Back from the Monkey Sanctuary straight to the Live felt!

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luck4aliving

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So basically this thread will be following my progress as a Live NLHE Player grinding up my bankroll and stakes, starting from £1/1 - £1/2 mainly at my local casino but also others as I travel. Hoping to play full time professionally by the time I finish university in April 2013. My target is to earn £10,000 by this time so I can move up to playing the £2/4-5 games at Dusk til Dawn (Nottingham) or at Cercle Cadet (Paris), but I will explain my target further on in the post.

My name is Joe Apsey, im 21 years old from Stoke-On-Trent in the United Kingdom. I’m currently in my final year studying for a degree at Liverpool John Moores University in Animal Behaviour.
I first began playing poker at university, my friend introduced to me to it, showed me the basics and we entered a £20 tournament at the local casino in Liverpool. Unfortunately I was the first out of the tournament much to the amusement of my friend.

I’ve always been very competitive playing lots of FPS online games in my youth, and being ranked top 5 in the UK in one of the FPS games (Painkiller). It was this competitiveness, which drove me for the next week to spend the time studying the game hoping to out due my friend the next time we played. So the following week I entered the same tournament once again for £20. This time things were different, I had a much better understanding of the game having learnt the basic probabilities, some tells, position and so on. I remember reaching the final table as a shortish stack with my friend railing me. The first hand, 3 people shipped all in before me. I looked down at AA and quickly called, flopping quads. I went on to win the tournament for £280.
My bankroll grew from their onward, I started playing at my local pub league, and once the summer of 2011 started I also played back at my local casino in Stoke On Trent.

I felt I had a big edge on the competition in these games but the tournament structure restricted that, after the first 2 hours of play the blinds moved so quickly average chip stacks were all about 12 Big Blinds and its pretty much luck from there onwards. I decided to switch my attention to the (£1/1) cash tables. I remember my first session, my bankroll was probably around £700 back then so realistically I was abit over my head. Anyway on my first session I sat down with £60 (short I know). After 5-6 hours I had built it up to £250.
I can remember I was UTG with AA. Naturally I raised, got 3bet from a very aggressive player, I 4bet. He shoved, and I called, pot was just over £500. He tabled AQo, and then hit trips, felting me. I was crushed.
I remember it took a couple of weeks before I returned but began my climb again, turning significant profits from that table.
In September 2011 I went to live/work in South Africa for 12 months at a Monkey Sanctuary (cool right?). Unfortunately I couldn’t play whilst I was there, but I still kept my interest and studied the game.
Returning from South Africa in August 2012 I went to stay with my girlfriend in Paris found a local card room and began playing again with my previous bankroll.

Winning in Paris and then returning to Stoke to continue playing the cash games, I hope to continue building up my bankroll, and moving up the limits. I’m already playing the 1/2 game in Paris and hope to be rolled enough to play the 2/4-5 by the time I finish university in April, and make this my profession. And I hope you will follow me as I try and achieve it. Feel free to ask me ANY questions whatsoever, doesn’t have to be relevant to poker and I will reply ASAP.

I will be posting on here, as well as a couple other forums and my website.
I will post and update my bankroll and session results every cash game session I play. And will post an updated graph/chart every week. I go to university Tuesdays, Thursday & Fridays. My local cash game runs from 11PM – 6AM. So I will be playing Fridays/Saturdays/Sundays/Tuesdays. For an average of 6 hours a night.

Targets – £10,000 by May 2013.
So my target is to build my bankroll up to £10,000 by May so I can move up from the £1/£1 games to the £2/£5 in Paris/Nottingham/Derby once I have finished university.
When writing this my bankroll is £1987 – £8013 more to reach £10,000

Current Averages:
= £12.19/hour (657 Hours More Needed)
= £39.74/session (201 Sessions Needed)

Currently I have university 3 days a week, So if I stick to my averages, I can achieve my goal by May playing 4 nights a week:

4 days/week – 5 Hour/Session @ £12.19.
= £243/week
= £972month
= £7776 in 8 months (May) = £9763 Bankroll. Ready for £2/£5.

If I don’t keep up my averages perhaps I will have to play on university nights, could be interesting, arriving home at 6:30AM then driving directly to the train station to be at my lecture in Liverpool for 9:00AM. Lets hope it doesn’t come to that. Anyway wish me luck ill keep you posted.

Currently:
Bankroll: £1987
Average/Hour: £12.19
BB/Hour: 12BB
£/Hand: £0.30
£/Session: £39.74
ROI: 46.63%

Results:

cashprofitgraph23912.png

cashprofits23912.png

roigraph23912.png


Peace x
 
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luck4aliving

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Frustrating session, AA cracked vs AKo (preflop). -£25 in total.

So tonights session played pretty standard for the first couple of hours, i managed to pick off a donk river bluff with a guy trying to represent a flush. & folded a couple big hands when I was behind.

Anyway I managed to get all in preflop vs laggy player, I have AA, he has AKo. we are both in for about £200 so Pot=just over £400.

Board comes, 45678 for a split with the straight. very frustrating when you’ve waited for that spot. Also TAG raises Mid position to £12 after a straddle. CO calls, I call Button with 1010. BB who only has £27 and is stoned and pretty loose ships it. we all call. pot = £120. flop comes 4 9c 2c. Origional raiser checks so does HJ and its on me, I know the opener would cbet 100% if he had an over pair. So i go ahead and ship the £100 I have left, trying to thin the field. It works, everyone folds, except the BB player, who shipped with a6o. and hits an ace on the river (obviously).

Also make a couple profitable bluffs in position, table breaks at 4 oclock, so finish my session £-25 which is very frustrating after the AA vs AKo, o well, happy with my play anyway….

Bankroll = £1962
 
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Debi

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Good luck with this!

(Fascinating choice of studies - what do you want to do with that?)
 
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luck4aliving

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dakota = Im glad you said that, most players make fun of my studies!
So basically I have worked with animals since I was young, went to a college which was also like a zoo, then managed to work at a monkey sanctuary in the UK for about 3 years. Which give a passion for our primate ancestors, So I started my degree at a university that specialize in monkeys (believe it or not!).
And planned to afterwords do a masters degree in Primatology (to become a monkey expert) and travel the world, doing research etc.

But, I soon realized there's alot of money to be made playing poker, and would like to pursue poker as a career but travel the world volunteering at sanctuaries, making donations etc and generally helping out.
 
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luck4aliving

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(+£60) after 5 hours

So quite a wild night, the table was full mainly of regs, there was a rich businessman who is rumored to sitdown at the 1/1 and ship every hand blind who hovered around the roulette but unfortunately never joined the table.

was up about £40 (£140 infront of me), with Mid position raise to £10 from new player (in a straddled pot), MP call, BTN call, SB call, Me in BB with Ah10h call.

Flop comes 2h qc 7h.

SB check, Me check, PFR check. MP bets £15 pound, Btn folds, SB calls. I call.

PFR now decides to raise it to £65 (i have about £110 left behind) (pot = £160).

Everyone folds back round to me. I decide even if this guy has an overpair Im getting the right odds to ship it in to draw to my heart, small chance he could fold and my ace could also be live.

I ship £110 more, he calls with top set. (pot = £380)

No heart and i loose my first buy-in.

Buy in for another £100, pick up some nice, pots, make some nice bluffs, Manage to get the same guy who stacked me before, to stack off in 3bet pot on the flop which was 3c jd 2c. I had AA he had QQ. somewhat of a cooler.

Also witnessed a drunk lady throw a glass at some guy which bounced off his head smashing on the roulette board whilst it was mid spin. Breaking the roulette wheel which will be inactive now for days until the gambling commission come to make sure its fixed correctly. pretty jokes.

all in all I ended up £60 in profit. Downside is i feel a pretty severe cold coming on, and im supposed to be flying to Paris in a few days to see the Mrs.
 
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luck4aliving

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29/09/2012 – Disgusting session.. (-£200!)

So was a pretty sick session, overall was happy with my play, made quite a few biggish lay downs and was right. Just seemed every decent hand i made, someone got a bigger piece of it or eventually caught up. Ill share a few:

Hand Example #1:

Early on i Raise Early position to £6 with QQ. Guy on my immediate left flats, ive seen him capable of bluffing, semi bluffing etc. Late position guy calls. And button calls. Flop comes 10c Ad 2c. Pots like £26, I cbet £18, guy on my left calls. others fold. (pot = £62) Turn comes Ah. I check. he bets £20, Here now the Ace has come obviously its less likely he has an ace, also he could bet his Flush draw like this, or a 10. Also its possible he is taking advantage of his position. River comes 2h, so a complete brick. (pot = £102) I check, he bets like £23 which is like 1/5 of pot, I basically know he has an ace, but i feel 1 in 5 times, he is making a play, or has JJ or pair of 10s. So i make the call and he turns over AJ.

Hand Example #2:

Straddled pot to £2. Mid position guy raises to £12, he plays where he is at all the time pretty much. Im in the SB with AKo (£160 deep), I could 3bet here, but In this spot I dont want to bloat the pot too much OOP. also i want to keep his AJ/AQ/A10 type hands in, and ill just be frustrated to face a 5bet.

Original Straddler calls. (Pot = £38), Flop comes Kc 3d 7c. I know the original raiser isnt paying much attention about game flow etc, and both player sin the pot likely to call me light, so i donk out £20 into to see where im at. Straddler calls, PFR calls. (pot = £98) Turn comes 10. I bet out £40 (small bet, but not really happy with two calls but at the same time don’t want to give up the betting lead ad im happy with getting calls from flush draws KQ/KJ etc). The straddler min raises to £80. the other guy goes all in for like £130. I fold.

Straddler shows K3 for flopped two pair. Other guy shows 1010 for a turned Set

Hand Example #3:

Mid position raises it to £7, MP +1 Calls. HJ Calls, Im on button with A8c I call.

(pot = £30) flop comes 8d 6c 5h. Its checked to HJ who bets £25, this rings alarm bells abit for me, this guy doesnt get out of line, and in this game people barely ever bet almost full pot. Anyway obviously I call, cant fold TPTK off the bat. (pot = £80) Turn comes 2d. He bets £50, I fold. He shows 79 for flopped straight.

So final hand of the night I had like £60 left, decided not to reload for this tragic session. I was in the SB. It was a straddled pot (£2) UTG Limp, Mid Limp, CO Limp, Btn Limp. I have 10c8c Myself and BB Call, Straddler checks. (pot = £14) Flop comes 9d 8d 10d. I check, it checks to Mid position(£400 behind) very aggro player, capable of making big moves, has been running hot tonight. He bets £13. Now He is capable of trapping to me this bet seems like top pair, like 10 J or pair with a J. seemed he wanted to protect his hand and keep others out and im certain eh would bet smaller if he had flopped a flush. Btn who always plays where he is at flats (he only has £50 behind).

Now ive got about £55 behind, Pot is already £40. I feel even if the original better had a straight, or better two pair or maybe even a small flush he could lay it down to me raising, as he respects my play and knows i don’t get it in bad often, and have been tight tonight. I go all in for £55 more. BB folds, Mid position guy calls, Btn gives a speech and calls with like a kd or something.

Board runs out with no more diamonds, unfortunately my 2 pair was no good, as the Original better had QJo and flopped a straight. I felt he could of laid that down to me, as he could of been putting his money in completely dead. That hand was the final nail in the coffin and i left -£200.

Its so frustrating feeling your playing right, putting in the time and effort and just not taking off, im still up for the last week or two but just haven’t had a nice streak yet. O well there’s always another day.

In other news just booked my flights to Paris on 4th October will be staying with my girlfriend there and paying the cash daily from 14:00 onward for a couple weeks.
 
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luck4aliving

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30/09/2012 - Lame session also (-£20)

So just a stupid session last night. Sat for 5 hours playing barely got into any spots, managed to 3bet steal a couple pots preflop and run some bluffs keep myself afloat. I literally got AQ like twice, and pocket 1010s, which I had to fold preflop due to 2 all ins. Here is my biggest pot of the evening which just about sums everything up.

Straddled Pot (£2), I have AsQs early position I bump it up to £10. Very loose gambler on my left calls, I know he is super loose. Another loose guy calls from the straddle. Pot (=£33) flop comes 6s Ac 10d. I cbet £28. Guy on my left calls. Straddler folds. Pot (=£91). Turn comes 2h. The guy has like £50 behind so I put him all in. He has 65o (pot = (£191). River comes a 5 giving him two pair he ships the pot, quite annoying (as 88% favorite).

Not much else to report, finished -£20 down after 5 hours. On a downswing at the moment is pretty sick, but still have confidence in my play. Next time I play will be in Paris on the 5th or 6th.
 
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