Vegas was the obvious high-point and a big success for me. The trip report went well and I was pleased that I managed to keep the notes up-to-date AND to type up my experience through the blog. I'm also pleased to say that it appeared to be very well-received on the 2+2 forums and, at the time of writing, has been hit with well over 8000 views!! It's nice to see your own writing being appreciated by a more discerning and appreciative crowd than certain other poker forums. 2+2 is THE forum when it comes to poker and I was very pleased to get quite a bit of feedback from the regulars - both complimentary and critical. A few comments on my poor play were absolutely 100% justified and some (on my nitty approach to some hands and to poker in general) woke me up and helped me to open up my eyes to some of my shortcomings. (More of that later.)
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Unfortunately, regarding the blog, a few ideas have just not got out of the pipeline this year - and, I'm afraid, will probably stay there come the end of December: (1) The writing up of my 300 album reviews will NOT be hitting this blog thanks largely to advice from my editor, Nobby McNob. (2) "The Producer", my ultimate guiding light, will not be written about either. He can't really be explained in words anyway.And this just leaves me with two items that I would like to include before 31st December. One is my playing card collection that I'd like to show (which I am quite proud of) and the other is doing a commentary, in real-time, while playing a few hands on PKR - and then posting up the results on YouTube, just for shits and giggles. But this will depend on my technical abilities and whether I'm able to set it up so we'll see, we'll see.
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So what about poker playing over the next 3 months?
Online Poker
Regular readers of my blog will know that online poker just hasn't been good to me this year. After playing mainly cash games at PKR this year, and paying over $2000 in rake (going from 7% progress to Diamond up to 22% progress to Diamond), I have still only managed to break-even. It may not seem like a massive amount to the pros and grinders out there but it means that while I have earned precisely zero at the online game this year, PKR have managed to extract a couple of grand out of me - and this is not to mention the hidden fees that I've paid through depositing and withdrawing via the exchange rate.
As such, online poker just doesn't appeal to me that much anymore. I had considered depositing just a little and playing a few MTTs and the satellites to the bigger events but even then I really resent these (R) MTT events that they have recently introduced. These (R) MTTs (almost all of them) force ALL players to pay a small percentage of their entry fee towards the prize pool of a "freeroll" event. This event takes place once a month, is open only to the "Top 5000 players", and gives starting stack sizes proportionate to the amount players have paid in the (R) fee!!
Yep, great for MTT regulars and grinders at PKR who can actually be at their computer on the day of the so-called "freeroll"; a TOTAL rip-off for those just wanting to play a few tournies or for those who play plenty of MTTs but are not able to play on the day of the "feeroll" (or even for those who simply don't want to play the bloody thing)! This is TOTAL bollocks, in my opinion, it may not be a great sum of money but it's the principle and really is another reason why I have steered clear of depositing on PKR recently.
Anyway, if I do have an overwhelming desire to deposit (it will be £275 to tide me over until the end of the year), I'll let you know.
Live Poker
By contrast, live poker has been fine and although I've frittered away quite a few hundred due to drunken play (as well as through sheer bad play), by some miracle I'm still in the black this year. Now that I'm finally free of family commitments, my plan is to try to get down to The Empire and The Vic for as many weekends as possible from now until the end of the year in order to try and spin up my £2.2K yearly profit into something a bit more meaty. The thing is, with only 4 live sessions played (in the UK) in the last two and a half months (since my rough patch), I hope I don't feel too rusty when I hit those tables.
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The Blog Dilemma
In all, I'm obviously pleased that my balance is in the black after 9 months but as I did a lot better in 2010 (particularly at the online game) I can't help but feel that I could have made more money had I not been so conscious of knowing that I was to report all results to the blog. As a consequence, I now know why the pros do not (or very rarely) publish their own results so regularly as they go along; it just puts added pressure on yourself and can make you play far too carefully and cautiously. I do not regret being so open with my results as I have enjoyed working on this project and know that it wouldn't be the blog it is had I been more guarded or simply blogged when things were going well; it was always my intention to be honest and to blog away regardless.
However, it HAS become clear to me that such openness CAN be detrimental to your game on a number of psychological levels. As a result, although I will carry on with the blog in the same spirit until the end of the year, I have decided that I will definitely not continue with it in the new year. I still reckon I will probably play on the tight and nitty side until December (precisely because I'm laying my soul so bare and revealing my profits and losses so openly) but hopefully, by releasing myself from these chains - and knowing I don't have to answer to anybody but myself, I will become a new, more dynamic and better player in the new year.
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