November Review

Soooooo first month as an unemployed poker degen went pretty good, I broke my biggest $$$ month again finishing up $5,500. Wasn't planning on playing at all in November but after 2 weeks of relaxing and zero poker I was in the mood for getting started. Put 15k hands in, will be looking to play at least double that in the following months.

Holdem Manager logged me as putting 35 hours this month, mainly 6 tabling which I'm very comfortable with now. Worked more 2/4 into my game towards the end of the month and ran well. Will probably jump around the games again next month but play more mid-stakes than 1/2.

Away from the tables I've slipped into a shitty routine of going to bed around 5-6am and getting up at like midday-2pm. Not so awesome really. So looking to kick that next month and also spend a lot of time in the gym, would like to get a solid workout program in place before Thailand so I can continue it across there. Got ton of other stuff to sort away from the tables next month like Christmas, Thailand prep, and getting ready to move out of my flat, will need to shift my stuff into storage or something.

Next month I'll continue to expand my non-poker player portion of income. I've always wanted to coach players and I'll be looking to take on students in January. Next month I'm hoping to do sessions with a couple of friends to ease myself into coaching and make sure everything's ready for future students. The blog advertising stuff is going well so that'll continue next month. Also I'll be looking to expand the affiliate deals I offer and offer them more effectively. So lots of things to work on.

Anyways, next month goals...

• 30-40k hands
• Do a few coaching sessions
• Improve affiliate deals
  
• Sort VISA and book Thailand flights

Thailand

For the past week or so I've been sorting things out to move over to Thailand early January. There are a bunch of players from 2p2 heading across and we're planning on renting a few nice houses and living like kings for a few months. Seems like a no brainer to me... hot weather, beaches, nightlife, tourist stuff and thai girls!

However with all of the current BS going on over there it's making me a bit anxious about booking flights across. I mean for starters right now you can't even fly into Bangkok! Anti-government protesters have taken over the 2 main airports and are vowing not to leave until the Thai Prime Minister resigns which is unlikely. Looks like the Thai police will have to remove them by force over the next few days which will probably be violent and messy.

Possibly not the best time to be planning an extended stay across there but most of the trouble seems to be in Bangkok, which I'll only be flying through and visiting.

Oh, almost forgot this guy... what a legend... "A maverick Thai general who has threatened to bomb anti-government protesters and drop snakes on them from helicopters has been reassigned as an aerobics teacher, the Bangkok Post said on Friday." Ahhh :D Linky

BBC Thai protesters braced for battle
BBC Bangkok Protesters fire upon rivals
SSNL goes to Thailand

Tonight... you

Awesome cartoon my bro sent me. Awesomely sick humour... :) I'm sure some people will hate this :D

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BhPw2adDcVo


Shipped my new biggest pot tonight, deep tables rule!

$2/$4 No Limit Holdem
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:

Hero		($862.80)
CO		($904.70)
BTN		($623.85)
SB		($128.00)
BB		($928.90)

Pre-flop: ($6, 5 players) Hero is UTG

Hero raises to $14, CO calls $14, 1 fold, SB calls $12, 1 fold

Flop: ($46, 3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $31, CO raises to $83, SB folds, Hero calls $52

Turn: ($212, 2 players)
Hero bets $144, CO calls $144

River: ($500, 2 players)
Hero bets $222, CO goes all-in $663.70, Hero goes all-in $399.80

Final Pot: $1785.50
Hero shows:
CO shows:

Hero wins $1740.10 ( won +$877.30 )
CO wins $41.90 ( lost -$862.80 )


Interesting spot on the river. At the time I thought his range was super polarised to a set, but looking back on it TcKc and TcAc are in there too. Still think a bet/call is best as sets aren't value betting if checked to. I keyed 333 then thought 222 might look a bit more blockery and he might shove over to try to fold my AA/KK. In heinsight I probably prefer 333, meh.

Anyways... ship it.

Sunday night postage

^ Salut! France by Errors

Soooooo after chilling out for the last couple of weeks and 2 relaxing long weekend breaks I'm really in the mood now to get going more. Gonna set myself a few goals for the end of the month...

• All huds/mods/software fully setup on iPoker/AP/FTP
• 10-15k hands
• Setup new gym membership

Bunch of other stuff too, but those are the key things. I'm also going to be pretty focussed on trying out new daily/weekly routines over the next couple of weeks. It's great having all this freedom but I feel like I need some structure too... there's a shitload I could post about this, so I'll likely do that over the next couple of weeks.

Advertising
As you'll probably have noticed I'm adding advertising to the sidebars on this blog. I think it's pretty relevant and non-intrusive so it's all good. Let me know if you have any thoughts, if it bothers you, etc.

Travelling
I've been doing a bunch of thinking on moving abroad and travelling next year. The UIGEA stuff kind of sparked this, it made me realise how much freedom I have at the moment. I can basically do my job from anywhere in the world so long as I've got a solid internet connection.

Here are my thoughts on possible stuff I could do...

Snowboarding holiday to Austria in January. Get house in Thailand Feb-April, visit some of Singapore/Hong Kong/Macau/Japan. Either stay there for a couple more months or move to Seoul for a bit, or maybe Melbourne. Maybe come home for a couple of weeks before the WSOP.

If poker is going well come June/July I'll probably head over to Vegas for the WSOP again. After that I'd like to roadtrip the west coast after that, San Diego, LA, SF, Seattle, Vancouver.

Also semi-interested in Beunos Aires, loads of Canada, New Zealand (maybe next winter), and a euro roadtrip at some point.

I'm not into spending a lot of time travelling on my own, I'd much rather do it with friends or other poker players... so my plans are mostly going to depend on other people. So if anything I hit on intrests you ship me an email or hit me up on IM.

My priority at the moment is getting a house setup for early next year with some poker players. Needs to be somewhere warm (f*** Scottish winters), Thailand is looking good right now.

UIGEA passed

So the act preventing Internet gambling in the USA got passed today and will be in place 1 day before Obama steps into office. If you're an american player this basically means that you're fucked, if you're from elsewhere it means the games are about to get tougher again.

The act
The Act prohibits gambling businesses from knowingly accepting payments in connection with unlawful Internet gambling, including payments made through credit cards, electronic funds transfers, and checks. In addition to this US banks will have to put steps in place to prevent customers making payments to internet gambling sites. The banks will have until December 2009 to comply although it's be expected that most banks will have steps in place way before then.

What will happen?
It kind of remains to be seen really, bit early to tell. There's a lot of work to be done to put this in place, which won't happen overnight. A lot of strong American players will probably relocate to Canada or elsewhere to continue playing. With a combination of this and American fish no longer being able to deposit online this will lead to the games getting tougher (again). Stars/FTP should release statements on their stances pretty soon but it's unlikely they'll pull out of the US market.

Not the best news after quitting my job 2 weeks ago but hell at least I can still play. It really sucks for all of the US players who have to suffer because of their spastic government.


Federal Reserve press release
2p2 Poker Legislation folder thread
2p2 NVG thread
2p2 MidStakes panic and flee abroad thread

UIGEA is back

Bush's administration are lining up a bunch of "midnight rules" that they're going to sneak in just before they leave office. One of these is the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Instead of waiting until Obama gets into office and spending the correct amount of time exploring the consequences of these new rules they're going to stuff them into the law at the 11th hour.

If it passes it will cripple poker in the states, having a huge effect on the poker industry and my livelihood as a poker player. If you're from the US and care at all about this I'd urge you to do the following immediately...

Please call the U.S. Federal Reserve and tell them not to approve the UIGEA regulations -- Consumer Complaints, 888-851-1920 or Public Affairs, 202-452-2955.

Tell them:

* The federal agencies responsible for our nation’s economy should not be focused on Internet poker regulations.
* Finalization of the UIGEA rules will add additional burdens on our already crippled financial systems.
* Internet poker is a game of skill and form of recreation for millions of Americans; it should be exempted from the UIGEA.
* Please do not finalize the UIGEA regulations until their impact on our banking systems and average Americans has been fully studied.

Your call will make a huge difference and will add the public’s voice to these last minute policy decisions our government is poised to make. We can’t stand idly by while they make decisions that will impact our right to play America’s card game. PLEASE CALL TODAY!


More info on 2p2 here. Also see the Poker Players Alliance.

Chillaxing

^ that is without doubt one of the worst music videos I've ever seen :D

Blogging will be pretty quiet this month as I'm taking it off to relax, hang out with friends/family, etc. Life is good! Just about to head up to the highlands for the weekend and will be down south in Manchester seeing family next weekend.

Pretty much set up on the new laptop now. Took a solid 2 days swapping HM over and re-modding all of the poker sites I play at. The screen is disgusting, can 9-table on iPoker tiled with no overlap!

Been playing some DeadSpace, which is awesome. Will probably pick up Gears of War 2 tomorrow too, looks sick. Saw the new bond film and it's a solid 7/10, nowhere as good as Casino Royale but still a solid action film. Burn After Reading is easily one of the best films I've seen this year, don't want to hype it but go see it!