In the beginning

[nosey-p]

  The first season was with Pokerstars which was good, it all went well finishing third and winning a few $ on the way. Then we had new sponsors and we moved to Blue Square for two seasons and then onto our current sponsor Betfair. For those of you who have not figured it out yet. 888, Pokerstars and Fulltilt don't have sports books. I know 888 does now but when I played on it they didn't. You see the flaw is not with the poker it's with the gambling (I know I do have flaws). In the early days, all I did on-line was play poker and had a bet on a Saturday at the bookies with only the money I had in my pocket. But now I do my gambling on-line and never go to the bookies. When I went to the shop you can keep a better check on your loses plus I find it harder during the working week to get to the shop, not any more a few clicks and another £10 down the drain.

 Now that I have identified the flaw I have to cut it out, so that would mean I have to play on sites that do not have a sports book. This would mean not playing on Betfair which in turns mean not playing in APAT comps. You see I win at poker and loose at gambling but how do I stop using my poker winnings?

 I started of this storey as a bit of tongue in check but now I'm not to sure. Do I have a problem? The good thing is that I'm only using my profits and not using my wage income so I don't have a gambling problem (if I started chasing then I would) but it's defiantly affecting my bottom line

 This is how bad I have been running. Blonde have a tipping comp going. So for I have picked 7 selections 3 have won 4 have lost but have made a profit so not bad until I tell you that the 3 that won I didn't put any money on them and the 4 that lost I did. FML :"(        

[SirPercival]

I believe you can self exclude from the variuos parts of Betfair but if you employ a mind coach (like me) then you can sort it long term.

[nosey-p]

Monday Madness

Last night sore the start of three leagues all of which I had said I was going to play in and on top of that is the Furness game. The problem is that my laptop is old, when I open more than two windows it starts to cry. And if I open a Sky window it starts righting it's will out.

The first game of the night was the Bunch of Fives. I hung around for over an hour before getting inpatient and then donking my chips off (cannot remember my exit hand). While waiting for the Blonde league to start I fired up another game on 888 which is a mistake knowing that my laptop is going to struggle.

By now I have two games going the 888 and the Sky Blonde league so in total I have 6 windows on the go and the lappy is on its knees begging me to stop. The next game is about to start which was the Chezger league also on Sky. Unfortunately the laptop was saying "put me out of my misery" so I was unable to play in this.

I played in the Furness game a few times but since we have moved from Betfair to 888 I emptied my account so I won't be playing in these anymore, sorry Paul.

I have never liked Sky poker; I don't like playing 6 handed, I don't like the software but wanted to support the two leagues. After I had to reconnect about 4 times I found myself on the FT only to self implode on the money bubble when there was a short stack trying to ladder (bad play by me). At the same time we were down to two tables and in the money in the 888 game. When I decided to push with 22 into the chip leader (another donk move).

The next big night is on Thursday when I will have 3 games on the go, the multy tabling is not the problem, it's the laptop trying to cope with it.

I can see Monday's are going to be allot of fun      

[nosey-p]

[nosey-p]

Off to the cricket this Saturday to see England become World Number 1. I normally go to Headingly but for the second year running they don't have a test match so it's off to Trent Bridge. Never been there before so I have no idea how to get there. Arriving by train so looking for a pub that does a good fry-up with a pint of larger at 9.30 in the morning on route from the station to the ground. Someone told me that there is a Hooters on the way; the trouble is if I go in I may not get out. If you can recommend a pub around the ground it would be appreciated.

There's a group of 10 of us going. We start off watching the cricket with a pint of course. By the lunch break we head out of the ground to the nearest pub then back for the afternoon session. But by then the crowd is more entertaining than the cricket so not much cricket gets watched. Same again for the tea interval but this time we don't normally get back to the ground. The problem this year is that I have to get a train back to Wakefield so I have to be sensible. The Mrs is scared that I'm going to be that hammered that I'm going to miss the train or even worse get off the train at Sheffield with my mates and end up in a police cell.

And to think I could be in Glasgow this weekend.      

[Swinebag]

surely just end up in DTD then get the first train back on the sunday?

[nosey-p]

Did it again this Saturday, played the $3 tournament at 9.00am on Stars when after 6 hours I had to go out. I knew this before I started so why did I enter it. I was in 6th place with 15 left out of 1350 runners, the decision I had was "do I just go all in on every hand or just sit out and try to ladder" the difference this time around is I was only going to be 30 minutes so I sat out. When I returned I was still in but now I was 9th out of 9 with only 8BB, I finally finished 3rd for $390. But why did I enter it in the first place when I knew I had to go out?

[nosey-p]

Just received a speeding ticket from the New York Police Deportment for speeding in a 55 zone this morning at 7.25 "Can you please download this form and fill in your details and return it"

I wish i had a car that did 55

[nosey-p]

In keeping with other blogs

"2 more sleeps till Coventry and 5 more till Nottingham"

Hope to catch up with you all as I have not played live since Coventry    

[nosey-p]

Several words get used all the time like "feeling confident, playing well, variance, running good and in the zone" but are these words another way of saying "I got lucky"?

All poker players will agree that they is luck in the game, depending on who you ask you will get a different view on how much.  

Feeling Confident
CONFIDENCE (noun)
 The noun CONFIDENCE has 5 senses:
1.   freedom from doubt; belief in yourself and your abilities
2.  a feeling of trust (in someone or something)
3. a state of confident hopefulness that events will be favorable
4. a trustful relationship
5. a secret that is confided or entrusted to another

I have only felt confident once, last year when playing the ME at DTD. Des asked me "are you feeling confident" (like he does with us all) but for the first time I said yes and meant it. Confidence is a self believe in yourself, you feel that you have an edge on all the other players but how do you measure confidence? Is it how much money you have won, how many tournaments you have won or can you be the worse player in the world but you still feel confident that this tournament is going to be the one.

We all enter tournaments thinking we are going to win or what is the point in entering. But how many times do you believe you are going to win, what outside events effect you? Did you have an argument with your partner, are you having problems at work, did someone cut you up on the way to the casino, did Ger buy me that drink.  All these can affect your game.

In sport allot of the top players have mind coaches particular in golf. To help clear your mind of crap like "did I set sky to tape coach trip or I need to pick some milk up on the way home" so they can focus on the shot in hand. Can this be the same in poker? I know they are books about this but do they work?

Like I said earlier I have only felt confident once when starting a tournament, why I felt different this time around than any other time is a mystery to me but I did. I enter all tournaments on the belief that I'm going to do well but don't expect to win. I finished 3rd in the tournament playing some off the best poker I have ever played. Was this a coincidence or did I get lucky?

Playing Well

What does playing well mean? You can lose (not cash) for 20 games in a row but you can still be playing well or you can be the worse player in the world and cash all the time. But who decides if you are playing well or not? They is only one person who can tell you this YOU. I have gone through periods when I think I'm playing well but not seeing any rewards but still felt good about my game, this is when the word variance gets used, but can it be overused?  Do we use the word variance to cover the cracks in our game? Does it mask how bad we are playing or is it another word for unlucky?

Running Good

I play about 16 MTTS in a month (500 + runners) I cash about 4 times of them and run deep twice (out of the 4) and FT once (out of the 4) and for every 4 times I FT I will be in the top 3 once. So on that basis I run good once every four month or every 64 games, is that good or bad? On those stats if I was to play 16 MTTS a day I will run good every 4 days. You see players on TV who always seem to be running deep in tournaments but how many tournaments have they entered? For me "running good" is in the short term or another word for "got lucky more than once in a week"

In The Zone

In over 6 years of playing poker I can only say I have only used this saying once when I played an online MTT were everything went perfectly, my big hands got paid, I laid down big hands, I ran big bluffs, I played the player (not the cards) my chips was never in danger. In short I played the perfect game. But I played the same way as I did in other games and not win or even cash or not made the first break so why would I use the phrase "in the zone" just because I won an MTT? Could it be I got Aces against Kings 4 times, could it be I flopped the nuts more times than I can remember, could it be that my opponents was laddering rather than playing for the win? Or is, in the zone another way of saying "I got very very lucky"

So my question to you is would you prefer to be "confident, playing well, running well, in the zone" or would you prefer to be lucky or is it the same thing?

[Mikeyboy9361]

Nice post Wayne. Lucky every time!!
Strange what you say about being focused or confident or in the zone. I have actually said to the Mrs on two occasions when playing an online MTT, "right I"m gonna win this tonight", and on both occasions run deep. Once coming second for a four figure pay day, and FTing the other. Weird.
But we all know you can"t run deep without Lady Luck on your shoulder, you have to win the flips when they come. I went through a period of about 10 live tournaments in a row when I got my chips in with the best of it and was outdrawn on every occasion, I seriously thought about quitting!! There is nothing worse than playing a solid game and continually being outdrawn.

[thinsy147]

[TheSnapper]

[SirPercival]

Great post Wayne. We need to meet up for a beer or 2 to discuss this one in more detail.

As you know I believe a good mind coach is the way forward for anyone struggling in these areas. I have one, and my attitude to the game is so much better now. I haven"t put in the volume to demonstrate improvement in my game but I KNOW that it"s there. In fact, part of the reason I haven"t been playing as much is because of my mind coach helping me realise other parts of my life that needed to be sorted first.

I could go on and on about this but if I did then it would seem like I was writing my own blog........must get back to that sometime.

If you, or any APAT"ers want to learn more about a "mind coach" or "life coach" (his preferred term) then PM me.

[ian.ski309]

Interesting post Wayne, very thought provoking.

Confidence counts for a lot. I remember watching you play during the latter stages of the ME at DTD last week when it was down to about 16 runners. There was a raise in front of you and then you shoved... I know a little about the way you play and I remember thinking to myself, "He"s got a premium hand there." The confidence with which you shoved your chips over the line got most players to lay their hands down - even though I"d greatly overestimated the size of your pocket pair  

Assuming that we always play well, the only thing better than confidence is running well - that and minimising distractions on and off the felt.