This got a bit long so there is cliffs at the bottom.

Hey guys,

Quick history because I want to focus on moving forwards into the future.

I've pretty much played a little of everything and beaten everything I've put my mind to at the micro stakes. Nothing special. Always found it tough to move up in stakes because I am constantly withdrawing. Ultimately I always end up playing turbo 45mans which is what will be main game until I have the roll to play low-mid stakes MTT's.

For the last 6 months I've been playing poker since I got fed up of my job and quit. I've made a boat load of mistakes causing me to lose pretty much all my roll and savings. Nothing to do with bad play or run bad. More with being too conservative with bankroll management, spending more money than I budgeted for, not having a tested plan ready when I left my job, playing too much and burning out, other motivation issues and finally not reaching out to the poker community for 'support and improvement' purposes. I'll write about each in more detail in a later post.

I literally gave up with poker about a week or 2 ago and got pretty depressed at the prospect of working some ****ty min wage job again. However, this last week I've been crushing everything and really found a good balance of poker and life stuff so I'm kinda into the idea that I can recover with a full month before I need to withdraw again. Since taking a break I've got into a nice routine of exercising when I wake up, eating better, studying poker, working on some other projects such as web design and programming and playing a maximum of 2 hours poker a day.

This all developed after 'quitting poker' under the little idea of getting my life back in shape by making the smallest possible step/goal towards improving a key area of my life. Key areas such as exercise, diet, studying something (anything), working on a project/business/getting a job, relationships, and recreational time. There are other areas but they fall into a longer term plan. Usually just by getting started you end up doing more than you planned anyway.

So this last week my main goals were as follows;
1) Get out the house and do 5 minutes high intensity exercise. (Ended up cycling 5.5 miles in half hour )
2) Read Gus Hansen's 'Every Hand Revealed' book. (1hr study, great book btw.)
3) Finish off a website for a friend (2hrs project work, make a little cash too.)
4) 2 hours poker (recreational)

I had such a good week hitting all my goals. I think the great weather in the UK had something to do with it but I'm still feeling good .

Anyway, down to business...

I'll be playing turbo 45mans like I said. I used to 16 table these for like 6 hours but I want to slowly build up volume again while my bankroll is small and to stop me from burning out again.

My bankroll is around $60ish spread around a couple of sites so to start off I'll be playing $1.50 45mans on pokerstars, taking shots at $3.50 and playing some other games on other sites (probably 6man hypers, inspired by jdawg like 3 months ago)

Stats/Graph at the bottom although I killed my $3.50 and $7 stats by desperately trying to put in huge volume earlier this year. Rolling 16-20 table sessions are great for volume but when you are trying to play a final table while other games are just starting it's a little hard to manage the different strategies and impossible to pick up reads/look at stats.

June Goals
[] 350 - 400 Turbo 45mans
[] Establish myself back at the $3.50's
[] Shots at $7.00's
[] 25 Constructive Posts on 2+2 (not including PG+C thread)
[] Join a 45man Skype/Discussion Group/Thread

Cliffs
How do I sum all that up? haha

-Experienced(?) micro stakes player
-Made loads of 'off the table' mistakes this year so far
-1 month to rebuild lifestyle and roll
-Turbo 45man grind
-Lets go!!!

Sorry for the length of this. So easy to get carried away.

Any Q's or comments about anything, I'd like to hear them below!

Stats:

Thats cool man, a good balance and planning can go a long way in life, Im at the same crossroads i feel like lol

You read all that? aha

What part is it that you can relate to?

Been a pretty poor day in terms of my usual life goals. Pretty much couldn't be bothered with anything. Done a lot of web design and just played 3 $3.50 45mans to warm up before June. Paused this update to finish the last game off and ended up winning it . Great start!

Will get back into the swing of things tomorrow to make sure I have a great June.

glgl sir

Day 1

Been a good day, kept to my schedule getting a lot of life and poker stuff done. Had a slow start, literally forcing my ass out of the house to get a quick sprint round the block to get my 5 mins of high intensity exercise. Been in and out of the forum a lot today posting some strat and other threads.

As for poker, I min cashed 6th i think out of 5 games at the $3.50, played and won 1 $5.30 hyper 6man on merge and just finished a good session of 4 $7 45mans making a 3rd and 7th. Struggled to get into my usually rhythm at the final tables, not too sure why, might just be the games being tighter/tougher, maybe just not running as good or just wasn't 100% confortable taking shots at the $7's.

Feels weird taking such aggressive BRM strategy after usually being super conservative with 100 buy ins. Enjoying it though.

Day 2

Only just played my first session but with mates most of the evening, just set up here for an all night session. Ran pretty bad in first 4 $7's but kept the loss to $2 so not so bad. On another day really could of had 2 wins. Absolutely crushing these small sessions at the moment.

Will update again later.

3 early busts and a 2nd in my second session #progress

Day 3
Had a tough first session, made 2 6th places from 6 games but just ran bad the whole session. Really felt good because I am playing sooo focussed and just finding edges everywhere.

Withdrew a 25% of my roll to pay for something that goes out of my bank account in a few days. Then played 5 more games. Felt pretty frustrated to take another 6th after building up stacks in 2 or the 3 6th place finishes.

My last game was a bit weird. I picked up the chip lead with 16 left, bullied the table hard and ran good. By the time I got to the final table I had half the chips in play which I haven't seen before. Seen maybe as high as 24-26k stacks but not 34k. Was pretty nice to take it down uncontested at the $7 level. Everyone was playing for the final table, then ITM, then top 3/4, then heads up. Only 1 thing on my mind though

1 more good session and I'll be looking to take shots at the $15's.

Day 4
Stepped it up to 8 tables. Maybe struggled a little to take some of the smaller pots early stage like I have been doing in recent session. Didn't feel 100%, maybe only 90% on my game but did pull out a 2nd for a little profit.

Debating playing a second session tonight. Not burnt out as such but not overly enthusiastic about playing another session either.

Graph for last 5 days:

Struggling to find time to play over the last couple days. Got a wedding tomorrow and a christening Saturday so it doesn't look like changing much. Will update after a huge volume grind on Friday and Sunday.

Lost track of what day it is lol

Sleep pattern all over the place.

Just trialled a different approach to loading games. I got a bit bored of low volume so gunna swich to loading as many games as i can in 15 minutes at all levels. 15 minutes because after that the first loaded game will enter the 50/100 mark and the games start changing in strategy at that point so i don't really want to load any more.

I loaded 6 $1.50's and 5 $0.50 for my trial and it felt good. With a beer in 1 hand and an Xbox controller in the other, I took 2 1st's out of the $0.50 games and a 2nd and 3rd in the $1.50 games. something like $25 profit for $11.50 buy in

Will add in the $3.50's in my next session to increase volume.

Maybe some edits to my goals on Monday considering a switch to high volume and I'm currently considering travelling to Australia on a working holiday. Not too sure yet.

Will update after Sunday sessions.

Great Sunday!

Won a few 45mans and took 2nd in a $4.50 180man to make a rare +$200 Sunday!

Playing great. Nice heater too. Hope it doesn't end.

Just finished a session. Ran pretty bad in 3 $15 45mans and a $7 45man. However final tabled an $11 $4k mtt for $102. Ran pretty bad not really getting any big hands to take a significant pot and lost AJs to AT off AIPF to bust 8th/454.

Also won a home game yesterday before watching the football.

Been a good couple of days. Really pleased with my form over the last week or 2.

Ran pretty horrid last night. Played pretty horrid too tbh.

Mid month update:
[] 350 - 400 Turbo 45mans - 101 so far
[] Establish myself back at the $3.50's - been moving up and down fast due to aggressive bankroll management.
[] Shots at $7.00's - been taking shots at $7's and $15's.
[] 25 Constructive Posts on 2+2 (not including PG+C thread) - Probably around 10, haven't been counting.
[] Join a 45man Skype/Discussion Group/Thread - Joined a UK skype group.

Pretty 'meh' month so far.

Just made another final table of an $5 2r1a mtt this evening. I've played about 5 mtts this week and taken 2 8ths. Happy and annoyed at the same time.

More importantly I revised my entire 45 man game early. Taking a slightly more conservative bankroll management, improved my HUD to make it more relevant to 45mans and improved on my strategy.

All in all. Good day.

Low volume day. Made a little but more importantly I somehow have the opportunity to go play a €270 side event in the Madrid wpt national series thing next Thursday at no cost to me inc hotel and flights. As much as I don't like taking handouts this is simply an opportunity I can't miss. #irungoodirl #cantwait

Had yesterday off through lack of sleep sleep(no sleep). Had 4 hours in the evening so still really tired but decided I'm going to grind through the night.

First session done. Really on my game and despite early run bad, ran great at he end taking 5th 4th 3rd and two 1sts in 12 games. Big upswing. Cashed out some more money and read to grind it out again.

I feel like doing a big recap post. I just read through my opening post and quite a lot has changed.

June Goals
[] 350 - 400 Turbo 45mans - I'm currently at about 250 games this month. Up to 12 tabling so I am definitely going to make 400.
[] Establish myself back at the $3.50's - I'm settled at the $3.50's now but I've been up to 15's and down to 0.5's this month.
[] Shots at $7.00's - See above
[] 25 Constructive Posts on 2+2 (not including PG+C thread)
[] Join a 45man Skype/Discussion Group/Thread

Struggling on the last 2 a little. I've still been studying and working on my HUD a lot this week. Overall though I've just been taking advantage of my huge motivation to play atm the moment. Putting in volume is most important to me and making some $ before I go to Madrid and the start of next month. Fortunately I've ran great all month and paid nearly all my bills for next month and still have a $140 roll to work with. Keep this work ethic up for all of next month and I think I will be in a really good position for August.

I spoke a lot about projects, exercise and generally improving every area of my life 1 small step at a time and I've kind of neglected that at the moment. I've kind of accepted and recognised that I've done this while things are so good on the table atm and while i'm paying off bills and setting myself up for July, but as soon as I get back from Madrid in July I really need to make some other life stuff more a priority so that I don't slip back into any form of negativity again.

Overall, I'm really enjoying everything which is obv great.

Graphs:
June (All 45mans)


June (Excluding $15 45mans)

For no reason at all I've kind of lost interest and barely played a game. Makes my last post look a bit silly.

Madrid on Thursday. Hopefully that will inspire me to play a little more.

I figured that I'm not going to be playing any more online until I return from Madrid on the 2nd of July so I might as well post Junes figure.



Top line + graph is all 45mans, Bottom line is all games. The additional 120 games are mainly 6max hyper sng's, a few $2.50 + $4.50 180mans and maybe 5 mtt's. I also made $110 in an mtt on another site.

Not too bad considering volume. Shame I went through a cool period at the $15 45mans when I did, bad timing but what you going to do?

Few ideas for goals for July but based on how well I stuck to my goals this month, not sure it will be worth setting them. Just play out as much as I feel happy playing and see where it leaves me I think.

In Madrid so won't update till the 2nd. Can follow my progress in the 330 euro side event on twitter, @MartynHorslen.

Took 4th of 57 in a 330 euro 2 day side event for 2,000 euro. Was pretty epic. Almost took the lot but lost JJ to A9 to go 3 handed. Been a fun trip out to Madrid. Should almost definitely be in some more big live events over the coming months.

Just starting to gain some momentum with poker now. Really excited to see how the next 6 months turn out.

I know I'm boring and no one is reading (speak up if you are!) but I'm going to continue pointlessly posting anyway.

I was just thinking about 'setting up' back on the merge network to trial the super turbo 6 mans again. It's stupid though, I'm always in 'set up' mode trying to put myself in a position where I can 'make it' in the coming months. I've been in this mentality for so long now just feels weird to have a shot finally and making stable progression. I was in that break even loop of playing all month, withdrawing all profit and then starting the loop again.

Since Madrid I've been settling back into a normal routine, paying bills and few other things that have been getting in the way of playing so I wrote most of the week off.

Now I am playing again with a clearly defined bankroll, at the $7 and $15 turbo 45mans on stars, I just need to stick with it and let it run for a full month. I am 'set up' already, just need to work now.

Grind it out till I catch a nice heater in the $15's.