This is my first major post on PS.com.
And this is the 'first' post from it introducing me. (hope this doesn't break any rules mods but Pleno said I needed to get my blog going on here)
Been rambling a lot, but I'm going to get it all out in this first monster post. So I feel sorry for you, but thank you if you can wade through it all.....
23 January 2012
I'm John Black, a technician who travels worldwide to install and repair electronics for a living. I'm also a guy who's played a wide array of sports (football, basketball, tennis and plenty more) computer games, board games and a whole host of other things in my so far short lived time. I live in Milton Keynes and have my own flat, I've run pretty good in life tbh.
I have an impulsive and somewhat addictive personality.. however I'm pretty certain I couldn't ever 'go off the rails'. Coming close to any edges scares the bajeezas outa me. I'm supposedly rocking an IQ just north of 130 but that was tested a long time ago and since I landed my job I've not really done a hellova lot with it tbh (uber lazy). I wanted to do this a while ago, and after spending a long time on it one day I pressed the 'post' button and received a sexy windows 'youve just wasted your time' error message. I'm now forcing myself into it because I honestly feel its going to be the best overall way to improve, record, account, shame, learn, share and focus my attentions.
I first played poker about 5-6 years ago at a home game of my tennis buddies, we played a little tournament and it ended up with us basically 'flipping' for the first place in the last hand. I obviously won the £15 for 1st and was hooked immediately. We played a bit more and I had a little more success than my equal share, more because they were worse instead of me being better. Then I found my way to a Milton Keynes pub league where I had similar success, easily ending the league in the top % required to qualify for a 'final' in Gala Casino Northampton.
This was my first experience of any proper casino, poker room, event and I came 33/120 or something.. think I lost a race. But by this time I was watching everything I could get my hands on, had discovered 2+2, and worked out bigger prize pools and tournaments was definitely for me. This is one of the only times I have 'gambled':-
I stood behind the craps table and observed, I'd only ever heard of it and seen it in movies but they don't explain the game in them so I had to 'learn' to understand where the house edge is.. After a few mins of watching and working it out I'd roughly calculated that if you bet your money on the bet line when the button was off you had around 86% to draw/ win... that sounded good enough for me. So I took my £100 I still had in chips from earlier and put the max down on the bet line as soon as the button came off (£25). We draw with a 4, 5 or something then I took back my £25 and changed my bet to £2 - in retrospect I realise I must've had a rookie dealer as changing the bet is where my 'edge' came from. So I waited and eventually I lost it and then put the £25 in when the button came off.. My first turn to roll and BOOM we smash a 7 first go >> then an 11 for a second win and now we're up £48.. Good game, no?
After an hour or so of continuing this pattern and letting some other people roll, I'm obviously a rookie gambler and not very quiet about it.. We're up about £275 and after watching me for a few mins a pit boss comes over and asks to talk to me. He very rudely and coldly explains that I cannot change the bet, however being the smart ass I am I have to explain -
"that I am afraid the rules are very clear sir, you have them written on the side of the table... and no where does it mention the bet being removed or changed is in violation."
He replies with
"I am allowed to refuse service to anyone in the casino sir and if you do not leave the table now I will be closing it, your choice.."
So I give in and the rookie dealer is now hauled off for allowing me to be there for so long. Other than this I've played Blackjack once a long time ago in Australia, played 5 boxes, obv won $200 then left and I have never gambled with more than £20 since.. and probably not more than 4/5 times ever. I see no point in it and don't understand it... even with BlackJack being 'playable'. I have no 'lucky numbers' or supersticious tendancies.. I resent the slots (even with a local 'slotmatch' £30 for £20 tickets).
So this is me, I then became a Gala regular and met the 'local pros' Sunny Mistri, Aaron Fisher, James Tomlin, Daniel Patton, Mark Dodge, "The Mad Dog" and a whole bunch of other characters. I started with the £10 rookie tournaments, sit n go's, and baby cash games (25/50p) with mixed successes.. I remember beating Aaron hu in a Wednesday £15 bounty for my first £450 win. Felt AMAZING! <<< he doesn't even remember it. I always struggled with cash because the money was 'a lot' but I started getting better, meeting interesting characters on the way and most of the time being an annoying knowitall twat to boot. More poker tv shows and at some point I discovered Sky Poker and their channel, now I had a more up to date and more relevant source of information - combined with the legend that is TK and his cronies.
This Gala and then Aspers Northampton (when it opened) trend continued, with me winning as well as losing enough to keep the fish I was coming back for more! I tried to keep a spreadsheet of all poker related monies, and kept it up for a long time.. only stopping when my desktop graphics card broke (still is) and then for over a year recorded them on my phone to input later (likely story). This showed that over an 8month period I was up about £350-450 in tournaments but I was down that and a little more in cash games. My job kept taking me away and in plenty of places I found myself finding casinos or home games - Egypt, Brussels, Beijing, Cameroon.. with again more tournament success than cash games.. I even came back from 5:1 down in Cameroon to win a tournament in the American Marines house at the American Embassy (they weren't impressed but we got pizza and so drunk after, then all was forgiven). My ambitions grew with my buyins and my hunger for knowledge led to me 'buying' my little brother (8yrs younger) Super System 1 + 2 one year for xmas ( [ ] he has ever had them in his posession since that day..) My mum knew they were for me but said nothing, the angel she is and he said something once but never again. Then I got hold of Harrington on Holdem for Cash Games 1 and 2. I then chewed through all of these, twice. Now I was now really improving. Regularly making FT's at Aspers (Gala lost the poker room wars in N'hampton) and cashing and winning consistently more than most. But cash was my deamon.
This continued for a long time, maybe as much as 18 months - 2 years and despite the 'regs' now not being much better than me (imo) I still was quite a bit of a dick and wasn't great friends with many of em, just social like. Over this time I played in 100 Euro rebuys in Brussels, coming 5th and 6th, bubbling both times (in for 100 both times), a bunch of random games, and a bent £3/6 game in Uganda - lost a bunch 1st day, then went back and in the end I left over $1k up in the sickest way (55 vs K8o AIPF for $2k+).
Then came the first in a few important milestones for me, I bumped into an old footie mate and recent tennis advisary at dtd - Kourosh Radfar.. who played poker apparently... I remember mentioning that I was 'pretty good' and he said nothing at the time but now he tells me he almost pissed himself (as a BRS sponsored playa, I must've seemed a complete joke).
This coupled with a few other 'poker friends' - Tom Kugelstadt, Peter Howard, Dan Patton, and a couple of others.. and I was taking a few more steps along. Becoming aware of position was a MASSIVE jump for me, and has as it should irreparably altered my game. Now I wasn't just a little better than the 'locals'.. I was crushing them. So I stopped playing the <£50's as it was a 'waste of my time' effectively. Playing all night for a 1st of £250 now tilted me, [X] ego much. But in the last 12 months I've broken my DTD curse - had never even cashed untill I crushed the Super 50 in October, two weeks on the trot (CL both times, 1st and 6th) and chopped the 150 inbetween. Won 2x £100 fo's in 7 days, had some £100 into £1k nights at The Vic but Cash was still my deamon.
I have in total I think Won easily over £20k in the last few years.. (its a single pot to some of you I know) but I have definitely not been +ve until this year. Cash is a hard, sexy, and demanding mistress despite being deceptively simple - Wait for BIG CARDS then put LOTS of money into the pot and wait for the FISH to call with WORSE.
It is just that simple. Apparently.
Well now I'm pushing and pushing further along, further than I probably ever could have and the thanks is probably in no small part to one person - that Kosh introduced me to.
Christopher Poulton - live fish but confirmed online genius and generally good at the game, that is when he doesn't tilt and open shove every hand online for 30 mins
[X] been there and seen it - apparently Q5s doesn't beat 10's aipf very often
So CP seemed a little prickly at first but there was a nice guy in there somewhere, definitely. He gave me a bunch of poker vids - Galfond hu stuff, the thin red line, Samo vs Giggy, Dr Giggy, DogisHead, and a bunch more... I've managed to get through these and keep rewatching.. This coupled with a more realistic and theoretical approach on poker, and Jared Tendler's 'The mental game of poker' have now made me an uncomparably stronger player than ever before. As some of you may or may not have read my first few posts on blondepokers PHA if you do, you will see I regularly level myself with overthinking many situations. But I'm thinking and learning and this is definitely in the right direction.
So now, as reccommended by Chris - I am doing the following to improve and get to where I want to be:
- playing 6max cash on stars at micros: started with 5nl and have moved up to 25nl over the last 6 months.. now back at 10nl and winning at a solid rate over a small sample, but feel this is my 'crushing level' and that I can beat 25nl but I need to reign in my creativity (read spew).
- grinding <£100 comps to build a tournament roll, while satelliting into every big dtd comp I can (played deepstack twice, cashed first when frankie bust my 10's with his 7's - joy, second one when frankie won every pot vs me with less than premium hands AKs vs J2s/ AQ vs A10).
- learning and finding any new information I can that helps me with my strategy, theory and discipline
- signing up to dueces cracked very soon to give me some more modern and recent thinking/ videos
- am going to grind the 6max cash online and experiment with 50hu nl, taking shots at live cash while I build a roll using <£100 tournys.
Aims
[ ] I want to end the year at 50nl 6max minimum, would like to be beating 100nl but that is a big jump and beating 50nl hu 'regs'
[ ] To have been on my first Vegas trip (I have airmiles to spend).
[ ] To be working with my friends in our discussion group to help us all focus on real goals and work togther to get there.
[ ] Have made my first £10k+ score & manditory hendon flag.
[ ] Have submitted and had accepted a 50k+ sample as a result of no1 above and to be negotiating a 'cash sponsorship' deal.
I guess that's it for now. To anyone that has somehow survived it all, thank you.
Right, out for a drink (just earned it) with some mates.. one just got dumped by his fiance and the other is having a baby with a girl that won't talk to him... bad times.
![:]](https://www.pokerstrategy.com/_forum-runtime/wp-content/uploads/wpforo/emoticons/pokerstrategy-legacy/basics/pleased.gif ":]")
The Artist Formerly Known as PokerStrategy.com's Online Editor 
