zedveron
My Poker Blog
Not Good
It's been almost two weeks since my last blog update and a lot has happened. In my last post I was about even from when I had left my backer. A couple of days after that post, Full Tilt had it's licence revoked and stopped operating. Unfortunately I had around half of my bankroll on there. The latest news is that the site is being bought by investors and all monies will be refunded to everyone, including US players, and the site will begin operating again. That all sounds a bit too good to be true, so I guess we'll see what happens.
Coupled with this, I have gone on a bit of downswing, and everything seems like really hard work at the moment. I have still been messing around with cash games, and lost a few buy ins at $50NL before dropping down to $25NL, where I am a lot more comfortable and have been winning a little over the short sessions I have been playing at that level. Meanwhile I am trying to put in enough MTT volume on Stars and Party to make it worthwhile playing, and I have had to drop my buy in level after my bankroll has been cut in half and has also been shrinking with standard variance. Lower buy ins mean bigger fields, which once again means more variance, and even though I feel like I am playing as well as or better as I was during the last few weeks of winning a lot, I am struggling to put in a winning session.
Just now I final tabled the $11 $10k guarantee which was paying $2200 for first, and as I was saying to my friend zachjackdad on Skype, every pay jump was huge for me at the moment. Yet I managed to bust in 7th spot for around $270 after losing AQdd < JT on JXXdd flop for 90BB with 25 or so left, then I ground back up from 10 to 30bb before shoving BvB with 11 left and getting called by a really tight guy with 12bb and QTs (my Q8 failed to suck out). I had only shoved on him bvb once previously in quite a few orbits together so the mind really boggles at his call. Then at the FT with around 20bb I was kind of card dead and just watched as every short stack seemed to find amazing ways to get lucky and stay in the tournament, then I min raised KQo in MP with about 14bb, expecting to get a lot of respect because I hadn't raised a hand the whole FT (also expecting to get flatted a lot because the players at the table were awful, with around $3 abi), got shoved on by a 5BB stack with A6s (lol), had to call, and managed to lose the flip despite a Q44 flop. Then finally a few hands later I reshoved QQ, got called by A6 and lost to bust out.
So that finished my week in suitably depressing fashion, and now my bankroll is a grand total of around $800, which is not really enough to play with. To top things off we are really short of money in real life, my wife has had to cut back her work hours because she's been ill and we have had a wave of bills and car expenses etc over the last couple of weeks, so without me winning for a couple of weeks, we have next to nothing to live on right now, and yet our mortgage repayments, insurance costs etc etc are due every week without fail. As if this weren't bad enough, my wife's health is really poor at the moment and she is feeling terrible, basically in constant pain, and the doctors are not really able to help her, which is very frustrating. The stress of having no money and large expenses really isn't helping her. I did a couple of days of work for my father-in-law this week for some extra money, and it looks like I might have to get a full-time job so we can live. I'm not sure doing what, maybe stocking shelves at the supermarket or something.
At the start of today I made a thread applying for staking on two plus two. I'm yet to hear anything back, but with my results over the years I would be surprised if nobody is interested in staking me. At this stage I just want to play as high buy-ins as possible and as much volume as possible to try and make some fast money, so I'll be accepting whichever offer lets me play highest. I really feel like having played some cash games has me playing very disciplined and solid, and going over my stats and comparing them, asking for help on forums etc., I think it's rubbed off onto my MTT game, which i think is rock solid right now and I just need to put in tons of volume to start realising some expectation. I approached my previous backer about taking me back, but unfortunately he too had a large amount of money on Full Tilt so is unable to take me on again.
On the bright side, there is a chance that Full Tilt will come back and I will get my $1300 back, and also it's tax time in Australia and I did several months work late last year and early this year, most of the tax from which I will get back, so that should help make ends meet. I guess we will see what pans out over this weekend, but I'm hoping to start next week off with a new backer and having withdrawn my current roll for life expenses. I'll be working for my father-in-law at the start of the week, so that will be at least three days off poker (unless I decide to grind some cash games which is a distinct possibility) and from there we will see how it goes. I really feel like I'm teetering on the edge of my last shot in poker. If I lose my momentum now I may never get another chance at it, and it will be time to give up and try something more conventional and stable, which would be a shame after putting so much time into this and really loving what I do right now, although not on weeks like this!
Tonight I am catching up with some friends for, ironically, a poker night. It's really just an excuse to get together and have a few drinks and a good meal though, as nobody really has any clue how to play and they learn the rules as we go. It will be great to have a boys' night and relax though. Then tomorrow night my wife's good friend is having her 30th birthday at Hellenic Republic, which I am really looking forward to. I hope my wife is feeling well enough to go. The guy who owns the restaurant, George Calombaris, is a judge on our favourite TV show, Masterchef, which is really hotting up now, down to around 8 contestants (one was just disqualified for having a smart phone in "the house" - very Big Brother), they just had a tour of Sydney food spots with Anthony Bourdain, and soon they will all be going on a food trip to NYC. It just gets better and better!
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