Another year goes by

So im back home and after an enjoyable xmas period am sat on my ass a little heavier pondering the year gone bye. December has been pretty decent, up $14k in online cash games in 16k hands and up £2.5k in live cash which i played after i busted the monte carlo event midway through day 2. Finished about 50th of 250 or so, had chips omst of the event until around 70 left where i lost AQ to QT AIPF for a 200k pot, which would have given me a 300k stack (easily top 3 at the time) and a chance for a deep run. I played really well so can't complain and its just a matter of keeping the faith. Ive also managed to bink an EPT seat to Deauville which starts on 25th January after putting in a sunday MTT grind. My 1st online MTT grind in forever and although it started appaulingly i managed to bink this seat and go deep in a $22 cubed on stars and a $75 on tilt. As a result one of my goals will be to grind at least 20 sunday MTT sessions as i think i may finally have the patience and willpower to play online MTT's.

This year pokerwise has certainly been a game of two halves. Pre vegas and Post Vegas.

Pre Vegas i'd had a bad year breaking even in midstakes cash games, winning nicely in live cash games, and bricking live mtt's (although this was a common theme throughout the year). The highlight was winning a $33r 6max mtt for around $5k and in April winning the $215 HU tournament for around $16k.

Vegas itself was a blast, i did well in cash games at 2/5-5/10 (made $5k+) but bricked 3 tournaments i played inc ME where i bought 1/2 my action so i certainly ended the trip down after expenses.

2010 Monthly Breakdown.

January- $9k profit online in 45k hands (approx $2k RB), + £630 live cash 1/3 session

February- -$5416 online in 47k hands (approx $2k RB), + £922 live cash in 6hr 2/5 session. Approx £800 down in UKIPT MTT's

March- $11.5k profit in 40k hands (approx $2k RB), +£1k from live cash games. -€2.2k from IPT Nova Gorica MTT, +$5k from online $33R 6max MTT.

April- B/e + $2k RB, + $15.5k MTT score, -£2.8k in live cash

May/June/July- Hmm failure to blog so no records, but IIRC i made no more than $5k from online cash games and made approximately $8k from live cash games inc Vegas. was probably down in the region of $8k from Vegas mtt's and Nottingham UKIPT.

August- +$5k in 22k hands (approx +$500 in RB) Switched to HU here, +£3k at 2/5 cash, -£300 from DTD Deepstack MTT.

September- +6.5k profit in 15k hands (approx +$350 in RB), -€2.5k in Live mtt's in Ireland across UKIPT and side events.

October- +15k in 19k hands (approx +$400 in RB), +£4k in a few live cash sessions. -£1.5k in HU EPT mtt.

November- +$18.2k in 18.5k hands (approx +$400 in RB) + £500 in live cash, -1.5k for World HU mtt.

December- +$14k in 17k hands (approx +350 in RB), - £2.5k in live cash, - £750 for DTD monte carlo event.


So very roughly my figures are:

Online cash games- + $78,784. Pretty dissappointing but given how the last 6months have gone im reasonably happy with things going into 2011

Rakeback- Very rough estimate of $12k. Alot lower than last year naturally as from August onwards ive played solely HU cash.

Online MTT's- +$13k net profit + EPT deauville package. played less than 200 MTT's this year managed 2 wins (1st 5 figure score) so a fairly pleasing effort.

Live cash games- +$15,331. First year playing live cash semi regularly went well apart from a couple of £5/10 sessions towards the end of the year.

Live MTT's (aka my kryptonite)- -$21,690. This figure is likely worse since ive ran bad at staking and the expenses gathered on getting to these events.


Overall it works out to be a Net profit of $97,437 which is way short of my original goals, variance hasn't been kind at Live mtt's. Having said that ive done remarkably well post Vegas and with an EPT package in the bag im hoping to get off to a flyer in 2011 and will be looking to outline my 2011 goals early in the New year. Have fun everyone!

Uncertainity in the online poker world!

Over the past few days i've found myself pre-occupied with the uncertainty around the future of online poker. Those of you aware will have heard that Senator Reid is intending on attaching a bill to regulate online poker to a greater bill, which will see Americans free to play online poker again.

However, all is not as it seems. A 15month "blackout period" will insue meaning US players won't be allowed to play for this period so that online poker sites have a level playing field (Seems the big casino players MGM and Harrah's are throwing substantial amounts of money at this having seen the success of stars/FTP). On a purely selfish note this is likely to have a huge effect on the games with traffic been more than halfed. Granted im not a huge grinder but it is a worry and i feel sorry for those big grinders like Nanonoko and Gregy in the US who really will have big decisions to make if this passes through.

Another bone of contention is the lack of clarity after the 15month blackout period. Rumours are circulating that stars/FTP will be frozen out of the American market for a further two years (almost as punishment for accepting US players whilst poker wasn't regulated in the US). At A-level i studied abit of American Politics and i remember all the beaucracy, back scratching and corruption that is a result of a proportional representation electoral system. Throw in an industry where money is like confetti and those with the deepest pockets (Harrah's/MGM) and there perogatives will prevail.

Enough of the depressing stuff anyway. November was great made about $20k online in 18k hands. Live didnt go well, i dropped about £5k in two sessions. Running a huge bluff in a 3bet pot which wasn't great for £5k pot and losing set under turned set in another session for a £5.5k pot. Can't complain things are going well. December has followed in the same vein up around $7.5k in 5k hands, so hopefully i can churn out a decent month before the sky falls.

Next week im going to DTD. Still debating whether to play the Monte Carlo MTT or just play live cash. I'll make a decision nearer the time hoping i don't downswing to hard between now and then.

Looking towards next year, i may have to play live alot. I currently intend to play IPT Lugano (15th Jan) EPT Deauxvile (25th Jan) and Stars Estrella Madrid (2nd Feb) assuming i can sat into 1 or 2 of them. I'll almost certainly play all 3 if the blackout period is in place by then.

Got friends visiting this weekend for Sunderland vs Fulham match. Probably won't be a classic but looking forward to seeing m8's i aint seen since before Vegas (Aint been home since June :S). After DTD i'll head str8 up north for Xmas celebrations and hopefully a good few boozy nights in Newcastle/Durham.

Lets hope we have good news in the coming days.

JP

A regal performance worthy of a crown, although deep rooted problems threaten immediate future!

For my regular readers (all 2 of you) you maybe aware that this blog post title is somewhat more cryptic, than my usual run of the mill blog titles. So far my volume has been lame this month, ive put in 7.5k hands for $14k profit which is pretty good and im still riding the heater. Im also up around £3k from 2 sessions at the Vic.

Now the reasoning for the title is non-poker related. Around about 1 month ago i had a crown put on my tooth, which set me back about £200. For the past week ive been suffering tooth ache which got progressively worse under the crown, to the point where at 6am Saturday Morning in extreme pain i rolled out of bed to look for emergency 24hr dentists online.

Luckily i found one and got an appointment that morning, at an address called non other than XXX Dr Watson chambers, Baker st. So i hopped on the rattler for a short 10min tube journey. Once i got there the waiting room was full of people looking rather grim (naturally) but i managed to see a dentist quickley, who took an x-ray and discovered i had developed abscess on my root under the crown and would therefore need a root canal (sigh). Not only this but for the pleasure it would cost £500 on the day in total for consultation and the 1st stage of treatment, and then a further £250 when i go back in 10days time for the second part of the treatment. So in total its going to cost around £1k for work on one tooth which im assuming the 1st dentist i saw and made the crown (who i disliked and had absolutely no faith in) made a botch jump letting my tooth get infected. After surgery and the numbing injection weared off i was in severe pain and my gumaround the root causing the trouble had ballooned, luckily towards the end of the night anti-biotics kicked in and now im in no discomfort which feels truly awesome. One downside is i can't touch alcohol till after stage 2 of my root canal surgery.

cliffs: Look after your teeth

went to see Kevin Bridges last week which was com at the Hammersmith apollo, but now i need to get back on the grind since im not on course to hit my 20k hands a month goal. On my way to the Dentist i swong by the Vic to buyin for the World HU championship MTT which starts this coming friday, surely this is the mtt to break my live MTT duck right?

JP

October recap

So October was my best online month this year, which ironically coincided with it been the least volume ive put in a single month in over 2 years. Not too surprisingly since its 95% HU and a few successful hands bumhunting 5/10-10/20 6max. I played alot of live cash early in the month with EPT in town and a ton of tables running at the Vic where i pocketed £4-5k making it around a $25k month which is pleasing.

Since ive got back from Vegas it seems (touch wood) ive turned a corner finally and although im going to fall way short of my original targets for the year, i should finish the year strongly. November has been positive thus far aswell up $5k online while i managed a £2k win in a £2/5 session on Tues at the Vic in a particularly juicy game.

I'll be playing the World HU championship which is in London on te 19th, currently selling action on 2p2 here http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/184/staking-selling-shares-live/whollyflush-selling-world-hu-championship-910481/#post22680491 so if anyone reading is interested in the sweat u can buy a piece while im on a nice heater. Ive recently been buying lots of action of other people playing live events in Amsterdam and various UK events so hopefully someone can bink as im definitely down a ton in live mtt staking.

On a non related poker note it was my Bday on Monday and ive managed to make it to 25 not out, although i feel pretty darn old especially when all the people binking these huge tournaments are 4/5 years my junior.

JP

October!!!

So since my last update things have gone pretty well. Made $8k in about 12k hands last month (all HU and was away in Dublin nearly 2 weeks). I played alot of cash in the Vic while EPT was on £2/5-£5/10 which i did okay and made around £4k over 4-5 long sessions.

I also played the EPT £1K HU which was a slightly crapshooty best of 3 format which definitely suited HU SNG players as opposed to cash. I won my 1st match 2-0 quite comfortably. Managed to C/R 9To on a 99J board and got it in against 43o no draw :) then whittled the guy down to short and had AJ beat his KK. Unfortuntely i busto'd in round 2, Managed to lose A8s to 78s with the guy down to 10bigs. From there he made a comeback to win match 1. Match 2 he also won as blinds were huge i opened A8o with 22bigs, he shipped i called and he had AJ :(. Maybe close but he was an aggro HU sng grinder for a living so meh.

Plans for this month are just to grind HU cash online. Doing well again, up around $11k in 11k hands from 1/2-3/6 across stars and tilt and im pretty happy with my HU game at the minute. I'll also be playing the world HU competition that is at the vic next month (£2.2k buy-in) so i'll probably look to sell some action at mark-up when i speak to a few people.

gl at the tables

JP

UKIPT Dublin

Well could of gone a little better TBH. Ended day1 on 56k (double average) was in good shape but day 2 was a nightmare. Within the 1st hour i won AJ>KJ vs a shorty, then proceeded to lose 77 to AQ (river A) for a 28k pot AQ to A9 (9 river) for a just short of 40k pot and KJ to 66 on a JT4 6 K board where i didnt go broke somehow. My bust out hand wass sumthing o an error howvever, as i opened TT UTG with just over 20bigs. Middle aged guy with large stack 3x 3bets and i jam when i should probably just fold against this guy but i guess i was slightly tilted (oh he had QQ). Got nothing going in the sides either lost a few standard flips nothing particularly exciting.

I did play the €1k HU winner takes all that got just 8 runners. I beat Vanessa Rousso 1st round, i ran pretty nicely and she kinda just let me run her over which was nice. My 2nd match didnt fair so well. i ran a huge bluff 3betting 67o and bombing 3 streets on a 933 T Q board getting called by AT, then with my last 25bigs i got it in with AK against A8. 8 peels off on the turn and its gg me. Ive ran terribly bad thus far so hopefully this SH 6max event will be boomswitch activated. There putting on 6max cash games from 2moro night onwards aswell so i'll get on that grind with alot of french players expected to be playing.

I played online yesterday a little and took 10 stacks off a reg in a few hundred hands to book a much needed $2k winning session. Ran like good (about 3 1/2 stacks above EV)

Quite an important few days coming up i guess as i wat to play a ton of ept stuff but how well i do in next few days will determine this.

JP

Long time no post!

Brief update

Last few months have been decent haa gr8 time in Vegas (not MTT wise as i busted ME early level 2 with middle set). Never got close to money in other MTT's i played but meh made a decent clip at $5/10 live to cover a ton of my expenses so nearly broke even on the trip.

Goin to Dublin next Wednesday for UKIPT and the Euro Short handed Championship which is a couple of days later fortunately so will be in dublin nearly 2 weeks. I'll be updating my twitter for sure.

Online ive switched to playing solely HU. Went well last month, made about $6k in 20k hands which isn't to bad. Booked a £3 session at the Vic last week aswell so can't complain. WCOOP is just around the corner aswell so hopefully i can go deep in a couple of them.

I'll be updating in Dublin and you can follow my tweets at www.twitter.com/whollyflush

JP

The Truth Hurts

Since my last update things haven't gone particularly well. I ended last month break-even in cash games, but thanks to this $16k+ donkament ship and a few $$k rakeback i had a winning month.

My May grind was delayed as i went home for a few nights out and watched the Sunderland V Man U game with friends. Wasn't a great game, but plenty of beers with old friends made it a thoroughly enjoyable poker free break. Since ive returned im around $3k down this month. Took 2 shots at 5/10 (stupidly) down to boredom/degeneracy and dropped 2 stacks wit top 2 twice to rivered sets in a raised pot and a 3 bet pot. Shouldn't have been playing 5/10 in the 1st place but would be nice for the poker gods to cut me some slack 1 time.

So the title of this blog post relates to myself in the state of todays games. At Midstakes im on a 30bi downswing at present only now, with the new stars tables its fair to say i cant beat midstakes anymore. Up until early April, i still think i was a winner in the games but since the changes there are sometimes only 4tbls at 2/4 running Euro hours and i doubt i could be a winner in most of the lineups anymore.

In the past i had the excuse of running 90bi below over a 9 month period, which for someone who has played over 1.5 million hands has been tough but during this period i was still confident i had an edge and i still believe this was the case. Now however, despite still running under EV i feel im getting outplayed at $2/4+ and its time to consolidate and grind SSNL for a couple of months to see if i can churn out a couple winning months.

Thankfully ive been crushing 200nl for the past week, although ive ran rediculously hot ironically which just makes me more bitter. Im sure a true reflection of my winrates would be for them to be closer than they currently are, but hey shit happens. So for now im just left questionning my "shelf-life" as a poker player as im sure everyone knows or have heard of players in the past who beat certain limits, before sliding down the limits and donating a ton of it back. I dont really want to slip into that category so i'll be treading water during the next 2 months making sure im realistic about my roll in the poker economy.

One option im considering is playing High stakes HU sng's $200+. They seem fairly soft and since HU cash is dead i think i could turnover a 8-10% ROI in these over a fair sample i might experiment in the coming weeks.

Played a little live pokerz last week and booked a £1k win. Was £1.8k down at one point so a nice +£2.8k swing in the early hours was good for my sanity. If all else fails i could always become a live pro and make a decent living. Tomorrow im settng off to play UKIPT Nottingham. A £500 4 or 5 day event (can't remember) THere also running a £220 6max side event, so if i bust i'll hop into that or grind cash games for the weekend. Should be good fun nonetheless and im really looking forward to it.

JP

No Money HU everybody's solid!

Shipped the $215 HU last night for my 1st major win and $15.5k. Pretty pleased naturally and won the last 4games or so comfortably. I beat two HSNL cash regs in the early rounds thanks to 77 vs AK AIPF and 55 vs 32hh on a A 5 8hh board. Offered to do a chop HU because of the huge pay jump yet the fish declined. So glad i didnt chop as he was the worst guy i had played all evening.

Prior to the win i had my worst week in poker i think :(. Firstly my computer got a virus last weekend and i was unable to back-up my HEM database, meaning i lost over 300k of Hand histories with alot of reads and notes on regulars :(. It cost me £220 for the priviledge of getting it fixed as i tilt went to a well known high street retailer. They then told me it could take anything up to 45 days to fix! So i basically bribed them into fixing it next day as in theory that should be the cheaper option.

Im down about $5k online for the week. Started a new HEM db so steadily remembering who is who when im playing. Ive run really bad and played very very tilty which is probably due to a combination of things but whatever. Volume this month has been fairly lame i think along with profits which are probably about $2k+RB. On Wednesday i played £2/5 at the Vic and had my 1st losing live session. Was stuck a total of £2.8k after losing a monster £3.2k with JJ on a 578 Kdd board facing a huge overbet donk on the turn allin for 3x pot. I snapped and river peels a 9d to which the guy turns over JTdd gg me. So it looks like this MTT ship has just covered my losses for the month + change :P

Stars recently changed there table buyins which have had a negative effect for me personally, the 40-100bb tables are pretty tough as fish are attracted to the 20-50bb tbls. At midstakes Euro hours there are no more than 15 40-100 bb tables running, so theres not much choice for table selecting playing 6-8 tables. I don't crush like i used to and wont be a winner on some of the tables i play so grinding a decent volume of hands may be difficult in the forthcoming months.

My Intentions for May are to play quite a few donkaments. Some really good SCOOP event so with a bit of look i can hopefully sat into a few of the biggies and claim a few cashes. Ive also just bought into UKIPT Nottingham online, DTD is just too good of a poker venue to turn down. Should be an immense week.

Will be going home next weekend for the bank holiday, hopefully the weather is great and i can have a few decent nights out in the Toon.

gl at the tables all JP

From Hero to Zero!

Been a swongy week thats for sure. Played some like cash Tuesday night at the Vic, managing to make £2k profit thanks to a cooler 88 vs 86 on a 8 6 5 flop and sucking out in a big pot double barrelling allin with KdTx on a 6 7 9ddd X board vs J2dd. River is a delightful Qd.

The next day i recorded my biggest cash day online making a tad over $6k in 2k hands. Naturally i was pretty pleased although i knew i ran pretty hot with a 64% WSD. I have str8 away downswonged just over $4k which is annoying and wiping out a chunk of this weeks profit. I remain about $5k to the good + my live profit for the month so its not too bad. Think im going to play some more live £2/5 2moro while im running well and enjoying the craziness of live cash.

Think im going to play GUKPT Manchester providing i dont downswing further at the end of the month. Will probably sell anything up to 50% of my action so if anyone is interested let me know.

JP

March Round-up

Well March was the month where i finally put together a solid month. My volume was slightly lame at only 40k hands, but i was in Italy nearly a week, coupled with been bone idle and not playing more than 7-8 tbls max i was unlikely to hit 50k hands. I made around $11.5k from online cash games +$2-$2.5k rakeback, £1k from live cash games and managed to bink donkament (image above) for $5k making it roughly a $20k month.

So on sunday i loaded up a few 6max MTT's, a few satelitte's for live events and the Sunday Million. Failed in most, final tabled UKIPT Nottingham satelitte and got my £££ back but ran terribly losing AQ to A7 for CL then eventually busting call a SB shove with K8 losing to K7. I did manage to chop the above MTT for $4.9k. I thought i played really well in the 33r 6max since towards the end of the tournament i wasn't really getting my own way. From the last 3 tbls onwards i lost a huge pot AQ vs AJ vs AJ allin 3way which would have made me a big CL. I was short-stacked for the last 2 tbls and this continued into the last 4 as the cl squeezed the advantage over the other players who were all equally short. I then won a flip JJ VS KQ and applied pressure 3 handed, knocking out the former CL with ATs which i 3bet pre and c/c an overbet jam on a T 8 7 board and held vs 75s. The guy blew up in the latter stages big time after having 1/2 the chips in play 5handed.

Decided to do a chop as chipstacks were nearly even and it was 5am, my opponent seemed ok although im certain i'll have had a decent edge over wot was a SNG grinder with 70+bb stacks. However, it was 5am and in tune with my laziness i just took the chop which was a fair deal for both parties.

On Wednesday i played sum £2/5 at the Vic for about £900 (Inc returns from a horse playing £1/2) Scooped my biggest ever pot around £2.1k with 89ss in a 3bet pot on a 7 T K A 4 3spade board where i backdoored the flush :P vs a set of Kings. Ez game

Going to try and get more volume in April, breaking the 50k barrier as i dont intend to play any live events this month. Started ok up $2k over my 1st 4k hands so hopefully i can put back to back solid months on the board.

Over and out

JP

BUSTED

Novs Gorica II today (day 2) got in in for 15bigs at 800/1600/100 on the button with K7o and got called by kjo :(.

Day 1 didnt go great fluttered around average most of the day then lost kk to aa towards end of day1 and generally never got anything going. Not much to do in Gorizio and internet is terrible. On a positive note ive crushed the draw poker slot machines for around €15 whilst bas has donated about €50.

Fly back monday back to the grind tuesday.

JP

Quick update

Going to Nova Gorica to play the Italian poker tour in Slovenia on Wednesday with Bas. Buy in is €2.2k Euros i think, but i managed to buying for 190K fpp's (<3 stars). Hopefully should be fairly soft with lots of rich middle aged italians playing. Time to get on the Hendon mob DB imo (to be fair ive played about 5 mtts >£500)

Online has been ok, played just over 25k hands for just under 7k profit. Decent volume but im going to be away till monday, so unlikely i'll hit 50k hands for the month. Craving a 5 figure month and playing pretty well so heres to hoping.

gl at the tables all

JP

My Worst month ever ;'(

Soooooo Febuary was horrible, my 1st real losing month in over 2 years online and it totally sucked. Didnt play too bad, ran bad at 600nl lots under EV same theme as previous few months. This month im going to mix in a little 100 and 200nl to lower the variance for the 1st week or 2 of March depending how it goes.

I played Manchester UKIPT in the middle of the month but went out in about level 8 on day 1. Losing AA to ATs in 3bet pot, nothing particularly unusual. I decided to play the £300 FO 2day the next day as i felt good, managed to make day 2 but fell short of the money losing 2 big flips for top 5 stacks with something like £15k up top. Live cash was good, played £2/5 at the vic last week and pocketed a £922 win in around 6 hours. Standard was probably equivalent to 10nl online and i was just allowed to run over the tbl.

Midstakes live cash at the vic, seems to have a mix of uber fishes and weak regulars who will only get it in with a set. Not sure if im playing any live events this month, there is GUKPT London but its abit more expensive than standard GUKPT's so im toying with the idea of going to Nova Gorica (Slovenia) for the IPT (italian poker tour, yeah thats right in Slovenia) if i can win a package or sell a boat load of action.

Heres to making March my bitch this month, instead of vice versa

JP

Back to winning ways

Been on something of a tear the last few days online and my month stands just short of $10k profit after 44k hands or so. Pretty relieved to be winning again after 150k hand B/E stretch and this is my 1st month since June running at Expectation.

Since stars improved there vip program with stellar awards and more bottom heavy milestone bonuses im now going to be raking in a minimum of $2k RB per month which is awesome as it allows me to cover my monthly nut aslong as i grind 50k hands per month.

On Tuesday i went to the Vic to play some £1/3. Haven't played there before but ut was a typical live cash game, lots of multiway pots and surprisingly pre-flop aggression but i managed to book a £630 win in about 6 hours during the afternoon. Its alot different for me to play FR live as i play SH and HU online, so i just nitted up in the main and stayed out of big multiway pots to try and punish players by getting action HU by 3 betting IP. I think ive only ever had one losing live session which was mainly due to getting phished and shoving £600 in a £1/2 game over a single raise with TT. I'll defintely make the trip about once a week and play the £2/5 game regularly. Hopefully these sessions will help me for when i play live MTT's.

Plans for the near future are to keep my grind on while im running good up until UKIPT Manchester.Hopefully i'll update prior or when ive arrived in Manchester.

gl at the tables

JP

Investments and Movements!

A funny pic done by a m8 (i say m8!) on EMS from the trip to the Espana FTP tourny in August where im pulling a horrific pose.

Txt relates to a hand i posted.

Quite an ez one.

Poker Stars $400.00 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 481482
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN/SB): $400.00
BB: $400.00

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is BTN/SB with J 8
Hero raises to $8, BB calls $4

Flop: ($16.00) T 3 T (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $12.00, BB calls $12

Turn: ($40.00) 7 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $34.00, BB calls $34

River: ($108.00) 7 (2 players)
BB bets $55.00, Hero calls $55

Final Pot: $218.00
Hero shows J 8
BB shows 5 3
Hero wins $217.50
(Rake: $0.50)

So tomorrow me and my m8 move into a London flat in Kensal rise (about 3 stops from the Vic) Its a fairly long trip from Durham but we've done a few of these before so im used to it now. Got a 12 month tenancy agreement so should be sweet been in London again. We even have a reasonably sized garden which is great for the summer with the world cup so there is potential for epic BBQ's for England matches.

This month ive began investing my money as i had far too much just sitting in a standard bank account. In total ive invested over £17.5k in savings accounts, GOv/Corp bonds and shares on the stock market. Luckily my brother is a financial adviser so i'd like to think it will be profitable. Ive gone for a balanced portfolio with a 3:2:1 ratio on the above to minimise risk. within that ive further broken the investment types down. With my shares ive invested the majority in Blue chip companies (listed in ftse 250) which are unlikely to fluctuate. Ive also invested in the AIM (Alternate Investment Market) which is higher risker, but potential for greater returns (swongs yo!) If i can churn out a small profit for the year i'll be happy.

Poker is mehhhhhh :(. Reached the 70bi's below EV market and 7 consectutive months below EV fml. Im definately playing bad now but i can't be too angry with myself because its going to happen. Playing your "A" game when going through a bad run is hard and unobtainable i believe. HU ive been doing pretty well, and over the next few days im going to be busy with sorting our new flat out so will probably just grind a few sessions of HU here and there. I do want to visit the Vic and play some 2/5 before i go to UKIPT. Dont play too much live poker but its good fun and i'll need the practice before donkament crushing. Bought in for UKIPT Manchester over the phone a few days ago. Also got a decent deal on a penthouse, sharing with Bas,Jagz and Gawa so should be fun.

Should update at the end of the month.

Caio

JP