Grinding for a Future... Big Al's Poker Blog...New Direction

Hey All, and welcome to my Poker Blog I have been playing poker since about may last year when I played a little $10 Tournament in my mates garage and I had no idea how to play just like all of us. I was just there to drink with mates I had no idea then that poker would be become such a huge part of my life. I may of still been working at this point when I played this Tournament.

B4 Poker

So I am 20 years old from Brisbane Australia and before I played Poker I use to Work, play Rugby League and go out drinking in town nearly every weekend. I finished High School in the summer of 08 when I finished School I already had my Certificate III in Fitness and was well on my way to Certificate IV. When I finished School I was a Part Time worker at the Australian Sport and Fitness College where I had been a school based Trainer since Year 11, and I thought I was destined for a Full Time position in the compony. A few months went by and I was still working part time, but eventually my dreams came tru and I got my Full Time job I was longing for. It felt like family.

At Christmas things got hard, it was a very busy time and I did not cope well. At the start of the New Year I thought I had got through it, but then I was called for my KPI meeting and I failed allot I was reduced to part time. I thought this would be the worst day of my life. I loved my job, but I kept on. I think it may of been at the start of may I was called in to another meeting where I was made redundant. This was the worse day of my life.

I played my 2nd ever game of poker on the Friday that week. This was Free Pub poker, and I really enjoyed it. I was starting to like it more and more when my mate gave me Phil Gordon’s books. At this time I started work at Gym, but I hated it I hated everything associated with fitness organisations.

Poker the Beginning

1 day I bought my mate Subway and I said to him "don’t pay me back in cash. put $10 on my Full Tilt Account instead." lets just say I was sick of crushing the Play Money 90 man SNGs which I was 4 Tabling.

I remember my first night, I got my $10 so what did I do? I played a 90 man SNG, I thought this will be easy money. I busted so I loaded another, busted then another I went down to $4 is was not as easy as I thought I had not made ITM once. I was talking to some other mates who said that SNGs would probably be better on my $4 roll lol. I had alot of room to move. I got my self probably back up to $10 and then went Busto some time.

Bought my Mate Subway again "Another $10 on FT mate." This time I was SNGs and 1/2c which I think I bought in for what ever I felt like, and defiantly did not play SSS. I think I got up to $20 at 1 point, and I’m thinking all right millionaire by next Thursday. My mate Told me to look into BRM so I goggled it and I found a Chart that said I could move up to $2 SNGs when I made $60. So that’s where I was heading, but I went the wrong way back to $0 and Busto. I said I would not put money on again, but I would find away I would play the Aus Freeroll to try and make a roll, and I said I would do more Research. First tho I am going to watch 2 Months 2 Million.

While watching this show I saw and add at the top like most Poker Related sites have add for Bonus Codes etc, but this 1 said $50 free no strings attached and I am thinking that is very hard to believe So I clicked on Party Poker because I saw this compony advertised o WSOP I had watched on You Tube.

So all you have to do is pass this quiz and you get $50 for free. So I went like a Bull in a China Shop and did the quiz the without looking at the articles because you know I was already a world class player because I read Phil Gordon’s books ♦. So I failed, and I am thinking gez these guys have no idea how to play poker I mean 4xBB PFR out of any position that’s ludicrous what would Phil say. So I read the articles to pass the exam with no intention of using any advice it was giving me because I thought it was bad lol.

I made my First ever post on 3rd of August last year, I changed from Phil Gordon’s style and Started reading 2+2 and all the articles here on the 22nd of August last year. Shortly after I got my Tax back and decided to take advantage of my First Deposit Bonus.

Playing Properly

So now I am playing by what Poker Strategy says. I was still not sure weather I liked Cash Games or SNGs better. Now anyone who has played at Party knows how bad the $1 SNGs are. I Think it took me 12 tries to start wining at NL4, and eventually built my Roll up to $150ish.

I decided at this point I wanted to leave Party Poker and make my way to Full Tilt Poker. This was the Start of the year, but first I am going to go to Everest Poker and get Holdem Manager because I heard it was a Fishy Site. It was properly Better before France got Regulated. Thing were never going right at Everest I took $120 off Party and left $20 on there in case Everest went down for Maintenance. At this time my mate who played on FTP had some Run Good in MTTs and decided to gift me $10 to play the Daily $1 with I decided I would just play this MTT 1 day a week.

I would never really get anywhere in these MTTs sometimes I would Min Cash woooooo. I was Grinding NL2 and NL5 on Everest but Traffic was really bad it was almost impossible to get a NL5 game running and every time I would play NL5 I would lose so most of the time I was playing NL2. So its seemed the move which I saw as the big moving point had turned the opposite, but On Party Poker I was running this $20 up like no other it seemed I had NL2 Mastered and I could not lose.

On Full Tilt my mate had won a $2 MTT and he decided to be generous again and shipped me $30. So I had around $40 and I decided after Reading and watching all the SNG articles I was ready to give them another Crack because I had learnt about ICM and Push Fold Strategies.

I ran my Full Tilt Roll up to $100+ while my Everest Roll stayed static and my Party Poker Roll moved up ever time I played which was only when there was Maintenance on Full Tilt.

On Full Tilt I hit Variance when I hit $120, it just kept going down and down and down until 1 day I look and I am back to $50 ok I say Variance is a bitch. At this time however I had read HoH which I got for Xmas, and 1 Morning I was playing a Everest Freeroll Harington’s Ms clicked I had finally understood what I consider the most important MTT concept.

Black Friday

Black Friday Hit around this Time and we lost the US players and I was done with Everest. Party Poker was offering a Reload Bonus. So back to Party. I had built my $20 up to $80, so with my $20 from Everest we were around $200. I had not even considered playing SNGs on Party until my Mate mentioned it and I though ok ill give the $3 a Crack but if I didn’t do well I would just grind NL4, I didn’t not do well... I did great I ran ridiculously good. my Roll was close to $300 even $300 at 1 point, but Just like on FT Variance hit and back to $250ish.

The daily $1 on the Monday. I played 2 or 3 Entry’s maybe 4 and I did it the deep run not just with 1 entry but 2, that’s right I came 53rd and 14th. I was back to $100ish. The next week the same thing happened 2 entry’s had deep runs I came 90thish and 12th It sucked to miss out on Final Table. I had also Started Grinding MTTs on Party and I had my best ever Finish and my First ever Final Table. I came 2nd in the $2 1K GNT Speed. My Roll was nearly $500 at this point.

Back On FT I was Crushing MTTs like no other it seems I could not have a deep run. I won my First ever MTT a $2 Scheduled Deepstack. I was rolled for $3 MTTs and I had a deep run in the $3 KO 2.5k GNT I think I may of just missed the Final Table, but just like the daily $1 it seems that deep runs come in 2s as the week after I finish 3rd in the same MTT my Roll on FT had Grown to $615. I couldn’t believe it, in less than 2 months I had gone from $50 to $600.

Losing a BR

Unfortunately just like allot of people my Roll was locked because FT had lost there license, but I ploughed on Party and again offered another reload Bonus and I grinded that out. Party Poker launched there Rake free MTTs and World Domination last month for allot of people this was very tilting as they missed out on the Big money because its seems there was something Fishy about the Colum 3 Cities. I however managed to make $35o in countries which boosted my BR around $800 and again I ran good at a new stake of SNGs. Up to $1K BR in no time.

Now and the Future

I am now around $1100ish, and now I think is a good time to start a Blog. Below are some graphs and my Goals. Sorry for the TLDR and the bad Grammar and Spelling.

SNG Stats - FT $1.20 & $2.25 - Part Poker $3-11

SNG Graph

MTT Stats

MTT Graph

Cash Game Graph - NL2,4,5 & 10

August Goals

• 1 Hr of reading and 1 Video a day
• Shots at 11s and hopefully stick
• Stick to MTT Scedual
• Post Positively in this Blog
• Practice Darts
• Sort out UNI
• Play some Cash Game Hands at NL10 or NL4 6Max