A Great Experiment For February. Let's try this...

Ok, people, now that I've had the time and opportunity to clear my head, I've come up with a GREAT experiment for the month of February. The "classic" bankroll management strategy wasn't really my thing so I'm going to try something new for the month of February. In fact, it's so cool and fantastic, you're gonna flip yer flippin lid!

I know I've gone on about the bankroll management thing in the past....and about how it's good and then not so good... etc etc. But I'm just going to put my own wobbly spin on it so here goes:

Live Poker
£1000 will be put aside for the live sessions for the month. I'll take an amount down with me to The Empire or The Fox or The Vic and just play my usual cash game (£1/£1 or £1/£2). I'll have a spin at an MTT or two and just enjoy the experience. If it all goes horribly wrong then my "Stop-Loss Rule" will kick in to prevent me from losing a large sum.

Online Poker
$1000 will be deposited into online poker for the month. I'll continue to play the $100nl and $200nl games but be extremely fussy when it comes to table selection. I'll play less sessions and probably a lot less hands and possibly more MTTs, just to slow everything down a little bit. In saying that, I might try two- or four-tabling the $50nl game just to see how things go.

If I feel I'm still not playing well for whatever reason, or if I'm just getting hammered at the tables constantly then I really will need to reconsider my position with regard to online poker and this blog. It may be that it's just live poker for me from then on. Anyway, let's just wait and see eh?

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As as I say, at the moment if I'm going to play any online poker at all, it will have to be with my PKR points or with my rakeback payment (if that comes before my $1K deposit).  

Until next time...Uncle Wobble.

A Time To Reflect

We are now at the end of the month and, to be honest, I'm really not as annoyed as I may have been making out in my previous posts. To be sure, of course it's always a pain to have a poor losing month at the online tables once in a while but, let's face it, is there any decent player who hasn't? Furthermore, it's actually a winning month overall, for me, when you bring the "live game" equation into it so, once again, let's not start waving the white flag just yet.

The thing that, I suppose, has knocked me off balance the most is the fact that it's the opening month of my serious blog and I could have done without going into freefall so soon after such a good start. In short, I am not going to let this little hiccup defeat me. When I feel ready, I'll probably make another deposit and get back into the swing of things. However, I really do not know when this will be. In fact, I might well have a few live sessions beforehand seeing as I'm doing so well at the actual felt.

Finally, for the month of January I accumulated around 54000 PKR points which means I am, at least, due a nice rakeback payment of around $160-$180 in early February. On top of this I have around 66000 points in my account, at present, which I'll be able to use to enter the odd MTT or two.

Until next time...Uncle Wobble.

JANUARY - UPDATE #1

Well I know there's still one day left to go in January but I won't be playing any poker tomorrow, that's for sure, so it's a wrap for the month. It's been pretty wild for me and I'm afraid January has to be chalked up as certainly one of my worst ever months at online poker. In contrast, it's been a cracking good month at the live game even though I've only been out two nights to play!! What a start to the blog eh?

I'm not going to go into all the details and open up old wounds again cos, quite frankly, it will depress me. What mainly concerns me now is the route to take with the blog. What started off as a well-planned journey has just got a little complicated. The bizarre thing is, I'm actually UP £400 (~$620) for the year but even though this should be a cause for celebration, my online game has really messed things up - particularly as my reaction to it was to just get my bankroll out of the site. (I just cashed out my last $150.)

This has often been my response in the past and it's just my default reaction when things get rough which is something I just can't seem to shake off. Unfortunately, it could be difficult to keep the blog going on a daily basis if I have no online bankroll to keep my hand in.  What I'll need to do is clear my head a bit and have a big think over the next few days as to what I should do. After a short period, I'll probably end up re-depositing and starting all over again (it's what I usually do) but due to the exchange rate rip-off this is really not something I want to make a habit of doing (although I already have really).

Still, there is a player at PKR who goes by the username of MacDaddyNo1 who has just taken down the GUKPT £1070 main event in Manchester. Prior to this he made a post in the PKR forum bemoaning the fact that he was on the "biggest downswing" of his poker playing career. It just goes to show that these things can really turn around. In fact, here's a picture of him which I grabbed from the live feed just after he had won:

Well-done to Mackie D! Anyway, I'll leave you, then, with my stats for the month but who knows what February will bring?

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ONLINE: JANUARY -$860 (~£530)  /  YEAR: -$860 (~£530)

LIVE: JANUARY +£960 (~$1480)  /  YEAR: +£960 (~$1480)

TOTAL: JANUARY +$620 (~£400)  /  YEAR +$620 (~£400)

And The Online Plughole Takes My Money

As we approach the end of the month, I have so many mixed feelings about poker and this blog of mine that it's all starting to get a bit mind-boggling. With $860 up the swanny I have just experienced the worst month ever at the online game, yet have experienced a couple of live sessions at The Empire in London Town where I have picked up a cool £1000!

Ok, let's just clear up the online debacle first: I've just blown $300 in a very short space of time at the nl100 and nl200 games today which meant my bankroll had shrunk to $1170. I think bad play is to blame rather than bad cards and, obviously, I'm not feeling very good about this at all. I just can't seem to get any sort of momentum going at the online game; it's as if I've forgotten how to play properly!

In fact I've just emptied my PKR account of another $1K and have pretty much shut up shop at the online game for now. I've registered for the $27.50 Sunday Open but this is really a winding down process. (I have about $140 left which I'm not sure what to do with at the moment.) I mean, Jesus Christ on his fucking pogo-stick jumping up and down!!

I think if my live sessions had not been good, this blog would certainly not have lasted to the end of January. As it is I'm really struggling to convince myself that this whole thing is tenable. Anyway, I'm just going to throw up the stats for the week and will need to think about how the hell I'm going to proceed with this:

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ONLINE: WEEK 4: -$370 (~£230)  /  JANUARY -$860 (~£530)  /  YEAR: -$860 (~£530)

LIVE: WEEK 4: +£335 ($520)  /  JANUARY +£960 (~$1480)  /  YEAR: +£960 (~$1480)

TOTAL: WEEK 4: +£105 (~$150)   /  JANUARY +$620 (~£400)  /  YEAR +$620 (~£400)

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Looking at this objectively, you can see that my poker results overall for the week are not bad at all as it actually has me ahead. For the month, or year, I'm also ahead by a not too unpleasant $620 or £400. But the online game is really killing me at the moment and a break, or a big wind-down with my last $140 is certainly in order. Tomorrow, I'll do a review for the month and by then I'll hope to have a clear enough head to know what the hell my next move will be with all this.

6 Inspirational Poker Songs

I'm pretty sure that none of these songs were written with poker in mind but, following on from my previous "4 Inspirational Poker Songs", they can really give you the kick you need and I've added two more:  

The Long Journey Of Poker  

"Heavy Cross" by Gossip.

The Ups and Downs. A Chip And A Chair.

"Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba

Poker On A Sunday

"Beautiful Sunday" by Daniel Boone

Soul-read Opponents

"Darkside" by Trystero


Never Give Up Baby 
"Don't Give Up" by Eagle Eye Cherry


When You've Just Suffered Bad Beat Number 8
"Things Can Only Get Better" by D:ream