We Shall Rename This Month Pudtober!

Pinch, punch, first of the month, no return. Remember saying that as a kid? Well September has been and gone and we are now into the tenth month of the year, how fucking quick has this year gone? This month is going to be perfect to start rebuilding things because not only is it a start of a new month it's also the first day of the week and with my slightly obsessive nature the first of the month starting on a Monday is fantastic. Don't ask! I have a really good feeling about this month for some reason and I'm hoping to make it my most successful month yet in poker.

As expected I didn't play much since my last post, I know I said I was going to play a bunch of SnG's but I couldn't motivate myself for them. I take my hat off to these SnG grinders who 12 table for 8 hours a day because I just couldn't do it. I did manage a whole five of the bitches though and ran like God by winning three and coming 2nd in the other two! I would have won the other two but I ran 99 into AA and J7 into Q7 on a 77xxx board. Still a 236% ROI and a nice little $27 profit for 40 minutes work isn't to be sniffed at. I also entered the Daily Double MTT's on Full Tilt in the early hours on Sunday morning. The buy in was $10+$2 and there was a bonus for cashing in both, highest aggregate finish, making two final tables and winning both. Both games kick off at the same time, which was about 0200, with the A tourney having 1,485 runners and the B 1,331 meaning the top 216 were paid with prizes ranging from around $15 to a very nice $2.8k!

Things were going very average from the off, the play was pretty loose and my plan was to see a few flops early and hit a monster but I couldn't even do that as I was dealt total turd for cards so I sat tight and hoped to get paid off with some premium hands. My heart wasn't in it by the first break and I kept nodding off and I eventually busted in the B game in about 700th and I don't remember how. As I knew I wouldn't be getting a double cash bonus I decided to open my game up a bit in the A game and it worked a treat. I was raising at least twice an orbit and when I was eventually played back at I seemed to have the goods. I won a huge pot about 2.5 hours in when I rivered a King after making a squeeze play with AK and was against 99 and AQ. the board came out 47QJK and I was chip leader with around 350 left, with a great image, being hit in the face with the deck and a table full of average stacks. I could smell a final table appearance! Towards the third break I was really flagging so actually sat out for the last ten minutes and took a 15 minute power nap (including the break). However, the Poker Gods (amen) do not take this action lightly and decided to fuck me over well and truely. Very first hand after the break I get TT in the BB. 2nd in chips villain, who I re-stolen from a number of times, makes it 4xBB from MP1. All fold and I 3-bet him once again, this time he flat calls. Flop come T5J and to keep up with my image I bet out 2/3's pot and villain makes it 3x my bet. Now I'm hoping here he has QQ-AA and is going to give me a monster stack or he's playing back at me with AJ-AK. I push and he snap calls and tables fucking fish hooks the cunt! No case ten for me and I bust about 270, about 50 from the money. Sick! I win that hand and I have twice the chips as anyone else and I really had a chance for a big big score. Set over set, meh. Wanker of a game!

I played 4 tables of NL10 6 max last night after my barshift and managed to reap a nice profit of $19 from about an hours play. The standard of play is awful in these and I might have to re-think playing full ring if this is what the play is like. I feel "in the zone" recently and I'm very confident and happy about my game and I'm looking forward to hitting 20-30k hands this month. If I can manage that i will delighted especially as I bet I've only played 30-50k hands all year so far! I know I have the game now to make some decent money from poker, not millions far from it, but I know I could make what I earn now in my day job if I had the right bankroll and now that my attitude towards everything has changed. I really think I can have a $500 month and a further $2-300 in rakeback which would be fucking brilliant! I'm going to use a 20 buy in rule but start to take shots when I have 12 buy ins for the next step up, dropping back down if I drop 2 buy ins. By doing this I should be able to progress more quickly with less risk of going crazy and losing a chunk of my roll. I have around $125 in my Full Tilt account and once Poker Heaven stop fucking about and give me my withdrawal of $155 I should only be about $20 short from taking a shot at NL25. I borrowed £50 ($95) from my bank account which I could do with putting back but I might just cut my spending on stuff during the next couple of weeks so I can keep it as part of my roll.

I'm not going to get to play tonight as I am meeting one of my best mates, Brian, after work. I met Brian when I was 18 and was put on despatching at O2 when I came back from the sick after breaking my arm for the first time. We hit it off right away and we've been like brothers ever since! I've not seen him for nearly a year now but we just slot right back into the groove straight away like we'd seen each other everyday, he really is a great guy. With everyone I know I seem to go from just talking to them to being mates that can say anything to each other, call each other cunts etc with no in between bit, it's weird. Anyway, he's the proud owner of a Suzuki GSXR-600 so I have dug my protective gear out and if the weather holds up he's going to take me for a spin on it. I must admit I got some funny looks this morning with my huge bag, armoured jacket and carrying a fluorescent Simpons helmet onto a packed train! LOL! When we've been for a ride we're just going to get a few tinnies, a takeaway and talk bollocks etc. Really looking forward to it, I'm a simple creature!

I've also taken the first step towards getting myself back on track career wise. I know I won't be a poker pro any time soon, probably not ever, so I need to maximise my earning potential and to do that I need to gain more qualifications. So I have registered to study with the Open University again, this time opting to gain a degree in Information and Communication Technology, hopefully going through and completing a masters along the way. It's going to be a long road but should be rewarding at the end of it. I start in February 2008 and the Open University are going to pay for the course, give me a £250 grant and pay my broadband connection too! The joys of being poor. Once the initial stages are over with I plan to drop my hours here to part-time, devote more time to studying my degree and by this stage I should be able to make £500-600 a month through pokes to supplement my lack of hours during the day. If I can do this I will be delighted I can tell you. Fingers crossed!

So, no challange as such for this month, just a totally fresh start and earn as much as I can! If it's as good a month as I hope it is I'm going to rename this month Pudtober!

Thanks for reading and best of luck at the real and virtual felt!