$1,000

Still sticking with the Vegas plan & have played a little this month too.

I'm not putting in the volume I originally wanted but I'm happy with the way things have been turning out (so far).

In October I managed to play 7,220 hands which is around 500 hands more than last month.

I didn't have nearly the same month though and finished up $227.80. 

This post has come a little late and I've just this evening broke through the $1,000 bankroll barrier.

I will now start to take a shot at 50NL ($0.25/$0.50) blinds as I had previously played 20NL ($0.10/$0.20). 

If my bankroll drops below $850 I will drop down to 20NL again. 

My total statistics for playing 20NL:

I've played for a total of around 30 hours now in 2 months which is nowhere near the volume I need to be putting in but will probably pick up pace in the New Year. 

This is certainly going to be a much different month now as I am playing bigger stakes which means I can possibly win more but also stand to lose more as well. 

Bring it on! 

Month 1 over..

So I set a challenge for myself last month and I've got myself back on the poker train.

I haven't put in the volume that I wanted but I am struggling with how busy I am in other aspects of my life.

I'm mainly going to focus on Cash and MTT's rather than playing any SNGs. This is due to the time restraint I have on actually being able to play Poker.

This month I played 6,742 cash hands and you can see my graph below.

I am on a 60% rakeback deal on PaddyPower which is where I have been putting the volume in.

I also played about 30-40 MTTs this month and just about broke even. Had a few deep runs but just not running too well at the later stages. Hopefully will bink one soon to get a tasty bankroll booster.

I'm up around $500 for the month.

On to October!

Overdue Update...

So I've been pretty slack with my updates recently... I've been super busy with Tennis Summer camps & also other things which I will post about in the near future.

Business ventures are being put on a slight hold as I am starting to play Poker again. I am going to continue coaching but my main focus is to get back into playing.

I've found it hard in the past to motivate myself to actually play Poker. I know I can beat the game but I get distracted by too many other things to actually sit down and grind. I feel like I need some kind of long term goal to work towards as well as maybe a few shorter term goals.

I'm planning a trip to Vegas in September 2014 and have been working out how exactly I am going to fund it.

See below for a general plan of how I intend to get to Vegas/LA next year. There are more calculations I need to make to keep myself within a strict bankroll management system but I'm going to keep them to myself. I also plan to try and play one MTT schedule a week. A couple of MTT binks over the next year will keep me on target I feel.

I'm going to try and beat ZOOM 6 Max as well but it's a tough game and I know my default will always be the 18 mans as I can consistently beat those.

Obviously I will be blogging my progress through this challenge and will most probably post once a week as much as possible. I may even make some Video Blogs at some point if I get around to it!

Vegas 2014

Plan: 

Grind $10,000 in Poker and live in Vegas for 1 month in September 2014. 

Play various cash games and tournaments and try to win enough money to cover the costs of the entire trip. 

Go on to spend 2 weeks in LA, catch up with friends & explore! 

Costs:

$1500     - Flights & Travel

$1000     - Accommodation

$5000     - Poker Bankroll

$1200     - Food

$1000     - Expenses

$300       - Float

Playing:

Start:  8th September 2013.

End:         8th September 2014.

Aim to play 44 hours a month. 

500 hours total. 

Need to earn $20 an hour to do this. 

Aim to play 60 hours a month. 

720 hours total. 

Need to earn $13.89 an hour to do this. 

Bankroll Management:

Starting Bankroll:  $500

Target Bankroll:  $10,500

Never risk more than 10% Bankroll in any given session. 

$7 - 18 [Man]

Tables                     -       Buyin                             -       Bankroll Required

6 Tables                  -       $42                                  -       $420

12 Tables          - $84         - $840 

18 Tables         - $126 - $1,260

24 Tables         - $168 - $1,680

$15 - 18 [Man]

4 Tables         - $60         - $600

6 Tables         - $90         - $900

12 Tables         - $180 - $1,800

18 Tables         - $270 - $2,700

24 Tables         - $360 - $3,600

$30 - 18 [Man]

4 Tables                  -       $120                                -       $1,200

6 Tables                  -       $180                                -       $1,800

12 Tables         - $360 - $3,600

18 Tables         - $540 - $5,400

24 Tables         - $720 - $7,200

Hourly Rates:

Cash Games

9 Tables at 90 hands per hour is 810 hands per hour. 

Calculations below are assuming I play 810 hands per hour. 

2.25BB          per 100 hands - 20.25BB

5BB          per 100 hands - 40.55BB

7BB         per 100 hands - 56BB

10BB          per 100 hands - 91BB

25NL - $5.06

                  - $10.12

  - $14

-  $20.25

50NL                    - $10.12

                 - $20.24

                   -  $28

 - $40.50

100NL      - $20.24

                  - $40.48

                  -  $56

                          - $90.50

SNGs:

Tables played per hour. 

$7 - 18 Man [Turbo]

10% ROI

12 Tables  - $8.40

18 Tables  - $12.60

24 Tables  - $16.80

15% ROI

12 Tables  - $12.60

18 Tables  - $18.90

24 Tables  - $25.20

$15 - 18 Man [Turbo]

5% ROI 

12 Tables  - $9.00

18 Tables  - $13.50

24 Tables         -  $18.00

10% ROI

12 Tables  - $18.00

18 Tables         - $27.00

24 Tables  - $36.00

$30 - 18 Man [Turbo]

5% ROI

12 Tables  - $18.00

18 Tables - $27.00

24 Tables - $36.00

Tennis Leaders Award & a new job!

So I went into Alexandra Park School on Friday to run my first Tennis Leaders workshop.

It went really well and I had some great feedback on the evaluation forms. It actually started to hail at one point when we were outside but that soon passed and we were welcomed with some lovely bright weather!

Having not had any formal training on how to deliver this course I was naturally a bit anxious when starting but thankfully the planning prior to the workshop really helped as I had a sound structure that I could just follow.

I managed to get the Teaching Assistant to take a few pictures throughout the workshop which I plan to integrate onto my website as well as using some of the feedback from the students. This will hopefully allow me to offer this as an alternative skill to my coaching when applying for new jobs.

I'm also heading into Coolhurst Tennis Club tomorrow to sign a contract to be their official Junior Competition Organiser. I've been covering shifts for them recently and also ran a few Easter camps there a few weeks ago. It's an amazing club with great facilities and I'm really looking forward to running & organising competitions. The work won't put too much strain on my other ventures and will help keep some form of steady income whilst I drive for other things!

I've definitely been slacking with the Poker since I've moved into the office but I'm still pleased about how much I am doing whilst here. Next week I aim to play 100 games at least.

The week so far..

I've had a fairly productive week.

I've managed to recruit a good friend of mine Robin to work for me. He is already one of my poker students but needed extra coaching so we've worked out a deal that he does some work for me in exchange for extra poker coaching. It's a great incentive for both of us as I get to refine my coaching skills whilst he benefits from increased contact hours. I also have a cut of any profits that he makes so hopefully he will start scoring big pretty soon!

I've also finished preparation for the Tennis Leaders workshop I am running tomorrow.

I've designed a Slideshow presentation for the classroom part of the workshop and have a sound lesson plan to keep everything running over smoothly for the three hours.

I'm looking forward to delivering this course to Alexandra Park Secondary School tomorrow and all the other various secondary schools around the Haringey borough over the next few months. After I've done this I'm going to re-evaluate whether it is something I could look to do in the future.

Today I had a meeting with another friend of mine - Dom Ireland. We are going to be collaborating together but deciding to keep things quiet for the time being. More of this in the future, watch this space!

Poker wise I haven't really managed to put in the volume I would have liked. I've been swamped under with the preparations for the workshop as well as coaching Robin. I did however play a few games and managed to make some profit. My graph for the month so far:

It looks all over the place currently due to the small sample size but at least I'm still in profit. I'll be looking to put more volume in over the next couple of weeks.

One thing I am noticing though is that I have probably tried to take on too much in such a short space of time. This is partly why I am not getting to play much poker. I'm going to be putting longer sessions in the office to keep on top of things but my to-do list just keeps growing!

I'm using a great App called Wunderlist that is esentially a list making app. It works on any device and is synced across all of them, much like iCloud. I've found it extremely useful as if I ever think of anything I need to do at any point I can just add it to a specific list on either my iPhone, iPad or iMac. You can then set a due date so I always have tasks that currently need doing.

For anyone that loves to procrastinate (like me) it's the perfect tool to keep you on top of jobs.

The start of a working week...

I've spent around 4 hours in the office today. Ideally I want to try and be in the office for 10am most days at the latest.

I spent the morning preparing a Tennis workshop that I will be running in secondary schools over the next two months.

I am teaching students aged 13-16 how to be Tennis Leaders. I actually did this course at West Hants back when I was a junior. My tutor was Andy Kemp who is now Head Coach of the Junior Programme at Westway.

I aim to make a slideshow presentation for this and do it as professionally as possible. I'm going to design some evaluation forms and get the teacher and students to give me feedback which can then be added to my Tennis website after I have finished the entire program.

From there I aim to approach various Tennis clubs offering this as an alternative skill to my coaching. Looking ahead I'd actually like to start delivering Level 1 & 2 Tennis Courses.

Each student will receive a workbook that they will fill out during the course. The course involves lots of practical and minimal theory so I'm looking forward to teaching others and getting them out on court.

After I'd finished my work on that I went ahead and played some more Poker!

I've decided to drop down stakes for the time being. I've realised that I can't reload the bank roll I have at the moment so cannot afford to bust it. It's much more wise to play for a smaller % of my bank roll each time to ensure that I will always have something to play with.

I am now playing the $3.50 - 18 Man [Turbos] on Pokerstars. For non poker players that means $3.50 to enter each tournament, 18 players, 4 spots paid.

To compensate for dropping down in stakes I have decided to up the amount of tables I play. Eventually I want to be mass multi tabling so I thought it would be better to increase tables but drop stakes. I'm now playing 12 tables continuously.

I played 29 games in the space of about 2 hours and finished with a profit of $63.46.

Here is my graph for the month so far:

Happy with the way I played today. I adjusted pretty well to 12 tables, the session didn't start so great but really picked up afterwards. The games are a lot softer (easier) than the $7's as there are more fish (bad players). I'm going to stick to these stakes for a bit and keep playing 12 tables. I want to make myself a more strict bank roll management system which I will do over the next week or so. This will outline at what point I can move up and down stakes according to how much money I have.

Day 1

So I planned to grind Supernova status on Pokerstars. For non poker players this basically mean's playing and achieving a VIP reward of around $30,000. I got an Acting job early in the year which would never have allowed me to keep on pace.

I've now finished and slightly taking a break from my Acting. I'm being more select with the things I audition for which will free up more time for other ventures.

One of these is Poker, the other is business ideas. 

I've actually just hired some desk space in an incredibly cool office. I've found at home that I procrastinate far too much and never actually get anything done so the fact that I am paying rent for this will force me to come in and work. The idea is to make the rent back playing poker. The profits on top of this are going to go back into my Poker bankroll so I can play higher games and eventually make more money. 

Here are some pictures of the office:

I'm definitely going to stay here for at least 2 months and in that time I am going to aim to play at least 2,000 games if not more. 

I started properly playing these games this month and have currently played 141.

Here is my graph:

The red line shows what I should have won if there was no luck in Poker. The green line is my actual winnings. As you can see I am running well below what I should be. That basically just means I'm being really unlucky at the moment, but that should even out the more games I play. 

In general I'm not too happy with my results, I've definitely spewed a few buy ins here and there but thankful that I am still up. I've also just jumped straight into playing 9 tables with at least a year break so I am getting back into the swing.

I'll probably update this on a daily basis every time I've been to the office. It will include updates on poker and also how my business ventures are going. 

Aim is to make around $2,000 over the two months as well as launch my business ideas. Let's see how it goes.