Just had my first review session with my backer and he's keeping me on luckily! Feel really positive about how things are going after the session, we went over a load of stats and a few hands from a semi deep run I had recently.

With this boost to my confidence that I don't suck as much as I thought I regged the $7.50 bounty builder with a view to finding spots to implement a few things we spoke about. Within 3 levels I'd 4x'd my starting stack and went on to a top 20 stack looking pretty comfortable. Not wanting me to get too comfortable however I got smacked down pretty quickly!

PokerStars - $3.41+$3.41+$0.68|150/300 Ante 50 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP+2: 80.31 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 1)
CO: 107.06 BB (VPIP: 30.77, PFR: 15.38, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 13)
BTN: 18.78 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 10)
SB: 30.67 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)
BB: 39.53 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 3)
UTG: 100.68 BB
UTG+1: 9.21 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 10.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)
Hero (MP): 86.05 BB
MP+1: 49.26 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)

9 players post ante of 0.17 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 3 BB) Hero has 9 9

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.2 BB, fold, MP+2 calls 2.2 BB, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1.2 BB

Flop: (8.6 BB, 3 players) J 9 7
BB checks, Hero bets 4 BB, MP+2 calls 4 BB, BB raises to 8 BB, Hero raises to 15.67 BB, MP+2 calls 11.67 BB, BB raises to 37.16 BB and is all-in, Hero raises to 83.68 BB and is all-in, MP+2 calls 62.28 BB and is all-in

Turn: (201.66 BB, 3 players) 4

River: (201.66 BB, 3 players) J

Hero shows 9 9 (Full House, Nines full of Jacks)

Main Pot [120.09 BB]: (Pre 16%, Flop 5%, Turn 2%)
Side Pot#1 [81.57 BB]: (Pre 18%, Flop 5%, Turn 2%)

MP+2 shows J J (Four of a Kind, Jacks)

Main Pot [120.09 BB]: (Pre 69%, Flop 24%, Turn 17%)
Side Pot#1 [81.57 BB]: (Pre 82%, Flop 95%, Turn 98%)

BB shows 8 T (Straight, Jack High)

Main Pot [120.09 BB]: (Pre 15%, Flop 71%, Turn 81%)

MP+2 wins 201.66 BB

Sucks but at least I made money on the bounties. Onwards and upwards, I had a small piece of someone who made a FT of a SCOOP for $44k and have some money heading over to Vegas for the series so hopefully will see a return on that as well!

Right now I'm mainly just cramming for exams and playing some poker for breaks. I've taken a 2nd in a 2-7 TD mtt but still waiting for that first NLHE deep run on this stake!

2017 - Everything is Falling Into Place - Warning TL;DR

Intro
I've started to write this piece several times since the beginning of the year and haven't really known how to put things on to paper. It's been a while since I've been able to post here and a lot has been going on which has kept me off the felt.

The latter half of 2016 was great for me, I got really stuck into work and my professional exams, moved in with a girl I love and things went about as well as I could have hope. However, being a bit of a perfectionist there is always room for improvement. When people (usually drunkenly) ask what your one wish would be the first things that come to mind are usually stuff like money, happiness, love etc but I really think all of these things boil down to one thing, time. My answer to this would be another 12-18 hours in each day, there is so much going on right now that I'd love to be able to put more time into everything that I enjoy.

As I'm yet unfortunately not in possession of my genie in a bottle I've resorted to having to prioritise and cut out stuff in my life which has been easier said than done. It started towards the end of last year when I watched a vlog of a skier I'm a big fan of, Jon Olsson. (If you have read any of this thread before I have probably spoken about skiing a fair bit...) I'll link it below for you to see:



I have always loved partying, getting drunk and to be honest have spent far too much money in the pursuit of that.... I loved every minute of it and wouldn't take it back but it was also taking up a huge amount of my life, and while it was fun, it wasn't producing anything, I wasn't bettering myself through it.

For me 2017 is going to be a chance to address this balance and start working on improving myself. I'll by 27 this year and the last 9 years have been awesome, but it's time for a change of tack. Since returning to London after spending the holiday period away I've reassessed my priorities and am trying to make better decisions. I've been a member of a (frankly disgustingly expensive) gym in London for a while and have never used it as much as I feel I should. Since returning I've been 4-5 times a week and swimming as often as I have time. I haven't done this since I was 16-18 and it feels great to be back in there. I've also managed to not touch a drop of alcohol since coming back to London while maintaining the same social circle and life as before, I can just get up at 5-6 the next day and get on with what I enjoy doing.

Goals
As far as goals for this year go I have some personal stuff I'm working on but for what I'd like to follow here:

Lifestyle
I want to do so much more with myself this year. I've lost 80% of weekends to an alcohol induced haze which, while fun, probably aren't the best thing for me to be doing any more. I want to cut alcohol down to as near zero as socially acceptable to do so and try out more things. There is so much to do in London and I'd like to give it a go!

Fitness
This one shouldn't be too difficult. I love going to the gym and working out as well as sport in general. I'm going to get involved in a local climbing club and the girlfriend and I are keen to start playing more tennis together ahead of summer. We have a good indoor club not too far from us so we need to get into shape for doubles season. Since coming back to London, eating properly and stopping drinking I've put on 5kg. This isn't a lot but considering I weighed 62kg I'm pretty pleased with the progress. My ideal weight is probably around 75kg but I wouldn't mind going a bit above that and then cutting down through the summer.

Poker
This is the tricky one. I have always loved playing poker while recognising I'm never going to be a world beater. I am lucky enough to have a great online MTT backer who understands where poker is in my life and the kind of volume and time I am able to dedicate to it. I would love to put in a good profitable year for him this year.

My real passion in poker is live cash games, online poker is great but for me it will never match the enjoyment I get out of live poker. I don't play for the money, but that doesn't mean I don't care about the results, I take my play very seriously and it's something I'm keen to work on this year. Ideally by the end of this year I'll be in a position to have the capital to play as much live cash as I have the time to play, maintaining a bankroll that will let me ride any negative swings.

While I know I can never dedicate my life to playing, I'm keen to find other ways to be involved in the poker scene. I'll be qualified as an accountant at the end of the year and would be interested in getting involved in a business capacity with a staking stable, either an established one or working with a few of my friends who are far more involved with the poker community. This is a fair way off but I'm open to finding more ways to get involved, be it writing, staking or whatever else might come up.

---

Overall I'm excited for this year, I'm in as good a place as I've ever been, have plenty of opportunity ahead of me and I can't think of a better time to start being a better me. This blog will deviate from poker as it always has done but I'll do my best to try and get some poker content on here...

Apologies for the long post - Parsons Grinder is back

Good grounded and positive post! gg gl

Just stumbled across your thread. Enjoyed reading your balanced approach to everything and sounds a lot like what I want to/should be doing atm, maybe you will prove inspirational especially RE: no alcohol!

Good post mate, I've pretty much given alcohol the knock on the head too. I've also started drinking ~3 litres of water a day and I am feeling the benefits of it already.

Nice, 3 litres sounds like a lot though! I've managed to cut out all fizzy soft drinks as well, an exception for when I'm out with friends who are drinking when I might have a ginger beer or a coke. More than happy with sparkling water to be fair.

Not sure how I feel about caffeine at the moment. My normal day sees me get up between 5:30 and 6 and sleep around 11-12 so a coffee or two is usually a good idea to keep the mind sharp. I've never really been a coffee drinker until the last year, considering just stopping before it becomes a habit.

Yea, I don't drink fizzy soft drinks either. I do drink a coffee every day and I don't see it as a big deal. And there's plenty of decaffeinated coffee on the market if you'd feel better about drinking that.

Had a long day at the office yesterday cramming for my Management Information exam on Monday, took a quick picture of the view. I don't know how to lose the reflection in the window as I suck at photography.



Weather is truly horrible in London today so will absolutely not be going to the office but working from home, even if that means I can't go to the gym.

I'm really keen this year to follow more PGC threads, especially anyone playing MTTs (Live/Online) or Live Cash. I'll also follow anything with good content though so if you're in these categories and I'm not following you let me know!

Sweet view!

welcome back buddy, glad to see things have been going well for you. All the best in 2017

Thanks, at least I know when I'm getting beasted at a rate that probably works out below minimum wage I know that the money is going on a nice view for us.

Thanks, it's good to be back! Feel like everything is on an uptick this year so I imagine it will be the standard mix of poker and London in this thread this year!

Had my Management Information exam this morning, all going well I should be a part-qualified accountant in the morning! Results at 9am.... Also have 2 exam results released on Friday which are for 2 of the further exams, really not too confident about these ones but if I somehow get through that leaves on 5 left to take.

Regarding the above, I could potentially be out of a job come Friday, hit me up with any offers. Will dance for food.

Welcome back bud! Looking forward to some epic trip reports (not talking about Poker....)

Rome in February, perhaps Moscow in March.... Should be a good year in that regard. Helicopter is currently out of action unfortunately.

Moscow is a dream for me to visit. Can't think of anywhere in Europe where culture is so different to what most Brits have ever experienced.

My girlfriend is Russian and one of her friends who I know is getting married. Should be jokes if we go! Will be a good TR for sure.

Well this week has been shattering, in the office 6am - midnight etc. I passed my Management Information exam (woop) but my results for the exams I'm more worried about are out tomorrow at midday. I haven't drunk since the 3rd but tomorrow is going to be a struggle!

Not much planned this weekend, am looking into a side venture that will take up a lot of free time but exploring it tentatively at the moment, hopefully more on this later on!

One of the things I love doing in the little free time I have is reading. I've posted a bit about this before but I thought I'd put a quick list up of what I got through last year.

1) Mein Kampf - Adolf Hitler

An aggressive start to the year and I struggled to get through it. I wanted to read it because I felt it was one of those books often spoken of, seldom read. I'd recommend reading it. It really made me think that the line between genius and insanity is very thin. He was obviously a clever and charismatic individual but with just an awful world view.

2) The Test of Courage: Michel Thomas: A Biography of the Holocaust Survivor and Nazi-Hunter - Christopher Robbins

A great counterbalance to the above, I throughly recommend reading this book.

3-14) Robert Ludlum - Covert One series
The Hades Factor
The Cassandra Compact
The Paris Option
The Altman Code
The Lazarus Vendetta
The Moscow Vector
The Artic Event
The Ares Decision
The Janus Reprisal
The Utopia Experiment
The Geneva Strategy
The Patriot Attack

I actually got into this series as I was offered one of the books on a deal. It looked like something a bit lighter after what I'd been reading so picked it up, got hooked and read the whole series. Overall I really enjoyed them, although they are quite formulaic. I think reading them all in order did become a bit of a chore and going forward, reading new ones as and when they come out will be more enjoyable.

15) Straight to Hell: True Tales of Deviance, Debauchery and Billion-Dollar Deals - John LeFevre

Coming from the man who brought us Goldman Sachs Elevator. It was a good enough read I suppose, brought some laughs. I read it because I'd heard about it from a few people and I didn't think it would take me that long to get through. If you have an interest pick it up but it isn't world changing.

16-40) The John Grisham era....
A Time to Kill
The Firm
The Pelican Brief
The Client
The Chamber
The Rainmaker
The Runaway Jury (this one was memorable as a good read)
The Partner
The Street Lawyer
The Testament
The Brethren
The Summons
The King of Torts
The Last Juror
The Broker
The Appeal
The Associate
The Confession
The Litigators
The Racketeer
Sycamore Row (omg where is the 'The')
Gray Mountain (I don't like change )
Rogue Lawyer (You've got one more chance....)
The Whistler (Phew)

Playing for Pizza (Non-legal book)

I devoured these like ipuntstacks devours cocaine, whisky and degenerate BJ action. I skipped a few of the books that formed a series of their own that I'll probably go back and red at some point as well as one of the non-legal books that wasn't a bad read either. I'll certainly be reading his books as they come out in the future.

Overall this was a year where I got throughly stuck into a couple series of books which I got hooked into. It wasn't challenging reading or good for self development/improvement like my 2015 reading but very enjoyable nonetheless, especially in a year that was professionally challenging and tiring.

Looking forward to getting stuck into 2017, already on book 5...

Passed my 2 professional level exams, 10/15 done woooooooo.

Dry January is now looking a little damp.

Niiiiiiiiiceeee wpwpwpwpwp

Congrats mate , so when are ben and I getting invited to that private game we were talking about?

gg wp

Many +'s to this!

Come drink with us and come play with us

Not a bad weekend under the belt, in so much as I actually managed to turn a small profit on the online MTT tables... Unsurprisingly it was spent in a pretty drunken haze until Sunday.

Went out with a load of friends from work who also passed their exams and may hve passed through the Hippodrome. Played a lot of blackjack and swung up and down all evening and had a bit of success on the roulette table. Headed to baccarat, a favourite of mine, and got murdered. We had 4 6/7 ties in about 10 hands, I was alternating between the two of them and missed every one. I know its -EV so can't complain about losing money but made me and the table laugh....

Went upstairs and settled into a 1/2 game to end the evening and won a couple pots before losing AA to 44 on T64. We were only 100bb deep or so at that point so not going to lose any sleep over it. Headed to the club and had a couple bottles with some friends and called it a night.

Saturday brought some heavy day drinking followed a black tie pyjama party. Didn't make it to the club and don't feel that bad about it! Much headache and regret on the Sunday but managed to play a pretty decent session and turned a small profit. Lost AA vs KK for CL with 80 left in a bubble rush which was frustrating but no other interesting runs. Managed a few small cashes in the bigger MTTs I played which pretty much got me over even.

Having a reasonably horrible week so far in terms of hours, I was in the office for 17 hours yesterday and I don't think it's going to get much better. My lovely lade is off back to Moscow from Thursday - Sunday so I'm sure I'll be getting some more poker in, hopefully something interesting comes up!