Time out

January Blues

Reckon its 2 late to get away with a full 2010 year review, so ill try cram the guts of it into a paragraph. Actually feck it i wont bother, one sentence will do. Did very well, can do much better.

Maybe it was January blues,the result of an online downswing or just poker burn out but found i wasnt enjoying the game at all in the first few weeks of the year.

Worringly at times id set myself up for a nightly mtt grind, sort my schedule and after 15 mins into my 1st mtt, would end up wondering why i bothered and inevitably punt it away. Had a few close calls in decent prize pool mtts, but things seemed to be going against me at the big payjumps. So, seemed clear a break from the online grind was needed to reinvigorate the spirits.

Study

Felt it was a great time to get back into studying the game. For my first few years learning/playing the game, every single day before i played, i either read a poker book or watched a training vid, from the now defunct stoxpoker, to cardrunners and pokerxfactor i chewed up the vids and they helped me improve my game dramatically. After my big score last Easter, i definatly went slack on doing my homework and i think this is reflected in my results for the latter part of last year.

The game changes so quickly, trends come and go and its so important to know where the game is at, also watching vids from big winning mtt players, not only challenges set ideas i have on optimum playing style but re enforces the correct decisions i do make and helps rid any complaceny that can creep into my game. So i got back into pokerxfactor and got involved in some great sweat sessions with ajkhoosier and doubledave22,which has really helped wake me up to some leaks in my game.

Im also half way through a session of golf lessons with a local pro, seems the biggest flaw in my golf swing was that i was trying to hammer the ball big distances by forcing the downswing too much, he's been encouraging me to relax my swing and too let it flow at its natural tempo and the ball will go much further and have a greater chance of been on the fairway as a result. Afterwards i figured this analogy was pretty much the biggest leak in my mtt game, i was building stacks no problem but once in a commanding postion chipwise i think i was trying to force it with too much aggression, instead of following the natural flow of the tornie and blind structure, id be trying to hammer the result home from too far out and end of taking too many high varience plays as a result.

Back to the Roots

So last night i took my first Sunday off online for ages and played the Adelaide Casinos 2k. Theres always plenty of good banter + usually a great game when the older regs come back out for the bigger monthly tornie there. Was really up for this game, prob due to my lack of recent online volume.

Got gifted a double up early days with AA when after plenty of preflop action a generous punter called off his stax on a 255q board with ak! Didnt look back from there and ended up in a tense 4 handed game with Mark, a Conor lad from Swinford and the ever formidable presence of Annette Carroll. Lost a big race when i raise called ajo from the button and the 33s held. Pushed alot to get my stax back up, got lucky v Mark when he shoved 6bb from sb, i snapped with the a6dd, only to see his a8, 6 in window held strong, to get 3 handed. Annette finished up 3rd and after my longest live heads up battle yet which went on an hour and a half, my top two ended up holding versus a flushdraw and an up n down straight draw. Thrilled with the win, was in need of the confidence boost.

Next up

Really looking forward to next weeks euro deepstacked tornie up in Dublin, the d4 boys always put on a good show, never played a deepstax event before but as i like to get involved alot early doors i think the 50k starting stack should suit me well. After that its off to Paris, to spend Valentines weekend in the city of love playing cards! Have won a seat to the Pokerstars French poker series grand final, feel i left monies behind at the last one so extra motivated to do well in the final.

Hats off to Dermot Blain at wpt biloxi and Tom the bomb Finneran at ept deauville on their deep runs last week. Toms in flying form since the winter fest, following up his top 100 pca finish with 22nd in deauville.

Also cant go without saying congrats to Shauny Craig(havenrl) who scored an irish open seat last Tuesday night. I woke up early Wednesday to see Shaun was still on msn, he was heads up in the ftp 70k, by the time i had found his table he was within 3 hands of taking down 21k for first, his biggest score yet. Well deserved and long overdue for Shaun, a fine player who anyone whose met him will tell you has a endless passion for the game. Only now he keeps banging on about how he's #1 ranked in Sligo on pocket5s......Time to get finger out