MrMoves Poker

Moving house

2006-07-09T11:03:00.000-07:00

I've decided to move my blog to my Poker Heaven one:

http://www.pokerangel.blogspot.com/

At least, whilst I'm sponored by them.

So please change your links, bookmarks, etc.

Delightful Dublin

2006-06-08T03:52:00.000-07:00

No joy in Barcelona. Great city, very warm.

I returned from Dublin yesterday. I was close in the last side event, 15th with 9 paid but I lost a race with a small pocket pair vrs AQ.

Ireland was great. Very friendly players and a nice location at City West Hotel. I felt some form returning in the last side event - I'm certainly due a run of good results!

Lots of Irish Poker Tour news on UK Poker News - http://uk.pokernews.com

Hola!

2006-05-20T03:18:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Barcelona.

It was very hot here yesterday, about 27C. I haven't really been on a sunshine holiday for years now. The whole experience of arriving in Spain, going through the airport, travelling to the hotel, etc really felt like the tacky package deal holidays I used to go on as a kid. Of course, I'm not here for a break. There is a tournament at Casino de Barcelona starting in 3 hours + change.

So, I'm sat here in my hotel room in limbo really. There isn't much time to go out and see anything plus I haven't eaten yet and I'm starving! The restaurant opens in 40 mins, until then I will chew on the desk in my room.

A 4pm tournament start time is a little unusual. I note on the schedule the heads-up draw takes place at 9pm. It'll be interesting to see how that goes, assuming I'm still in after 5 hours, that is! I'd really like to cash in this one. I'd like to cash in every one, but I don't often play buy-ins that are €1000+. It would be great to leave the sunshine for rainy England tomorrow with a few extra Euros in my pocket.

Enjoy your weekends.

Sorry, it's been a while...

2006-05-08T08:05:00.000-07:00

...since the last update.

I haven't had a great deal to write about on the poker front. I haven't really played a great deal either. Until, that is, this last weekend.

I had a pretty lengthy session on Cryptologic which finished in me hitting a straight flush and getting paid from a guy holding a flopped set. I had the flush on the flop, it got better from there with the SF on the turn. It was one of those moments where you pray the board won't pair! That gave me a healthy profit for my efforts on Saturday.

On Sunday, after watching Top Gear - one of the few TV shows I like to watch, I had a crack at the $1,000,000 guaranteed on Stars. 5200 played with 750 paid. Good match practise, you might say, for the WSOP main event. For the first 2 1/2 hrs I was running pretty well. I had double the average and never really felt any pressure to gamble any chips. After midnight the deck turned against me. I was 220th when player 750 went out. It was good to cash in such a big event. Cards and position made it impossible to play without gambling from here on in. At 2am I was out in 260th. An $830 pay day. I really felt that even if I saw the occasional hand I would progress much deeper. They just never came, my stats read 11% of hands played.

If I finish in 260th in Vegas, you can expect a very happy bunny.

Next stop on the B&M tour is Barcelona on May 20th. €1000 buy-in. Hope I can take some tournament form into it.

Ohh Bo***cks

2006-04-20T06:31:00.000-07:00

I didn't quite hit my $4k target, infact I dropped a good chunk of my roll and withdrew whilst I still had a healthy profit. Hence the title of the post. It hurt more at the time than it does now in the cold light of day, as I still made a large amount of money in 5 days of play.

I moved a few hundred into a new poker room called Poker770. It's one of the Playtech sites, so I thought I'd give it a shot for the review on UK Poker News.

I managed to get $500 ahead after 1hr and 4mins and that eased the pain of the $4k chase going Pete Tong.

I'm off to sunny Vilnius tomorrow for the Lithuanian Open. One or two Brits are already there and it should be a sell out. Fingers crossed for a good result.

Almost a ten bagger!

2006-04-18T08:06:00.000-07:00

Had a good session today and finished up on $3680. Almost at my $4000 target.

I made the $400 deposit last Wednesday. I played that evening and the following day. Then again on Sunday, Monday and finally today. It would be nice to collect the last $320 in the next two days to cover $4k in a week.

Now I'm off to the dentist to almost complete the work started on my teeth 3 months ago. It's been costly but not too painful. Today is root canal day and I'm not overjoyed at the prospect. One root canal and a couple of small fillings. After that the really expensive cosmetic stuff starts.

At least I'll have a healthy mouth to go with my healthy bank roll.

Brighton bubble

2006-04-18T00:38:00.000-07:00

To follow on neatly from the 'Horse bubble' post, I conveniently bubbled in Brighton too. With 12 paid I managed to go out in 14th. I have put up a full report on my website - link on the left.

My guard slipped, I lost my aggression and it cost me at least £250 in winnings (12th), maybe 6 grand (1st). Who knows? One thing is for sure, I've chewed the tournament over in my head ever since Saturday night and when I get to Lithuania later this week, I will not give an inch, I will pressure everyone I feel I can. I'm going to Vilnius to win this tournament, anything less will not be satisfactory.

As is the norm, after a festival event, I ran over everybody online. I'm trying to turn a small-ish $400 deposit into $4,000. So far I'm up to $2,600 after 4 days of play. Most of this came yesterday. As I was running very hot, I took a crack at a $300 heads-up game, beating some chancer called DPommo with T,4 (second pair) after he committed with AK (A high) on the turn of a scary flushy board. (Just joking Mr Pomroy)

It's been a so-so Easter at Chateau Moves. Had I cashed in Brighton it would of been a great weekend. I had three sports bets with two winning, the third losing out due to poor goal kicking by the rugby league team I backed. Online poker has been very kind to me. Over the 4 day long weekend I am well ahead money wise. I guess I'm just greedy, there is no such thing as "enough".

I do feel my tournament game is very good right now but not as fearless as it was in mid-2005. Players have improved, in general, in the last 12 months. The first time I played live poker I could not believe how poor players were, I felt I could make serious money by taking them on regulary. I must step up my game now and rediscover that feeling.

My goal for the rest of 2006 is to cash in the WSOP and win another Euro ranking event. I don't think I'm too far away from achieving those.

Horse bubble

2006-04-10T11:25:00.000-07:00

I took part of the Roy "the boy" Brindley invitational last night on Ladbrokes.

It was a mix of sports people, celebs and journalists. 52 runners in all, 12 paid (with lumps for charidee). The first two won satellite entries to the Poker Million. 3rd and 4th a $1,000 share in a race horse.

Naturally, I was 5th. It was a nice event though, lots of chat with the odd stupid railbird. You can read more about it at UK Poker News

I've had a pretty steady week all in all. I played like a complete muppet at Broadway in the £250 dc freezeout. Online made up for that though with a couple of K from various sources.

I'm working hard on my tournament game, analysing everything post-event, I want to get to Vegas in July and feel like I'm playing the best poker of my life. I have the cash games cracked. I can play X amount of hours and know over the course of a year I will have X amount of profit. I accept the losses, which simply have to occur from time to time, because I know I am a long term profitable cash game player. I'm not satisfied with that.

My tournament record is not as impressive. In 2005 I made a profit from B&M and online tournaments. In 2006 I am behind in B&M and only a recent spate of results on Poker Stars have put me very slightly ahead online. So, until Vegas I will be playing every MTT or B&M tournament that time and bank roll will allow.

Tonight I'll start with the $55 PLO on Party. I really hate this platform but the Omaha players are terrible.

100 runners, 99 paid

2006-04-07T01:12:00.000-07:00

I read earlier this week that Luton paid 18 runners in a 100 runner field. Many supported this by stating that lots of players had to return for the second day and that they deserved something. Perhaps this is true, I know it sucks to play for 8 or 9 hours and get nothing. To come back the next day and face maybe 3 or 4 more hours and STILL get nothing is a real slap in the face.

But... and there has to be a "but"... isn't that part of poker? Part of what makes it a tough game, a rewarding game, a game that makes you tear your hair out and a game that makes you smile for a week? It seems the poker rooms are trying to keep everybody happy, credit to them, but this is an impossible task.

I'm of the view that 10% of fields are paid (rounded up/down to the nearest 10 runners), no more, no less. Why this cannot be a standard rule everywhere, I do not know. Bubble deals should be banned. Simply because a bubble deal moves the bubble further down the field, it does not eliminate the bubble, it just passes it on to some other poor sod.

That said, I'm off to Broadway Casino tonight for their £250 dc freezeout. Their payout structure? Over 100 runners = 20 paid! 16th - 20th getting their money back.

I won't complain, of course, if I go out in 20th but c'mon guys! It's not funny anymore. Can we get back to proper poker, where the final table(s) are paid and not half the field? Is it any wonder the Americans and Scandies crush us at poker? We're turning into a nation of soft players, more concerned about getting a few quid back than looking at the bigger picture.

One thing is for sure. If I make the final here, there will not be a deal.

Have a good weekend.

Before May...

2006-04-04T14:18:00.000-07:00

...I'd like one more B&M cash. I've had two reasonable results so far this year, final tables in a £100 DC Freezeout and last month in the €500 Freezeout in Paris. This gives me 5 finals from 16 festival events. I was sure I'd played more that this but apparently not. I guess when you play internet poker day after day this gives the illusion that B&M tournaments last longer than they really do.

3 or 4 tournaments in April should give me one cash at least, fingers crossed.

A new Poker Whispers came out today.
http://uk.pokernews.com/news/2006/4/poker-whispers-april2006.htm

Off To The Gutshot...

2006-03-28T04:15:00.000-08:00

... tomorrow evening. I've been invited to a media super satellite by Paddy Power Poker.

More here:
http://uk.pokernews.com/news/2006/3/irish-open-satellite-media.htm

No buy-in, free booze and free food. "RSVP" said the email... I nearly set the keyboard on fire with the speed of my response.

Latvia was an interesting trip. It isn't the prettiest place on earth, all rather grey to be brutally honest, but the people are nice enough. The cards, like the weather, were ice cold. I had AK twice in 4 hours and after the second time I was getting my coat. I've written about it briefly in my official Poker Heaven blog.

I have a little break now. I intend to use my Westcliffe buy-in at Luton in early April. Then Brighton is the next stop on April 15th. Lithuania follows that and finally Blackpool. That takes me into May and the end of my Poker Heaven deal.

I don't want to go into my deal with Poker Heaven in too much detail. They have been very good to me and I'm hopeful they will extend until 2007. I have sent a lot of players their way from my website and tournament promotions. I enjoy all the aspects of my sponsorship. I've always been a salesman, so to combine that with poker is pretty much my ideal job.

I have everything confirmed for my WSOP trip now. Out on July 26th, two days before the big one. I'm very excited to have the chance to play in this event. I am determined to play at my very best and progress deep into the tournament. A cash would be something I would be very proud of.

Where is Laffia?...

2006-03-22T02:52:00.000-08:00

...is what my mother asked as I wished her Happy Birthday today. I'm not sure if she's going deaf or I'm slurring my sentences even more than usual.

So, off to sunny Riga it is tomorrow. Daytime temp' -1C. Night temp' -12C. This means the only time I'll be outdoors is when getting in and out of taxis.

I managed to charm my way off the main event waiting list to the main players list. Apparently the casino in Riga is not very large, 5 days before the event the waiting list had started and I was 3rd. A little miffed at having already paid for my hotel and flights, not wanting to miss out on this event, I fired off an email to the poker manager, Julia. A little begging and grovelling later and I'm in.

I've neglected my poker charts updates for the last week or so. Nothing exciting has occured, I'm probably $1,500 ahead of the last chart. Must be more disciplined in future.

Table finale à Paris

2006-03-16T00:38:00.000-08:00

7th in Paris for €1800, or there abouts.

I played some great poker. I got lucky on one hand with 14 players left. I felt I should have/could have won this. However, it's nice to have some ranking points again.

Now I'm over the cashing hurdle, I desperately want to cross the finishing line in 1st again. I know it's easy to play 50 tournaments and not win, easy to play a few dozen and not cash, etc. That doesn't stop a burning desire I have to win again. It's been 11 months since I won the first ranking event I ever played, in Lithuania. I don't play every single tournament like some of the circuit guys. My sponsorship doesn't cover that and it would quickly become tiresome, grinding out result after result.... or at least trying to. I have 7 or 8 tournaments left betweeen now and May 4th when my Poker Heaven deal ends. One win would go down very nicely.

I have some WSOP news. I'm off to Vegas this year with Team Poker News. I haven't been to Vegas since 2002 and then I didn't play any poker. I can't wait!

Deal or no deal?

2006-03-11T08:59:00.000-08:00

Heads-up, $100 PLHE this afternoon. it's a 55/45% chip split in favour of my opponent.

Equal deal is offered, I take it, $1080 each.

I know, I know... I'm so weak!

Another final, though. WTF is going on?

In the tournament poker groove

2006-03-11T04:56:00.000-08:00

It's been a hell of a week for tournament poker over at Chateau Moves.

Last night I finalled in the Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo $55 on Stars. Eventually chopping it 4 handed for $702 - an equal split which the leader was happy to agree to, despite having 10k more than everybody else! I was 4th at the time and said no to any deals, assuming they would be based on chip counts. It didn't take me long to change my mind when an equal split was tabled ;-)

I played in, what I consider, a "for fun" tournament on advfn poker. It's only a $10 buy-in, 13 runners, I lost out when heads-up. Had my opponent all-in pre-flop with 5,3 vrs my A,6. He hit runnings threes. Better players registered this week. Although it's not a financially positive use of my time, even if I win, I enjoy the banter and fun aspects of this game.

Since last Sunday, 6 days ago, I am nudging $4,000 in winnings from online tournaments. I should really have cashed in another $100 tourney but blew up 5 from the money. You won't hear me complaining about that. The last 6 days have been great in regards to tournaments. Several chops meant I was never officially an outright winner, that said, each deal seemed fair or MORE than fair in my favour. I feel next time, assuming the amounts are not too huge for me, I will play to a conclusion.

One bet for today: Everton to beat Fulham. Hopefully not too many goals as I've taken the home match result, the 1-0 to Everton and the under 2.5 goals.

Have a good weekend.

Yet another one

2006-03-08T08:26:00.000-08:00

No final table today, booo!

Amazingly though, I cashed again. 18th in the $100 NLHE on Stars for almost double my money back. That's four cashes from six tournaments on there now.

I have GOT to transfer this to B&M. The muddy waters of tournament poker are clearer. I can't explain it very well, so I'm sorry if this post sounds like crap. My decision making is much better suddenly. I'm protecting my chips and attacking others at the right times.

Today I was on the felt. With 62 players left I was 62nd with a grand total of 505 chips. Miles from the money and a mountain a climb. I didn't cave in as I have previously, I scrapped and stole and picked my spots until, with 22 to go, I was 12th! 18th from there was disappointing but I was over the moon to cash after being last of 62 only an hour previously.

I've collected over $3,000 in tourney winnings in the last 4 days. I'm enjoying tournament poker again. I feel a big result is on the way this year. I hope it's in Paris next week.

Running hot... at last!

2006-03-07T06:59:00.000-08:00

I just spent the last 4 hours in the tournament above. I could do no wrong here, winning 14 out of 14 showdowns, only losing one when heads-up, after a deal had been agreed. I took $1800, the winner took $1900. A fair deal at that stage really.

Most pleasing was the fact I was on the felt when 6 handed. Yet, was chip leader by a few K when heads-up.

That's three finals from three on Poker Stars. I am indeed running very hot.

Bring on the French!

Keeping up the momentum

2006-03-07T00:14:00.000-08:00

I had a long hard think about the value of tournaments last night. My Poker Chart is showing an hourly rate of $220 back to December 2005 for cash games only. Before this, in the $200 per day challenge, I was on an even higher rate back to August/Sept 2005.

With this in mind, any tournament will have to return a rate of around $250 an hour to make it worthwhile to me. Even in smaller rebuys, like the PLO Hi/Lo from yesterday, that rate is possible IF you reach the very latter stages. Of course, you can't always get to the tail end of tournaments and scraping into the cash, or not cashing at all, is a more feasible conclusion for most events.

I'm not giving up tournaments. I'm going to play events of $50 buy-ins and upwards only from now on. This will mean little or no tournament play during the day time, as buy-ins are generally pretty low until the sun goes down. Cash games are just too lucrative for me to sacrifice, however, a good tournament result does wonders for the ego as well as the bank roll.

I'll be in Paris this time next week for the €500 NLHE. Due to my good run recently I'm taking an extra day off in France and bringing the wife with me for some sight seeing. I enjoyed Paris on my last trip back in November last year, I found myself speaking French on many occasions for the first time in about 15 years, only very basic stuff of course, but remarkably I was understood nearly all of the time! Tres Bonjour! As Delboy Trotter would say.

After Paris, literally straight after too! It's Westcliffe for a couple of NLHE's, a shootout and a standard freezeout.

The following week I'm off to sunny Riga, Latvia..... brrrr!!! For their Open and a side event.

Then I'll get a few weeks off the Poker Heaven tour until mid-April. So, a very hectic few weeks are ahead. I'm not complaining :-)

Have you tried the new Party Poker software? I'm actually impressed!
http://uk.pokernews.com/news/2006/3/new-party-poker-software.htm

Positive Mental Attitude

2006-03-06T11:05:00.000-08:00

On Sunday I played in the $100 PLHE tourney on Stars. I cashed in 5th in this event and felt I'd played something like my old form. I then moved over to Poker Heaven for the BPO qualifier and had a solid game there despite a blow up at the end. After these events I felt my form was returning. I used to be a good tournament player, somehow, in the last few months, I've lost the ability to get in the money. Today, as you can see from the screenshot, it returned in style.

Although I'm listed as 3rd there, we did a three way chop for $1169 each. So all-ins ensued and I went out in 3rd place. The deal was a good one for me, I was 60k off the leader yet the chop was equal, needless to say I agreed to it pretty quickly!

My focus on this game was 100% and I felt positive I could do well. Now, to transfer this good feeling over to Paris for next week!

Love/Hate 30

2006-03-03T09:54:00.000-08:00

It's been a good start to March, as you can see from Poker Charts. The $3k win from the last 4 days has pushed me up over $15,000 for the year. That's 30% of my annual target and we're only just into March. Needless to say, I'm delighted with my cash form.

I played the ADVFN traders game last night. It was great to see Skyfella on the table and in good spirits again. It was set-up for an MTT, however, only 10 joined and it played out like an STT but with 4 paid!. Fair enough. ADVFN added $100 to the prizepool, so that made it a value event even if it was only a $10 buy-in. I cashed in 3rd.... yes that's right, wipe your beverage from your screen, I cashed in a tournament!

Off I went to Natwest this morning with my Poker Heaven buy-ins for March. I hate going into the branch of this bank, the staff simply do not understand the concept of privacy. Despite THREE complaints from me over the telephone and face to face, they continue to attempt to sell me loans, credit cards, review my accounts, etc etc. This aspect of going into the branch, I can tolerate, what I cannot is the disregard for privacy, as figures are openly discussed for the entire branch to hear. I'm generally a private person and I live in a small village next to a small town. I'd rather the general population of this town be unaware of what amount I'm depositing, what my current account balance is or what my credit card balance is on. If it happens again I'm going to stand there and demand the commission seeking staff member be flogged in front of me... or, then again, I'll probably move two doors down to Barclays.

Oh, the topic? Love 30%, Hate the approaching 30 years old :-)

Have a good weekend.

A two day yo-yo

2006-02-28T06:35:00.000-08:00

I finally made a loss! Woohoo!!.... wait a minute, I mean "D'oh!!"

Take a look at that lovely big spike on session 58 - 64. Then the horrible dip that followed! That was a handful of sessions on Poker Stars. Why I continued there after such a great profit I do not know. I know Poker Stars has the toughest games around in general. Maybe it was an ego thing? That I thought I could beat them up for $5k instead of $2k? Whatever it was, it's not happening again. Everybody bangs on about Stars and how great they are. It's true, they have some nice tournaments, but this attracts the best players. I don't want to play the best players, I want to play crap players who like to give money away! My sessions on Stars resulted in a positive of around $1,000. I'm still angry with myself though.

So, I return to Poker Heaven with a $500 starting stack. Home sweet home. Today that's just shy of $1,500 after almost exactly 24hours. One guy paid me off when I held a set of 7's which turned into quad 7 on the river. He had top and bottom pair but was happy to push his $250 stack into the middle. That might sound like I'm slagging him off.... and I suppose to some extent I am, however, I think I played the hand beautifully as I slow played my set (somewhat dangerously) into a flushy looking board. My calls probably looked like a flush chase to my opponent and to his credit he tried to make it expensive for me. Little did he know *I* was the one with the made hand. The river just rubbed a little salt in for him.

That's exactly two months since I began my Poker Chart. A nice round 70 sessions have produced almost $13,000 from the cash tables. I am negative for tournaments, though. I haven't kept tournament records, but I know that despite a few cashes and some nice STT wins, I'm down for tournament play online, somewhere between $700 and $1200 from the last two months. This is worrying. I used to be a good solid tourney player, I still am in STT to some extent, but MTTs are killing me, especially re-buys. I'm going to plug this gap though. In the next two months I am determined to pick up some B&M results and win an MTT online or B&M. God knows if it kills me trying, I WILL do that.

I hope you all had a good February. If my cash game stays strong I could be nudging $20k by the time we reach April.

No losses for a month

2006-02-20T06:18:00.000-08:00

I'm having trouble uploading the poker charts screenshot. However, I'm showing a 24 session winning streak over 30 days right now. Alright, I haven't played a lot for the last week or so but even so it's been a hell of a run.

I'm allowed to play 20% of my games away from Poker Heaven, so I've been playing a little on Betfair and, today at least, on the newly launched ADVFN Poker. There are a couple of financial sites that are jumping on the bandwagon. In my opinion they will never take off unless they devote a large amount of money to advertising. I'm sure they will tick over for a nice profit but the poker ship has already sailed and, sorry boys, a 50 quid bonus doesn't cut it today.

ADVFN Poker had a whole 130 players on today, eventually I found a game at $3/$6 NLHE. Dario Aiolito (spelling!) who finished 7th at the Barcelona EPT was in the game. As was some other crazy guy who was raising too much. Dario is a good player, for an Italian ;-) His friend, was very aggressive but easy to trap. Others came and went but we were the main three for 2 hrs and 30 mins.

I turned the $600 sit down into $1760 and left. A little confidence booster to take a few hundred from an EPT finalist, but most of the gain came from the other guy.

Brighton was terrible for me. I was sick for two days prior to the event and almost never went.

Read more about it on: http://www.paulsandellspoker.com
You can also get rake back at Poker Heaven on there and read my official Poker Heaven blog.

Cardiff

2006-02-07T04:00:00.000-08:00

It's been a typical few days really. I went to Cardiff, thought I was running well, played good patient poker for 4 hours and crashed out. No big deal, the field was very tough and I can't expect to cash in every tournament. I think if I can cash once in every four or five then I'll be quite pleased. I'd like to win at least one tournament from my Poker Heaven schedule in this quarter.

Cardiff was ok, nothing special really. An open plan casino, handful of machines and tables, couple of bars, etc.

What is typical about the last few days is my online form post-festival. If you read through my blog you'll see after an offline tournament I nearly always beat up the online tables. Yesterday was no different. I had three sessions over 1hr 45mins... hardly tasking, but I came out well ahead. I'm now certain that offline tournaments sharpen my game, that I focus more when I return and that there is very little to fear from bleedawaymychipsopolus after playing the toughest in Britain and Europe.

So, my poker chart is up to $8,300. 20% of the target is now in sight. It's been a great start to the year for me.

I've got rake back to give away at Poker Heaven still. I just don't understand why players insist on staying in cash games on very tough sites. Why play cash games on Stars, Crypto and Paradise and get 0% rake back vrs tough opponents?

Boss media, where Poker Heaven have their tables, is swimming with the good stuff, yet players get all snobby about layouts and stats and colours and all that crap. Who cares!? Play for money, not cosmetics!

Join Poker Heaven from my main site below:
http://www.paulsandellspoker.com
Then email me for a rake back deal.

Alternatively give all your rake to the toughest poker rooms on the net.

The Independent

2006-01-30T00:47:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-27T08:26:00.000-08:00

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.