So.. Where do I start..

Well, i'm a british guy learning poker.. I've been playing a little over 2 years now and have fallen head over heels in love with the game.

I love the competition, the strategy, the math, the people, and the idea of making serious, (life changing?) money!

So how did i start?..

I've always liked the idea of poker but never played until my wife was pregnant with our son.

She would go to bed early from being tired and i stumbled on skypoker on the tv.. turned my 1st £10 deposit into £50 then lost it all!

Then i joined a weekly live poker league with a friend - came 3rd out of 30 and cashed on my first visit, after that played every tuesday without fail with decent results.

Then i got online... Joined Partypoker! Great. Joined Pokerstars! Even better - great software - joined Full Tilt - higher min deposits - Still great!

Then i thought - Hold on, i should learn how to play..

I get some books - Harrington, Hansen, Slansky, Chen, Rizen, Pearljammer etc.. started reading up articles on pocketfives, bluefire and 2plus2 and started the long journey of learning poker.

Over the lasty few months i've visted my local casino - cashed 2 out of 3 visits in a £60 buyin for a tidy profit and been making regular bits of money in local live cashgames.

Online tournaments going well too - won a $2 rebuy on FT for $600, and came fourth for $3k in the $59 super turbo on FT..

So i'm thinkin' this is all good.. lets keep it going! Then i get introduced to a friend of a friends girlfriend who plays cash and does well who offers to coach me.

Now all of a sudden the idea of poker has taken on a whole new seriousness.. I've decided to take up the offer of coaching (for 25% of my winnings) becuase the results this guy has posted are sick, and i think it will be interesting whatever.

Going to meet him at the weekend and play a £100 live deepstack (£20k guarunteed) tournament while i'm at it, so have decided to write a blog about the experience of playing this tournament and being coached..

Hopefully it will be a positive one, my game will improve and i'll make lots of cash! We will see...

20/11/2009

Not been a bad week of poker so far.. Played in the pub Tuesday - busted out of the tourney after playing KJ too slow and getting out-drawn but then turned £20 into £50 on the cash table. Once hand bugged me.

4 people limped, i checked 87o in the BB. Flop 8-7-10 2 diamonds - I bet £10 - Katie pushes all in for £47. Everyone else folds and i had a tough decision.. Just had a feeling that she had the made straight and i was drawing thin so eventually folded what i later found out to be the best hand - she had k10.. Oh well still £22 up on what i went into the pub with and had a few drinks! Put the £22 profit for the night straight into my car.

Didn't play Wed - went to the gym and then chilled with wifey.

Last night made final table of the £26 knockout on Full tilt - cashed for $600 and made $50 in knockouts - Mixed feelings at the end as i could have made at least 5th or 6th for $1500+ but still happy to make $600 for 6 hours fun!

Will be buying me seat in the Nottingham deep stack tonight for Sunday and meeting my mentor.. Wont play before that really - just relax and get well rested and prepared..

23/11/2009

Well the tournament didn't go too well...managed to work up to £14k chips at level 4 after.. picked up some good hands but never got maximum value from them unfortunately which was frustrating but I was being patient, picking my spots and playing well.

5 minutes before the 1st break i picked up AQ clubs in the small blind, blinds were 100/200, a loose player raised from under the gun to 600. I called and the big blind completed. The flop came 10h, Qd, Qh. I thought finally, this is my chance to pick up some chips.. I checked for deceptive value, was delighted when the initial raiser bet 800 and raised him to 3000. He thought for a minute and called.
The next card was the Jack of diamonds. Not a good card for me and the villain intantly pushed all in and had me covered.

After getting up early, a 2 hour drive, 2 hour online session, then 2 hours play i wasnt thinking as clearly as i should have been and stupidly called for all my chips, not realising that i should not be risking my tournament when all i could beat was a bluff..

If i'd have thought it through properly i'd understand he could never make that move unless he had me beat. I'd been playing pretty tight, shown significant strength in the hand, and i was beaten by AK, JJ, 1010, QJ, or Q10, all of which were in his range.

I made the crying call, he showed JJ for the full house and i got not Ace, 10 or Queen on the River.

I then went to see my mentor to get some advice. I saw how he played for a few hours. I watched him 4 table at lower limit cash he play HU/NL10/20 for an hour, finishing up $6k in profit.

Then went back to the venue to play the £25 Freezeout in which i didnt pick a decent hand, played pretty bad and got knocked out just after the 1st break. One of the few times i did get a hand i got sucked out on when my A8 hit a flop of A 5 8 and got called for nearly all my chips by AK only for him to hit the King on the turn.

Had a 3 hour drive home in the dark feeling pretty gutted about not doing better in the tourney's. I know i can play the game but still improving and i know i didnt play as well as i could have done. Hopefully the cash tables will work out to be a good move.
My tournament record has been good and in some ways i'm not sure why i'm moving away from this when it was starting to work out well..I'll still play tournaments online but will take a shot at the ring games in 2010 and see how it works out.
If it doesnt prove profitable i'll probably stick to tournaments.

From what i've experienced so far i think a major part of success here will be discipline / not tilting, and playing solid poker.

Will update once i'm doing well!