The Independent

The journalist at The Independent called at the weekend and interviewed my wife. I've no idea when this "poker wives" thing is going out or how it will portray us. They want to send a photographer round at some point too. "They" say you're famous for 15 mins at some point and I suppose there are worse newspapers to be featured in.

I picked up around $450 at the weekend. I didn't have much time to play poker as I fancied a number of football bets. Eventually seeing a profit after backing Liverpool @ 1.74 then laying them at 1.06. As the money was in Betfair, and Poker Heaven do allow me the occasional game on other networks, I sat down with $200 at $1/$2 Pot Limit Omaha. These tables used to be a source of good income for me many months ago. They are tougher these days, as many players have advertised the ease in which you can extract money from the fish here in their blogs. I still managed to more than double up, exiting on $480 after an hour.

A satisfactory weekend. I should really ease up on the football exchange bets though. I'm well ahead there after a few months of good results, I've been pushing my luck recently, just getting out ahead after betting in-running. It's always fun to win but it's time consuming. I'd hazard a guess that I'm at £20 an hour profit for exchange betting recently. Compare this to $182 per hour average from online poker. Alright, both are way above your burger flipping wages, but it makes sense to concentrate on what works out the best. Poker.

Have a good week.

The temptation of $23.15

I've just registered for a year on pokercharts. That means I've had a calender month of free charts and, quite frankly, it's been a pretty good month.

For on-line cash games I'm ahead by $5977.85. Very close to $6,000, which is way above my original target. I won't go chasing it though, it's just a number like any other.

I've played at Broadway once and came out with £720 from my £100 buy-in.

I have a good deal with Poker Heaven starting in a few days.

UK Poker News is growing rapidly. I've had articles published in a number of places including a lucrative feature for Cardiff University.

The Independent have asked my wife for some comments for a 'Poker Wives' piece they are putting together, which should be... err... interesting, if nothing else.

Away from poker I've finally done something about my dental problems and I'm already seeing improvement thanks to those red coloured notes that dentists love so much.

I'm looking forward to the rest of this year like no other. So many challenges and so many potential huge rewards.

Enjoy your weekend.

Over fishing

Almost a month of poker charts under my belt now. $6,000 is approaching on the chart. At this rate I'll hit my target figure in September-ish. What surprises me is the 40 sessions have produced such a straight chart. Of course, there are ups and downs but overall you could draw a smooth line from session 7 to 39.

This number of sessions over this length of time is not very accurate, I admit. So I'll subscribe to pokercharts.com and run it for a year.






I'm all booked up for Cardiff on Feb 4th. It looks a fair old drive to Wales but hopefully it'll be worth the effort result wise and for promoting Poker Heaven. This tournament doesn't appear to be a European ranking event, surprisingly. I have no chance of troubling high ranking positions, for this year at least, but even so it's nice to have a few points by your name. I know I'll be gutted if I get a high cash and no points.

I've seen a few posts on blogs and forums about Boss recently. Boss are the network Poker Heaven run their tables on. It seems a few people have noticed how easy the cash games are here. I just hope that nobody pays too much attention, but feel it's too late. It's taking longer to select a table these days, the fish are lesser in number now the real players have moved in and hoovered up the cash. I suppose it was only a matter of time really. I am guilty of promoting the fishy side of this network myself, I've been saying for months how poor the general standard is, this was shrugged off by the blind idiots as my promotion for financial gain, despite the fact I wasn't paid for any referrals at the time. Fingers crossed that the fish are larger in number than the sharks for a while yet.

Poker Heaven

The chart, as you can see, has topped $5,000 now. I can remember 4 or 5 losing sessions from the last 35. I'm very pleased with that level of progress. I'm sure I'll hit a sticky patch and have a run of losing sessions, until then I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Poker Heaven have signed me for another 3 months. Mostly for UK exposure but the odd Euro trip is throw in to the mix too. Sadly, they have dropped Tony and The Sterling Cartel. I can't really go around calling myself a "group" so I have started my own personal poker site. Just for reports, results, the odd photo and to help pull in more press jobs. I might even put my blog on there eventually.

I'm also allowed to give away $20 to new Poker Heaven players. You have to join up here:
http://www.paulsandellspoker.com/freemoney
Then send Ali an email and he will send you the free cash. No catches, just a gift. If you like Poker Heaven then email me from my site and I will arrange a rake back deal for you.

My first Poker Heaven tourney is in Cardiff on February 4th. After that I have a stack of dental work that needs to be done. I have neglected my teeth for a while and now I'm paying the cost, pain wise and financially. All the work will cost over £900 but I need to get this done so I'll have to pay up and forget about it. Fortunately I've just picked up $900 from $5/$10 NL in a 50 minute session, so part of the bill is already taken care of.

Tomorrow my wife is out for the evening so I'm looking forward to some longer poker sessions online and hogging the TV. Whatever you're doing, enjoy the weekend.

The tax man cometh

It's that time of the year again, that every self employed person in the UK loves so much, tax return time! Whilst awaiting the damage from my accountant I've taken a chunk out of Poker Heaven. I pretty much know the figure due and easily have it covered, but I took a few grand out to ease the pain. Withdrawing therapy ?

I have played 15 mins on-line since the last post, for a whopping return of $40. That's taken me to 27 sessions in 15 days. Around 19 hours played. Nothing like enough poker. I know when I've been less busy I could of played 45 - 60 hours in that number of days. $4,100+ on poker charts is pleasing though. Since my return from Helsinki, which is around 25 days ago, I've put my Poker Heaven balance up to $5,500. So my form has been good since mid-December.

Have you read the Poker Whisperer yet? Very funny stuff.

Racing the milkman home

You know you get days when everything hits for you? When everything you play/bet turns into a winner.

I had one of those days yesterday.

Whilst waiting for Tony, who was caught up in traffic, on Sunday afternoon. I thought I'd have a pop at Poker Heaven for an hour. I came out around +$900 for the session thanks to my Aces running into Kings. Not a bad start to the poker day ahead.

We arrived at Broadway in the midst of the Blonde Poker quiz. The noise of cogs turning was deafening! ;-) so, I played a little blackjack and doubled up a £50 stack. Then a little roulette and took a small £10 positive from there too. Then a few sessions of roulette on the video machines which resulted in small positives there too (£30). Time for dinner, salmon and salad, all very healthy. Followed by cod and chips, not quite as healthy.

Eventually we sat down for the 9pm kick-off in the £100 freezeout. The deck hit me in the face until the break, 6,000 was up to 16,000 at one point. I bled a few grand away but was still in good shape on 13,000 when we returned. I dropped to almost out on just a couple of thousand after this. It felt like every recent tourney I've played. I'd dominated until the break and then blew my stack in the next session, in several events in 2005. But, things went the opposite way this time and I built my stack back up to average chips. At 3.30am it was final table time.

I took a beat here with 6 to go and it crippled me. I'm not complaining, I take beats almost every single day, so I'm not going to detail it, it's part of poker. I eventually went out in 5th for £720. A very tough British field was taking part so I was pleased with the result. Although with 10 to go in the final I felt good enough to win it.

So, the first B&M cash of 2006 for TSC. Let's hope for a few more this year.

Ohh... the title? We left at 5am and saw a number of milk/dairy vehicles on the M6. I think we just beat them :-)

Don't be sad... two out of twenty four ain't bad

A slight adjustment to the famous Meatloaf lyrics for the title, to reflect the poker charts stats above. Two losing sessions from twenty four in the last ten days. I really couldn't of asked for much more to start this year. I was aiming for $2,000 before this coming Sunday (tomorrow) but somehow this has crept up above $3,100.

I'm not sure where I got the 2% figure from in the post a few days ago. $2k is actually 4% of my annual target. Now, my bank roll on Poker Heaven is $4,400. So, I'm up to nearly 9% already. Perhaps $50,000 is in reach!? I don't know, I'm just going to keep chipping away and see where I finish up. I'd be delighted to reach my revised figure of $35,000.

You can see in the chart I've had a losing session (booo!) this was actually a relief. It was at the lowest stakes I've played for a long time. 25c/50c NLHE. I built $50 up to $82 through bullying, blew $40 after catching a Deuce with Q2 (I know!) and then lost two further $50 buy-ins after being ahead. The last with AA vrs KK vrs Q9. Yes, Q9 won the hand. Why was I playing this low? I wanted to see what these fish were like after Tony had been taking a beating down there... I concur with his analysis. The poker Gods are especially cruel down there.

I'm done with internet poker now until next week. Off to watch the FA Cup scores on the box. I've had a treble on Bolton, Birmingham and Blackburn. Nearly 3/1 if it comes in. Broadway tomorrow, better take plenty of cash for the side action :-)

Enjoy your weekends.

It can't carry on, can it?

I'm probably in the midst of one of my best runs right now. I've played 17 sessions in 8 days, over around 12 hours. In that time I have had only one losing session of $300. I have made $2199.32 profit according to Poker Charts.

I was hopeful of reaching $2,000 before Sunday. So, after a tough day sorting out my accounts for my tax return, with a dodgy wisdom tooth and a head full of painkillers, I'm pretty pleased to be way beyond that mark already... and it's only Thursday.

I don't think I'm doing anything special. I just feel "in the zone" - like I'm going to win every time I sit at a cash table. I'm relaxed about the cards, I don't create the action unless I feel there is a need for it. Everything appears clear to me at the poker table.

God only knows what my tournament form is like right now. It seems ages since I played anything like a competitive tourney. I suppose I'll find out on Sunday. It should be fun if nothing else. I'm looking foward to meeting a few people from Blonde, snoopy and Junior especially.

That's about it for now... another "I've won this" post. Must try and remember to note a few interesting hands for next time.

Paul.

One week of Poker Charts

It's been a week since I registered at pokercharts.com. My second chart is above and as you can see, things are progressing well so far this year.

I've played very little really, not even an hour, in the last day. I've taken over $350 in hit and run sessions. I'm not intending to hit and run. Work, dinner, toothache and the like have conspired against me. I'm hopeful I'll reach $2,000 before Broadway on Sunday.

Although I've progressed well so far this year, I feel $50,000 for 2006 may be too high a target to reach. Maybe something around $35,000 is more realistic, given my spare playing time currently.

My last session was 25 mins between 5.55am and 6.20am here. I've been awake with toothache since 4am, finally gave up on sleep at 5.20am, got up and took pain killers then fired up Poker Heaven. +$230 has cheered me up slightly. Now at 6.45am the tooth still hurts but it's not agony right now.

The day is about to start, I have accounting to sort out and I'm already knackered. Whatever you're doing today, rest assured it's more fun than what I'm doing.

2% already, woohoo

In my last post I wrote that I'd like to earn $50,000 from playing online poker this year. So far, so good. The last 5 days (alright it's not entirely 2006 stats) have produced over $1,000 profit, $1272 as you can see from pokercharts above.

I know, it's not an accurate reflection on my overall performance. It's only 11 sessions over nearly 10 hours. I'm not judging what may come in the next 363 days on the last 4. I'd really like to accumulate 500 hours or 500 sessions and see where I am after that.

I'm delighted with the start I've made to 2006, though. Only one poor session from eleven is very encouraging, I hope I can continue in this form for a while.

I'm enjoying pokercharts.com - I can see this developing into a handy tool for the next 12 months. Entering the losing session is painful, of course, but I've found it focuses my mind whilst playing. I reckon it's the fear or shame of entering a poor session that keeps me on my toes.

So, Happy New Year. Back to the grind tomorrow.

Blonde tourney, on Sunday, at Broadway is in the diary. After that, nothing has been arranged. I hope I can continue to play around Europe for a few more months. I feel Tony and I have promoted Poker Heaven well, introducing several players from the UK and Europe to their site and playing there exclusively ourselves.

Have a profitable 2006.