A New Beginning #vampires

Hey guys,  

Again as standard, many apologies for the delay of this blog. Been nearly two months! Disgraceful! I shall endeavor to ensure that the next one is out in more timely fashion. Well, what's been happening? Well in terms of poker, March was probably the best month of my career. It all started on a drizzly Thursday afternoon, I turned up to my mates Andy's house with my laptop one hand and change from the cab fare in another. I was greeted at the door by Andy's Dad who gave me that ' I wonder how much this poor bloke is going to lose today?' look. We passed niceties and I made my way to the room of the grind. Despite my morale being fairly low at this point due to poor results in February, I was forever trying to stay positive. POSITIVE GODDAMIT.Bit cheesy and American but you know, whatever.

I remember thinking during that session that something seemed a little different, maybe it was the new month or just a small adjustment in attitude. I wasn't necessary feeling 'better' about my game just a little different. By 4am , I was probably the happiest man in South Woodford (they're a miserable bunch after all) after winning the 'Big 109' for 21.5k dollars...

Now, this would obviously please any poker player, however I really see that night as a breakthrough. Firstly, it was my first 4 figure score on the site. It was a huge relief to get that monkey off my back. In all honesty and I think that most players/friends who know me, felt it was about time I got the score that I deserved. Indeed, the congratulations that I received did seem to reflect this.

So what now I thought? This has to be the start of something right? No more near misses, no more 5 trillion flips down the drain. Something within me had definitely changed. Despite having a larger score on Full Tilt the year before, I came 8th in that tournament. Seven people were above me. This time I was number one in a tournament that actually mattered to me, a tournament that people actually noticed. I have to say, it felt good and still does.

March continued to go well for me as confidence remained high. I had a pretty sick sunday, where I came 9th in the Warm Up form 5k ish and about 100th or so in the Million. Again, despite feeling a bit sick the next day, it felt amazing to final a massive tournament like that (even if it was for all of 4 minutes). Since then I have also finalled the Big 162 again coming 9th. However, this is not me pointing out bad luck. Instead, just indicating that I am now starting to be where I want to be. On the final tables of the best tournaments online. 

So yeah, things have certainly improved since my last blog. However, some things never change as I am currently in the middle of my notorious 'Uk Tour'. After visiting my dad in Scotland for Easter (where I saw Celtic bring home the League title in as much style as you could hope for in an SPL match), I am currently, on a train to Newcastle. This always brings me joy. As I love the city and also have many good friends there. I still intend to finally fulfill a promise to myself and move there one day. Cannot wait. We'll have the standard night out sandwiched by some online sessions and it shall be epic.Then on Thursday I'm off to a nightmarish place, a place called Dusk Till Dawn for the UKIPT.

Despite easily being the best poker room in the country and I assume Europe, Dusk Till Dawn has always provided me with such pain. Just like George Clooney in the classic film 'Dusk Till Dawn' it all starts so well I'm having a great time and then everything simply goes tits up. I mean, no, everyone inside does not turn into a flesh craving vampire (however some of the dealers look like they don't see a great deal of daylight). But, you know, you get the general idea.

However, with this 'new beginning' that I was banging on about at the start of blog, maybe even in the realms of that building, I can find some success. The tournament itself, with 1 mirrrrrionn pounds guaranteed, is certainly a superb one and one that I would have no problem with winning. I give myself 50/50.

Alas, good friends, the train is pulling in soon so I must depart, 200 euro SCOOP later on fr #whatdreamaremadeof. That plus all the banter I'll have in Newcastle/Nottingham means I should have a very deece week.

Anyway 

As always,  cheers for reading

Brady

Looking at the big picture

Hey guys,

Again apologies for the obscene delay in the publication of this blog, pretty much no excuses as always! I hope 2012 is treating you all well. Anywho, lets have a general update. Well online in January was going pretty good with two 1st's and 3rd in 109s on stars for just under 9k and a 2nd in the 55 cap for 2.3k. However, bigger scores are still eluding me on stars which is of course pretty frustrating. Probably repeating myself by saying 'I feel they are just around the corner', however I'm still sticking to that mentality. It still ending up being a winning month but not anywhere near what I felt it could/should of have been. Saying that, when it comes to Mtts it's really important to stay positive and just understand the variance involved. In reality, it's all about the long run and if you're a winning player, then well, you are going to win. It might not be this month or even next month, however in the long haul there is going to be a positive outcome.

It's really interesting looking at results of the some biggest online winners. I often breeze through OPR (Official Poker Rankings) being the cool person I am and look up how the huge winners are doing. Something that I have noticed is that some huge winners, have what you would call 'off' years. Where they break even or even lose. This really displays the sick nature of mtts and how variance effects everyone no matter how good you are. If a reg is going from winning 200k+ one year and then losing the next, we could say 'well he must have played better in his winning year'. When in reality, this perhaps wasn't the case. Maybe he just won more flips deep in big tournaments when it mattered.

As a poker player and as a human being, it's natural to moan when we lose say an 80/20 deep. However, from personal experience, you always seem to remember the bad beats more than the 'get there's'. In a time where online poker is becoming a degree tougher (especially on Pokerstars) it's essential to understand the nature of tournaments and not get bogged down in running bad or finishing 10th a bunch. This is certainly an area of my game that I'm trying to perfect as the initial sting of wasted deep runs still hurts! It is important to realise that as with many things in life, poker is all about the long game.

Going back to this year, I've decided to lower my variance by playing sites such as 888, Party and maybe Ladbrokes and Ipoker, Firstly, this may hinder my chances of getting Supernova on Stars as obviously I'll have to cut down my volume by about 20% to accommodate tables on these sites. However, after getting 12k VPPs in January I still feel I can make Supernova by Christmas. Secondly, as the field size on these sites is much lower, I should make more finals and making finals is the best thing for both profit and confidence. So while I have to reduce my Stars volume, I hope playing more sites will keep my confidence high,say if I start having a dry patch on Stars and Fr.Feeling really good about my game at the moment and playing my first Sunday in a while today so hopefully that goes well! oioiii!

In fact, I randomly decided to play live yesterday at the Fox 300 and made day 2 with a reshove stack, so lets try and spin to £13k! This tournament is actually the most hilarious thing ever. I noticed a gentleman had lots of chips at the end of day and was reminded of an occasion when after winning a massive flip vs me deep started doing yoga at the side of the stable, quieting chuckling to himself.REVENGE ONE TIME. And Oh yeah, Wattsy was on my table yesterday and actually held a bluff over the muck trying to get the guy to call. Of course the guy folds  A9 on 789910 face up,Wattsy laughs, looks at me instantly and shows a3ss for Ace high, you can't get entertainment like that on any of the zillions of channels you get on Sky. Amazing Times.

Off to Newcastle on Thursday (Yay) to watch Brand New (YAY) with Sykesy (YAYYYYY), really looking forward to it and catching up with the crew over the weekend. So morale is pretty high, it's Sunday and I could spin to £13k, just let morale be this high at 11pm! Lol pokers.

Thanks for reading

Brady

Oh Yeah Glglgl to Beaneh on the FT of a 500 Euro Deepstack in Ireland 63k Euro ftw, legggoooo, Good ruck son (get there 2.5%)

Here's some classic Brand New for you to enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMJIc9USE2U

Hope the world does not end this year as I plan to have a sublime one.

Howdy amigos, 


Well, well well it's 2012, so firstly Happy New Year! I hope it is a good year for you all and all your dreams come true and shit. 


Apologies again for delay in the writing the blog, again literally no excuses! I'll do a quick December recap to make up for this...


Well in terms of poker, the year ended on a rather sour note. After a great start ( 2nd in 55 6 max for nearly 4k and some other finals ) , it all went a bit pear shaped. I managed to have a decent losing month on .FR again and eventually dusted off any profit on .com. All this culminating in pretty awful Christmas present to myself, a substantial hole to dig out of.


Despite this setback, I'm overall pretty happy with my year. My profit has increased by over 100% from 2010 and although the majority of it came from one tournament, I still feel I can look back on the year positively.


In recent months, I have managed to play comfortably over 12 tables and play anywhere from 50-80 tournaments in a session. Kicking up my volume like this can only be a good thing in my opinion and should really help my game develop in 2012. In fact, I know aim to achieve Supernova Status this year. 


In terms of how my game has moved in the last 12 months, I feel as a backed player I've developed my self control and tilt management, which was probably a bit of issue for quite a while. Understanding the variance involved in tournaments has really helped with downswings and ensuring that my game doesn't suffer simply because the cards aren't running my way.


The main area of my game which has improved is applying pressure deep in tournaments and trying to ensure that I maximise any deep runs that I have. This is certainly an area that I still to improve on but I take lines now that I probably wouldn't have even considered a year ago. I have many people to thank for helping me develop this part of my game and most of them say 'ballist' a fair bit and know who they are anyway! 


Anywho, moving onto 2012. My main target this year is to again double the profit I made on the previous year. However daunting, I do feel this is an achievable target. I know that in tournaments literally anything can happen but I have to have a positive outlook! 


In the last couple of months, I've started working again 3 days a week and earning steady money really helps take the pressure off when things are not going well. It also helps me to maintain a better life balance, in so that I'm not getting too bogged down with poker and can catch up with friends etc. This in turn puts me in a better state for the long sessions I have been playing. 


My main life aim in 2012 is to maintain an at least decent level of fitness, I was supposed to run 3 10k's last summer when in fact all I did was run to the toilet during breaks in 1k tournaments in Vegas. So hopefully I can try and do some 5k and 10k runs this year, maybe get some prop bets going to motivate! ( lemme know if interested).


Speaking of prop bets, in my drunken enthusiasm on NYE I booked a total profit bet with Will and Jamie Dale for 2012, so GL to me there. Freeroll Christmas one time! anyone else who fancies yearly total profit prop bets profit I'd probably be interested also as I want loads of motivation this year. 


Final aim of 2012 is to stop being such a c@&t and catch up way more with hombres that I do not see nearly enough. If of course they are still my hombres! #forgivemeboys


Just back home from send off drinks for my good friend James Austin as he departs to Sheffield for further study ( hanging out with female fresher housemates*).Also watched a rather fantastic football match, shame it wasn't in 3D though :-). (Oh dear Jono, Chelsea may be awful but that was incred!).


Anyway think I'll wrap things up there.


 I promise future blogs will be less self centered and purely about poker aims. (Apologies non poker playing readers)
Cheers for reading


Brady