Hi all,

I am from London, UK. I have been grinding live cash games pretty much full-time ever since I was 18 years old, 21 years ago! Crazy how time goes by.

I got involved in a few things. I went back to university in my early twenties, did a degree in accounting and finance. After university I went back to poker and ten years later, I thought to myself 'I should try a job'. So I got a job as a trainee accountant. The money was rubbish, it was stressful. However, it was an experience. I quit my job after one year and went back to poker. The money was decent and I enjoyed it. Lesson leared: Do what we enjoy and what we are good at in life. I also did a bit of acting, enrolled in summer school at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. I networked with other actors and film producers from the US, it was a fun experience. I also started writing my own script to produce and direct my own feature film, which I will do one day.

I got back from Vegas about a month ago. Grinded every day for two weeks at the Bellagio before blasting off 30k in a biggish game.

Now I am back in London. Live cash is a long slog and I need a new challenge. I have decided to play online. I am starting off very small (0.25/0.50) to get a decent samply size of the different stakes. I want to beat each level. I am using Pokertracker 4. I am enjoying online so much more than I thought I would. It is so much more convenient and you see so many more hands. I will post results and my stats. Hopefully someone can comment if I have any obvious leaks anywhere. I will sometimes play live cash too.

I have also got on the live circuit scene. I will start playing some comps, maybe only a few a month. I played only a few last year and nothing since. People say I am crazy since I seem to be a good tournament player. My few results are shown here, I think I only played 1 other tournament that year, where I did not cash.

https://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/pla...p?a=r&n=965369

However, I am looking forward to the GUKPT on the 21st September. The main is around a £1.1k buyin.

I have also started training to get fit again. I was into boxing a lot until I was 18 years old. I find exercise and eating well really helps me at the poker table. I am calm and can think clearly.

Goals

1. Beat the cash games online and play a minimum of 100k hands at a particular stake.
2. Take down a decent live comp between now and the end of 2024.
3. Get in good physical shape. I am currently swimming, jogging and doing calisthenics.
4. Continue eating clean with 1 cheat day every couple of weeks.

I am also looking forward to studing my stats to improve my online game, as well as studying opponents and how the game changes over time.

Good luck all.

gl will be following. Will be interested to hear your thoughts on online cash games these days.

Thanks bro.

The games I am playing in are softer than I expected. This is probably because I am playing small right now and on a lesser known site. They are on the ipoker network.

One of the differences with the game is that with sitting with 100 bb's, I am playing hands like AK/AQ a little faster. When live and deep, say 200 bb's +, I would traditionally play it a bit slower, although player dependent.

I definately prefer online cash for convenience, no waiting for an hour for a table, can move tables at any time, so many more hands etc.

Going forward for me, it will predominantly be online cash and live comps.

My mental game is strong. Probably the biggest tip I could ever give to anyone starting out is to master their mental state.

After 3.5k hands I am level. Ran bad in a few spots (as we always will) and played badly in a couple of spots. Nothing too major, I am probably over critical sometimes.

I did just stop playing when I noticed that I was playing badly. I am happy about that since that will make a huge difference, both short term and even more so long term.

Just played two sats. I won a 1k ticket for live events which I will use towards the GUKPT. Ran really bad in the other sat.

Just got to keep grinding!! Exercise helps so much to get away from playing all the time and to stay healthy.

Following, GL James
Any cashgame festival or USA trip planned for 2023?

Hi, thanks.

I got back from Vegas a little while ago. I will probably only go for the WSOP (never played it before) next year.

I am still finding my way here online. I am thinking of switching to PLO. Maybe I will multi-table and play both. I do find the PLO games a lot softer. I am off to a good start with PLO. Played this hand below which I found amusing. Bet small throughout and was thinking on the flop 'how can I lose this hand'? A few hands later he called a decent size bet on the river with an underpair. WTF!


iPoker - €1 PL Hi (6 max) - Omaha Hi - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: €100.00
SB: €113.51
BB: €113.19
Hero (UTG): €153.08
CO: €100.00

SB posts SB €0.50, BB posts BB €1.00

Pre Flop: (pot: €1.50) Hero has T K A K

Hero raises to €3.00, fold, fold, fold, BB calls €2.00

Flop: (€6.50, 2 players) 7 4 K
BB checks, Hero bets €2.00, BB calls €2.00

Turn: (€10.50, 2 players) A
BB checks, Hero bets €3.00, BB calls €3.00

River: (€16.50, 2 players) 5
BB bets €3.00, Hero calls €3.00

Hero mucks T K A K (Three of a Kind, Kings)
(Pre 61%, Flop 76%, Turn 78%)
BB shows 8 T 5 6 (Straight, Eight High)
(Pre 39%, Flop 24%, Turn 23%)
BB wins €21.38

Update:

1. I have taken a break from online. I found some really good games live so playing them while they are there, just insane value.

2. I only played a few comps since I wrote this. I bubbled in a £500 tournament (pretty much coolered) and played a good comp in Ireland. I got deep although being completely card dead. It paid 29 I think and I came around 37th. In November I played the GUKPT main event, 347 runners and came 5th. It is tough when you get that far as you are so close to winning. Just got to keep plugging away. I will do my best to take something down in 2024.

3. Not good, currently started studying GTO and all my hours seems to go on either studying the game or playing.

4. Don't ask lol.

2024 let's go!!!

Subscribed! How often do you play live?

What do you use for studying?

Hi,

I play around 3 times a week live. These are cash games while I am waiting for festival tournament events.

I am very new to the whole studying thing. I always found the whole thing a bit tiring and prefer going out doing things rather than studying. However, everyone keeps telling me that those at the higher levels are doing this. Not only that, but I guess in todays day and age it must be done. What got me was when I realised that a poker bot/AI system managed to successfully beat the pros. This was years ago and I should have payed more attention to it. I was too busy just playing all the time. So nowadays I am interested in GTO and trying to find my flaws etc. I have signed up for GTO Wizard. I will be on there for a while to get used to it, then I will check out PioSolver which I believe has more functions.

I think studying the above will help more with regard to cash games. Tournament poker is much more complicated and will most probably take years before we have something as useful as we do with the cash games. This is also why live poker is so much easier than online. Everyone seems good online and studying the game etc. I plan to play online if the current live games I am in dries up.

How's it going everyone?

The live games kinda dried up so I am back online. I been playing a bit at different stakes and will settle at 1/2 PLO for 100k hands. I have only played 1206 hands at this level so we are just over 1% of the way there.



I notced higher than 2/4 on iPoker does not get going that often and there are less players. Smaller stakes are ok but 1/2 feels right. I seem to be getting some decent rakeback too. There seems to be other bonuses on the site and I think I will get around a buyin at 1/2 in rakeback this month.

I quit studying GTO. I was on GTOWizard but I dunno, I find it all a long slog. I think I never enjoyed studying much, I just feel like I want to play poker all the time and do my thing. If I start struggling or feel I have leaks I need to fix, I will get back to it.

I been back to calisthenics too which is progressing. I aim to be able to do 'the flag' like below before next January.




The GUKPT is on in Manchester and I am going there next week, a bit of travelling around England booked before Vegas in the summer. Will play the Main.

Just got back home from travelling up the country to play the UK Open. Live tournament life is a long tough slog. I am finding it easy to lose hunger for these tournaments, especially when I prefer playing cash games. One good thing is that at these festivals there is insane value when playing cash, especially later on at night when many people are drunk.

Last night I sat on a 1/3 game, 9 handed, 7 people completely drunk. Who said poker was dead? We were playing 1/3...with straddles of 6, 12, 25, 50, 100 and 200. The other people did not even care if you didn't straddle. I did though, up to 100, got to give some action to get action.

I believe one of the most important things is to be able to table talk and network. Many kids do not realise that and will therefore be stuck playing really small and not being able to progress. If I see a table where everyone has headphones and their hood up, literally zero value playing.

So I got on well with people in the game, fired like 1k into a pot with 3 high, got riased by king high and then pretended I was going to repop them, then said 'ahh I can't bring myself to do it' and showed 3 high. I then got them later on when I had a couple of hands but importantly, everyone was having a good time. I got invited to a few private games, sometimes they have it in the casino. They had a private game in the casino which looked good. It was like a 5/10 or 10/25 game and one guy was down 80k. There was around 250k on the table. Poker is not dead!

I have gone a few tournaments now without cashing. In the most recent main event I played at the UK Open, I lost three bullets. First one at the end of day 1 which was one of the last hands of the day, played a huge pot getting it all in with KK against AK pre. Lost that hand and played the next day again, lost all in pre with QQ against KJ against a major fish. For my third bullet i kinda got grinded down being card dead and shoved with nines in lp for 15 bb's and ran into Kings in the sb.

Tournament life is hard. GG.

Happy Easter weekend!

I got back from Dusk Till Dawn poker club at Nottingham. I was sooo impressed. Amazing club with nice people and staff. I played in my first cash game stream which they put on YouTube, was a fun game.

I keep getting deep in live tournmanents but haven't come close to taking one down yet, need to make FT first! On a plus note, I saw that GG Poker was advertised there so I got an account and played a tournmanet on there a couple of days ago. I played a $150 satellite and won it for a 1.2k ticket, I think it paid 3 places. I then went in the 1.2k tournament which is a satellite for the WSOP Main Event, 12k package.

It is quite amusing that GG Poker shows tournament winnings of the players. One guy was on like 5.1m, another 1.2m...then me with nothing! Anyway, I think I was around 2 away from getting the ticket and got a bit unlucky.

I played the same today, went in a $150 and got a ticket. There were 4 WSOP Main packages and I busted 9th. Shoved from SB into BB with A10 and he called with 10J, put me down to 4 bb's then ran 88 into QQ, gg.

I then played a $250 rebuy which was a sat straight into the WSOP Main. One 12k package so has to win it outright! Run good one time....

I played solid, did not need to rebuy and was chip leader for the most part, got HU with a big chip lead and then limit raised on the button with QQ. He shoved with 910s.

Flop Q T 5....was thinking 'please no J or 8 on turn'....9 on turn and he was drawing dead.

Ship it!

Seriously impressed with the amount of traffic on GG Poker, there were around 450k players online. Hope laws change in the US soon, competition will make things even better. Not long now until Vegas!

Nice one. The WSOP main must be the highest EV 10k in the world so winning a package for $250 is the nuts. Good luck in Vegas