I'm a fan of satellites, was stressful on the bubble even with the chip lead!. Nice to have some run good this week after a pretty rubbish month, saved myself 200 sheets and a days annual leave so cant be bad

Only question is what to do in July as was planning on grinding the SPT sats as a change from cash, might try a few tourneys to get some practice playing tourneys, and see if I can bink some ££ for my train fare

Cashed out a monkey and BR sitting at just under £1600, will likely play the £11 level with a few £5's and maybe the odd £33, and see how it goes in terms of winrate and time, as if finishing play really late might have to abandon and come up with a new plan

IH8UButler

Another update - been busy at work and with family stuff so had little time or motivation for grinding the tables. After a nightmare session a couple of weeks ago have been running well at Omaha so had a couple of cash outs and roll sitting at 2k. Been punting a few tourneys with little success think will need some John Hesp style run good to get anywhere in Manchester. 

Got more time to grind from next month, in view of poor results here recently have moved a chunk of the roll to another site to attempt a rakeback grind on fast fold 50nl. On the face of it seems stupid but idea is I'm looking to break even for some steady profit and build a database of recent hands to do some analysis on my game. Will still be punting some games on sky as well mainly small stakes Omaha and tourneys for fun. Have done the rakeback grind before and can be pretty boring / demotivating especially once a downswing hits so unless by some miracle I can produce a good winrate it's likely will move back to sky full time in the winter - hopefully with better games running and my own game improved a bit! 

Looking forward to SPT next month don't get out much these days and not played live in months - hopefully see a few of the regs there put some faces to names. Next update next month will post a pic of my SPT trophy lol