About time I started a Diary....

jordz16

I have been meaning to do this for a while but for one reason or another I have put it off, I decided to start a diary mainly to keep myself on track and hopefully to pick up a bit of help on the way. First of all I will start with a bit about myself.... I am 21 and have been playing poker for 2 years, the first year it was just learning the game and playing purely for a socialable experience, I slowly realised i was doing ok and breaking even most months, it was when I first took down a tournament for a few hundred quid that i decided maybe I should take this more seriously. for the last 12 months i have still been playing socially but i have taken time to work on my game and started trying to make my poker as profitable as possible.. right now in my life I have been working in I.T doing web design and computer/laptop repairs etc and have been very lucky that i have been able to pretty much choose my hours so that I have been able to put poker first. For the next 12 months I have decided to have a stab at going full time. I still live at home so Its fairly cheap for me to live and I have some money already behind me in case it all goes wrong. in this 12 months i still may do the odd days work here and there purely to keep me busy and get me out of the house for a bit but im going to try and rely on poker to pay my wages...

I am mainly a tournament player and thats where I will be spending most of my time. I play about 80% of my poker on sky but sometimes drift a way for a week or so when i feel there are better games elsewhere. Il keep this diary purely sky related and il only track my progress i make on here. I will be starting with a BR of £2000 and will be basically playing all the different tournaments that run on sky. in the day I may play some cash games and some heads up as well but i still have a lot to work on before im happy with my heads up or cash game. Il update this thread every sunday night with regards to whether i am up or down for the week, i may post some hands in here intimittenly as well as any big losses or big wins i may have... I hope to get some good advice from anyone willing to read my thread and from now on I will try to remain a more regular member of the forum.

Jordan. 

RyanC7

GL Jordz will follow with interest.

hhyftrftdr

I know you've had some good recent results, so good luck to you bud.

You're in a good position to have a go at it (young, at home etc etc), so fair play for giving it a crack.

It won't be easy mind. And a 2k roll could soon dwindle bearing in mind MTT variance. However, if you never try you never know....

All the best!

liamboi11

I will follow with interest I like reading all the diaries even though don`t post in them much.

best of luck in the next 12 months played with you a few times and you have a good solid game so i`m sure you will do fine.

1267

Cool.  Best of luck .

If i was you though, i would personally keep doing some work during days(maybe not everyday)  and just play tournes 6pm -1am    Prime time.

jordz16

Thanks guys, will be playing the main and mini tonight and hope to get off to a good start

jordz16

Half decent start, came 43rd in the main for £254 and made my money back in the mini

a00rock

Wish I was your age again and in your position cant think of anything better to have a go at so the best of luck to you. You have a difficult task ahead of you tournaments are high variance as you will well know but when things are not going well just think on how lucky you are to be in a position to have a go at this and if you can make a decent living at this.. what a life aye!

Be lucky Jordan.

Ray

Tikay10

Good start Jordz, you seem to have your feet on the ground, too.

SUBSCRIBED

churchy18

all the best .. will keep having a look

jordz16

Decent start so far managed to grind my 2k up to just under 2.4 with a decent chunk of that coming from Sundays main event as well as a semi-decent cash in last nights main... I had a day off on Monday as i sometimes do as i was completely drained from an entire week of UKOPS where I pretty much broke even. Something i know i am going to have to implament soon is my ability to maintain focus when multi-tabling and to lose as little edge as possible, right now i feel like 4 tables is my limit and anything more than that i feel like im becoming a losing player whether thats true or not. I have just invested in a new laptop and a specially designed office chair (I have suffered back problems since my early teens) and im hoping that will give me the platform to comfortably play longer sessions. anyway il update this at the end of the week with a list of my results

So far

started with £2,000

Currently at £2371

I havent set myself a proper target yet, i will decide one soon and then start it from next year.. im thinking £15,000 net profit would be do-able 

Lambert180

Keep seeing this thread and finally got round to looking at it now!

Good luck Jordz!

It's gonna be VERY tough making a living from just MTTs on Sky because there just aren't enough good ones for you to be 6+tabling for hours on end.

jordz16

Cheers lambert, I do play on other sites also and will continue to do so i just wont be recording my results from them on here, I'm in a fortunate position where this will just be a 1 year challenge for me to see if i am able to make a living from poker, if i dont make enough money in the next year then it will just be back to the day job with poker as a hobby..... i will be looking to improve my cash game at some point too so once im happy with it i  will no doubt see you on the tables.

jordz16

Thought id put in a quick update... I seem to either be crashing out in the very early stages or just getting a min cash both of which is pretty frustrating but after looking back over hands it seems im either getting coolered or losing a flip late on... im fully aware things balance themself out in the long term so im happy with my tournament game at the minute. i just had a decent cash in the main and im currently in the 4k BH so could still be a good day for me... Im going to start posting some hands up soon most likely from cash games as thats when i seem to find myself in spots when i literally have no idea what i should be doing but i havent sat down at the cash tables this weekend il more than likely give them a spin this weekend.

Started with £2,000

Currently at £2,592

jordz16

This is my first weekly update... Unfortunately its been pretty boring I have had no big wins but at the same time i dont have anything to moan about either, right now it seems to be as if im destined to min cash every tournament i play. I always have a decent stack around the bubble and try to abuse the bubble best as possible and then tighten back up when it bursts.. but it seems after the bubble i always seem to find a way of dropping chips and therefore i feel like im chasing the game, this may just be variance or it may be that at that stage im purely up against better players.. whichever it is thats what im gonna be looking to improve on over the next week...

In summary It has been a good week and topped off well by a 6th place cash in the primo just now, although i definitely donked a fair bit of money on fri/sat even though i was sober.

Started with £2,000

End of week 1 £3,350

Tikay10

£1,350 profit in Week One?

Happy Days!

Well done you.

Glenelg

Another follower... & good luck!

gazza127

In Response to Re: About time I started a Diary....:

This is my first weekly update... Unfortunately its been pretty boring I have had no big wins but at the same time i dont have anything to moan about either, right now it seems to be as if im destined to min cash every tournament i play. I always have a decent stack around the bubble and try to abuse the bubble best as possible and then tighten back up when it bursts.. but it seems after the bubble i always seem to find a way of dropping chips and therefore i feel like im chasing the game, this may just be variance or it may be that at that stage im purely up against better players.. whichever it is thats what im gonna be looking to improve on over the next week... In summary It has been a good week and topped off well by a 6th place cash in the primo just now, although i definitely donked a fair bit of money on fri/sat even though i was sober. Started with £2,000 End of week 1 £3,350
Posted by jordz16

Sigh.  If this is a boring week with no big wins I shudder to think what you think a good week is.

Reading this with interest.  Good luck

jordz16

In Response to Re: About time I started a Diary....:

In Response to Re: About time I started a Diary.... : Sigh.  If this is a boring week with no big wins I shudder to think what you think a good week is. Reading this with interest.  Good luck
Posted by gazza127

I made £900 of that profit on the sunday so of course i was over the moon with that but before that i had 6 relatively frustrating days where i felt i was playing well just not getting luck where it mattered, however strange it sounds i find it far more frustrating finishing just short of the final table than i do bubbling the money itself.

jordz16

I'm only at week 2 but I have alredy come across a familiar problem I have, loss of focus!!! I celebrated my 22nd Birthday on Wednesday and I had allowed for 24hours away from poker, although it pretty much affected about 4 days where i had no time to play a proper session and if I did have time, then I was probably hungover!!! 

Results wise I took down a couple of the 11/22 day time BH's which at least kept me on track as I think I only min cashed one main event out of the 4 I played. When i checked my ccount Sunday morning i was at around £100 profit for the week somehow, I was happy with that and I planned to grind all day with Sunday being My favourite day to play.. Then I hit another problem... about 9/10 o'clock the week caught up with me and I had a terrible headache that i just couldnt concentrate and therefore donked myself out about £150's worth of tournies in quick succession which pretty much ruined my week. I'm not going to be to downbeat as I'm aware of all the factors that led to this weeks loss and providing I get the poker bug back and can stay focuesd I believe in my ability to replicate week 1's results this week.

Started with £2,000

End of week 1 £3,350

End of week 2 £3,258

jordz16

The main reason I havent updated this in a while is because there has been little to update, If I am completely honest I havent been enjoying my poker as much and I think that has been showing in my results.. over the past 10 days Ive dwindled my chips away in nearly every tournament I played, I had one good result in winning the £55 speed BH for 700 quid and that just got me back into a profit. 

The one thing I would like feedback on is what advice do you have for keeping yourself focused and playing optimally when you really arent enjoying it that much?? 

Started with £2,000

End of week 1 £3,350

End of week 2 £3,258

End of week 3 £3,344

chicknMelt

what sort of volume are you putting in?

when I get a bit fed up I just take a day or 2 off, by then I cant wait to play again usually...

jordz16

I Normally play 7-12/1 5 days a week, and sometimes a few hours in the day if im in the mood for poker, and normally between 2/4 tables at a time.. i normally take a few days off and then i do get the bug back and start enjoying it again, but sometimes il hit 10/11 at night and be running deep in a few tournies and find myself switching off and becoming disintrested or distracted, thats what im trying to overcome.

chicknMelt

Ah, I see, yeah I have that problem sometimes, especially if it hasn't gone well in a couple! 

Have u tried increasing your tables to say 6? I find if I'm constantly having to think I don't get distracted as easil...

chicknMelt

...or play cash/ SNG's

IDONKCALLU

doing well jords on a heater welldone

Glenelg

In Response to Re: About time I started a Diary....:

The main reason I havent updated this in a while is because there has been little to update, If I am completely honest I havent been enjoying my poker as much and I think that has been showing in my results.. over the past 10 days Ive dwindled my chips away in nearly every tournament I played, I had one good result in winning the £55 speed BH for 700 quid and that just got me back into a profit.  The one thing I would like feedback on is what advice do you have for keeping yourself focused and playing optimally when you really arent enjoying it that much??  Started with £2,000 End of week 1 £3,350 End of week 2 £3,258 End of week 3 £3,344
Posted by jordz16

SO in 3 x weeks you've made £1,344? Sigh ;-)   If you're NOT enjoying something you MUST stop doing it!  Take some time out, withdraw some cash, go away for a couple of days, come back refreshed..... Gl 

GELDY

FT in the main tonight - very nice

jordz16

Going to reopen my diary, i decided to give it up as i thought the time i spent updating this would have been better off playing poker... but i think that was a short sighted decision as lately i have became very lazy with my game, i'm going to reopen this and try and update it at least twice a week. I quick update on myself, my circumstances havent changed much, still mainly grinding mtts and have spread my money over a lot of sites, but for the next month im going to just concentrate on my sky account and see if i can get back on form with my results. I have been playing lots of cash and heads up sit n gos mainly because i want to broaden my game and i have made a small profit in both but definitely havent been crushing. I currently have 3,300 in my sky account and now im going to be soley playing mtts, with an occasional day time cash session. I will be playing the main event tonight and a few other tournaments too and il look to post up some interesting hands after.