:(

Hi Everybody!

Here I'am playing the early doubles + a $5r at doyles. And there is only thing in my mind: I want them all! I want them all! I want them all! and I want then now!! Man, I love this game so much that I want to make a living from this. I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me but, hey! is my life, not theirs! Of course I wont quit my job if I cant pay my bills but I'm working really, really hard to make this possible.

Good days will come, bad days will come more frequently. The key is being able to get through all the thinks that make me lose my focus and take the way of the passion, the study, the work and the extremely important and never enough valued patience.

If do all the correct things I hope to reach the goal someday. My biggest whish is someday means a near future :)

That's all for today. GL at the tables and see you soon.

Hi everybody,
Here is again the whinest blogger ever. I have to be true to you, I like to make whining post because they bring me good luck. But nobody would read a blog which all post are complaining about my bad luck, and now in addition, would be false. Why I say this? Because I've got a impressive begining of the month. I deposited $100 in Doyle's a week ago and now I'm in $500. What I like the most of this site is:
- The field size: I've played 4 tournaments and none of them were bigger than 200 entrants.
- The field skill: Ok, I'm a newbie, I'm playing micro/low stakes but I played the $10R and never felt out of place. Of course I've made a lot of (really expensive) mistakes but I can plug them only by not calling/folding cbet with less than 20BB and some spewy leaks alike. Never felt pressure or was lost in a hand and I love it.
So now I want to rebuild my roll in UB because after my 3rd place few days ago I haven't got into the money and it's looking like a small downswing. Also I want play more frequently in Doyle's and Full Tilt were I'm losing a few bucks in MTT but breaking even in HUSNG.
I'm serious about this and I'm going to prove it. Oh! and I almost forget to say one thing about P5 rankings. I never knew that only counts for the rank the top 40 of your results and only 24 from one room. That's was unfair! Now that I play in 3 poker rooms I think I'll be able to reach the 600 PLBp(oints) before the 6 months headline (January 31st), so I'll keep in touch. Till then good luck at the tables.

See you soon.

Barcelona 5 - 0 Real Madrid. No comment.

Hi everybody.

As you can see I'm not very inspired this days. This is because things doesn't work as good as I like. I haven't played a lot during the past week because my Virtualized XP died and took with him all my poker clients, my databases and my skype plus some other unpleasant issues. Now I'm in linux but even with wine is quite difficult to play poker confortably. In the few time I've played I can't complaint: made the money like 60%-70% of the times, but never a big score (12th the best). I'm sad because I had very good stats till november, winning a tourney every month but... :( I've been unable to keep the pace on this one.
Apart from this, there're no more interesting things to say. I will come to you when I feel my motivation grow up again because right now I feel a little down.


GL at the tables and see you soon

Hi everybody,

Here's me (and my frustation) again. It's been a few weeks since my last post. There's not been a lot of news since then. Well, there's not been GOOD news in fact. The only thing I can say is that I've got the "Loser Mode" on. I know I'm far from being a pro. I'm not as good as I wish I were but, even when I play my best poker, seems I can't get to end.

I know that, to overcome downswings and variance, I have to increase my volume but I can't play more than 2 or 3 MTTs a day, and not everyday, so downswings can take a lot to overcome.

I always say that all the players that fill the chat with comments where blame and curse other players for their loses/bad luck actually doesn't understand poker reality. Coolers and bad beats are gonna be there always. If you are 9:1 favourite this 10% will happen sooner or later. But, what really hurt, is that the 9 always happen in the rebuy period and the 1 in the bubble. If you add that AA<<QQ, AA<<KJ, KK<<J8, etc. and the times you get AJ but he has AA, KK vs AA, AQ vs AA and so on and so forth you start loosing your faith. And if at last your virual OS crashes and you can't recover your files and have to play without HUD or any other software plus a very slow client you probably end up tired and riled of everything.

But hey! Nobody wants to hear pitys and complaints, lets back to the (virtual) felt and let me show that all the time, the work, the effort and the money that I'm putting into poker will allow me fulfill my dreams and become an awesome poker pro.

Have a good time and good luck at the tables.

Hi everybody!

I'm really happy of being writing this post. That's because after being a few weeks only whining because was unable to make a deep run yesterday finished a nice comeback. I have to say is nothing spectacular but to me is the confidence booster that I need.

Last thursday I was eliminated 100th of 200 players in a live tournament. The reason why I'm disapointed is because all the players of my table was really weak. When I was trying to talk deeply about a hand they say: "meh! forget stack sizes", "play as you want" or "no, I don't study". But after that change happened.

Friday didn't play and Saturday I registered in a few stars tournaments. In one of them ($2.5 12K GTD) I made my deepest run ever. We started 7722 players and busted 35th (AQs << AA). The bad thing of this is the frustration you feel after been playing 7 hours to see you barely get $30 more than the 1170th and $2900 less than the 1st. After all I'm happy with my overall game, but still have a lot hands to review because leaks are there and must be swept out before going up in the stakes.

Monday played my favourite tourney: $3R in UB. This tournament is awesome. I like it because is not the massive field that plays in pokerstars (300 vs 7000) and because players are mostly weak and "easy" to beat. After getting my PT3 working, I realized they are pretty loose and passive. Is easy to find players with a sample of 100+ hands playing 45/9, 36/11, 28/2, etc. So is a +EV tournament. That being said, monday I finished 19th. I was the chipleader when the bubble busted but after 4 awful hands I ended playing shortstack till end.

But yesterday was a good day. Yesterday I won the $3R in UB (again). After 6 hours playing, taking 20 min for a dinner lunch and another 20 because my PC hung I took it. There were a few hands I'd like to discuss and a pair of suckouts but, hey!, that's poker.

So, in short. I think although I have to keep working really hard, it seems thing are going in the right way.

GL at the tables and see you soon.

Hi there,

I'm back and trying to make it work for me. As you know I've been in a down both in my mind and in my game. Seems that my game is slowly going up again, but this is not enough if my mind doesn't come along. Yesterday I played a bunch of tournaments and made the money on 3. I finished 150/6500 in a $12.5K GTD that, altough there was not big prize, boosted my confidence because never got so far in such a big field. Also finished 23/300 and other ITM finish that don't remember exact position in my usual UB tournies. I'm glad that I'm winning again because thursday I'm going to a live tourney again (I know, I know I promised a post dealing with live play vs online but, in addition that I haven't had the mood for writing, if I play the tournament from the begining I'm sure I will make a more accurate read (and review).

From study point of view I've taken back the right way. I'm posting again in Pokerpwnage forums, I find useful to read the opinions of others players that give me new ideas and show me which spots could I use to improve. I'm also working in the stuff my new coach suggested to. Watching vids, reading articles and reviewing tournaments with a critic eye is something I've forgot during this month and I'm on again. One thing I'd like to remark is something that happened during my first coaching session: My coach asked me what my ultimate poker dream was. Man, I was never asked something like that and didn't throw me away of my answer, he told me that fulfilling a dream si hard and takes tons of hard work but, if I put the effort and hours, is not impossible. These are very kind words and help to find I light when you find yourself in the dark. I'm gonna study, I'm gonna work and I'm gonna go for it.
Whish me luck for my next tourney and see you soon.

GL at the tables.

PS: I finally found the flat I was looking for and I'm a proud brand new owner. So no more banks, mortage, furniture and related issues. Hope to have the time to play poker now

Hi everybody,

Yesterday I played 2 tournaments and I finished both out of the money. I know that everybody gets bad beats and that, if can't stand beats you can't play poker, but I need to release this feelings. I've been the whole month in the same way and I'm pretty frustrated because of that.

(Imported from my PocketFives Blog)

Hi guys!

How you doing? Hope that at least better than me because I'm having an awful month. I haven't played a lot and (big mistake!!) I haven't respected the BR management rules. I took my BR from $80 to $1K and then started to spew it playing $25 and $15 MTT that I'm not ready (BR and game) yet. If we add losing every flip and few Way Ahead situations and almost $200 in cash you got my BR now, barely $200.

All that said we go outside poker. Have been a complicated week, I'm on the way to buy a house (well, a flat) and had to face some embarrasement moments with my parents and girlfriend and I piggyback all that sh*t with me when sit at the tables. Is because of this situation that I haven't played all the tournies I'd have liked because I'm not actually in the correct mood.

After setting up the background i explain the title of the post. I'm anxious (poker related), I haven't make a score for a few tournaments. I know that playing MTT can take you to a long swing without scores, if you play 10 MTT/Day you can be a week losing, but playing 2-3 MTT/Day this is like a month and is Frustrating. To finish with this situation or, at least, to realize where I am at this point I've watched the new GhettoFabolous video. I got to say is a great, great video. I really liked it and I'm waiting for the next part to come. If you want an inmediate solution for your problems (if you have them) change your chip, you wont find a switch that will turn the "easy way of life mode" on. Instead of that you will find a lot of issues that maybe affecting your game and you should fix.

I'm gonna take some time off the tables, I'm going to study hard the theory and the videos that I have, gonna review the tournies I played to find my leaks and plug them and I'm going to take care of all the issues GhettoFabolous addressed to become the best poker player that I can be.

Good Luck at the tables and see you soon! 

(Imported from my PocketFives Blog)

Hi everybody,

This post was suppoused to be one about the first tournament I played live but, after a long long time writing, my pc hung and had to reboot losing all the text wrote. So I'll let the live play for other day and gonna do a September recap.

The month started out right, I won my first MTT ever, but after that I've had only bad news. I haven´t played a lot this month due to my girlfriend coming to Madrid. We were looking for a flat to buy and searching and doing all the bank related stuff, plus some parties, took most of my time so I set poker aside. (Note: My girlfriend coming and so is not a bad new, the bad beats come after she left and I resumed playing)

This take me to the last 7-10 days of September. During this ~week I have played 2-3 tournies/day average and I have had the worst days of my short poker career. AA vs whatever I lost, if AK vs Ax the x coming, and all that kind of bad beats that you all know. I dont want to make this a whining post because we know this is poker and we have to deal with bad beats and cooler so I say this because what hurt me the most was the time they happened: Bubble time!. If were paid x player I finished: 108/120, 27/39, 27/44, 63/70 and so on and so forth. So my question is, does it worth making a move when you sit on 25bb(+-5) and close to the bubble? Well, I guess the answer is YES! we are playing to win the tournament not to min cash, but after all that tries it would help my confidence if I could at least make an itm finish.

Also, would be nice to finish in the money because it helps me with my PLB challenge. If I want to be the top Madrileñan player I have to add here and there and make at least 150-200 PLB points/month.

After all is said and done I hope to see you again in next post where I probably talk about the differences between live and online play (at least in Madrid).

Good Luck and see you soon.

(Imported from my PocketFive's Blog)

Hi everybody!

I'm really happy today, I've won my first tourney. It's not been a "big" thing: $3 Rebuy, ~200 players and 6 hours of play but... Hey! is the best I've ever done!. It feels even better after a hard begining of the month. I haven't played a lot of tournaments since september the 1st but man those I played were awful. I know that bad beats and cooler are in the game and one of my goals is to learn to deal with them so this time, instead of playing like a drunk monkey (well that's my usual way of playing XD) i decided to relax a bit, slow down the pace and take a small break. I watched some videos and review the fundamentals to be sure I was on the right way.

If you ever consider my opinion regarding joining a poker training site I will tell you that is definitively worth the money if you are going to spend the time required to study the game. Maybe you've been born for playing poker and don't need to watch the video while you are multitabling 8 MTT to get the most out of it but if that's just not the case (like me), study them, take notes and watch them again if you actually get it and you will extract a lot of value.

The last point is about PLB. I begun #16 in Madrid, one month later I'm #9 and just 100 points behind #8. I hope to keep this pace the whole year so I can finish in the top 3.

I wish you all have good luck at the tables (unless you play against me ;)).

Bye 

(Imported from my Pocketfive's Blog)

Well, as said in the title: Hi there!!

I'm starting a blog to try to track my development as a poker player. First thing I'm going to do is introduce myself. I'm Charlie and I've been playing poker for fun for a year or so.I deposited some money in UB back in February and started playing cash but I was a king size fish and lost it before you can say "Chumbawamba". Also made a deposit in Victory Poker because I read something about it in The Maven forums but, after a good month where i finished almost $500 up, and due to personal issues I quit playing there. After that I took some time off the tables, joined some poker training sites and a skype poker group. Then this August I decided to give a second chance to my poker skills but, instead of cash, I'd try MTT where i found myself more comfortable. I deposited $100 again and this time things has been the other way.

Now I feel that I have a small edge in tournament poker. I dont know if I feel this because Cereus fields are really weak or because tourneys entrants are not ~ 4k players on average but 400, so is less difficult to get good results. But after one month playing there I can't be more happy, $1300 gross winnings and $800 net. You can say this is not much but for a begginer like me is enough.

I've read in lot of books that I should set some (achievable) goals to measure my poker evolution and this goals shouldn't be money dependat/results oriented. I understand the reasons behind this statement but deep in my soul I can't avoid this completely. I'm a very competitive person and the most accurate method I have to measure my succes is to compare it with the results of other succesful players. So, although I know is not as good as this should be here goes my goals:

- Stay calm when bad beats comes: Sometimes when I'm playing I'm bad beaten/coolered and then I become a spewy monkey in "fuck up" mode where I make no sense moves to release my frustration. Bad beats are part of the game and as this I have to take them so I'm gonna try to do this every time I'm coolered: Deep breath + Move on.

- Stay Focused in the game: A lot of times when I'm playing I'm browsing the internet or chatting in skype or something like that. From now on I'm gonna try to put 100% of my attention on the tables so I can study opponents and take notes.

- (After a year) Become Top 3 ranked "Madrileñan" Player: As stated before I know I shouldn't do this but I like the challenges and I'm going for it. I made some calcs and I think I need between 100-150 PLB points/mont to achieve this goal. This mont I made ~ 140 so it doesn't seems out of reach.

Ok, this has been my first lines here. I hope to have a lot more to say soon. Till then good luck at the tables.

Bye