The Shark....

First up is an apology for the lack of posts this past fortnight but a few other projects have taken up all my spare time.

With the desk now clear it's time once again to start my WSOP Quest.

Obviously though, even with my recent heavy workload and what with me being a complete Poker Addict this hasn't stopped me playing a few games here and there, usually in the early hours of the morning while the missus is snoring her head off.

And on the whole the poker's generally being going well and my Sharkscope graph is heading in the right direction, i.e. upwards, although I really need to start playing more games to make the kind of money I need for Vegas. Oh and Sharkscope awarded me a picture of a Shark next to my name which has got to be good, well it's better than a Fish!

I'm on course to make about $1000 for this month but with only another 4 months to go I need to be doubling that figure to stand any chance of succeeding in winning a World Series Seat.

So I've drawn up a 5 point battle plan for the next 6 weeks to see if I can get to $4000 before the end of March.

1) I've got to put more hours in. Currently I am averaging about $16 an hour but I've only managed to squeeze in about 45-50 hours of play in 3 weeks. It looks like it's going to have to be less watching Coronation Street and taking the missus out and more playing poker. Which the more I think about it sounds like a win-win situation.

2) I'm going to start Multi-Tabling. By this I mean playing 4 tables at the same time. This should increase the amount I win but unfortunately it won't be by four times the norm as the more tables you play the less chance you get to observe other players betting habits etc. and the more chance there is of making a mistake. Given how many I usually make playing 4 tables at once means a LOT of mistakes! and 4 times the number of bad beats.

3) No more tilting! I have a confession to make. During a particularly bad run of cards which saw me play umpteen games without making the money, I upped the stakes and played a few games above my usual level. The inevitable happened and I lost a fair chunk of my bankroll which, thankfully, I have since won back.

4) No playing above my skill level! See number 3

5) Step up a level. Which may sound a bit contradictory following the last two parts of my battleplan but what I am planning to do is a gradual increase in the buy-in and only when my bankroll can take it. I am currently playing at the $16 buy-in level and when (if) I get my roll up to $2500 I will start playing the $27 buy-in games. After that we'll see how we get on....

You can see my latest results here;

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pr2ePJ7sxXb8OQA84amVoDA&hl=en

And check out my Sharkscope stats here; http://www.sharkscope.com/

My username is 4kingaceblog and I play on Pokerstars

Right, back to the virtual felt,

Gavin.

Satellite with a twist....

Day 5.

I had a bit of a set back towards the start of the week when poker variance reared it's ugly head and took a big bite out of my previous profits. I clawed some of it back with a single game last night and now have moved back to the +$200 mark.

My up-to-date figures are available here;

Gavin's Poker Spreadsheet Results

Sticking to my tried and trusted way of playing these Turbo games has it's ups and downs but I'm hoping that over the months it will be more of the former and less of the latter. Only time will tell just how good my methods are.

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I also played in a new and slightly different Satellite last night for the Grosvenor Poker Tour. It was a single table 10 seater affair with a twist. Though the winner got a seat in the Walsall leg of the tour he would only be playing for 50% of any prizemoney on offer. The other 50% of prizemoney, and here's the twist, went to the other 9 competitors. 10% to the runner up and 5% for the remaining 8 players.

This meant that even though I crashed out in 4th place (when the eventual winner called my KQ allin move with KJ and saw a flop of JJA) I now have a 5% share in someone playing in the tournament. I have no idea how good the gentleman is or what he looks like but I will be wishing him all the luck in the world when he takes part in this leg of the GUKPT. If he has luck anywhere near what he experienced last night then I'm sure he'll go pretty deep......

5% of 1st Prize would certainly boost my Vegas fund.

You can play too in these satellites which are exclusive to Blue Square Poker and go under the title of Extra Bite Satellites. They run 4 times a week and you can read all about it here;

Blue Square Poker


Back to the virtual felt, I've got work to do.
Gavin.

Shuffle up and deal....

It's that time of the year when, with work finally behind me, I start to dream of the glittering neon lights of Las Vegas in July. I know it's a long way off and I know I've only just got back from Sin City but I love the place and the thought of playing in the World Series of Poker again just gets me all excited.

In what other activity or sport are you able to pay your money and take your chance against the World's greatest players?
It's not possible to pay an entry fee and participate in The Open playing alongside Tiger Woods et al. It takes years of dedication not to mention amazing talent with a golf club to enter that particular tournament and at 40 years of age I don't think that's now going to be an option for me.

You can't just turn up in June at SW19 and start knocking a few tennis balls with Roger Federer.

How about paying your money and taking your chance alongside Rooney, Giggs and Ronaldo in the FA Cup? I don't think so.

But come July you just pay the entry fee and hey-presto you've got the chance to sit next to and play Doyle Brunson, Phil Helmuth, Daniel Negranu, Howard Lederer, Amarillo Slim and all the other great names. Not only do you get to play against them with a bit of luck you get the chance to knock them out of the tournament (no amount of luck is going to help you beat Roger Federer at tennis!). That's going to provide you with a story to tell and re-tell down the pub for years to come.

Did I tell you about the time I knocked Willie Tann out of a tournament? It was during the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour and while I'd love to say that I played some amazing poker and trapped him on the river with some great slow play the truth is a little less glamourous, I had Aces in the big blind and he was unlucky enough to have Kings. All the money went in pre-flop and my rockets held up. Nice guy too, he took it as well as can be expected!

Anyway I digress. The WSOP is the dream and this Blog will chart my attempts to be there in July, $10,000 clasped in my grubby little paws. Let battle commence.....

In fact I've made a start already. Going under the guise of 4KingAceBlog on Pokerstars I began my quest on Friday night with a few £16 2 table turbo's and made an encouraging start with a profit of $213. Not bad for 3 hours 'work'. I managed to squeeze in a couple of turbo's last night while the missus was fast asleep and added another $49 to the fighting fund.

You can see all my stats, figures, ROI and running total on this spreadsheet which will be updated everytime I play;

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pr2ePJ7sxXb8OQA84amVoDA

You can also track my results on Sharkscope by clicking Search Database, typing in the username 4KingAceBlog and selecting the Pokerstars site. This is an independent poker result tracking site and I'll be doing a feature on it later in my posts.

http://www.sharkscope.com/

I also tried to win a seat for the next leg of the Grosvenor Poker Tour last night but got knocked out in 4th (first two got a seat). I got my money back as the 4th place prize and will try again Wednesday. These tournies are on Blue Square and for this site I play as SuperGavin....

Okay back to the virtual felt to try and rack up some more $

Gavin.