Poker by Numbers

[Swinebag22]

Awesome write up and vul.

[pables]

Brilliant write up Mark and as Rob said very very unlucky 

[mporter123]

DTD – APAT Main Event

I managed to cut someone up on a roundabout up to Nottingham resulting in him flashing his lights, tooting repeatedly and pulling up along side me to give some verbal. I would usually consider myself a good driver but head was a bit clouded..

Any glum feelings I had didn’t last very long. Pushing open the big DTD doors to be greeted by the familiar site of Des hopping around, gesticulating about one of his inventive ideas and Tighty silently penning his excellently written and funny live updates has a funny way of warming the heart. A quick chance for a few hello’s then over to the cash desk and registered for the main event with 5 minutes to spare.

My first table was fun albeit absolutely freezing. I had somehow been positioned under a giant air vent. I have only recently had a fairly sharp hair cut which sparked colleagues at work to enquire when I was joining the army. A draught down the back of the neck for hours is not the most pleasant of feelings. I joined the tournament with 15K at 100/200. Around an orbit in, I 3bet an active buttons 600 raise to 1400 with 88 in the big blind and doubled barrelled a 10 high board, folding when he set me all in on the turn. That was nearly half of my stack gone. From there on in it was just a grim grind.

Still smiling, this picture was taken the hand before I trebled up when my 1010 beat two lots of AK all in pre.



I later got A6 in against KJ and 1010 and binked that as well.

Also got AA in against AJ and won.

Unlike the previous tournament, I never once got above average and risked my tournament life on numerous occasions somehow succumbing around midnight when my AK couldn’t beat Brian Yates QQ to finish 65th ish. Winning that one would have given me 60K and a stack to push into day 2 with.

It was a frustrating one as I had lots of all in’s that kept me going but could never get a stack to actually do any damage. Made one big mistake when I should have 3bet jacks against an good aggro early position raiser. He check shoved a KQx board and showed A8.

A really fun tournament as always though. A quiet 10 days now then there is just the small matter of Vegas a week on Tuesday.

[VBlue]

Hi Mark.

I have just found myself calling back in on the world of APAT.  Your blog was pretty much my first stop.  Always a good read.

Great link to the blog on the previous page.

Have a great time in Vegas - an experience like no other.

Hope the online tournament grind continues to go on the up too.

I've just found myself with regular time to play online again.  Getting back into studying some DV videos by daaaaaang16 and playing a weekly league game and a few low-stakes MTTs $5 under in the main.

I also branched out into live play at the local casino a couple of months ago.  I managed 8/132 on the weekend of the Sky Poker Tour's stop in Blackpool to take home £200 for a £50bi.  4 hours grinding a 10-20bb stack.  Finally chipped up at FT.  Lost calling A-high against a raggy shove.  Picked up Aces next hand and quadrupled back up to about 10bbs!

The 50p/£1 cash tables are very lucrative playing TAG.

I'm aslo starting up a pub game in my home town again this weekend (20-30 runners @ £10 with a headhunter and some sort of jackpot maybe).  Looking forward to this one more as the social aspect is much more fun than the casino.

I'll look back in again after Vegas for reports on shenanigins.

[AceOnTheRiver]

Branching out Mark?

http://www.mrporter.com/

Thought the blog had gone quiet?

[mporter123]

Branching out Mark?

http://www.mrporter.com/

Thought the blog had gone quiet?

Im a walking brand name!

Blog is quiet, had so much going on, will post soon..

[mporter123]

It feels like I have spent large chunks of this year hovering between manic busyness and severe bouts of lethargy. In the most part, I find it a real struggle to maintain a ‘just do it’ attitude that I admire so much in my peers. Why should I just do it when it can be left until tomorrow and I can play some more poker?

I have long lists left around the house of things that I need to do. Fix the Sky Box that hasn’t worked properly for over 6 months, ring the landlord about the fridge that doesn’t work, sort out electricity bills…. The list goes on, and gathers dust, pushed under some junk mail and forgotten. How do you just become one of those organised people?

Work is a constant challenge. Surrounded by ultra ambitious people in a world where, as the graduate, you are supposed to be the most ambitious of them all. The problem with ambition is that its difficult to fake. The drive to succeed comes from within. You cannot be ambitious without passion. I am a very emotional passionate person but don’t bring any of that into the workplace – why not?

I want to spend 2013 feeling less self conscious about how I portray myself. I recently spent two days on a course entitled ‘My Personal Brand’. It was all about how you can become the person you want to be and use your personal brand to advance in the workplace and in your home life. A part of me just wants who I am today to be enough.. that is probably too naive.

Most of all, I need to spend 2013 moaning less and smiling more. To do that, I need to spend more time surrounding myself with the things that make me happy – namely my girlfriend and my family. I have found moving away from my family difficult. I don’t really have a relationship with my brother and get to spend fleeting time with my parents every 8 weeks or so. My dad has to have a hip replacement in early 2013 which has been worrying me a bit over the last month or so. I know my girlfriend is fed up as well – away from her friends, twin sister and family. She would follow me to Mars if I asked her nicely  I forget how lucky I am.

What a load of self deprecating clap trap.    Next post will be poker related – I promise.

[mporter123]

2012 has been a good year for me at the tables and I feel like I have come a long way.

I am enjoying the online grind more than ever now since getting staked. Its given me renewed energy and determination as its not just my money on the line any more. Having a clear structure has really helped drive me in the right direction as well. I know what stakes I am playing, I know when I am playing and I have solid strategies that are firmly ingrained in my psyche.

Just focussing on Stars, where the majority of my online exploits have taken place, my numbers look like this:-

Total Cashes - $4,418
Net Profit - $957
ROI – 28%
Average Buyin - $5.31
Average Field Size – 3909
Tournaments – 652
Cashed – 160
In The Money – 25%

My two standout cashes came in the same 2 week period at the back end of August. 4th and 5th in the same $11 - 650+ runner MTT for $494 and $419.

Live poker has been less exciting until recently. I am never going to be someone who plays very much live and it doesn’t take a lot to get caught on the wrong side of variance. A semi deep run in the £1K GUKPT was a personal highlight. I managed one ‘Day 2’ playing the APAT’s. It would be nice to improve on that in 2013. The highlight was picking up my first medal in the team event only recently. The feeling of having people routing for you to win for the team is exhilarating.  I don’t set myself any real targets with live poker, I will keep plugging away when I can.

I am looking forward to kicking on again in 2013. I have a target in my head of cashing for $8K online with at least a 20% ROI. Any live cashes/APAT medals would be a nice bonus.

[VBlue]

A part of me just wants who I am today to be enough.. that is probably too naive.

Most of all, I need to spend 2013 moaning less and smiling more. To do that, I need to spend more time surrounding myself with the things that make me happy – namely my girlfriend and my family.

When I finish my blog this week and post the update here I talk about this.

GL with your poker and well done on a decent set of results last year.