It's been a hell of a month and let me start of by saying sorry for the lack of a weekly update. There's been a lot going on and it got to the point where I thought it best just to put all my thoughts down in one monthly update. Part of my absence was due to getting mugged earlier in the month at knife-point which was a pretty terrifying experience which took me away from everything for awhile. But I'm back now so let's get on with the goods.
So May saw some big changes in my game and my poker landscape. Firstly I made the transition to $25NL when my roll hit 30BIs. Initially it was a short-lived start as a few sick coolers saw me lose a decent amount of buy-ins as I ran horrendously bad but being very strict with my bankroll management though, I made the switch back to $10NL in order to rebuild, and rebuild I did seeing me back at $25NL within a couple of sessions. Added to this Full Tilt Poker provided a bonus this month which also helped towards buffering my bankroll. So my second shot at $25NL was slightly more successful and saw me safely embedded into the limit. So the major change in my poker landscape came as a result of me deciding to shift my bankroll away from Full Tilt Poker and on to Pokerstars. This was something I felt I had to do due to the uncertainties at the moment surrounding Full Tilt Poker. Since Black Friday I think a lot of people have felt unsure about having their money on any poker site but with the way Pokerstars dealt with the US payouts compared to Full Tilt's procrastinations it certainly feels like a company that is run a lot better. What will happen long-term? I don't know. I hope Full Tilt can find a resolution that will see them remain as a significant player on the poker scene but only time will tell. So, that means that I will get no rakeback going forward and am unsure entirely how much I can expect from the Pokerstars VIP program, will be aiming for at least Gold Star in June.
OK, so let's get on with the tale of the tape:
Hands: 39,803
Hours: 84.48
BB/100: 1.67
$/hour: $2.10
Total winnings: $177.18
Total rakeback: $62.44
Total bonus: $140
Total for the month: $379.62
Barnstorming month and a tidy little profit though still my winrate is just far too low. So let's compare versus my goals I blogged about at the end of last month. So I wanted a winrate of 4BB/100 which you can see I didn't achieve, I wanted to get 5,500 FTP points (managed to get 6,957). Hit Silver for Ironman (managed only bronze; irrelevant now). Session analysis every 10,000 (didn't do this) Move up to $25NL (did this, yay!), if going up to $25NL get a new coach (have arranged this and will be getting coached by a Drag the Bar professional which I'm excited about).
Ok, so let's have some goals for June:
1) Play 39,000 hands (very precise but what Pokerstars website recommends for Gold Star)
2) Achieve a winrate of 3BB/100
3) If hitting this winrate with this volume I should be rolled for $50NL
4) Achieve 3,500 VPPs thus hitting Gold Star
5) Start my next round of coaching
Lifting Weights
Disappointing month again I'm afraid. What with my 'incident' at the start of the month and being away for a bit I didn't really get started. Pleased to say I picked things up towards the end of the month and went to the gym hitting the main Rippetoe exercises which really helped me 'bulk' last year. Have lost a lot of weight this month due to various stresses so am keen to pile on the quality pounds in the next few weeks. I will be concentrating on getting in 3/4 workouts each week with the main emphasis on the push/pull barbell exercises.
Here's to a more positive June in all endeavours.
